August 5, 2007
Well there is but you won t find it at the bank around the corner. Instead you have to go to financial institutions that exist online and only online. Even some old style banks are trying to get into the game by setting up Web only divisions. But without an expensive branch network Web banks can offer higher yields and charge lower fees. The yields are way higher Even though the Federal Reserve has kept short term rates at . Not so with virtual banks. E Trade Charts was recently paying . percent on its savings accounts HSBC Direct wasn t far behind with a yield of . And neither bank requires a steep minimum for the privilege. Online banks also tend to keep accounts refreshingly simple no fees few minimums no strings whatsoever. In that time at the typical branch you d earn just . percent on average at conventional banks. Today that obstacle has all but vanished. Online only checking accounts now come with ATM cards that work in virtually every machine. on average for using some other bank s machine. There are still ample customer reps available not to mention far more efficient e mail systems. E mails that Money sent to several virtual banks were answered within one business day often sooner. The power has shifted from the banks to the customers. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. Here s how to put yourself in a better light. How insurance premiums are determined is a recipe long kept secret from consumers. One insurer may weigh the score heavily another not so much. Industry folks say they re simply using all relevant data. Whether that s true or not your carrier will be peeking at your credit history. So check your credit reports for accuracy. Get a free copy from each of the three bureaus annually at annualcreditreport. In order of importance says Boyd they are Pay bills on time Late payments show up for seven years. Keep revolving balances low Insurance companies look at how much debt you have relative to available credit. Keep your oldest credit card Insurers like folks with well established lines of credit. Five years is good ideal. Don t apply for lots of credit at once Your score might drop. You re not penalized for shopping however multiple auto or mortgage inquiries within days are considered as one. Get rid of miscellaneous cards you don t use Having too many can hurt your score. Your best option Shop for a new policy. You can try other companies an independent agent or an insurance comparison Web site. The Hot List smart moves. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. Rowling s novel about a British boy wizard is the No. movie at the box office this weekend after breaking the record for a non holiday U. at movie box offices with weekend ticket sales of . million and a five day total of just over million according to studio estimates Sunday. The fifth film based on J. Rowling s novel about the British boy wizard broke a record for a U. million said Dan Fellman chief of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. already is working on movies No. It s an amazing franchise Fellman said. Overall the first four films have grossed . billion at global box offices. Meanwhile last week s champion alien robot movie Transformers racked up another million at U. and Canadian box offices to land at No. Bay s best Transformers dropped percent from last week and its overall total now stands at million. Disney s domestic distribution chief Chuck Viane said the movie now appears on track to top million overall. million to bring its overall gross to million. Rounding out the top five was romantic comedy License to Wed with . million over the weekend for a total to . and License to Wed was distributed by Warner Bros. com is owned by Time Warner. This material may not be published broadcast rewritten or redistributed. Time reflects local markets trading time. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges.
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August 5, 2007
Our expert takes a look to see if it s worth it. Do you think we should buy a bigger home to get a bigger tax break J. But that hardly means that it s free. I still had to part with real money to get that computer. Although the analogy isn t perfect I think the same rationale applies to your situation. Yes buying a larger and more expensive home can lead to bigger tax breaks. A larger mortgage can translate into a larger mortgage interest deduction. If you pay points for your mortgage and pay them in cash you can deduct them. But remember the deduction doesn t eliminate these costs. It just lowers them. Of course assessing whether real estate or stocks is a better investment can get fairly complicated. But when you factor in all the costs houses have a hard time beating stocks. For a detailed look at how a house stacks up against equities read the Real Estate vs. Stocks story that appears in the real estate cover package in the May issue of Money Magazine. Indeed I m a big fan of homeownership and own a big ole year old Tudor myself. But I think it s important we think realistically about the investment potential of a home. But even the National Association of Realtors is forecasting a slight decline in house prices for this year. But don t do it for the write off. Send e mails to ellen florianfortunemail. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. My husband recently cashed out his whole life policy and ended up with around . Generally the lower your income the less you have to replace and the less life insurance you need. That thinking is wrong however. A stay at home spouse does all sorts of things that would still need to be done. You mention you still have three kids at home. You mention you have two rental homes. Could they generate enough free cash flow after expenses mortgage payments real estate taxes maintenance etc. Which means you could be subjecting your family to a big financial risk should you or your husband die. Or you could be spending money on insurance you don t really need. Fortunately doing a needs analysis isn t all that complicated. There are a number of online calculators that will crunch the numbers for you. If after doing a needs analysis you find you do need insurance then the question becomes which type. For most people the choice is a no brainer. So you and your husband should stop this debate and do a needs analysis. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you re interested in. Or visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. million in first week most ever for a non sequel Ratatouille second in weekend tally. million at box offices over the weekend to land at No. and bring its seven day total to a record . million according to studio estimates on Sunday. with million boosting its day total to . Video More video The cast of Transformers talks about their unique movie making experience. Throughout the week Paramount trumpeted the film s ability to topple records. The opening day haul of . million was the highest Tuesday ever and . million on Wednesday was the most cash for an Independence Day. Paramount said the estimated . million marked a best for the initial seven days of release for any movie that was not a sequel. It beat s original Spider Man which scored an opening seven day haul of more than million. million for Twentieth Century Fox. Besides Transformers the only other new movie to open wide this week was Warner Bros. comedy License to Wed starring Robin Williams. It proved to be a mild performer with . million in its first weekend to land at No. It has taken in . million since its Tuesday debut. million for the weekend and an overall total of . Michael Moore s documentary about U. health care Sicko landed in the No. slot this weekend with . million and now has a total of . Paramount and DreamWorks are part of Viacom Inc. Charts Fortune Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. Charts Fortune parent of CNNMoney. Charts Fortune s NBC Universal. This material may not be published broadcast rewritten or redistributed. Time reflects local markets trading time. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges.
