Foreigner's Finances

“[Chinese women] under 32 have an effective savings rate of zero.”

This quote comes from an article from Financial Times (via Jezebel) highlighting the 21st century yue guang zu or “spend-all-your-salary clan” women of China.

These twenty-something, working-class women are spending the bulk of their monthly paychecks on glamorous items like clothes, jewelry, expensive restaurants, and clubs with no care in the world. Their false confidence is solely based on the belief that their lives are better than their parents, and that their paychecks will continue to rise as time goes on.

The article highlighted one woman’s spending habits, “she spends at least 70-80 per cent of her salary every month – but towards the end of the year, it creeps up to 100 per cent or more”.

Unfortunately, the excessive spending habits of the yue guang zu are all to similar to many people in America. It’s important to spend your hard earned money on the things you love, but spending like these girls do as a therapeutic act will only lead to disaster.

Here’s 6 reasons why you shouldn’t save money like a young Chinese woman.

(more…)

Clark Griswold embodies the American dad. A caring family man who wants nothing more than to host the perfect Christmas for his family and leave everyone smiling. As we know, there were some wrinkles in the process but in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Clark manages to carve out the perfect Christmas for his family.

Here are 10 money tips I learned from Clark Griswold and Christmas Vacation. I also included a quote with each money tip to get you in the Christmas Vacation mood.

Happy holidays!

(more…)

Bad money situations do not appear out of mid air. Poor education, bad luck, or lazy habits are just a few of the many problems that can lead to a difficult money situation. But one thing is for certain: complicated and dire money situations are tough to navigate.

Massive debt can be incredibly constricting and cause a lot of stress in one’s life. It’s difficult to escape a poor money situation and, unfortunately, too often the bad habits continue because the individual avoids taking action due to the size of the problem.

What an individual who is suffering from debt needs is clarity.

With bills piling up and not enough money coming in, the situation can seem complex. It may seem like there is always someone who is demanding more money, yet, there is no money available. The credit cards help for a while, but even they have their limits. Deep down inside, the person may want to fix the problem, but they just can’t seem to get themselves in a place where they are able to tackle the situation.

This is where meditation comes in. Yes, Foreigner’s Finances is going to get new-agey for a minute.

(more…)

As some of you may know, the Federal Reserve recently banned overdraft fees for ATMs and debt card purchases. Starting in July 1, 2010, customers will have to choose to opt-in to overdraft protection or else they will be denied at the register if they attempt to purchase an item without enough money in their account. Banks will also be required to make the details of the overdraft fee protection available and clear to the consumer.

At first, this appears to be a big hooray for the consumer. But the more I thought about the move, the more I disagreed with its intended motives.

(more…)

My financial turnaround began a little over a year ago. After reading some articles online about personal finance, I was persuaded to head to the local library to pick up some personal finance books.

It was the summer before my senior year and I was having one of those, “oh my god, I’m graduating in a year moments”. Life transitioning moments like a graduation, marriage, birth of a child, or purchase of a house are usually the sparks that lite the change in many people’s personal finance lives.

In hindsight, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. As soon as I was finished with the first book – it was The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach – I was hooked. I wanted to tell everyone what I had learned and have them be as interested in personal finance as I was.

The trend I began to notice in the personal finance books I was reading was that every now and then certain facts, graphs, or insight would show up that would stop me in my tracks and overhaul the way I viewed money forever.

These moments are much more much life-changing than a friend or family memeber just saying, “hey, you should pay off your credit card debt.” They are moments of clarity, of education.

Today, we’ll dive into some of these facts of clarity when looking at information on credit card debt and how much paying the minimum is really costing you every month.

(more…)