Hank Coleman

Hank Coleman is the founder of Money Q&A, an Iraq combat veteran, a Dr. Pepper addict, and a self-proclaimed investing junkie. He has written extensively for many nationally known financial websites and publications about investing, retirement planning, and even how to find the best return on investment. Hank holds a Master’s Degree in Finance and a graduate certificate in personal financial planning. Email him directly at Hank[at]MoneyQandA.com. Hank has written over 750 articles on Money Q&A. Learn more about Money Q&A on Twitter @MoneyQandA and @HankColeman. Subscribe To Money Q&A If you want to learn more about taking back control of your money please subscribe to Money Q&A’s RSS feed or via email to receive all the latest articles! You can also subscribe to our Free Weekly Newsletter.

Why Socially Conscious Investing May Be Costing You A Lot Of Money

by Hank Coleman

Have you heard about socially conscious investing? Socially conscious investing basically means that you or the mutual funds that you use will not invest in companies that do not promote the social good.

Socially conscious investing takes entire industries like alcohol, gambling, gun manufacturers, potential environmental polluters and the like out of the investing mix of potential companies in the possibilities for your investments.

Several mutual funds have gravitated to this investing style as a way to market and differentiate themselves from the masses of funds that comprise the investing universe.

Socially responsible investing (SRI) mutual funds and socially conscious investing look to limit or restrict their investments in companies that promote what the general public would consider vices.

They shy away from investing in companies that are seen as environmental polluters, makers addictive substances like alcohol or tobacco, and other companies. Many of these mutual funds have also removed themselves from investing in companies that have been seen as having bad corporate governance policies and practices. They have also shunned companies with suspected human rights violations.

Socially Conscious Investing Mutual Funds Have Gained In Popularity

Socially conscious investments and socially conscious investing mutual funds have exploded in popularity in recent years. The number of socially conscious investing mutual funds or socially responsible mutual funds in the United States has grown to over 250 with assets of more than $300 billion as of 2010, this is up 30 fold since their inception in 1995.

According to InvestmentNews.com and Morningstar.com, socially conscious investing mutual funds have had over $3 billion in net inflows into these types of funds in the past three years ending in 2012.

How To Save On The Cost Of Disability Insurance

by Hank Coleman

You need to have disability insurance to provide you with income protection in the event you are hurt and cannot work. It is not a matter of if you will get hurt but when.

Over 30% of all workers will be injured during their working lifetime and not be able to work. This could be devastating to your finances of course if you are not prepared. But, there are ways to reduce the cost of disability insurance for you and your family.

Save On The Cost Of Disability Insurance

How will you pay your monthly expenses if not only do not earn an income but simply cannot physically do any work to earn additional income. How will you family survive?

That is why having disability insurance is so important. You are statistically four times more likely to be disabled and not be able to work than to die in your 30s.

What You Can Learn About Investing From Building A Pinewood Derby Car

by Hank Coleman

All across America, boys and their fathers are building a Pinewood Derby Car for the Cub Scouts. My son is no different. We actually just put the finishing touches on building a Pinewood Derby Car. And, last week when he was racing it at our local Pack meeting, I got to thinking about all of the lessons that you could take away from building a Pinewood Derby Car and apply to the world of investing.

Here are a few things about investing that we all can learn from building a Pinewood Derby Car…

How Building A Pinewood Derby Car Is Like Investing

A Great Car/Investment Starts With Research

I was blown away by looking at some of the other Pinewood Derby cars that were at my son’s race that weren’t optimized to be as fast as possible. It only took me a little time and effort to Google and find where to put the weights on the Pinewood Derby car to get it to be the fastest car possible.

I also bought a book to ensure that my son didn’t miss any steps in building his car, polishing the wheels, sanding the axles, and the like that would help when building a Pinewood Derby car and making it fast. The same thing is true with investing A little research can go a long way. There are so many resources available to investors that can help you find great stocks or mutual funds to invest in. You should start with

The same thing is true with investing A little research can go a long way. There are so many resources available to investors that can help you find great stocks or mutual funds to invest in. You should start with site like Google Finance or Yahoo Finance when you are researching investments.

It Takes Hard Work To Get It Right

Wow! I had no idea how hard building a winning Pinewood Derby car would be. There was a lot of sanding, painting, cutting, chiseling, and the like that had to go on to make that Pinewood Derby car a winner. It was worth it to bond with my son, but man wow!