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July 27, 2007
By Jessica Dickler CNNMoney. Here s how to do it right. more Get your dream deck How to get the right backyard retreat for your house. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. With Hurricane Wilma I ve estimated that so far this year the industry has suffered . Rates however have been woefully inadequate and now they have to play catch up. Just how high could rates go Consider it a supply and demand equation. Hartwig speculated that double digit rate increases are likely as insurers reduce exposure to high risk markets. With decreasing availability and increasing demand premiums could skyrocket. The pullback has already started. He estimated that reinsurers who insure property casualty companies could raise rates as much as to percent. With primary insurers poised to pay more they will likely transfer the extra costs to consumers. It s very important to approve adequate rate increases. But the definition of adequate remains vague and will vary from state to state he said. The company did however obtain a percent rate increase in Florida and has filed for another . percent rate hike which is pending before Florida regulators. But are rate increases and policy terminations really necessary Some critics are skeptical. The cyclical nature of hurricanes has been known for decades Hunter said. But industry observers said models can be flawed. Each company is now going to have to make their own individual assessment when it comes to future rates. For consumers that could mean some pretty hefty price increases down the road. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. Thrilling More like the perfect shade of gray. The people at Maserati set out to change the sedan s rep three years ago with the Quattroporte. It s roomy enough for the kids but still has Ferrari DNA. liter V MPH . I drove from Los Angeles to Phoenix and back in two days and here s what happened. First I noticed that the car a respectable pounds felt nearly as light and playful as a two seater. com to hear it . Supportive seats that also heat cool and massage at your discretion. Two different ways to release the parking brake. What it really comes down to is that the Quattroporte is full of passion performance and personality. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges.
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July 27, 2007
But keep things in perspective and you can boost long term returns. com You have to admit Stocks have risen to mighty heights mighty fast. The Dow has hit three milestones in nine months crossing in October in April and just last week . Hyde Dow was always lurking. I can t afford to miss my target. The biggest came Feb. when the Dow fell points or . What to make of this Stocks are volatile. Or more to the point investors emotions are. It takes nerves of steel to shake off a big stock drop. But the world s best investors not only shake them off they thrive on them. When stocks go way up in a hurry their prices become unsustainably high. Without the agony of today s drop the ecstasy of tomorrow s good returns becomes impossible. Consider the terrible slide of when the S P index lost percent of its value. If ever there s been a good time to panic that had to be it. But as the old saying goes things are darkest before the dawn. If you d sold out of stocks at the end of you would have missed s . percent return and s . percent gain two very strong years for the stock market. And it took only months until January for the Dow to make its way back above . the closing price on the last trading day before Black Monday. In fact there s such a thing as paying too much attention to your money. When you think about this a little more it actually makes good sense. Amp up your k . Typically companies match cents on every dollar you contribute up to percent of your compensation. A market sell off is a good time for a gut check. But at least you ll know which funds you want to ride into the next one. Ask yourself when you will need the money you ve invested. Tuesday s drop was relatively small and you can still make those adjustments. If all you owned was U. stocks to lower your risks without crimping your returns. This is an updated version of a previously published story. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. Full story Giving without getting taken Donate vacation time Disaster strikes. CNN s Lisa Sylvester reports. Policy holders with a cash value life insurance policy accrue cash based on the premiums they pay. Unlike a bank loan they can borrow against that money without providing any security or credit information. But it does have to be paid back with interest. Employers are usually the best source of information when it comes to finding out the terms of your policy. We re treating the Hurricane Katrina disaster the same way we treated the aftermath of he said. There were some who took advantage after Sept. and they were caught. We ll look at anything that appears to be questionable in this case as well. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you re interested in. Or visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Instead the usually criminally unfunny Rob Schneider did an amusing job making fun of Lohan. in drag no less . For one it s about a woman played by Lohan who gets abducted and tortured by a serial killer. And Lohan s venture into the so called torture porn or gore nography genre of movies is ill timed. The Hostel sequel grossed figuratively and literally just . million at the box office well below the . million take of its predecessor while Captivity has so far sold only . million s worth of tickets. Disturbia has grossed nearly million at the box office while is nearing the million mark. Of course her problems this week just add to that. A year ago this seemed like a great idea Lindsay Lohan in a horror film. But now it s going to be a tough sell. Horror films in general have been run into the ground. There are too many and people are just sick of them said Gitesh Pandya editor of BoxOfficeGuru. Plus the bulk of her audience is under so the R rating will hurt the box office. A lot of her fans won t be able to come out for that. Finally Lohan has some formidable competition at the box office this week. s NWS Fox could make million at the box office this weekend. Fox has done one of the best marketing jobs of the year with this movie he said. And it certainly helps that Marge Simpson hasn t been arrested for DUI lately. Lindsey is a sweet girl from down my street. She needs help but keeping her on every front page non stop is not going to help. No breather forBaidu Microsoft tries to digg out of online adhole CNNMoney. Please note that CNNMoney.
