Wednesday, June 9, 2010

“Suze Orman resting after emergency appendectomy at Northwestern Hospital - Chicago Sun-Times” plus 3 more

“Suze Orman resting after emergency appendectomy at Northwestern Hospital - Chicago Sun-Times” plus 3 more

Suze Orman resting after emergency appendectomy at Northwestern Hospital - Chicago Sun-Times

Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:30 PM PDT

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Personal finance guru Suze Orman is resting at a Chicago hotel after having emergency appendectomy surgery over the weekend, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Orman, a Chicago native who has a show on CNBC, as well as being a regular contributor to Oprah Winfrey's magazine and TV show, had to have her appendix removed while in Chicago over the weekend, according to spokeswoman Kristin Bouton.

PHOTO GALLERY

Suze Orman


The surgery was performed Saturday night at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, she said. A hospital spokeswoman was unable to confirm the information, saying Orman's name was not listed on a patient database.

Orman was released from the hospital Tuesday and has been resting in a Chicago hotel before going back home to Florida, Bouton said. "She'll be taking a couple days to recover" before leaving, she said.

Orman grew up on the South Side, earned a bachelor's degree in social work at the University of Illinois, according to her bio. At the age of 30 she was a waitress making $400 a month. Since then she has become a best-selling author, Emmy-winning TV show host, magazine and online columnist, and motivational speaker.

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Six personal-finance tips for college graduates - Biloxi Sun Herald

Posted: 05 Jun 2010 08:54 PM PDT

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That makes it challenging for grads to save money as they pay off debt — the two most important factors in building financial security — but it's not impossible.

"Carving out money to save is good and is a habit that once you start, you'll benefit from for as long as you keep it up," said Dan O'Malley, chief executive of PerkStreet, an online bank.

The numbers tell the story, O'Malley said. If you invested $10,000 on your 21st birthday and didn't add anything to it except a constant rate of return of 7 percent, you'd have $196,000 in the bank by the time you retired. Wait till your 35th birthday and that money pot is a measly $76,000 because of the 14 years of lost interest.

Here's your first financial tip: Put 10 percent or more of your income into long-term savings.

"Make sure you save," O'Malley said. "It just grows and grows and grows. And get into any kind of matching program with an employer."

Here are five other must-do tips:

n Make a budget. You can't save for a car, a house or the future if you don't know how much you're making and spending. There are plenty of online sites like Mint.com or Kiplinger.com that offer budgeting tools. LearnVest.com has a 2010 college grad financial survival guide.

n Don't spend money you don't have. That is, live within your means. If you can take public transportation, for example, don't buy a car. If you can comfortably and peacefully live at home with your parents for a while, do it.

n Consolidate school loans. Many students will be graduating with a handful of them that should be rolled together with one interest rate attached to it.

n Build your credit history carefully. It is tough to get on in this world without a credit card but it doesn't mean you have to use it wildly. Use it only when you have to, like to rent a car or pay a hotel bill, and pay it off every month. Your payment history is the most important element of your credit score, accounting for 35 percent of your score. See story about the secrets to keeping your credit score high.

n Have a health-care plan. Figure out when your coverage ends and be sure you have another one lined up. A new law that goes into effect in September will allow you to stay on or return to your parents' health insurance plan until you turn 26.

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HelloWallet Announces Massive Increase in Savings ... - Yahoo Finance

Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:52 PM PDT

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WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HelloWallet, an independent personal finance guidance website dedicated to helping people reach their financial goals, announced today that it has dramatically increased its database of financial products that the service reviews and recommends to consumers. While "free" personal finance websites recommend products from banks that pay the site to push their products, HelloWallet's independent approach allows it to recommend whichever savings product best benefits the user. An audit of the "free" personal finance sites found that deposit price information for a maximum of 21 banks was available to consumers; compared to price information of about 10,600 financial institutions found at HelloWallet. Additionally, the audit found that the average customer who benefited from HelloWallet's expanded database increased their annual savings 48% over "free" personal finance management sites that push products for banks.

According to Brookings Institution research, American families lose an estimated $100 billion annually due to avoidable financial missteps. HelloWallet helps users track and proactively manage their personal finances to maximize savings and avoid potential threats. Because HelloWallet does not allow banks to advertise or promote products on its website, its trusted recommendations are not influenced by any business interests.

