There was an article on Yahoo! finance last week entitled, Saving 10% of income might not suffice for contingencies. The article attempts to debunk the well known rule of thumb that says you should save 10% of everything you make in order to retire rich.

It talks about how 10% may not be enough in order to retire comfortably because it doesn’t take a lot of uncertainties into consideration. Well, this is certainly a breakthrough if I may say so sarcastically.

I don’t really know of anyone that follows this rule of thumb exactly. Between some savings in a 401(k) and other savings in other accounts, the actual percentage will almost always vary.

Far more important to get across are the principles behind this 10% rule. I see absolutely no reason to argue about what the perfect percentage of income to save would be. Obviously every person’s circumstances are different.

So what does this 10% rule teach us?

One of the principles is to pay yourself first. Take out a percentage of your income and set it aside for you, be it in an emergency fund or as part of your investments.

The other principle here is that it doesn’t matter how much you make. Contrary to what others say, it also doesn’t matter how much you spend. What matters is how much you keep.

If you make a lot of money and spend a lot of money, you’re not really making progress. If you spend only a little money but also only make relatively little, you’re not going to make much progress.

You could argue all day whether 10% or 17% is just the right amount, but there are far too many variables to consider (salary increases/decreases, changes in tax policy, inflation, etc.) that render the conversation useless.

Focus on what’s important and this focus should be on how much money you’re willing and able to keep.

Last week I wrote about an experience I had with the customer service department for Bank of America.

As a follow up to that story, I actually received the $50 check that they said they’d send me. To be honest, I didn’t have any real high expectations that I’d end up getting the check.

There is, however, another twist to this story. I went back into my account online and saw that my second payment did actually finally post, albeit a little late. So now I don’t have to hassle with issuing a stop payment and writing another check, and I got a $50 check from customer service.

What would you do?

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, has a board game out that is supposed to teach you about investing and how to grow your personal cash flow. For obvious reasons, it’s called CASHFLOW 101.

I’ve been wanting to play the game for a while now, but since it’s a specialty game you can’t just pick it up at Target or Walmart. The price tag is also a little daunting at $195.

I did, however, find the game on eBayfor a pretty good deal considering. I was able to pick it up for $137 including shipping.

I’m pretty excited to play it, but since I just got it yesterday I haven’t rounded anyone up yet. It’s also not your usual party game so I’ll have to find certain people that are interested in playing it.

The game focuses on your personal financial statements; these being your balance sheet and your income statement. As you move through the game, you have to keep your financial statements up to date so it forces you to actually go through the motions instead of just thinking about it.

Once I play the game, I’ll let you know how it is. If nothing else I’m sure it’ll be fun and entertaining.

Everyday we’re faced with choices, and it’s the choices we make that ultimately determine the condition of our futures.

I’m not going to leap into a long discourse about good choices and bad choices. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you’re already making relatively good financial choices or at least trying to learn how.

I’m more concerned with the myriad of good choices and how we choose between them. This all may seem abstract, but I intend it this way. I don’t want to get into specifics here in this post.

There are many different ways to become rich. No one way is necessarily better or worse than another. What you need to find is the way that works for you.

Many people have gotten rich through real estate investing. Interestingly, there are also those who don’t believe it’s possible. This is perfectly fine because it’s not the way for everyone.

Many have also gotten rich from investing in the stock market. Others think it’s too risky and therefore avoid it. Again, it’s not for them.

Starting a business is another great way that people have gotten wealthy. Again, it’s also too risky for many.

All of these different strategies or investments are fantastic ways to gain wealth. Not all of them are right for everyone. What’s important is to find which strategy suits you and make the choice and go after it.

I’ll also say that mutual funds held in 401(k)s and IRAs are not the only way to accumulate wealth and minimize risk. They have their advantages such as tax savings, being easy to get into, and being simple to manage. They also have their disadvantages.

Find what’s right for you and try to disregard the naysayers. It’s your future and your choice.

Charles Schwab released the news today that they are rolling out a brand new checking account. With this checking account, you earn an astonishing 4.25% annual percentage yield.

There are a few other places where you can earn a nice yield on a checking account, but they come with certain restrictions. ING Direct offers high yield checking but you have no access to paper checks. Etrade also offers high yield checking but you have to maintain a $5,000 minimum.

