The last two It’s Only Money columns stirred about as much debate as investment managers do arguing about what lies ahead: inflation or deflation.
Truly, the answer to which way prices are heading is easy: We can’t know. But we can diversify our investments to protect ourselves, as Zvi Bodie, management professor and author on investing at Boston University, reaffirmed in an e-mail exchange this week. So don’t get too caught up in all that noise.
But your opinions and questions?
They deserve much more consideration.
Credit cards
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a Federal Reserve Board study showing how much cash payers end up paying card-swipe fees and, therefore, subsidizing credit card use. Read more…
I am all for being insured. I have had to use it a couple of times and I was glad that I had it. There are so many kinds of insurance available like health insurance, car insurance, disability insurance and so on. If you tried to cover all of your bases you could end up being what I call insurance poor. If you are struggling to save money or want to save money reviewing your insurance policies is a good place to start.
A friend was telling me her story last week about a car accident she was in. Her car was a beater and wasn’t worth the collision payments she was making on it. She could have put her collision money away in a bank account and put that money towards a newer car. I
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The New York Times reports that although women are still slightly in the minority among global Web users, they are closing ground with men and, once connected, spend about two more hours online a month on average.
According to data from comScore, females exceed males particularly in communications, devoting about one-third of their online time to social networking, instant messaging and e-mail messages compared with about one-quarter for men. Women 45 and older exhibited the greatest growth in social networking.
Women also outpace men in photo sharing and shopping, and in what may come as a surprise, gaming, favoring casual puzzle, card and board games.
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Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian
Follow Share this story Story tools New research from investment-rating service Morningstar adds to the growing body of evidence that mutual fund expenses really, really help in predicting returns.
From Russel Kinnel, the publication’s director of mutual fund research:
If there’s anything in the whole world of mutual funds that you can take to the bank, it’s that expense ratios help you make a better decision. In every single time period and data point tested, low-cost funds beat high-cost funds. To see the results, click here.
Expense ratios are strong predictors of performance.
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As more and more people in the UK continue to struggle with their monthly budgets a number are now starting to look at consolidation loans as a means of taking away some of the short-term pressure. But do consolidation loans actually work?
The idea behind a consolidation loan is that all of your debts are rolled up into one single loan arrangement which will be extended over a longer period thereby reducing your monthly payments and, in theory, reducing the immediate pressure.
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