Banks for You!

During these hard times, what would be the best investment you could do with your money to make it grow bigger: money market account, CDs, or a high-yeild savings account?

That was the question I recently received from a reader. Lets discuss the question and the surrounding issues.

In some ways, saving is investing. But for the most part, and definitely in the sense its being used in the question above, saving and investment are two different things. If you are expecting savings to grow bigger, especially in our current banking scene, then you are going to be waiting a while. Or worse, youll lose money.

Savings rates are by default lower than investing rates. Classic risk-reward. But since the Fed is keeping interest rates down at really low levels until late 2014, savings rates are going to remain significantly lower (between 0% and 1%) than weve seen in the past.

In the past, you could expect savings rates to remain at, or slightly above, inflation rates. Have you looked at inflation rates recently?

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One of the biggest hurdles in getting a loan approval is your credit score. Often the lender pulling (i.e. requesting and reviewing) your credit score from a major credit bureau is the first step in any lending process.

Naturally, this leads to the question…

“Is my credit score good enough?”

This is often the major weighing question on most consumers’ minds as they apply for a new credit card, buy a car, apply for a new mortgage, or attempt to refinance their current mortgage creating a lot of unnecessary anxiety.

Let’s see if we can relieve some of your stress.

How Low Can You Go?

Most credit scoring models range from 300 to 850.

Here’s a little stress relief right off the bat it’s really, really hard to hit the bottom (i.e. 300) on this one. It’s kind of like the ACT or SAT; you get some points just for getting your name right. In fact, you are more likely to have no credit score at all, usually because you have no credit history, than to have a 300 credit score.

Relief… you’re probably not at the bottom of the barrel. Only 7 percent of the total US population is between 350 and 549. Just slightly above

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Managing the cash flow of consulting company can be very complicated.On one hand you have your consultant and employees who need to be paid every week or every other week. On the other hand, you have customers who usually pay their invoices on net 30 to net 60 day terms. Obviously, it is the responsibility of the consulting company to cover all expenses while waiting for the customers to pay. And unless the consulting company has to cash reserve or has access to a line of credit, this situation can lead to working capital problems.

One way to solve this problem is to ask customers to pay sooner. However, this requires customer cooperation. And ultimately, this strategy places your cash flow at the mercy of your customers. For many, a better alternative is to finance their invoices using invoice factoring.

Invoice factoring solves this problem by shortening the time period between invoicing the client and collecting the revenues for the invoice. Your customers dont need to pay sooner though .Rather,a factoring company advances funds against your accounts receivables and holds your invoices as collateral.

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As a longtime cheapskate, and a new cheapskate mom, I have often been bemused by the amount of money people spend to prove to their spouses and children just how much they love them.

No time is this more true than on February 14 of each year, when love advertising goes into overdrive to convince consumers that true love is measured by wallet thickness.

For a family on a budget, the prospect of childrens parties at school, gifts or mementos from parents to kids, and the all-important Valentines gift between spouses can make you wish that the calendar could just skip from January to March.

Fortunately, making this year the most memorable Valentines Day yet for your family can cost next to nothing. Here are some cheap Valentines Day ideas that will leave your wallet untouched and your family delighted:

The yearly Valentine exchange in the primary school classroom is an important part of American childhood. In many classrooms, students are asked to give a Valentine to everyone in class, which means your child is on the hook for anywhere from 20 to 30 cards.

1.

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One of my favorite blogs is kottke.org – a daily posting of fun facts, videos, photos and essays from around the web. Kottke recently posted a chart from a website called XKCD called “A chart of almost all the money” showing a huge visual representation of big picture things about money like how much a billion dollars can buy, total government spending, who are the wealthiest people in the world, etc.

This chart goes into amazing detail and it has a lot to teach us about the larger world of money. Here are some of the fun facts I found from “The Money Chart.”

Movies are big business, but they used to be even bigger. Although the modern film industry is still going strong, some of the most successful movies of all time were released during the 1930s. Adjusted for inflation, the top-grossing box office blockbusters of all time are Gone With the Wind (1939) ($3.16 billion), Snow White (1937) ($2.84 billion) and Star Wars (1977) ($1.68 billion). During the 1930s, 80 million Americans bought movie tickets each year.

America is governed by millionaires. The average net worth of a U.S. Senator is $13.4 million, and the average net worth of a U.S. Congressi

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