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Week of September 25 |
Friday, September 29, 2006
Let’s Go Bank Shopping!
PNC bank just
came out with an ad campaign touting no ATM charges—even when you
use another bank’s ATM. “You wouldn’t accept the pizza guy taking a
slice, so why accept it at your ATM?” their promotions ask. Good
point, but first, read the fine print: you have to keep a minimum
average monthly balance of $2,500 in your account to be eligible.
Second, PNC isn’t the first to make this (or an even better) offer.
Washington Mutual and Commerce are just two other banks worth
checking out. Worried about competition from online banks and credit
unions, banks are becoming increasingly competitive, going after
your business by cutting back on some of their management fees.
Play
hard to get. Be a good comparison shopper. Don’t let laziness or
brand loyalty to the bank you started out with when you first got
married or moved to the area keep you from finding the best home for
your money. Shop around for the best package of services to meet
your particular needs. Besides no-fee ATM withdrawals, some things
to consider: online banking and bill-paying options, interest rates
and management fees, loan availability and retirement services,
branch locations and hours, and minimum balance requirements.
CLICK HERE for a good primer on what to look for when you’re
shopping for a bank. And here’s another informative link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14585122/
From bank shopping to bar hopping, for
some money-related amusement, check out
“Strong Drink Is Not for Men Alone,” a New York Times
Select piece by Alex Witchel, who complains that she hasn’t been
getting her money’s worth when she orders a drink at a restaurant or
bar. Thinking we “little ladies” can’t handle our liquor so why
waste it on us, some male bartenders, Witchel claims, stiff her
when they mix her drinks, making them far less potent than those
they pour for the men who belly up to the bar right beside her, even
though she’s paying the same price.
She doesn’t mention that quaint ritual,
“Ladies’ Night,” in which women get to drink for free. We can’t
complain about the alcohol content when we’re not paying. Still, her
piece raises all sorts of red flags. Have you had the same
experience? Can you think of other instances when women get less
than they paid for? Prosit!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Thursday, September 28, 2006
The Young & the Reckless
The
Kaiser Family Foundation
just released the findings of a national survey on health-care
costs. Turns out those costs have risen 7.7 percent this year, more
than twice the inflation rate and twice as fast as wages. For those
just starting out in the job market, it’s getting harder to find
entry-level jobs that offer health insurance, which may be why the
18-to-34-year-old group is the fastest growing uninsured group of
individuals.
It’s
tempting when you’re young and feeling invincible to think you can
do without health insurance. But if you do, you’re walking a
tightrope without a safety net. Not only won’t you be able to
pay your hospital bills if you get sick or break a leg,
who’ll cover the rent, the groceries, and the car payments if you
end up stuck in a long recovery because you delayed seeking
treatment? (That’s also why, even if you’ve got health coverage,
it’s a good idea to invest in some short-term disability insurance
on your own dime, if your company doesn’t offer it as a benefit.
This sort of policy may also cover you when you’re home on maternity
leave.)
Now,
perhaps because they see some profit in finding a way to cover this
untapped and relatively healthy uninsured group, some insurance
companies have lobbied states to loosen restrictions applying to
dependent coverage, allowing those over 19 to remain on their
parents’ policies, even if they’re no longer students. In New
Jersey, for instance, according to a recent New York Times
article, children can “piggyback” on their parents’ policies until
age 30, as long as they live in the state and aren’t parents
themselves.
If
you are walking that health tightrope without a net, ask your
parents to check with their insurer about extending coverage for
you, or letting you “piggyback” on their policy. They’ll end up
paying an extra couple of hundred dollars a month or more to cover you, but
even if you reimburse them (and, of course, you will), you’ll be
coming out ahead. The cost of an individual policy with the same
level of coverage would be far higher.
So
far, states that have passed legislation permitting extended
coverage for those over 19, besides New Jersey, include Colorado,
Massachusetts, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Delaware and
Rhode Island. New York and Connecticut may soon join them.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Another FREE Issue
Taking a trip
down memory lane today, I was looking at some of the issues of
MAKING BREAD published over the last three years, before the
magazine shut down. A stand out for its range of content (she said,
modestly) was the Sept/Oct 2004 issue.
