money

The 404 351: Where we decode our paychecks with the Jill of all trades

It's no surprise that Jeff, Wilson, and Justin don't know jack about the economic financial crisis, so we invite CBS MoneyWatch.com's Editor-at-Large Jill Schlesinger on the show to break it all down. She preps us with tips on what young people can do to secure a stable future and she gives us three very important ways to keep the money we earn.

First of all, be sure to have six months of living expenses in the bank. If you don't have a steady, stable job like a tenured teaching position, a three-month rainy day fund in the bank will do you some good, if, God-forbid, something happened. Second, pay off your debt. Sounds obvious, but most Americans haven't saved a dime since the '90s.

Last thing she says is to take advantage of your company's 401k. Yes, your parents retirement and pension funds might be gone, but if you're like us, in our 20s and barely employed, you should throw money into your 401k. If you want, Wilson will manage your 404k--if you want a negative return on your investment.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to show off all of your submissions for our logo contest, but let's face it: some things are more important than logos. But rest assured that we're going to go over ALL of them on tomorrow's show, not to mention a huge "Calls from the Public" to make up for today. Keep sending in your submissions to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com--they've all been amazing. We've gotten so many that we're EXTENDING the contest to next week! Don't forget: all submissions should include a JPG/PNG as well as a high-res file. Thanks all!

EPISODE 351 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 343: Where we're so Liz Money we don't even know it

Star of The Gagdet 411's "The Money Shot" Web show, Liz Money, joins us in the studio today to talk about the gadgets she's currently obsessed with. Liz is in town from New Orleans (see Nawlins) and was nice enough to stop by the 404 studio for some good, clean fun.

That wholesome fun ends when we get into a story about a recent Trojan outbreak in the office that, while seemingly benign, spread like wildfire. Liz helps gets the message across: it's always best to use antivirus protection.

Next it's on to Ron Howard's new film "Angels & Demons". We chat about how the book will probably still be better than the movie, but that it's pretty much guaranteed to be better than "The DaVinci Code."

Finally, we quickly touch on the fate of Duke Nukem Forever, a game stuck in the development process for just over an entire decade. Then we get Jeff's quick take on SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

EPISODE 343 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Manage your money with Quicken Online Mobile for iPhone

For a good six months now, Mint has been the go-to app for managing finances on your iPhone. Today, Quicken debuted its own money manager: Quicken Online Mobile. Like Mint, it's free. Unlike Mint, it's passcode-protected.

That protection addresses a long-standing concern: if someone makes off with your iPhone, they can fire up the Mint app and see how much money's sitting in each of your accounts.

Quicken Online Mobile, on the other hand, won't let you in without first entering your four-digit PIN.

To get started, you'll need to create a free Quicken Online account (… Read more

At Finovate, a bad economy means good start-ups

SAN FRANCISCO--At the FinovateStartup conference, one thing is clear: a lackluster economy can be the best time for financial start-ups to get new users.

Apps that help people track and manage funds outside of their bank or investment service's site are in high demand, and many of the services presenting at the conference are trying to get those financial companies on board.

Why? Because those companies are still the gate keepers of trust. People are more willing to hand over their account credentials and detailed personal information to larger institutions over some hot, new Silicon Valley start-up. That, and … Read more

Score the best deals on iPhone e-books

I love reading books on my iPhone, but I don't love e-book prices. I mean, digital content requires no printing, binding, shipping, storage, or heavy lifting--so why does Amazon charge the same price for the Kindle edition of "The Kite Runner" as for the paperback?

That's a debate for another day (though let me go on record saying I'd buy a lot more e-books if they were priced in the $1 to $4 range). For now, let's look at ways you can read on the cheap--or, at least, the cheaper--on your iPhone.

Look for freebies Stanza, one of my favorite e-book viewers ( just acquired by Amazon, incidentally), connects you with thousands of freebies. For example, check out the Random House Free Library, which currently stocks 10 mainstream e-books. (Best bet: Charlie Huston's superb crime-noir series, which starts with "Caught Stealing.") Meanwhile, there's Google Book Search, a browser-based solution that connects you to a whopping 1.5 million public-domain books. Point Safari to http://books.google.com/m. Look for deals E-bookseller Fictionwise already discounts its e-books, but you can stretch your dollar even further by setting up a "Micropay" account (i.e., a debit account). Most books come with a Micropay rebate, meaning you get 10 percent to 15 percent of the purchase price added back to your account. But sometimes Fictionwise runs rebate specials, as it's doing right now with J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series: Buy any/all of the books and you get back 100 percent. You can read Fictionwise e-books using eReader or Stanza. (Just make sure to choose titles that are available in the Secure eReader format.) Try before you buy Amazon's Kindle app lets you read free of charge the entire first chapter of any book in the Kindle Store. That's a great way to see if you like a book before plunking down your $10. However, you can't browse the store from within the app: You have to queue up your sample chapters from your browser. Not so with Shortcovers, an e-book viewer with a built-in bookstore that offers sample chapters for many titles (but only forewords for others).… Read more

Webware Radar: LoanMarket's mortage hub

LoanMarket.net announced on Monday that it has launched its online marketplace for buying and selling mortgages.

According to the company, its service allows both buyers and sellers to come together in a "neutral, open marketplace" to trade mortgages and other real-estate secured note investments.

The site has a variety of sellers, including mortgage originators, banks, and lending institutions, mortgage pool investors, small private investors, and seller carry-back note holders. All the notes listed on the site include current market value information, as well as a photo of the property taken within 14 days of the post. All … Read more

Spreadsheet-style tracking

Personal finance programs are a dime a dozen these days, so the bar is set pretty high when it comes to performance. AceMoney offers tools for creating and maintaining budgets, tracking investments, and even online banking. And while it successfully let us do all of the above, we found that it lacked protection for sensitive information.

The program's interface is very businesslike, and its simple, straightforward design makes the array of options easy to understand and navigate. Large commands at the top of the window let you toggle between seven categories, including accounts, portfolio, banks, payees, and reports. Although … Read more

Personal finance made easy

Money Decoder promises to help users sort out their complex mixture of income, bills, and debt for a clear financial status. With all the variables involved, this program makes organizing the user's future relatively easy, with one catch.

From the very start this program makes organizing assets, incomes, and liabilities very simple. The Help menu instantly advises users not to waste time searching for bills, but to take educated guesses and correct the work once monthly bills arrive. In addition, when the user scrolls over any of the boxes that need data, a screen at the top tells what … Read more

Worth the effort

iMoney gives users an opportunity to manage every aspect of their financial world, from mortgage payments to budgeting their hair appointments for the year. With such great detail comes an incredible amount of work on the user's part, but the results are worth it.

The 30-day free trial's best features lie within its flexibility. iMoney allows users to review, manage, and budget their cash accounts, savings, investments, mortgage, lendings and more. Within the program there are several ways to run reports on these accounts and see where the money is spent, as well as projected worth. Some of … Read more

The 404 298: Where Erica Boeke teaches us how to watch sports like a girl

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

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