CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY

Most People Can't Afford to Invest in Stocks??

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:26:00 +0000

I've been absentee but had to stop and quickly put up a link to an article interviewing economist Zvi Bodie, who says that people who need the arguably or historical higher return of stocks probably can't afford to take on the associated risk of stocks:

"You can't handle the truth about stocks" on CNNMoney

Brodie more or less says that most people are better off saving a higher percentage of their salary, investing 100% in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), and retiring later -- even if they have a long time horizon until retirement. In other words, he turns what most pundits on financial planning and what many, many of us are doing on its head.

Read the article, and then come back here to comment on what you think of Brodie's advice!

Blog, Blog, Bo-Blog

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:02:00 +0000

Can I Get Rich On A Salary participated in three personal-finance blog carnivals last week. And by the way, I found a new personal-finance blog that is heavier on consumer orientation—authored by an experienced blogger whose writings I had already enjoyed on other blogs—so I recommend you check it out: The Smarter Wallet (tagline: "Money Tips, Consumer News and Product Reviews To Improve Your Finances").

Carnival of Personal Finance:

BankerGirl hosted Carnival of Personal Finance at BankerGirl, on September 8. Here are some selected excerpts:

Quest For Four Pillars - 4% Rule Revisited - I want a raise!…
Living Almost Large - Why aren't we honest? …

Check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, The Lady Whose $50,000 Emergency Fund Wasn't Enough?, was included under "Saving and Budgeting."

Carnival of Money Stories:

The Copyeditor's Desk hosted The Carnival of Money Stories on September 9. Here are some excerpts:

FMF, Free Money Finance, My Kids Tell Me Why We Pay Taxes…
PT, Prime Time Money, Millionaires in the Making: The Rodrigueses…
MoneyNing, Buy an Investment Property or Dividend-yielding Stocks?…
Silicon Valley Blogger, The Digerati Life, An Immigration Story…
Glblguy, Gather Little by Little, Share Your Story: What Is the Dumbest Thing You've Ever Spent Money On?…

Don't miss the rest of the Carnival! My post, Ed McMahon Personal Finance Fairy Tale?, was mentioned under "Tales of the Rich and Famous."

Money Hacks Carnival:

Living Almost Large hosted Money Hacks Carnival #29: Food Heaven, on September 10. Here's a sampling:

Austin asks the question if you won money what would you do with it in What if I gave you 100,000 bucks? posted at The Orange Paper…
Sandy Naidu tells us about credit card tricks in Top 5 Dirty Little Credit Card Tricks posted at Future Nest Egg…
Lisa Spinelli gives us 10 way to get into debt in 10 Ways to Bury Yourself In Debt posted at Greener Pastures…
Del Sandeen explains about debt settlement in 3 Reasons to Run from Debt Settlement Companies posted at Fiscal Liberty…
Sam talks about insurance you don't need in 14 Totally Ridiculous Insurance You Probably Don?t Need posted at Fix My Personal Finance - Personal Finance Advice - Money Management Advice…
The Shark Investor talks about career development in Investing In Yourself posted at The Shark Investor…

Visit the Carnival! My post, 40% Wealthier?, was included under "Savings/Budget."

Success Stories: Dry Cleaner and Part-Time Janitor with Third-Grade Education Accumulates More than $2,300,000

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:12:00 +0000

In 2004, Geno Morlacci died at age 102—and left $2.3 million to the University of Great Falls, where he had worked as a part-time janitor. Morlacci never had more than a third-grade education. He immigrated to the United States in 1921 at age 19, to help his father run a tavern; he then worked in dry-cleaning for 20 years; and he started his own a dry-cleaning business in 1948, which he ran until he sold it in 1962. He handled every part of his dry-cleaning business—pick-up, delivery, cleaning, and pressing—with his only outside help coming from a cashier. After selling the business, he went into semi-retirement, taking on a part-time job as a janitor at the university, which he left when the university decided it needed full-time help.

How did he do it?