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July 23, 2007
All the glitz these days is in the secret handshake world of hedge funds. Play video So are mutual funds only for chumps now Plenty of smart folks seem to think so. So a rough patch in a key market doesn t close off all opportunity for profit. Plus hedge funds can sell short which means betting an asset will fall in price. That certainly came in handy during the crash. On the other hand hedge funds often cool when the stock market booms as they have recently. That s why some of the smartest hedge fund clients don t buy to get huge gains. They buy to lower risk. How to marry a billionaire The downside To start with the obvious most ordinary investors can t get in. By law you need to be wealthy to qualify. It s another arrow in the marketing quiver says Coral Gables Fla. planner Harold Evensky who doesn t use hedge funds. For individuals hedges are full of thorns. And good luck with that. Except with hedge funds you are paying and . Or maybe and . Both move out of sync with the S P and did well during the bear market. As you d expect they ve done less well in the rebound. Over the past five years Merger has gained an annualized . But even they are optional. Keeping it simple with ETFs ETFs are index funds that trade exactly like stocks. As with index mutual funds there s no manager deciding to buy and sell investments every day. Instead you get nearly pure exposure to whatever asset or group of stocks the ETF tracks. companies charges just . ETFs with more focused investments may cost as much as . percent but that s still less than a typical actively managed mutual fund. That s another reason you can skip hedge funds. The downside Mutual funds can index cheaply too. And often especially if you re just beginning to build wealth they re the better choice. You have to use a brokerage to buy ETF shares. That s no problem if you re investing a big sum A commission adds . percent to the cost of a purchase and even less to the sale if your investment grew. When you invest in installments though a commission is percent each time. But in general ETFs make sense only if you trade rarely and in large amounts. More than have launched in alone says Morningstar. You can now buy the Dutch market or track nanotechnology stocks and cancer therapies. And since the typical mutual fund charges . It s true You don t need most mutual funds. But choose wisely and a few of them can get you all you need. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. You can shop multiple insurers at insweb. com but major players like Allstate Progressive and State Farm aren t on the site. You ll need to go to their sites or call an agent. As you look around ask yourself these questions. See what others pay. State insurance department websites list sample rates. Find your state s at naic. The average driver pays a year for car insurance but makes a claim only once every eight years. Raise your comprehensive deductible from to and collision from to and shave your premium by percent or more. Over time that will more than cover the higher out of pocket outlay if you ever make a claim. If higher gas prices have you covering fewer miles you re carpooling say you may get a rate break. Credit troubles can raise your premium. Order a free report at annualcreditreport. com and correct any mistakes that may be costing you. Do I have the right amount Don t confuse minimum with optimum. Every state sets a coverage floor but that may be too low. Pros suggest per person per accident and for property damage. It will pay your bills if you re in a smashup with an uninsured or underinsured driver. Give up on your jalopy. Once your car is old you can probably drop collision and comprehensive coverage. To gauge its current market value look up used car prices for your model at autotrader. If it s less than kick the extra coverage to the curb average savings a year . Are the extras simply gimmicks Forget accident forgiveness coverage. And it may be unnecessary Some insurers forgive the first accident at no extra cost. Even Allstate does so if you ve been a customer for five years. Reject new car replacement. The takeaway Pass on this one too. It ll add slightly to your premium and won t kick in unless the car is totaled. Can I afford to let my kids drive Sit down. Read her report card. Most insurers offer discounts sometimes as much as percent for students with a B average or better. Get credit for being strict. Ask about this costly provision it could be reason enough to switch insurers. Save more money invest smarter get out of debt. simple strategies in all for finally achieving your financial goals. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you re interested in. Or visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. That Jerry Yang is having a rough day he probably would like to forget. Shares of Yahoo opened more than percent lower on the Nasdaq Wednesday morning. According to Yahoo s latest proxy statement Yang owns a little more than million shares of Yahoo. So on paper the value of Yang s Yahoo stake is taking a nearly million hit. another Jerry Yang a year old psychologist from California is now much richer. Yang won the WSOP early Wednesday morning netting him a cool . million in the process. us and the main Yahoo portal into a winner remains to be seen. But unfortunately for Yahoo s Yang he unlike his namesake can t bluff his way to victory. Please note that CNNMoney.
