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Around the Financial Water Cooler
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 As noted in last week's post Where to Find an Almost-Free Lunch, we're all short on time these days. And much like the shortage of time is costing you some hard-earned cash by preventing you from cooking at home, it also might be costing you money by keeping you from reading up on the latest personal-finance news and trends.
There's plenty of valuable information out there -- if you know where to look. E-mails from Nigerian royalty proposing a sizable payout if you'll supply your bank-account number to facilitate a wire transfer? Delete. Work-at-home offers promising a "fortune" for very little effort? No, thanks.
You'll be much better-served if you spend your scant Web-browsing resources on the issues that can directly impact your family's bottom line. With that in mind, here's the scuttlebutt on three hot personal-finance topics for many stressed Americans: cell-phone plans, credit cards and retirement savings.
Thanks, Kowalski
As Michael Scott learned from his intern and protégé Ryan Howard on "The Office," it is far more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. This is Business 101.
Though the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch hadn't always known this key fact, you can bet that your cell-phone carrier is acutely aware of it. And as it turns out, your cell company actually takes this tenet one step further.
As Saul Hansell of the New York Times reported last month, your carrier mines various data -- everything from your past usage to "household composition" information that it buys from mailing-list providers -- all to help know you better. The end result: a price tag stamped across your forehead that tells exactly how much you're worth to AT&T, Verizon Wireless or Sprint.
Armed with this information, your carrier decides just how much it wants to offer you to stay on when your contract expires. Looking for extra minutes? Want a free BlackBerry? To learn more about this practice... and to discover why your "family plan" is a far better deal for the company than it is for you, read Hansell's piece, "Signs Your Wireless Carrier Loves You."
Membership Has Its Privileges
Reports of the death of credit-card reward programs have been greatly exaggerated. Or have they?
The Wall Street Journal's Jane Kim reported late last week that Chase Card Services, one of the largest card issuers in the U.S., is launching a new rewards program to much (self-directed) fanfare. Under the new Ultimate Rewards program, cardholders will earn points for all purchases and be able to redeem those points for the usual slew of rewards: travel, cash, gift cards, etc.
The upside: The program includes no earnings caps or expiration dates. Plus, there has been a steady drumbeat of recent warnings from the credit-card industry's major players that new rules and regulations will have the unwanted effect of forcing them to curb perks for their best customers. So any news of new or continued rewards offers is good news.
But there is a downside as well. As is often the case with credit-card offers, the devil is in the details. Kim's reporting astutely found that the redemption rate for merchandise is less than 1 percent, a miserly level even by industry standards. The new program also will tack a $30 annual fee onto the accounts of some current Chase customers.
For all of the dirty details, check out Kim's article, "New Rewards Program for Chase Credit Cards."
Ready for Their Close-Up
Target-date funds have come under a lot of fire in the wake of last year's stock-market swoon. These increasingly popular investment vehicles -- meant to act as a one-stop, set-it-and-forget-it retirement-savings choice -- fared no better than the broad market. And that surprised a lot of savers, especially those closest to retirement.
But as Marketwatch's Robert Powell reports, some big changes (or at a minimum, more transparency) may be coming for target-date funds. Regulators will hold a public hearing June 18 to explore the matter. Its goal:"to examine the need for additional guidance given the importance of these investments to the retirement savings of investors." If nothing else, this hearing should at least serve to illuminate target-date funds for what they are: vehicles subject to the same risks and market forces as other mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. The key question, though: Will anyone, let alone those who can stand to gain the most from having a clearer picture of their retirement readiness, even be listening?
Powell's piece is an excellent roundup of opinions from target-date funds' supporters and detractors. So to get a sneak peek at what may be coming in the June 18 hearings, check out "Target-Date Funds Under the Microscope."
Have you seen a personal-finance story that might save -- or make -- you some extra money? Share your find with your fellow readers.
Message Edited by Anthony_Catalano on 06-08-2009 04:37 PM
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