Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Two financial pleddges you should take

I logged into my ING savings account the other day was redirected to their "Declaration of Financial Independence". It's 10 money practices they want people to commit to, and I gotta say it's a pretty good list.

Some of the highlights: "We will use our home as a savings account", a point in which they stress bringing a big down payment to closing and warns against borrowing against our houses; "We will invest for the long-term" and "We will ignore unsolicited credit card marketing."

What's interesting is that banks and investment companies have shifted their advertising to focus on more practical financial habits like saving instead of borrowing and bringing a down payment when buying a home instead of touting zero-down mortgages. The New York Times ran a story in August about how bank ads encouraged people to continue to go into debt. (A disclaimer here: ING Direct has always encouraged saving, given it's part of their business model. And by the way, they're not paying me to write about this).

ING isn't the first company to issue that kind of declaration. Check out Black Enterprise magazines' Declaration of Financial Empowerment, which they started promoting, if I remember right, in about 2000. It also has 10 good principles that everyone should try to apply (although #8, supporting African-American owned businesses, may not resonate with everyone).

4 comments:

Product Junkie Diva said...

Now that is a pledge I can live with.
PJD

Butterrfly said...

Definitely taking the pledge! Operation 'debt elimination' commences now... :o)

Southerner in Suomi said...

This is a great list. I personally love ING because it takes the money out for me and that is the best way to keep me from spending it.

MSJNT said...

I am going to have to check into my ING account. I believe that there are tough times ahead. We just have to be smart and keep to our grinds. I had a major thinkfest about my job and what I need to do to preserve that way of life before doing something that I feel would undermine me. Wishing you all luck in this rough economy.