As best as I can tell:

He worked very hard through most of his life, with articles mentioning 18-20-hour days (presumably mostly in connection with his dry-cleaning business).
He kept the expenses in his business very low, by doing most of the work himself and hiring only a cashier. But he was not strictly cheap—he bought top-of-the-line equipment, thinking this was a better value because it would outlast the cheaper equipment.
He was quite frugal.
- He patched the pants on his pants.
- He turned the collars on his shirts (meaning he removed the collars, turned them over so the frayed side would be hidden, and stitched them back into place).
- He and his wife dined out rarely, and when they did, they chose "budget restaurants."
- He never ha a fancy car.
- He lived next door to where he had his dry-cleaning business.
- His and his wife's occasional splurges were measured—an couple of trips to Italy, both times preceded by a purchase of exactly one new dress.
- As a widower in retirement, he lived in a retirement home that charged about $500 a month for meals, room, and housekeeping—choosing that over an upscale facility.
- He felt "if you didn't need it, you shouldn't buy it" and was critical of people who "needed, in his eyes, instant gratification." He felt that the government and many people spent beyond their means.
He rented out the basement of his home for additional income.
He invested—though the only note I found on his approach or practices was one mentioning he had a "fondness" for tax-free municipal bonds. He did appear to have used a professional investment advisor, from Piper Jaffray.
His home life was stable—with a 46-year marriage (before his wife passed away).

I don't know squat about the dry-cleaning business, but it doesn't seem likely that Morlacci was earning a huge income there. One writer specifically stated he, as a newspaper reporter for the Deseret Morning News, "probably ma[d]e a lot more than Morlacci did cleaning clothes 18 hours a day." So Morlacci's path to millions seems to be summed up as extremely diligent saving and investing over many years. I wish it was a little clearer what he did with his investments and, for instance, at what price he sold his business and what he did with that lump sum.

Now with some of the previous Success Stories on this blog, folks have commented that it seemed pointless to retire or pass away with so much money and then just give it all away. That's not really my takeaway—and I'm not really trying to judge what Morlacci or others do with their money (though you're welcome to comment on whatever you like!). The point for me is really a broken record: if you save and invest for many years, a million or a couple of million dollars is certainly in reach. And this appears to hold true even if your income is low.

And if your income's not low, you really have no excuse.

(Sources: Will of 102-Year-Old Janitor, Dry Cleaner Leaves $2.3 Million to University; University benefactor recalled as simple, thrifty man; Geno Morlacci set an example for all to follow.)

Success Stories: Drama Teacher with Modest Salary Accumulates Well Over $4,000,000

Success Stories: Elementary School Teacher Becomes Multimillionaire Through Saving and Investing

Man Bites Dog — Beats Airline in Dispute Over Canceled Flight!

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:44:00 +0000

I don't know if this is much of a personal-finance blog post, but it's too good a consumer story not to mention and link: A Flier Strikes Back (in Fortune magazine).

The article describes our "hero," Mitchell Berns—and his beatdown of Delta Airlines. Delta canceled Berns' direct flight from Las Vegas to New York City and rescheduled him for a redeye that connected through Boston, claiming "snow" as the reason for cancellation. Berns noticed that other airlines were still making the same flight as scheduled. So he asked Delta for a refund. Delta told him that weather-related cancellations were not its fault and could not be refunded. Undaunted, Berns booked a JetBlue flight that was departing at the same time as his canceled Delta flight and got home to New York on schedule.

Berns found out that the National Weather Service report said snow was expected at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, hours after his canceled Delta flight was supposed to have landed. This of course explained why he had no problem getting another flight with another airline. So he took Delta to small claims court and won a $938 judgment. Check out, A Flier Strikes Back, for the rest of the details!

Berns reported that pursuing the refund took him about four hours. This is a good reminder that it can be worthwhile to take the time to push back when a store or even an airline does not provide the product or service for which you have paid!

Frugality Tips from a Setsuyaku No Tatsujin

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:33:00 +0000

I don't ordinarily think of BusinessWeek as much of a source for frugality tips, but the September 15, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek mentions some frugality tips from Japan in its article, A Nation of Yen-Pinchers. In particular, it features some of the ideas from a leading Japanese personal-finance blogger named Yuki Wada, a setsuyaku no tatsujin—master penny pincher. Inflation is a big problem in Japan, where gas costs $7.15 a gallon and average household spending is expected to go up about $840 for the year. So Wada and other Japanese bloggers writing on how to save money are quite popular!

Wada's tips mentioned in the article include:

recycle bathwater to do laundry and clean toilets;
track how much electricity each appliance uses;
cut power to most of the home when going out;
save tangerine peels for use in polishing shoes;
clean refrigerator to improve performance;
put a brick in the toilet tank to reduce the water used in each flush; and
save sour milk for use in polishing floors.