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July 23, 2007
I call this sixth sense my BS Detector. Hold onto your money with both hands That alarm began blaring as soon as I began reading your question. But my instincts tell me that this firm is probably hawking annuities of some type. The first is probably a bonus annuity. The second type sounds like an equity indexed annuity. This type of annuity works much like a hybrid of a bank CD and a mutual fund. Let s take the bonus annuity first. One way they effectively get back some of the bonus is by charging you a higher level of fees. Sniffing out a possible scam In other cases insurers may restrict access to your bonus. That may not be so bad if you re looking to guarantee monthly income in retirement. In other words you re paying for the bonus by getting smaller monthly payments. With equity index annuities the hitch usually comes in two ways. First your upside potential depends on how the gains in the index that the annuity tracks are calculated. There are dozens of variations some mind numbingly complex. And then there are the surrender charges. In some index annuities these can go as high as percent and last or more years. So you may not have access to all of your money without paying steep penalty charges for many years. Hold onto your money with both hands . Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. With Hurricane Wilma I ve estimated that so far this year the industry has suffered . Rates however have been woefully inadequate and now they have to play catch up. Just how high could rates go Consider it a supply and demand equation. Hartwig speculated that double digit rate increases are likely as insurers reduce exposure to high risk markets. With decreasing availability and increasing demand premiums could skyrocket. The pullback has already started. He estimated that reinsurers who insure property casualty companies could raise rates as much as to percent. With primary insurers poised to pay more they will likely transfer the extra costs to consumers. It s very important to approve adequate rate increases. But the definition of adequate remains vague and will vary from state to state he said. The company did however obtain a percent rate increase in Florida and has filed for another . percent rate hike which is pending before Florida regulators. But are rate increases and policy terminations really necessary Some critics are skeptical. The cyclical nature of hurricanes has been known for decades Hunter said. But industry observers said models can be flawed. Each company is now going to have to make their own individual assessment when it comes to future rates. For consumers that could mean some pretty hefty price increases down the road. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges. soccer league is being felt even before his first game here. A weekly column by Chris Isidore CNNMoney. com The David Beckham brand hits the U. Beckham will soon be seen in U. He ll likely be on the cover of major U. magazines and papers as well as leading sports reports and other television news coverage. David Beckham is already having an economic impact on U. professional soccer before his first game here. CNN s Pedro Pinto reports. born male soccer player. percent of Americans know who Beckham is. That s more than twice the percent who know the best player on arguably the best team in U. The next best known soccer player is retired women s player Mia Hamm at percent. Landon Donovan who will be Beckham s teammate on the Galaxy is known by only . Similar survey results were reached by Marketing Evaluations which compiles the Q score ratings used by advertisers. But what most Americans know about Beckham is his celebrity not his play. He thinks Beckham s cultural icon status could help boost soccer s popularity in the U. million a year or . And he is cashing in with the Galaxy as well. His contract which includes a share of ticket and merchandize sales could net him million in five years. Still Beckham could wind up being a bargain for the Galaxy. His base salary of . million for this year a MLS record has already been covered by increased revenue for the Galaxy. And the rest of the league is optimistic about what Beckham can do for their teams. game at Giants Stadium far more than their top crowd of so far this year. And tickets to that Beckham game haven t even gone on sale through Ticketmaster yet. Beckham represents an extraordinary worldwide brand he said. And Beckham could also lift the U. The Beckham signing has changed the perception of U. football outside the United States Chadwick. There s an appreciation that the game is being played at a much higher level. Intraday data delayed minutes for Nasdaq and minutes for other exchanges.
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July 19, 2007
Chastened by the 2000-02 crash, the mutual fund industry has morphed into a 401(k) bureaucracy, cranking out bland diversified funds and packaging them into “life cycle” portfolios that you don’t have to think much about.
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July 19, 2007
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July 19, 2007
Question: About six months ago, I invested a chunk of money into four separate mutual funds. When would you recommend adjusting the balances so each fund is back to its original percentage of my portfolio? - John R., Arlington, Virginia
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July 19, 2007
The Dow has hit three milestones in the past nine months: 12,000 last October, 13,000 in April and 14,000 on July 17.
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