We see offers all the time for free services and products. But before you sign up, it is important to be aware of the strings that might be attached. For example, free credit report and free credit score web sites often let you see your information for free, but you have to sign up for some sort of trial membership or monthly service. (For a free credit score, go to Credit Karma, and for a free credit report, go to annualcreditreport.com.) This happened with AT&T as well. After looking at an offer for free ringtones, many consumers were shocked to …read more

Consumer confidence has taken a hit for the second month in a row. This is not particularly good news on the corporate finance front. With consumers not terribly confident about the economy, it means that they are less likely to spend money. This means that the cash flow into many companies is likely to remain low.
The consumer confidence data is also having an effect on how companies view the possibility of a rebound in spending for the holidays. Many businesses have been hoping that holiday shopping would help get things going. However, with consumers still wary about economic recovery, it …read more

It appears as though The Simpsons have a money jar. Many people have a jar that they use to hold emergency funds, and money that they are saving for some family or other shared goal. One of the problems with the money jar, as you can see, is that it is easy to access, meaning that when cash is wanted, the first place family members go is the money jar.
In my family, we do have some cash around, just in case. When natural disasters strike, you might need cash, but you might be unable to get it from the bank …read more

In the world of personal finance, and advance is something that is not particular desirable. It indicates that you are out of money, and that you might need a little bit more to plug the gaps in your cash flow.
In business finance, though, an advance is a little bit different. All businesses need loans to meet their needs, and many businesses ask for some sort of advance payment. Indeed, when customers buy something, they are used to paying first and then receiving the item. Additionally, even companies that provide services often ask for some part of the fee to be …read more

It is not surprising that, with the holiday shopping season looming immediately on the horizon, many people are wondering how they might be able to save a little money before the end of the year. I liked some tips sent via email by Herb Kay, who is known for the SOS System. Here are some of my paraphrasings of the tips, along with some of my thoughts and quotes from the email:

Change your withholding at work: This is a short-term way to get a little extra cash in your paycheck. Here is what Kay points out: “According to the …read more

When I started college, I got a part-time, on-campus job working in the university cafeteria. I was paid minimum wage (which at the time was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5.75 an hour). It wasn’t a job that offered unimaginable riches, but it did help me buy books, food, and have a little fun (I was there on scholarship, and my parents paid for my housing).
After two years, I decided to be a Resident Adviser in the dorms. That meant a free room, so my parents paid for my meal plan. I had a small stipend that covered other expenses, …read more

While improvements to the employment picture have been seen in recent months, the unemployment rate is persistently high, and companies are not hiring. Even if job losses slow, the fact that businesses are reluctant to hire more workers continues to cause problems in the overall economy. Only seven states reported that there were job gains in September, and the jobless rate rose to a 26-year high of 9.8%.
Employment is one of the cornerstones of the economy, since the economy relies so much on the ability of people to spend money. Businesses rely on consumer spending to help them with meeting …read more

If you are interested in how banks make money, and how our banking system works, this is an interesting video. It goes through how banking came about, as well as how the whole system works so that banks make money while providing a service to society.
It’s an interesting video, and one of the most controversial things (in some opinions) that the video maker says is that gold is basically useless. He points that, practically speaking, gold really doesn’t have any more value than the paper money that we use. The difference is that thousands of years ago society decided that …read more

As a business, you are doubtless interested in the mechanics of money. At least you should be. It is important to understand how money flows through the system, as well as how banks make their money and make it available for use in corporate finance. If you are interested in how banking works, at a basic level, and how it affects society, this is a great video to watch.
The video also makes an interesting point about value and perception. The video points out that gold doesn’t actually have any more value, in real terms, than bits of paper. What makes …read more

As earnings season continues, questions about the economy naturally arise. So far, third quarter earnings have been quite encouraging. And today, the good news continued. JP Morgan reported spectacular third quarter earnings, and that is providing hope that the rest of the financial sector will follow suit. The news has prompted the U.S. stock market to head quite a bit higher, fueling hopes that the Dow will hit 10,000 sometime before the week ends.
But is all of this earnings goodness actually indicative of a better economy? The answer might be no. This is because part of the reason that profits …read more