As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and more!

November 2009

Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009

by Smithee

After the Credit CARD Act of 2009 was signed into law, we saw how credit card issuers started making life tougher for their customers. In short, banks were levying fees on their customers indiscriminately, affecting both the good and the bad. This has been going on for months. Lawmakers have publicly condemned it, and made ... Continue reading this article…

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Quicken Online Users Will Be Migrated to Mint

by Luke Landes

When Mint and Intuit announced the latter would be acquiring the former, the Quicken team and Aaron Patzer, the CEO of Mint, now a vice president of Intuit’s personal finance division, claimed that their two similar online product offerings, Mint and Quicken Online, would continue to co-exist. This made little sense to me. In fact, ... Continue reading this article…

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President Obama and Congress Extend the $8,000 Home Buyers’ Credit

by Luke Landes

It’s official. Today President Obama will sign a bill into law that extends the $8,000 First Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit, recently set to expire on November 30, until April 30 next year. The tax credit, originally part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was intended to stimulate the real estate industry, ... Continue reading this article…

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Personal Balance Sheet, October 2009

by Luke Landes

Although it’s a little late this month, it’s now time to share my personal finances. I’ve been doing this roughly every month since Consumerism Commentary started in July 2003. I did recently make one important change — I am no longer counting my “business” bank accounts in my net worth. I’m trying to separate my ... Continue reading this article…

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Should Target Date Funds Be Standardized?

by Luke Landes

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is setting up a new division to oversee new financial products, and this group is starting with target date funds. These are mutual funds usually taking the form of baskets of other mutual funds, designed to target a certain year of retirement. As the year approaches, the fund automatically ... Continue reading this article…

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Quick Survey: What Drives Your Trading Decisions?

by Luke Landes

This is a guest article by Scott Treadwell, a long-time Consumerism Commentary reader and graduate student at the University of New Hampshire. Scott is studying finance and is conducting a study in behavioral finance. Please look for the survey below and help Scott conduct his study. We are only a year removed from the greatest ... Continue reading this article…

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I Will Teach You to Be Rich, a Six-Week Boot Camp With Ramit Sethi

by Luke Landes

While I was in California this past week, I spent a few days at my brother’s new apartment before his wedding this past Saturday. Among the piles of books not yet placed into a bookcase was something familiar: I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (review here). Ramit is a colleague of ... Continue reading this article…

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Smart Power Meters

by Smithee

We all have power meters attached to the buildings in which we live, and the little needle keeps spinning around and around, ad nauseum, at least until solar panels become affordable. I recently read a story of a family who managed to install solar panels, and while that would normally have cost over $20,000, with ... Continue reading this article…

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Delta Airlines: Good Airfare But Not My Favorite Airline

by Luke Landes

As of this past Saturday, my brother is now a married man. He and his wife live in California, and I spent Halloween attending their wedding and the past week visiting with my family in that state. I am happy I was able to take a week off from my day job and spend it ... Continue reading this article…

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Podcast 28: Dan Solin, Investing for Retirement

by Luke Landes

In today’s episode of the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, our guest is Dan Solin, author of The Smartest Retirement Book You’ll Ever Read and other books in the “Smartest Book” series. Tom Dziubek talks with Solin about planning for retirement. Production Number: S02E02 Segment Number: 41 To listen, use the player above (Adobe Flash required), download ... Continue reading this article…

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