Economy forces more consumers to make hardship withdrawals from 401(k)s, Fidelity reports


Written on August 20, 2010 – 9:33 pm | by Barbara Sermons

More consumers are endangering their retirement savings to meet basic living expenses
An unprecedented number of Americans are facing unemployment and large amounts of debt relating to credit cards, mortgage loans and medical expenses, leaving them to exhaust all of their financial options to stay afloat. This now includes making hardship withdrawals from their retirement accounts. According to a new report from Fidelity Investments, a record-breaking number of its customers are borrowing against their 401(k)s.

According to the data, roughly 62,000 workers took out a hardship withdrawal from their 401(k) during the second quarter of the year, in contrast to the 45,000 from one year prior. Read more…

Germany Leads European Q2 Growth


Written on August 18, 2010 – 7:32 pm | by William Machen

Almost like the end of year school report, European economic growth reports have been trickling in recently. Whilst the epithet “Could do better” can be applied universally, given the state of the global economy and the benchmarks set by the previous year’s results, they provide some interesting information. At this stage, data is provisional and may be revised up or down.

Top of the class is Germany which produced growth figures of 2.2% for the period from April to June; a record for the post re-unification period. The growth was credit on a strong export performance helped by the weaker Euro. The magnitude of the growth surprised analysts who had expected to see it come in between 1 to1.5%. Growt

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Why you shoud opt for health insurance?


Written on August 17, 2010 – 7:39 pm | by admin

- Medical Inflation: Prices of medicines and treatment are constantly on the rise making it difficult to rely on savings.

- Lifestyle related issues: Increase in incidence of medical problems due to

- The stressful environment we work in

- Change in the eating habits – fast food and meals at irregular hours

-  Irregular sleep patterns

- Dependents: If you have dependents and are overwhelmed with responsibility, the  health insurance coverage can come to your rescue.

- Health insurance coverage will release you from the burden of worrying how much to save for the rainy day. A

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Make Money With Squidoo Lenses


Written on August 17, 2010 – 6:19 pm | by Victoria Williams

Recently, I’ve been on a little bit of a roll, covering the topics of how to make money through various online endeavors and projects. Here were a few I tackled in the past:

  • Make Money With Affiliate Programs
  • Make Money With Google Adsense & HubPages
  • How To Make Money With A Blog

This time, I’d like to discuss how you may be able to make money with a Squidoo lens or two. When I first heard about Squidoo a couple of years ago, I never realized I would end up making hundreds of dollars from it. I have around sixteen lenses live and online right now, and each one earns me an income every month. Gra

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Las Vegas mortgage delinquencies level off


Written on August 17, 2010 – 3:05 am | by Barbara Sermons

Las Vegas mortgage delinquencies level off.
One of the most troubled housing markets in the country might have hit bottom several months ago.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, nearly one in five of the city’s residents was more than 60 days late paying their mortgage in the second quarter of the year. But despite the bleak-looking number, there are finally signs that the embattled market is getting better.

The report said that the current delinquency rate was actually down from the first quarter, which itself was a decline from the fourth quarter last year. Read more…