Study: U.S. 401(k) Savings Rates Up

Fidelity just released a study that says the median 401(k) balance rose 30% this year. While some of gain is likely attributable to the rather robust (if not chaotic stock market this year, the other 20% or so is a result of people socking more money away. I'm not trying to knock the results here, because any time people take a second look at their investments and put a little more money away for later rather than spending it on a Jamaican vacation I approve. BUT, when you look at the figures cited in the study they are pretty abysmal. Below are the average 401(k) balances for different groups.

• Baby Boomers rose 7 percent to $38,000
• Gen Xers rose 10 percent to $15,000
• Gen Yers rose 21 percent to $2,100

Now here are the average contribution rates.

• Baby Boomers 7.7 percent
• Gen Xers 6.2 percent
  
• Gen Yers 4.6 percent

Hopefully what the statistics don't show is that there is quite a bit of other money that is being invested elsewhere outside the 401(k) plans in vehicles like Roth, or traditional IRA accounts... unfortunately I would guess there is not.

Related Article:
401(k) Flubs 5 to avoid @ CNN

Foreclosure Laws for Dummies

When I was looking for the foreclosure laws in my home state of tonight I stumbled accross Foreclosures.com which has a handy list that summarizes the foreclosure laws and procedure for each state. Might be helpful for any of you out there looking to snap up a property or two that has been a victim of the subprime fallout. You can check out some of my old posts about where the hottest areas for subprime are, the subprime fallout, and why the lenders aren't to blame this time, but people shouldn't feel sorry for them either.

Links:
Foreclosures.com

Why I Hate ATT Wireless / Cingular... Whatever it is Called These Days

I'm a Cingular customer who has now been transferred over to AT&T Wireless with the re-branding effort. While I wasn't a big fan of my treatment as a Cingular customer, I think they have finally lost me as a AT&T Wireless customer too. My Sony Erickson handset has recently started sounding more like a walkie talkie than a cell phone so I headed to the store to look for a new one. Since I'm generally fairly hard on phones and avoid giving the phone company the power to control me for more than a year, I only sign one year contracts with the carriers.

I asked the first sales rep how much a certain phone would be with a 1 year contract. The response, we only do 2 year service plans or you buy the phone without a service contract. I went to another AT&T Wireless store down the street and received the same information except I was told that if I had been a new customer they could give me a 1 year contract. WTF. Nothing like screwing those existing customers (especially the ones looking for a NEW CONTRACT). I later tried Best Buy who told me that I could only do a 2 year service contract because things "just changed". Apparently they couldn't even bring themselves to change the signs that listed the 1 year contract price beneath the 2 year contract price.

With how notoriously crappy wireless service is from certain providers I'm not about to sign a two year agreement. Things have been steadily deteriorating and I drop a call or two every night when talking on my phone. I prefer to walk with my feet and that day is fast approaching.
Verizon, TMobile, Sprint you listening? Need a new customer?

Also see my previous posts on:
Cell Phone Carrier Tips and Tricks
Get $$ For Your Unwanted or Broken Cell Phone

Online Wagering

SPONSORED POST

Over in the UK betting on things is a national past-time. Over in the US we push gambling out of sight and out of mind. While betting is sanctioned in places like horse tracks, indian casinos and vegas, for the majority of Americans there are no casinos or places to gamble close by. Congress repeatedly has tried to crack down on online casinos so Washington can take a cut, but in spite of these efforts they are still alive and well. One of the biggest and best is Bet365 which as the name implies lets people bet on just about anything including NFL, cycling, NBA and even play online poker any time any day. While I haven't used the service, if you are into sports betting it looks like it has a lot to offer. The site also states that it has a wallet system which would be good for bettors because some places place holds on PayPal transfers.

