Mint.com is Worth Its Weight in Goals!

It took a relative newcomer, a fledgling startup from outside the hallowed halls of the banking industry, the personal finance field or the investment community to show the financial world how personal money management could be done online.  Mint.com was acquired by Intuit, a veritable household  name in financial software, just one short year ago.  Now, Intuit will officially shut down its flagship Quicken Online Website and direct its users to Mint.com.

What Mint.com does better than practically anybody else these days is give you a global snapshot of your financial picture at a glance.  It manages to do that by logging into each of your personal checking, savings, credit card and loan accounts, using your encrypted login and password information to do so, and compiling that information into a personal dashboard of figures and pie-charts, all with fingertip controls.

Want to monitor each of your accounts with just one simple login.  Mint.com will save you that time, and its round-the-clock reporting and budget alerts will mint you freshly saved money.  And, as they say, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Start Minting Your Own Financial Control and Convenience. Read On! >>>

Want to see how fast you can get Life Insurance with Efinancial? Want to see it again?

Need a term life insurance rate quote fast? How about term life insurance coverage with no medical exam? Or maybe you’d like to quickly compare the most competitive term life insurance rates among America’s top insurance companies?   You simply won’t fly any faster than when you do your shopping online with Efinancial and tap the power of your personal computer or smartphone to get the ball rolling…in a split-second!

Efinancial can furnish you with competitive life insurance rate information in mere nanoseconds after processing only a small amount of data —  your zip code, height, weight, and gender. (Just like the box on the right!) That includes options to get life insurance with no medical exam.

If we have your pulse racing with the technical details of speedy Internet transmission, you may find this fascnating. The global average Internet connection speed is on the rise, after a temporary plateau in the second quarter. The average global connection speed is now 1.7 Mbps. If you happened to apply for life insurance in South Korea, you’d travel the fastest yet. That country maintained its position as having the highest average connection speed worldwide, and was joined by Ireland as one of two countries in the top 10 posting quarterly gains of greater than 25%. The United States saw a small quarterly gain in average connection speeds, increasing to 3.9 Mbps, from a year-over-year perspective.

If you live in Delaware, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia or Utah you can also be quite pleased with your region’s Internet speed performance as those regions each increased upwards of 15% in average connection speed in the last quarter according to Acamai’s State of the Internet report.

Good news travels fast. And the good news is that wherever you live, you are only a few nanoseconds away from a free life insurance quote for your family. Accelerate your thinking today, and make sure your family is protected in the nick of time!

Declare Your Financial Independence this July 4th Weekend

The Fourth of July holiday is a great time to resolve to clean up your finances and start freeing yourself from debt. “Independence Day comes just once a year, but millions of consumers are mired in financial dependence day after day,” pens Dave Carpenter of the Associated Press, which offered a few timely tips to avoid the pitfalls of summer spending.

Week by week, the best way to accumulate savings is to “pay yourself first.”  Use direct deposit from your paycheck or set up automatic monthly transfers from your checking account to a savings plan.  Depending on your age, a good goal for financial independence is to try and save 15 percent of all income for retirement. Retirement Accounts offering tax-deferred interest are still a great bargain whenever you start, and the sooner the better.

To avoid dependence on credit cards, or on other’s charity, set aside money in an emergency fund in case the unexpected strikes. Say you lose your job. The average length of unemployment is 34 weeks. That’s more than two months’ longer than the 26 weeks of unemployment benefits that many states offer.

Keeping credit card debt under control is another key for fimancial independence. As part of the new federal financial reform package, credit card issuers now must print on your monthly bill how many years it will take to pay off the balance and how much extra it will cost if only minimum payments are made.  That ought to sound a wake-up call to those who reach for “plastic” instead of “paper.

To stay on top of your financial picture, watch where your cash flow may be leaking, To monitor your financial affairs, several Internet services, including Mint.com, can be set up to alert when your account balances diminish or your vary from a budgetary goal.

Finally, the AP advises that you insure yourself adequately. “Make sure your medical, home and disability insurance policies are in order, along with life insurance if you have a family. A setback could destroy your best intentions.”

