health care prices

healthcarebluebook.com

changehealthcare.com

newchoicehealth.com

outofpocket.com



reliability of pricing estimates isn't always clear.

some sites don't include specific hospitals and clinics.


from WSJ 20091018

Body of lies

movie vs book
Aisha in the movie, but Alice Melville in the book
Roger Ferris' grandfather background info is relevant in the book (Fares)
Gretchen Ferris seems superfluous in the book. Carice van Houten actually played the character of Roger's wife Gretchen Ferris, but all her scenes were deleted and she does not appear in the final cut.
Hani makes a video of Suleiman which Ferris delivers to Al Jazeera. Not sure why Ferris had to deliver it personally?

Credit Scores

from WSJ

credit utilization
30% of your FICO score is based on "credit utilization," a broad term that includes how much you've used of each credit limit, how much you've borrowed as a percentage of your total available credit and even how big the dollar balances actually are.

Cut back your credit-card use for two or three months before you plan to seek a car loan or mortgage so that your balances will be more modest.

on time
35% of the total, is whether you have paid your bills on time. One late payment will ding your score for up to a year, very late payments can hurt you for two or three years, and collections and bankruptcies can sting for up to seven years.

credit history
closed accounts in good standing will stay on your record for a decade, says Barry Paperno, FICO consumer-operations manager. Both old and closed accounts can help your score because the length of your credit history is another, if smaller, piece of the formula.

Preserving your credit history is one reason that Kenneth Lin, CEO of Creditkarma.com, recommends that you don't formally close an account but let the issuer close it for lack of activity. The longer the account stays open, he says, the more you'll add to your credit history and the longer you'll benefit from the additional available credit.

hard inquiry
ask up front if a bank, insurer or car dealer plans to check your credit record. Luckily, shopping around for a car or education loan or mortgage counts only as one inquiry as long as you do it within a few weeks. Otherwise, multiple inquiries may knock your score back for a year.

750
every 20 points in your score can mean a slightly lower mortgage rate or better car loan, but only up to the mid-700s.

Elder care

from Businessweek

What advice do you have for people who are stuck in the middle?

Step back and look at what you are doing for yourself as well as for your parents. If you are helping them and worrying about your children at the same time, there's a good chance all you will really be is angry. We want to honor our parents, but we have to be comfortable with the choices they've made. If they didn't save for retirement, they shouldn't expect you to bail them out. Don't get into the victim-rescuer mode.

____

legal documents you will need—aside from a will, of course—to assist parents in a medical or financial emergency and handle their estate at death

MEDICAL DIRECTIVE
Also known as a living will or advance health-care directive, it lays out the kind of care your parents want if they become ill or incapacitated

DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE
Gives you authority to make health-care decisions for your parents. Also referred to as a health-care proxy

PRIVACY RELEASE
A release, under the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, authorizes access to your parents' medical records

DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR FINANCES
Lets you manage your parents' finances, including paying bills or selling property

REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST
Enables parents to retain control over their estate while transferring assets to beneficiaries

Data: Caring.com

deferred compensation plan

deferred compensation plan

from Businessweek

If you've been offered the deferral option, should you take it?

First, evaluate your finances and your company's financial stability--if your company goes bankrupt, you could lose the money. While 401(k) participants are protected in bankruptcy, those in deferred comp plans line up with other unsecured creditors.

Then consider the quality of investment options offered in the plan and the impact of future tax rates, which are expected to rise in 2011 when the Bush tax cuts expire.

Those looming tax increases are one of the biggest factors to consider. If you defer, you must decide how long to defer; the minimum period is two years. That means if the Bush tax cuts expire, you'd be taking the money out at a higher tax rate--39.6% vs. 35% in the highest bracket. So you'll need to offset that either by earning more in the plan or by investing over a long enough period that compounding will make up the difference.

if you can defer for only a few years, it isn't worth it. Consider: If you receive a $100,000 bonus and don't defer, you'd keep $65,000 (at the highest tax rate, excluding state taxes). If you then got 6% on your investment, you'd have $81,144 aftertax in five years. If you deferred that $100,000 and made the same 6%, withdrew the funds in five years, and paid the higher tax rate, you'd have $80,829--so deferring wouldn't pay.

defer for closer to 10 years, if not longer. If you deferred $100,000 for 10 years and earned 6% a year, then paid taxes at the higher rate, you'd net $108,167 vs. $101,410 if you didn't defer. "You need to defer long enough to make it worthwhile if you're going to take money out at a higher tax rate

State taxes matter, too. Deferring is especially worthwhile if you move from a high income tax state, such as New York or California to a low- or no-tax one, such as Texas or Florida, by the time you get your distribution.

