Sarah

www.moneysavingexpert.com

When I was in the UK I used to go on this website every now and again, theres a boatload of information about every conceivable thing you purchase from power and water to clothes and shoes. When the husband and I were doing the long distance thing, thanks to this website I found a way to call him on landline or cell in America for 2p/min. Which was cheaper than calling my mum on her mobile 5miles away. Anybody else ever use this site? The guy used to be on Richard and Judy every now and again.

The good thing about the UK website is that the guy runs it profit-free and without any affiliates so that you're not getting mortgage advice biased towards one particular company.

Anyway I was just wondering if there was a similar US equivalent that everyone knows about?

Could always do with some financial advice seeing as I'm still a bit green in regards to US pension plans and health care.

Sarah

I'll take that as a no.

gedge

Maybe it's a secret.
Collect the vouchers, fill in the claim form and post it off.

mandpete

I don't know of a US equivalent over here and would love to understand some of the ins and outs of personal finance over here.

I was quite up to date with things in the UK but coming over here seems like taking a step back in time somehow. We have a financial adviser and when I explain certain UK savings and insurance schemes he looks at me as if I'm from another planet. We took out new life insurance last year and apparently the best policy for me, being a stay at home mum, was a 12 month policy which is just like car insurance, it only pays out if I die. I didn't bother asking about 'no claims bonuses'.

We still have endowments in the UK which the company have just paid us compensation for because we were mis-sold them in the late 80's.

snowbunny

Term-life insurance is what it is called here.

I don't know of an equivalent website here but will have a look around.... there are a few tips here:

http://clarkhoward.com/

which is the site of a radio talk show. One thing I really like about this show is that the presenter drives home the very real risk of identity theft and its consequences.

ImHere

I think he does a slot on radio 2 now and again

dunroving

I don't know if it's really the equivalent of your UK site, but the Motley Fool site (http://www.fool.com/ - there's also a UK site) is a no-npnsense type of advice source on things financial.

Have to agree with the IFA thing - I paid an IFA here $1500 just to give me a once-over (i.e., summary of how I'm doing and plan of action, with option for yearly oversight of my finances), and he was really clueless about everything such as UK/US tax laws, Social Security/NI agreement ("Totalization" agreement), etc. I ended up teaching him more than he taught me I think. Complete waste of my $1500.

dunroving

Could you tell me - did you write to the company direct, or go through the endowment mis-selling arbitration procedure? I seem to recall people on here sending a simple complaint letter to the endowmant company and getting compensation.

Hiro11

I swear by The Motley Fool (www.fool.com), their personal finance page is excellent.

For day-to-day savings, www.slickdealz.net is a terrific forum for finding shopping deals. That site has saved me thousands of dollars.

For magazines, I read Smart Money (www.smartmoney.com), Money (money.cnn.com) and Kiplinger: (www.kiplinger.com). All are good magazines that cover retirement, insurance, investing, mortgages etc in a non-technical manner.

Elvira

Agree about the Motley Fool, though I only use the UK site as one has to pay to us the US site and I'm too... eh'm "frugal"

The Vanguard site is also very useful; I think it's at www.vanguard.com

Elvira

mandpete

http://www.which.net/endowmentaction/index.html

We just did everything it tells you to do on the above web page. We thought that for the cost of postage we would give it a go. We addressed the letters to the person at the Estate Agents Office who 'sold' us the policies who then forwarded the letters to L&G.

It took 6 months for L&G to come to a decision and we were given the option of cashing in the policies and getting compensation or just getting the compensation. We had a financial bloke in England look at our policies and he suggested keeping them going and taking the compensation which is what we did.

We still have a UK bank account and the compensation was paid direct into that account.

snowbunny

The Frugal Gazette used to be the most popular guide to saving money through extreme frugality. It's no longer active, but a Google search on the term turns up related links.

ScotsmanInTexas

Ah well might as well add my tuppence (2p old money). I am uncertain about the state of things right now. I was looking into perhaps investing some dosh in US bonds http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/ tells you something about it.

Right now though I have money in an account in Britain which is at 4.75% interest (interest payable monthly and not annually) and I can get at it any time I want. Not bad considering that so long as the pound stays high against the dollar it is a better investment to have your money in UK £ and periodically change it to US $ - THROUGH A BRITISH BANK ONLY or through a company that charges no-commission like Lunn Poly.

Although be wary of Lunn Poly (used to be very good and worthy of recommending) lately though I have found Lunn Poly shops in the UK to be very sneaky over this past year - since they no longer turn on the exchange board in their window and instead have a sign written in ink pen which stays there for days if not weeks offering an exchange rate against the US $ - looks slightly dodgy? ) As I pointed out to the girl at the Exchange counter in Lunn Poly the rates go up and down all day long and not once a month as their sign outside implies...

I also stated through a British bank and the reason for this is that I have once or twice felt completely ripped off with the poor rate of exchange between pounds and dollars within the USA. They buy for a lot less than they are worth. So do your trades in Britain or through a British company which charges no commission. My bank does it for free!

So only tips I can give right now is that the high value of the British £ against the low US $ won't last forever take advantage of it while you can. Keep as much as you can of your dosh in a British bank with a good rate of interest. Consider US bonds which are a much safer investment and offer considerably better interest than most US banks offer.

Right now I am seriously considering investing in "I Bonds" see the US Treasury site listed above for information, Current Rate is: 4.80% through October 2005, the interest is not taxed, but these bonds take 5 years I believe to mature (however not so bad because you can cash them in any time losing only the last 3 months interest!) I Bonds earn interest from the first day of their issue month.

If you are interested in finding out what bonds like that will return to you here's a handy site to help you calculate compound interest:

http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator...calculator.htm

As interested as the next person (and a little wary of the unknown) to find out what's out there in the USA, before I plunge right in though.

Pulaski

Hang on! You may be missing more than half your cost of conversion - many of the "no commission" bureaux de change have a whopping "spread" on their exchange rate (buy-low, sell-high taken to excessive levels, so be sure that you are really get a deal by comparing exchange rates offered as well any fees or commissions.

I now use, and recommend, xetrade.com.

ScotsmanInTexas

Hmm interesing! Checking that site out now. I usually trade £ into $ Travellers Cheques for the security & slightly higher return on them. I wonder how the rates compare with what can be had elsewhere.

Hey, had a quick go of their demo on that site. If the rate it showed was accurate it was giving an exchange rate of 1.81325148 for the time I looked, in contrast American Express were offering 1.749100. So yes www.xetrade.com looks very interesting!

That site claims to allow you to: "Purchase foreign goods, Transfer money between accounts in different currencies (Good one that!), Quote prices in a foreign customer's currency, Send money to relatives in another country (Another good one without the usual bother), Repatriate foreign funds (Goes without saying!), Buy or sell foreign investments, Save time and money!"