Filed under: Retirement, Saving Money, Investing
Retirement planning is no slam-dunk. To make sure you retire in comfort, you have to start saving early and often. You need to pay attention to your money and not be distracted by the stresses and strains — or the joys — of day-to-day life. In the long run, you’ll thank yourself for keeping one eye focused on the future.
Filed under: Debt, Fraud, Consumer Ally, Mortgages
If you receive an official-looking letter from an out-of-state law firm asking you to fork over a hefty upfront fee to join a “mass joinder” lawsuit to force your mortgage lender to reduce your monthly payments, chances are good, you’ve been targeted by a new nationwide mortgage scam.
Filed under: Retirement, Investing, Retirement – 401(k), Retirement Advice
This is not going to be another one of the endless string of depressing and discouraging articles on how ill-prepared you are for your golden years. About how you don’t have enough in your retirement savings accounts. About how you should have started sooner rather than later planning for retirement.
Filed under: Credit, Debt, Fraud, Consumer Ally
A serial scammer has been slapped with contempt charges by the Federal Trade Commission, accusing him and his companies of violating a federal court order by continuing to swindle consumers.
Filed under: Retirement, Saving Money, Economizer, Retirement Advice
With age comes some privileges, and chief among them may be getting discounts just for being older. And just how old is “older?” AARP, the country’s largest lobbying group, considers you a senior when you turn 50.
Filed under: Budgets, Debt, Saving Money
If “frugal fatigue” is kicking in — and you’re getting tired of pinching pennies and watching every dollar you spend — it’s time to re-energize yourself and make a fresh commitment to managing your money wisely.
To make ends meet the past three years, Americans have been eating out less, curtailing shopping, making do with older cars, and even buying smaller homes.
Filed under: Retirement, In the News
Every year, Social Security snail-mails 150 million workers a statement estimating what their payments would be if they retired at age 62, 66 or 70. In our household, we call it the annual fantasy letter, trying to imagine that Social Security won’t go bust before we reach those ages.
Now Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue has announced that in an effort to save money — $70 million a year — the agency is going to provide these statements online by the end of the year. (Continue the story…)
Filed under: Debt, Family Money, Shopping, Consumer Ally
Now that BB&T has become the latest major bank to announce the end of free checking, untold thousands of additional cash-strapped consumers are desperately trying to find a way to make ends meet without getting hit by usurious fees.
Filed under: Budgets, Retirement, Wealth
Taking Social Security benefits at 62 may seem like a good idea, but if you wait, you’ll thank yourself later. Here are four reasons why:
1. You get less money when you claim early
Filed under: Credit, Retirement, Refinancing
While we’re doing a lot of things “right” these days (such as paying more attention to our credit card statements, shopping more frugally, and redefining our vision of retirement), we’re still making quite a few mistakes. And some of them can be costly — like these five common consumer mistakes: