I am assuming we all know about getting our annual free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com. However, to get your FICO score you got to pay for that. What!!?
If you google a little you will see lots of free credit scores services, but most of them just lure you to get on a trial service for a few days. That’s not cool man…
Even though this is only your estimate FICO score, it’s close enough. At least you have an idea before planning to make any big purchases.
You DO need to give out your SSN for this service, as this is the case for all other credit checks. So stay calmed. But if you are comfortable to use things like Mint.com, then you will probably be ok to give Credit Karma a try.
I found this lecture video explaining quite well why and how AIG is using the taxpayers’ money for this whole financial mess. Before watching this, you should watch this past post Crisis of Credit Visualized first to understand the bigger picture.
After watching this video, you should know why the taxpayers have been so upset at AIG.
If you want to dig deeper into these financial background details, you can check out these Whiteboard videos yourself.
I read this interesting article, suggesting that spending is as important as saving. You have heard of buyer’s remorse, but holding back too much will lead to regrets years later as well. Here is the article:
Well, I will give you one more reason to spend at recession like ours right now. You know one way the US is handling the foreign debt is to simply print more dollar bills? How much are they printing? Hold your breath, and watch this fox news clip.
Of course the US government is doing a lot more other things for the economy, but this bill-printing fact worries many. You may be saving a lot right now by not buying this and that (hopefully not leaving regrets), but in a year or so you may end up having only half of your wealth due to inflation.
Scary stuff. What to do? I think you should buy what is needed such that you can live an enjoyable life. (An enjoyable life doesn’t necessarily mean a luxurious life, as many family bonding moments take place during tough times.) At the same time, save some money for a rainy day. Staying home and getting social security is not a bad idea either.
Since some of my friends talked about finance, I guess now is a good time to bring this up. Mint.com is an online personal finance software. From the website description: “Mint downloads, categorizes, and graphs all of your finances automatically every day— so you don’t have to. Know where you’re spending, without spending any effort.” I remember back in the old days I wrote all my expenses down on my little note book, but those days are gone. Mint can analyze all of your transactions and plot graphs for you in a secure https manner. All of these come to you for free! I am not sure when they will start charging but I would be more than happy to pay for their service. To say the least, it will save you tons of time if you are in the business of taking care of your personal finance.
When you have a shopping list of various items, do you ever wonder how you can get the best deals from the grocery stores around you? Wanting to find the weekly deals newsletters from your junk mail pile but to no avail? Most likely you may end up simply going to the same grocery store that’s nearby. Even worse sometimes you find out that there were crazy deals you missed simply because you didn’t know about. Well, that’s where technology comes in to help! myGroceryDeals.com will first ask for your shopping list, then goes through all the grocery stores around you to find the cheapest deals for you to go get your groceries. Sounds good huh? Give it a try!
One of my friends sent me this air ticket deals site. I have seen some really good deals from this site before, so I will just post it here so that this site can be known as well. (Just try to be fair…)
Another place to buy last minute air tickets. I haven’t tried to use this yet but it looks quite simple to use without all the junk ads. Just like any other bargain sites for air tickets, the tickets are non-refundable or will charge you extra for date change. If you have a chance to give this site a try, please let me know of your experience with it. Good luck!
I read this interesting article, suggesting that spending is as important as saving. You have heard of buyer’s remorse, but holding back too much will lead to regrets years later as well. Here is the article:
