Saving for Education Can Be Confusing

Study: Americans More Conservative With Money

Americans appear to believe the era of fast financial growth is over and have become more conservative about managing their money, a study by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. shows. Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Home Equity an Option for Building Reserve

One way to build up needed personal reserves “may be to leverage your home and use loan proceeds to populate your emergency reserve,” writes Dick Hensley, CEO of InvestorsBank in Waukesha, in the Milwaukee Small Business Times.

Most Savers Kept Money in 401(k)s

Of more than 1,100 plan participants polled by Francis Investment Counsel LLC between July and December, 68 percent had not changed their 401(k) accounts in response to the financial crisis. Of the 32 percent that changed their 401(k)s, 18 percent reduced the amount contributed or stopped saving completely, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Longtime Savers Doing Fine During Downturn

Perhaps not surprisingly, �a recent survey by online banking business HSBC Direct suggests that people who are longtime active savers are enduring this economic downturn virtually unscathed,� according to an entry on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel�s Dollars & Sense blog.

Column: Everyone Needs an Emergency Fund

A 2008 survey for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling found that Americans aren�t doing a particularly good job of maintaining even a minimal emergency fund. One-third of those surveyed had absolutely no non-retirement savings, and 57 percent of those who did have an emergency stash didn�t have enough in it, writes Erika Milosevich, vice president at North Shore Bank, in a guest column in the Small Business Times of Milwaukee.