Wise Finish

As you may have seen in the news, Lifelock, the company made famous by CEO Todd Davis freely giving out his social security number to the world, has been told by a California judge that they may no longer protect their customers’ credit by requesting fraud alerts be placed on the customer’s credit file.  Lifelock was sued by Experian, one of the three main credit-reporting agencies who was fed up with these bogus requests being requested by companies (like Lifelock) who were using the fraud reports as their main method of protection and making a healthy profit in the process.  Apparently it is not legal for companies to make these requests on behalf of a consumer; consumers are the only ones allowed under law to place a fraud alert on their file.

There is a Better Way to Protect Your Credit File

If you were a user of Lifelock or Debix, it’s good that you are concerned about protecting your identity & credit file.  However, there is a better (and cheaper) way to go that will give you the same or greater protection without the monthly bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I received word that one of the more popular rewards credit cards, the Chase Freedom Credit Card, is going to the rewards card graveyard (to live with several other cards, many from Citibank).  In these days of bank stress tests and failures, the “giant monster mega banks” (as Clark Howard calls them) are trying to cut corners everywhere, and that means keeping more of the credit card earnings for themselves.

Here’s what is changing: Read the rest of this entry »

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life is an interesting book.   At 105 pages, it is a very quick read.

John G. Miller uses the 105 pages in QBQ to the fullest.  Over several short chapters, he uses captivating stories and real-life situations to get across his message.   The main thrust of the book is something I think we all need to work on: the area of personal responsibility and accountability, even in situations where we feel we are not responsible.  He urges his readers to ask the “Question Behind the Question” whenever we are tempted to fix blame.  Read the rest of this entry »

Bob from Christian PF wrote up a good article about taking tax deductions for volunteer work.  I itemized my deductions when I did my taxes this year, but I realized I am missing out on this deduction because I am not tracking my miles driven. This article has motivated me to look into this further, and I think I am going to start tracking miles I drive for volunteering.  Read the rest of this entry »

Reader's Digest Penny Pincher's Almanac

I have read many books that are full of tips on how to live a frugal life. I thought that I had heard just about everything, especially after reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find many new tips on how to live even more frugally.

The book covers the following categories.  For each category, I will give you a flavor of the tips by picking out a few tips that stood out to me because it was new to me or interesting. Read the rest of this entry »