Girls Just Wanna Have Funds » Roundup

Is My Money Safe?

Ginger — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:01:21 +0000

This is a guest post by wowOwow, via Divine Caroline.com

The dramatic events on Wall Street are making us on Main Street nervous about the safety of our money. Is my savings account safe? What about my investment accounts? What about my IRA account? Who administers my 401-K? And what about my annuity with AIG? Or my life-insurance plan with one of the other insurance companies?

In other words, “Is my money safe?”

Consumers need to take control and find out if their money is safe. Here are a few tips on what you can do in these tumultuous financial times to educate yourself:

Savings
Check to see whether your bank or savings association is FIDC-insured by calling 877-275-3342 or using the agency’s online Bank Find tool. Small businesses, in particular, which often keep large deposits in banks, should check to see if their deposits are above the insurance limits.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent agency of the U.S. government that protects depositors against the loss of their insured deposits if an FDIC-insured bank or savings association fails, offers information on your insured deposits. You can also read the FDIC insurance basics here.

If your money at one FDIC-insured bank or savings association totals $250,000 or less, your deposits are fully insured. Someone can have more than $250,000 at one insured bank or savings association and still be fully insured provided the accounts meet certain requirements.

If your deposits exceed the insurance limits, spread your money around to a few different banks. You may also want to open accounts in the names of different family members.

You can use the FDIC’s Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, or CDARS, which splits deposits into chunks under the $250,000 insurance limit and funnels the money out to 2,000 banks in the network. Only banks considered “well capitalized” by the FDIC are included.

Investments
Both the bankrupt Lehman Brothers and the just-acquired Merrill Lynch are brokerage firms. What happens to your money when your investment house is in trouble? Visit the Web site of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms. The SIPC has an Investor’s Guide to Brokerage Firm Liquidations: What You Need to Know … and Do.

Check if your broker is an SIPC member. Nearly all brokerages are but if yours isn’t, consider moving to a more-established firm. Make sure your advisers are working with SIPC members, too.

Lehman Brothers participates in the SIPC. The SIPC’s Web site says it protects “the cash and securities—such as stocks and bonds—held by a customer at a financially troubled brokerage firm.”

Insurance
Is my insurance money safe? What about my annuity and life-insurance policy if my insurance company gets in trouble? Insurance companies are insured by the individual state where the policy was written, so there are fifty different answers to this question. Every state now offers at least $100,000 in cash for annuities and $300,000 in death benefits. In the event a consumer has a larger policy than the state guarantees, they become a creditor for the difference. The National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds has a Web site with information on these rules. You can also search “name of your state insurance guaranty.”

Question: Where’s your money? How safe are your assets?

Friday Fiscal Roundup: Living On The Edge Edition

Ginger — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:56:31 +0000

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are comfortable living on the edge, but my hope is these articles will be able to give them some insight and perhaps incite some changes to their money habits. A wise woman told me it’s better to deal with the devil you know than the one you don’t, but I still wonder what stops many from taking that first step. Anyhoo, hopefully if you’re reading, you’ll gain some insight from the following articles.

From The PF Bloggers:

Living Almost Large

Is it frugal to live alone?

MasterYourCard

Pecuniarities

Save on Groceries and Household Supplies with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save Program
Life Is Too Short to Sleep On Low Thread-Count Sheets (a woman after my own heart!)

Flexo @ Consumerism Commentary has a fantastic series going on this week: Take Control Of Your Finances:

Jen @ Millionaire Mommy Next Door

How To Increase Your Financial Bliss

I especially loved this picture as it depicts Jen’s zest for life and her intent to live it as such:

FB @ Fabulously Broke In The City

Frugality even at a high income

She talked about remaining frugal eventhough she’s raking in the cash. Key to her story is that she is a freelancer and while she makes a good living now, there will be leaner years and months down the road so she is working towards being safe and comfortable during those years.

Question: Do you know someone living on the edge? What advice do you have for them? Are you living on the edge? What do you need to know to take the first step?

Weekend Roundup Roadtrip Edition

Ginger — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:24:19 +0000

This was an unusually busy weekend, but I don’t think we could have asked for a better one.

Friday night, the Girls Just Wanna Have Funds Meetup had their first happy hour in DC at Zengos. Unfortunately, it will our last trip there as the customer service was horrible and many members have vowed never to go back. Still, we had a great time, I almost want to say we didn’t want to leave. I like being able to connect with new people in DC who share the same goals and ideals. We laughed through the nonsense going on with the staff there at Zengos, but I’ve written a letter to their Corporate offices in hopes that they will be able to get a handle on how the staff there treats paying customers. Here are some pictures:

We then traveled to NYC early Saturday morning to hang out with family and my husband’s fraternity annual BBQ. For those familiar with BGLO’s, Omega Psi Phi. As usual they put on a great show for us GDI’s and we took pictures for them and uploaded video. They get together like this once a year so when they ALL converge, you might as well sit back and watch the show.

We then drove back to DC for the annual Jamaican concert down on Constitution Avenue today. We ate, hung out and listened to the band play and carry on with the usual antics. I’m surprised we weren’t too tired after driving six hours but hey, fun times!

Einstein and I hung out for a bit, great minds think alike, what can I say

Now we’re home relaxing on the sofa, vegging out in front of the TV. Don’t worry, it’s lights out for me pretty soon. Scotch missed his daddywaddy

In the mean time, please check out some of the posts from my fellow PF Bloggers:

$4 ice cream cone - frugal or not? @ Living Almost Large

*snicker* I will confess that I have a serious love affair going on with Maggie Moos and their Mooberry flavor. At least once a week I head over th Pentagon Row and treat myself to sushi and ice-cream with my girlfriend. Not sure Im ready to let that go either because, well, I like it. It’s one of the few things that gets me through the week. So sushi and ice-cream it is. I realize it’s not frugal though because as LAL puts it, you can really buy a tu of ice cream from t he supermarket for the same money. But there’s something about hanging out with the girls, chatting it up over sushi knowing that a large double scoop of Maggie Moos Mooberry is coming up. I know I know :-) The first step is admitting you have a problem and I know I do

What does your bank statement say about you? @ Wide Open Wallet

Interesting take as I’ve never quite thought of it from this angle. Ours would probably say that we need to trim the summer fat! Maggie Moos, $650 grocery bill (thanks to Yodlee for showing that on the monthly report!), Nine West…ZipCar…well you get the point… But we’re back on track as of August.

We’re On a Rollercoaster Ride!

When I read this I kept nodding my head because I can totally relate. Our property taxes went up which increased our overall mortgage payment, the bank screwed up on the escrow so they took the extra payment due to them unexpectedly, car repairs, Zipcar rental, random trips to the grocery store totaling $600+, travelling to NYC to meet with Meetup HQ and the list goes on and on. Thankfully, we weathered that storm and now have a budgt back in place.

Can you really help someone?

Sometimes I think it’s best to show someone how to “fish” and then leave them to sink or swim. Most recently I learned that it’s best to let people work out their own financial situations because in the end, they are the only ones who can fix it. You can lend money, you can give advice and you can even try to help them out directly by retooling their budget, but if they are more concerned with keeping up appearances then there’s nothing you can do.

7 Ways Students Ruin Their Credit @ Master Your Card

Good information for those just getting started in the real of credit. Boy do I wish this information was around when I started college.

How was your weekend?

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds » Roundup

Is My Money Safe?

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Friday Fiscal Roundup: Living On The Edge Edition

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Weekend Roundup Roadtrip Edition

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