Today, Ben Bernanke “signaled a readiness to keep on lowering a key interest rate to shore things up.” Today’s announcement caused stocks to drop in response as well.I’m not sure what I think at this point.
From a personal standpoint, it just means that the interest rates on my savings accounts will drop yet again, and I’m considering dumping some funds into a cd with a decent rate while I still can. I have to admit, I find it a little bit frustrating. But I’d like to think that the people making these decisions are smart and know what they’re doing.
Edited to add:
I decided to open another $500 CD with ING Direct at the 3.65% interest rate. Only the 6 month CD is available at this rate. I did this just about a month ago when the rates were over 4%. I’m reluctant to lock up too much of my money for too long (I do have other CDs with a different bank), but I do know that I’m not planning to need this money for another 6 months, so right now, it’s what makes the most sense. Sure, it’s only $500, so we’re only talking a few dollars in interest, but those few dollars add up!
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Good day,
I am Monalyn from Philippines. Your blog inspires me, you wrote meaningful topics and many readers were glad reading the content of your blog.
By the way, have you heard about identity theft? It is one of the common problems of the society. I have a short content about identity theft and this is a good topic for your readers to be aware while surfing the world wide web. If it is okay, I would like to post a brief content about Identity fraud /theft into your blog, this content is just simple but has a great meaning for all of us.
I would be happy if you’ll do. More power for your blog, and may it continue in getting popular.
Please response through my email address. Thank you very much.
Life Lock
http://lifelockpromocode.com/
Email: lifelockblog@gmail.com
It didn’t sit well with me when LifeLock’s owner, Todd Davis gave out his social security number to the whole world. It was too much of a publicity, media-whoring thing.