"Today's announcement shines a spotlight on how expensive "free" money management websites can be for consumers," said Matt Fellowes, CEO and Founder of HelloWallet and former Fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Of the 130,000 possible products that we look at to help Americans maximize their savings, our competitors offer a maximum of 22, almost all from a bank that is paying them to push their products to users. We're proud that our bottom line is the financial success of our customers, and not how many bank products we've pushed on our customers. As the last two years have shown, that model is dangerous for consumers, financial institutions, and the country."

HelloWallet also offers products from a much broader range of institutions compared to free sites, including credit unions, community banks, and national banks, increasing a user's opportunity to find a great interest rate. "In the world of personal finance there is no doubt that independence from banks means more choices and savings opportunities," said Fellowes.

HelloWallet earns revenue from member subscriptions, which allows it to remain independent from the financial institutions it provides recommendations about. After a 60-day free trial, HelloWallet users pay $5 per-month for the service. HelloWallet has also pledged to give a free subscription to one needy family for every five of the site's paying members, and has worked with Rockefeller Foundation to identify those households.

Since its formation in 2008, HelloWallet's team of consumer finance experts have focused on developing a technology platform that enables the site to save the average consumer $600 per year. The product helps users set and reach specific financial short- and long-term goals for important life milestones including buying a home, saving for retirement, reducing debt safely, and saving for college. For example, HelloWallet stores tuition information for nearly every college and university across the country, and models the tuition out to a users' expected enrollment date. The service is then able to make specific recommendations for the best approach to educational savings, on an individual basis.

About HelloWallet

HelloWallet is the most powerful online, independent financial guidance service in the United States. Its members are provided with customized financial plans, 24/7 personal money management and monitoring, and an individualized bank shopper service, which looks at 130,000 different financial products to find better prices for its members. HelloWallet also proactively identifies financial health threats and savings opportunities for its members, helping them avoid costly financial missteps and make sustainable improvements in their financial health.

HelloWallet is available directly to consumers as well as through our institutional partners, which collectively represent over 3.5 million people. Its commitment to democratize access to trustworthy, sophisticated financial guidance has been widely honored, including at the Clinton Global Initiative's 2009 Annual Meeting. More information is available at www.hellowallet.com.

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HelloWallet Attacks Mint.com - New York Times Blogs

Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:52 PM PDT

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When HelloWallet debuted in March, it characterized itself as an independent alternative to Mint.com that could perform more functions.

While Mint focuses primarily on helping users budget and track their money, HelloWallet said it could do that and also recommend customized financial plans for everything from saving for college to saving for a house.

Now, HelloWallet is upping the rhetoric against its competitor by attacking Mint's primary source of revenue and accusing it of pushing bank products.

In a release Wednesday, HelloWallet said that in contrast to "'free' personal finance websites" that "recommend products from banks that pay the site to push their products," its "independent approach allows it to recommend whichever savings product best benefits the user."

Earlier this week, a public relations representative for HelloWallet had characterized the upcoming release as "an announcement that will expose how Mint.com is peddling bank products to the detriment of its users." When asked Wednesday which parts of the release refer to Mint, the spokeswoman responded in an e-mail that while "no specific parts in the release refer directly to Mint.com… it is clear that Mint.com is currently the leading 'free' personal finance offering." She said the response could be attributed to Matt Fellowes, chief executive officer and founder of HelloWallet and a former Brookings Institution consumer finance scholar.

While free to consumer users, Mint makes money by collecting referral fees from some of the banking products it suggests to its users. It bases those recommendations on customers' spending patterns and the products and services they currently use. HelloWallet, meanwhile, collects revenue from $5 monthly subscription fees, so it is positioning itself as more independent than Mint.

Mint, a behemoth in the budgeting software space with nearly two million unique monthly visitors, did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. And it's interesting to note that HelloWallet's subscription model seems similar to the one Intuit tried for Quicken Online before dropping the subscription fee and buying Mint last year.

In addition to the claim that Mint.com is pushing products for banks, HelloWallet also said Wednesday that it has price information for about 10,600 financial institutions on its site, compared with deposit information for only up to about 20 banks on "'free' personal finance sites," a statistic from its own audit of the competition.

When I asked why HelloWallet is seeking to publicize itself by attacking Mint.com, the spokeswoman passed along a response attributable to Mr. Fellowes that "we are not singling out any one company but rather are trying to raise awareness about the fact that 'free sites' are not necessarily free" and that "working with a company that has a business model that is entirely based on pushing bank products to consumers from a small set of national banks is concerning" for a number of reasons. The response also compared the free model to "walking into a used car dealer" and the independent model to shopping for a car with your uncle.

What do you think of HelloWallet's strategy of taking direct aim at Mint?

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