Over at “The Big Picture,” money manager and financial writer Barry Ritholtz is known for being a pretty blunt guy. But today he brought to light an article that pretty much destroys what little respect I had left for the National Association of Realtors. Read the full article

Fidelity Investments today released its 4th annual College Savings Indicator study, in which it calculates the percentage of future college costs that parents are prepared to meet. In addition, Fidelity offered guidelines on the amounts that families need to save for college as a % of household income. Read the full article

The Bay State’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today that despite the loss of 6,000 census jobs, the state added a net 13,200 workers to its rolls in July, marking the sixth straight month of employment gains in Massachusetts. Read the full article

Credit cards are convenient and they effortlessly provide a record of every purchase you make. But using a credit card doesn’t feel like spending money. Consequently, it's easier to overspend with one than it is if you only use cash and checks. Unless you constantly monitor your purchases, there’s no easy way to stay aware of how whether your spending out of control. In a few months, though, Citigroup will introduce a credit card that lets you define a monthly cap for different purchase categories: instant budgeting for credit cards. Read the full article

According to a recent analysis of retirement income prospects, Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) have a probability of running out of money in retirement that ranges from 43 to 47 percent, depending on their age cohort. Read the full article

New rules taking effect August 15th mean two things if you have a checking account: (1) you must make explicitly authorize your bank to enroll you in their overdraft plan if you wish to make debit card overdrafts, and (2) expect changes in your bank’s fees and checking account rules in the near future. Read the full article

After taking a one-year hiatus, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is again joining several other states in giving consumers a two-day “sales tax holiday.” Read the full article

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) reports that the number of single-family homes and condominiums placed under agreement in July 2010 was well below last year's level. Read the full article

Owners of small businesses are upbeat about their own chances for success, yet most believe that we will still be in a recession a year from now. Read the full article

This past May, sales of new homes plunged to the lowest levels seen since such data began to be recorded in 1963. June and July sales have been tepid. Are home sales likely to remain in a funk for a few years? Some demographers think it’s likely. Read the full article

About a year ago I noted that a hodgepodge of state laws enabled some parents to keep their post-college-age children covered under an employer-sponsored health plan. This spring the IRS issued new guidelines under the Affordable Care Act allowing employers to provide coverage for children under the age of 27 as a tax-free employee benefit. Read the full article

The death of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner this morning provides his heirs with a huge windfall: an estate with an estimated in excess of one billion dollars, inherited in a year when there is no Federal estate tax. Read the full article

At last, the financial regulatory bill resulting from months of activity in the House and Senate contains language that might result in the implementation of a standard requiring broker-dealers to act as fiduciaries. Read the full article

A report released this month on indicates that while average college debt levels reached $23,200 for the graduating class of 2008, there is an extremely wide range of variation among student debts loads in different parts of the country and at different school. It’s not very enlightening to speak of an “average” college debt when average debt levels at specific institutions vary from $5,000 to $106,000. Read the full article

This past summer I wrote about the novel Macroshares trusts released this year that enable investors to speculate on the direction of housing prices. Earlier this week, MacroMarkets announced that instead of terminating in 2014, the trusts will terminate next week. Read the full article

Last Friday, the House passed the the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a measure hailed as the biggest reform of financial services in half a century. Already, though, some interesting exceptions have been spotted in the bill, which weighs in at 1200-plus pages. The bill does a number of laudable things, including the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee financial products and services. Read the full article

The big guns in the securities industry have expressed a desire for a “harmonized fiduciary standard” for broker-dealers and investment advisers. That sounds good, but as the details emerge, it looks more and more as though this "harmonized" standard is actually a "gutted" standard, tailored for the benefit of large financial companies. Read the full article

I’ve learned from Newstex, which syndicates this blog through its Authoritative Blog Content service, that the FFS Blog's content can now be accessed using an Amazon Kindle. Read the full article

Construction-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar recently announced its willingness to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of charging excessive fees in four of its employee 401(k) plans. Read the full article

Yesterday the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP) held its Fall Economic Conference at the Boston Federal Reserve. Regional economists reported that they expect unemployment in New England to peak next year, despite improvements in the national economic outlook. Read the full article

A recent scholarly paper reveals an interesting conclusion: quite a few hedge fund managers misrepresent the truth about past legal and regulatory problems, performance, or assets under management. Read the full article

Congress just couldn’t resist the urge to give more money away. Read the full article

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left its Federal Funds rate unchanged in a range of zero to 0.25% today; it also gave a few hints as to what would need to happen before it starts raising interest rates. Read the full article

Today I found a nice article at Smartmoney.com that summarizes several indicators that can help you make an educated guess as to whether housing prices in an area are likely to go up. Read the full article

Economists at the University of Massachusetts believe the state’s economy may have bottomed, but the indicators remain ambiguous. Read the full article

Page 1 of 7  1 2 3 >  Last »

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