Ever had a weird charge pop up on your credit card statement and not know what to do? BillGuard offers a great service that scans your bill daily for unusual charges and let’s you dispute it online.

We’re in attendance at the Finovate Spring 2012 conference in San Francisco, bringing you the very latest in financial technology. Watch our video for a quick introduction to the conference. And stay tuned for more videos from the conference expo floor.

As part of our continuing video series about retirement accounts, we’ll explain what an 401(k) is in less than two minutes.

As part of our continuing video series about retirement accounts, we’ll explain what an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is in two minutes or less.

Trying to figure out the retirement landscape can be daunting. We’ll break down the major types of retirement accounts in two minutes.

As always, this information should not be construed as a recommendation and is provided for informational purposes only. Consult a tax professional, an attorney, or your financial advisor for more information and advice.

It’s the perennial question that always gets asked when you’re beginning your first job: When should I start saving for retirement? We’ll answer it the best we can in this 2-minute video.

As always, this information should not be construed as a recommendation and is provided for informational purposes only. Consult a tax professional, an attorney, or your financial advisor for more information and advice.

Your parents’ money habits typically influence yours. Unfortunately, this is not a habit I picked up until after college. During my post-graduation lull, my parents gave me an allowance of $200 a month and I was making less than $100 a week for a part-time gig at the money radio show. There was the occasional freelance gig here and there. So conservatively, I had about $450 a month. Even though I didn’t have to pay rent to stay at my parents’ house, I ran through that money fast. I resolved to dig out a couple of ledgers and keep track of my spendings, so I could take a critical eye to my financial habits and start saving.

The blue ledger recorded the comings and goings of my Bank A savings account; the pink one was for my Bank B checking account.

For at least a year, I was pretty good about recording everything. I’d stick all my receipts in the little pocket in the pink ledger and record spendings on the spot or at least within a day or two. I liked this system, because it made me very aware of how much I had available to spend. If I wasn’t sure if I could make a purchase or not, I could just pull out the pink book and decide to wait, buy or just forget about it.

I stopped using my ledger around last summer, when school and work got to be too much. But I really regretted that decision. Again, I’d zip through my money and not have a clue where it all went. But I resolved to pick up the habit again this year, while I stay afloat on my savings.

Sure, there are products like Mint – which I also use — and many bank websites out there that transfers all your account data into one place. But it won’t record the check you sent for that parking ticket until the agency clears it or that dinner you paid for on Saturday for several days, until the restaurant processes the charge. And I don’t have a smart phone, so I can’t access that information digitally.

You already know you spent it, so why not record it and get an instant read of what’s in your account?

Eventually, I also set up a set of spreadsheets in Google Docs for various accounts. I put in formulas, so it automatically calculates the account balance when I enter income and spendings. What I like about the spreadsheets is that you can run simulations. Let’s say I found the perfect birthday gift for a friend — is this something I can just plunk down the money for on any given day without hurting my budget too much or should I save for it? I can pop the amount in my checking account spreadsheet and assess whether this week I can buy that gift or if I need to find something at a lower price point.

(All Images Courtesy of J.C. Penny)

Last month, J.C. Penney announced plans to end the barrage of sales the company promotes every year in their department stores, in exchange for everyday low pricing. CEO Ron Johnson, formerly of Apple, has the unenviable task of turning around the stodgy and tired retailer, which ran an astounding 590 promotions in 2011 alone, according to the L.A. Times.

The AP sat down to interview Johnson, who plans on introducing Apple Genius Bar-like services for pre- and post-purchase support, the details of which are still under wraps.  The retailer also plans on introducing 100 specialty shops within the store.

