An interesting opportunity to get full-quality major software company retail money management, budgeting, and small business accounting software for free is now in affect. Microsoft has decided to get out of the financial software business, in effect ceding the market to Intuit and its Quicken and QuickBooks software products. However, thousands of copies of Microsoft Money software are installed by users all over the world, and they depend upon Microsoft Money to manage their finances on the computer. Just abandoning these users would be bad business strategy, so Microsoft has released a new free version of Microsoft Money for download.
Unlike earlier versions of Microsoft Money, the newest version of MS Money does not have any online functionality. These kind of automatic Internet links to bank accounts and brokerage accounts require frequent updating and the company doesn’t want to get stuck doing that forever. Instead, Microsoft has released the last version of Microsoft Money called the Sunset edition. This version of Money contains all the functionality of the full-price retail version of the MS Money except for that online connectivity.
The sunset edition is stand-alone software, meaning that it no longer links to anything. For some users this might be a drawback, but for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for a way to manage their finances and handle basic business accounting, this is great news.
Microsoft has released sunset versions of all MS Money editions including Microsoft Money Home and Business. That means that small business owners can download and install Microsoft’s full small business edition of Money and use it forever for free. Keeping track of business expenses, invoices, and even small business tax deductions is all a snap with MS Money Home and Business.
The only reason I haven’t used something like it for a long time in order to handle my freelance writing business‘s finances is because I did not want to pay for full version software, mostly because both Money and Quicken require you to keep paying for the software in order to keep getting the required updates. It would be one thing if not updating the software left you with only your current functionality (after all, there is no such thing as a free lunch), but these financial management software packages come with time bombs that eventually render them useless even if you don’t use the new functionality or features.
Of course, the excuse for this Quicken and QuickBooks scam is that it is for our own good because they don’t want us relying on out of date information. They have a point, but if you are savvy about money management, you don’t really rely on the generic advice provided by your computer software anyway, so it stinks for us.
That is what makes this once in a lifetime opportunity to get financial software free from a major vendor such a great deal. While Microsoft Money will never be updated again, it will also never be expired either. That means that once you get all of your MS Money accounts setup and working the way you want to, you can keep using them as long as you would like.
Even if you don’t have a small business, if you are even considering ever starting up a business you should download the MS Money Home and Business Sunset Edition. It has all the same functionality and features as Microsoft Money Sunset Edition Home edition plus the features needed for small business owners. If you don’t have a small business yet, just don’t create a business account with Microsoft Money and it will work just like the regular personal version. Just keeping track of equipment and taking the Section 179 Deduction for business will make it worth your effort.
It’s free, so get the best edition you can. You might need it some day, because this simple small business accounting software could last you a long time.
The old maxim, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is,” holds up especially well in the world of personal finance. The concept of getting free credit scores has been mined by con-artists and scammers repeatedly. Unfortunately, most of these scams are perpetrated by well known companies and by the credit reporting bureaus themselves.
The free credit score scam usually goes like this. A company offers to give you a “free” credit score. To get your free score you have to sign up. If you don’t read every word on the screen or printed on the page very carefully (especially the ones in fine print), you might think that you are just signing up to get a free credit score. Gotcha!
What you are actually signing up for is a “free” trial membership in the company’s credit monitoring service. The trial is free for 30 days, or 90 days, but at the end of the free trial, you automatically subscribe to the fully paid subscription. This is why you had to enter a credit card number when you signed up. If they actually had to collect money from you at the end of your free trial, everyone would say, “No thanks.” Instead, they use that credit card to automatically bill you. Most of the time, they bill you for the whole year, in advance, all at once. That way, by the time you notice it on your credit card bill, it is too late for you to back out and get a full refund and since there is no way you want to legitimately subscribe to the service, they get you for 12 months instead of one month.
Worst of all, is that they will automatically renew your subscription when it expires, so 12 months later when you’ve forgotten all about how they screwed you over in the first place, they can do it all over again. It stinks of fraud, but all of the “disclosures” are made (again in tiny print, or buried in a six-page document), so technically it passes legal muster.
Transunion, Equifax, and Experian all pull this marketing scam on their own websites, right next to the part where they try to trick you into getting your “free” credit report that isn’t really free either.
