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The Bottom Line April 2008
Webwatch provides suggestions for saving and spending your money wisely. Heidi GrieppRecently I joined an investment club. We pool our resources and invest some of our money and give some of it to a charitable cause or ministry. As a result, I have started to think more about how I use my money and how I can be a more responsible steward of what I have. This month’s Webwatch looks at money matters—from debt to savings, from budgets to long-term goals. www.bankrate.comBankrate.com is a site with a large amount of financial information in one place. It is well known and has its data featured on CNN Headline News and CNBC. This is a good place to start thinking about and planning for your financial or budgeting goals. In particular it’s a good place for increasing your financial literacy. Many people don’t know how much debt they are carrying. If you aren’t exactly sure, you can fill out the “Dealing with Debt Worksheet” on this site. It also has a debt reduction calculator. Have you thought about how much you should set aside for an emergency fund? This site can help you figure that out. I looked up one of my banks to see how safe it is, under the “Checking and Savings” tab. The site includes a “Safe & Sound” rating to help you determine the financial health of a bank, thrift, or credit union before you open an account. My favorite part of this site is the articles. I highly recommend the special series on financial literacy about debt management. Articles include “Debt’s Dirty Secrets,” “Six Steps to Rub Out Debt,” “Keeping Money in Check,” “Tactical Spending Tips,” and more. www.wesabe.comThis website allows you to track your expenses and work toward your financial goals. A short, helpful video provides an introduction to the website. If you like what you see, you can register to get full access to the rest of the site. There is no charge for this. I can see at a quick glance all of my accounts and where my money is going. Then I can set realistic goals. For example, I could set a goal of having three months’ salary in an emergency savings account. This site allows me to type in the amount of money I want to save. Then I link it to my accounts that are all automatically tagged. Whenever my checking account automatically puts money into my savings account, Wesabe captures it in my goal. In this way I can watch my savings grow and at any moment know how I am doing on all my goals at a glance. It is also nice because Wesabe does not hold your money; it only tracks it. You upload your spending and deposit information, and it uses this information to calculate how much you are spending on which area. People who like to use online tools will particularly like this site. www.dailycents.comDailycents.com is part career coach, part financial adviser, and part friend with the inside scoop about tools to help you to be successful at work, at home, and in life. This site contains a lot of wonderful financial blogs with women as its core audience. I am featuring it for its financial advice topics. At the time of this writing some of the articles featured in the “Love and Money” section included articles on whether couples should keep joint checking accounts and some good reviews of other resources. Topics in this site include: managing money, budgeting, tax planning, managing debt, saving, credit, real estate, big expenses, investing, retirement, love and money, life events, career, and financial planning. finance.yahoo.comI recommend the personal finance tab on Yahoo’s finance page. Interesting articles when I visited included “Fifteen Smart Money Moves for Tough Times,” “Eight Sure-Fire Ways to Sock Away $100,” and some great calculators for finding out things like how much you are spending. There are lots of other subjects covered on the site, such as banking, career and work, college and education, family and home, insurance, loans, real estate, retirement, taxes, tools, and more. richesforgood.blogspot.comRiches for Good is probably one of the most helpful blogs for learning about philanthropy and charities. The blogger provides great reminders for why you use your money for good. It calls us to good stewardship, good financial management, and more. wisebread.comTheir tagline is “helping you live large on a small budget.” Topics are personal finance, frugal living, career and income, life hacks, deals and coupons, and much more. This site has a gifted group of bloggers, such as Budget Busters (the writer, Anthony Marrone, reads between sixty and seventy personal finance blogs a day). It’s a beautiful and information-packed daily resource. budgetingbabe.blogspot.comA blog by a working girl just trying to stay on a budget, this is great for women. Her blog recounts her journey from “over-spender to power saver.” She gives clear, practical tips on everything from saving money to doing your taxes and consolidating student loans. docs.google.comA lot of people use Excel or some other type of spreadsheet program to budget. If you don’t have Excel or you want your budget to be available anywhere you have Internet access, you can log onto Google Docs and choose “Spreadsheets.” You can upload your budget and access it from home, work, or school. ❏
heidi Griepp is manager of covenant internet Services and an avid Web wanderer. Know of a great site you think should be here?
Tell us about it—email heidi.griepp@covchurch.org. 
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