Asset allocation is perhaps the single most important investment decision that you will need to make. Fortunately, you only need to make the decision once and then ride it out for the next 30+ years. In fact, changing your asset allocation is far more likely to be harmful than helpful.

So, why is asset allocation important? Generally, when you increase your risk, you also increase your potential for return. That is, if you want to make a higher return, you have to take greater risks. However, if done right, proper asset allocation can achieve both greater return and reduced risk.

When I initially started investing, deciding on my asset allocation was by far the most challenging decision I had to make. In its simplest form, it consists of simply making the decision about how many of your investment dollars will go to bonds and how many to stocks. However, the advice on even that relatively simple decision varies greatly.

Simplifying Asset Allocation

If you are a conservative investor who is willing (and able) to accept a lower return in order to take as little risk as possible, then your age is your bond allocation. Merely subtract your age from 100% and voila, you have your stock allocation. For example, if you are 25 years old, you will invest 25% in bonds and 75% in stock. If you are the risk pursuing type, you can subtract your age from as much as 125%, which translates to 100% stock allocation.

Naturally, if you are in your 30s or 40s and just now starting to invest, you will need to put a larger percentage of your income into investing or take greater risks in order to make up the money you lost by waiting. However, for reasons far outside the scope of this article, you should allocate at least some to bonds because an allocation of up to 10% can actually reduce your risk while also increasing your return. For the same reason, you will always want at least some of your investment dollars in stocks.

As a side note, your stock-bond allocation is the one aspect of your asset allocation that will change over the years. The rule of thumb is that you increase your bond allocation by 1% each year. This can be accomplished in two ways: (1) by putting your new investment dollars into bonds or (2) shifting high performing assets into bonds during annual (or biennial) rebalancing.

Asset Allocation Choices

As I said before, your stock-bond allocation will be your easiest allocation decision. If you decide to go with a total market fund and a total bond market fund, you could theoretically call it quits after making this allocation. However, if you want to continue reducing your risk while increasing your return, you will need to make additional allocation decisions. Here is a list of at least some of those decisions:

• Stocks vs. Bonds
• Growth vs. value stocks
• Government bonds vs. corporate bonds
• U.S. vs. international stocks
• Bonds vs. treasuries vs. t-bills
• Pacific vs. European vs. emerging market stocks
• Investment grade vs. junk
• Large cap vs. mid-cap vs. small cap stocks

Naturally, you can add commodities or other sector specific stocks, as well. However, when you start investing in those areas, you may be venturing out of investment and into speculation.

A great thing about asset allocation is that it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. The best part about it is that asset allocation will allow your investments to ride out many of the ups and downs of the market because, for example, while U.S. stocks are suffering, U.S. bonds are usually flourishing.

In the future, I’ll try to put together some information about your different allocation options. In the meantime, do some research and figure out your stock-bond allocation.

Thanks to Jarrad for the post and make sure to check out his site, Ganbatte Times.

Photo: blprnt

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Adam’s been writing about money for about 6 months. During the podcast we talked about investing as a 20-somethings and the differences between money in the U.S. and the UK.

You can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed or download and subscribe on iTunes to get every episode delivered to you.

The Foreigner’s Finances Podcast Episode 9

[01:00] – Adam’s intro to Magical Penny and how got started writing about personal finance

[04:30] – The first steps to getting your finances in order including proving to yourself you can consistently save before you invest

[08:00] – Common misconceptions of investing

[11:00] – Differences in investing between the UK and the U.S.

[16:00] – Adam’s favorite money topics to write about at Magical Penny

[18:30] – What the future of Magical Penny holds

A huge thanks to Adam for taking some time to talk and make sure to check out his site, MagicalPenny.com!

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In January I wrote about the specifics of your credit score. Quickly, your credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that tells lenders how trustworthy you are for a loan. The better your credit is, the higher the score. Credit scores cost around $15 to get.

Your credit score is based off your credit report. It’s a huge report card that shows any loans, credit cards, or mortgages you’ve had and how trusty you were with the loan – aka did you pay the loan.

Legally, you’re allowed to get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus - Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax – once a year. This means you can get them all at one time, or you can spread them out over the course of a year.

