No matter what stage in life you are at, you should be planning for something. Between insurance needs, a will, retirement planning, etc., we can all use a little help getting organized. Lucky for you, my trusty TRowePrice newsletter gave out some links to some free advice, and I am more than happy to pass it along to you guys for your use!
Thought I would pass along these little gems first thing this morning, just a “pick-me-up” to start your day with.
In 2007, the top 5 firms paid out $39 billion on bonuses, even as their shareholders lost $74 billion. Those same firms have now received $60 billion in bailout funds.
In December, after just 3 months on the job, Merrill Lynch executive VP Peter Kraus quit with a $25 million parachute. A day earlier, Kraus’ wife paid $36.6 million for a Park Avenue apartment.
In the first 3 quarters of 2008, finance, insurance, and real estate companies spent $343 million on lobbying.
Yes, I watched Oprah. My mom called me and said I should Tivo Oprah because Suze Orman was going to be on talking about financial planning during these tough economic times. One of the biggest points she made during the entire hour was how she was now telling people to STOP trying to pay off their credit cards unless they had a very sizable emergency fund set in place. This is completely the opposite of what she used to tell people and what I always thought to be the truth too – to always pay off debt before trying to save anything more than a minimum amount of cash. I always said that carrying debt at a higher interest rate than you could earn in savings was a recipe for disaster, and most financial advisors would have said the same. But now, Suze has changed her tune quite a bit, and wants you to only pay the minimum on your credit cards until you have at least 8 months of living expenses saved up. Talk about an about-face! However, she does have some great reasons for her new line of thinking, and I agree with her.
You know you have piles of them – tax returns, insurance documents, old bills, receipts, and bank statements. But what can you do with them other than throw them in a box to deal with later? Do you even need to save any of them any longer? Lucky for you, I just read an article in my T. Rowe Price newsletter that has some answers for you:
Keep copies of your tax return (and related docs) for seven years. After seven years, you can keep just an electronic copy of your return and shred your supporting documents.
Time to get my raised beds put together and some seeds in the ground! I am hoping that the wild weather we have been having lately is over, as it was 70 the other day and then it was snowy and hailing a few days later. But since it is April, I guess it’s time to take the chance on the weather if I want to have food to eat in a few months. While I plan out the beds, here are some stories that caught my eye over this past week…
