Fidelity offers Age-Based 529 investments. Just pick a year.

The best time to save for your children’s college tuition is when your child is born. A small investment now will help them cover their college costs in the future. Say you invest $10,000 when they’re born. Assuming a 12% annualized return, it will grow to about $80,000 by the time the kid’s 18 years old and ready for college. $10,000 investment to pay for $80,000 in school costs? Not a bad price to pay for college at all.

Watch out though: You don’t want a bear market to challenge your kid’s future. You’ll want to secure that fund as cash as the child gets older. Use an age-based 529 investment to save for college.

Age-Based 529 Plans automatically adjust from aggressive (mostly stock investments) to conservative (mostly bonds and cash) as the child comes closer to their project college years. All you have to do is pick a projected year and the fund will handle the rest. The downside is that you pay a bit more in management fees since it’s an actively managed funds. The upside is that you get to spend more of your time playing with your kid instead of balancing their investments.

Sponsor: Brohans Video Blog - It’s Like Binary Dollar. Except you don’t learn anything.

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Buy a car anytime you want, but I would tell anybody today that applying for a car offline is one of the worst and tiresome things I have done in my whole entire life. There was a man trying to explain the rates to me in a rushing manner. He even tried to force a particular car on me that I didnt even want, and the finance company that they deal with tried to push my rates close as 13 percent which is outrageous. I felt like I was being suckered into a deal so I turned towards the internet to get some information which is the best way to be successful in buying a car in todays world in my opinion.

I searched for days online looking for some great resources. There were many websites that showed you how to buy a car, but I needed to know the important points when I buy a car. Finally, I came upon some great websites that shows you everything that you need to know in order for you to apply yourself to buy a car successfully. I learned a ton of things, such as, the great loan company that I talk about on my website that you can easily apply for to buy a car anytime you want. What I liked about that loan is the rates and the time it takes for you to get a loan. It takes up to 24 hours for you to get a loan from them and the rates is the best on the net. The rates are very low. You would pay 7 percent at the most. Take out a loan because if you financed through a car dealership you probably would have to pay 9 or 10 percent interest rates to buy a car through a dealer.

When I was searching for a car, I also tried the car quote websites that, and they are great. I simply filled out the form and got quotes back to back in no time. There is four different websites for you to choose from or compare together. First I used edmunds, which is a pretty coo carl quote website, but personally, I like the other free car quote websites because it's easier to operate and quickerto obtain. You will get back some car quotes back in the same day. I used this for myself because you can make an educated decision of what price you can afford, and make or model of the cars. You can have local dealerships calling you to buy a car that fits your budget.

You can buy a car cash if you want. After I bought my car, I discovered some great auction services that allows me to buy a car from my own state and area. This is my main source when I buy a car now. The great news about buying auctioned cars is that you can get some really nice updated, running cars really cheap in your own local are. The bad news is that you have to react on these deals quickly in the process. I have posted some great car auction websites for people who want to buy a car cash instead of paying monthly rent. These are my jewels that I use here on out. I no longer have car bills to pay. I use most of my time buying 3 cars a month and selling them for a little more. Alot of the cars that are offered on the sites are in tip top shape. Many of the cars are under $1000. It's really easy to navigate your area. All you do is type in your area code and it shows you all the auctions going on in your area, contact info, etc.

***Remember before you buy a car to check and make sure mileages and price matches correctly. Check out my website and see how I calculated this for myself and do it for yourself too.***

About the Author

My name is Jay Pleas. I'm an auto mechanic and interior designer that spends most of my time buying autos and detailing them for many customers. At this time I make $100,000 a year maintaining my own car interior buisness. I live in Florida. I'm 28 years of age

www.squidoo.com/buy_a_car

Geezeo joins the ranks of Mint.com, NetworthIQ.com, and Wesabe.com as a social personal finance site. The USP (unique selling point) of the site is their mobile accessibility.

It works like this:

Henry’s walking down the street. He stops and wonders if he’s got enough for a Big Mac. He sends a text message to the ether and waits. Moments later a text message comes back with all of my account balances that he setup at the website. Welp. Looks like Henry will have to go another day without food.

It’s targeting students or recent graduates for their service but anyone can use it. They target them because they’re more “connected”. It’s also US-only. Sorry Canada. They have compatibility with 6000+ institutions.

Here are a couple of improvements I would make:

1. Instead of texting the word “geezeo” to get current account balances, make it a common word that I can enter without switching to “abc” mode.
2. Instead of texting the word “geezeo update” to update my balances, it should already be updated when you retrieve your current account balances (see item 1).  Why would anyone want non-updated information?  Deprecate this.
3. Send a pie chart or graph or something via MMS if possible.

