Life insurance can be a wise and prudent way to mitigate risk and it can be a terrible investment vehicle. Don’t get left with too little coverage or the wrong kind with this easy guide. Continue reading
finance
10 posts
Welcome back to the Crasstalk Money Challenge! If you missed it the first time around, the challenge is essentially Super Squats for personal finances – pick a financial goal or several and tell us how you’re doing. Continue reading
If you shopped at a Target retail store in the US between November 27 and December 15, 2013 using your credit or debit card then you should demand a new card from your bank no matter what excuse your bank gives. Here are the simple reasons why. Continue reading
The nice folks over at Mint have put together an infographic showing some data driven ways that people can climb the socio-economic ladder.
Since pictures are complicated I’ve distilled down for you are the things you can do right now to make sure your children are statistically more likely to better off than you are.
It’s science so this is foolproof.
According to Tom Corley a financial planner who studied 350 rich and poor people, wealthy people have some daily habits in common. He wrote the book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. While the book strongly states that these habits make you more successful and as a consequence, more wealthy, you have to wonder if it is the chicken or the egg here. Let’s start with the book’s definition of wealthy – $160k/year in earnings and holding assets of $3.2 million. Poor was defined as income under $30k/year and less than $5k worth of assets. So what are the daily habits that the wealthy have in common? Some are quite interesting…. Continue reading
You probably heard a few weeks ago that at least 10% of the people working in the financial sector are psychopaths. You were probably not surprised by that. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you were probably a little surprised that there weren’t more Patrick Batemans running around Wall Street feeding cats to ATM machines. Continue reading
MSNBC recently posted the results of a poll which asked: If you had to come up with $2,000 to take care of an emergency, could you?
The answers were sobering, to be honest. Here are some highlights of the findings: Continue reading
Have you checked the mail today? If so, there’s a decent enough chance that somebody somewhere wants to give you money. Banks are clamoring for you to transfer your balances to them for 0% APR (for the first 12 months or however long it takes you to read the terms and conditions, whichever is longer) or buy a car (as long as it’s new and you take out a 60 or 72 month loan) or refinance your house and pay less each month (conveniently leaving out loan costs you’ll incur by doing so). Continue reading
As the mainstream music industry feebly attempts to hang on to some semblance of its past glory days, many bands and artists are opting to cut out the middleman and go directly to their fans to provide financial backing for their future album releases. Using sites such as PledgeMusic or Kickstarter, musicians are able to make their case to fans and others who are interested in helping cover the costs associated with recording an album — booking studio time, distribution, promotional efforts, and so on. Beyond the financial, some bands are also reaching out to their fanbase to provide inspiration for songs in the form of words, artwork, or sound effects.
Helping an artist finance their next album usually comes with perks such as having advance access to music, bonus tracks, or having your name listed in the liner notes. Of course, there’s the simple personal gratification you’d feel in assisting a band get their music out to the masses.
Gregory Douglass:
I first learned of Gregory a few years back after seeing the video for his song, “Hang Around,” on TV one evening. I quickly downloaded the song from iTunes. Shortly thereafter, I returned to purchase the rest of his music. Back in 2009, I hosted a house concert where Gregory performed in my home for me and a group of my friends. His voice is simply amazing and I can’t help but cheer the guy on. Gregory has been holding weekly concerts streamed online and making appeals for fans to contribute to helping fund his next album, Lucid.
The Damnwells:
This is a band that needs to be heard by many more people. Their last album, One Last Century, was made available to the world for free. The band’s latest release, No One Listens to the Band Anymore, was just released on March 15, however, those who were financial backers via PledgeMusic, received early access to the album in addition to bonus songs and special access to a concert stream.
Imogen Heap:
At shows during her last world tour, Imogen Heap raised money for local charities by creating and recording a song at each show and making it available for purchase on her website. Even better, the audience was part of creating the song. At the show I attended, someone yelled out C sharp for the key and another person provided the general melody. From there, Imogen created a song. Perhaps using that experience as inspiration, fans were able to contribute words, sounds and/or melodies that would be reviewed and used to create a new song — the first song created for her new album.
As Imogen culled through the submissions, fans were able to watch via Ustream as she reviewed them and built a song. The result is “Lifeline.” It’s also worth noting that the submissions used in the song will receive credit on her album as well as receive compensation.
Wall Street sighed a collective “meh” today following President Obama’s release of the FY 2011 Budget. The Dow closed down 5 points to end at 12,268. The NASDAQ gained 7 3/4 to end at 2,817 and the S&P 500 gained 3 to end at 1,332. Following yet another flat day of trading, some analysts wondered why they even bothered going into work with some going so far as proposing that pants be optional for floor traders.
Meanwhile in Washington, President Obama’s budget proposal was greeted with tepid hatred. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who chairs the House Committee on Batshit Crazy, rambled about how it proved the President was a secret Muslim, citing the use of Arabic numbers as proof of her latest idiot theory. Meanwhile, freshman wingnut Rand Paul spoke for several Tea Party members while voicing complaints that the proposed budget didn’t do enough to establish complete anarchy.
In entertainment news, Glenn Beck used his radio program to complain that Esperanza Spalding is the vanguard on a jazz-based attack on American liberties aimed at creating a post-modernist bebop caliphate in the United States. He then blamed her and Neil Young for making Christina Aguilera botch the lyrics to “Baby.” When reminded that “Baby” is by Justin Bieber, Beck went on a 30 minute stream of consciousness tangent linking Canada to the decrease in playing time of folk-rock albums, ezplained by increased sunspot activity and fluorine in the water supply.
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