Best of Blog Posts for Week of May 25th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week.

fivecentnickel discusses how to handle a Bank Error in Your Favor?

MyMoneyBlog looks at how you can Pay Your Mortgage With a Credit Card Via ChargeSmart
Its generally not a good deal since there are fees in the 2-4% range but it might help you max out some credit card bonuses.

FreeMoneyFinance tells us The Eight Tax Rules
and FMF also tells us that  “Do What You Love” Is Bad Advice  which is a feeling I've shared in the past.


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S&P Credit Ratings for each State

Yesterday we looked at credit ratings for nations.   Today we'll look at the ratings for individual U.S. states.  

Here is the list of the S&P ratings for state governments as of July 15 2011.

Delaware	AAA
Florida	AAA
Georgia	AAA
Indiana	AAA
Iowa	AAA
Maryland	AAA
Minnesota	AAA
Missouri	AAA
Nebraska	AAA
N. Carolina	AAA
Utah	AAA
Virginia	AAA
Wyoming	AAA
Alaska	AA+
Idaho	AA+
Kansas	AA+
New Mexico	AA+
N. Dakota	AA+
Ohio	AA+
Oklahoma	AA+
Oregon	AA+
S. Carolina	AA+
S. Dakota	AA+
Tennessee	AA+
Texas	AA+
Vermont	AA+
Washington	AA+
Alabama	AA
Arkansas	AA
Colorado	AA
Connecticut	AA
Hawaii	AA
Louisiana	AA
Maine	AA
Massachusetts	AA
miss	AA
Montana	AA
Nevada	AA
New Hampshire	AA
New York	AA
Pennsylvania	AA
Rhode Island	AA
West Virginia	AA
Wisconsin	AA
Arizona	AA-
Kentucky	AA-
Michigan	AA-
New Jersey	AA-
Illinois	A+
California	A-

The ratings do change gradually over time but only gradually.
 
The table I got the list above from was on the PewStates.org website.   They also have an info graphic that shows the history of upgrades and downgrades for each state from 2001 to 2011.


The TaxFoundation website put together a nice graphical map showing the ratings by state.

The actual data is from Standard & Poor and they have specifics for each state buried among all the municipalities of each state on their website. BUT.. you may need to register and log in to get to full reports.

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Credit Ratings By Nation

You probably heard that the U.S. credit rating was downgraded recently.    But even with a step down we're still among the highest rated nations.   Check out the following graphic gizmo from Chartbin.com to see how our nations credit rating compares to other countries around the world:


via chartsbin.com

Citation: How Moody's, S, ChartsBin.com, viewed 22nd May, 2012, .

The embedded graphic doesn't fit very well into my article column.   If you have difficulty with this version then visit Chartbin directly for the full size version.

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$100 Apple iTunes gift card for $80

BestBuy has $100 iTunes gift cards for $80 right now.    You can get either the electronic email version or a physical card mailed with free shipping.

This is a sale price and I do not know how long it will last.

I know a lot of people use iTunes and and it seems to me that 20% off is a pretty good sale price.

I'd link to Ebates for an additional 1-3% cash back reward but they don't give cash back on gift cards.

I heard about this on Slickdeals.net


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