“For a basic rundown on the types of insurance you should have based on your life situation, check out the online primer Insure U at http://www.insurance.insureuonline.org. It is offered by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which represents state insurance officials.

Losing Weight? Lowering Cholesterol? Being “Pragmatic” Can Save You Money on Life Insurance

“When you’re paying for life insurance, you’d like to know you’re getting a financial break for slogging away on the treadmill or kicking the smoking habit.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Openshaw observes that every single person who takes out a life insurance policy is unique, and life insurance companies ought to treat him, or her, on their own terms.

“Just as insurance companies use new research findings to tweak key life-insurance policy rating factors like weight and cholesterol – thus affecting the price you pay – so too can you use your own common sense to possibly bring down your insurance costs,” she advises.

Are you a “pragmatic life insurance buyer?”  Is your weight too high, or could it be too low?   The mid-range is most often where you want to be, not so thin or frail that you can easily break a bone or take longer to recover from a surgery.

Another new concept in conducting a more “pragmatic” insurance self-evaluation is lnowing your “Vascular Age.” It’s the difference in the age of your arteries and your chronological age.

For example, a smoker could have the arteries of a 70-year-old while someone at 50 who exercises could have the arteries of a 30-year old. The Hartford insurance company says that while vascular tests are not required in the underwriting process, they will consider your vascular age to possibly upgrade your status to “Preferred.” You can measure your vascular age, or the amount of calcium in your arteries, through a CT angiogram.

Is there other pertinent information that will make a personal case for your policy during the underwriting process? Have you taken medical tests or had procedures like an angiogram or a colonoscopy?

Not all insurance policies are created equal, not when different people have different medical conditions. So if you’ve got evidence that you are in good or improving health, let the insurance company know.

Better yet, make it the first thing you mention when you contact Efinancial for a free life insurance rate quote!

Top 10 SmartPhone Apps with Financial Smarts

Personal Investing…The “Missing Manual”

If  life came with an owner’s manual, it would likely be written by the wizards of O’Reilly Publishing, the group best known as the first and last word in making complex subjects, like computer hardware and software, easier to understand.

In place of  dense instruction manuals, O’Reilly created the friendly “Missing Manual” series, a line of easy-to-follow guide books that should have come in the box in the first place. O’Reilly is also famous for creating the “FOO-Camp” training seminars ( FOO stands for “Friends of O’Reilly”) as well as coining the term “Web 2.0.” How can the gurus of high techdom help with your personal financial needs?

O’Reilly has stepped outside of the tech circle and squarely into money matters with Personal Investing: The Missing Manual and two other books—including Your Money: The Missing Manual and Buying a Home: The Missing Manual — aimed at helping readers make sound financial decisions.

The straightforward investment handbook provides step-by-step instructions to setting up a low-maintenance investment portfolio for any financial goal. Readers will find boatloads of helpful tips, like how to divvy up retirement money when investment choices are limited (like many 401ks) or how to save for college for more than one child.   Personal Investing: The Missing Manual offers real-world examples of why investing is crucial to your financial goals, explains how to evaluate four types of investments so you make the right decisions, shines a light on lesser-known, low-cost investments and illustrates how to find an investment plan that’s right for you—whether you’re a conservative investor or a go-for-broke risk-taker.

If there’s anything missing from your financial planning, O’Reilly’s Missing Manual series could  be “found money.”

The # 1 Tip for Getting the Cheapest Term Life Insurance You Can Buy!

There are as many pieces of advice about how to save money on life insurance as there are best friends and brother-in-laws. But considering that one of the first rules of making smarter financial choices is not to listen to best friends and brother-in-laws, let’s get right to the point. Here’s the number one way to save money on term life insurance and  get the coverage you want to protect your family at the best possible price.

The #1 Tip:  Shop Online!

Whether it’s Zillow for house values, Ebay for consumer goods, Hotels.com for overnight stays, or Priceline for airfare bargains, to name but a few, the Internet is the  greatest price shopper the world has ever seen.  Where else can you compare dozens of companies with just a mouse click and make a stress-free, common sense decision without any arm-twisting or double-talk?