Don’t forget you can get a real free credit report every 12 months (that’s once a year) by law. Don’t ever pay or subscribe to something to get your legitimate free credit report.
Tip: If you have to enter a credit card number, you are getting scammed. Real free credit reports DO NOT require you to enter a credit card number at all.
Free Credit Report from Credit Karma Scam Too?
Knowing all of this about how credit scores work and how credit repair scams an the like go down, I ignored the offer of “free” credit scores from Credit Karma. Scam, scam, scam, I thought.
But, then, I read a write-up about Credit Karma by a financial journalist that I happen to trust and respect. (It is a very small club.) That got me wondering about how it could be true that Credit Karma gives you your credit score for free.
With a legitimate financial writer’s endorsement in mind, I decided to try out Credit Karma. However, I did it very warily.
First, I signed up for a new email address to use so that I would know if Credit Karma sold my email address or spammed it with credit card offers.
Next, I obtained a one-time use online credit card number from one of my credit cards and set the amount to $1 (the lowest allowed) and the expiration to the next month (the shortest allowed.)
Then, I went to Credit Karma’s website at www.creditkarma.com
(There is no link, because I want readers to know that I do not get any sort of kickback, payment, or referral bonus for this review of Credit Karma. – If an advertisement shows up on this page I would get something if you clicked on it. However, I do not control those ads. I have no idea if there will be one or not. As always, the ads help pay for the real world financial advice we give out, but they are not endorsed, screened, or vetted in anyway.)
Is Credit Karma a scam for free credit scores? Let’s find out.
Figuring out what the best thing to do with your money is can be difficult. Many people get caught up in all of the possibilities. They wonder is it wise to pay off your house mortgage? Should they pay off credit cards or put higher down payment on a new home? Should I pay off my car loan with home equity loan? Is it better to pay off your house or keep the money? And, most of all, should I pay my house off at retirement.
We have discussed if it is smart to pay off your home early before.
Unless paying off your home still leaves you with a sizable amount of cashable assets, the answer usually is not what you think. For people without substantial assets remaining after paying off the mortgage, owning your house free and clear does nothing but trap a lot of money where you can’t get it, inside your house. Financial professionals call the equity in your home that you are not going to sell “dead equity.”
Here is what to do with your assets before you pay off your mortgage, and also, a quick look at understanding the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage.
Reverse Mortgage Mythology
The first thing out of many people’s mouth when they come to see me with a ton of equity and no retirement savings is “reverse mortgage.” Sometime in the next decade you’ll see a major government campaign to clear up the misconceptions around reverse mortgages as more and more baby boomers find themselves unable to support themselves because they were counting on a reverse mortgage.
For a sobering reality check visit the AARP Reverse Mortgage Calculator (Stay off of other reverse mortgage web sites. This subject is an area full of scams and con-artists. Searching for “reverse mortgage” is a recipe for disaster.)
The guys in our example above can get between $150,000 and $200,000 in a reverse mortgage if the owners are 75. Want one at 65? As low as $65,000. Keep in mind that once you take a reverse mortgage, you are no longer the owner of the home for borrowing purposes, so you CANNOT get a home equity loan of any kind after you get a reverse mortgage. How long do you think $65,000 will last in retirement?
What To Do?
Obviously since this is an article on the psychology of money, I am well aware that you might want to pay off your mortgage anyway. If so, here is the smart way to go about it.
- Cash Reserve – If you don’t have 6 months worth of expenses in a non-retirement account (not a 401(k) or IRA) then save money into a money market account first. Only after you have six months worth of savings should you consider paying off your mortgage.
- Worse Loans – If you have ANY OTHER kind of loan you are better off paying it off first. Most important is to pay off all credit card debt. That’s right, all. Every cent. If you have any credit card debt you are an idiot for sending extra money to your mortgage. I can’t be any plainer than that. Be sure to maximize the credit cards you do have by taking advantage of credit card reward programs like the Capital One rewards and Citibank rewards. Also, pay off student loans and car loans first. Don’t bother paying off a car lease. With most leases you pay all the interest whether you pay it off early or not, so don’t bother.
