Lets face it, with a stock market that keeps going down and down, things will start to get tough. Companies will be looking at ways to save money. At the same time in our household we should be looking at ways to tighten our belts. I recently found a well written article on 9 web sites that can help with household budgeting. I found it on Yahoo finance and it was from smart money....
9 Sites That Help With Everyday Budgeting
by Kelli B. Grant
Most consumers could use a little financial handholding these days.
Nearly
half of the workers recently surveyed by CareerBuilder.com said they
live paycheck to paycheck. Even those who do have cash left after
paying the bills are struggling -- 52% reported they have less than
$100 per month to put into savings.
One silver lining to these
tough economic times: a slew of new free online tools and services that
help consumers save money and manage it wisely. Whether you're looking
to track your credit score, find a better savings rate or finally
balance that monthly budget, these nine sites can help:
BillShrink
Worried
you're paying more than you need to for your wireless plan? BillShrink
searches various cell phone plans to find you the best deal. Answer
five simple questions about your usage (or better yet, upload your
latest bill), and this service searches plan and add-on service
combinations at all providers. It even factors in call quality and the
cost to switch. The site offers a similar tool for credit cards that
tallies the cash you'd save -- in terms of interest rates and fees --
by switching to another card.
Credit Karma
Thanks
to the credit crunch, your credit score carries a lot more weight than
it used to, especially when you want to land a loan or open a credit
card. Credit Karma offers free daily access to your credit score from
partner credit reporting bureau TransUnion. Most lenders use a
different formula -- the so-called FICO from Fair Isaac Corp. -- but
it's still an effective tool for keeping track of any score
fluctuations. (Other sites charge $8.99 and up a month for continuous
monitoring of your FICO score, or require you to sign up for other
subscription services.) Credit Karma also offers a Credit Simulator
that gauges the affect of such actions as opening a new credit card or
paying your bills on time.
FiLife
This
site offers information on thousands of financial accounts, ranging
from credit cards and checking accounts to 529 college savings plans.
Search for the best balance transfer rates on credit cards or which CDs
pay the most in interest. Also, find out about other consumers'
experiences through the customer reviews and ratings. (Dow Jones owns
half of FiLife, which launched in June; SmartMoney.com is a joint
venture of Hearst and Dow Jones.)
Mint
Mint
provides one-stop shopping for consumers who want to get a better
handle on all of their household finances. Not only does it allow users
to track their 401(k), but it also lets them customize their budget for
specific expenses, including groceries and gas. One downside: the "Ways
to Save" section only includes offers from partner credit card issuers.
MoneyAisle
Want
to get the best rates on a CD, money market or high-yield savings
account? MoneyAisle will pit participating financial institutions
(mostly small community banks and credit unions) against one another in
a real-time auction to compete for your business. The auctions take
just a few minutes, and users can decline deals they don't like. For
peace of mind, MoneyAisle only deals with FDIC-insured institutions
that carry favorable safety ratings from industry experts.
Quicken Online
The
web-based version of the popular desktop software ditched its
$2.99-a-month fee. Now users have access to an overview of all of their
accounts, as well as a 10-day outlook that projects how upcoming
expenses will impact account balances. Quicken also assesses user's
risk level for incurring overdraft fees and will send text-message
alerts when they're overspending.
To read the entire article.....
9 Sites That Help With Everyday Budgeting
Posted Michael Corey, Ntirety
www.ntirety.com