Thursday, February 9, 2012

PerkStreet Personal Finance Pulse: Experts Reveal the Truth about ...

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You know what?s confusing? Personal finance. Things are changing rapidly in our realtime world, and different experts recommend different things all the time. That?s why PerkStreet has proudly launched a new monthly survey to amass the opinions of personal finance writers and bloggers from around the country and find out what most of them are currently recommending.

We surveyed expert personal finance writers from all corners of America last week in our first-ever, monthly ?Personal Finance Pulse.? We feel the results reflect an aggregate opinion designed to help you better navigate the confusing landscape of financial best practices. Here?s what we found:

Most Experts Prefer to Recommend Debit Over Credit

Most of the experts we surveyed (56%) ?feel best about recommending? debit cards to their readers; far fewer (32%) report preferring to recommend credit cards. Recommending spending cash only (8%) was much less popular, and recommending prepaid cards (4%) was the least popular spending method of all.

?Above all else, the most important financial tip is to spend less than you earn,? said Ryan Guina, Editor at CashMoneyLife.com, when completing the survey. ?Start by only spending money if you have it. A good way to do that is to only make purchases with cash or with a debit card, which immediately takes money from your checking account.?

Credit Card Spending No Longer a Sign of Consumer Confidence

All told, 56% of respondents do not view the resurgence in credit card spending reported by the Federal Reserve in mid-January as a sign of renewed confidence. These respondents said they either do not view credit card spending as a good indicator of confidence, or worse, they see the surge as a sign of desperation.

?In the wake of the Recession, credit card use will no longer be viewed as a universal sign of confidence,? said Dan O?Malley, CEO of PerkStreet Financial. ?This survey reveals that many experts are already beginning to view credit card use differently, particularly given the dire state of both the current unemployment and savings rates.?

pie chart

America?s Chief Concerns are Getting Out of Debt and Saving Money

Since all these personal finance experts know their readerships and can see what their readers are clicking and commenting most, asking them what?s popular seemed like a no-brainer. According to the survey, 68% of respondents report believing their readers are most interested in getting out of debt or saving money, while just 32% report other topics like budgeting, boosting income, or clipping coupons are more popular.

If you?re a personal finance writer or blogger interested in participating in our next monthly survey, please email press@perkstreet.com and we?ll be happy to include you after verifying you write regularly about personal finance.

Do any of these aggregate results surprise you? Do you agree with what most of these experts are saying? Weigh in below by leaving a comment for the community.

Source: http://blog.perkstreet.com/perkstreet-personal-finance-pulse-experts-reveal-the-truth-about-the-debit-vs-credit-debate/

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