General

Coping With Identity Theft

coping with identity theftLock your doors, hide your money in the safe, hire security guards to protect your prized possessions, but what can you do if someone stole your identity? If something valuable is stolen, you can call the police and hope to get your stolen property back. Rightly termed as the crime of the 21st century, victimizing millions of Americans, you can do very little if you find your identity stolen. Identity theft is on the rise, and nearly everyone is vulnerable to this new-age form of fraud.

How is it done?

Using all possible methods, criminals steal credit card numbers, social security numbers, telephone calling cards, ATM cards and other key pieces of an individual’s identities. The information on these is used to impersonate the victim, by spending maximum money in the shortest time they can.

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October 6, 2009
Book Reviews

Fight For Your Money – Full of Great Money Saving Tips

Fight For Your Money: How To Stop Getting Ripped Off And Save A Fortune by David Bach

learn ways to save money by reading David Bach's Fight For Your MoneyDavid Bach’s book Fight For Your Money is a must read for anyone looking for smarter ways to use their money for traveling, car rentals, banking, car repairs, health insurance, and many other aspects of daily life.  It’s easy to read and is organized by subject so you can easily find the information that interests you.

The book covers information on buying a home, mortgages, and remodeling and would be a good section to read if you are looking to buy or build a home in the near future.  Bach also discusses topics surrounding credit such as your credit score, credit cards, and he also touches on identity theft.

If you are into cable TV or satellite TV, you will find Bach’s information useful.  He discusses ways to save money on your cell phone service as well.

I especially enjoyed reading about his tips on traveling.  He listed several websites that he recommended for finding good deals on airfare such as www.priceline.com and www.hotwire.com.  He also advised travelers to ask a lot of questions as the airfare now has so many added fees for everything that it’s important to know what you are paying for.

For parents saving up for their children’s post secondary education, there is a very informative section about RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans) that Canadians will find useful.  Bach provides tips on not being too conservative, and recommends that you start saving as early as possible instead of waiting until your children are older.

I highly recommend that you check out this book as it is informative, practical, and easy to understand.  Bach uses everyday language to explain each topic and all the topics he discusses are relevant and timely.  There’s something in this book that will interest everyone whether they are young or old.

I will likely be writing more articles around things I’ve gleamed from this book in the near future.  Please share your thoughts on this book when you get the chance to read it.

October 4, 2009
Outdoors

A Cheap Way to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden

use kebab sticks to keep cats out of your gardenLast year our garden was full of cat poop.  There’s really not a nice way to describe it. We don’t have a cat of our own, but many of our neighbors do and their cats seemed to think that our garden was a giant kitty litter.  We decided this had to stop so we did our best to find solutions by talking to other people about it and by searching online for ideas.

Some of the suggestions seemed to make sense, while others were way out there.  One example was to drop by your local zoo and ask for some tiger feces.  The idea was to spread tiger feces all through your garden.  Apparently domestic cats are afraid of larger cats feces.  Who would have thought?  Needless to say I didn’t try that route.

Instead, my husband and I decided to go to our local dollar store and pick up a couple of packages of 100 wooden kebab sticks.   We stuck them into the ground pointy side up throughout our garden and we haven’t seen any cat poop in our soil since!

So, rather than spending a bunch of money to solve our cat problem, we spent about $2 and we can reuse the sticks every year.  The only down side is that if you’re not careful, you can put a few wholes in your hands when weeding your garden or when you are picking vegetables.  To be honest, I think I’ve hurt myself more by being careless than any cat has ever been hurt by our clever idea.

If you’ve ever had any trouble with cats in your garden, try this out.  I laughed one day when I looked over to see our neighbors trying out our trick.  It looks like it’s working for them, too!

October 2, 2009
Investing

What is The Rule of 70?

There are all kinds of interesting things you can learn about investing and economics.  The Rule of 70 is one such fascinating tidbit that might be of interest to you.

What is the rule of 70?If you want to be able to estimate approximately how long it will take for your money to double in an investment with a set interest rate or a fixed rate of return, you can get a fairly good idea by dividing the number 70 by your fixed interest rate.

For example, if you are currently earning 1% in your savings account, that means it would take 70 years for your money to double.  If you are earning 2%, it would take 35 years to double your money, and if you are earning 3%, it would take 23 years.

Although the Rule of 70 isn’t perfect, it does provide a good indication of how long it will take for your money to double.  Note that the interest rate must be fixed in order to do this calculation.  So, if you have any investments with an annual compound interest rate, do this calculation to see how long it would take for your money to double.

September 30, 2009
Investing

An Easy Way To Learn Investment Terminology

check out Investopedia.com's investment dictionaryIf you are working on developing your investment knowledge and are attempting to read financial articles, you will likely need help in learning all the investment terminology.  I find Investopedia.com’s dictionary extremely helpful in explaining investment jargon.

Not only does the site provide a definition, it also provides an explanation to further your understanding.

For example, when I looked up the word “bond”, this is what I found in the Investopedia.com dictionary:

“What Does Bond Mean?

A debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (corporate or governmental) that borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a fixed interest rate. Bonds are used by companies, municipalities, states and U.S. and foreign governments to finance a variety of projects and activities.

Bonds are commonly referred to as fixed-income securities and are one of the three main asset classes, along with stocks and cash equivalents..

Investopedia explains Bond

The indebted entity (issuer) issues a bond that states the interest rate(coupon) that will be paid and when the loaned funds (bond principal) are to be returned (maturity date). Interest on bonds is usually paid every six months (semi-annually). The main categories of bonds are corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and U.S. Treasury bonds, notes and bills, which are collectively referred to as simply “Treasuries”.

Two features of a bond – credit quality and duration – are the principal determinants of a bond’s interest rate. Bond maturities range from a 90-day Treasury bill to a 30-year government bond. Corporate and municipals are typically in the three to 10-year range.”

So, as you can see, this site can be extremely helpful for anyone who is unfamiliar with investment terminology.  Check it out and before long you will be much more confident when you read about investments.  It is always a good idea to understand how your money is being invested, even if you have a managed portfolio through your financial institution.

September 28, 2009