This  tip is not only about WHERE to shop for life insurance, but WHEN!  Statistics show that people today are living longer lives than ever before.  Chances are good that the last rate quote you got from a life insurance company (maybe even the one you are now paying) is not only out of date, but also out of step with today’s global electronic marketplace. The time to compare your current policy is now!

Yes, Efinancial is all about comparing insurance rates from America’s top insurance companies.  If we can save you money on something as important as life insurance, we are glad we took this friendly little blog post to do it!  See what clicking and picking the best value in life insurance can do for you!  After all, if you’re reading this, you are already ONLINE and just one click away from a free life insurance rate quote!

Your “NUMBER” helps you Prepare for the Best, and the Worst!

It’s been the title of a bestselling book, the multi-digit dollar signs (and signage) behind a financial fund’s well-known TV commercials, and the bottom-line mission statement of the financial circuit’s cognoscenti who all espouse the same “arithmetic” advice.  “Know your number!” they proclaim.

From the number of retirement dollars you will need to accumulate to live decently, if not comfortably, during your sunset years, to the number of  life insurance dollars your family will need to protect their way of life as a safety net if  you are no longer there to support them, to the numerical sum of your financial net worth, which is basically the simple calculation of what you own minus what you owe.

Author Lee Eisenberg prescribes  in “The Number” that estimating your personal  budget amount is a process that can shatter many of the myths that most of us harbor with regard to how we will live the last third (hopefully) of our lives and pay for that retirement experience.

Everyone’s number is different, Eisenberg says, and while his book is not meant as a how-to, the writer provides an illuminating profile of an aging generation’s retirement worries.  Heartfelt discussions of goals, health and health care, “downshifting” to enjoy life while spending less money and the meaning of postretirement life pepper its pages. Financial planners are interviewed, partly to get information about savings and investment, but mostly to explore the meaning of the field and the type of people who practice it.

Efinancial offers numerous financial calculators to help you determine your number, and while you’re at it, some very useful ways to get the very best numbers from America’s top life insurance companies.

Taking a Stand with your Money!

You ‘eat local.’ You ‘buy local.’ Is it time to bank local as well?

Unhappy with the culture on Wall Street? Angered by the behavior of the banking giants? The Minneaplis-St. Paul Star Tribune asks the essential question:  Why not move your money to a community bank or credit union? That’s the message behind Move Your Money, a campaign that’s gone viral since it launched late last year.

The Website known as  www.moveyourmoney.info, suggests individuals voice their displeasure with the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks, by putting their money where the mind is, and moving their deposits.

The dilemma:  While the financial crisis might prompt some individuals to reconsider their banking relationship, it’s not showing up in the numbers. Big banks actually captured more market share in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

When asked about the movement, the Financial Services Roundtable, a lobbying group whose members are large financial institutions, responded: “A customer should place their money with the financial institution that best serves their individual needs. If a consumer is not happy with their current institution’s level of service or product offerings, they should contact them or find another institution that fits their needs better.”

As for your money’s safety, unless you’re somebody who is going to be exceeding the FDIC limits [of at least $250,000] as far as deposits go, your money is safe whether or not you chose a large bank or small bank.
Ask yourself these key questions and determine which finanical organization will stand behind you!

The Web’s Best New Year’s Financial Resolutions — Tell Us Yours!

As we prepare to turn the January calendar page of a pivotal new year, and a promising new decade, the Web rings out with the sound of financial resolve and reform, not only for government and institutions, but for families and individuals.  In the Internet age, the best financial advice for the months ahead springs not only from a well of good people and word-of-mouth but a rich trove of Blogs and Websites.

Here are some of the New Year’s most respected financial guides, scouts and trailfinders on the best paths to follow in 2010 (including their Twitter handles):

Enemy of Debt ( @EnemyofDebt)

Nothing provides financial security like having an emergency fund in place. This fund is very important to us because having this it will mean that we can move on to two other very important financial goals we have—which will be to fund our retirement with gazelle intensity and fund our children’s college funds. One goal leads to another.

Out of Your Rut ( @OutofYourRut)

Reducing expenses, building savings and paying off debt. We don’t have much in the way of debt, but even a little is irritating (or worse!)

Best of the Web's New Year Resolutions Continues >>>

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