Foundations of Finance

The Senate has passed a bill that would return unemployment benefits to millions of Americans without jobs. The bill passed with a 60-40 vote.

The bill would push the unemployment benefit deadline back to November, which would give more time to those who are going through times. The bill will have to go back through the House, and if it makes it there, it will make its way to the White House to be personally signed by President Obama.

Obama praised lawmakers for passing the bill by saying, “Today marks an important step toward passing the unemployment insurance extension which is critical to millions of Americans fighting to find a job, put food on the table and make ends meet during this tough economic time”.

To read more about the bill’s passing, visit CNNMoney.com

Bidsauce is one of those penny auction sites that you’ve probably been hearing a lot about lately. It seems like every Facebook page or Google update is being plastered with ads for these companies who are often showing winnings that are unheard of.

The question that hit our minds was about how legit and good these companies are. We checked out Bidsauce to find out.

When first landing on the page you notice that the site actually looks pretty clean cut and simple. Other sites we’ve seen are clustered and look like a ten-year old put them together.

We loved the design and the banner at the top, which displayed new facts and news updates.

One thing we noticed and haven’t seen anywhere else was the ad for a “guarantee”. We usually don’t like guarantees, because it means you’re dealing with risky business, but this one gave us a nice surprise. Apparently if you don’t win anything off of your first round of bids, they’ll give you that round of bids back for free. That’s pretty cool.

So far, we believe that penny auctions is a trend that will stick around for quite some time, but because of some great sites like Bidsauce, we aren’t too upset.

A major cause for marital problems and arguments stems from money and financial-disagreements. Because of this high factor in marital problems, it is important for couples married already or contemplating marriage to talk about finances and come together on an agreement. As the marriage continues, more finance questions will arise and the couple needs to be able and willing to discuss these issues. Each partner needs to know how his/her partner feels about finances and when and how is the best way to come to solutions on financial issues.

The following is an overview on an article, titled “The Six Financial Mistakes Couples Make.”

The six mistakes are as follows:

1. Merging the Finances:  This is a question many couples go through as they consider how to begin their lives together as well as their financial lives together. Each relationship is different, and therefore, not all solutions will work for every couple. Some may pool all their money together and some may have separate accounts with a joined account for part of the money. Whatever works for you and your partner, be sure to agree together and not be too selfish over your finances. Once you are married, money should be a joint commodity in one way or another.
2. Dealing With Debt: Even if you have remained debt-free your entire life, you may marry someone who has acquired debts. As frustrating as it may be to deal with this extra burden, calling it “his” debt or “her” debt will not help. When a couple gets married, the debt now becomes “their” debt.
3. Keep Spending in Check:  Many couples label each other as “the spender” and “the saver” or other delineating terms. In actuality, most partners probably spend about the same just in different ways. Because of this variance in perspective, couples do not see that they are both spending and a positive solution would be to create a budget.
4. Investing Wisely: Many couples disagree on which financial risks should be taken and how many of these risks they should take. There really is no fits-all-answer because situations vary, but the important thing is that these couples sit down at least once each year to discuss the financial investment risks that they are willing to take.
5. Keeping Money Secrets: This should be a no-brainer, but for whatever reason, many couples admit to having lied about how much they spent on a particular item. This causes huge financial distress in a marriage as you can imagine. Just be honest with each other and stick to the money-spending agreements you made in the budget, so you will have no need to feel like you must hide the price you actually paid.
6. Emergency Planning: No matter how financially stable you and your spouse feel you are, having a financial cushion to lean back on will bring more peace to your marriage where finance is concerned. Being financially prepared for an emergency, will put you in a better place if disaster does strike.