Articles by Wilfrid Baptiste on ArticleSnatch.com

Free Online Tools To Help With Your Budget

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to finally make a budget and stick with it. In many cases, the people who are making those resolutions are finally realizing that they're not going to get anywhere financially until they take care of their money and figure out where it's going. After all, how can you cut unnecessary spending if you have absolutely no idea what you do with your money once it lands in your account? The good thing about the Internet is that it often provides us with tools that are free to use, whereas just a few years ago, we would have had to pay for the same privilege. Here's a partial list of free tools that can help you get your financial house in order, at no cost to you Quicken Online. Formerly available as a subscription ($3 a month), this software is now absolutely free. **End Summary** Topics: free budget software]]> home budgeting software]]> free online budget tools]]> online budgeting]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Find more details on free budget software and home budgeting programs , visit my personal finance blog .

Girl Power Rules In The Investing World

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

There's no shadow of a doubt that the investing world is dominated by men. Yet in this decidedly male-centric world, the female approach to investing is what makes the best investors who they are. Take Warren Buffet for example. By now, almost everyone knows about Warren Buffett and he's widely considered as the most successful investor of all time. But what is it about his approach to investing that makes him such a great investor? Is he constantly buried in the stock market news? Is he constantly on the phone with a stockbroker, furiously buying and selling? I was reading recently that testosterone levels play a part in stock market success. Of course, the study says that too much testosterone is not good either. Yet, while I'm no authority on the subject, I feel compelled to be kind of skeptical. All the "investing greats" have advocated the research, buy, and hold method. John Templeton, Peter Lynch, Warren Buffett, they all have the same core principles for success. A look at Warren Buffett's moves reveals three things. He's patient and does thorough research on every company he's contemplating buying into. If he doesn't understand the business, he doesn't invest in it. **End Summary** Topics: women and investing]]> stock market investing]]> warren buffett]]> stock market success]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Learn more about stock market success and beginners stock market investing by visiting my personal finance blog

Put Your Credit Card Away And Get Your Free Credit Report

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

It's pretty safe to say that by now almost everybody in America that even remotely pays an interest to their credit knows that they're entitled to a credit report report every year from each of the three credit bureaus. That law was voted in 2005, to protect the consumers and give them the possibility of keeping track of their credit history without necessarily having to pay for it. What the legislators probably didn't anticipate, is that this law would create a whole new industry based on the false promise of a free credit report. It seems that instead of empowering the consumer, this law has instead created more confusion. There are so many companies out there advertising free credit reports, but as it turns out, you always have to hand out your credit card information! I don't know about you, but anytime I'm asked for my credit card information, I know there's a payment coming down the line. And if there's a payment, how can the thing be advertised as free? As it turns out, it's a free trial for a credit monitoring service, where the free credit report is the lure that draws unsuspecting customers in. **End Summary** Topics: credit report]]> free annual credit report]]> credit score]]> credit monitoring]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Get more information on the no trial offer to get your free credit report by visiting my personal finance blog .

Paying With Plastic Makes You Spend More

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Paying for your purchases with a debit or credit card, or even with a gift card, really feels different from paying with cold hard cash. In a way, it can even be said that it's so painless that you might come to think that you're not spending real money. Alas, besides the form of payment, there's really no difference, as the debits to your bank account (in the case of debit cards) and the charges to your outstanding balance (in the case of credit cards) will turn real in no time. Even worse, if you overdraw your bank account, or carry a hefty balance from month to month on your credit card, the various charges and fees that might hit you can case serious financial pain. Technology can be a really wonderful thing and more often than not it there comes a time when you have no choice but to bow to it. Even people who had sworn they would never have a credit card had to come to their senses when came the time to rent a car. **End Summary** Topics: credit card]]> debit card]]> gift card]]> save money]]> ]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Find more information about debit card safety and American Express gift cards on my personal finance blog

Stock Market For Beginners

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

If you don't know about the stock market and are trying to learn about it, you are most likely to experience a severe case of information overload. Do a Google search for "stock market education" or "learn the stock market" and you'll be literally inundated with information. The same holds true if you look an Amazon or walk into a brick-and-mortar bookstore. The choice of books for stock market beginners is simply astounding. In part, the reason why there's such an abundance of information on the stock market is because of the interest many people have in it. There's a market, and publishers try and cash on it. But on the other hand, there also is a lot of information to offer on the stock market. No single book can give you all the information you need. As a beginner in the area of stock market investing, what must you do? The first thing you must realize is that a very well-written book about the stock market can be totally useless to you if it's inappropriate for your knowledge level. You need to accept you're a beginner and go for a beginner's book or a website that caters to beginners. **End Summary** Topics: personal finance]]> investing]]> stock market]]> creating wealth]]> stock market success]]> make money investing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Learn about understanding the stock market and stock market for beginners on my personal finance blog

Save Your Money: Buying Bottled Water Makes No Sense

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

For the first time this century, Americans' bottle-mania is showing signs of slowing down, as people realize that "being charged for water is like being charged for gravity", as one tap water promoter puts it. "Instead of being a badge for health and status, bottled water has now become a badge for environmental wastefulness." To illustrate this, consider that bottling, transporting, disposing of, and even recycling bottled water containers requires a massive amount of energy. Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water required more than 17 million barrels of oil last year: enough fuel for more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year - and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. It's a good thing then that, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, our annual bottled water consumption, which had shot up nearly 46% between 2002 and 2007 to nearly 30 gallons per person, will grow only 6.7% in 2008, the smallest increase this decade. Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution to phase out city spending on bottled water. **End Summary** Topics: bottled water]]> save money]]> go green]]> water filter]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> I maintain a personal finance blog , where I talk about how much of your money is insured in banks or why you should buy stocks for your children , among other things

Ethically and Ecologically Responsible Investing

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you're interested in investing, but are reluctant to fund companies whose practices you disagree with (either on moral, ethical, or environmental grounds), it's probably worth pointing out to you that you have options. And those options are related to the concept of Socially Responsible Investing, or SRI. Portfolio managers that are involved in SRI (also known as green portfolio managers) tend to direct the funds that they're managing toward competitive public companies that are meeting a certain number of conditions that have been previously set and depend largely on the particular firm's ideals. Most of the time, the criteria include companies that are building a more bio-sustainable human economic infrastructure based on renewable energy, energy efficiency, organic foods and products, recycling, and technologies that have a minimal impact on the environment. Companies that have met those standards and have earned the "socially responsible" tag have already attracted over $2 trillion in funding from investors. On the international scene, socially responsible investing (SRI) is growing at the healthy clip of more than 10% per year. **End Summary** Topics: ethical investing]]> go green make money]]> socially responsible investing]]> sustainable investing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> I maintain a personal finance blog where I talk about socially responsible investing and how to become a millionaire , among other topics