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Why 30-Somethings Worry About Retirement
Tweet Share on Facebook October 23, 2012 CommentImagine having close to $100,000 in your bank account—and then suddenly watching most of it disappear. That’s essentially what happened to Americans between the ages of 35 and 44, who have lost more of their wealth than any other age group over the past five years, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
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Women Get Better with Money As They Age
Tweet Share on Facebook October 22, 2012 CommentWomen face multiple challenges when it comes to money: In general, they live longer, earn less, and take more breaks from the workforce to care for children, which contributes to lower lifetime earnings and, as a result, lower retirement savings and benefits. They even pay higher interest rates on credit cards, and higher prices for dry cleaning and personal-care items, such as shampoo. Studies also find that women tend to perform worse on financial literacy tests than men do.
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Voters Now Say Obama Better for Their Money
Tweet Share on Facebook October 16, 2012 CommentMore voters now say they believe that President Barack Obama would be better for their own personal financial situation than Republican candidate Mitt Romney, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com. Almost 3 in 10 respondents said Obama would improve their finances, compared to 2 in 10 who said Romney would give their money a boost. Back in June, voters were evenly split between the two candidates, in terms of who would help their finances the most.
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Reasons to Check Your Social Security Account
Tweet Share on Facebook October 15, 2012 CommentSocial Security statements, which outline past earnings and expected Social Security income in retirement, used to arrive each year like early birthday presents. Recipients could use them to reflect on how far they’d come from days of low-paid, temporary summer jobs in high school, or the life events, from lay-offs to births of children, that lowered earnings. Now, instead of checking their mailboxes, Americans must go online, to socialsecurity.gov/mystatement, to get their earnings history and projected benefits.
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Is Financial Education Worth the Cost?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 11, 2012 CommentDespite the appeal of financial education—after all, who doesn’t want high schoolers to learn about compound interest and budgeting?—the impact of such courses has long been debated. In fact, some research suggests that personal-finance education in high school does little or nothing to improve later financial choices.
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Questions to Ask Before You Shop
Tweet Share on Facebook October 9, 2012 CommentMindless spending might be endemic to American consumerism, but a credit card sleeve campaign aims to reverse that trend, or at least to slow it. A series of questions posed by the nonprofit Jews United for Justice encourages shoppers to pause and reflect on the true value and impact of their purchases before going through with them.
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How to Market Your Business Online
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2012 CommentThe booming online creative economy has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs: Selling your own ebook, or e-course, or other type of digital product is as easy as setting up a website and a PayPal account.
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Should Students Get Paid for Test Scores?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2012 CommentThe question of how to motivate students to perform well at school is a tricky one, since most of the rewards for hard work come years, or even decades later. For young people, who tend to care less about the future than the present, that can seem like eons away.
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Beware of Official-Looking Mail—It’s Probably Not
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2012 CommentWhen I first saw the official-looking piece of mail buried between catalogs and junk mail, I thought I’d done something wrong. It was covered in warnings: “2nd Attempt,” “Request for Immediate Action,” and “$2,000 fine, 5 years imprisonment, or both for any personal interfering or obstructing with delivery of this letter.” The envelope also listed the make and model of my car, so the sender clearly had specific information about me.
[In Pictures: 10 Ways to Give Your Money a Makeover.]
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Why Parents Don’t Have Enough Life Insurance
Tweet Share on Facebook September 24, 2012 CommentYou might guess that becoming a parent—that moment when you take on responsibility for a small, dependent little person—might be the life change that most inspires people to take out life insurance. You’d be wrong.
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Alpha Consumer
Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about making smarter financial decisions. She’s the author of Generation Earn: The Young Professional's Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back.
Generation Earn
Senior editor Kimberly Palmer’s book, Generation Earn: The Young Professional's Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back, is now available.
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