What Does the Credit Card Reform Mean for You?

As you may be aware, Congress just passed a credit card reform bill that helps protect consumers, such as you and I, from the big bad credit companies.   Although this bill has gotten almost unanimous support from law makers, there have been a few who aren’t happy with the new regulations.  Read more

Prepaid Discover Card Keeps Spending in Check

Jeremey over at GenXFinance reviewed the new Discover Prepaid Debit Card.  The card is focused on teaching teenagers about controlled spending and maintaining balance limits, which is great.  But what about those Gen X and Gen Y’ers who don’t trust themselves with their plastic?  A good way to impose restraints on unruly spending?  We think so. Read more

ING Bank Just Got a Little Cooler

Unbeknownst to me, ING (the online based bank with the consistently good APY’s) has opened cafes in a bunch of major U.S. cities — complete with free wifi and free personal finance seminars and webinars.  Who knew!? Read more

Are Young People Afraid to Invest?

Investing can be an overwhelming and daunting task when you’re young and first starting out with your investments.  But are young people today turned off by investing after seeing our parent’s nest eggs deteriorate in front of our eyes?  Or do we live in a world so focused on the here and now, that planning for the distant future seems like a nonessential task.

These questions popped into my head after having dinner with an old friend that I used to work with.  Having both worked within the financial industry, we were discussing common acquaintances and severe layoffs at all the big financial firms.  As we discussed the financial woes of the industry, I casually asked her how her stocks were doing, to which she replied that her 401(k) was down.

Assuming that she had other funds invested outside her company’s 401(k), I asked her which funds she thought were doing well during the recession, and which she personally invests in, to which she responded  “none”.  Puzzled by her answer, I further inquired as to why a financial professional would have opted to keep her money out of market circulation — I figured certainly a financial professional would have a good reason for not practicing the same values that she pitched to others on a daily basis.  But her reply was surprisingly simple:  she said that she just didn’t have the time to figure out where to put her own money and had never made it a priority to find a well performing fund that she liked or to deal with researching and buying her own stock.

Here was a woman who had spent 11 years working in the financial industry (specifically, a hedge fund), and the only money that she had personally invested in the stock market was her company’s 401(k).  So why would someone under the age of 35 not invest their money when they have plenty of time to catch a market upswing?  The sheer amount of opportunities to invest means that there are options for every type of investor — from the aggressive stock picker to the passive individual who prefers to put their money in tried and true funds and let the market run its course.

The market is not something to be afraid of.  It’s a tool that, when used correctly and responsibly, can exponentially increase your wealth (as opposed to just letting your cash sit in a savings account for 30 years).

As for my friend’s case, I chalked it up to sheer negligence.  Planning for retirement is not something you opt out of for a lack of time, it’s something you take care of regardless of if you want to or not.  The only person that you can depend on to carry you through your golden years is yourself, and if you’re not responsible enough to plan now, the future will certainly bring with it a harsh reality.  Think Wal-Mart greeter after a forty year career.

So why does investing seem to rank lower on the list of importance to younger generations?  Is it the confusing, convoluted air of the industry, the intimidation that it begets or the innumerable choices between buying individual stocks and the myriad of different funds?  Is this a case of market fear or does the future seem so distant that we’re neglecting our financial plans in lieu of living for today?

Photo credit:  Mateusz Stachowski

Know Your Stuff: Breakin’ Down the Roth IRA

Investing in your retirement has never been more important than it is now. With the current state of the economy, there’s not much of a reason to have faith that you’re social security payments will provide much stability to you in your golden years. With the rising costs of living and pretty much everything else, social security contributions can’t and won’t keep up with inflation, and what may barely pay your bills now certainly won’t pay them when you’re 65.

This leads us to the following, inevitable fallback plan:  start piling up your own source of future income.  Since retirement planning is such a vitally important part of everyone’s long term plan, the government has blessed us with the Roth IRA. Keep on reading for a few basics that you need to know to get started with one:

• A Roth IRA is an Independant Retirement Account which allows you to save money for retirement by contributing a set amount of money per year and letting you earn interest through investments.
• Roth IRA’s currently have a contribution limit of $5,000 a year, considering that your earned income falls below $101,000.
• The major difference between a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA is that you are not penalized and charged a fee if you take out your contributions (not your earnings) before you retire.
• The Roth IRA is 100% completely tax-free when you make your withdrawals after your retirement age. Kiplinger gives this startling (and inspiring) example: If a 25-year-old contributes $5,000 each year until she retires and makes an average annual return of 8% on her investment, she’ll have $1.4 million saved by the time she retires at age 65. If that same 25-year-old invested that same $5,000 a year in a regular taxable account earning the same 8% return, she’d only have about $1 million after 40 years if her earnings were taxed at 15% federal. That’s more than one-fourth less money than if she’d gone with the Roth.
  

