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Plan Your Financial Future with WeVest

August 2, 2017 By Mary Newton Leave a Comment

Financial planning apps are everywhere, and each has something different to offer. WeVest is a fairly new financial planning app that offers a new perspective on saving money and growing your net worth. The app promises a straightforward and inexpensive solution to you financial planning needs. But how well does it keep those promises?

How WeVest Works

When you create a WeVest account, you have to answer a few questions. In order to get your full financial picture, WeVest asks you basic questions about your assets, debt, income, age, and more. These questions allow their algorithm to create separate accounts on your dashboard for each item, as well as categorize you with peer groups who use the app. Then, WeVest asks about your saving goals. Their primary options are saving for retirement, building a college fund, and paying off credit card debt.

WeVest% and Your Financial Plan

The primary goal of WeVest is “to optimize the growth of your net worth in a way that achieves your goals.” Using your answers, WeVest algorithms formulate a financial plan specific to you, using the money you are willing to invest in yourself. Your WeVest% is the percentage of your income that you want to put towards growing your net worth. Your WeVest% is divided according to your goals – savings, retirement, college debt, etc. – in the most efficient way possible.

While this seems a lot like putting your money in someone else’s hands, fear not: WeVest also allows you to compare several recommended plans and pick the one you prefer. You have total control over your financial plan, supported by WeVest’s professional advice. In addition, you have constant access to that financial plan whenever you need it.

Once all your information is in and you have decided which financial plan you prefer,. Your dashboard shows how much money is going to which “bucket” – savings, debt repayment, retirement, etc. – for that month. You are given a graph that will measure and predict the growth of your net worth and savings, as well as whichever other buckets you prioritize. Finally, you can also see your exact current net worth with assets and liabilities, your financial plan, and a savings comparison between you and other users in your peer group.

WeVest Pricing

WeVest is not a free service. Their plans consist of a $4/month plan or a $35/year plan. Both plans have identical benefits, with the exception of the $35/year plan offering a 27% discount from the monthly plan. When you sign up, you have to select a plan and input your card information. However, you have a 45-day free trial before WeVest takes money from your account. You may also cancel your account at any time. This way, if you think you may use the app regularly, you can still sign up for the yearly plan knowing you have time before fully committing. This app boasts the low cost of its services in comparison to face-to-face professional financial planners.

WeVest Drawbacks

WeVest offers some fantastic insights into your financial planning, but it does have its drawbacks. Its primary drawback is its accompanying app. Rather than having an app which allows you to log in and view your information on your phone, WeVest’s mobile app is a simple calculator. It is free, and allows you to calculate simple savings projections for a large purchase, your child’s college tuition, or retirement. While these are useful, they are also pointless if you have an account with WeVest. Furthermore, toggling the “See The Full App” option within the mobile app simply opens the WeVest page in your mobile browser.

WeVest also caters more toward adults starting in their mid to late twenties with a stable, full-time job. College saving plans are geared towards planning and saving for your child’s future tuition rather than your own. Each financial plan prioritizes retirement funds. If you are a college student with a part-time job looking to get ahead in the financial planning game, or you are retired but still looking for a place to manage your finances, WeVest is not that place.

WeVest also requires a separate account for each individual item. For example, you need a separate account for student loans, a separate account for your retirement fund, a separate account for your savings, etc. Having this many accounts seems impractical, and having to input this many different accounts gets confusing on the website.

Is WeVest Worth It?

WeVest is perfect for the right people. If you are looking to keep track of your retirement fund, flesh out your savings, or invest in a home, WeVest has exactly what you need. If not, you may be better off looking elsewhere. WeVest is an incredibly thorough financial planning app that is truly a bargain for all it offers. If you want to invest in your financial future through financial planning, look no further than WeVest.

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Photos: WeVest

10 Best Frugal Living Blogs

July 5, 2017 By Mary Newton Leave a Comment

Frugal living blogs are all over the internet, making it difficult to keep up with every single one. But how do you choose which blogs to follow? Check out this list of the ten best frugal living blogs and what makes them so great.

