Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and resolved

Does anyone have a Toronto bank that they love?

scrute — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:15:02 -0800

My bank has quit the banking business leaving me high and dry -what is your favourite non-TD or BMO banking option in Toronto? I have been a big fan of Citizen's Bank of Canada (not the same as the US bank of the same name) for years, but they have gone out of business. While they have sold mortgages and secured credit to TD, they are leaving those of us with unsecured lines of credit on our own (TD's choice I believe).

I need to replace my unsecured line of credit ($10k) and open a new account. I don't have much in the way of assets but have a stable, reasonable salary and a good credit rating. I also have a relative who is happy to co-sign on a line of credit, but most banks now refuse this practice and I do not want a traditional loan.

I am happy to consider credit unions or similar alternatives. I have had horrible experiences with Bank of Montreal and TD in the past and have no interest in banking with either of those institutions.

So, where can I get my line of credit with a reasonable interest rate and a good chequing account? Bonus points for affordable wire transfers and programs for New Canadians (my husband lives overseas (wire transfers) but will be moving here once we manage to sort out his visa (New Canadian programs)).

How can I use a spreadsheet to track my accounts?

reenum — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:16:25 -0800

I want to start using a spreadsheet to track and reconcile my various accounts. How do I start? I've been using MS Money for years. Due to switching to the Mac, MS Money being discontinued, and generally hating the fact that my financial data is trapped in a proprietary program, I feel like I should use a spreadsheet to track my finances.

I have a savings account, two checking accounts, two credit card accounts, and a Roth IRA.

There are a couple of things I'm curious about: How does one reconcile accounts in a spreadsheet and are there any templates that have that checkbook entry system that MS Money has?

I've looked at some of the older posts on this topic and none seemed to answer my questions satisfactorily.

Links to templates, blog posts, howtos, general anecdotes, and anything else relating to this question are requested and appreciated. Thanks!

Best strategy for paying student loans?

yeoja — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:37:41 -0800

I’m in grad school and work full time. I have several Federal student loans in deferment, all of which are subsidized or unsubsidized with different interest rates. I have an extra $500 each month that I'd like to use towards my loans. If I want to have lower monthly payments when my loans go into repayment, should I make extra payments now towards the interest from unsubsidized loans with a lower interest rate or the principal of subsidized loans with a higher interest rate? Or is there a better approach? Background info: I have 1.5yrs left for school, and I’m 90% sure I’ll continue to work full-time until I graduate. Other than my mortgage and these loans, I have no other debt (car and credit cards paid off). I have ~6 months of savings in a high (well, 1.4%) yield savings account.

My loans are distributed something like this:

Loan A: Unsubsidized, 1.8% interest rate, $5,000 balance

Loan B: Unsubsidized, 6.8%, $12,000

Loan C: Subsidized, 2.8%, $6,000

Loan D: Subsidized, 6.8%, $3,000

Right now, I make $150 monthly payments on the unsubsidized interest on Loans A & B. My lender will let me specify how I want to apply the $500 each month (Loan A/B/C/D, interest or principal). I know the usual advice is to target the higher interest rates first (as discussed here), but I’m unsure how this applies with subsidized vs unsubsidized loans. For example, Loan A has a lower interest rate than Loan D, but Loan A has a higher principal balance and is unsubsidized.

I want to make the smartest decision with these payments. My goal is to get rid of my loan fast, but I also want to minimize my monthly payment amount when my loans go into repayment. Should I focus on the principal of Loan B since it’s so high? Or should I spread out the money across the loans? If I have the money to pay off Loan D, should I go ahead and do that?

Savings for convenience?

Raze2k — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:55:09 -0800

Should I bother with a savings account? I recently dug myself out of credit card debt and for the first time in years, I'm finding myself no longer living check to check. I've continued to use one of my cards for most of my expenses, partially for convenience, but mostly for the cash back rewards now in tandem with Chase Blueprint (specifically 0% APR on all purchases, as long as I completely pay my bill each month with extra points for having a Chase checking account).

