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Entry bubble National Consumer Protection Week (March 1-7)

By: Colleen | February 25, 2009 | Category: Money

CAHNext week is National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW). This year's theme, "Nuts and Bolts: Tools for Today's Economy," was chosen to help people get the most for their money—whether you are trying to improve your credit history, tell the difference between a real deal or a rip-off, or protect your mortgage from foreclosure or foreclosure rescue scams.

The NCPW website includes pages on a range of consumer topics like banking, credit, consumer rights, identity theft & fraud, investments, money, and mortgages.

For a consumer reference guide, pre-order the 2009 Consumer Action Handbook. This free publication, available in April, includes tips on how to handle consumer issues, as well as a sample complaint letter to help you express consumer problems via mail, fax, or e-mail.

Check out all the sponsors of NCPW to learn how to protect yourself and your money!

| Post a Comment | View Comments [1] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: colleen   consumer_action_handbook   money   national_consumer_protection_week  

 

Entry bubble Word of the Year: Bailout

By: Joanne | January 13, 2009 | Category: Money

cartoon man carrying a giant bag of money

In its 19th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “bailout” as the word of the year. When I heard the story on NPR yesterday morning, I was really hoping that the word of the year would be something fun, like 2005’s word of the year, truthiness, made popular by Stephen Colbert. I guess 2008 was a more serious year than 2005.

2008 found us in an economic crisis and it’s going to take a lot to get our economy back on track. I think it’s pretty painful to pinch pennies at the grocery store and drive aging cars, and watch the federal government give billions and billions of dollars away. Yes, I work for the government, but I pay taxes too, you know!

Like you, I don’t have to power to give away billions of tax dollars, but there are some things that we can do. President-elect Obama has a plan to stimulate the economy – get informed about the plan. Gov Gab’s readers are highly intelligent and always writing in to tell us about their great ideas. You can send your economy-saving idea directly to the Obama transition team. They’re listening.

Don’t forget to contact your Senator and Representative in Congress to let them know your ideas and how you want your tax dollars to be spent. They’re the ones that write the laws after all, and we need to hold them accountable to give us the truth, not just the truthiness.

| Post a Comment | View Comments [5] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: bailout   crisis   economy   financial   joanne   money  

 

Entry bubble Bring Your Lunch and Save Money!

By: Jake | January 12, 2009 | Category: Money

A Bagged LunchThe news these days is chock full of tips for saving money. We even have 66 simple ways for you to do that. But an alert Pueblo.gsa.gov visitor recently touched on an idea so obvious that most of us take it for granted. Simply, do you know how much you can save each month by bringing your lunch to work?

Like I said—it's obvious. You save more money making your own sandwich than you do paying Tony at the local sub shop, but have you ever sat down and quantified it? This alert reader sent us a lunch savings calculator from Bankrate.com which lets you calculate your savings from bagging your lunch over a long period of time.

To grab lunch in D.C. it costs me an average of $10 depending on what I get. The average cost for me to bring lunch is about $4. If I bring my lunch for a whole month, which is very doable, the calculator says I'll save $120. If I bring for a year, which is unlikely, I'll save $1,440. Bagging it for four years (impossible), will save me over $5000.

I don't know about you, but I'm able to really stick to something if there's a clear benefit to it. I won't be saving $1500 on lunch this year, but I know I can save at least $1000. While I'm bagging it, I can also focus more on my nutrition.

| Post a Comment | View Comments [8] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: financial_savings   jake   lunch   lunch_cost_calculator   money   savings  

 

Entry bubble Sneaky Tips for Shopping Online

By: Nancy | December 11, 2008 | Category: Money

Are you finding this holiday season rushed, stressful and confusing?

I am! And my being sick isn’t helping. (Would you believe that I have laryngitis AGAIN? ) Third time this year. The last time I had it back in July, I decided to do all my car buying negotiations online. Bidding seven dealers against each other, I ended up getting a great price. That experience worked so well, I’ve decided during this latest bout of speechlessness to forgo the mall and do all of my holiday shopping online too.

There are some great bargains out there. But I’ve got some sneaky tips that can help you get even better deals, not just during the holidays, but anytime you’re shopping online.

I’m kind of methodical when I’m buying something. I hit websites like CNET.com and ConsumerSearch.com to compare features, read professional reviews and get the ratings and reviews of people who already bought the product I’m considering.

Once I figure out the brand and model number, I use sites like Shopzilla and MySimon to compare prices.

Now for the sneaky part: coupon codes. As you’re getting ready to make your purchase on most online stores, you’ll see a little box to type in a coupon, promotional, or discount code. Online stores usually send coupon codes to their email update subscribers. Happily, you don’t need to clog up your email in-box with every store’s email updates. Just go to a site like CouponCabin.com and type in the name of the online store you’re interested in, to see what offer pops up. Cut and paste or type the coupon code into the box before you check out of the online store and depending on the offer, you can get a percentage off discount or even free merchandise.

The thing I don’t like about buying from online stores is their shipping and handling fee. Is it my imagination or do some online stores seem to inflate their shipping costs? I’m so cheap. So I was delighted when I found websites like FreeShipping.org that search online stores for free shipping deals. In the past week, I’ve saved over $20 in shipping from one online store alone, using the free shipping code I found on FreeShipping.org.

For ways to make sure the online seller you’ve chosen is reputable and for tips on what to do if your purchase isn’t what you hoped it would be, check out USA.gov’s section on shopping from home.

What are you buying online this holiday season?

| Post a Comment | View Comments [5] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: coupons   money   nancy   online   shopping  

 

Entry bubble Are You Financially Literate?

By: Nancy | November 20, 2008 | Category: Money

I used to think it was just a cliché. But in the middle of this financial crisis we're facing together in the U.S. right now, the phrase "Most Americans are just two paychecks away from financial disaster" seems frighteningly true.

You don't have control over when a job or income loss or a serious illness will throw you into financial trouble. But not having a handle on the basics of saving and investing, taxes, mortgages and insurance can leave you even more vulnerable when bad times—or scam artists—hit.tight money

Right now, more than any time in our recent memories, it’s critical to brush up on financial literacy. My office works with a couple organizations that are helping adults and kids do just that.

The U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission operates MyMoney.gov, a site to help you make sense of practical money management, financial planning, saving for retirement, and getting familiar with financial scams so you can avoid them. Their online calculators help you estimate college costs, how much mortgage you can afford, what your Social Security benefits will be at retirement time and a lot more.

Through MyMoney.gov and 1 (888) MY MONEY, you can also get the free "My Money Toolkit," a collection of popular booklets that can help you learn to get your spending, saving and investing on track. You can check out the publications online or order copies for yourself, your friends or family.

The Jump $tart Coalition is involved in providing resources to help students kindergarten through college age grow up learning and exercising practical money skills. Whether you're an educator or a parent wondering how to start teaching your kids about money and financial responsibility, Jump $tart lists a terrific collection of fun websites for kids that'll teach them about saving, investing and making smart choices as consumers.

One other financial literacy website that I like a lot is from Visa. PracticalMoneySkills.com takes a comprehensive approach to teaching adults and kids better money management skills. The site is available in English, Spanish and Chinese and features videos and articles covering topics like setting a child's allowance, financially weathering a divorce, reducing your debt and understanding compound interest.

What do you wish you'd learned earlier in your life about managing your finances?

| Post a Comment | View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: divorce   financial_literacy   investing   money   nancy   saving  

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