The Super Size Me of Personal Finance

I just read a review of the DVD "Maxed Out" which is apparently being touted as a movie that does what "Super Size Me" did to fast food -- to debt. I'm not sure how exactly one would go about pulling this off, but until I can get a copy from Block Buster (review to follow later) all I have are Amazon reviews to tide me over. The Amazon review seem to be a mixed bag. Overall it seems like the movie is getting a positive review, but reviewers are claiming that it loses focus somewhere along the way by trying to do too much. I imagine it is difficult to make a feel good story about a family living paycheck to paycheck, even if they spent unwisely to get themselves in that position.

Do Investors Have Too Much Information Available?

I was reading an article over at the FT today about the explosion in benchmarks and equity indices now available to the average investor. It is enough to make your head spin or at least check Investopedia much more than can possibly be healthy.

I know there are a lot of people out there who love gobs of information and can't seem to get enough of it. I find myself drifting the other way in many areas. It's not that I don't like being able to quickly find what I'm looking for or don't love the vast quantities of stuff out there on the internet. I think my problem with the push toward information overload is the opposite, I think I'm turned off by the fact people want the 30 second sound byte version of EVERYTHING. The world's economy is simplified by the FTSE, EFT's have exploded, and there are even website that will ruin the endings of movies you have yet to see.

I hate to sound old, but I just don't think there should be a super-shortcut for everything. I'm from a generation that had the internet in High School... I have been known to IM watch TV and eat dinner at the same time... and have seen friends become borderline stalkers due to Facebook... so why do I have a problem with the short cut polarize everything, cut out all the discussion way that media outlets operate these days?

Image Credit: NedRichards

Pay Per Post, is it Ethical?

SPONSORED POST

Has anyone had experience using Pay Per Post? What are your thoughts? I recently signed up for their blog marketing service and am planning to give it a test drive this week. For those of you who haven't heard or seen any of the posts around on blogs the premise is rather simple. Advertisers pay for people to talk up or even simply to link to their blog.

One of the major drivers of the phenomena is the Google algorithm PageRank. Page Rank rewards people who have lots of inbound links and people are gladly willing to pay for those links to get boosted up in the Google rankings. The concept of Pay Per Post at first seemed very counter-intuitive to me and something that I flatly would not try... and may abandon very quickly depending on how this little experiment goes. During my experiment all posts that are sponsored will be clearly marked at the top of the page so as no to fool anyone and won't spin anything positively unless I truly believe it. I am not going to take any opportunities that make me talk up something I don't believe in.
So why am I embarking on the experiment? First off, I'm curious as to what opportunities are offered out there and which advertisers are using Pay Per Post programs to get some Google Love. Second, well I'm a very poor college student and figured that I may be able to pick up a little extra free cash flow in the process of my experiment on top of the full time job.

Anyone else have experience with any of these services? What do you think? Keep the conversation going...

Stock Market Flirts with 14,000

The market finished at a record high today, although not quite at 14,000. It had traded earlier in the day at that level but did not reach that peak before closing. The market is up over 12% for the year and now some analysts are forecasting 15,000 before the end of the year. When you look at the statistics it is a little bit astonishing. The market moved from 13,000 to 14,000 in a mere 57 days. Additionally, the market has closed at a record 57 trading days this year. This is pretty amazing since oil has been marching upwards.

Of course there are still people losing money in the market and hedge fund pros getting paid gobs of money to lose money for their clients. I think now is still a good time to get into the market although I'm not about to steer you astray and offer stock tips.

If you are looking to get in the market you can open up a brokerage account by tomorrow and start investing. Fidelity and Charles Schwab are perennial favorites, while brokerages like TradeKing and OptionsXpress don't have minimum account balances or service fees.

Head over to the library or half.com, there are plenty of good investing books that can school you in what a P/E ratio is and teach you how to tell if a stock is overvalued. Or pick up "The Intelligent Investor," the book that Warren Buffet has said is one of the best. After you get your feet on the ground with the basics you can read up on what the pro's are doing. For those of you who have cable (and can stomach his personality) Jim Cramer's Mad Money is a solid show for beginners run by a guy who made a killing by running a hedge fund.