Today, I’m going to show you the process as I check my credit report so you can feel comfortable getting your own report. On Wednesday, I’ll do the same for my credit score.

In January I got my credit report from Experian, so today I’m going to go with TransUnion. Once again, there are only tiny differences between the reporting agencies so don’t think yourself to death choosing between the 3.

1. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com

Note, this isn’t the commercial FreeCreditReport.com – that sites scammy and should be avoided.

2. Select your state and fill in your information

This step is simple and straight-forward. You’ll need to fill in your name, address, and social security number.

3. Choose 1 of the 3 credit bureaus to receive your report

4. Click through and answer security questions about yourself

They want to make sure you are who you say you are so they’ll ask you questions about loans or credit cards you may have with companies. If there is no answer for the question, choose that option. Sometimes a credit card will have a bit of a different name, so make sure you choose the right one.

5. You’re done! Read your credit report

It’s a lot of information to take in, but it’s important to go through the report and make sure it’s accurate.

When I checked mine last summer, there was a mysterious credit card that was actually my mom’s so I called the credit card company and got my name removed. It’s stuff like this that cleans up your credit report and boosts your credit score (which will save you on a car loan or mortgage someday).

What my credit report told me…

• I’ve been reported since August 2005 – the day I got my first credit card.
• I have 3 credit cards (true)
• My Discover card pulled my credit report in 2008. This remains on my report for 2 years, but won’t have a huge effect on my score.
• 1o different credit cards/banks have reviewed my information in the past 2 years. This doesn’t affect my credit score in any way.

What to do with your credit report

• Look for any incorrect reported information and call the company to dispute it
• Make sure all of your credit card information and payments are what you expect
• Print and file the report for future reference
• Create a GCal reminder to check your credit report again in 4 months

It’s pretty simple and should take you less than 5 minutes to get your actual report. It’s important to do so to make sure your financial self is reported fairly. A mistake on your credit report can bring your score down dramatically so take some time this weekend to get your report and make sure your information is accurate.

Once again, on Wednesday I’ll walk you through the steps to get your credit score.

Have you ever had any discrepancies on your credit report?

Photo: MeddyGarnett

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PT recently wrote a post for U.S. News and Yahoo! called the 5 Reasons Your Are Not Saving Enough for Retirement.

During our conversation we talk about this article and how you can properly prepare yourself for retirement in your 20s and 30s to make your life financially easier down the road. PT also tells us about PT Money’s transformation to a full-time blog and explains what it means to be a marathon completer.

Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed or download and subscribe on iTunes to get every episode delivered to you.

The Foreigner’s Finances Podcast Episode 8

[01:00] – Welcome and PT Money’s transition to full-time blog

[03:45] – How marathons brought the PT family together

[06:30] – How PT got started with his retirement savings

[08:00] – Using savings tools to make saving/investing easier and automatic

[14:00] – How to give your finances a wake-up call

[18:00] – Saving for retirement vs. your kid’s college tuition

[24:30] – Estimating how much you need for retirement

[29:15] – The downfalls of relying on others for your retirement 

Thanks to PT and make sure to check out PT Money!

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This often hidden fact can be a surprise to some when they reach their 7th withdrawal in a month and get dinged with a $10 fee and a tisk-tisk e-mail from their bank.

So what’s the deal with this restriction? What do banks gain and what exactly is considered a withdrawal?

The good news is that deposits to a savings account are unlimited, but any withdrawal from the account is considered a transaction. This includes transferring within different savings accounts or transferring to a linked account.

Each savings account receives 6 transaction per billing cycle and the 7th transaction results in a fee. If the transactions keep occurring, the bank may even shut down your account.

The Actual Rule

According to Ally’s site: “The limit is actually set by federal law for electronic and telephone transactions from all U.S. savings and money market accounts.”

The legislation for the 6 transaction limit rule is referred to as Federal Reserve board Regulation D.

In layman’s terms: your bank doesn’t need to legally keep any of your savings account money in reserve. They can loan it out and because you can only make 6 transactions per statement cycle, they can be pretty sure that at least some of your money will remain in the account in case they need to tap your funds. The rule is a little confusing, but it makes sense from a business standpoint.