I'm not sure how many of these might be for me, but I was interested enough to try and find Yuki Wada's blog. It didn't come up quickly (though other articles about her did). Perhaps it's in Japanese and inaccessible to me in any event. Yuki Wada's overall tip, from the article, is:

I tell people you shouldn't be thrifty just in response to rising prices. It should become a daily habit.

Is It Better To Think Short-Term When It Comes to Saving?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:24:00 +0000

The September 15, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek includes a Plus column tidbit titled, Short-Term Thinking May be a Saver's Best Friend. It discusses research by Professor Utpal Dholakia of Rice University and Professor Leona Tam of Old Dominion University—and their conclusion that "those who planned savings for next month did far better than those who tried to plan further out." In one of their experiments, people were asked how much they would save the following month and reported (on average) $287. This in mind, they then went on to save (on average) $440 that following month. But when asked to plan ahead four months, people said they would save (on average) $946 over that time. And they then went on to save (on average) a grand total of only $123—which translates to $30.75 per month. If I've read the experiment description in the article correctly, people concentrating a one-month savings goal did more than 14 times better than those concentrating on a four-month savings goal.

Professor Dholakia indicated he was "shocked" by the results. In advising that people concentrate on saving for the following month, he told BusinessWeek:

Don't plan in advance because it makes you overoptimistic. You think: "I might get a windfall or a raise." And not only do people who give a savings estimate for four months from now estimate too high but they become more risk-seeking.

The risk-seeking behavior seems to include making riskier (and impliedly inappropriate) investments and preferring jobs with high pay but low job security. In other articles reporting on the same study (Study: When saving, it's best not to think long term and Lower Stress by Saving A Little From Each Paycheck), Professor Tam echoed the advice to concentrate on the following month: "[Y]ou have more control over it. You can actually formulate how to do it in more concrete ways." She elaborated:

The easiest thing to do is to be a smarter consumer and make spending and saving decisions thoughtfully on a daily basis — that extra cup of coffee every morning, carpooling with a co-worker and cutting out the 'extras.'

I'm trying to get ahold of a copy of the study to learn more, but so far, this seems like pretty interesting stuff. Though I don't know the details of the study yet, my initial reaction is to take the buzzworthy headlines and synopses advising not to think long-term with a grain of salt. I'd suggest interpreting the study to mean we should approaching savings goals like this:

Set a long-term savings goal.
Break up the long-term savings goal into smaller savings goals (such as monthly goals).
Look at the savings goal for the upcoming month and make that your focus.
Consider specific, concrete steps to achieve the savings goal for the upcoming month.
When you consider your daily spending or saving decisions, think about them in terms of the savings goal for the upcoming month.

From the concededly brief news articles on Professors Dholakia's and Tam's study that I've read, this would achieve the gains of short-term thinking—without sacrificing what I would still call the necessity of longer-term thinking. After all, if you are only thinking about the coming month, it may be harder to identify an issue such as a need to make more money that may drive you to reconsider how you look at your current job. And remember, if you follow what I think is one of the best ways to save—automating your savings—this might well shield you from some of the problems revealed by Professors Dholakia's and Tam's study.

There Are Only Two Ways To Save More Money

Four Specific Paths To Automatic Saving and Investing

Warren Buffet’s “10 Ways to Get Rich”?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:45:00 +0000

The front cover of Parade magazine features a photo of a smiling Warren Buffet next to the headline, "10 Ways to Get Rich: Warren's Buffett's Secrets That Can Work For You!"

For me? Really?

Okay, tabloid-style headline aside, if you've been reading me long enough, you know I'm a big fan of Warren Buffett. So I promptly stole away the Parade magazine before my wife got to the paper or before my kids could strew it all over the house (a process which takes them approximately 3.6 seconds)—and retreated to somewhere I had half a chance of getting through the article. The article is based on a new book that is coming out later this month, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. It's an "authorized biography," and the author, Alice Schroeder apparently spent hundreds of hours interviewing Buffett for the book. Hundreds of hours? Pretty sweet.