Finally, you can see what the big institutional investors are doing for free by checking out what are the most active options. Head over to Yahoo!Finance and Market Watch which are tremendous resources to get you started.

Have something to add? Leave a suggestion in the comments or email me.

Image Credit: Helico

Personal Finance Carnival: #3

Here's my not so regular round-up of the best personal finance articles I read from other blogs:

Financial lessons from The Office TV series @ Consumerism Commentary

The Consumerist has a post about four accounts you need and four accounts you don't

My Money Blog has 14 brochures to help you understand home mortgage loans.

The Five Cent Nickel has an article about how credit card bonus chasing effects your credit score.

John Chow blogs about Google bouncing Adsense checks.

Have a suggestion for my next roundup? Drop me an email.

Free Online File Storage With Driveway

I have been swapping a lot of pictures lately with a few of my friends from a recent trip. The problem I have run into is that a picture from a 5 mega pixel camera clocks in at over a 1 meg and my university email account has a rather small cap of attachments. I switched over to my gmail account, but was still capped at about 20 megs. Thus began my search for a better way to transfer the files. I tried a few of the online photo services like flickr but I wanted the pictures transmitted in their full resolution glory.

I read about the DriveWay.com file sharing app and gave it a shot this weekend. It's a start-up that lets you transfer files up to 500 mb (I'm not sure how much cash they will burn through offering a free service with massive bandwith requirements, but maybe they are building on the YouTube business model that is all the rage these days).

The website is really easy to use. You simply click the browse button on the front page and then navigate to the file on your computer you want to upload. You can then type in an email address that the website will "park" the file for. The interface is also really clean and simple. Very web 2.0. My only concern with the service is that there do not seem to be privacy settings available that let you shield the download from the average "Joe" online. This service would work fine if I was sharing some freeware or a stock photo (aside from the obvious copyright concerns), but I'm not so sure I want my family pictures out there for everyone to see so easily.

The Verdict: Worth a bookmark and a try, (remember its free) but won't hit the mainstream until there are stronger privacy controls (or at least they are easier to find). I'm looking forward to following the services as they add features and products.

Free Stock Trades?

When I was checking my email last night I came accross an adsense ad for free stock trades. So what you say, I get about 150 of those a week in my spam folder. Well maybe so, but having some spare time I clicked it anyways and it turns out yet another company is trying to use the web to shake up tired business models.

Zecco promises to give you 10 free trades a day or 40 free trades a month for free. After you reach 40 it charges $3.50 per trade (which is still less than most online brokers). The company also does not charge a minimum account balance or maintenance fees unless you are trading on margin. The company has a matrix that lines its fees up against the competitors here.



The interface doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary or too spectacular, but you can't beat the pricing...

Has anyone tried this yet? I haven't used this service at all, but love the premise. I assume (which is always dangerous) that the way the company can keep costs so low is that it fills both sides of the orders clients place. In other words if at all possible waits to find another Zecco customer that is selling what you're buying before it closes the order. However, this isn't uncommon and every broker tries to do this.

I am guessing though that Zecco trades are less than instantaneous - although I haven't heard anything to the contrary, but for me it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm not a day trader and those of you who are day traders are probably using a more robust service anyways. Plus, if you are buying and selling you should be using the good ol' market limit so you can lock in the prices you want to buy or sell at anyways.

I'd love for this service to succeed or at least cause a little disturbance in the pricing structure of the bigger players. If you have used Zecco email me and let me know what you think.

Link:
Zecco.com

Google Your Way to Saving Money Online

As almost every retailer has an online presence, so come the online coupons. Since I'm cheap all about saving money I typically start by Googling "[store name] coupons" before I make a purchase online. Not exactly rocket science, but then again most of the time saving money is more about luck and being persistent than it is about actually being smart.

