US Finance World

Budget supermarkets get better scores than Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco and Morrisons in annual Which? satisfaction poll.

Budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl are continuing to win plaudits as well as shoppers, coming second and third respectively in this year’s Which? supermarket satisfaction survey.

Both shops gained four stars for the quality of their fresh produce and, crucially, value.

Waitrose topped the survey for the third year running, with a score of 83% and five stars for its customer service.

Marks & Spencer came fourth in the poll of 11,000 Which? members.

Tesco and the Co-operative came joint last. Tesco only received two stars for its customer service, own brand products and store environment.

The results follow a BBC investigation revealing that many big supermarket ‘deals’ were misleading and sometimes more expensive than buying individual products.

Ocado and Waitrose came joint top in a poll of online supermarkets, each achieving a score of 80%.

Which supermarkets get your vote? S

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By Steve Repak, CFP®

In basic training, a soldier goes through a process of mental and emotional retraining so that they can operate in an environment very different from the civilian world. I figured out I could take some of the same lessons I learned in the Army and apply them to my finances. Once I started to think differently and then began doing different things with my money, I was able to start accomplishing my financial goals.

The following are 10 Things the Army Taught Me about Finances that I want to share with you in order for you to start thinking differently about your money and to show you that you possess the same skills and tools that I have to achieve any of your financial goals

Leadership

Unless you are a new recruit, you have served in some type of leadership role. Leadership is all about taking charge of the situation and not making excuses.

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Heres a reader question about tracking Roth IRA contributions is previous years (slightly paraphrased for clarity) that I answered to the best of my ability, but perhaps there is a better solution out there.

I am looking to make a withdraw of my Roth IRA contribution that I made prior to 5 years to avoid taxes and penalties. My question is:

How do I find out how much and when I made contributions?

This will tell me how much I can withdraw without taxes or penalties. I am also only age 50. Thank you!

My initial answer was to look at past income tax returns, as that should provide a good record of your Roth IRA contribution history. However, since Roth IRA contributions do not affect your tax liability, they likely arent listed directly on the tax return. Going through my own old returns, I found my contributions noted in a supporting document called a Roth IRA Carryover Worksheet.

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When I was a freshman in college, I took boxing classes. (It’s a long story.) One fight, in particular, stands out in my memory: A right hook I never saw coming left me flat on my back. (It’s fair to say I was no Mike Tyson in the ring. More of a Mr. Rogers. But I digress.)

The point here is that the punches you fail to anticipate are the ones that can do the most damage. That’s also true when it comes to retirement: The taxes, fees and outlays that catch you flat-footed are the ones that can jeopardize your financial future. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to keep from landing on the canvas, even in a shaky economy.

Start by recognizing the risks. (And more people are: In a recent Charles Schwab study, baby boomers said their biggest retirement-related concern was “unexpected expenses,” such as medical costs.) If you’re forced to make big withdrawals from savings in the teeth of a bear market, especially in the early years of retirement, your nest egg could expire before you do.

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Sigh, Im still not a fan of the stock market. I guess being out of the market the last few years has probably cost me financially, but I still dont think I could take the stress of the ups/downs. The funny thing is that I still watch quite a few stocks, daily even, but I dont own any of them.

Betterment.com contacted me recently and wanted me to take a look at their new site. Id usually just ignore the email, but their site looked so pretty I decided, what the heck, Ill take their call.

So, they set me up with a sweet referral site of my own, and I setup my account last week. The registration was pretty easy, but they do require a deposit verification, which I just completed this morning. So, you can setup an account in about 3 days or so. Pretty painless for an online financial account.

One things I immediately like about Betterment is how easy on the eyes the site is.

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A new survey says that nearly half of women admit to spending more than they planned to on Christmas presents.

A new survey claims nearly half of women blow their Christmas shopping budget. National Savings & Investments found that a third of women splash out on last minute ‘top-up’ gifts, in addition to presents they’d already planned to purchase.

Only two-fifths of men surveyed admitted overspending and most said they finish their shopping well before Christmas. A fifth of the men surveyed said they had bought their presents months in advance and within budget. And only a quarter of men said they bought top-up presents.

Despite the current squeeze on our pockets, two-fifths of the women surveyed said that price wasn’t an issue when it comes to Christmas presents. Women s

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Whats my credit score and this is a unique question, however, prior to answering this question, one need to appreciate really what one’s credit score is and what for it is utilized. However, prior to explaining one where one can obtain one’s credit score number, one should first know actually about what the credit report score is and who provides it. One’s credit score is just a number awarded to everyone by the top three credit reporting agencies and they are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Whats my credit score and to know about one’s main utilization of credit score is obviously to offer the institutions a way to determine one’s credit worthiness and provide the rates they find one is eligible for.

One’s credit score is primarily utilized to identify the chances of not paying one’s bills. If one asks w Read more…

Here’s a brain-teaser for you.

Which corporate honcho bragged recently about his company’s strong resources, positive outlook and outstanding “execution” skills? Who said he was “particularly pleased” at recent developments, and predicted “competitive returns to shareholders in the quarters ahead”?

Tim Cook at Apple? Alan Mulally at Ford? Mike Duke at Wal-Mart?

None of the above. The answer is Jon Corzine, who runs MF Global Holdings Ltd. He made those remarks a week ago. Yesterday the company filed for bankruptcy.

One week. No kidding.

You may be watching the news about MF Global and shrugging. You may think, “minor blowup on Wall Street, few injured.”

But you’d be wrong. What just happened at MF Global illustrates everything wrong with the U.S. economy. That’s right: It’s all here!

1. Spin, spin, spin

On Oct. 25, just days before the company collapsed, Corzine told investors that MF Global’s exposure to European government bonds was fine.

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