Finance

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Welcome to the Financial Management Resource Group. The Financial Management Resource Group has been established to provide timely access to progressive financial services and resources on and off the Internet. You can read our documents and articles about financial topics or explore the other resources below.

Short on time? Visit Money 101 and you’ll learn just about all you’ll need. For more, continue on this page.

Simplifying Your Finances. Using online banking is probably one of the best ways to organize and automate your finances through automatic payment of bills and downloading of transactions for easily searching and sorting your expenditures. Scanning receipts and invoices is another way to organize your finances and reduce paper clutter.

Home Buying

• Get Rich Slowly – Advantages of Home Ownership
• New York Times Buy / Rent Calculator

Investing and Saving

• Fundrise – Fundrise is the first service that makes the benefits of private market real estate investing available to you through one simple platform. By combining technology with new federal regulations, we bring the once-unattainable world of private investments directly to you.
• IRS Retirement Investment Rollover Chart (PDF)
• Stockpile – Fractional stock investing in made easy.
• Vanguard – An excellent source for investment options and learning materials.
  • Basics of mutual funds
  • Decide what you’re investing for (interactive guide)
  • Employee Retirement Funds After Employment
  • Investing & Finance Education (online lessons)
  • Investor Questionnaire
  • Retirement Income Calculator – How much income will you need in retirement? Are you on track? Compare what you may have to what you will need. Use the sliders to see how small changes today could affect your financial future.
  • Target date investments – These are ‘smart’ investments that change automatically over time to offer high return initially and then lower volatility later on.
  • Tips for handling investing uncertainty
  • Tools and Calculators
  • Vanguard’s Principles for Investing Success (PDF)

Peer-to-Peer Lending

• LendingClub.com – “Since 2007, we’ve been bringing borrowers and investors together, transforming the way people access credit. Over the last 10 years, we’ve helped millions of people take control of their debt, grow their small businesses, and invest for the future.”
• Prosper.com – “Prosper is America’s first marketplace lending platform, with over $10 billion in funded loans. Prosper allows people to invest in each other in a way that is financially and socially rewarding. On Prosper, borrowers list loan requests between $2,000 and $35,000 and individual investors invest as little as $25 in each loan listing they select. Prosper handles the servicing of the loan on behalf of the matched borrowers and investors.”

Resources

General Resources. Below are general resources for financial well-being:

