Best Credit Cards for You!

It’s tough to write a personal-finance blog for five years without repeating topics. New readers come and old readers go. Meanwhile, the needs of existing readers are constantly changing. I try not to repeat material too often, but sometimes it’s clear it’s time to revisit a subject. Now is one of those times.

Lately, I’ve received several questions like this one from Robin, who wants to know if she should pay off her mortgage:

I’ve been reading your blog for a while now. It’s good for both entertainment and advice, and I like reading through comments on the articles I’m interested in and getting all the various points of view from people.

Something I don’t think I’ve seen addressed yet is this: I’ve saved up enough money to pay off our mortgage. Should I do it? Should I pay off part of it?

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Tags: Readers, Readers Pay

During the summer, there’s an abundance of high-quality fruits and vegetables. You get better quality for lower prices than you do buying off-season produce during the cold winter months. I always want to freeze this moment so I can enjoy the fruits of the season all year long. So I do.

Every year, I freeze some produce, and I can some, and I use a variety of methods to make the bounty last. Last week, I wrote about smart ways to acquire your seasonal produce. Today, I’m going to talk about how to use it to get the best value for your food dollar.

The thing is, when something is in season locally, it’s all pretty much ready at once. All the peaches ripen within a few weeks of each other. Every ripe tomato you’re going to grow all year will happen in late summer.

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Tags: Produce

Over the last 30-40 years our culture has seen a subtle shift, from one where we were more concerned about paying for every day items and taking care of every day tasks, to one that is never stationary or content always obsessed with the next big thing. We want bigger and better, and we want it now. Oh, and put it on the credit card. The latest iPad, the newest luxury vehicle or the latest designer labels all catch our interest, and we really cant get away from them wherever we look. On the radio, on TV, in magazines and online. To some degree, consumerism runs rampant in our culture.

Why are we continuously looking for the next big thing? Because on some level I think that we think that they can help to fulfill a deep seated need in our lives. The need to feel happy, to feel important or to have some sort of meaning in our lives. Having that new car says something about us that were successful or important.

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Tags: Content Happy, Culture

Savings Accounts and Money Market Rates provided by 24 June 2011 Before 2008, the majority of Americans were more likely to know derivatives from calculus than from the finance industry. Since then, one of the main types of derivatives contracts, credit default swaps, have earned an unsavory reputation that The Wall Street Journal suggests hardly does them justice.

Tied to the generally negative view many Americans hold of the , CDS are generally seen as a means of making money, stealing if they are particularly uncharitable. But looking at the structure of these contracts gives a different sense.

A derivative is a contract between two institutions that establishes payments on a particular schedule based on agreed upon criteria. The name “derivative” notes that the contract has no inherent value, but references some other asset, such as sovereign bonds, or figure, such as the interest rate in a country. Full Post…

Now you can start saving for your future, no matter your financial situation thanks to Core Innovation Capital . Core introduced its “GoalMine” for the un- and underbanked in America during today’s “Core Underbanked Innovators Challenge” at the 6th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum. This lets you start investing with as little as $25, choose a savings goal to determine a time frame- which is integrated with prepaid cards- and help underserved Americans to have better access to a financial product needed to help them reach financial prosperity. So start socking it away today!

Tags: Goalmine