If you’ve read FF you know why I’m pro-online savings account so here’s the fees for online banks if you break this rule:

Online bank’s fee for each transaction after 6 in a billing cycle:

Ally: $10

ING: No fee, but may close account if withdrawals continue

Everbank: $10

FNBO Direct: No fee, but may close account if withdrawals continue

WT Direct: $10

HSBC: No fee, but if the transaction limits are exceeded for any 3 months during any twelve 12 month period, the Bank may be required to close the account or the account type be changed.

Emigrant Direct:No fee, but if you exceed the limit of six withdrawals for several months, your account will be closed.

Has any one ever had a problem with this rule with their bank?

Photo: CarbonNYC

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There is no fee for a majority of the checking and savings accounts out there. These banks host our money, insure it up to $250,000, and provide their employees and services with no charge.

So how do big banks make money?

Well, they offer other money-making services like auto loans and mortgages. They also take your savings and invest it elsewhere (more on this later). And credit cards are also a way for banks to make money off you – when you don’t pay off your balance on your bank’s credit card, the extra interest you pay goes in to the banks pocket.

The big banks have a lot of different income streams and although some recent government legislation is threatening some of the less moral money-making practices, big banks are doing all right.

But what about the smaller online banks that don’t have 49 different income streams? How do they make money?

I started thinking about this when an FF reader asked last week on the Ally Bank Review post:

It’s great that they’ll be giving me more interest for my money then my current brick & mortar bank – but what is in it for them? Is there a service charge or any hidden fees somewhere?

I quickly realized that I had no idea how Ally – a very bare bones bank – made money. They don’t offer any sort of loans or credit cards so there is no obvious income streams located on their homepage.

In fact, they only offer 4 products – checking, savings, CDs, and money market accounts. All of these accounts cost $0 to open and have no monthly fees.

I decided to go straight to the source and see if Ally’s customer service would honestly answer the question: “How does Ally make money?”

Surprisingly, they offered an honest answer with no prying:

Our accounts are invested in long-term mortgages and real estate. Ally Bank does not engage in targeted sub prime lending activities, and information on the Bank’s level of loan loss reserves and classified loans is available on www.fdic.gov.

The specifics of the investments are left out, but I respect Ally’s honesty.

Just like big banks, they take your dormant money located in savings, checking, and CD accounts and invest it elsewhere. They can easily afford to pay their customers 1.5% in interest when they’re getting returns above 7% by investing your money in mortgages.

Almost all of us have large sums of money in banks so it’s good to ask these questions and understand what we’re really getting involved with when we sign up for a bank account.

Further reading: here’s a link to the fracational-reserve banking Wikipedia. This goes more in depth about the process of banks holding cash vs. lending it out.

Do you know how your big, online, or local bank makes money?

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MD writes about money for college students and twenty-somethings and because we’re both under-25 personal finance bloggers we discussed how young professionals can take their money by the horns instead of letting money control you.

From how to spend money, to the best places to cut expenses, we cover the gambit of personal finance for the under 30 audience.

You can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed or download and subscribe on iTunes to get every episode delivered to you.

The Foreigner’s Finances Podcast Episode 7

[01:10] – What Studenomics is all about

[03:00] – The most important money advice for young people looking to turn around their finances

[05:00] – How to decide where to spend and where to save your money

[07:30] – MD’s money background including greed and paper routes

[13:00] – Guilt and money: how personal finance blogs fix the problem

[16:00] – MD’s favorite things to spend money on

[19:00] – Spending to avoid saving burnout

Thanks to MD and make sure to check out Studenomics.com!

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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 – we’re talking about free money here!

Let’s take a beginner’s look at the 401(k) and see how it can benefit you and your money over the next 50 years.

The Tax Advantage

A 401(k) is an investment vehicle for saving for retirement that provides tax benefits by lowering your taxed income. They are usually organized through your employer to promote retirement savings in your life.

In a Roth IRA your income is taxed first, then invested. The withdraws are tax-free.