There are more things but here’s the one sentence summary: “Geezeo tracks your money automatically and there’s also discussion boards as well.”

Is it useful?  Sure.  Consistent awareness of your financial situation is very important for building wealth or getting out of debt.

Will I use it?  Probably not.  Calculating my net worth at the end of the month is good enough for me.

-h

PS - Sorry about the absence.  I was doing pull-ups this entire time.

Sponsor: Brohans Video Blog - It’s Like Binary Dollar. Except you don’t learn anything.

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I’ve been reading more and more about the threat of deflation. What’s deflation? I can’t find a better definition for it than what’s in the Barron’s Finance and Investment Handbook*:

DEFLATION decline in the prices of goods and services. Deflation is the reverse of inflation; it should not be confused with disinflation, which is a slowing down in the rate of price increases. Generally, the economic effects of deflation are the opposite of those produced by inflation, with two notable exceptions: (1) prices that increase with inflation do not necessarily decrease with deflation—union wage rates, for example; (2) while inflation may or may not stimulate output and employment, marked deflation has always affected both negatively.

In other words, deflation is not a good thing even though price declines sound wonderful to the shopper!

Here’s a great little deflation tutorial if you’re interested: What is Deflation and Why is it Worrisome?

Are we headed for deflation? I have no idea. I think we’ve already seen it in housing and oil prices. Will we see it in other areas? I don’t know. I think it depends on how high unemployment goes.

Nouriel Roubini is expecting stag-deflation (stagnation/recession + deflation)…that doesn’t sound so good.

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Live Search Cash Back is a new Microsoft initiative that is supposed to provide a rebate to consumers for items found via the Microsoft Live search functionality and purchased online.

The word on the street says this is Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Google in the online search market.  The concept is that in return for being listed in Microsoft’s search results, merchants have to offer cash back to consumers instead of paying Microsoft for placement.  Microsoft doesn’t make any money off of the transaction but their hope is that more users will start using Live Search instead of competitors such as Google.

Shopping Comparison Features
 Always looking to save a few bucks, I poked around the Live Search cash back interface to see if it would be useful for me.  I’m in the market for some new jogging shoes so I typed in “nike mens running shoes”. Unfortunately, the search interface is lacking basic functionality that all Web users have come to expect.  For example:

• You can’t order search results by price, seller reputation, or product rating
• You can’t specify a price range for the product
• Default 16 items shown per page. You can’t opt to see more items on one page
• You can’t choose whether to see a list vs more detailed view of results

Retailer Options
Once I scrolled through 16 pages of results to find the lowest price shoe, it only showed me results from two different online stores.  I guess one of the drawbacks of only including retailers that offer cash back is that your comparison is limited to the number of retailers that participate in the program.  How do I know that there aren’t other merchants that offer the same shoe online for a lower price?  They may not offer cash back but the shoe may be cheaper in the first place, saving the hassle of the rebate all together.

Rebate Hassles
Once I chose the store with the lowest price and best rebate I clicked through the “Go To Store” button.  I was taken to the merchant page where I could complete the transaction.  You aren’t given the discounted price at checkout, first the retailer has to report the sale to Microsoft.  Here’s the description of the cash back process from Microsoft’s terms & conditions:

“Within seven days after a qualifying purchase is reported to us, we will list the purchase in your account with a status of “pending.” The purchase will stay in pending status for a period of 60 days to account for returns, refunds, fraud and other processing issues. After this point, if the purchase is eligible for awards, it will be marked as “available” in your account and the associated awards will be eligible for redemption as described below. You must ensure that we properly post awards to your account. If you believe that you have earned awards that are not posted to your account, we will not consider posting them to your account unless you contact us within six months after the date of the associated purchase. We may require reasonable documentation to support your claim.”

Sounds more like hassling with a rebate than a cash back program to me.  The money may show up in your account but if it doesn’t you have to do the work of following up for months afterwards to make sure you get your cash back.  Similar to a rebate, you’re paying tax on the full purchase price, even though you might get cash back down the road.  I say might because Microsoft has a list of reasons that disqualify you from cash back:

“You will not earn cash back awards on purchases where (a) you open the store’s web site in a different web browser; (b) your browser is not configured to accept cookies; (c) the purchase is not completed in the same web browsing session (not to exceed 24 hours) initiated by clicking on the eligible advertisement or listing; (d) the order is later cancelled or the goods or services are later returned; (e) the store does not report the purchase to Microsoft; (f) the goods or services are acquired for resale or other business purposes; or (g) you also use a separate discount or coupon.”

A little bit further in the terms and conditions there is more language that could foreshadow difficulty claiming cash back.