(J.C. Penny CEO Ron Johnson)

As exciting as it was to learn about the Apple-like changes that will be coming to the 110-year-old retailer, the company still has not address many of the core issues with the shopping experience.  I’ve been a J.C. Penney shopper for years and can personally attest to specific problems that I believe currently holds the retailer back from success, such as:

An Inconsistence Service Experience

Customer service has been deemphasized and replaced with workers who may not believe in the brand.  Associates with 25-years of service are oftentimes staffed alongside less-experienced workers who possess a different understanding of customer service and the department store shopping experience.

Additionally, JCP has the opportunity to excel in this area with personal shoppers and consultants.  Consumers want to know how to mix and match items and JCP can be one of the few clothing retailers to provide this assistance.

Poor merchandise mix and style

The retailer has proven they can provide good value and pricing, but they have also ignored the more obvious problems of poor merchandise mix and styles.  While J.C. Penny can compete on traditional and formal clothing, an understanding of newer styles seems to escape the company’s fashion buyers.

In the case of men’s clothing, the retailer forgoes the more fashionable pocketless, slim fit dress shirts for more traditional dress apparel from their older, private-label Stafford brand.  And instead of slim dress pants, the company relies on the mass-market Dockers brand to fill that need.

Many younger shoppers, in particular, are lured to specialty mall stores for these items instead.  But let’s just play devil’s advocate for a moment and pretend that specialty items like these are too costly for J.C. Penny to source.

In that case, the retailer has a major opportunity to lure shoppers back to their stores through a renewed focus on basic clothing.  Let’s face it; nobody sells value-oriented, solid-quality basic t-shirts, jeans, and underwear.  Within the mid-market, competitors such as Gap have failed to keep pace.  J.C. Penny has an opportunity to get shoppers back into their stores under the guise of “quality basics for less money” and keep them there with a better, more appealing merchandise mix.

Poor Quality of Materials

Quality of materials is extremely poor and inconsistent, attesting to a lack of quality control.

From a men’s clothing perspective, the quality of cotton used in men’s polo shirts has been on the decline.   Additionally, the stitching and sizing of shirts and pants have been flawed, inconsistent and sometimes lopsided.  These defects have become more obvious over time.  I have even observed pieces of clothing that were different shades of the same color because of color dying problems.

Not Listening to the Customer

Customers have raised the previous-mentioned issues and many other issues for years.  I know; I worked for J.C. Penny briefly in college.  And I still hear about it every time I’m in J.C. Penny buying clothing.  There should be a direct line of feedback from customers directly to fashion buyers and management.  And more importantly, management should figure out how to excite customers to come back to the store (a la Target and their limited-time designer clothing lines).

Poor Technology Infrastructure

It’s not enough to put out a touch screen computer for associates to use and say you’re up-to-date with technology.  Consumers are much more engaged with the buying experience and expect retailers to play along.  They’re relying on smartphones to comparison shop with online retailers in store. They’re looking for the ability to see the same products both in store and online, at the same price.  Additionally, they’re looking for added convenience.  For example, why hasn’t the company offered in-store 1-hour ordering or the ability for associates to dial into the store’s main computer from anywhere in the store to check exact inventory?

Competing With Itself

The catalogs business is so last century.  So why is JCP still relying on publishing gargantuan-sized catalogs every year?  Everything is online! Keeping the catalogs business is like putting a sign out on the front lawn saying, “we’re a tired old retailer, come shop here for granny clothing.”  The entire buying experience, even for rural buyers (who the catalogs is most geared towards) can be replicated much better online than through a catalogs.  Dump it and dump it quickly, JCP.

Frankly, serving the middle-market in the retail clothing industry is a tough task.  The competition is fierce and customers demand both quality and value when it comes to their clothing.  But compared to competitors like Kohl’s, there’s an utter lack of innovation within the industry and that’s where JCP can succeed.

The department store model isn’t broken, just the approach to the business.  Unlike Sears, JCP still has customer loyalty in the area where it counts.  Hopefully, under the direction of a new CEO, the century old retailer can stay relevant to a new generation of shoppers.

I had chance to interview Christina over e-mail about her new C-Note series. Here’s what she had to say:

Tell me your basic stats and what you’re doing with your life?