Yeah I know, it takes an extra minute or two, but it is well worth it if you can get free shipping, $5 off, or sometimes a bit more. For example, my latest search looking for Target coupon codes let me to find $5 off a purchase of $50 and free shipping.

If you aren't into sifting through Google sites for coupons you can always start at places like CouponChief. Check it out.

Link
Coupon Chief - Online Coupons

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SPONSORED POST

Poll 1: Results Are In

Charles Schwab has won the Golden Parachute's first online poll for reader's favorite online broker. Fidelity, OptionsXpress, and Other tied for second with 16% each.

Should You Buy Organic Produce

Organic everything is a huge business, especially now that Wal-Mart has jumped on the bandwagon. If you are one of the average American's who don't shop regularly at Whole Paycheck Foods... The question is, are there actual benefits to eating organic and if you can't afford to eat all your produce organic, then where will you get the most bang for your buck?

Money Magazine recently ran an article that explained which fruits and vegetables are the worst offenders as far as pesticides are concerned. Since I currently can't find the magazine, I tracked down a similar list via Google at the Environmental Working Group. I have recreated the list below. The data group has also posted their data set online if you are skeptical about the findings. Although the Money Magazine list wasn't as detailed, from what I remember the results were similar.

The Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peaches	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apples	96
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86
4	Celery	85
5	Nectarines	84
6	Strawberries	83
7	Cherries	75
8	Lettuce	69
9	Grapes - Imported	68
10	Pears	65
11	Spinach	60
12	Potatoes	58
13	Carrots	57
14	Green Beans	55
15	Hot Peppers	53
16	Cucumbers	52
17	Raspberries	47
18	Plums	46
19	Oranges	46
20	Grapes-Domestic	46
21	Cauliflower	39
22	Tangerine	38
23	Mushrooms	37
24	Cantaloupe	34
25	Lemon	31
26	Honeydew Melon	31
27	Grapefruit	31
28	Winter Squash	31
29	Tomatoes	30
30	Sweet Potatoes	30
31	Watermelon	25
32	Blueberries	24
33	Papaya	21
34	Eggplant	19
35	Broccoli	18
36	Cabbage	17
37	Bananas	16
38	Kiwi	14
39	Asparagus	11
40	Sweet Peas-Frozen	11
41	Mango	9
42	Pineapples	7
43	Sweet Corn-Frozen	2
44	Avocado	1
45 (best)	Onions	1 (lowest pesticide load)

The results suggest what you may have already guessed. The fruits and vegetables with the thinest skins (like peaches, apples and strawberries) are more likely to be contaminated with the most pesticides. Whether you find it helpful or not, it's nice to know how potentially bad the produce you are buying is before your next trip to the store.

Link:
Image Creative Commons R@punsell

Book Review: Never Eat Alone

I just finished the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and recommend it as a good read. The book is predominantly about networking. While it is not everyone's favorite topic, I think the book offers advice that is more valuable than the standard "it's all about who you know." I look at the book as being more motivational as it discusses goal setting and has a number of examples of determined people succeeding against the odds.

Ferrazzi begins the book by talking about his humble beginnings in Pennsylvania and tracks his educational and professional background. He writes about how early on his father recognized the doors that strong connections with powerful people could open up professionally and in education. After college Ferrazzi became the Chief Marketing Officer for Deloitte Consulting and Starwood Hotels before taking a job as CEO of YaYa Media and opening his own consulting firm.

Never Eat Alone attempts to draw distinctions between the smarmy bunch of hyper-networkers who fail to foster deep connections with contacts they meet and the people who can effectively use their network to further their career. The former group of people are painted as the one-sided used car salesman types who come off as fake and hand a business card to anyone who will speak to them. The later group of people are described as poised to grow their network and potential for professional success.