There is really no excuse against opening a Roth IRA account. It will only benefit you and it also offers this additional bonus:

• You are allowed to take out up to $10,000 tax and penalty free to purchase your first home. This is per person, so if you and your significant other both have a Roth IRA, this would give you a $20,000 limit.

To open a Roth IRA Account, you need to first decide what you feel most comfortable investing in. A lot of people choose to go the mutual fund route because it offers a more diverse portfolio (investing in many different industries as opposed to just focusing in on say, real estate). There are a few places where you can open a Roth IRA:

• A bank – this is a good choice if you want to invest in COD’s (Certificates of Deposit) and Money Market Accounts, which are less risky investments.
• A Fund Company like T. Rowe Price or Vanguard is a good choice for mutual funds because you will have a professional choosing your stocks. For these funds, you normally need around $2,500 to start, and they will usually waive the minimum if you sign up for monthly automatic deposits into your account.
• A Brokerage Firm – this is a good choice for a more seasoned investor to purchase individual stocks and bonds. Usually the same $2,500 minimum applies, but these companies tend to charge hefty fees when it comes to each trade and maintaining the account. You should always double check to make sure your fees won’t hurt you.

If you’re young, going the Vanguard route may be the way to go – you have plenty of time to increase your earnings with a much higher return compared to a traditional COD.  It’s also the best way to get a well-rounded and diversified portfolio for your money without paying huge management fees.

But if the idea of calling up an investment company is still a little daunting, set up a meeting with a financial advisor at your current banking institution.  It’s free, and they’ll be able to set you up quickly with an IRA account or at the least, give you a sampling of helpful information to get you started on the right path.

The Worst Debit Card Ever? UPDATED

Capcom, a video game distribution company, is now promoting a new VISA debit card designed to promote Capcom-Unity points for their Accelerated Rewards program to be used for auctions, raffles, and to take advantage of company promotions (like access to Beta tests and priority entrance at Capcom events).   Read more

Credit Karma’s Ken Lin on FICO’s New Scoring Model

In the age of the credit crunch, credit scores are the passport to your financial future.  The new year has brought many things, and with it, a new scoring model.  We spoke to Ken Lin, CEO of Credit Karma (a website that lets you check your credit score for free — anytime, anywhere) about the change in the FICO credit scoring model to get a better idea of what the changes are and how they will affect you.

Can you give us an overview of the new scoring formula?
It hasn’t been fully disclosed or anything.  They’ve selectively agreed to point out certain things.  But the way it looks like things are going to work, it’s going to be a more holistic view on a person’s credit.  So what that means, is that it takes fewer of the micro late payments and looks at your credit on a more holistic level –  late payments or single late payments don’t matter as much on your credit score, but long term late payments will have a bigger impact.  I think that’s one of the first changes.

I think a secondary change is really around the authorized users and the notion of piggybacking your credit.  I think that’s been one of those things where people have gamed the system — where if you add an authorized user in your credit report, you are in fact transferring some of your good credit over to that person — and basically stop that process or that loophole, if you will.  And really the third component or maybe the global picture, they’re really trying to help lenders better determine who are lower risk people.  I think that’s the ultimate objective.  But at the high level, it’s all about making more of a holistic view on the credit score, rather than the minutia, as well as fixing a few of the loopholes in the hopes of getting a better [read] for lenders.

So, when does this new scoring method go into effect?
Well, it’s interesting.  So what happens most of the times with these scores, lenders will actually test it.  So it launched I think actually today or yesterday, with TransUnion.  I think Equifax is coming down the road, and Experian hasn’t actually released the date.  But normally  what happens with new credit scores is that financial institutions have billions of dollars in their portfolio based on existing credit scores, so they’re generally hesitant to switch over completely or unilaterally to new credit scoring systems without testing it.  What I suspect, is that banks will slowly migrate as they test it.  And what they’ll ultimately do is test this score against the old score and see if there are actually pickups in the performance of being able to detect chargeoffs or risk.  I think once those numbers come in, they’ll be more likely to make a final switch.

