Eleanor Blayney

Money Advice

PROFILE

Expertise

Budgeting, Giving Back, Debt Management, Investment Accounts, Budgeting & Saving, Retirement, Smart Spending

Location

Washington , DC

Education

BA, Mount Holyoke; BA/MA Cambridge Univ; MBA U of Chicago

Bio

CFP® practitioner for over 20 years; now Consumer Advocate for Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and President of Directions, LLC, an advisory service for women. Author of "Women's Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence"

MY ADVICE

DISCUSSIONS
17

ANSWERS
45

TIPS, BOOKS & LINKS
6

Poll: How happy are you in your career?

I count myself fortunate to be among those who are happy in their careers. Even without a degree, I got started through volunteering and built a respectable reputation as a community manager, and followed one opportunity...

Refi options?

What should people do if they can't refinance and their mortgage ARM is about to adjust? Is there anything else they can try?

Feeling Abused by My Electric Company

I goofed up when paying my bills this month and didn't leave enough in checking to cover my electricity bill (moved too much into savings). ING rejected the payment and issued an insufficient funds notice to the electric...

In the News: Walk Away From Your Mortgage?

Nobody likes to buy something and then find out it just went on sale at a big discount. It’s aggravating when it’s a smaller item like a chair or handbag – imagine what it’s like when it’s your house!...

Converting to Roth IRA

I'm trying to figure our whether it make sense to convert my traditional IRA to a Roth IRA given the new rules in 2010. It sounds like there are tax advantages but what other considerations should I be thinking...

In the News: "Move Your Money" this year?

Everybody's talking about the new "Move Your Money" campaign started by Arianna Huffington. The campaign encourages people to move their money from big banks, which it depicts as detached from the community and squanderers...

Parents Losing their Retirement Money, Help?

My parents were older when they had me and now are close to retirement age. I know they've lost a lot of money from their retirement savings accounts this past year. How do I bring this up with them to see how they're...

Help Me Keep My New Year Resolution

Everyone is talking about New Year resolutions. One of the best ways to keep them is to announce your goals publicly. This way, there is an audience to encourage you and hold you accountable. Even if your audience has no...

Looking back on 2009, looking forward to 2010

We have just experienced a tremendously stressful year as far as our personal finances go. I have written and spoken a lot on the New Financial Realities that we all need to respond to, with different money attitudes...

Tons of retirement accounts?

Between my husband and i we have about 4 retirement accounts - old employers, iras. We want to consolidate so we can keep track of these better and reduce all the account info we need to manage. Should we consolidate into...

What's the penalty on early retirement withdrawals?

The growing trend of people taking money out of their retirement accounts before age 59 1/2 is very concerning. Generally speaking, in addition to being taxed on the withdrawn money at ordinary income tax rates, you...

taxes

Your question is intriguing, because so much more needs to be investigated before you can get your answer. First of all, is your company a qualifying small business from the IRS point of view? To be such, the corporation...

Which way is a safe IRA Investment option?

When you say you do not wish to invest your IRA in stocks, are you referring specifically to individual stocks? Would you consider stock mutual funds, where the risk of owning stocks can be diminished through broad...

New Credit Card - how to decide? rewards vs. int. rate?

One other point: you can look into debit cards that also offer rewards. (Again, go to www.creditcards.com). This feature on debit cards is gaining in popularity, but the rewards are usually less generous....

New Credit Card - how to decide? rewards vs. int. rate?

Let's start with your last question first. A good resource for researching and comparing credit cards is at www.creditcards.com. Be aware that the site is sponsored by credit card companies, but nevertheless...

Tax Deduction and Ammended Returns

Let's verify one thing first: is the accounting for your business on a cash-basis (ie., revenues and expenses reported when received) or do you use accrual? In the second case, you report revenue and the associated...

Home office tax break

Your question asks "what" qualifies for a home office deduction, but another important question is "who"? Generally, self-employed individuals or employees who work out of their home for the convenience of their employer...

filing property taxes

As long as you are both liable for the property taxes (which appears to be the case if you own the home jointly), then you can divide the property taxes between the two of you any way you wish. Your question,...

am I being taken advantage of?

It's important first to know your worth, and second to ask for it. This means doing some homework: go to the Occupational Outlook Handbook put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to get an idea of how much your...

How can I establish good credit after moving from the U

First of all, I can really sympathize with your situation. I lived in England as a young adult, married a British subject, and when we relocated to the US, we were repeatedly turned down for any type of credit....

"Women's Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence"

I've read this book at least 20 times. Why? Because I wrote it! I believe women need a book that really speaks to them about the financial issues they face. It covers all the basics - debt, spending, money...

Paying bills: slow down and "save" money!

No-one likes to pay bills and we're always looking for ways to make the chore easier and faster. Online bill pay, setting up automatic payments for regular bills, putting everything on one credit card so there's only...

Estimating what it costs to raise a child

There is a lot of discussion on this site about raising children. We all know that our children are priceless, but nonetheless, there is a real dollars-and-cents cost to bringing up a child. The Department of...

Teaching your kids about inflation and spending

We all know how important it is to be educating our children about finance and financial concepts, but sometimes it is very hard to put economic and technical concepts in simple, interesting terms that they can understand....

New financial realities for consumers

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, the organization that certifies the 60,000 professionals who hold the CFP® designation, has launched a new video series on how consumers should be thinking about their...

managing your credit score

Cutting up your credit cards is one thing, but closing accounts is quite another, when it comes to managing your debt. By all means, do the first, but not the second. Your credit score is based on the ratio of...

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