Bad Credit? Here is reliable help

U.S. News & World Report created resources to improve financial literacy among consumers with bad credit. Topics include how to monitor credit scores and dispute errors, to the best and worst credit cards and how to evaluate them.

U.S. News & World Report’s credit survey and guide can be viewed here:

1. 2017 Survey of Consumers with Bad Credit
2. Before You Apply
3. Choosing the Best Credit Card for Bad Credit
4. Cards to Avoid
5. Using Your Credit Card to Rebuild Your Card

How to talk to aging parents about money

When you were a kid, your parents probably talked to you about money, perhaps about the value of a buck or how you might spend your allowance. As time marches on, you may find the situation reversed—and that you have to have the "money talk" with your parents.

Adult children sometimes feel concerned that they're invading their parents' privacy when raising money issues. Parents, meanwhile, can feel threatened, or worry about losing their independence. Still, it can be helpful to have a dialogue with your parents about their finances as they get older.

• Show your love.
• Choose your words carefully.
• Talk about yourself.
• Offer to help.
• Ask the right questions.
• Keep an eye out for scams.
• Consider professional guidance.

Learn more at FINRA:
http://www.finra.org/investors/highlights/talk-aging-parents-about-money?utm_source=MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AI%5F082217%5FFINAL

Women spend less than half of adult life in marriage- implications for retirement

A study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that the average US woman now will spend less than half of her adult life as part of a married couple. This "has significant implications for financial planning," the study's authors note. (8/21/17 Retirement Security Smartbrief).

Do Women Still Spend Most of Their Lives Married?

byAlicia H. Munnell,Geoffrey T. SanzenbacherandSara Ellen King

IB#17-14

The brief’s key findings are:

• Traditionally, women spent their adult lives married, so it made more sense to study households rather than women separately.
• The question is whether today’s women are spending fewer years married.
• The analysis looks at four birth cohorts, ranging from the Depression Era to Mid Baby Boomers.
• No matter how you define the age span, the percentage of years spent married has dropped from about 70 percent to 50 percent.
• The reasons are three-fold: 1) fewer women get married; 2) when they do marry, they get married later; and 3) more women end up divorced.
• Thus, looking at women’s finances separately from men is increasingly necessary for a full assessment of their retirement security.

http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/do-women-still-spend-most-of-their-lives-married/ 

Women need to invest for retirement security beginning with their first job and not depend on a man for financial security in later life. 

Time to leave Wells Fargo after one more scandal

It is LONG past time for consumers to leave Wells Fargo Bank after one more revelation of customer mistreatment to enhance the bottom line. This time the bank has admitted charging  570,000 of its customers for auto insurance that duplicated coverage they were already paying for, causing financial strain that resulted in many to lose their vehicles. The bank is offering an apology and refunds of overcharges but this is little comfort to people who lost their vehicles and had their credit rating damaged by Wells        Fargo executives lining their own pockets.
This latest scandal of consumer abuse comes on top of last year's sales scandal where bank employees were coerced into opening 2.1 million accounts using ficticious info or unauthorized customer info, according to Emily Glazer in The Wall Street Journal (7/29-30/17). Also reported by The New York Times. The insurance Wells Fargo forced on its customers was more expensive than the coverage the vehicle owners already had paid for on their own policies.
Wells Fargo customers need to wake up and leave their bank for another bank or a credit union!