- Retirement – If you are not saving at least 10% of your salary into your 401(k), then do not send extra money to your mortgage. Instead, increase your contribution to your 401(k). You will need an account built up of many years worth of 10% savings in order to retire comfortably and PAY FOR YOUR HOUSE’s non-mortgage expenses. If you get a lump sum of money, then put it in a money market account, increase your 401(k) contribution and use withdrawals from the money market account to make up the shortfall in your paycheck. By the way, if you are over 50 and your 401(k) balance isn’t north of $300,000 then go 15% ASAP and don’t bother with the mortgage.
- Major Expenses – Don’t be near sighted. Scan the horizon for major up-coming expenses. Want to know where to look? Try a glance at your kids first. How many years until college? Are you where you want to be for helping them out? If Annie is 16 years old and you have an extra $20,000 do you think the smart move is to pay $20,000 on your mortgage today and then get a $20,000 home equity loan in 2 years? (The answer is no.)
- Does Another Option Sound Safe Too? – Many people who pay off their mortgage do so because it sounds “safe”. Ask yourself if anything else would make you feel just as safe. For example, if you had a $200,000 mortgage and $100,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds would that make you feel safe? (Savings Bonds are garbage by the way, it was just an example.)
- Feel O.K. About Paying in Chunks? – Most people pay off their mortgage early by sending extra money in with their payments. I myself round up to the next $100 just because it makes me feel good and it doesn’t have any overall impact. But, if you are sending an extra $500 or $1,000 a month consider the “Big Extra Payment” strategy. Instead of sending an extra $1,000 to the mortgage company, put it in a money market account. Wait 15 or 20 months. Now, if you still want to pay early on your mortgage you can send in $15,000 or $20,000 all at once. The interest you pay in the meantime will be equalized by the amount you earned on the savings. This way, if something happens, say in month 13, you’ll have $13,000 that you can replace the roof with (or whatever) instead of scrambling to come up with the dough.
Discipline Anyone?
Tons of people proudly tell me how they claim less withholdings on their W-4 than they have to because then they get a big refund when they do their taxes. You’ve heard all about how this is a dumb strategy because it’s the same thing as giving the government and interest free loan. They do it anyway. Why?
For most people an extra $200 in their paycheck is something they just spend without ever noticing. But, $2,400 all at once is something that they would do something smart with. For these people, the “forced savings” plan of low-balling your W-4 withholdings is the only way they’ll ever save money. I suppose it is better than nothing.
A similar kind of person likes the idea of paying off their mortgage early for the same reason. The theory is that if they saved $500 a month, then eventually they would notice $5,000 in the bank and they would blow it on a vacation or a car. Instead, if they send $500 a month to the mortgage company then they won’t have that extra money so they won’t spend it.
You know yourself better than anyone else and if this describes you then by all means, do what works for you. I’m the first one to say that financial planning is about more than the math. It’s about what will actually work. So, send the extra money to your mortgage company, but do yourself a favor and see if you can’t work on building the financial savvy and discipline that would help you in the long run. Maybe send $400 to the mortgage company and save $100. Put the $100 someplace it’s harder to get to like at a bank a four-hour drive away. Don’t setup online access and cut up the ATM card the second you get it. Then, that $100 will build up and you won’t be able to spend it on a whim. With the extra time to think about it, you might just find that you have the discipline after all.
Good Luck
If you do manage to pay off your house, congratulations. It is a noble goal and I am not speaking against it. In fact, the best retirement planning I do is for people with their house paid off. But, it has to be that they have their house paid off AND they have significant savings. Planning for someone with no mortgage and $700,000 is a joy. Trying to squeeze a budget out of $250,000 even with no mortgage is an exercise in bargain shopping and cutting down to the bare necessities.
Just understand that there are many factors to be taken into consideration. Once you have looked at all the factors, then pay the darn thing off. I’ll be the first to shake your hand.
When it comes to protecting your privacy online, nothing is more important than a good browser data clearing tool. Deleting your cookies through a web browser’s interface hasn’t been good enough for a long time.
Fortunately, utilities like CCleaner and Glary Utilities as well as Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions fill the need to completely clear your private data from browser cache, flash cookies, and so on.
