Banks often get a lot of crap for poor judgment, a lack of customer service, and thoughtless business moves but we often forget that a majority of people use banks for free. There is no fee for a majority of the checking and savings accounts out there. These banks host our money, insure it up [...]
Catching Up on Investing Posts
by Austin on Jul, 26 2010 in Investing
Getting your finances to the point where you’re regularly investing income in an IRA or 401(k) is the last 15% of dominating your finances. Over the past 11 months I’vewritten a handful of posts about investing, and year 2 of FF will dive in to this topic even more. In the meantime, here’s some of [...]
The 401(k) Beginner’s Manual
by Austin on Jul, 23 2010 in Investing
401(k) seems like a scary grown-up word that only stuffy businesspeople who work 65 hours a week and read The Wall Street Journal care about. In reality, there’s a very good chance your eligible to enroll in a 401(k) through your company and they may even offer you free money for investing. Intrigued? You should be – [...]
Online Banks vs. Brick & Mortar Banks
by Austin on Jul, 19 2010 in Banking
Sorry to the FF Fanatics about the lack of a podcast yesterday. I’m in between scheduled interviews and couldn’t get one posted so check back next Sunday for a new episode. On to the post! It’s a big change for people to move their money from a brick and mortar bank (your typical local big [...]
Ally Bank Review
by Austin on Jul, 16 2010 in Banking, Reviews, Savings
I switched online banks in May and now that I’ve had a couple of months with my new bank, Ally, I feel like I’ve experienced enough to write a well-rounded and informative review. Ally is everything you need out of an online bank. They do everything adequately and there aren’t any huge misses in their [...]
Why I Spent $2,000 on an Airplane Ticket
by Austin on Jul, 14 2010 in Money, Travel
I made the single biggest purchase of my life last week. After fuel charges and 12 other airline taxes I spent $2,000 on a round-trip airline ticket from Tokyo to Chicago for the 2 weeks in August. Is it an outrageous price? You bet, but as I’ll try to justify to my readers (and myself), the ticket [...]
How Much Will No State Income Tax Help LeBron in Miami?
by Austin on Jul, 09 2010 in Money, Savings
Running a personal finance site doesn’t allow me to write about current events all too often so allow me to hop on the LeBron to Miami train and throw a personal finance twist on it. We’ve heard multiple reasons for LeBron’s final decision to head to Miami – playing with some of his best friends, [...]
Should You Buy Your Company’s Stock?
by Austin on Jul, 07 2010 in Investing
My friend was recently was hired for a new job and e-mailed me asking for some clarification about his company’s retirement plan and stock options. He copy and pasted this bit of his company’s retirement plan in to the e-mail: “(Company name) sponsors an Employee Stock Purchase Plan whereby all employees are eligible to purchase shares [...]
Welcome to FF!
Hi, my name's Austin Morgan. I teach English in Japan and write about money for twenty-somethings. Feel free to contact me with any questions and I hope you enjoy the site!

