Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before hackers began targeting another more popular and increasingly lucrative market in their n’er to well scams to steal people’s money online by hacking their credit card numbers and personal information and many times stealing identities so they can drain your accounts.
Now, apparently hackers are targeting the online investing community. I’ve notice increasing attempts by both my 401k company’s website and my independent investment firm’s website, Sharebuilder.com, have put security measure in place to make sure you are not at risk from hackers.
They want you to make sure you exit your browser after you log out of your online session with the financial site, as well as take precautions against fraudulent emails from hackers saying they are the company in an attempt to get you to log in to some fake site and tricking you into entering important information that if in the wrong hands could wreack havoc on your financial accounts.
According to the SEC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, these hackers are going even further now, illegally trading millions of dollars in stocks and other tradeable investments, and they are costing the industry a lot of money.
It’s the same story again and again, also with credit cards - how often do you hear about friends having their credit card info ripped off and getting charged for things they never bought? It’s enough to make you only get those prepaid credit cards sometimes! The companies aren’t the only ones losing on this internet stock trading hacking going on either, the consumers are, but the companies are saying they are tracking it and refunding consumers money where it is due.
It would certainly be nice to think that as the national average for college tuitions rises, so would the corresponding financial aid outlets that these young students expect to receive. And it would make sense - but what makes sense isn’t always so, as we so callously find out in our older age.
Recently it’s been reported that there has been a rise in the cost of college tuition, not a huge one, but a perceivable cost increase. And along with that, there has been no rise to keep up with the pace of college tuition inflation in the financial aid arena.
As they say though, nothing is “fair” when it comes to finances, and definitely nothing is ever certain or equatable in people’s minds. The exact amount of the rise in most college tuitions was not known, but it is estimated it may hover around the 6% mark for the 2006 academic year. Does this put a little more stress on the typically “broke” college student? Absolutely.
College students (at least I know I speak for my past experience as a college student), typically scrape by with just enough money for groceries and food, let alone many luxuries that us more established older folks can afford. Does this build character? It sure did in my case, and it made me learn the value of the buck!
I’ve noticed lately my 401k is FINALLY going back up. It’s about time. For about two years it seems I’ve been dumping my money down a pit, and a pit that doesn’t return much at that!
Lately I’ve been checking my 401k balance online and noticed that it is substantially increasing every time I log in, which is about once every two weeks, after I get paid and more money is deposited into the account since I am paid biweekly at my job.
The steady incline of the stock market has been credited to the decrease in oil and gas prices, and higher consumer optimism and spending due to a perceived relief on consumer wallets after energy costs finally went down.
Another helper on Wall Street was the fact that big time stock Wal-Mart announced that it plans to cut back on spending and strive more for profits, something its investors found to be welcome news since this means more money and dividends in their pockets if the strategy works.
Other companies helped the stock market to rebound, large companies such as toy companies, computer and technologies and gasoline companies helped pave the way to higher expectations and earnings on Wall Street.
Stock market and financial analysts are saying that they feel pretty good about the market stabilizing for a while now (what does a while mean, I don’t know, in this unstable economy that might just mean one week for all we know!) They say that the market doesn’t appear to be on a rebound too quickly, which can often end in a quick decline afterwards, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for the stock market, and all of our investment interests!
I had heard of the ARM Mortgage before, and didn’t necessarily understand what the heck it was nor whether it might be more beneficial to some of us who were in the market to buy a house.
Well, now I know what it is. ARM stands for Adjustable Rate Mortgage. The basic idea behind an ARM mortgage loan is that the loan has an initial period of discounted charges for a defined amount of time, and when this period is over, it then returns to whatever the going market rate is for mortgages.
Sounds good, huh? Well, the problem is, when some types of ARM mortgage loans do adjust up to their higher rate after the intro period, it can jump as high as 9%, which means the lessee (person who took out the loan) could suddenly have a mortgage payment that is double the cost of what they are used to paying. Not so appealing when you look at it that way, is it?
Getting an ARM mortgage loan should be seriously considered and understood before you jump into it.
It may sound good at first, but there are some true horror stories about these types of home loans and people who took them out without fully understanding the ramifications of the end result of the loan, only looking at the front end lower “rate” they pay.
Do you remember when Choicepoint, a major supplier of consumer credit reports to major credit card and lending institutions, had a major security breach? Well, the people involved in that breach - or the people who’s personal credit histories and financial information was compromised, have not yet been paid their settlement out of a $5 million fund that was set up specifically to compensate them for the breach.
The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has been a little slow in implementing a clear cut process for how the approximately 800 financial fraud victims that have thus far been identified in the case, can access or receive compensation from the $5 million fund, and it hasn’t even hired anyone to actually get the administrative processes moving.
So far the excuse has been that they want to make sure that law enforcement and investigative agencies have identified all victims before they begin any type of distribution and so far, the currently identified victims do not seem to be complaining - at least not too loudly.
No one has said yet to what extent these people’s credit histories and personal financial information was compromised, but it must have been pretty bad - at least to the tune of 5 big ones.
If you’re like me, a credit card that offers a point system where you can build “points” up toward the purchase of something fairly major, is pretty appealing. Especially when the thing credit cards are most well known for is draining our wallet of our hard earned money with nothing in return, except for the priveledge of spending money that we have not actually “earned” yet.
This is exactly why I decided, after I got a solicitation in the mail from my bank, that I would go with one of these airline miles credit cards. Actually, all it was was me switching to a newly branded debit card. I have Key Bank, and they offered a debit card with frequent flier miles which would build every time I made a purchase with my debit card.
I though, wow, how much better can you get - I’m not really building debt, because I’m using my debit card which pulls money from my checking account (which is money I already have, I’m not “advancing myself” money), and I’m getting something in return - airline miles toward my next flight.
I have to say, the miles are pretty slow to build though. I use my debit card for practically everything, I’ve had it for six months now and I’m not even halfway to a continental flight, but I’m still waitin’ for those points to build! The annual fee is $30 for this card, but I figure one flight will more than pay for this fee.
I always thought money market accounts were kind of a waste of my time - and money, and that my money could possibly be working harder for me in some other sort of fund or investment, but I still needed the liquidity of something like a money market - something I could “cash out on” fast if I needed to, or something that would be minimally painful to get my money out when I needed it.
Well, I was wrong about money markets. My Paypal money market fund, of all things, is performing pretty darn well for being a relatively low interest yielding fund.
It’s up to almost 5% interest earned right now, and that is not half bad for an account that would just be basically “sitting there” doing nothing and accumulating no interest virtually if it were in a regular savings bank account or a checking account.
If you’re interested in putting your money in something that yields a little more interest build up than a traditional savings or checking account, and you need your money to be available for withdrawal quickly, I recommend you look into a money market account - maybe try Paypal or Sharebuilder, the two that I have my money in. They are both performing to my pleasant surprise better than I thought they would!
I actually did this once, borrowed money against my 401k retirement account, but I only did so because I needed a quick $1,000 for a personal emergency, and I knew that when I paid myself back I’d being paying myself interest rather than paying some lending company my hard earned money in interest.
You may want to REALLY think about this before you do it though. Depending on how much you’re thinking of borrowing, and what that borrowing is for, along with the specific guidelines of your 401k, you might be paying early withdrawal fees and penalties, as well as taxes at year end on that money you borrowed since it is no longer in your 401k, and sheltered against federal taxes.
Like I said, it’s something to really consider. Do you really need the money, or can you get it elsewhere for a good rate? Definitely check into your 401k fund’s guidelines for borrowing money, and see if the benefits outweigh the risks before you proceed.