What we need now is a way to manually and selectively protect certain cookies from cleaning.
A lot of banks and financial institutions are requiring users to take an extra step when accessing their account information from a new computer that has never accessed the site before. For example, Chase Bank, which handles the Amazon Rewards Visa Card, requires users to get an authentication code via text message or email to one of the numbers or addresses on record with the account in order to log in from a new computer.
Bank Login Register Computer First
Online banking customers at ING have to answer one or more of their extra security questions in order to access their high-interest online savings account or online checking account.
This extra layer of security helps prevent hackers from gaining access to your account even if they have your username and password. That makes this extra security precaution a welcome addition for most users.
However, neither banking customers nor credit card companies are interested in making it harder to manage your finances online. After successfully completing the extra security checks, users can "register" the computer that they are using so that they do not have to go through the additional security levels the next time they access the website. This registration occurs by the website placing a cookie on the computer that is used to validate the machine during future login attempts.
Unfortunately, these cookies, like all others, are wiped clean by the best privacy tools resulting in the user having to go through the whole process again.
There are ways around the issue. Everything from creating a separate profile or using a different browser to access financial data can work, but they represent an unnecessary extra step when all you want to do is check your checking balance to ensure that you don’t end up with any high overdraft protection fees from your debit card.
A better solution would be for developers to incorporate a vault or protect option in their products whereby a user could manually protect specific cookies through the program interface. To protect abuse, cookies should not be allowed to be added programmatically, or via API, or clicking on a web-based button or JavaScript.
The first solid privacy utility available with a cookie protection feature will be my new top choice for protecting private data online.
Amazon Rewards Visa Credit Cards
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Credit cards that offer rewards, points and miles for every dollar you spend shopping are a great way to maximize your rate of return on your every day spending expenditures. However, in order to make credit card rewards pay off it is very important to get the right rewards credit card. Finding out which reward credit card program is best takes a little bit of research. One of the most important factors in choosing the right rewards card is picking one that you will actually use both for spending and for redeeming points and miles for rewards. There is no sense in getting a Capital One Rewards credit card for free travel if you never really fly anywhere.
A top credit card rewards offer for people who don’t travel a lot is the Amazon.com Rewards Card which offers cardholders points for every dollar spent on a wide variety of purchases. Instead of redeeming points for free plane tickets, Amazon credit card users get free gift certificates to Amazon.com
Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card from Chase
The Amazon credit card rewards program comes with a lot of advantages for card holders with good credit scores. New customers looking for a credit card for people with bad credit or credit cards for people with recent bankruptcy might have to look elsewhere though.
New Amazon rewards card holders get $30 cash back with their first purchase on the Amazon Visa card.
Amazon rewards members earn points for every dollar spent on the card.
The big earnings come from shopping at Amazon.com which is not surprising. Cardholders earn 3 points for every dollar spent on amazon.com. In addition, credit card holders earn double points, or 2 points for every dollar spent at gas stations, restaurants and drug stores. All other places like grocery stores, bookstores, and clothing stores earn 1 point for every dollar spent.
Is Amazon Reward Card Worth It?
The best credit card reviews include not just the credit cards interest rate and whether or not the card has an annual fee, but also the value of the rewards offers and what is included in the credit card rewards catalog.
The Amazon.com Visa card is a great credit card to review because it is so easy to examine the card’s overall value.
The top value of Amazon Rewards Visa comes when you use the card a lot on Amazon.com.
The main item in the Amazon rewards catalog is a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate for 2,500 points. Other rewards in the rewards point chart are $50 cash back for 5,000 points. That makes the Amazon Visa a top value in credit cards issued by U.S. Banks.
If you spent all of our money on the Amazon credit card, earning 2,500 points would take spending just $833.33. That makes a best cash back value reward of $50 cash back for every $833 of purchases. The cash back percentage on the Amazon.com Visa card at this level equals 6% cash back on purchases made at Amazon.com. That is one of the highest cash back offers of any credit card. It is higher than cash back from Fidelity credit card and higher than the cash back rewards in the Citibank rewards catalog.
Of course, the cash back value declines with each dollar spent somewhere other than Amazon, but for heavy shoppers at Amazon this card is a great value.