The same can be said about investing too. If you are investing in individual stocks especially it can be a lot of hard work keeping track of all those companies and what they are doing in their industries. People with normal day jobs are at a disadvantage to other people like analysts and money managers who watch stocks and certain industries for a living. That is all they are doing day in and day out. It can be worthwhile for the rest of us but hard work nevertheless like building a Pinewood Derby car that wins. Click here to learn more about Motif Investing

Teamwork Is The Best Approach

It is hard for this dad to take a step back and hand the saw over to my son and let him take the reins building his Pinewood Derby car. But, it was and should always be a team event between the boy and his parent. Not only are you teaching him and providing him with a sense of accomplishment, you are also there as a backstop and a somewhat subject matter expert when he really needs help.

Too many people try to go it alone without the help of a financial planner. Either people think that they do not need help, can do it themselves, or can’t afford to hire a financial planner. These arguments, of course, are extremely flawed. Everyone could benefit from a little help from teammates now and again, and help from a financial planner is no different.

Easy Ways To Save Money Right Now Without Even Thinking

by Hank Coleman

Stopping yourself from spending money and wasting money is often not as hard as you think. We often psych ourselves out of saving money because we think that it has to be harder or more elaborate than it really needs to be.

But, the truth of the matter is that there are tons of easy ways to save money right now without even having to think about doing it. Here are some of my favorite easy ways to save money without having to think about actually saving money.

Write Your Savings Goals On Credit Card Sleeves

Paper sleeves on your cards But, I am a huge fan of using credit card sleeves to control your spending. Sounds kind of counter intuitive, right? I write directly onto these card sleeves that come with your ATM cards, the plastic key card from hotels, and other cards that you collect. There are even a few in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace kit.

Plastek Cards even makes custom sleeves too. These card sleeves are easy ways to save money without even realizing that that is what you are doing. It is sort of like tricking yourself into saving money and not spending it on frivolous things.

It is very hard for me to reach for a credit card or my ATM card if I see one of my family’s financial goals, like a summer beach vacation, written down right there on the card sleeve and staring right back at me every time I reach into my wallet.

Carrying Your Loyalty Cards With You

I am also very bad at carrying the grocery store loyalty cards and other store loyalty cards. Instead of asking someone around me to borrow their card or making sure that I’m carrying the loyalty card before hand, I typically continue with the purchase anyway, missing out on the deal or coupon associated with using the loyalty card.

Like coupons, this one bad habit alone costs me probably $100 or more every year. There are so many loyalty cards that stores give to their customers now. There is no excuse not to carry your favorite store’s card and save.

It is one of the easiest ways to save money without having to think about it. You just hand over your card. There are even applications on your smartphone that you can download to help you keep track of all the loyalty cards as well if you forget to carry the physical ones.

Five Of The Most Important Tax Deductions You Can’t Forget

by Hank Coleman

April 15th will be here before you know it. If you are like me, you may be dragging your feet on filing your income tax return. There are many income tax deductions that you may inevitably qualify for, but you do not want to miss them. Make sure you pay the taxes you owe but do not pay more than you must. In 2009, more than 45 million Americans itemized deductions on their tax returns to the tune of $1.2 trillion dollars of savings and deductions. But the real question is: how many income tax deductions did we miss? Did we claim all of the deductions that were owed to us? Or, did we miss a few that could ultimately … Read more

Why You Should Ditch Your Cable for Hulu or Netflix

by Hank Coleman

Tax Tips For Teachers Have you every thought about how or why you should ditch your cable? More and more people are becoming disenfranchised with their cable company and are looking for alternatives like Hulu Plus and Netflix.

With more streaming content available on the Internet for free or cheap, it’s becoming relatively easy to drop your cable and just watch your favorite shows online. Here are some tips on how you can drop your cable for Internet based programming.

Understand The Content You Want

The first thing you want to do is understand what content you want – movies, nightly news, weekly sitcoms, etc. If you have certain shows you know you want to watch each week, you need to make sure that you can still get them online.

Look up what shows Hulu Plus and Netflix offer, and make sure they have new content and not just old seasons. Also, don’t forget to check out the actual channels themselves. Channels like ABC offer all of their programming online one day after it airs.

Find Good Deals When You Ditch Your Cable

The next thing to do is find a good deal on switching. Start by searching for coupons or discounts offered by companies like Hulu Plus or Netflix. These companies usually offer discounts to new subscribers that you may be able to take advantage of. Also, see if you can get a discount on your Internet as well. Many cable companies also offer Internet service, and to not lose you forever, they may offer incentives for you to at least keep your Internet with them.