Financial Solution News

 
 
Now that I decided to roll my 401k into a traditional IRA, the next step is to figure out the company that I should roll the money into. As the funds will likely remain in the same place until I’m past 60 years old, it is a decision that I should carefully analyze. I managed to narrow the choices into three and here are some pros and cons of each.
E*Trade
As many of you know, I’m a customer of E*Trade Financial. Currently, I have a brokerage account, Roth IRA as well as an online savings account with them. Adding the traditional IRA account is only natural and it will also allow me to see all my investments in one screen, cutting down on administration.
On the other hand, E*Trade’s big loan portfolio and the current mortgage crisis could possibly (amid a very small chance) mean disaster for the […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Now that I told everyone about my plans to quit my job and move onto full time blogging, it’s time to look into how I should handle my current 401k account once I leave the company. As I don’t have a huge 401k account balance, the penalty if I don’t do anything will be small but this doesn’t mean that I don’t spend time on this. Managing our finances successfully means making sure that we take care of all the little things so let’s explore what I can do with my 401k.
Options, Options, Options
Roll the Money into a New 401k
If you are changing jobs, you can always roll the money into the 401k plan at the new job. This is generally a good approach if your new employer has good fund selection. In my situation however, I am going out on my own so this is […]

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

Miranda Marquit edits information on debt consolidation for DestroyDebt.com. She also writes on personal finances for YieldingWealth.com.
In our society, access to money is a big deal. We want instant access (usually via some form of plastic card) to money. And, in an era where lending standards are making it difficult to take out loans, all sorts of ideas are popping up to help us access — rather quickly — money that may be “ours”, but not as liquid as we’d like it to be. One of these is a 401k debit card that is being offered.
How a 401k debit card works
It’s pretty straightforward. You pay a setup fee and other fees to have a debit card linked to your 401k retirement account. Now, if you are not eligible for non-penalty withdrawal it is fairly obvious what is going on here: […]

Original post by MoneyNing

I just came back from a funeral of my fellow sales person’s husband, who died of a sudden heart attack. It was emotional and shocking for all of us because we were just playing volleyball with her husband in a company event not long ago. It was such a tragedy and I wish my co-worker the best in everything she does for years to come.
One thing she (and all of us) can take comfort is that her husband’s sudden death saved another person’s life. My company’s accountant’s husband felt pain in his chest recently, and despite the accountant’s suggestion to go see the doctor, the husband refused as he had to direct his crew in Beijing for the Olympics. What finally changed his mind was the incident that happened to the saleslady’s husband. My accountant went to the doctors with her spouse, and the doctor […]

Original post by MoneyNing

Most of us have a job where hard work is expected and necessary.  We offer our knowledge and/or labor to the company we work for in order to get recognition, satisfaction and compensation in return.  Although this is the way most people make money, the minute we stop working, the income stops.
On the other hand, a popular idea that floats around the internet is passive income.  The idea of it is that money is being earned with or without our involvement.  Once it’s set up, the recurring income will come continuously.
Anyone can quickly see why this idea is popular.  Here are three extremely good advantages:
Provides Freedom
If your passive income is higher than your living expenses, then you free yourself from the daily grind of working for someone at least 8 hours a day.  You can enjoy your life and do what you want, while earning enough money to sustain your […]

Original post by MoneyNing

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, a freelance writer as well as a regular commentator on the topic of credit card reviews. Heather invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.
Many people contribute to their retirement accounts with little planning, but it’s important now than ever that you properly set up your 401k plan.  There are many ways you can maximize what you’ll end up earning through your 401k.  True, there are risks involved just as with any investments that you make.  If you blindly listen to your HR contact or the guy in the cubicle next to you then there’s a good chance you’re missing out on some serious money down the road.  Here are five ways you can capitalize on your 401k investments:
Diversification is crucial.  While the individual mutual funds offer diversity by their very nature, it’s important that you don’t […]

Original post by MoneyNing

It is not unusual for people to forget about contributing to their IRA until April of every year. In fact, it is probably the norm. The reason is simply because the deadline for our contribution to be eligible for last year’s IRA falls in April.
Let’s face it - everyone is lazy and we always procrastinate. Without an incentive or a “reason to act”, not many people have the discipline to contribute early. What we don’t realize when we wait is how much money we are potentially leaving on the table just because of our laziness. When we always wait till the last minute, we are:

not giving our money the maximum amount of time to grow
relying on the fact that we will for sure have time in April to manage our IRA contributions
not on top of our contributions, always playing catchup
running the risk that we might […]

Original post by MoneyNing

NEW YORK, April 15, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — Beleaguered investors of Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) were delivered more bad news by the company in Tuesday’s after-hours earnings announcement. The company reported a first-quarter loss of $1.14 billion and indicated that it expects Writedowns of $12 billion to $19 billion of its $187 billion portfolio of single family residential home loans in 3 to 4 years.
Litigation on behalf of Washington Mutual employees and 401(k) plan participants has commenced against the company for alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. If you are an employee of Washington Mutual and wish to discuss the investigation or have questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Scott+Scott (scottlaw@scott-scott.com, (800) 404-7770, (860) 537-5537), for more information. There is no cost or fee to you.
(more…)
Lenders With Problems 2007, Mortgage Industry […]

Original post by Admin

It was only yesterday when I was $5,000 richer.
With the market in such volatility, it was a great time to invest since I was in it for the long term.  So, I made my 2008 contribution of $5,000 into the Roth IRA a couple weeks ago.  It was such an easy process because I have an ETrade savings account and an ETrade Roth IRA account so it was done a couple of clicks later.  A few weeks go by, I log into my ETrade account and noticed that my account balance went down $5,000!
I searched around, and realized that there was a new transfer payment of $5,000 from my online bank account to my Roth IRA.  After more searching, I realized what has happened.  ETrade increased my Roth IRA balance by $5,000 but did not decrease my online savings account when I made the transfer originally, and only made the […]

Original post by MoneyNing