Creating a budget can seem overwhelming.
The categories often used to classify our expenses are too numerous to count — transportation, utilities, business, education, entertainment, financial expenses, food, gifts, and so on, plus all the subcategories within them.
As far as savings strategies go, "divide and conquer" has its merits.
Consumers repeatedly hear that we're not saving enough: Not for retirement, for a rainy day, or for discretionary purchases. And the numbers bear that out.
Having trouble saving money for a big vacation? A cartoon mouse and a brainy pig want to help you get it done.
If a Disney vacation is on your wish list, you might want to consider the Disney Vacation Account program, which lets guests budget for an upcoming trip and schedule automatic contributions into an FDIC-insured savings fund.
Account holders can cash in their savings for a vacation at a Disney theme park, Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney or at Aulani, Disney’s plush resort in Hawaii.
Chris Skinner has been blogging, about banking and technology, speaking at conferences, running the Financial Services Club, in London and other cities, consulting with bankers and getting to know just about everybody innovating in banking in the US, Europe and a number of more remote spots in the world.
He has pulled it all together provocatively in his book Digital Bank — strategies to launch or become a digital bank.
Warning — becoming a digital bank won’t be easy.
Think pig: Social Money President Scott McCormack promotes social-banking system SmartyPig.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — A 2008 start-up called SmartyPig has combined social networking and banking to offer a new way to save, and in four years has helped people reach almost $3 billion in savings goals.
The business was created by Des Moines natives Michael Ferrari and Jon Gaskell in 2008 as a high-tech way to encourage people to save for specific goals. Ferrari came up with the idea when his first son was born and he needed to save money for his son's college education.