Do you have better investment options outside the plan? Might be best to pass on deferring pay.

Do you have other assets to tap if you're laid off, making long-term deferral less risky? Then deferring would probably be worthwhile.

Personal Finance sites

Personal Finance sites

from WSJ, author Banjo

1. basic budgeting sites

Mint.com,

Wesabe.com

Geezeo.com

2. financial plan

SimpliFi.net

uses a virtual financial adviser named Sophie to guide you through a planning process based on financial goals, such as saving for retirement or reducing debt. The site assesses how much you should spend and save to reach your particular goal and tells you how likely you are to achieve it with a "Goal Point Average" ranging from A+ to F. (You don't give the site any of your financial-account information, but you do have to input approximate balances.)

The site can provide details on how much you need to save over a certain period to reach your goals and offer recommendations on types of investments to consider. The site is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which offers investors a measure of protection: Among other things, the site must comply with SEC rules for registered investment advisers and is subject to examination by SEC staff.

Planwithvoyant.com

helps investors forecast the impact of unforeseen events. Step-by-step wizards guide you through the initial preparation of a financial plan, such as identifying your goals and entering income information and expenses. Then charts and graphs show your current financial condition and allow you to test the financial effect of what-if scenarios, such as an unexpected pregnancy or an early retirement. You can also run simulations on how to mitigate those risks, say, by adding insurance or altering your investment strategy.

Basic.esplanner.com

free plan developed by Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff.

You enter your current and projected salary, retirement age and savings, among other things. The site calculates your sustainable living standard and allows you to tinker with how much a job change, housing move or retirement-account contribution can raise or lower your living standard.

Then the program recommends annual amounts of discretionary spending, savings and life-insurance holdings. The program incorporates a lot of the nitty-gritty details other programs tend to leave out, such as federal and state taxes and future Social Security benefits. But the process can be time-consuming -- it takes up to 30 minutes to fill out all the necessary information. What's more, the basic version stores your plan for only 24 hours, so every time you want to run the simulation, you must input the numbers.

3. Tracking Investments and Getting Advice

SocialPicks.com

Covestor.com

keep track of your own investments and compare your portfolio's performance to that of peers, professional analysts and financial bloggers.

CakeFinancial.com

track investment portfolios but in addition lets them aggregate all of their portfolios in one place, analyze past performance up to 10 years and compare portfolios with other users. Cake's comparison tools look at your current investments and find similar replacement funds with lower fees and expenses. In addition, the site lets you create a watch list, or list of positions that you're interested in tracking, by performance and the number of Cake users who are buying or selling.

Portfoliomonkey.com

enter your portfolio's ticker symbols and number of shares, and the site analyzes your current allocation's expected return and losses, based on analytics evaluating historical volatility and performance. The site can help you reallocate your portfolio, or offer recommendations for stocks that have a low correlation with your portfolio and high expected returns. You can go through those stocks and see how adding them would affect the portfolio.

4. Checking for Fraud

Finra.org/BrokerCheck

Adviserinfo.sec.gov

check the professional background of current and former Finra-registered securities firms and brokers, as well as find any regulatory complaints or customer disputes. You can also see a listing of the broker's current registrations, licenses or exams passed.

Finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators

Risk Meter and Scam Meter tools, which walk you through a series of questions aimed at identifying vulnerable individuals and investments.

Risk Meter asks you if you have checked with a securities regulator to see whether an investment professional is licensed. Based on the responses, the tool offers suggestions on how to combat fraud.

Scam Meter allows you to check if an investment is too good to be true, asking questions such as: How did you learn about the investment opportunity, and what have you been told about it? From your answers, the site offers warnings and advice.

5. Keeping Track of Credit

CreditKarma.com,

truly free score and advice on how to improve it

address, phone number and Social Security number. (The site says it doesn't store the number.)

Once you submit that information, the site will give you your score -- but not the entire credit report -- and show you how you stack up against other users in various categories, such as overall users, or those in your state or age group.

Starting tomorrow, the site will help users identify major influences on their score, such as credit-card utilization and on-time payment history. The site uses scores generated by credit-reporting bureau TransUnion LLC.

6. Managing Loans

borrowing money from friends and family.

Virginmoneyus.com

create formalized personal loan documents that set interest rates and repayment plans. The site can also manage repayment using electronic funds transfer, email reminders and year-end reporting.

The cost: $99 to $199. The company also offers the service for business, real-estate and student loans, for various prices.

Virgin Money claims that formalizing loans increases the chance of repayment. Note, though, that it won't lend money or match you up with a lender. The site only manages the loan between you and someone you have already identified, such as your grandmother or college buddy.

Insurance

http://alumni.columbia.edu/access/s2_3.html

Try liberty