“She’s back!” screams the cover of Reason, the magazine “For Free Minds and Free Markets,” featuring a photo of right-wing icon Ayn Rand looking suspiciously like the Bride of Frankenstein. (Seriously. Did you ever see the two of them together? I didn’t think so.)

Like Frankenstein’s monster, Rand’s ideas are back from the dead and have attracted the attention of torch-bearing angry villagers like the teabaggers. Sales of her cinder-block-sized manifesto, Atlas Shrugged, are reportedly at their strongest ever (more on that later) and this Christmas we have not one but two Rand biographies from which to choose. (Apparently nothing says “magical holiday” like “angry screed.”) There are also lots of “Who Is John Galt?” T-shirts and even the Atlasphere, an Ayn Rand dating and networking site.

So I felt compelled to find out what the buzz was all about.

Continue reading Ayn Rand — back from the dead and still dead wrong

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With the economy sputtering, many employees are retiring to make more money.

Many, like my husband, worry that retirement benefits will change in the future and he wants to be “grandfathered” in for the higher benefits. He is planning to retire in June from Milwaukee Public Schools after 16 years at an inner city school. He will receive lifetime health benefits, a pension with a sweetener and severance pay.

The years of being spit and sworn at are paying off. And he is right — these kinds of packages will become a thing of the past.

Continue reading Retiring to make more money

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Amazon.com has launched a new system to allow customers to trade in their old textbooks. Just type in the ISBN, find out how much your book is worth, print out the shipping label, and get a gift card once the book arrives at Amazon. Amazon only accepts books in good condition.

Sound easy? It sure does. And if money isn’t tight and you can’t be bothered to maximize value for your old books, it’s a great option — if you like Amazon store credit.

But for students with a bit more time, it’s easy to get more value. Amazon seems to pay around half of cover price for recent titles. For instance, a copy of The History of Modern Art will net you $47.55. But if you listed it in Amazon’s used marketplace, you could underprice the competition by listing it for just $89 — and probably sell it quickly.

Selling books direct to other students will always offer the most bang for the buck — by selling to Amazon, you invite in a middleman which has to pay a low enough price to earn some profit — and cover the cost of shipping the book twice instead of once. Trade-in programs are just not as efficient as the deals made possible by sites like Half.com and the Amazon Marketplace.

Is there a place for Amazon’s new trade-in system? Absolutely. But if you’re as cash-strapped as most students are, it’s worth the extra effort to list it on Amazon or Half.com yourself.

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More than a million Americans lost access to banks last year, bringing the total up to 30 million people in this country who can’t even open a savings account or write a check. The issue of the “unbanked,” as they’re being called, is a serious one, and the recession is only making the problem worse.

According to the FDIC, which compiled the stats, poor, immigrant and minority members of society are most likely to have trouble finding a bank. In total, a whopping 25.6 percent of all citizens are unbanked or “underbanked,” a situation which makes their day-to-day financing more expensive and makes it extremely difficult for them to attain upward mobility.

Continue reading Why 30 million Americans lack banking services

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Ever since the news got out that the U.K. plans to force some of its large, bailout-receiving banks to sell off some operations and become smaller, there’s been plenty of speculation on this side of the pond that we might do the same thing.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, threw down the gauntlet when he said recently that banks considered “too big to fail” should be broken up to make the economy more stable. (Fisher’s full speech on the topic is here if you’re interested.) A committee in the House of Representatives is pushing for new legislation that would go even further and let the government break up other kinds of companies — not just banks — it deemed a threat.

It’s a very satisfying idea: Banks that get too big to handle should be forced to downsize. Only trouble is, a lot of economists think it won’t address the problem. “The problem is, the really emotionally satisfying things that we could do all create more harm than good,” said Douglas Elliott, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. On the subject of breaking up banks dubbed too big to fail, Elliot told WalletPop, “It would hurt the economy, which ends up hitting the average person.”

Continue reading Should we break up big banks?

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For anyone who is serving in the military, or served and was honorably discharged, you’re now eligible to be a customer of one of the top-ranked banking and insurance companies in the country. USAA, started in 1922 by 25 military officers to insure each other’s cars, is opening its doors wider. It recently announced an expansion of its customer base from enlisted military to all living service men and women who were honorably discharged.

Continue reading Served in the U.S. military? This bank’s for you

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A lot of Americans have plenty to say about their banks these days, and it’s not always pretty — we’ve heard you in the comments section. We wanted to call out some of banks’ slimier tricks for separating you from your money as well as recognize some of the helpful tools or innovations (yes, there are a few mixed in with all those fees!) some banks offer.

WalletPop got on the phone with a few top consumer finance experts at watchdog groups — people who track what the banks are doing day in and day out — to ask them what today’s customers should appreciate and what they should avoid at all costs. Here’s our roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good
Direct deposit: If your employer or benefits distributor offers this, sign up for it. There’s no question this is a good thing. Nearly all the experts we talked to said this is one of the most consumer-friendly practices banks offer today. Not only does your money get into your account up to five days faster than if you deposited a paper check, direct deposit eliminates the errand of physically going to the bank to deposit it. Often, direct deposit makes you eligible for free checking at most banks (although not Citibank, come February). “Generally it’s safe to say direct deposit benefits consumers,” Consumers Union staff attorney Lauren Bowne told us. In other words, it’s a no-brainer.

Continue reading Bank practices: The good, the bad, and the ugly

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It’s pretty common knowledge that alcoholics, gamblers and drug addicts have support groups and 12-step programs to keep them on the wagon. But did you know there are similar groups for compulsive spenders, debt addicts and shopaholics?

Debtors Anonymous, a support organization patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous, uses a 12-step program to help people — first name only — stop abusing their credit cards and kick their free-spending ways.

Continue reading 12-step help for shopaholics

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Imagine a world where you don’t have to write or mail a check, handle paper money or swipe your credit card — all you have to do is enter some information into a Web site to make a financial transaction. That’s the world of electronic payments, and if you haven’t discovered the convenience of electronic payments, it’s time to get with the e-program.

Whether you’re shopping online, paying a bill or using online bill pay through your bank, making an electronic payment is as quick and efficient as a couple of clicks. If you automate your electronic payments, you can also eliminate the “D’oh! I forgot to make my payment” moments in your busy schedule. And as long as you make your electronic payments from a secure server, with a firewall, your privacy should be protected. Plus, you save trees and stamps.

Continue reading 10 best electronic payment services

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Seniors who were in good health when they signed contracts with continuing care communities — communities that promised to care for them as they aged and needed assisted living or nursing care — are now finding those contracts to be just empty promises. Many of these continuing care and assisted living facilities are facing bankruptcies with seniors left to find new homes at a time when they can no longer care for themselves. Some of these seniors thought they had bought into a permanent care facility they could depend upon until they died, but now if they need additional care, they must find new accommodations.

Continuing care communities were a retirement dream for those who could afford to pay. A person usually put down about $150,000 on an apartment (that number varied depending on apartment size and location) with the promise that they would have a place to live until the day they died. To qualify, seniors had to be able to live independently when they first moved in. Some would make their own meals, and some would choose to eat in a common dining room. All would pay a certain amount per month for needed services. Those who required more than basic services would pay according to the nursing or other services they needed.

Continue reading Seniors losing homes in continuing care communities

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