1. WiseBread

WiseBread has been around for a while, and age certainly keeps them on top of their game. From life hacks to career advice, they have it all, entirely dedicated to their motto: Living large on a small budget. Their practical advice on a variety of finance-related topics is sure to keep you interested and informed.

2. Money Saving Mom

It is no surprise that many frugal living blogs are run by moms. This mom in particular focuses much of her blog on finding coupons and deals. She also provides grocery lists and menu plans, adding a touch of personal experience to her practical advice.

3. Mavis Butterfield’s One Hundred Dollars A Month

If you are looking for a frugal living blog driven by personal experience, look no further! With recipes, crafts, gardening tips, daily deals, and money saving advice, One Hundred Dollars a Month offers a variety of resources and tips for the frugal liver. You can rest easy knowing that all of this advice is tried and tested by Mavis herself!

4. Living Well Spending Less

This blog is quite the eye-catcher, and that is a good thing. This blog covers four major topics: food, life, home, and money. It offers financial planning advice, as well as accompanying tutorials with free downloads. The blog also sells a Living Well Planner created by the founder, Ruth.

5. Budget and the Bees

This blog offers practical and varied financial advice, covering topics from money to travel. It is a great one-stop-shop for those seeking practical financial advice.

6. Money Crashers

Money Crashers posts articles in a variety of categories and from a variety of writers. Whether you are a busy mom or an artist looking to sell your work online, this blog has an article for you.

7. SquawkFox

The coolest thing about SquawkFox is that the blogger, Kerry K. Taylor, is not just a blogger. Taylor has been around almost as long as Wise Bread, and has an amazing career background in finance advice. She is a speaker and a consumer expert. She has done TED Talks, has her own YouTube channel, and even wrote a book on saving money. If you are looking for professional advice, SquawkFox is definitely the place to get it.

8. The Simple Dollar

One unique thing about this blog is that it is male-driven. Many frugal living blogs are run by women who run their own households, leading to posts about dinner recipes, updating their kids’ bedrooms, and the like. While these are all fantastic and useful topics, it is refreshing to have a varied perspective. This blog is simple and streamlined, offering frugal living and financial advice, as well as a variety of guides to help you navigate the financial world.

9. Our Debt Free Family

This blog offers fantastic personal finance advice, but perhaps its best treasure is the blog’s toolkit. From forums to calculators to suggested reading, this is a goldmine of useful finance tools.

10. Fun Cheap or Free

Last, but certainly not least, Fun Cheap or Free offers a unique perspective on a fun and frugal life. While also offering free printables and fantastic budgeting advice, this blog’s shining star is its experience-driven tips on how to have fun without breaking the bank.

These blogs offer a wonderful variety of frugal living and personal finance advice, all with their own unique perspectives. Among them, you are sure to find the perfect one for you.

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Photo: Cheap Like Me

Microsoft Blue Screen of Death Caused by August Update

August 17, 2014 By Emma Harrison Clark 21 Comments

Microsoft is asking users to uninstall an update to avoid the blue screen of death

Microsoft, the maker of popular operating system Windows, has this week asked users to uninstall their latest update after complaints that it was causing computers to crash and give users what has become known as the Microsoft “blue screen of death.” The update bug is apparently a serious one, with users reporting it was causing computers to crash and leave their computer screen blue.

PC World reports that Microsoft has identified three key problems with the update:

“First, fonts that are installed in a location other than the default fonts directory (%windir%fonts) cannot be changed when they are loaded into any active session, essentially locking them in. Second, fonts don’t render correctly. The third issue is the most critical, however… that systems may crash with a ‘0x50 Stop error message’ after the updates are installed.” It appears the problem will apply to the following programs: Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, plus Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003.

If you’re one of the unfortunates who has downloaded the updates already, don’t panic. There is a solution, which is detailed in the security bulletin by Microsoft. You’ll need to fiddle with the registry files, then enter the recovery environment to delete the .dat file, reboot and then export the file. This will then need to be repeated before you uninstall the update and reimport the font file. It may sound complex but follow Microsoft’s bulletin and you’ll be on the right track.

