Ever thought about which states are the best (or worst) for retirement? Well, FCN contributor Richard Barrington (who is also the head honcho over at Money-Rates.com) recently crunched the numbers and came up with an answer. In doing this, he looked at the following factors: Cost of living Property taxes Unemployment rate Violent crime rates […]
I mentioned this in passing when I recently wrote about open enrollment season, but I wanted to remind you that healthcare flexible spending account (FSA) contribution limits have been capped at $2500 for 2013. In most cases, this will be a reduction vs. what’s been possible in the past. This change actually traces back to […]
As a followup to yesterday’s post about holiday shopping, I just wanted to point out that Amazon has started offering Amazon Prime on a monthly basis in addition to their usual annual plan. Here’s the deal: You can either sign up for an annual plan at $79/year or you can sign up for a monthly […]
Today marks two weeks until Black Friday. Are you ready? While I’ve never been much of a Black Friday shopper, preferring instead to laze around and take the day off, I know that many of you love thrill of the chase. If you’re in the market for electronics, you can get some screaming hot deals […]
Remember when the news first broke back in the summer of 2011 about Capital One buying ING Direct? Final approval of thus deal was granted in February 2012, but nothing more had been announced — until yesterday, that is. Yesterday afternoon I received an e-mail saying that they’re changing their name to “Capital One 360, […]
As a followup to my recent post about Ally Bank having modified their deposit agreement to change their CD withdrawal policy… This afternoon I had an opportunity to try out the process of closing a CD early (again), and guess what? It was much like before. I started by hitting up their online chat. I […]
Not long ago, I wrote about the likely rates for Series I Savings Bonds starting in May 2012. At the time it appeared that the variable (inflation) portion of the rate would wind up being 1.76%. While the fixed portion was unknown, it seemed likely that it would remain at 0%. Well, the Treasury has […]
Earlier today I ran across a rather attractive option for bumping up you savings account interest rate. It requires jumping through a few hoops, but if you’re willing to do the work, you can snag a 6% interest rate. Here’s how it works: The “Mango Prepaid Card” (basically a prepaid MasterCard debit card; link) comes […]
I’m not sure about you, but my employer’s open enrollment period is in full swing. In fact, there’s just over a week remaining for those that want to change their elections. I’m not sure about you, but we’re not changing anything — at least not in terms of our health insurance. We will, however, ratchet […]
I’ve written at various times in the past about 529 plans as a college savings vehicle. Well, earlier this month Morningstar released the results of their annual survey of the available plans. They rated 64 plans, ultimately identifying 27 “that are likely to outperform their peers on a risk-adjusted basis over a full market cycle.” […]