Would you risk moving into your new home before closing? Here is the situation: a friend of mine separated from her husband and needed to get into something rather quickly. She was fortunate to be able to move in with family members while the dust settled. She lives in Denver, Colorado and quickly realized that decent rentals were very pricey. In fact, she literally could buy a home for less money than the current prices of rentals.

She found a condo that was ready to move in without any major renovations necessary. The owner was very motivated as he was moving out of the country to be with his new love….that’s another story!

He allowed her to move into his condo and paint to her liking before the actual closing of the house. I’m sure you can see the inherent risks in my friends moving into this condo before closing. For instance, the seller could change their mind and she would be out in the cold. All the improvements she is making could be all for naught and I’m sure there may be other things that haven’t even been thought about!

Well, she moved in today and the closing is scheduled for the end of this month. To complicate matters-she found out last week that her employer is going to cut everyone’s salary in the next 30 days. Fortunately, she is already pre-approved for the loan but this factor could really make it a tight squeeze for her. She desperately wants the safety and security that a home can provide but she remains cautiously optimistic.

Would you move into a home before closing? Do you know others that have made the move before closing? Please share your thoughts!

I had dinner with a friend of mine last night. She is a part time student in college and also holds down a job as a waitress. She doesn’t have a bank account and keeps all her cash at home….Recently her apartment complex was broken into and she lost her emergency saving stash of $3000.00!

For her, that’s a huge amount and she has what she believes are legitimate reasons for not having it in a bank, money market or stock account. I didn’t want to pursue her options at the time because she was so upset. But, what about using that money to buy a MasterCard Gift Card, American Express or anything that might protect her from robbery!

I’m guessing that she is worried about paying taxes but the amount of taxes would be inconsequential compared to losing the entire $3000!

Do you have friends who are off the financial grid? What do they do to protect their money?

I’m a stock picker and never buy mutual funds but I do occasionally buy ETF’s if I don’t have a better idea at the time. I saw this article in Yahoo Finance called Early ETF Stars of 2012

You may want to peruse this list if you are looking for some ideas and general market themes. Some of these are pretty interesting! Here are the top 10:

1. Van Eck India Small-Cap Index (SCIF) 30.13%

The booming Indian economy has begun to attract assets. This ETF is made up of over 120 individual holdings. Take a look and maybe invest on a pull back.

2. Global X Uranium (URA) 26.86%

Interesting results- a little too concentrated for me but I’m surprised at how well these bad boys have done.

3. VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term (XIV) 26.42%

The end of the year turned out to do well for this ETF. Keep your eye on this during these volatile markets.

4. Guggenheim Solar (TAN) 18.63

This is a surprise to me! There are 35 companies in this ETF but does it have the strength to hold up during the year.

5. Van Eck Egypt Index (EGPT) 18.53%

How about these results-for Egypt!! This ETF consists of 30 stocks. Very speculative but good to see this economy is coming back.

6. UBS E-Tracs ISE Solid State Drive Index (SSDD) 18.15%

This ETF worked well with with all the bullish sentiment sweeping over Wall Street! The intent of this ETF is to round out investors exposure to technology by investing in the booming solid state drive market.

7. Barclays iPath Dow Jones-UBS Tin Total Return Sub-Index (JJT) 17.2%

Who would of thought-Tin is ahead of Copper and Aluminum prices!This is ja small ETF and very concentrated but it may make sense for a portion of your portfolio.

8. UBS E-Tracs Long Platinum (PTM) 17.0%

Platinum has been one of the leaders for precious metals over concerns of inflation and increasing industrial demand. Very concentrated fund so watch carefully if you go all in!

9. EG Shares Industrial GEMS (IGEM) 16.89%

This fund tracks the 30 largest emerging market companies in the industrials sector and features heavy allocations to China, Indonesia, Sough Africa, Malaysia and Mexico-nice emerging growth coverage.

10. First Trust BICK Index Fund (BICK) 16.23%

This fund bets that emerging markets are still steaming with action. Depending on what happens In Europe, this ETF could continue to produce decent results.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully this will give you some food for thought for your portfolio. Have you used ETF’s? Let me know if you have used any of these to help you in your investments.

