This morning, as I was drinking my coffee and waking up slowly, I watched a report about a new type of scam which involves unauthorized bank transfers. Although the report mainly applies to the German banking system, this could also apply to other countries where law permits it.
Basically, fraudsters will generate a random bank account number, and they will try to transfer 1 cent to that account number. If the transfer bounces, it means that the account number is non-existent. However, if the transfer is accepted, fraudsters will know that …

I have been working in the credit card industry for some years now, and one topic which is keeping fraud departments busy is skimming. Skimming is a practice, during which the card details on the magstripe (magnetic stripe on the back of the card) is being copied, and then written onto another card.  Since the magstripe data is electronic, it could travel to the other side of the world before it written onto another card. Often, the cards used as a ‘host’ for the stolen data are stolen cards which have …

I was thinking a few things over last night, amont others how my financial situation would look if everything crashed: stocks plummet and I would lose my job due to a financial crisis. In my case, this wouldn’t look good at all.

As soon as you spend money, it is gone and you will never get it back. Surely you will earn some more money, but it is not the same money. You have lost the money, unavailable for investing it, unavailable for paying back debt. Looking at things differently, you may actually have spent much more on your purchase.

I have a few questions for you: Do you know your monthly net wage? Do you know how much money you spent on groceries last week? If you consolidate all of your accounts, including checking accounts, credit cards, and investments, how did your assets and liabilities develop per month during the past 6 months?