It’s not the first lot of issues Microsoft has had to deal with this month. On Friday they had to issue a hotfix for Internet Explorer after multiple dialog windows began causing halts and delays. This applied to all versions of Explorer and garnered many user complaints.

The problem with the latest update is yet to be found, but it has notably coincided with Microsoft’s move towards using Patch Tuesday to combine small feature updates into the Windows monthly security update package. This is instead waiting awhile (until a bundle of new features are ready) and then releasing them together in one major update like Windows 8.1.

Whatever the cause, users aren’t happy and Microsoft may need to rethink their update protocol before impatient users start to rethink their loyalty to the brand.

(Photo courtesy of wolfram_schmied)

Amazon Is Now Picking a Fight with Disney While Continuing Dispute with Hachette

August 10, 2014 By Emma Harrison Clark Leave a Comment

Amazon stops pre-orders to some Disney movies

Amazon looks like it has a method it’s satisfied with and sticking to when it has a disagreement about pricing with a company. The latest to feel the pain is Disney, where pre-orders to a number of their movies have been halted on Amazon in what looks to be another dispute about pricing. This comes as Amazon and book publisher Hachette have been in a lengthy (and public) dispute about e-book pricing.

The Disney titles feeling the brunt of this latest dispute include titles such as Maleficent and Captain America: The Winter Soldier which were both unavailable for pre-order on the online website over the weekend, although digital copies could be pre-ordered. This seems to be the exact same tactic Amazon is using with their disagreement with Hachette, and there are likely similar arguments from both sides.

The battle between Amazon and Hachette also continued over the weekend with the emergence of both a petition against Amazon’s market opening tactics, and a petition for them. The argument centers around Amazon’s proposal to price down e-books from $12.99 to $9.99. Hachette, who stands to lose money, has understandably protested against the move, but Amazon has responded to their stubbornness by simply removing Hachette pre-orders from the Amazon store and lengthening delivery times.

Now writers are taking sides in the argument and it’s turning out to be more than just a pricing skirmish between a publisher and an online retailer. Instead it seems that the old and new school of the industry are facing off in a worth defining struggle.

On one hand, the opportunity to self-publish affordable e-books has democratized the market allowing unknown writers access in ways never before experienced. While on the other, established authors who have poured more time and energy into the craft are protesting at the idea of being undercut by this change in technology, and in book consumption.

The Independent reports from both ends of the battle field with this comment from popular Irish e-book author, David Gaughran, strikes at the petition against Amazon.

“I absolutely reject the idea that lower e-book prices are harmful to authors.” Lower prices expand the market…bestselling authors don’t want the status quo to change because it has served them very well. But since the explosion in popularity of e-books, more writers are earning a living from selling books than ever before. This is something all authors should be celebrating, but perhaps those at the top table are worried about losing their seat.”

On the other side of the argument, agreeing with Hachette and many of the most popular writers in the world is Douglas Preston. He co-wrote the Pendergast Crime Series and organised the anti- Amazon petition which many established authors of note have signed in protest of Amazon’s tactics of negotiation. “Amazon has been throwing its weight around for quite some time in a bullying fashion and I think authors are fed up.”

It’s an argument that has merits on both sides. The way people read is changing so shouldn’t our authors adapt and remain open to the change, in the same way that every other industry has had to adapt to technology?

But on the other hand, no one likes a bully, and surely as the dominant online retailer, Amazon could treat authors and their craft with a little more respect. At least until a compromise can be made.

(Photo courtesy of Andy Melton)

How You Helped a Russian Hacking Ring Steal 1.2 Billion Passwords

August 7, 2014 By Emma Harrison Clark 1 Comment

Russian hackers access over 1 billion passwords

This week Hold Security shared disturbing news that a small circuit of Russian hackers has collected over a billion usernames, passwords and other information which can be used to steal identities, and commit theft. The company, based in Milwaukee, is made up of security contractors and researchers, and it has been responsible for uncovering some of the worst hacks in recent history. Alex Holden, the owner, spoke in detail to the New York Times about the profile his firm has developed on the extent of this scam.