So here were the 10 "secrets":

Reinvest your profits
Be willing to be different
Never suck your thumb
Spell out the deal before you start
Watch small expenses
Limit what you borrow
Be persistent
Know when to quit
Assess the risks
Know what success really means

I wouldn't call any of these secrets, and I'd be willing to bet that most of these nuggets of wisdom appear in past books, articles, writings, and quotes about or by Buffett (and in his annual letters to shareholders). And I think most of these are pretty self-explanatory, except perhaps, "Never suck your thumb." The article describes that one as being decisive and acting quickly. Get the information you need to make a decision—but then move forward and making that decision on an appropriate timeline or with an appropriate deadline. The article explains that Buffett "calls any unnecessary sitting and thinking 'thumb-sucking.'"

But what was both interesting and powerful in the article for me was the many personal stories woven into the "secrets," illustrating how Buffett learned that particular lesson or how he implements it for himself. For instance, in the article's description of the first point, "Reinvest your profits":

In high school, [Buffett] and a pal bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the friends sold the venture, Buffett used the proceeds to buy stock and to start another business. By age 26, he'd amassed $174,000—or $1.4 million in today's money.

Nice!

These are what make the article definitely worth checking out: 10 Ways to Get Rich: Warren's Buffett's Secrets That Can Work For You!

What Buffett's Been Doing Lately—And Does Kiplinger's Have a Man Crush?

Where I Outperform Warren Buffett (And What I Think It Means)

So A Slow-Moving Ape Can Beat The Market?

Diminishing Returns In The Stock Market According to Warren Buffett

Success Stories: Drama Teacher with Modest Salary Accumulates Well Over $4,000,000

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Jay W. Jensen was a South Florida drama teacher. His first job as a drama teacher was at Little River Junior High School in 1954—with a salary of $3,250. He then spent a few years trying to hit it big as an actor, but in 1959, he embarked on a 32-year career as the drama teacher at Miami Beach Senior High School—where he never earned a salary of more than $46,000. But published reports indicate he made charitable donations totaling over $4,000,000—nearly $3,000,000 to the University of Miami (particularly its Theatre Arts Department and its Lowe Art Museum) and varying amounts to other theatres and schools. (See: Donor Profile: Jay W. Jensen (at University of Miami); Biography for Jay W. Jensen (at IMDb).)

How'd he do it? I had trouble finding much detail on this, though it may be in part because there are multiple "Jay Jensens" mentioned throughout the Internet—and this Jay Jensen was well known and written up more for his legendary success as a drama teacher than for his success in accumulating wealth (and subsequent philanthropy). The 2006 movie Class Act is about Jensen—but seems to focus on his "inspirational teaching career" and his role working with a number of students at his school who ultimately became big stars. (Admittedly, I have not seen it.)

As best as I could gather:

Jensen lived frugally. Again, I didn't find much in the way of details but did read the example that he never owned or drove a car.
According to an article at The Motley Fool briefly mentioning Jensen, Jensen "invest[ed] steadily in blue-chip stocks for some 40 years."
Jensen may have had some side income on top of his teacher's salary. He continued pursuing his passion, taking on small acting roles and apparently directing some productions outside of his school, but it didn't sound like any would have been much income. As the IMDb biography of Jensen described it, "He acted in the South Florida produced 'B' film, 'Rehearsal For Sin,' and had a few uncredited extra roles in such movies as Racing Fever (1964)," and Jensen "was the casting director for the Mexican production of, 'I Never Saw Another Butterfly.'" It does mention some work with actors that sounds like it may have been outside of the high school, so it is possible he also earned income through coaching or giving private instruction.
Jensen may have used professional financial advisors. At a gathering in his honor at the University of Miami, he joked: "There are two very important people here with me tonight: my stockbrokers." But this sounds like it may have been purely a joke (as opposed to a joke with a seed of truth).

Jensen passed away in 2007.

When asked why he gives so much of his financial resources, he quotes fellow Miami alumnus Jerry Herman's Broadway play Hello Dolly: 'Money is like manure. It's got to be spread around to do any good.'

As much as I can really sum up about Jensen: he loved what he did and did it with passion; and he saved and invested diligently and wisely over a long period of time.

Success Stories: Elementary School Teacher Becomes Multimillionaire Through Saving and Investing

Success Stories: 6th-Grade Teacher Worth $500,000

The Lady Whose $50,000 Emergency Fund Wasn’t Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:38:00 +0000

If you're a rainy day planner and a reader of personal-finance blogs, you probably have an emergency fund—some money you've specifically set aside and don't touch, to be available in case something goes wrong. Losing a job. Unexpected medical expense. And so on.