Having said that, I now find the balance of my checking account growing and I feel as though I ought to be earning interest. The sticking point here is that I need the money to be very liquid and easily accessible. Most of my accounts are with Chase and I'd like to keep it that way. Unfortunately I don't have a high enough balance to qualify for their interest-bearing checking accounts and the interest on their savings accounts is currently a pathetic 0.01%.

Since I'm not sure of my financial needs over the next year and I want to keep my funds readily available at a moment's notice, is it worth bothering with a Chase Savings account -- if only to provide the convenience of separating theoretical savings from day-to-day funds?

I'm not at a point where I feel comfortable transferring funds to an online-only bank and, admittedly, convenience is huge to me. Are there any down sides to opening a new savings account (other than the obviously terrible interest rate)?

Note: Chase Savings accounts are free as long as you have a minimum balance of $300.

Give me a better rate and lower my principal NOW

digividal — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:26:40 -0800

How to negotiate with a credit card company? Hi, I had some excellent response to a previous question and this is a follow up from that.

I got the recommend book in that thread from Nolo, and I have read most parts of it by now: Solve Your Money Troubles: Debt, Credit & Bankruptcy

Short recap, I recently divorced, ended up with a lot of the credit card dept. I am making minimum payments (barely) and I am not behind, but I am not making any progress on the actual money owed
.
I cannot get equity out of the mortgage I am upside down in.

Now the book, talks about (briefly) negotiating a lower interest rate, lower the principal and such with your credit card companies.

The problem is I am not very good at negotiations, and I have never attempted it before. How does the conversation go?
What are some of the points to hammer on while talking to the credit card company? What is the credit card companies benefit from making concessions to me? Is there a specific department to ask for?

Has anyone in the hive mind done this procedure successfully?

Any advice, would be great.

What to do with $1000USD

~Sushma~ — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:43:23 -0800

A charity gave me $1,000 USD they raised for me after a drunk driver wiped me and my motorcycle out. I am 56 yrs. old, sick from cancer and will be losing my job in December. I have little savings and will have to work at whatever my body lets me do, and probably lose my health insurance. I plan on selling my home and its contents and downsizing to a studio apartment. I have no credit card debt but hold two mortgages, both will be a wash at the sale. What is the best bang for my buck for this $1000 in this economy? A CD? Online savings account? Any suggestions?

European on a "grand tour": how did they store their money?

mstillwell — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:51:47 -0800

How did rich European gentlemen on a "grand tour" of Europe in the 18th Century manage their finances? I can't imagine they carried enough money (or gold) to support months or years of travel--was there a system of banks they could use? Or credit notes? Also, how did they arrange to get their packages shipped home?

Is this offer to good to be true.

digividal — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:13:25 -0800

Financial filter: I recently received a very fancy mailing from a company in Florida (Trascendental Lending), offering me (due to new government regulations) to consolidate my credit card dept (35K) to a new 5% loan, with much lower payments. This sounds too good to be true so I presume it is? I am recently divorced, and I am having trouble getting the financial ends to meet. I got most of the credit card dept after the divorce.
I am barely able to make minimum payments as it is. All accounts are current though, and I have no late payments.

So one day I got fancy letter from some company in Florida called Trascendental Lending or something close to it, offering to consolidate my credit card dept, allegedly based on some new government program, into a single loan with 5% interest. Which would lower my payments substantially.

Now this offer seems to good to be true, but I really want it to be true. I do not understand why this company would offer 5%-6% loan of 35K which is basically unsecured and without collateral. Unless there is indeed some new government program which makes this feasible.

Can anyone offer advice as to how I might go about consolidating my credit card depth in a reliable way, or other practices that might help me be able to dig myself out of the hole I am in now.

If anyone knows if this offer is legit, or if there are other vendors out there who could make a legit offer.

Does anyone know about new government programs?

Keywords for the Finance industry?

ckohrman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:29:41 -0800

Please help me gather Keywords for the "Accounting/Finance/Insurance" industry. I'd like to create keyword lists for the "Accounting/Finance/Insurance" industry. These keywords will be used to help tag resumes on a job board.

