Identity theft is not only the thing many people still don’t like to bother about but also the thing which can take your identity, your credits, your finances and ruin them. So if you don’t want to find your life in ruins one day, you are to know your enemy and fight it wisely. Annual reports on identity theft warn everyone that the number of identity theft crimes will increase considerably within the next several years. Undoubtedly, the best way to avoid identity theft is to make purchases only with reputable companies, websites, payment gateways and so on, but still there are lots of things which depend on you and you are to care of them to back up your identity data.

Basic types of identity theft you have to be aware of:

• financial fraud
• credit/debit card fraud
• saving account fraud
• checking account fraud
• identity cloning (someone uses your identity to live a separate life)
• mortgage/loan account fraud
• computer crimes
• drug trafficking
• shoplifting

If the above list rings the bell, you should have a look at the following tips and make sure you know what to do on your side to prevent identity theft. Read the rest of this entry »

Today everyone is aware of sudden surge in food prices which continues to cause serious financial problems for many people with tight-budget. For the last year prices on corn, rice and wheat more than doubled and the problem here is not only in price but also in actual storage. The worthiest thing about today’s global food crisis is that it’s exploding and can result in the first increase in poverty and hunger in several generations. In poor third world countries the situation is already critical and the wealthiest countries, in their turn, also feel the pangs. There are many causes of global food crisis but still the main are as follows:

• climate change
• poor harvests
• diversion of cropland to biofuels
• population upsurge
• drastic increase in meat consumption
• high fuel prices

Although it’s obvious that it’s high time to stop growing food to feed cars instead of people, different countries take different measures to prevent further food crisis expansion and everyone is focused on prices control and export barriers. And what about us? What should we focus on and do on our side to save the world from starvation. Read the rest of this entry »

We never doubt the fact that money cannot buy happiness…But why not doubt? Is there any relevance between the amount of money we earn and our happiness? I guess this very question the research team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School kept in mind when they were carrying out their experiments which proved that money CAN buy happiness ONLY if you spend them on someone else. Over 630 Americans took part in these experiments and they showed that, despite the fact that participants always considered that spending money on themselves will make them happier, it turned out that they were much happier when they spent money on others.

First, researchers asked 600 volunteers to rate their general state happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts they made for themselves, gifts they made for others and their donations to charity. Surprisingly, those people who spend more on others reported greater happiness, than those who usually spend more on themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week really shocking announcement was made by Hannaford Brothers Company, an Eastern supermarket chain. Credit and debit card numbers of 4.2 Million Hannaford customers had been stolen between December 7, 2007 and March 10. The Hannaford breach turned out to be a new line of attacks since credit and debt card numbers were stolen each time they were transmitted to the bank for authorization. Although at this time customer names and addresses were not stolen, this hackers attack exposed a great hole in the payment industry’s security standards which should be seriously revised as far as this is the first credit card fraud which occurred while the information was in transit.

The hack was detected last month when it was still going on, though an external audit performed by PCI (Payment Card Industry) the same month proved that Hannaford met all set PCI security standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Today it’s really hard to find someone who hasn’t heard anything about ebay and ebay auctions. I guess, one day it will be even harder to find a lazy bones who never bade or sold something on ebay. I myself heard and read a lot about ebay and selling products on it, however I never felt like I can go ahead and start my own business. Yesterday, I met my friend Jim who sells products on ebay for about two years already and asked him about the most important thing any ebay seller should bear in mind when selling on ebay auctions. To my surprise, he said that it’s crucially important not to pay ebay more money than you actually make.

Obviously, I went online to educate myself on this matter. Here is a quick list of top ‘how to cut corners and not to pay ebay more that you earn’ tips.
1) Check your ebay return every month to be 100% sure that you make more than you pay, especially when ebay increases auction fees.
2) Lower the starting prices on your products and raise the shipping price, so that you can persuade your customers that they are getting best deal. Remember that ebay charges its fees only by the price of your auction.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the very day I started posting, I enjoy discovering numerous paths one can choose to start and to continue blogging, to comment and even fight blogger blocks. While browsing Problogger.net I came across very interesting, though written a while back in November 29th, 2005, post about pretty large number of different types of blog posts and suddenly, I asked myself “Which one is mine? Why this one and which is the best for finance blogging?”

Considering finance and ecommerce niche, I settled on informational and instructional posts, block series and lists. Well, I made my choice in favor of informational and instructional posts for one simple reason - they give accurate information on a certain topic and your niche; clear and practical instructions, in their turn, drive both visitors and traffic from short term and long term readers. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m July Bucks and I’d really love to welcome you to my new blog. I’m a copy expert in financial niche writing on various money- and funds-related topics. If you asked me, “July, why are you interested in finance and why do you start blogging?” I’d tell you that finance is something I like and something that really captivates me from day to day. Although many of us consider finance, at least to sound boring, it’s not a rocket science and can be really interesting and useful.

I must confess that I’m a newbie in blogging. However, I’d love to foster community in which anyone could find something newsworthy and entertaining to discover and share at the same time, though still I’m talking about personal finance, investing, money management, etc. Another reason why I want to start blogging is that I do believe it helps to work out thoughts and share them. Well, thanks for reading my representation which is actually the tip of the iceberg…I’ll keep on blogging and hopefully you will like me and it will really worth your while.