Blanca asked:


I want to learn more about how to manage my money wisely, set up a budget, whatever else you need to know. I don’t know where people learn these things, though. Some of it seems like common sense, and I do pretty well with those parts, but is there a blog I could read, or a website that has financial advice for everyday people laid out in an easy-to-understand way, or something else that could help me learn more? I don’t want to make stupid mistakes that I can avoid if I just understand how things work.

*~Cam’s Mommy ~* asked:


I am 100% positive that I will miss at least 3 payments in a row on a $28,000 line of credit w/ a minimum payment of $500. It’s a unsecured line of credit. I have contacted the creditors etc. and of course they have no way they can help me etc. My credit is a 660 now. If I am paying everything else on time, how bad will this hurt my credit? Until now I have never made a late payment on anything. Question number 2 is how long before the creditor can send me to collections or file judgement?

USARMYINFANTRY asked:


I am 23 years old, wife is 24 years old. I make $52,000 a year, she make about $25,000 a year. Live in Texas and started a Roth IRA late last year. We maxed it out for 2007 ($4,000) plus the $250 we had in it last year. We have it with American Funds and and the interest for this year with the sales charge is 20.55%. We have no credit card debt, own 2 homes. One is being rented out and the profit is going into the principle. The other one is on the market. Hoping to get about $10,000 from that one. Both homes bought in 2003. The IRA is under both my wifes and my name. I was wanting to know, what should I do next to maximum my investing profits. Should I open a Roth IRA under my name and one under my wifes name? I was also thinking of getting into the stock market and investing into low-risk companies like Nike, Coka-Cola, Pepsi, and other big companies. I was also thinking of investing into gold and silver. Let me me if I need to provide more information. Thanks
We pay $225 per month on our car, which we owe about $8,000 and $350 on our truck and we owe $18,000 on that. I also get money from the GI Bill ($1800 per month). School is dirt cheap so I profit most of it.
1. The roth IRA we have is joint and we are thinking about opening up individual accounts for each one of us.

2. My wife is currently looking for another job that pays better so she doesn’t want to go through the hassle of putting into a 401(k).
My job offers it with 10% match, and the enrollment time is next month. I am planning on enrolling in the 401(k) when ever I get the packet inthe mail.
3. I didn’t think we had many leaks, but let me know where they are and what I can do to help myself. The total we owe on both vehicles is $25,000 and thats for a 2006 Corolla S and a 2004 Nissan Armada.
4. The IRA we have is averaging the 20% interest and some change this year. The life time is 17% interest. Thats after the sales charge.
5. Any more questions , let me know

cuty asked:


What is the difference in savings between the two alternatives of saving $100 a month in a tax deferred account earning 8% for 10 years and then no contributions compared to waiting 10 years and then contributing for the next 33 years?
Which alternative is better?

aimhigh1184 asked:


I posted this question a couple of days ago but I didn’t get many answers. I am going to get my BS in Physician Assistant and then get my MS degree 2 years later. The thing is that I am going to be managing my parents’ one family house because they want me to help them with payments in a couple of years. That means that I would be able to convert it into a two family house when I have the money and rent it all out. But I plan to buy a two family house before this where I would live and rent one portion. So wouldn’t I be in a very good position given that I start of with two 2 family houses by the time I turn around 25? I then would try to break even with mortgage payments and continue buying property to get wealthier. What do you think? Thanks.

Eag asked:


I’m 21 and not in college until next year. If I get a job, would it be stupid to put 100% or 90% of my income into a mutual fund? I was thinking I could put it in there and let it gain interest while I’m in college and unable to pull that amount ($10k or so) in. Then during the college years, I could scrape together about $2,000 a year to keep adding to the fund. But how reliable are mutual funds? What are some good ones? I would **** to dump tens of thousands of dollars into something that goes bankrupt, but I also know that the more you put in, the more it can build up. I already have an emergency fund for minor emergencies. Thanks for your advice.

aimhigh1184 asked:


When I turn 23 I am going to be making about 80-90k in a health care profession. I want to save about 140k in 2 years so that I could buy a 2 family house and rent it all out so that I could buy the mortgage more efficiently without having much of a loss. But the two family houses around my current is about 500k. I don’t want to buy a new 2 family house far away from my old one, I actually want to buy a new house in the same neighborhood near my old house. I already have a house which my parents are going to give me so I would rent this out also and get a profit of about 1.5k. Do you think I would be able to buy my new two family house when I am about 25? Please give me any advice. Thanks.

DK asked:


My personal finance teacher is a bad teacher. He gave us a bunch of questions and told us to figure them out because they’ll be on our classes’ midyear. Can anyone help me out? This is the question that I had the most trouble with:

Mortgage payment: Your new house costs $410,000. Your down payment is $112,000. The interest you pay on the mortgage is 7.4% for a 25 year mortgage.
What will the monthly payment be? ANS: ________
How much interest will you pay over the life of the loan? ANS: ________
If you increased your monthly payment by $100 how much interest will you save? ANS: ________
How long until the mortgage is paid off? ANS: ________
If you had negotiated a 30 year loan for the same mortgage what would be the interest over the life of the loan with no prepayments made? ANS: ________
No, he’s not a bad teacher because he wants us to do some work and thinking. He’s a bad teacher because he doesn’t come to class and teach us. He talks about his farm and his kids and about nothing relevant to personal finance, and then he gives us homework that nobody understands. He’s just like you actually, he makes smartass remarks and doesn’t answer questions. For example, the biggest grade for the whole year is a project. The project is to make blueprints for a house and build a downscale model house. What does that have to do with why I signed up for this class?

Kevin S asked:


I am 17. I will go to college and major in finance, management, or economics. Meanwhile, I save up 15,000 those years (I can) and put it into my Roth IRA. After college, I put a few thousand a year into the IRA. During that time, I get a job somewhere in the market (likely for a firm) and begin working my standard investment account up to a million (inflation adjusted), and then live off the market average of 10% (100,000 before taxes, I plan on outperforming the market though). Then, hopefully before 40, I can retire and do a job for fun (always wanted to teach history). Plans will change if I end up being good at active trading, so I would quit my job early and I always have a back up plan with a degree.

Cente asked:


Ten years ago I loved microsoft money. Now I need something to help me budget my money and check to see whether I’m right-on for my goals. What is the best personal finance software these days?
Quicken is worthless