Possible examples might be: actuary, Quickbooks, Excel, etc. Thanks for your help!

Expat with scattered savings and retirement funds - how do I organise them?

wingless_angel — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:36:19 -0800

Expat needing to organise and manage money across two (or more) countries. How best to save in multiple places, and organise superannuation/retirement accounts? I recently moved to the UK, and I am self-employed here. For the first time, I have to take care of insurance, tax, and expenses instead of my employer organising this. I am putting aside money for tax every month. I have savings accounts both in the UK and Australia with various amounts in them. I am not sure how long I will stay in the UK (probably no more than a few years) and will either go home or to another country. I really need to get my money together and work out what to do with it.

I have two Superannuation accounts that refuse to roll together in Australia (both public sector). I have not signed up for a retirement fund in the UK. The most pressing issue right now is whether I let my most recent super account switch from Defined Benefit to Accumulation. I don't necessarily plan to go back to the same sector, so would accumulation be wise?

Should I open a retirement account here in the UK, even if I only plan to stay for a few years (I am paying NI contributions)? Or should I do something else with the money I would have otherwise saved? For example I have an Etrade account for share purchasing that I opened and never used.

Are there any savings accounts that work well for expats in multicurrency? I know about HSBC Premier but I do not have enough money to go with them.

I am concerned that I have pools of money all over the place, and I am not getting the best out of them. I would like to work these things out for myself if I can, if you are an expat how do you manage your money and savings?

What's bad about FHA loans?

RobotNinja — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:45:31 -0800

Should I take this FHA refinance, or wait for the new mortgage plan to take effect? Update to a previous AskMe. I bought a house in 2007 around the peak of interest rates, and am looking to refinance now that rates are low. Like a lot of other people, I'm having problems getting a conventional loan since decreased home values have led to an increase in my loan-to-value ratio. However, my mortgage broker tells me I can get an FHA loan and has written up an estimate. My current mortgage seems to be backed by FreddieMac, so I ought to qualify for the new mortgage assistance refinance plan, but my lender doesn't have guidelines set up for the program yet.

Currently I don't pay any mortgage insurance because I have a 2nd mortgage which brought my primary loan below an 80% L-V ratio. Under the FHA loan, I will have to pay mortgage insurance, but my monthly payment will still be lower than it is currently. My understanding of the new mortgage plan is that I would still have to pay some sort of insurance, but I might save a little bit at closing because appraisals may or may not be required - my lender requires 2 independent appraisals for high value FHA loans. So should I take the loan at 5%, or wait for the new mortgage plan? What is the down side to an FHA?

An opportunity, or a pig in a poke?

LN — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:21:41 -0800

How do I get the most out of a meeting with a financial advisor I don't particularly trust? I have a meeting this afternoon with a financial advisor at my bank, to discuss investing strategies and wise places to put money in this economy. This meeting was requested by him, not me.

A little background: I dealt with this individual when opening an RRSP for myself eight months ago, and was not at all pleased with how the process was handled. It took a couple of months to get the RRSP set up, because he repeatedly botched the process. Now he wants a meeting with me to discuss my investments (I presume he means the RRSP), but because of past experiences, I am extremely suspicious of him.

Add to this the fact that I am not at all a "numbers person". So much so, the minute he starts talking about the various options the bank offers, my brain ceases to be able to process the information. I might as well be listening to white noise.

I'm prepared to at least talk to the guy, because I understand that it's his job to sell services to the bank's clients, but I want to go in with eyes wide open. I don't want to be sold a pig in a poke!

Financial-savvy Mefites, what are some strategies you recommend for me to get the most out of this meeting?

