Saturday, May 22, 2010

joint bank accounts

I was having a chat with a girlfriend this week about joint v separate bank accounts for couples.

She and her hubby only have the one joint account where both their salaries are paid into. From here they pay all their bills, holidays etc.

While I am strongly in favour of joint accounts, I think you also need a separate account each person - purely for 'ME' stuff.

My friend, let's call her Alice, felt that having separate accounts was a headache - more accounts to remember and possibly get mixed up. But I disagree - only one account can be messier if someone overspends (which happens more often than you think).

I'm going to write a longer post on how the boy and I sort our accounts, but for now here are some interesting links on the subject:

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Market update

Wow, the volatility in global markets continues...




In summary:

~ AVOID long-term government bonds
~ Now's a good time to buy in to quality assets when their price is down BUT short the Euro (meaning = expect the Euro currency to continue to fall)

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Money tool for Americans

I've stumbled across this great website which tracks your ACTUAL spending by getting direct data from your bank accounts.

Looks like it's only relevant for American residents though, which is a shame.

Definitely worth a look if you want to see what you really spend, rather than what you think you spend. Plus they lots of interesting articles and links on personal finance.

http://www.mint.com/

Saturday, May 1, 2010

TWFT: Argh! Lost Wallet!!

Hmmm this week's finance tip is a very practical one, with lessons learnt first-hand.

My boyfriend staggered home at 3am this morning after celebrating his new promotion, only to arrive by taxi at our building and discover he'd lost his wallet.

I awoke to his distraught phone call from the taxi, threw on a robe and trotted downstairs to pay the worried taxi driver.

The next 30 minutes were spent on the phone helping him cancel his credit cards and Octopus card (HK travel card - like the UK Oyster). Let's just say he wasn't very sober and needed help pressing the phone buttons...which explains how he lost his wallet!

What did I learn from this? Keep a list of your important finance details on hand for emergencies.

Something that has:
~ Account numbers
~ Emergency phone numbers (i.e. for lost cards)
~ Your ID numbers (i.e. passport, HK ID card)

Just the basics, nothing extensive.

And another tip - don't keep ALL of your credit cards in your wallet. If you don't use all of them all the time, keep one home for emergencies like this!

Hope you had a better week than this.