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5 Sites That Help Manage Your Money Online
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (5)Looking for help on your money goals? Trying to get organized for the new year? After spending two hours going through old credit card statements last weekend, I realized there's got to be a more efficient -- and greener -- way to keep tabs on my money. While I'm not ready to get rid of my file cabinet yet -- after all, I need a place to store important receipts, insurance papers, and government documents like my marriage certificate -- there is a lot I can do online to streamline my paper trail.
Here are 5 sites that can help you sort out your finances, without resorting to paperwork:
Mint.com: Create a personal budget with easy-to-make charts and personalized tips. -
Did the Media Cause the Recession?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (33)I recently received an angry letter from a reader -- not an unusual occurrence -- that blamed the media for causing the recession. By talking about the fact that retail sales are down and people are spending less, it makes people less likely to feel optimistic, the writer argued.
I dismissed it as just crazy idea, but today, I spoke with Ellen Davis, vice president at the National Retail Federation, and she said essentially the same thing. "News can create a self-fulfilling prophesy," she says. "Even if you still have your job and are doing fine, we keep hearing about how bad the economy is, and then as a shopper you start to question your own buying habits."
In reality, she says, this shopping season was a great one for shoppers. "You could stretch your dollar more than ever before," she says.
What do you think: Are the media to blame for the down economy? (But no need to write me an angry letter.) -
Erin Burnett: Focus on Headlines, Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (1)I recently spoke with CNBC's Erin Burnett about the recession and how she covers it. (See also yesterday's post on my conversation with Maria Bartiromo.) Excerpts:
What do you focus on as you prepare to report on the day’s financial news?
In the morning we focus on headlines. It’s as moment-driven as possible. I put quite a bit of stock in global headlines. In the United States, unemployment claims are the most important, it’s been coming in at levels we haven’t seen since 1982. It’s really all about mining through the data. I view it as trying to find the context, especially know when everything is being compared to the 1930s. Recently spending data and personal in comes came in, and were growing three times more than people thought — you can find brief and small slivers [of positive news] if you take the time to go through the data.
What economic news most surprised you most in 2008?
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Mickey Rourke: I Sold Everything I Had
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (38)Mickey Rourke has been earning high praise for his role in The Wrestler, but he's gotten almost as much attention for his honesty about his life as a washed-up actor. In an interview in The Sun, he says he made ends meet by selling his motorcycle connection and other pricey collectibles. He says:
“I had a friend who was a successful hairdresser, and he’d give me a couple of hundred bucks a week to keep me going....Then the last thing I did was I had this really nice 1963 Mini Cooper that I bought and kitted up really nicely. I sunk a lot of money into it then sold it for a third of what I spent on it. It was things like that I did to get by.”
For someone who once starred alongside Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 Weeks, that's a pretty steep fall.
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Great Depression Survivor: I Worked for Shoes
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (4)Earlier this week, I received an incredible letter from Florence B. Cochran, who was born in 1925 in a small community called Bowlingtown, in Perry County, Kentucky. For research for an upcoming story, I had been looking for people who remember living through the Great Depression, and Cochran, now 83, offered to share her story.
She writes:
I grew up in Appalachia during that period of time, and here are some of the things that I remember about how we survived. Of course, everyone had to work hard. My father lost his job when the crash came, so we moved to a small farm which he bought from my grandfather.
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Elizabeth Warren: We're Drowning in Debt
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (96)As I was getting ready to interview Elizabeth Warren yesterday, I came across a recent video of Warren -- law professor at Harvard, co-author of The Two-Income Trap, and chair of the new Congressional Oversight Panel on financial regulation -- speaking about why so many of us feel so poor. She points to statistics on income and debt trends and predicts a potentially scary future. The fact that this hour-long video has been viewed some 128,000 times shows just how much of star Warren has become -- and how desperate we are for answers.
While the topic may seem dry, check out the beginning of her speech, around minutes 7 to 9 in this video. It's sort of like watching an economic-themed version of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. -
Maria Bartiromo: CEOs Must Explain Themselves
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (2)For an upcoming story, I recently spoke with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo about her take on the financial news industry. Here's part of what she had to say:
How has covering financial news changed since you started reporting?
There’s been a true democratization of information that’s enabled people to have confidence that they can be armed with enough information to actually dictate their own financial life and make their own decisions. It’s spawned the discount brokerage industry and a whole new set of tools for investors. That’s been very powerful. That’s why more than 100 million Americans invest in stocks today, be cause people can. Look at the major firms that took on all this risk — maybe they didn’t know any more than we know. It’s been a real level playing field when it comes to investing.
Are CEOs more willing to go on television now?
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Audio: How to Keep New Year's Resolutions
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 CommentOver the weekend, I spoke with WTOP in Washington about how to keep financial New Year's Resolutions. The main trick is to tell other people what they are, which forces you to get specific about them and also holds you accountable. If you don't want to share those details with people you know, then you can go online to a site like 43things.com and share your goals with strangers.
LISTEN NOW: Make New Year's Resolutions Stick
Subscribe to Personal Finance With Kimberly Palmer
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The Future of the Stock Market, Revisited
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 CommentIn response to my post yesterday, "What If Stocks Never Go Up Again," a few people commented that such a scenario was so impossible that it was ridiculous to even pose the question.
I have two words for those commenters: Nikkei. Index. -
Katie Holmes: New York Spending Spree
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2009 Comment (13)The New York Post's Page Six estimates that Katie Holmes is stimulating Manhattan's economy through outings with daughter Suri, gymnastics equipment, and an expansion of husband Tom Cruise's living quarters. The Post estimates that TomKat has spent over $7,000 on dining out alone. The grand total: Over $14 million, most of which has gone to real estate purchases.
I think I could manage to put up with the paparazzi if it meant having a budget like hers.
(In related news, the Post seems to have cut a bit too much of its own budget in the proofreading department. Holmes' name is currently spelled "Homes" on its website.)