(This is in Canada, in case that makes any kind of difference)

How to hedge personal finances against currency exchange (Euro/AuD) upheavals?

kandinski — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:04:05 -0800

Please help me calculate the risks and likelyhoods of the Euro rising or falling against the Australian Dollar in the next twelve months. I live in Australia, but derive most of my income from my Spanish clients, so I get paid in euros. In the past year this has meant that my income has grown by almost 25% without me doing anything. Yeah, I can't believe my luck either. In fact the idiot who paid me 10k euros a year late has ended up doing me a favour. But this is random blind luck, and one doesn't feel comfortable having to trust on luck, hence this question.

We are having a baby and we plan to go visit the Spanish family in the next 12 months, and I travel there for work now and then, so it also makes sense to keep some money in Spain. But we don't know when, or how much to keep or transfer. Obviously getting all our money here now is not very smart if the AuD is going to drop further. But neither is keeping it in Europe if the AuD is going to rise.

Does any mefite have a clue of what is the optimal strategy for benefiting from the possible currency ups and downs, or at least not suffering from them? Purely theoretical talk just for the purpose of education also appreciated.

Online Budgeting minus the Online.

Raze2k — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:23:16 -0800

Do any online budgeting tools exist that (a) allow manual entries and (b) don't require any access to my account information? In the olden days when I was debt-free, I used to use Microsoft Money to track my budget. You could setup Money to import changes to your account automatically, import these changes manually via files you could retrieve from many credit card / banking web sites.. or you could simply add manual entries, either one-time or recurring charges or income.

These days I don't use the same computer with regularity and I'd like to move my budget to something a bit more full-featured than the Google Docs spreadsheet I've been running with. I've tried Mint.com, but frankly I'd rather manage the data myself without providing access to any of my account information. What I'm looking for would provide the type of data entry I've described, but really what I'm hoping to get out of this is the charting and scheduling functionality to both get a quick view of where all my money is going for any given month and to see how I'll be doing financially, say, 16 months from now if all goes according to plan.

Does anything like this currently exist?

Not just profit but organic profit

rongorongo — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:20:57 -0800

What is meant by the term "Organic Profit"?

Most bang for the buck

Iteki — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:15:22 -0800

Financefilter: Better to buy sterling now in bulk, or monthly for a year? Asking for a friend. We have had a look at this, this, and this previous.

Said friend has euro savings. She needs to pay for a course in sterling on a monthly basis starting this month. Having exchanged enough for the current installment already she has lost about 10p per pound purely to the rate disparity. It adds up.

That said, is she better off exchanging the entire fees now at 89p per euro or will it work out as closer to parity if exchanged on a monthly basis throughout the year? Law of averages or something?

If it's relevant, she is intending to relocate to the uk later in the year.

Are there other good options she is missing here? For example would paying by credit card negate bank commissions or anything?

Why Invest in Negative Interest Rates

jsonic — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:08:13 -0800

Hey Financial People: The interest rate on 3 month Treasury Bills just went to -0.01%. Why would anybody, or any institution, buy them? Why not just hold on to your capital as cash? Or does a negative interest rate not mean what I think it means?

Guide me to well written books about financial crimes

reenum — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:49:17 -0800

I want to read more about financial crimes, real and fictitious. Any recommendations? I just read Charlie Wilson's War, which talked about the different ways the CIA laundered money to get it to the mujahideen. I've also read a couple of books about BCCI.

I want to read more about financial crimes. Jewel heists, covert operations, etc. Anything where money is being concealed and funneled to clandestine sources qualifies.

I prefer non-fiction, but well written fiction would also be up my alley.

So I ask the Hive Mind: what should I read next?

Picking the right solo 401k provider

gsh — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:55:44 -0800

How should I evaluate prospective solo 401k providers? I have recently become an independent contractor and I'm in it for the long haul. I've done the reading about IRAs vs. solo 401k and the latter is for me: it will allow me to contribute much more money for my retirement.

Now, to pick a provider! On what criteria should I compare them?

