SO, with the Senate trying its darnedest to revive the ailing bailout bill, Dave Ramsey has revealed his thoughts on the financial crisis. I read about this over at All Financial Matters. And I think it’s worth a look because a lot of it makes sense. Here’s an overview of Dave Ramsey’s solution to the financial crisis:
I. INSURANCE
A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.
B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:
1. …read more

We’ll take a little break from all bailout all the time to answer a reader question:
Three years ago my husband and I were talked into purchasing permanent life insurance policies as a means to eventually supplement our retirement.  This was in addition to my husband’s 401k but at the time was my only contribution to retirement of any kind.  We are both 33 now and my question is was this a really bad decision?  What is your opinion of using your cash surrender value for retirement? Should we get out while we can and put the money in our IRA …read more

One of the features of retirements accounts is that you have the ability to borrow against them. And, increasingly, Americans are turning to their 401k retirement accounts for money. Emergencies like job loss, unexpected medical problems and other economic troubles are causing Americans to consider taking money from their retirement accounts in order to smooth the way.
While there are ways to avoid penalties on the money taken out for 401k retirement accounts, it still reduces the overall money you save for retirement in the end. The 401k is preferred because it is easier to access that Roth accounts and pension …read more

As the new school year approaches, many people turn their thoughts toward school costs. And this includes college costs.
Here is a question I received from a reader about college costs:
My oldest daughter will be starting college in three years. What can we do now to prepare for saving money on college costs?
First of all, kudos for thinking ahead. Like many other life expenses, college costs are something that you need to plan and prepare for. Here are three things you can do to prepare for saving money on college costs:

Research scholarships, and consider steps that can be taken in order …read more

Today’s words of wisdom from Paul Farrell’s MarketWatch article on ten things that can help you beat the bear market are rather simple: save. Farrell recommends that you set aside 15% of your income in some sort of savings, whether it’s retirement accounts, stock investing or some other vehicle. But he also says that 10% should be the minimum:
Here are two key formulas to remember: One, if you’re not saving at least 10% then you are spending too much. Two: Nothing saved equals nothing invested equals nothing compounding equals nothing in your retirement nest egg.
You can’t beat the bear market, …read more