I don’t think that any of these are bad options, but the account from Schwab definitely makes things much easier.

The question I have, though, is whether this yield is enough to get you to switch over to a Charles Schwab account. There is always a lot of talk about what investment vehicles yield higher returns and are easiest to use, but are we that concerned about our checking accounts?

Founder and CEO Charles Schwab had this to say:

“The financial world lives off lazy money. There is inertia, and in some respects, that’s exactly why we decided we had to make this a very powerful offering.”

I’m convinced he’s pretty much right on about this. Most people aren’t really looking to change their checking account because they’re comfortable with what they have and they’re used to it.

I’d also like to talk about another aspect of this and other accounts. The yield of the account is not the only important aspect to concern yourself with. We also need to have account separation and distinction.

The point of having a high yield is to speed up the effects of compounding. This only happens when the paid interest stays in the account and contributes towards future gains. Checking accounts aren’t usually known for their increasing balances.

If you’re thinking of using an account like this to serve as both your checking and savings accounts, you’ve got to be careful. It’s far too tempting to tap your savings if you don’t have the balances separated.

Like any financial product, you’ve got to weigh your options and make decisions after careful consideration.

This is a sponsored review.

There are many different forms of lending and many different types of loans. It’s important to remember that all loans are financial products designed to fill a need. Among these loan products we find payday loans.

Contrary to the common widespread belief, payday loans do have a place and serve a purpose. As with most things, there are good and bad ways of using them. People get into trouble when they don’t understand how these types of loans work. Remember that adjustable rate mortgages are causing a lot of trouble now because people didn’t understand what they were getting into. It’s very similar with these payday loans.

I’ve now run across an online payday loan company, Power Payday Loan. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the way they presented their service. They take the time to explain what a payday loan is and how it works.

What I found most interesting is that they not only have a page that discusses alternatives to payday loans, they actually recommend their consideration. The website is very professional and it allows you complete everything online.

The bottom line is that you should consider all your options before hastily going after a payday loan. Put some money away in a reserve fund before an emergency arises. Realize that these types of loans are meant to be short term loans, not more than a week or so. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of having to continually roll these loans into more and more loans. If you do decide to pursue a payday loan, be as informed as possible about them.

I made a phone call today to Bank of America customer service. As I’ve done every month, I mailed in two mortgage payments in the same envelope a little over a week ago. There were two different payment coupons with two different checks. I’ve never had a problem with this until now.

I checked my accounts online recently and noticed that one of the payments has posted, but the other has not. Usually both post on the same day since they are mailed together, so I was a little concerned.

Once I got someone on the phone, I was told that it’s really best to mail in the payments separately in two different envelopes due to their payment processing being “highly automated”. I wasn’t really aware (and don’t really believe) that the envelopes are opened by machines and completely processed automatically, but I could be wrong.

In order to resolve my concern, I was told that I should just put a stop payment on my check and send in another form of payment. I didn’t really like that idea since I’d have to pay a fee to stop payment on a check that I know they received. Why should I be penalized for their mistake?

After having this option repeated to me a number of times, I finally responded very clearly that I wasn’t happy with having to pay a fee to fix their error. I was finally put on hold for a minute so he could “see what he could do”.

After a while, he came back on the line and told me what he had done. Bank of America has a program called “Customer Wow” whereby they try to “wow” a customer who is unhappy with their experience. This is the insider verbiage that they use in the customer service department.

He submitted what’s called a “cus wow” for me, and upon approval they would send me out a $50 check. To tell you the truth I was actually quite surprised, if not “wowed”, by this resolution. Of course it is still pending approval, but I was told that it shouldn’t be a problem.

Hopefully everything will work out and I’ll receive this check after which I’ll have no problem issuing a stop payment and writing another check.

What’s important here is the fact that the customer service department is able to remedy a problem even when they say they can’t at first. Too often we give up when we here “No” the first time. Don’t be rude (no one will want to help you) but firmly express your concern and that you expect some sort of resolution that is equitable.

I’m not saying that you’ll always get your way, but if you’re not receiving the level of customer service that you’d expect, let them know. In the end, you’re the one who decides who you’d like to do business with.