Financial Schools Reviews

Two members of the House Financial Services Committee from both sides of the aisle have responded to the repeated criticisms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by writing a new bill that would create a government agency to replace the mortgage backing giants as they are wound down, according to a report from Bloomberg News. The bipartisan bill, which will be introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives soon, is seen as a direct challenge to Republican leaders who say Fannie and Freddie cost taxpayers too much money.

In all, Fannie and Freddie have cost the government more than $130 billion since they were taken over in September 2008, and Republican leaders have repeatedly called for them to be shut down in a relatively small amount of time. Full Article…

Westpac subsidiary St George says it anticipates roughly 50 per cent of all customer transactions online to be undertaken by smartphones over the next 12 to 18 months, and in response, the lender is ramping up spending on its online mobile offering by tens of millions of dollars as it seeks to cater for the burgeoning Gen Y client base.

Currently the volume of smartphone transactions have doubled over the last eight month and now equal the volume of transactions undertaken at 85 physical branches.

Ultimately St George’s goal is for its mobile banking application to act as a platform for customer acquisition, from which products such as credit cards and personal loans can be applied for.

Currently St George’s mobile banking application undertakes 500,000 financial transactions every month and the lender has revamped its applications for all platforms including iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.

Approximately 80 per cent of the lenders mobile clients access the platform using the iPhone iOS, though 30 per cent of all downloads were Android application downloads. Win

Full Article…

A few weeks ago, I put out a call on Twitter and on Facebook for detailed posts that people would like to see. I got enough great responses that I’m going to fill the entire month of July – one post per day – addressing these ideas.

On Facebook, Rebecca requested a post on “ways to live more frugally, and ‘beat’ inflation. ie: garden, raise own animals? (is it cost effective?) buying used/bartering/trading, public transportation vs driving pros/cons, saving in an economic nightmare (is it possible?)”

Here’s the real truth of the matter: frugality does beat inflation. Some methods of frugality, however, are much more effective at fighting inflation than others. Let’s look at w

Full Article…

– Employment in the U.S. private sector increased by much more than expected in the month of June, according to a report released by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Inc. on Thursday, with the data easing some of the recent concerns about the strength of the labor market.

The report showed that private sector employment increased by 157,000 jobs in June following a downwardly revised increase of 36,000 jobs in May.

Full Article…

If your last open house for your Ponte Vedra homes for sale didn’t go as great as you had hoped, a few small changes may be all you need to ensure that your next open is house is much more successful. Here’s what you may have missed:

• Make your beds – Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But the truth is that a made bed can give your bedroom an instant facelift. A buyer’s eyes will go directly to an unmade bed. Therefore, their memory of your home may be of the unmade beds in it. Not a good memory to leave a buyer with, right?
• Clear your sink of dirty dishes – Even your dirty breakfast dishes in the sink will instantly make your kitchen appear unkempt and dirty. Get your di

Full Article…