In
the “Choice Career” feature in this issue, a commercial real estate
pro spilled the beans about what it’s really like to work “with a
bunch of conservative, golf-playing guys.” There’s a feature
article, “Bye-Bye, Dual Income,” written by a lawyer whose husband
decided it was time to quit his job, telling how she adjusted to
being the sole breadwinner in the family. In “These Girls Just Want
to Have Funds,” one of the magazine’s regular writers, Allison Acken,
described how several women’s groups around the country began their
own investment clubs. And in, “On the Road to Splitsville,” a
divorcee shared some really good advice on how to protect your heart
and your wallet should you become one of those dreaded
one-out-of-two divorce statistics. In another feature story, an
ex-pat described how she rediscovered her “Priceless Right” to vote
after 9-11. Definitely worth a read, with six weeks left to go
before mid-term elections.
Two
years have passed, and this BREAD still isn’t stale. There’s plenty
of good finance advice for women of all ages.
CLICK HERE to
download the issue. Then take a quick
SURVEY, letting the folks in the publishing industry know
whether you’d buy a women’s finance magazine, if anyone ever decided
to publish one. Shop Etc., “the one-stop shopping magazine,”
published by Hearst, just died. Is it time for someone to consider
publishing Save Etc.?
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Two Fine Work Books
In
her two classic works on life in the workplace, the best seller
“Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” and “Bait and
Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream,” Barbara
Ehrenreich exposes some uneasy truths about what it takes to achieve
and hang onto the American Dream. In the first, she describes her
struggles as a pink-collar worker, trying to survive on minimum
wage; for the latter, she posed as a laid-off white-collar worker
and chronicled her attempts to find another middle-class job. Anyone
who’s been laid off and found that it’s taking longer than expected
to get back in the game should read “Bait and Switch,” if only as a
reminder not to take repeated corporate rejection personally.
I’ve
been a fan of Ehrenreich’s reporting for years and just recently
found that she has a Web site,
www.nickelanddimed.net.
It’s worth checking out for her blog, the lively forums, and her
local networking advice. “From my research on ‘Bait and Switch’,”
she writes, “I know unemployed, underemployed and anxiously
employed people have a strong desire to get together and feel less
alone.” She recommends creating grassroots networking and support
groups to share stories and skills, like resume writing and acing
job interviews. To get the ball rolling, she’s started a list of
contacts around the country for people interested in or planning to
start such groups.
For
more advice on rebounding from a layoff, read this first-person
account,
“It’s Time to Fly! A Crash Course in Learning to Use Your Wings
When You Get Pushed Out of the ‘Corporate Nest’,” by
Rosemary Rys.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Monday, September 25, 2006
Feel-Good Do-Gooders’ Roundup
First, a big shout out to Target, who quickly matched Wal-Mart’s
prescription drug plan (which we wrote about last Friday),
announcing that it, too, would begin offering more than 200 popular
generic drugs for the low monthly price of $4. In this game of
follow the leader, everyone’s a winner! Both programs will
test-launch in Tampa, Florida, and are expected to go nationwide
next year.
Next, all hail
Bill Clinton’s 2006 Global Initiative conference, held in New York
last week, which secured commitments totaling $7.3 billion from
individuals, corporations, governments and non-profits to help fund
solutions to energy and climate change, global health, poverty
alleviation, and an end to religious and ethnic conflict. Among the
funders: Citigroup pledged $100 million to a microfinance program in
30 some countries, Virgin Group’s Richard Branson pledged $3 billion
to develop renewable energy, Wal-Mart (there’s that name again)
pledged to devise more environmentally friendly packaging of
products sold in its stores, and Merck pledged to inoculate
Nicaraguan children against rotavirus.
The
award for most wickedly innovative idea goes to Philadelphia
philanthropists David and Lisa U’Prichard, who told a New York
Times reporter they “were looking for a way to help wealthy
people calculate how much money they gained from the Bush
Administration’s tax cut and to encourage them to give it away.”
Said Mrs. U’Prichard, “All the guys who opposed the Bush tax cuts
for the top one percent should donate away at least that much
money.” For a quick pick-me-up (and don’t we all need some picking
up on Mondays?), visit
www.clintonglobalinitiative.org and spend a few seconds watching
the commitment descriptions scroll by on the site’s RSS feed.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow
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If you like the blog, you’ll love the book.
For more savvy
finance advice, buy
“Making Bread: The
Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough,”
by Gail Harlow and Elizabeth Lewin, available on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore |
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