A 401(k) works the opposite way. They take your income before it’s taxed, invest it in a fund or stock, and then it’s taxed when you withdraw your contributions in the future. A 401(k) lowers your amount of taxable income and saves you money in the long run because you have more money compounding over decades.

What Do You Invest In?

A 401(k) is just an investment vehicle, not a specific investment – just like a Roth IRA.

The type of investment depends on the employer and can range from different mutual fund options – many different stocks compacted in to one fund – to company stock. There are usually a couple of options that you can choose from depending on your risk, but just know that you won’t be able to choose your own investments for your 401(k).

The Company Match

Currently, only 48% of people invest in a 401(k). What the other 52% don’t realize is that they’re leaving free money on the table.

What sets a these retirement vehicles apart is that many companies offer to match a certain percentage of their employees 401(k) contributions.

Currently, the maximum 401(k) contribution in 2010 is $16,500 and $22,000 if you’re 50 and older.

So, for example, a company may offer a free match on 5% of a contribution. 5% of $16,500 is $825 which means if you invest $825, your company will match you and invest $825 – for free, no questions asked.

Because your money is not taxed until you withdraw, more money can take advantage of compounding now and really grow over time.

How to Get Your 401K Started

Not all companies offer a 401(k), but a good amount do. To get your 401(k) rolling, visit your HR representative at work. When you do, you’ll pick the type of investment and determine the amount of your contributions. After that, your contributions will be automatically deducted from each paycheck and you’ll be automatically investing in your sleep.

If you leave your job, the HR rep can help you roll the 401(k) in to a new retirement account so make sure to speak with them if you plan on changing jobs.

Negatives of the 401(k)

You don’t have many choices when you invest in a 401(k) and your investment may not be used as efficiently as as index fund in a Roth IRA. The 401(k) funds you have available through your employer may have high expenses or invest in areas of the market you’re not interested in.

The 401(k) is a commitment. There are a few exceptions, but your money is tied up in the account until you’re 59 1/2 – unless you pay a 10% penalty. Make sure you plan ahead and can do without the income every year. You don’t want to have to dip in to your 401(k) because you’ll disrupt the compounding and lose out over time.

Regardless, your 401(k) should be your first investment priority if your company offers a free matching contribution. Invest enough to get the match, and then max out your Roth IRA where you’ll have more choices and a more efficient opportunity to grow your money over the decades.

Do you have a 401(k) at your work? Can you share any tips for new investors about the process?

Photo: UrbanData

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Today, Jim from – Qualidade de Vida (Quality of Life) shares with us his stories of living in Brazil where he teaches English after working in the U.S. for 20 years. Jim has been blogging about his adventures for almost 3 years and writes about topics in his life like food, work, and culture.

If you’ve ever dreamed of living somewhere totally different than your current situation and changing your life for the better, then this interview is for you.

Austin: What led you to Brazil?

Jim: Back in San Francisco I met a guy 11 years ago and we fell in love. He is a Brazilian who had been living in the USA for 12 years. Together we visited Brazil and his family several times over the years for vacation. I immediately loved the country, culture, people – everything. When Luiz suggested we move to Brazil I was all for it.

A: What do you do for work?

J: I am an English teacher by default. Finding professional, managerial-type work is pretty difficult (I was a non-profit executive director back in the states). But teaching allows me to have a really flexible schedule and private students pay well.

A: How long have you been in Brazil?

J: We moved here in January of 2008. We live in Niterói, which is the cleaner, quieter city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro.

A: What has the experience been like?

J: I love it here. Luiz has hooked up with his childhood friends as if he had never left. We have a really laid back lifestyle that includes a lot of beach time. We have practically zero stress in our lives. Gone are the days of 6 day work weeks and 10 hour work days.

There was a brief period of adjustment but we both had a good idea about how things were in Brazil and we planned our move over several years, so things were pretty laid out and we anticipated most of our transition needs.

First and foremost for adapting to a new country is to NOT COMPARE everything all the time with how things were back in your other country. Once you stop that and just start living locally in real time, everything becomes normal again.

A: What is the cost of living in Brazil?

