Your rates of bank

She has talked to the rich and famous for years. But when Dayna Devon, correspondent of TV’s entertainment program “Extra,” comes home to her Beverly Hills home, all she wants to do is spend time with her two children, Emmi and Cole, and her plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Brent Moelleken.- advertisement -

Devon is aware of the good fortune that has come her way since moving to Los Angeles. Born in San Antonio, the 38-year-old graduated from the University of Texas and landed a job as a local news anchor in Memphis, Tenn., before going to Hollywood.

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Retiring to a foreign country can be a cultural epiphany if you’re seeking exotica. But without realistic expectations and careful planning, your move abroad could be fraught with frustration.

Even mundane tasks like opening a bank account or getting a plumber to fix a leaky sink could take ages for people used to getting things done quickly in the U.S.

“It’s vitally important to relate your pace to the culture,” says Rosanne Knorr, seasoned traveler, expatriate and author of “The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away From Home.”

Before taking the expatriate plunge, spend a minimum of several weeks in a country immersing yourself in the local culture and honing your foreign language skills, experts say.

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There aren’t many musicians today who could get away with calling an album “It Is Time for a Love Revolution,” but as a throwback to another generation in all the right ways, Lenny Kravitz pulls it off with aplomb.- advertisement -

The 44-year-old Kravitz has been drawing fans for almost two decades with a stripped-down style of straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll that earned him Grammy awards four years in a row, from 1999 to 2002. His latest album, which features him on every instrument, gives back more of the same.

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On July 31, Fair Isaac announced that its latest credit-scoring model, dubbed “FICO 08,” will include authorized user accounts when calculating someone’s FICO credit score.- advertisement -

The company estimates that 50 million consumers are “legitimate” authorized users on someone else’s credit card. Legitimate authorized users, such as spouses, parents and children, have relationships with the primary accountholders and reasons to share access to the accounts.

FICO 08 was originally designed to ignore authorized user accounts, in an effort to stem “piggybacking” on a stranger’s credit card and artificially inflating one’s score.

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As consumers continue to be rattled by a seemingly bottomless pit of bad financial news, they’re looking for ways to ensure their entire bank deposits are covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.- advertisement -

It’s not difficult to exceed the $100,000 limit on individual accounts, or the $250,000 limit on certain retirement accounts. In fact, the FDIC says that less than 62 percent of the $6.88 trillion on deposit in FDIC-insured banks was covered at the end of 2007. That leaves more than $2.5 trillion unprotected in the event of bank failures.

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You might think CD yields would be less than enticing considering the surplus of awful news in the financial sector. Yes, there’s a big push by consumers into government-backed investments that will return 100 percent on the dollar if a bank topples, but there are also banks that need deposits, and plenty of them.- advertisement -

In fact, many institutions are offering good yields on short maturities of one year or less. That gives you a way to earn a decent return while waiting for the turmoil in the financial markets to ease.

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Exchange-traded funds have proven to be very popular with do-it-yourself investors and financial advisers since their introduction in 1993. But their popularity has led to the market being swamped with them, and as a result, some investors have seen their funds liquidated.- advertisement -

ETFs present a cornucopia of investment choices in low-cost trading vehicles that trade like a stock. But, similar to mutual funds, each ETF represents a variety of companies, thereby mitigating some of the risk associated with single-stock investments. As investors have scooped them up in their portfolios, issuers have introduced more and more ETFs to the market.

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It was probably a matter of time before it happened. My personal information was exposed in a data breach. On June 10, my alma mater, the University of Florida, announced that more than 11,300 current and former students had their names, addresses, student record information and Social Security numbers exposed online. - advertisement -

I’m one among many who have seen their personal information lost or revealed in a breach. Linda Foley, the founder of the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center, says her nonprofit group has counted 309 data breaches this year as of June 12, resulting in the exposure of 16,795,000 known records total.

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Learn how to head off nasty financial shocks that can derail your dreams.

The costly things nobody tells you about

1.Your business runs on a pricey commodity2.Tiniest delay at launch can cost big bucks3.Businesses pay more for phone, other services4.Minimum-use fees impact bottom line5.Too much inventory can spell disaster6.Getting goods into retail outlets isn’t all profit7.Self-employment taxes can be staggering8.Not all insurance policies cover all disasters

1. Your business runs on an expensive commodity
Fred retired to open his dream business: a personal concierge service. He operates out of his home, saving on office expenses — that’s in his favor. But the business, which offers everything from personalized grocery shopping to ferrying the kids to soccer practice, is losing money faster than a politician forgets a promise.

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