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Average savings rates moved up slightly in the past week as several banks joined the BestCashCow rate tables with competitive rates. This included a non-promo savings rate at 2% APY. CD Rates held steady with the highest rating being a 5-year CD paying 3.55% APY. All rates are as of 2/22/2010.
Read →Today, many provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act go into effect. The act will change the way banks regulate interest rates, send statements, and more. While good for consumers, banks are already looking for other ways to make up for projected lost revenue.
Read →With the Fed beginning what will likely be a slow road back to more normal intervention in the economy, Treasuries took a beating last week and municipal bonds saw sympathetic, if modest, losses across the yield curve. Still, this meant strong outperformance by tax-exempt paper that, with tax rates likely to go up and BAB-related scarcity likely to worsen or at least persist, may be setting the stage for record richness in tax-exempts over the next year.
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The Smart Money buys Citigroup (C)
Citigroup, once the largest financial services supermarket in the world, has fallen on extraordinarily tough times and is practically insolvent. That hasn't deterred some of the world's smartest and wealthiest hedge fund managers buying up the stock in droves. What's driving this massive buying spree?
Read →These are the lengths some people will go through to get their house ready for the bank to take it back. This is a unique case involving tax liens, a family feud, and more. But in the end, this guy would rather demolish his house than let the bank have it.
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Five Ways to Boost the Value of Your Home
With the number of potential home buyers looking for new homes these days, it could be the perfect time to sell. Here are some things you can do to improve your home and increase its selling value.
Read →Rebuilding your credit can be difficult. But there are some ways you can increase your credit score these days. Credit cards for people with bad credit are one way to accomplish this goal.
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Malcolm Gladwell and your Personal Finances
Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point is a popular read at the moment, gracing many of the world's best seller lists. What exactly is Gladwell talking about and what is there to learn from a financial perspective about this "talk of the town"?
Read →The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to a 10-week low, moving from 4.97% to 4.93% according to data from Freddie Mac. This differs from the BestCashCow averages where the average 30-year fixed mortgage rose from 5.015% to 5.031%. This divergence continues to reflect market uncertainty as 30-year rates vacillate around the 5% range.
Read →Palladian Private Bank, a division of The PrivateBank and Trust Co. is offering a very competitive 1.70% APY savings account rate and a 12-month CD paying 1.90% APY.
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Prem Watsa: The "New Warren Buffett"
Prem Watsa and Fairfax Financial Holdings are not very well-known outside of Canada. Here's why this business is relevant to all conservative investors and is worth watching.
Read →In any era where consumer electronics is a zero sum game for everyone but Apple, Dell looks especially horrible.
Read →As Akio Toyoda gives in to pressure to testify before the House Oversight Committee, it appears that Toyota is entering a death spiral.
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