It appears, the hackers based in a small city in South Central Russia, gathered customer information from 420,000 websites, large and small. Hold Security would not disclose which websites or who the victims are because of binding non-disclosure agreements, as well as the risk of making vulnerable companies and individuals a target for further attacks.

Other security professionals and computer crime experts have verified the information uncovered by Hold Security as authentic. They say the problem is getting worse every year, with many large companies being aware of cyber-security issues, but still unable to do much about it other than prompt customers to change their passwords.

Mr. Holden said, “Hackers did not just target U.S. companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites, and most of these sites are still vulnerable.” His firm has been trying to contact the sites that have been hacked, but some remain unreachable, and he hopes this week’s story will get the message through to companies and individuals alike that caution needs to be exercised.

Identity theft is becoming more and more prevalent, and it seems that each month authorities report a new theft, but the easiest way to protect yourself, and to lessen the chances of being targeted, is to simply vary your use of passwords.

Hackers have most of their success because so many consumers repeat the same password on the different sites we use. This means they only have to get hold of a single password, and then run an analysis on popular sites to see if that password will open other services in your name as well. For those who use the same password, one compromised password can mean the hackers have access to dozens of sites you frequent.

It’s a common mistake, and in this increasingly digital world, where every website from your supermarket to your social media account is password protected, it can be hard to remember them all. This is why many experts recommend using password managers. They are simple programs which can both formulate strong passwords and protect the ones you have. With a password manager you only have to remember one password to get access to the rest of your data.

In the meantime, be cautious with your identity. Change your passwords regularly, and take care to question any unexpected requests for money on social media or by email. It’s far better to be safe than sorry.

(Photo courtesy of Don Hankins)

GM Faulty Ignition Switch Issues Extend to Its Website

August 3, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

General Motors website ignition switch recall issues

It hasn’t been a good year for General Motors and recalls. Those recall troubles aren’t limited to just vehicles, but also to its website. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulators have called out GM saying people who search its website to see if their car is one which has a defective ignition switch are being told their car is OK, when it’s actually on the recall list.

The Federal regulators say that when the vehicle identification number (VIN) is entered into the GM website to identify those cars that have been recalled and need repairs, the website is giving the incorrect information to some owners. GM maintains a website which is supposed to make it easy for customers to find out if their vehicle has been recalled for any reason. By simply inputting the VIN number of the car, the customer is supposed to be able to see a list of all the recall issues which need to be resolved.

The main concern is some owners have been told their car is not on the recall list when in fact it does have an ignition switch issue. The error was that when parts for the repair weren’t available, the website indicated the vehicle didn’t need to be repaired instead of explaining the parts to repair the car weren’t currently available.

Upon determining the issue, the NHTSA told GM to fix the issue and to notify owners of the possible mistake. GM has indicated that it is making those changes to its website.

All GM owners are being encouraged to go back to the website and enter their VIN number again, even if they had previously done so and were told their car wasn’t part of the recall list. This is to make sure they weren’t one of those told their vehicle was not part of the recall when it actually needs to be repaired. If people are still concerned, they should call GM customer care to talk to a live person who can determine if their car is part of the recall.

The ignition switch defect has been linked to at least 13 deaths and has been known since 2001, although GM didn’t recall them until this year. The defective switches can accidentally be jarred out of the proper “run” position while a person is driving. When this happens, power to steering and brakes stops as the engine shuts off making it difficult to steer and stop the vehicle. In addition, the engine shutting off disables the airbags even though the car still might be moving at a high speed with impeded control.

GM has recalled 2.6 million vehicles in February and March 2014 worldwide with this defective ignition switch (2.19 in the US) to replace it. They then recalled another 6.59 million in June with the same issue. One of the issues in getting the switches replaced has been supply. With so many vehicles needing a new ignition switch, the manufacturer has taken months to get the supplies needed.

In all, GM has recalled 29 million vehicles this year for a number of different safety issues.

(Photo courtesy of jm3 on Flickr)