Jeff Rose is a 33 year old financial planner. He is fixated on trying to improve his credit score even though it’s 780. He opened up a second credit card last year to establish another line of credit and help boost his score. He said he doesn’t exactly know what actions will help or hurt his score, so wants to get it above 800 to ensure he gets the best rate if he refinances his mortgage….Jeff, chill out

According to Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com :

Those efforts may be futile because once consumers have FICO credit scores of 760, a higher one doesn’t mean they’ll get better interest rates on mortgages and credit card offers.

There’s very little incremental benefit to getting a score above that. It’s a lot more difficult to move the score up in any noticeable way, and little reward.

Consumers with scores from 750 to 800 who want higher numbers should continue what theyre doing, just for a longer period of time, said FICO’s Paperno. That means continuing to pay bills on time, keeping a low amount of debt relative to available credit and not opening accounts unless needed, he said.

It seems to me that many companies are capitalizing on the ignorance and fear around credit scores; to make a lot of money….

Flexo has a good post called Increase Your Credit Score  for those seeking more advice.

You can read the entire article on Credit Score Zealots here.

Do you know associates who have become fixated on their credit score?

Unfortunately, JD over at Get Rich Slowly has a post called A Place of My Own. Having done this journey several years ago; it really struck a cord with me. I thought I’d share some insights and hopefully good advice to those who may face this wretched experience!

What happened between the two is irrelevant and I’m glad he chose not to elaborate. I like how things are going so far. He states:

Kris and I are working together to build the best possible relationship going forward. We want to remain close friends.

Kudos to both of them for choosing this path!  Read more »

Do you need a new gig or are curious what to pursue in College? According to EMC becoming a data scientist may just be the ticket to your financial success.

Some 63% of data scientist say the profession is going to be undermanned for the foreseeable future-and half of those see it as a serious shortage. In particular, the explosive growth of sensors-the so called “physical Internet”-will provide organizations with an unprecedented wealth of data.

So, where’s the opportunity? Only 1/3 respondents in the study were very condident in their company’s ability to make business decions based on new data.

Data is the new oil, according to Andreas Weigend, Head of the Social Data Lab at Stanford.

You can read the complete story on Data Scientist here.

We’ve all experienced times when we just can’t sleep and are not on top of our game the next day-sound familiar? For me, if I’m tired day after day it’s hard for me to concentrate on financial opportunities. I’m focusing on the lack of sleep and it’s very hard to get to that state of mind where I look around and see an abundance of financial opportunities!

There are many remedies and basic things we all can do to increase deeper sleep and I was intrigued when I saw this article about the Renew SleepClock by Gear4. Read more »

Here’s a great inspirational post on mortgage debt-the elimination of such debt! It’s written by Crystal and the article is called: Mortgage Payoff Update. If you’re pondering throwing more resources towards your current mortgagee-this is a great read!

We’re all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find some one who’s weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

Alex Gery quotes Dr. Suess

PS We just hope that their financial goals are compatible with ours

Who Can You Help?

I took a friend to lunch Friday and discovered that she has not the slightest idea how to start investing in the stock market. She is 22, single, part time student and works part time. Her family never talked about money and since she is a waitress, she has never been exposed to 401-k’s. She is not the lone ranger; think about how many people may opt out of working for corporations after graduation-we could have a lost generation of investors because no one mentored them. This is where all Personal Financial Bloggers can help-You have heard of the day once a year called Take Your Child to Work? I propose we take a friend to Scottrade or whatever firm you feel comfortable with!

So, this week I’m taking my friend to lunch and then to Scottrade to show her the ropes. Think about this: if you have never had any exposure to the financail world you may have many questions such as:

• How much money do I need to start with
• Does the firm accept cash
• How do I make subsequent deposits
• Should I have my boyfriend/girlfriend on the account with me
• What documents are needed to open an account
• What’s best, stocks, mutual funds, ETF’s or options

The whole process can be very overwhelming and extremely intimidating. I feel obligated to pay it forward and show someone my world and the financial riches that it can bring down the road.

I hope you’ll join me in this effort and take some one under your wing and expost them to a very confusing and potentially very rewarding world.

Do you have additional suggestions on how we can help our friends?