Credit Score Club

TMW: Five years flies when you are having fun. During that time, I had the great privilege of having people read my blog and the great privilege of interacting with other bloggers such as the both of you; we are such a walking stereotype- Canadian personal finance bloggers are so polite to one another! For all three of us, we begun blogging pre credit crisis and lived mostly to tell tales of our survival. What do you think are the largest changes you have seen in the last 5 years?

PB: I will start first. Near the top of that list would be the impact and growth of social media.

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The SEC brought federal charges on May 1 in Massachusetts against Arnett L. Waters of Milton, Mass., broker-dealer A.L. Waters Capital LLC and advisory firm Moneta Management LLC. Mr. Milton is the chief executive of the broker-dealer and owner of Moneta.

Janet Lee Waters, Mr. Waters’ wife, and Port Huron Partners LLP, a firm controlled by Mr. Waters that purportedly did business in rare coins and bullion, also were named as relief defendants in the case. Ms. Waters was the compliance officer of Waters Capital and a partner with Moneta.

According to the SEC, Mr.

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My home insurance policy came up for renewal in September. I had a friend, an insurance broker, take a look at my insurance policy to see if he could beat the quote. He could not simply because I had bought direct through an affiliate program as a university alumni. Buying direct meant the insurance broker commission did not form part of the pricing. Morale of the story #1: save money by buying direct through an affiliate program.

My friend did made a few observations about my policy which seem outdated. I have had the same home insurance policy for 5 years and kept renewing it without thought. What has happened in the intervening period is that my circumstances have changed but my policy had not.

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Investment advisers also are wary of the process, citing the inherent risks of investing in unproven businesses and weak regulatory oversight.

But proponents of crowd-funding legislation, which could be signed into law by President Barack Obama as early as this week, assert that the measure would help launch more startups by enabling entrepreneurs to sell shares in small increments online.

Advocates contend that it is a badly needed way to raise capital and democratize investing letting investors claim a stake in everything from the next Google Inc. to a favorite coffee shop.

REG D COMPARISON

In a letter to senators last month, however, Jack Herstein, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc.

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In the book 7 Money Rules for Life®: How to Take Control of Your Financial Future, author Mary Hunt talks about the reason she lists “spend less than you earn” as her first and most important rule. Her thoughts:

Until you spend less than you earn, you can forget the other six [rules]. Without rule #1 it will be impossible to master the rest.

As most of you know, I list spend less than you earn as my best piece of financial advice. for the same reason. Or as I like to say:

Even if you earn $1 million, if you spend $1 million plus five dollars more, youre going backwards financially.

And believe me, you can spend it all and more no matter how much you make.

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To prevent that already expensive $4 cup of coffee from becoming a $39 cup of coffee, it would behoove you to take measures to avoid putting a negative balance on your checking accounts. Because the only thing worse than being told by the cute barista that you dont have enough money for your caffeine fix is being played for a fool by your bank.

At the 10 largest U.S. banks, the average overdraft fee is $33.70. At the 10 largest credit unions, the average overdraft fee is $23.40.

After the account balance falls below $0, series of small, everyday purchases can end up costing hundreds of dollars.

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