“There may be additional limitations on purchases on certain merchant sites, and those limitations will be disclosed on the merchant site. Your participation in the Live Search cashback service on such merchant sites will be subject to these terms and conditions as well as any additional ones disclosed on the merchant site. In the event of a conflict between any of these terms and conditions and those disclosed on the merchant site, the ones disclosed on the merchant site will apply and control.”

Live Search Summary
The limited shopping comparison features, limited retailer options, and the whole lengthy rebate process are enough to discourage me from trying the Live Search Cashback for now.   The final deciding factor for me is that you have to sign up for a Windows Live ID in order to participate in the cashback program.  I have enough user id’s already, I don’t need anymore. 

For now I’ll continue to use Google web search and Google product search when I’m shopping for items online.  I’ll just keep my eyes open for deals and sales and get my discounts that way rather than go through the whole Live Search cashback ordeal.  Hopefully, Microsoft will enhance their search functionality, add more retailers, and make the cashback process less worrisome. Until then, I’ll rely on Google’s expertise to help me find the best deals.

Below is an email interview with Brent Kessel, author of It’s Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance*, a book that I reviewed earlier this week.

Why did you decide to write a book?

Without wanting to sound cliché, I never really feel like a made the decision. I had observed so many people suffering around financial issues, and barking up the wrong tree, as it were, that I felt compelled to write it. It was one of the easiest things I?ve ever done professionally.

What do you think is the number one reason people fail financially?

They don?t understand what payoff their financial habits are giving them. If they?re chronic overspenders, there?s a need that their purchases are filling, an emotional need, and buying purses or cars or new furniture allows them to feel good about themselves for some time. In order to change the financial habit, they have to replace the payoff with some other payoff that fills the same need. But most people never question what?s motivating their financial habits.

You say in your book that the ideal person would be balanced among the eight financial archetypes. How do you recommend a person obtain that balance?

It?s very difficult work, but very rewarding. It?s very hard to answer this question in a generalized way, which is why there are about 60 highly customized exercises in the book, so that each archetype can create the balance that they need. One way to say it, is that we often need to cultivate the positive attributes of the archetype which is most dormant in us. So for me, that?s mostly been the Innocent. Being willing to have faith and trust that things will work out, without putting quite so much focus on the numbers, given that I?m a Guardian/Saver/Empire Builder predominantly.

Which of the eight archetypes do you think is most prevalent in today?s society?

Pleasure Seeker and Innocent were prevalent until Summer 2008, which is why we?re in this mess. Today, it?s much more Guardian and Saver. People seem to be returning to the values of the ?30?s ? 50?s, but we?ll see how long that lasts.

How do you explain the archetypes to your clients?

I usually don?t. This is part of why I wrote the book, so that they could read the complete story about each archetype in there. As an example, I?ll more intuitively give a client ?homework? to spend more money on things which bring sensory pleasure, in the case of an overly frugal Saver, or have an Innocent hire a bookkeeper or sign up for an internet-based service like mint.com which shows them where the money?s all going.

What is the typical response from your clients once they learn about the different archetypes?

?Wow, I had no idea you had me so pegged.?

Do you ever have clients who deny the findings?

?Not really. The most I?ve had is someone who felt they couldn?t find themselves in any of them, which is usually a sign of the Innocent. Some people feel that they?re a balance of many, or that it?s constantly changing. Both of these are good signs.?

Once you know a client?s financial archetype, how do you cater your financial advice to fit the archetype?

Again, this is very customized. The Appendix of the book has specific financial planning recommendations tailored to each archetype, and it?s many pages, so it?s hard to summarize. But one example might be to have a Pleasure Seeker sell their vacation home and art collection and deploy that money in more income-producing assets (which don?t produce sensory pleasure), like stocks, bonds, or income properties.

Since writing the book, do you find yourself trying to figure out the archetypes of the people you meet?

Sometimes. It?s mostly intuitive though. If you go to my first MSN story, there?s a video of me walking around Central Park interviewing people and guessing their archetypes. Kind of humorous. The other stories there may give you some good blogging ideas too.

Finally, is it natural for a person?s archetype to change over the years or do people tend to stay the same throughout their lifetimes?

The healthiest people I?ve met with money are able to express different ones at different times. But there?s a whole class of people who, especially when the going gets tough, go back to their tried and true archetypes. Financial habits are hard to break, because unless we very intentionally try to cultivate those which have been dormant, they?ll stay dormant.

Thanks, Brent!

Also, I want to go ahead and announce the winner of the “It’s Not About the Money” book giveaway. There were forty-nine entries and the randomly-selected winner was commenter #31, Walter. Congrats, Walter. I hope you enjoy your book!

I have another giveaway coming up soon. Stay tuned…

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