• 360FinancialLiteracy.org – “360 Degrees of Financial literacy is a national volunteer effort of the nation’s Certified Public Accountants to help Americans understand their personal finances and develop money management skills.  It focuses on financial education as a lifelong endeavor—from children learning about the value of money to adults reaching a secure retirement.”
• Banking(Notable Financial Institutions and Merchants)
  • Best Buy | Cards | Reward Zone – An excellent source for technology products.
  • Chase | Cards – JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm operating in 60 countries with assets of $2.1 trillion.
  • Citi | Cards – Financial management made simple with Citi. Some Citi credit cards offer automobile insurance coverage for rental cars reserved and paid for with your card. Check with Citi for specific details.
  • eBay – The bank where you deposit stuff, and withdraw money.
  • Kiva – We’re currently promoting Kiva as a great way to help people save up money while doing good at the same time. Please join our Kiva Lending Team.
  • Paypal – Where you become your own banking institution.
  • Target | Login – Expect more, pay less.
  • University of Iowa Community Credit Union | Cards– Become part owner of your own bank.
    • Visit our information page for the UICCU.
  • US Bank | Login – A big bank, with big service.
  • Vanguard – A better investment choice.
• Books
  • The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We Pay What We Do
• Cash Advances – Comparison Selection Review – Read our full report
• Charitable Giving – Resources and Reviews of Organizations
• CNN – Money
• Credit.com
• Credit Monitoring and Reporting (see Identity Protection below)
• Debt Management and Consolidation Resources
• FeedThePig.org – “Here, you’ll find fun tools, a quiz, tons of tips and other resources. They will all help you think through your spending and saving habits, identify ways you can start saving and commit to making changes that will reduce your debt and grow your savings.”
  • View the Funny FeedThePig.org videos
• Free Planet
  • CreativeCommons.org – “Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.”
  • Freecycle.org – “Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.”
  • Free Music – “A list of free music resources”
• Geezeo – Online community and social networking based on people’s similarities and interests in investing, giving, and planning.
• Global Marketplace Democracy – Ethical Green Shopping and Buying – “As individual citizens, it’s difficult to complete with large corporations for the loyalty of our political representatives. However, by choosing to spend money on ethical products, services, companies, manufacturers, organization, and vendors, you can powerfully determine what kind of world we live in.”
• Google – Finance
• Green Century – Invest and help preserve the planet, so you have a future in which to enjoy your investments. (20030812tu)
• Identity Protection. Service providers are listed below. Read the Federal Trade Commission Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Documentfor more information.
  • Citi Identity Monitor
  • Equifax
  • Identity Guard
  • LifeLock
  • PrivacyGuard
  • TrustedID
  • TrueCredit by TransUnion
• Investing and Saving Money – Tools and Resources
• Microsoft Money Central
• Money 101 – an excellent online course
• Money Magazine
• My Vesta – Best Resource on the Net! “I submitted a request on Monday, and received a personal call the following day to schedule a telephone consultation. Very impressive.”
• Payday Loans – Comparison Selection Review – Read our full report, including NationalPayday.com.
• PrivacyGuard.com – “Receive up-to-date credit reports, credit scores and credit monitoring — so you’re always informed. Maintain control over your ID with advanced identity theft protection and fraud support services. Enjoy a range of essential tools and reports that help put the power back into your hands.” Note: For this site to work, Safari users must set Preferences > Security > Accept Cookies to Always.
• Saving Money (See Investing)
• Savings Codes, Coupons, Rebates, and More
• Shopping – Smart Shopping Guidelines
• SmartyPig.com – An online finance social networking community offering tools for budgeting and money savings. From the Why SmartyPig page: “Everyone knows they should eat right and exercise. So why doesn’t everyone do it? Answer: Instant gratification. The cheeseburger looks better than the salad. Extra winks in the morning or watching TV is easier than going for a jog. Same goes for your financial habits: It’s easier to charge the things you want on a high-interest credit card than to save up. (At least until the bills come, with the average family carrying more than $9,000 in debt.) Since May of 1985, when the average U.S. consumer set aside more than 11% of his or her disposable income, saving money has been taking a nosedive, leading up to 2005 and 2006 when we actually spent more than we saved. We’re that out of control! Things simply have to change.” Watch the SmartyPig video news story on KCCI.
• Socially Responsible Investing
• The Money Page – investing and banking
• Religious Financial Advice
  • Christian Financial Concepts with Larry Burkett is now Crown Financial Ministries (Christian)
  • CrossWalk Money (Christian)
  • Crown Financial Ministries (Christian)
• Smart Money Magazine
• Spending – Smart Shopping Guidelines
• The Truth About Credit
• USA Today – Money
• Wesabe.com
• Yahoo – Finance

Featured Articles. Below are some featured articles.

• The Reason You’re Broke by Liz Pulliam Weston. “If you’re constantly broke and can’t figure out why, the answer may be sitting in your driveway. Americans are spending more on their vehicles than ever before — more than $8,000 a year on average — and it’s driving some to the breaking point. Credit counselor Bill Thompson of Jacksonville, Fla., estimates that one out of every four clients his agency sees has overspent — sometimes dramatically — on a car. ‘They may be spending 15% to 20% of their (take-home) pay on just the car payment,’ said Thompson, who supervises credit counseling for the nonprofit Family Foundations, ‘and that doesn’t include insurance, gas, maintenance and all the other costs of owning a vehicle.’ And sometimes there’s more than one whopping payment. Sandra McGeary, a counselor at Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Western Pennsylvania, says she regularly sees middle-class families struggling with two payments in the $400 to $500 range. The burdens are so big that it doesn’t take a major disaster, like a job loss, to send them over the edge.” Read more…