by Caryn F. Kelly

Something had to happen to open our eyes to the devastating path we were on. A couple of years ago I read Mary Hunt's book, Debt-Proof Living. It inspired me to put a plan in place to get out of debt and attain financial freedom.
[ Read The Rest ]

by Caryn F. Kelly

My friends and family seem to believe I have my financial life in order. "You're so good with your money," they say, when they see me shy away from a clearance sale at Macy's, or when I brown bag my lunch. What they don't know is that I have $17,000 in credit card debt (not taking into account the $18,000 in car loans and other credit card debt my husband carries in his own name) and I am struggling to break free from this financial prison. If I don't dig myself out of this black hole, I will never realize financial freedom. [ Read The Rest ]

Recently, the news surrounding the TJX Companies, Inc. and the leak of personal customer information has been dire. The company first reported in January that personal information of its customers had been stolen between May 2006 and January 2007. It affected customers who completed credit and debit card transactions in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada at its stores including Home Goods, Marhsalls, and T.J. Maxx. And while consumers were stewing about the company taking so long to disclose the breach, TJX announced that the data theft dated as far back as July 2005. [ Read The Rest ]

A one-time only refund is being offered on federal tax returns this year for anyone who has had any kind of phone service since March 1, 2003. The Telephone Excise Tax refund reimburses taxpayers on a tax paid for long distance telephone use, whether they used a land line or a cell phone. [ Read The Rest ]

HSBC, the third largest bank in the world by market value and a major force in credit lending in the United States and elsewhere, has forecast increasing defaults on credit cards and other loan types in the next few months.
[ Read The Rest ]

Regardless of your individual financial picture, financial responsibility is about making smart decisions with your money, everyday, every purchase, and always with some attention to the future. It takes information, planning and self-control. But don't let that scare you away from trying to be responsible with your money. Here is a very basic starting plan to being financially responsible.
[ Read The Rest ]

Getting rich comes by two distinct strategies. Strategy 1 is for all the people who cannot wait until retirement age to be millionaires. If you think about it, if you need to be rich Right Now, your options are pretty limited. You can take the path of Jamie Gold and win the Main Event World Series of Poker with a $12M prize. Okay, but with 8000 plus other contestants and $10,000 buy in to the tournament, there has to be a better way.

You can play the lottery, get a contract as a professional football player, or write a New York Times Bestseller. All of these options are perfectly viable. Strategy 1 is for the risk takers, the adrenaline junkies, and the incredibly talented.

But you ever notice that most of us don't fall into any of those categories? Oh sure, people win the lottery all the time. But we are talking set-for-life rich. Winning $5,000 on Deal or No Deal is exciting, it might even pay off a credit card. But you still have to go to work the next day to pay the bills. Set-for-life rich is clearly defined by one criteria: you never have to worry about money again to maintain your current style of living, and maybe you can even kick it up a notch.

So for the rest of us, what exactly is Strategy 2? Here is the approach I would suggest:
[ Read The Rest ]

Have you ever wondered what happens to your money when you make a deposit into your retirement plan? Here are two key principles that govern how your money grows when you invest.

Compound interest

Compounding occurs in your retirement account, your savings account, and in any other account that accumulates interest. Compounding adds the interest you make on your investment to the principal balance over and over as time goes by.

Here is one example of how it works. You invest $1,000 as your principal. After the first month, you earn $10 in interest. That $10 is added to the $1,000 and next month you will earn interest on the new total amount of $1,010.

$10 in interest might not seem like much, but that is only after one month. [ Read The Rest ]

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 was passed last month and it means the Roth as a 401(k) will exist as a permanent account option, in addition to a traditional 401(k) or 403(b) offered by your employer. That affects how you might put money into retirement accounts going forward.

Did I just lose your attention?

I know for many people, a lot of this information blows right over them like a light breeze. While I don't expect you to jump for joy at hearing about retirement options, you still should have a basic understanding of how the Pension Protection Act can affect your future.

Let me see if I can make it palatable.

As soon as you enter the full time work force, you should begin to contribute towards your retirement. You have options. One is to contribute through your employer's 401(k) or 403(b) plan. The whole point of your employer offering this benefit is that the amount can be withdrawn from your paycheck pre-tax, and in many cases, your employer will contribute their own money to add to your investment funds. That is a spectacularly good deal. My employer's contribution to my 403(b) is around $4,000 annually. That money supplements my paycheck, not now, but when I am ready to retire. That money is not taxable until I retire and make withdrawals from the account.
[ Read The Rest ]

It is good to have goals.

One of the goals that really drives me is retirement. I love the retirement discussion because it presumes so much upon my personal beliefs. For one, that I might live long enough to retire. For two, that I might want to live long enough to retire. And for three, that our system of value and exchange has not radically altered in the next thirty-plus years.

I have done an extensive study, albeit informally, on the formidable human spirit that somehow keeps us living when from all angles, we are a mighty self-destructive vehicle. For my study on how drinking out of aluminum cans slowly poisons us over a lifetime, introducing toxic poisons into our system that accumulate and eventually break down our brain organ function, I duly began soda consumption at an early age. Although aluminum is generally non-toxic, accumulations are found in brain plaque. Although I can't quite remember at this point why inducing myself into an Alzheimer like state sounded appealing as a teenager, I can definitely say that by the time I might feel the effects of my efforts, maybe I will welcome the vague darkness of remembering 1982 but not being able to distinguish the toilet from the desk. Bet you can’t wait to be my caretaker!

Fortunately for me, two factors began to intervene, and you might say supersede, my aluminum experiment. One, the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s is inconclusive. And two, the soda is far more likely to contribute to my death than the can.
[ Read The Rest ]