J: (ed. note $1 U.S. dollar = ~R$1.77 Brazilian Reals) Brazil is an expensive place to live, especially because wages are so ridiculously low for most people. We own our apartment, so the back-breaking cost of rent is lifted. If we were to rent our two bedroom apartment it would be at least R$1,300/month ($733 U.S. dollars).

Food costs for the basics are very reasonable, but if you want anything more gourmet or unusual, the price can be shocking. What really surprises me is the high cost of everyday consumer items like a coffee machine, or an ironing board, or a pair of sneakers. Sometimes I laugh out loud at the price. I will NEVER pay R$500 ($282 U.S. dollars) for a pair of sneakers!

A: What’s something unexpected about Brazil that you wish you knew going in?

J: It came as a surprise to me just how restrictive the job market is in terms of required education or certification. For example, I have been a management professional for more than 20 years, yet here in Brazil I would have to go to college and get a degree in Business Administration to be considered for practically any management position. (I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology – worthless!)

Mind you, I did not move to Brazil to start up a new career and pull down a lot of money. Teaching English is feeling just fine. But if I were younger and still needed to lay out a career path, it would be very frustrating.

A: Are there a lot of foreigners in Brazil?

J: It does not seem like there are a lot of foreign born folks here, but then, I travel in Brazilian circles more than among ex-pats. There is certainly very little English spoken in general.

A: How’s your Portuguese?

J: Learning Portuguese has not been an easy task and I am far from the finish line. It frustrates me to be struggling so much. I clearly do not have a talent for picking up languages. But then, being an English teacher and living with another English speaker, I am surrounded by English, not Portuguese. So it is taking some time and a lot of work.

I must confess that I do not study Portuguese as much as I should. The television, which many people point to as a teaching tool, is mostly crappy TV shows, so other than the nightly news I am never sitting in front of it. I do try to read the morning news online in Portuguese, but it can be a lot of work!

My language skills are sufficient to get what I need at stores or to ask for or give directions on the street. And I can have basic conversations with my more patient friends. But it will be a whole new day when I become more conversant in Portuguese. Very few people, in general, speak English here.

A: Is it easy for a foreigner to find work? How do you suggest doing so?

J: To add to what I mentioned above I would say that in order to work legally you must get a permanent resident visa (not easy to do) and then obtain an official workbook. Working legally is WAY better than under-the-table jobs. Workers in Brazil are well protected by labor laws.

But if you want to just show up and get off-the-books teaching jobs you will have to work constantly to pay for even a very basic existence.

My best advice is to do things by the book – unless you have a really unique skill and a driving entrepreneurial spirit (and a lot of savings to get you started). It is not easy for illegal foreigners to make a good living in Brazil. I don’t want to be negative, just realistic.

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Thanks again to Jim for letting us take a look at his life and make sure to check out Qualidade de Vida to follow along on his adventures.

If you have any questions for Jim about Brazil or anything else, feel free to leave them in the comments and Jim will get back to you!

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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 or local bank like Chase, Bank of America, or “insert town name here” Bank) to an online bank (Ally, ING Direct, or HSBC). People tend to shy away from big changes and when the unknown is thrown in to the equation, the idea of change seems even more impossible.

So today, let’s take a look at the major differences between online banks (OB) and brick & mortar banks (BMB) so you can feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about what a switch of banks means for you and your money.

Interest Rates

OB - This is the biggest selling point for online banks. Because these banks only exist on the internet, they can keep their costs down and give that money back to their customers in the form of higher interest rates on savings, checking, money market, or CD accounts.

Right now, Ally pays 1.29% with their savings account and .50% on their checking account. ING Direct pays 1.10% for their savings and .25% for their checking. Keep in mind that this is after all of the market turmoil, before, the OB’s savings accounts were in the 3-5% range. Over time, this means huge returns for your money in the form of compound interest.

BMB - Interest rates have never been a strong point for BMBs. The national banks have thousands of branches with each one costing millions to build and fill with workers. The interest rates on checking accounts are almost always 0% and savings accounts sometimes get .50% if their lucky. Occasionally, BMBs have high CD rates which you can keep your eye on, but their expenses are just too high to pay out a lot of interest to their customers.