What spurred this change, or does FICO regularly and routinely change their methodology?
You know, credit scores haven’t stayed the same, really ever.  I think historically there have always been updates.  There have always been tweaks to get them to normalize for different years or economic conditions.  But even if you look at the current FICO score, its been updated five or six times since its original release in the late 90’s.  So this is a constant, but I think this one is a little bit more radical from the standpoint that they’re trying to address more of the macro level issues instead of the loopholes that we spoke about.  But you have to keep in mind that credit scores are constantly evolving, and its never the case where you have one consistent score from the beginning of time for you.

OK.  I was wondering if it had anything to do with banks lending money to unattractive borrowers and the whole sub prime debacle that we just went through?
You know, I think that probably is a little bit of the underlying effect.  I mean, credit scores, they’ve performed well.  I think the whole sub prime debacle is more of the factor that the banks got a little more greedy.  They were continually lowering their criteria or their threshold in the hopes of making more profits, and it just ultimately backfired.  I think part of this is grounded in the fact that you always want to be able to better mitigate your loss or predict losses based on your credit score.  I don’t think credit scores ultimately brought down the industry.  It was more of a case that the industry was a little too greedy and willing to lower their standards.

Do you think this new method will prove to be more beneficial to people, or do you think that a lot of people will see their scores being lowered?
Its too early to tell, but this score is meant to benefit banks and lenders — quite honestly, right?  Credit scores are always built for lenders.  Consumers are finally becoming aware of it because they know how much impact it has on their financial well being.  But historically these things are built for lenders.  And the ultimate gauge of whether this score is successful, is if it will be able to differentiate good borrowers from bad borrowers.  And that will be the decision.  So from a consumer’s standpoint, it’s important for them to always be aware of what their credit scores are, and making sure their credit reports are accurate.  But I think this particular change will have little impact on the consumer — more of the impact is really going to be focused on the lender and their profitability.

Like you said earlier, it’s going to be focused more on the minutia.  I heard that the smaller problems, like if you have a doctor’s bill for $100 that accidentally went into collections, it would mean less.  Is that true?
Correct.  Right.  It de-emphasizes the smaller aspects and looks more at the macro level trends.  So if you have a long history of always being late or being delinquent on your bills, that’s taken into more of significance, rather than if you have a small doctor’s bill, a collections notice, for a $100 or less — it has less of an impact.  And along the same lines, if you recently missed a payment, but you’ve always paid your bills on time, that will also have a much lower impact on your credit score.

I was also reading that they’re going to be focusing more on the credit to debt ratio.  Does it hurt your score to have a credit card open, but to never use it, if it’s paid off?
So, they’re starting to look a little bit more closely on inactive accounts.  I think the general rule of thumb is if you have a line of credit that’s available to you that you don’t use often, use it every couple of months to show that there is activity so that it continues to contribute to your active credit line.  I think the new model suggests that they are going to be de-emphasizing credit limits if you don’t use them.  So a simple way around that is to buy a tank of gas every other month with your card so that you continue to show usage.  That will kind of mitigate any of the negative impact of having credit lines that sit dormant.

Will the new scoring model change the way they differentiate between labeling scores good, fair, poor and excellent.
I don’t think so.  Historically, credit scores have been normalized.  Meaning that at any given year, they expect the same score to have the same amount of chargeoff.  So I think because everyone is so used to that standard, they’re not going to be changing the definition of good, bad, and poor.

What about precautions?  Are there any new ones that we should follow or should we stick with the same rules that we’ve been doing, like keeping a healthy credit to debt ratio and keeping accounts that are paid off open?
Yeah.  There are so many components that go into a credit score — I think at the last count it was over 200.  And for a consumer to actively monitor 200 or try to you know, eek that last 2 or 3 points of improvement really becomes difficult.  So following the general rule of thumb of not carrying too much debt, making sure your credit reports are accurate, not having too high of a utilization — those general types of tips will be always true.  I think consumers should be more worried about those macro trends, instead of doing X,Y, and Z to get the last three points of improvement.

And is there any advice to someone who’s planning to purchase a house or car this spring, and will need to have a good score?
Yeah.  Well, I think credit scores are more important than they’ve ever been in the last ten years, if you will.  If you’re looking to make a major purchase, I think consumers need to start being aware of their credit scores today.  And anything lower than a 720 for example, on a mortgage is going to be really difficult to get good financing or at least financing at the best rate.  So consumers need to be diligent about monitoring their credit scores probably 6 months to a year ahead of that purchase.  Ideally they’re constantly monitoring their credit score.  They need to be very cognizant of cleaning up their [credit] lines, making sure they’re paying down their debt, and getting to the threshold of 720 plus, so they can get the best rates.