I just turned 26 year old female living in Los Angeles. I’m currently a fashion design student at LATTC.

I hear “design student” and the first question that pops into my mind is: How are you supporting yourself?

I used to work two jobs until the end of last year: Sales associate at high-end fabric store and as a web production assistant for a public radio show. My monthly income fluctuated, due to changing school and work schedules, but on average I made about $1,300 a month. I knew eventually I would have to give up one job to finish school within two years, so I saved a lot. Since the new year, I’ve been drawing on those savings.

So retail and media production, not two areas known for high-paying work. How would you describe your financial personality?

Good question. I can say that I’m a good saver but a middling spender. I’ll go into more depth about what I mean by that in my series.

When we initially started talking about writing for 2MF, you mentioned your desire to be pretty open with your finances publicly. Why would you want to tell the world about your bank balance?

The Internet is all about overshare — you can learn how to have sex in any number of ways, what the latest Valley Girl hauled in her latest shopping trip — and yet very few people share how they spend their money. I’m not putting myself out there to show people what they should be doing with their money, but rather to get a conversation going about personal finance. Maybe by taking a look at how I save and spend (and all the mistakes I’ll make), it’ll get readers thinking about their money and how they want to manage it.

Would you mind talking about what your finances look like right now?

Right now, 70 percent of every paycheck goes into savings account at what I’ll call Bank A. I allow myself to withdraw $650.00 a month for rent and utilities and school fees from this account. I am pretty strict about this — if I “loan” this money to myself, I usually pay it back, save for some exceptions.

I also maintain a separate checking and savings account at Bank B. The money in the checking account is for my daily spending, whether it be groceries, that book I’ve always wanted or birthday gifts — you get the idea. I put $12.50 of every paycheck into the Bank B savings account for a future business I’d like to own. And I also put another $5 in too, for my “fun fund,” that is any tickets to ballets or music events I want to go to. I really enjoy going to the theater, so I set this fund up so I can enjoy myself even if I am broke.

I also invested about $3,500 in a South Korean index fund (EWY) in my brokerage account. Honestly, investing is still a bit of a mystery to my; I bought those shares based on my father’s suggestions (he’s an accounting professor, so he’s not totally pulling stuff out of his ass). My personal logic is that unless the South Korean economy ceases to exist completely, I’ll probably come out on top — if only by a little bit — by the time I’m of retirement age.

Finally, I have another $5,000 in a Roth IRA account. I invested $2,500 of it in EWY when the market was lower, so I’m up a little bit with this account. I’m still deciding how to invest the rest of these Roth funds. And yeah, I’m not quite sure how a Roth works, but according to the show I work for, a Roth seems to be the best first step towards retirement savings.

What are some financial concerns you have?

-Retirement – Having worked at a money radio show since the recession started, I have been properly scared s**t-less that I will never get a job that’ll provide me health insurance or retirement — or you know, a wage that doesn’t make me feel on edge all the time.

-Health insurance – Obamacare let me be under the wing of my dad’s insurance until I was 26. Now I’m without insurance and not sure what to do.

-Emergency fund – I’m digging into this right now. Aside from $650 for rent and utilities, I’m allowing myself $50 a week. Again, I knew this day would come. I know in order for me to get a job in the fashion industry, I’ll have to take on at least one unpaid internship (…yeah, I’m playing the unfortunate game). It won’t be possible to juggle two jobs, school and an internship. So the idea is that I’ll make myself my own job, which will let me set my own hours.

Finally, what should we expect from the C-note series?

Every so often (hopefully weekly), I’ll be posting the ins and outs of my checking accounts and tallies of the other accounts with a self-assessment of how I did. Eventually, I will compile this information into a budget. I’ll also be posting about other financial or money challenges I have.

Learn about a few great web resources to guide you on your personal budgeting journey. (Part 4 of 4 in our budgeting series).