Do ETFs still work in today's market?

metahawk — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:06:41 -0800

For the past year, I have had a general intention to move some of my money out of indexed mutual funds and into the equivalent Exchange Traded Fund. Now I am worried about whether the current financial crisis has undermined the liquidity needed to keep ETFs at their book value. As I understand it, the difference between an ETF and closed mutual fund is that the ETF has large partners who perform the arbitrage (buying or selling baskets of the underlying securities in exchange for shares of the ETF) so that the price of the ETF stays almost completely in sync with the value of the indexed stocks. (Obviously the value of the ETF has plummeted as the stock market fell - but are they still selling a full book value or have the partners who are supposed to be doing arbitrage failing in their role due to the liquidity and other problems on Wall Street.

In other words, if ETFs made sense for me 3 months ago, do they still make sense now?

30 Year Swaps for the personal account?

raz5 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:25:43 -0800

Is there a way I can buy the 30 year swap for my personal account? Right now the 30 year swap is trading at ~4.03...I'd love to make a long term bet where I pay out 4.03% fixed rate and receive floating. The irony is that while I work for a bank and can make that bet in size on my book, I want to do it for personal account and have no idea as to where/why the mechanics of how it would work. Would the account get marked to market/margin called? Is there a way I can buy that swap for straight cash (not sure how this would work, as how could a counterparty take on someone's personal credit risk?). Anyone out there have an idea?

Open-Source money management software?

®@ — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:39:07 -0800

Anyone have a good open-source alternative to Quicken? So my parents use Quicken and love it, but I'm cheap (and a bit strapped for cash). Does anyone have open-source money management software they can recommend?

Specifically, I'm looking for something like Mint or Quicken Online (pulling data from my bank account and credit card and making it into a pie graph), but software-based, because no matter what it says in Mint's TOS I think submitting all my bank passwords to a website is ludicrous. That being said, I realize that doing the same thing for software is potentially just as risky, which why I'm hoping for something open source.

What I DON'T want is something that requires me submit daily data; I punched receipts into Expensr for a year and it was just too much darn work.

I understand such a thing may not exist, so I'll accept "just cough up for Quicken" if you actually use Quicken and think it's awesome.

Got any advice for trading Futures?

dragontail — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:05:57 -0800

MarketFilter: Got any advice for trading Futures? Help a newbie! I've entered the BP trading game. which is a virtual futures trading game for university students. According to their site, I'll be able to trade live futures prices for ICE Brent Futures and ICE Gasoil Futures over a period of a few weeks.

I've got some idea what to look for when trading stocks (PEs and other bits of fundamental analysis), but have never traded futures before. Have any of you guys got any advice?

Looking for advice about getting and spending money while in Mexico.

iamkimiam — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:20 -0800

Traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico next week. Looking for advice and information about money while I'm there. A friend and I will be spending some time in Oaxaca, Mexico in July. We are wondering about how to get and spend money while we're there. Specifically, whether or not it is better to bring dollars in, or go to ATMs once we arrive. Why? How do conversion rates work? Should we get pesos too? What ratio of dollars-to-pesos should we have? Where is our bargaining power and when is it most effective to offer to pay with dollars versus pesos? Any other monetary info welcome as well. Thanks!

Personal Finance with Pounds

Happy Dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:01:17 -0800

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." British personal finance blogs, forums and other resources? After several post-university years of lurching from one personal finance crisis to another, I'm finally pulling clear of my personal debt.

I've had a very decent increase in job income, and I'm also about to receive a legacy which will let me pay off my post-universtity loans, and, for the first time in my adult life, leave me in a position to start saving properly, investing fully in retirement funds and give me a stable enough life to create and follow a budget that isn't going to get dashed to pieces on my bank's indifference and yet another overdraft charge.

Since I started working towards fixing my personal finances, I've been following a few personal finance blogs in the US (Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar etc). While these are very useful, and some of the principles are currency independent, they are very US-focused.

I'd like recommendations for personal finance blogs, forums and other online resources that talk about the specifics of the UK financial world, from ISAs to investing to bricks and mortar. My key aims in the next few years are to pay off £12k in student loans as fast as possible, save 6 months of expenses, a deposit for a house and get my retirement funding in order - which websites will help me do this?