How much should be in this emergency fund? I've seen or heard a pretty wide range of advice on this—from three months worth of living expenses on up to a year. The Wall Street Journal Lifetime Guide to Money says, "Financial experts generally recommend that people have an emergency fund equal to between three and six months' spending money." Personal-finance author and television host Suze Orman seems to recommend at least eight months. (See: Suze Orman's Twelve Steps to Wealth, Step Four (at Oprah Magazine).) In an economy such as we have now, one might argue it's desirable to have a bigger emergency fund. 3, 6, 8, 12—how important are these "months of living expenses" targets?

This past weekend, Suze Orman told a caller into her television show that she couldn't afford a $3,300 "luxury coffee machine" because her $50,000 in savings was not enough of an emergency fund.

The caller's profile looked like this:

Age 44
$11,500/month income (combined with husband)
$330,000 mortgage, 15-year fixed at 5.75%
$10,200 monthly expenses (including mortgage)
$50,000 in savings
$2,000,000 in retirement accounts

So not only did the caller have $50,000 in cash, she (and her husband) had $2,000,000 in retirement. Suze Orman's point was that they couldn't (or in most any case shouldn't) touch the retirement funds, and they were only able to save a small amount each month based on the difference between their income and expenses—and what would happen if one of them lost their jobs?

Now many things crossed my mind at this point. What type of person would spend $3,300 on a coffee machine in the first place? How exactly does one spend $10,200 a month—not just here and again but as the amount of your regular monthly living expenses? How the heck did they get the $2,000,000 in their retirement accounts? And am I really going to sit around and watch personal-finance shows now that the Olympics are over?

Using an online mortgage calculator, I figured the caller's mortgage payment at about $2,740/month. Based on the information reported, it didn't appear that the caller had any other debt (such as car loans, personal loans, or credit card debt)—as those items are usually noted for callers into the show. So what was the caller having to do with the other $7,460/month in living expenses—totaling $89,520/year! This one's a head scratcher for me and made me wonder if the caller miscalculated her monthly living expenses. The couple accumulated $2,000,000 in retirement accounts by the time one of them was age 44. Perhaps the husband is older, but the $2,000,000 still made me think they had to have been pretty good savers for many years—even though they apparently have some expensive tastes (such as a $3,300 coffee machine). Is it possible they're including their contributions to retirement accounts as part of their monthly living expenses?

When I do rough calculations of our monthly expenses, I actually do start by including our retirement contributions and other automated savings and investment plans. My thinking is that, even under an emergency, I'd hope to keep those savings and investments going. Of course, if the emergency came and were severe, we would be able to scale those back and stretch funds farther.

I actually have to confess we no longer track a separate emergency fund. When I first started paying attention to my personal finances, I started setting aside some money each month for an emergency fund. First, I aimed toward a more modest three months of living expenses; and later, I built up toward six months. I married my wonderful wife; we got our personal finances together fairly well; and at some point, our cash position became strong enough that keeping a separate line item or account for an emergency fund and calling it an emergency fund no longer seemed important. I would look at our cash reserves compared against our monthly expenses here and again—but I stopped keeping a line item labeled, "Emergency Fund," and having it in a separate savings account, and so forth. I probably need to take a new and closer look at that, unfortunately, as we have depleted some of our cash position with our landscaping project.

My two cents on emergency funds can be summarized quickly (and may not be worth much more than two cents):

I do think it's important to have an emergency fund. It's very hard to recover from a disaster without one, and disasters are much more common that we (or at least I) would like to think. And the earlier you are in your personal finances, the more important an emergency fund is—because the less likely you are to have other assets that you can tap.
The "recommended" sizes of emergency funds are decent targets—but they're just rules of thumb, meaning they're shortcuts if you don't want to dig deeper. Of course, your first emergency fund always starts at some amount way less than what people recommend. The best path for many may be setting a more modest and attainable goal for your emergency fund, reaching it, and then considering a new goal. What you really need in your emergency fund is individualized to you. The size and need for your emergency fund will probably also depend on things like how stable your job is, how quickly you are likely to be able to find a new job if needed, how much and how quickly you could reduce your monthly living expenses if needed, how good your insurance is that insulates you from some of the types of emergencies that are out there, whether you have any alternative sources of income apart from your job, and so on.
Bigger is better—to a point. At some point, I think you could have too much money sitting in cash, earning a low interest rate (possibly or probably less than inflation). At some point, you may want money in other assets that you could liquidate quickly, if needed in a particularly bad pinch.
I think the habit of having and building an emergency fund is almost as important as the emergency fund itself—because it also develops general saving habits that you can continue in other parts of your personal finances.
When you get to the point that you can save outside of your emergency fund, some of the conventional wisdom is to then save in retirement accounts (and at least to the point of getting any matching funds provided by your employer as a benefit). I think that that advice is fine—but at some point, it may make sense to keep some of your savings and investments outside of retirement accounts. In my post looking at what made up the net worth of personal-finance bloggers, I found that: "Every one of the millionaires had over $250,000 in stocks (outside retirement accounts) and over $250,000 in retirement accounts." In my view, the caller we've been discussing would have been better served to follow suit—and have diverted some of their retirement savings along the way to non-retirement investments.