This book begins with a section on goal setting and how to create a three-tiered plan to help you end up where you want to be professionally. As the book goes on, the author fills in details of how he got where he is. While I think the advice is generally point on, I do have some important caveats for people who thinking about reading the book:

First, the author attended Yale and Harvard Business School, two of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. He repeatedly touts the idea of relying on your University alumni network to get new leads and business confidants. Ivy league aside, if you went to a small private university, smaller state university, or no university at all this isn't going to be very helpful for you. In my opinion, the single most valuable skill that an ivy education gives you is not a skill at all -- it's access. Ivy graduates immediately have a shared talking point and network to many of the rich and elite which can help open doors that others simply do not have access to.

Second, some of the tactics the author uses for networking and meeting specific people seem borderline stalker-ish to me. This may be because I'm not a person who is extremely outgoing or a person particularly attracted to sales. I don't see anything wrong googling someone you intend to meet or otherwise doing some research but thinking up elaborate plans to place yourself in positions where you just so happen to bump elbows with someone just to say you have met with them seems a bit much to me.

Third, there is a good portion of the book devoted to name dropping and chest thumping about how impressive Ferrazzi's list of associates and contacts is. If you have a low tolerance for this sort of thing you may want to consider looking elsewhere for reading material.

Caveats aside, Never Eat Alone is a worthwhile read. The book has solid tips, suggestions and strategies for navigating conferences, attracting other connected people, and mastering small talk. Another major plus is the book is a relatively fast read. The material is not very dense or dry and you can get from front to back in a reasonable amount of time.

Let me know if you have any other good business, finance, or other books to read you recommend.

Poll This Week: Which Online Broker is Best?

After reading a few articles recently reviewing which online brokers are best at Forbes and Smart Money, I wanted to know what everyone else out there thought. This week I'm polling everyone out there about which online brokerage they think is the best. I added all of the companies that I could think of off hand to the list. If you come up with another you think I should add, leave me a comment and I'll get it up there ... please choose which one you think is the best.

Links
Image - Flickr Hugovk (creative commons)

When Using a Credit Card is Better Than Debit Cards

If you are traveling this 4th of July week (for those of you in the U.S.), chances you will be taking a credit card, debit card, or a few of both with you. There are a few reasons why traveling, credit cards are superior to debit cards:

1. Temporary Charge Authorization: When you make swipe your card at the pump or make other purchases with your debit card the merchant will make a temporary charge for $1, $20, or even $50. The company then charges your account for the amount in full when the transaction has been completed and cancels the initial transaction. The problem is that the initial transaction can take up to 48 hours to disappear from your account and may end up over drafting your account.
   
   
2. Car Rentals: Simply, many car rental companies won't let you rent a car with a debit card, although I think this is beginning to change.
   
   
3. Disputed Transactions: Some debit cards do not offer the purchase protections that credit cards do that allow you to run to Visa or Mastercard to take care of problems if the merchant won't. However, this fact has been widely publicized and as a result Visa and Mastercard have both make a marketing push to let people know that this is changing.

Links
Which to Use @ MarketWatch
Picture - Flickr Selvin

Hottest and Coldest Real Estate Markets

Now that subprime has left the front pages of the newspapers, media outlets everywhere are looking for the new "it" thing to worry about. With inflation always a concern it seems that housing and inflation are going back and forth as the things that CNBC sound the alarms about most frequently. So what markets are on fire and which are making sellers nervous?

According to Yahoo Finance the best buyer's markets are:

1. Tampa, FL
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Miami, FL
4. Kansas City, MO
5. Chicago, IL
6. Phoenix, AZ
7. San Diego, CA
8. Milwaukee, WI
9. New York, NY
10. Atlanta, GA

The best seller's markets are:

1. Raleigh, NC
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Austin, TX
4. San Antonio, TX
5. St. Louis, MO
6. Houston, TX
7. Portland, OR
8. Dallas, TX
9. Denver, CO
10. Baltimore, MD

Links
Yahoo! Finance Top Real Estate Markets
Flickr ericskiff

Top 5 Most Expensive Web Addresses

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