Will consumers be able to get a free copy of their credit score once the majority of the banks transition over to the new scoring model?
Well, this is a really interesting point.  I mean, historically you can only get your FICO score from myFICO.  Experian recently cut off their relationship with them.  So you can only get two of your FICO scores through myFICO.  But even FICO released the fact that they’re actually not planning to release this new FICO score to consumers for another two to three years, so these recent changes kind of, again, support the fact that from a consumer’s perspective, they can’t get too caught up in what they need because they still won’t technically have access to it for a few more years.

Is there anything else you’d like to throw out to our readers?
You know, I think the continuing message that we continue to support is that credit scores are very important for almost every aspect of financial health.  This is a minor change that consumers should be aware of, but they should definitely be aware of those macro level changes in terms of the economy and having good credit.  That’s just one thing that we continue to tell consumers — be diligent about knowing your credit score and really how they work.

Can Someone Please Help Me Find My Sympathy? I Seem to Have Lost it.

Heads rolled after Obama’s stimulation restrictions were voted into place allowing companies receiving federal support to limit executive salaries to $500,000.  According to an article from StockWire, Crain’s, a New York business weekly, conducted an impromptu study of the Manhattan banking elite’s typical expenses.  Read more

Recession-Proof Activities III: Bigger, Badder, Harder

So, New Yorkers…how are your finances? If you’re like the majority of Americans riding out the recession wave, penny pinching, saving, and being financial responsible is more vital now than in any other time in our lives. Still, you can have plenty of smile without opening your wallet, purse, or murse. It’s Recession-Proof Activities III, the follow up to follow up to Recession-Proof Activities I and II. Consider this a sequel that doesn’t suck.

Download free music from RCRD LBL: The brainchild of GDGT’s visionary Peter Rojas, the vowel-less RCRD LBL is an ad-supported site that lets users download free, legal MP3s–no RIAA lawsuits up in this piece. The MP3 catalog is a mix of new and established artists (Black Dice, Santogold) who get a cut of ad profits. The icing on the cake? You don’t even have to sign up for an account–point your browser toward RCRD LBL and commence partying.

Resurrect an old notebook with Linux: Have an old PC that chokes, wheezes, and coughs when you power it on? Put it to good use with Linux, a free open source operating system that has less bloat than Windows, so it runs fine on ancient hardware. Linux comes in many flavors, but we recommend Ubuntu which has an easy level of entry for wannabe techies. Simply download the ISO file, burn to CD/DVD, and boot your PC from the disc.

Check Out the NYC Public Library Cultural Calendar: If you’re looking to take in some learnin’, the NYC Public Library is here to help. The institution hosts lecture series covering a range of topics from business to science in various locations around the city.

Get A New Do–For Free!: The hair stylist ninjas at Bumble & Bumble (the salon to the stars), have to start somewhere–and the somewhere is Bumble & Bumble University. There the students learn to trim, dye, and cut with real human heads. Sign up, get styled, and take pride in knowing you’re assisting stylists-in-training make steps towards their dreams — and get a kick-ass hundred dollar haircut for nary a dime (they don’t accept tips).

Take A Ride on the Staten Island Ferry
The Staten Island Ferry shuttles 20 million people a year between St. George on Staten Island and Whitehall Street–without charge! Enjoy the terrific view of Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, and the city’s skyline as you cruise one of NYC’s most under-appreciated modes of transportation.

Sit In on a TV Show Taping
Many popular TV shows are taped right here in NYC such as the Daily Show, The View, The Colbert Report, Letterman,  and SNL,  and it won’t cost you a thing to sit in as a member of the studio audience. Tickets, naturally, can be hard to come by so you may have to call/request them online several times to nab one (or even stand in line outside of the studio in hopes of copping the seat of someone that’s canceled).

That’s Recession-Proof Activities III for you. Keep those eyes peeled for more freebie activities that will put a smile on your face no matter if you’re home or out on the town.

The Banking Crisis Hasn’t Deterred Condescending Attitudes

As I strolled into my primary banking institution a few weeks ago, I asked the guard downstairs to direct me to the people who handle the IRA’s.  I was planning on transferring my own IRA over since I have my checking and savings accounts there, and wanted to be able to transfer money over quickly and more easily. Read more

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