Recent changes to the PLUS federal student aid program should provide last-minute help for families seeking to fund college or graduate school expense this fall. In light of the failure of the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority to secure funding for a new round of college loans, students who were counting on MEFA loans are scrambling to find an alternative. With many banks withdrawing from the education loan marketplace, options for loan funding have been shrinking this year. Read the full article

Last week, state regulators closed down the Columbian Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka, Kansas. It was the ninth bank failure thus far this year, and probably not the last. I've written several posts recently on FDIC insurance of bank accounts and CDs, but many investors have far more money in their retirement and brokerage accounts than they do in banks. Since FDIC doesn’t cover these assets, should you be worried? Read the full article

The latest version of the Case Schiller Home Price Index, updated through the end of the second quarter, shows a continued decline in the broad housing market. Prices remain down versus 2007, but for April, May, and June, there were small increases in the Boston housing price data. At the end of last month, after a second month of small increases, the Boston Globe ran an article suggesting that local housing market may have turned the corner. Is three-month uptick enough to be confident that the end of the bust is in sight? Read the full article

Although I’ve been slow to notice it, I’m now certain that it’s true: our food is shrinking.

More precisely, the companies that sell food and consumables are putting their goods into smaller packages and hoping that we won’t notice. Read the full article

Although gas prices have retreated from their highs, the recent surge over $4/gallon is not yet a distant memory. Gas prices have us thinking more about how much we spend on gas. Does it make sense to trade your car in for a fuel-sipping hybrid? Read the full article

Credit card network facilitator Visa, Inc. announced today that it’s piloting a new system that can provide real-time e-mail or text message notification to a cardholder whenever a card transaction is made. Users will be able to define the minimum transaction amounts required to trigger a message. The system can also send a message whenever other triggering events take place: an internet credit card purchase, an overseas card use, or a telephone transaction, for example. Read the full article

The possibility of further bank failures continues to hover in the air. In a June post I explained that under the right circumstances a depositor can have funds in excess of $100,000 insured by the FDIC in a single bank. For cash-holders with serious assets, there is at least one other way to obtain FDIC insurance for really large sums. Read the full article

For the fifth year in a row, Massachusetts will have a “sales tax holiday” on purchases of many items costing less than $2,500 on August 16-17. The Commonwealth joins fifteen other states and the District of Columbia in this attempt to boost in-state retail sales by exempting purchases from the 5% state sales tax. Read the full article

Jobfox.com, a site that helps match professionals with potential employers, generates a monthly list of the 25 professions most in demand. The site recently released an analysis of twenty professions that have remained in high demand despite the recent slowdown in the economy. Read the full article

The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) announced late last month that it’s unable to raise funds needed to provide fixed-rate private education loans, as it has in the past. Families counting on MEFA loans will be scrambling to find other funds in the next few weeks unless a plan proposed by Governor Deval Patrick succeeds. At the end of the post I offer some last-minute ideas for families who will be facing a funding crunch if MEFA loans do not come through this fall. Read the full article

Today’s post continuues Part 1 with a further explanation of this rapidly-growing alternative to the mutual fund. In my initial post I explained that ETFs

• are created by financial institutions in large blocks that can be freely converted into underlying securities
• are transparent, meaning that the underlying securities are publicly disclosed on a continuous basis
• trade continuously on financial exchanges at prices that generally move closely with the underlying securities
• are generally liquid, reflecting the liquidity of the underlying securities
• are usually (but not necessarily) linked to a securities index
• tend to have low management costs

Read the full article

Several MA cities, towns, and the Mass Turnpike Authority received some investment help from Attorney General Martha Coakley recently. Although it’s often assumed that institutional investors are sophisticated in their understanding of investments, the case initiated and settled by the Massachusetts AG shows that even “big” investors sometimes fail to follow one of the cardinal rules of investing: make sure you understand what you’re investing in. Read the full article

Although most of us are still basking in the joys of summer, winter will be here before we know it. The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute released a report today projecting the impact of increased energy costs on heating bills in Massachusetts over the next couple of years, and the news is pretty bleak. Read the full article

Page 1 of 1

Add to Technorati Favorites
Return to The FFS Blog Home Page

And now, to keep my lawyers happy: This site is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing contained here should be construed by anyone as an invitation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. This site does not contain personalized legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Users of this site should consult with a qualified adviser to obtain advice suited to their personal circumstances. Any links provided here to other web sites are for informational purposes only. We take no responsibility for the accuracy or content of linked sites.

COPYRIGHT THOMAS A. FISHER © 2008 - 2009