Are you are a professional in the areas of finance, insurance, law or real estate? MoneyCafe.com has a free ProFinder directory to list yourself and promote your services to the MoneyCafe.com community. You can sign up at http://www.moneycafe.com/profinder/moneycafe/account.php?action=create&returnTo. It only takes a couple of minutes and it’s completely free.
See:
http://www.moneycafe.com/profinder/moneycafe/index.php
E*Trade has a newly upgraded retirement planning tool. It’s free and can help with financial planning whether you are 20 years old and just starting or already well into retirement. They call it their Retirement QuickPlan and tout that it is 4 steps, 10 minutes and a real plan. It’s definitely worth spending a few minutes with this tool.
See:
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/plan/retirement/quickplan
According to my sources in the mortgage business, 30 year fixed rate conforming home loans are back down to 4.50%. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, these rates came and went very fast in early January. Not everybody was able to take advantage of the great pricing at the time.
Although one change in the past few months is that lenders now usually want at least a point to get the best rate. In the past few years, zero point loans (par loans) were very popular and priced competitively. Now to get the best deal sometimes requires paying points upfront. That being said, if you have excellent credit and substantial equity left in your home you may even find rates below 4.50%. If you plan on keeping your house and/or loan awhile it seems well worth paying some points to get money at these historically low rates.
We have a loan comparison calculator to help at http://www.moneycafe.com/content/articles/18/1/Loan-Comparison-Calculator/Page1.html. We also have a refinancing analysis calculator at http://www.moneycafe.com/content/articles/16/1/Refinancing-Analysis/Page1.html.
Chase, Wells Fargo and Wachovia are some of the lenders whose rates have dropped in the past couple of days. You may want to see what LendingTree has to offer because their service is free and their system fosters competition amongst lenders.
See:
http://www.moneycafe.com/banking/lendingtree.htm
MarketWatch has a number of investment newsletters currently offering free trials.
Free 30 Day Trial of MarketWatchs’ Hulbert Interactive Newsletter
• Hulbert Interactive, with Mark Hulbert, gives investors 24-hour access to The Hulbert Financial Digest’s performance ratings and search over 180 stock and mutual fund newsletters with over 500 recommended portfolios.
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• The Proactive Fund Investor, with Bill Donoghue, teaches investors how to take advantage of opportunities in bull & bear markets. Have your visitors subscribe today to receive advice from the “father of safe money investing.”
Free 30 Day Trial of MarketWatchs’ Retirement Weekly Newsletter
• Retirement Weekly is written by renowned retirement specialist Robert Powell and is the only weekly online resource that specializes exclusively in the financial, lifestyle, and health care issues of retirement. Every easy-to-read issue is dedicated to helping readers improve upon saving, investing, and spending.
Free 30 Day Trial of MarketWatch’s The Technical Indicator Newsletter
• The Technical Indicator offers a technical analysis of the market for sophisticated traders. Using candlestick charts and proprietary tools, The Technical Indicator establishes near-term market bias and identifies patterns, trends, support and resistance levels, moving averages, attractive entry and exit points, buying opportunities and more.
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With unemployment getting higher, there are now about twice as many people looking for jobs as usual. Here are a couple of websites full of great information to help you pursue new employment and make informed decisions about current employment.
First, GlassDoor.com is a great resource for information about employers. It provides reviews of employers, company ratings and salary data. This is a very worthwhile site for anyone, whether you are looking for a job or not; whether you are happy with your employer or not. They claim to have all the information available to manage your career. The information on the site is free. They just ask that you share information first – calling it the “give to get” model.
Career Builder is another great resource with a wealth of information and new job postings all the time. Our Career Center is powered by Career Builder. Check it out. They offer job searches, a job seeker toolkit, career advice and much more.
Times are very tough for those without employment as we live through this uniquely severe economic period. But on the bright side, we live in a unique time with all the vast and growing resources of the Internet. These resources with the instant availability of useful, timely and free information will certainly make our economy much more resilient than in the past. Now, if we can only get our government out of the way, or at least paddling in the right direction…..
See:
http://www.glassdoor.com
http://www.moneycafe.com/careercenter/
If you are looking for foreclosures or other real estate, RealtyTrac has a service to help you find all types of properties. They have a free service that offers access to some of their foreclosure and resale data. Their paid premium service is much more comprehensive, which can be tried with no obligation through a free trial.