Customer Service

OB – No matter how fast the internet gets or how easy it is to make a call, trying to get a hold of a customer service rep to answer your question(s) can be difficult and frustrating. The things is, many online banks have superb customer service with 24/7 availability for calls because they know that this is an issue for customers. But if you’re the type of person who prefers seeing the other person who is answering your question, then the switch to an OB is going to take some time.

One last thing which I think a lot of people have a question about: almost every OB offers their customers a way to send in checks or cash to their online savings account. It could be refunded postage and you send it in an envelope, depositing it at an ATM, or by printing off an OB sponsored envelope, but OBs do offer this service. I’ve never had to do it and it makes me uneasy to send checks and cash in the mail so I keep a checking account at my local bank for this situation.

BMB - Having the face-to-face conversation ability is a huge selling point for BMBs. No matter how big the problem, you can always go in to a branch, sit down, and discuss the problem. The issue is when you have banking problems that don’t require you to go in to a branch. Many big banks like Chase or Bank of America have so many calls that they try to answer your question through automated recordings so they don’t have to pay 400 people to answer phones. This is never a fun situation and one that you’ll almost never have to deal with at an online bank.

The ability to easily depositchecks or cash at the branch is a big plus for BMBs and something that plagues OBs because many people don’t feel safe sending money through the mail.

The personal touch may be the thing you want out of your bank, and if so, stay with your BMB because an OB may feel a little impersonal to you.

Amount of Products

OB - It depends on the bank, but some online banks only offer a savings, checking, and CDs. They pride themselves on simplicity and doing the job right so they don’t stretch themselves thin with credit cards or loans. On the other hand, some online banks, like ING Direct, have their own brokerage account (Sharebuilder), mortgages, and business accounts.

Still, you won’t be able to hold all of your financial accounts within one OB. They just don’t offer enough products – something like credit cards or student loans are never an option for an OB. The products they have are almost always stellar, but the amount is lacking.

BMB - These banks have so much more money available to them so they can offer an array of products that fit all of your banking needs. On top of checking and savings, Chase offers loans for auto, house, and students; along with credit cards and investment options. Having all of your financial information held at one bank is something I wish I had, but I prefer the quality of products at different banks. Regardless, the sheer amount of products that BMBs offer blows OBs out of the water.

Online Options

OB – This is the second biggest selling point for OBs. They only exist online so you can almost guarantee that their web interfaces are going to be superb. The two OBs I’ve used have had incredibly slick and intuitive web capabilities where after 5 minutes you feel like you know how to do everything. They offer easy transfers, multiple savings accounts, automatic saving capabilities, and the ability to do fun stuff like name your main savings account “The Benjamins.”

BMB - Some of the big banks have quality web interfaces, but there still a step below OBs. They don’t offer as many tools and it’s often difficult to do an easy task. If you have a local bank in your town, this can be even a bigger issue. Perhaps no online banking or a stripped down version from 2001.

Two years ago I asked my bank at home when they were going to update their online banking and they said within the year, but it’s been about 14 months since then. If you do 90-100% of your banking online, then an OB may be a smarter option for your banking needs.

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Every one handles their money differently, so the types of accounts you use for your money will depend on what makes you feel comfortable.

I currently use Ally for savings and checking with a local bank for checking and ease. Like I said above, I wish I had all of my financial accounts under 1 bank, but it’s just not an option for me. I like the high interest rates and web interfaces of online banks, and I like the safety/comfort of a local bank to rely on.

All I ask is that you rethink your banking situation. You don’t want your bank to use your money without giving you anything in return. If that thing in return is comfort and stability, then go for it, but with the amount of options available today with the internet, don’t close all of your available doors too quickly.

Here’s some further reading for any one looking to make the switch to an online bank:

How to Open an Online Savings Account – A step-by-step guide to opening an account including screen captures and easy-to-follow instructions.

Interest Matters: Why Your Money Needs an Online Savings Account – A look at the numbers behind higher interest rates and how much your money can benefit from just a couple interest rate percentage point differences.

Do you use an OB, BMB, or mix for your banking needs?

Photo: Aaron Escobar

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