Financial Solution News

I’m waiting for a check worth a good amount to be sent to my attention. I’m really not sure why I am setup for checks because I’m always anxious whenever I wait for that check to come every month. Checks are slow, provide almost no visibility of when it will come and inconvenient to process.
How I Stay Away From Checks
Nowadays, I try to stay away from checks as much as possible. In fact, the checks that came with my checking account are buried in my desk drawer because I never use them anymore. If you are wondering how to avoid checks all together, here are some ways of how I avoided this ancient technology.
Direct Deposit
This is very common as the majority of employers will push for paying everyone’s salary this way. Direct deposits are quick and automatic. Not only does it avoid the transit […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Yesterday, I received a notice from the rental car company telling me that I didn’t pay toll on one of the toll booths in Chicago, Illinois.  Didn’t pay toll?  I would never skip that and I live in Southern California!
As my blood started pumping faster and I was beginning to fill with anger, I remembered one thing “Maybe it was the customer visit I had in May”.  I read further and got to this line: “Citation Date: 05/08/2008″.  Doh…
On the letter, it says that it’s actually the government that caught it so the letter was only to notify me that they called the citations department to change the responsibility to me and also to charge me a $15 administrative fee.  I called Alamo and to my surprise, the lady was willing to waive the $15 fee (I guess they were never expecting anyone to pay).
She also told me that the […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Please be reminded that the winners of the gas cards giveaway will be announced next Monday (August 18th)!
I was just at the pump yesterday and it still costs me $50 to fill up my tank even with the recent relief of gas prices. Looking back, I have spent $15,000 on gas already in my life and that number will only goes up! Wow! (Actually, I didn’t realized it was that much money until I thought about the number midway through typing the sentence!)
I really hope that the gas cards can help everyone! If you haven’t joined yet, go to the original post to find out how you can become eligible.
Those who subscribed through email wouldn’t have to worry because you, as promised, will automatically be eligible to win every giveaway on MoneyNing!
If you still haven’t joined yet, head on over there for a chance to win! […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Getting and reading the quarterly 401k account statements used to be quite a joyful event. The numbers keep going up, the row that says Market Value Change is always positive and my grin always get bigger.
This year however, it’s a little different.
With the downturn of the stock market, the value of my 401k account really tanked. In fact, my statement says that I lost $-5,112.08 year to date, which is roughly 12% of my entire account! I already tried to pick the funds with the least amount of fees, but my funds in the 401k will still take an average of 1.2% of my money this year. Normally, I try not to pay attention to this since I don’t have much of a choice with my limited 401k selection but it is particularly frustrating when it seems like I’m paying someone to lose my money. […]

Original post by MoneyNing

A big thanks to all of you as July was a great month for the blog with subscribers growing tremendously to top 1500. I am currently running a gas card giveaway to show my appreciation where 3 winners will win a $50 dollar gas gift card so check it out if you haven’t entered yet!
On the Personal Finance Network front, we also wrote our first group project together aimed at personal finance issues related to the summer. It was a lot of fun to be apart of it and there were a bunch of great articles by our fellow bloggers. Down the road, we have more plans ahead of us so check back often for the latest update!
Here are some great articles published in July in case you missed them.

An Intro to Passive Income, Popular Ways of Getting It and the Mindset You Need to Start Creating […]

Original post by MoneyNing

With so many junk mail coming through our mailbox each day, why not mix in some great incoming mail by winning the free gas card giveaway hosted over here?  On August 18, three winners will be announced here at MoneyNing and each winner will receive a $50 gas gift card to help them fill up their tanks!
Here are some simple ways to enter:

Commenting on this post get you one entry
Stumble, Digg and Mixx this post and get 3 more entries for each vote
All email subscribers of this blog will have 5 entries
If you have a blog and write about this giveaway with a link to this post, you will get 5 entries
My Twitter Followers will receive another 5 entries

Note that the gas gift cards will be Shell gift cards for the US.  If you cannot use it, I will send you an amazon gift card instead.
Good luck everyone!

—Related Articles at […]

Original post by MoneyNing

I received a postcard from Countrywide Home Loans yesterday advertising the benefits of their home loan program. Features include:

Down payment and closing cost assistance
100% financing
No minimum credit score required
Flexible qualifying guidelines
30, 35 and 40-year loan terms available
Fixed rate and fixed period Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) options

During the housing boom, many of these loan agencies advertised to potential home owners, telling them to buy homes. Convincing statements like “Why rent when you can own” were resonating throughout all of America.
In fact, my wife and I almost took the plunge in March of 2007. We were looking at a property in a newly developed community and even went to their phase release. I remember waking up at 3:00am, driving to the house and dreaming about what we can do to the front / backyards. Luckily, the enthusiasm of buying our first home didn’t cloud our judgment in […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Thanks to privacy laws, consumers like us have the rights to restrict companies from passing our personal and financial information with their affiliates and companies that they do business with.  Just the other day, HSBC sent me a letter asking me to respond by checking the check box besides the two following statements if I didn’t want junk mail originated from them.

NO, please do not share personal and financial information with your affiliated companies.
NO, please do not share personal and financial information with outside companies you contract with to provide financial products and services.

At the end of the letter, it even gives you three options to reply

Fill out, sign and send back this form to us using the envelope provided
Call this toll-free number: 1-877-394-HSBC (1-877-394-4722) and select option 2
Reply electronically by contacting us through the following Internet address: us.hsbc.com/californiaprivacy

It was great of them to provide the internet option because it […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Last week, I decided to take advantage of a mail offer to receive literature of the luxury resort package a company is promoting.  While I was not interested in joining or owning a piece of this property, I wanted the bonus gift of Zagat Survey’s 2008 Golf Guide.
I logged onto the website, and entered my offer code along with my email.  The process was a breeze since it already had most of my information.  By that afternoon, I got an email from a sales person who wanted to speak to me over the phone.  I politely asked him to wait until I get the package first because I wouldn’t have any questions without seeing additional information from them.  No reply to that email.
The next day, I get a priority mail package delivered from them.  I was impressed with the speed of delivery and responsiveness and also a little excited to […]

Original post by MoneyNing

With the launch of the Personal Finance Network and the new column Money Mailbox Friday, the past month has been a busy month for MoneyNing but all in all it’s been a great month!  There were many good articles posted so check these out if you’ve missed any.

How I Started Buying My First Stock
Patience with Keep Us From Spending Unnecessary Money
Setup Google Alerts to Get Coupons and Deals
A Dollar Saved is Two Dollars Earned but Two Dollars Earned is Twenty Dollars Saved

Learn About Money Related Issues with Money Mailbox Friday

My Global Rewards Network
Scams and Junk Mails with Tempting Offers

Earn More Money by Being More Motivated with Motivation Monday

Create a Need and You Will Find a Way
Staying Busy
Snowballing Positive Energy
Get Some Fresh Air
Hang Around Motivated People

If you like what you read here, you can subscribe to my blog via RSS so you don’t miss a thing! Alternatively, you can subscribe […]

Original post by MoneyNing