Investing & Money Management : About Car Loans

Car loan amounts and interest rates are based on the credit rating of the borrower and the cost of the car being purchased. Speak with a car dealer or financial institution to discuss car loans withtips from a registered financial consultant in this free video on auto loans. Expert: Patrick Munro Contact: www.northstarnavigator.com Bio: Patrick Munro is a registered financial consultant (RFC) with outstanding sales volume of progressive financial products and solutions to the senior and boomer marketplace. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC

Warren Buffett Gives Advice to Girl Scouts at Dairy Queen

Youngsters wanting to make blizzards of money got valuable advice from financier Warren Buffett who was visiting his local Dairy Queen for the launch of the new Girl Scouts Thin Mint Blizzard. Surrounded by a group of Girl Scouts in his hometown of Omaha, Buffett offered this tip for college students: “The biggest suggestion I have is to avoid credit cards. Interest rates are very high on credit cards. Sometimes they are 18 percent. Sometimes they are 20 percent. If I borrowed money at 18 or 20 percent, I’d be broke. . . . So if I had one piece of advice for young people generally it would be to just avoid credit cards,” he said. And what advice does Buffett have for a new investor? “I would do a lot of reading before I invested,” he replied. “In other words I would prepare for it. I wouldn’t jump in the water until I know how to swim. . . .I read every book the Omaha Public Library had about investing by the time I was 11.” On qualities Buffett looks for in employees? “The biggest thing I look for is if they have a passion for whatever they are going to do,” he said.

Saving Accounts 101

A savings account is accounts that is maintained by banks and are easy ways for you to save money without risking losing your money by other means such as fire or robbery.

Why Do You Need a Savings Account?

Many people open savings accounts for saving money. Setting aside a small amount of money into a savings account is a great way to save for a family vacation, a new car, money for college, or money for retirement. No matter what you want to save for, a savings account is a great way to go.

Choosing a Savings Account

When choosing a savings accounts, there are many different things to consider. Some of these things include choosing a bank that has the services that you need and want and comparing interest rates, minimum balance requirements, and fees that may incur during your account’s lifetime.

How to Open a Savings Account

When you are ready to open a savings account, you should choose a bank in your local area to open your account with. Things you will need in order to open your account is proof of your identity. This would be your state driver’s license or identification card, and a social security card. You will have to fill out an application and some banks require a deposit to be made into the account in order for it to be opened. Some savings accounts can be opened for as little as one dollar.

Why is Your Money Safer in a Savings Account?

There are many facts to consider when choosing to put your money in a savings account. You money is much safer in a savings account than if you stick it in a sock and put it in your dresser where if you were robbed or your home burned down it would be lost forever. In a savings account ,your money is insured up to $100,000 through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This simply means that even if a bank goes out of business, you will not lose your money that was in the account. The federal government created the FDIC in the 1920s to make sure that people did not lose their money incase a bank went out of business. This was a huge problem within the Great Depression.

Canada’s economic outlook is good, financial expert says

Canada’s economic outlook is good, financial expert says
others also read… Don’t expect interest rates to climb over the year, and the Canadian dollar will rocket past US $1.15 in the coming years, according to a financial analyst.

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Saving with SmartyPig

West Bank’s SmartyPig Tries to Make Goal-Based Saving Social, Easy

What do you do when you want a specific item that just doesn’t fit into your existing budget?

You could pull out the plastic. However, those credit card purchases will cost you an arm, a leg and even a few ribs by the time you get done wrestling with the near-usury of their interest rates.

Additionally, far too many of us are learning that our credit limits and our cards’ terms aren’t what they used to be. Card companies have been jacking up rates and killing accounts in response to the economic downturn and pending federal regulations. The “I’ll just charge it” mentality is finally (and smartly) on its way out.

You could save the money. That’s the smart choice. It’s a proven technique that responsible people have been using for centuries. Some people build up cash in coffee cans. Some just try to build up more in their checking or savings accounts.

Those techniques can work, but their not quite as easy as they sound. We tend to fall off the savings wagon unless there’s a great deal of motivation. The failure to make regularly scheduled additions to savings can also make saving tough. When you’re saving by putting money into an existing account it can be hard to tell what’s really available for your purchase and what should stay there.

West Bank thinks they have a solution. They call it SmartyPig and it’s an online savings systems.

SmartyPig allows people to set up savings accounts tied to a specific cash goal. You can set it up to grab money from your other accounts automatically, on schedule to get you to that goal. The FDIC-insured accounts feature nice interest rates that stack up to other high-interest savings programs, too.

SmartyPig accounts don’t allow much flexibility. You can’t withdraw a portion of your account. You either wait until you’ve hit your savings mark or you shut down the account early. There’s no “in between.” If you do close the account, you can’t transfer the funds electronically to your bank, either. You’ll need to wait a few days for West Bank to send you a check.