What about you—do you have an emergency fund, how much is it (or how many months' living expenses are in it), and how do you calculate your living expenses (if that's part of how you are figuring your emergency-fund goal)?

The Lady Who Wouldn't Pay Off Her Credit Cards Even Though She Had The Money

The Lady Who Wouldn't Pay Her Mortgage

Lessons from the Millionaires — What Makes Up PFBloggers' Net Worth? (Part 3)

A Venture Capitalist’s Advice on “Regular” Investing

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:31:00 +0000

Man, I couldn't wait for this one! The September 2008 issue of Condé Nast Portfolio was featuring personal-finance advice from Alan Patricof! Alan Frigging Patricof!

The father of…

The veteran of…

The…

Well, no, I didn't actually know who the heck Alan Patricof was, but the subtitle of the article dubbed him a "[v]enture capital veteran" and the introduction said he was a venture capitalist "before the term even existed." That's good enough for me to be curious what his advice would be for, relatively speaking, "regular" investors.

I tend to think of venture capital investing as high-risk, high-reward. Being prepared to make 20 investments in which you hit one major home run—and lose your shirt on most of the rest. Strictly for the wealthy. So I was kind of surprised that the first few bits of advice that Patricoff offered all seemed fairly conservative to me. The article started by asking Patricof what he would do with "an extra $100,000." This seems like a very useful question to be asking, though I must admit it is a bit hard to think of having $100,000 and deciding to call it an "extra" $100,000. I can, using the power of positive thinking, imagine having $100,000 at all; and I can imagine having $100,000 that I was willing to invest. But I'm not yet to the point where I can see myself with $100,000 that I look at and think, "What will I do with this extra $100,000?"

But I digress.

In any event, Patricof responded first by saying:

I certainly would not invest everything immediately. I would do it cautiously, on a gradual basis.

And then he described an investment mix that felt conservative to me, although he noted that the answer should depend on one's age and net worth:

40% in stocks, including international
25% in convertible preferred or convertible debt
25% in 15-year federally backed CD with a 6% return
10% in cash—"to take advantage of any further decline in the market"

I thought this was kind of a nice reality check. Venture capitalists are not necessarily all high flyers, willing to make big bets with big money and equally willing to take big losses, in the way that I might romanticize them. Many may be savvy business people who hate big losses, but take them in calculated ways—and like Patricoff, may even be conservative in day-to-day investing. I read Patricoff's advice as traditional and fundamental, suggesting that one cannot time the market and should not try to time the market, this being the reason the lump sum of money should be invested "cautiously, on a gradual basis." And I see the investment mix he suggested as quite conservative, with a much lower proportion of stocks overall—and by consequence, a much lower portion of international stocks—than many investment mixes I have seen recommended, particularly those for younger folks or for those who are more aggressive.

As for more specific thoughts about areas or sectors that may be good for investment, Patricof mentioned the following:

alternative energy—says they are going to "be much bigger in the coming years"
Internet—says it is going to be the "primary way of getting information for a long time"
I.T. and software services—says these are important for their productivity boost
mobile phones—says they will be "ubiquitous and deliver services that will touch every aspect of our lives"

For more from Alan Frigging Patricoff, check out the September 2008 issue of Condé Nast Portfolio.

20-40% Returns Sound Heavenly But...

The 9 Or So Paths To Getting Rich—And My Purported Analysis Of Them (Part 1 of 2)

The 9 Or So Paths To Getting Rich—And My Purported Analysis Of Them (Part 2 of 2)

Allocate 50% to Non-U.S. Stocks, According to Wharton Professor

Success Stories: Couple Hits $515K Net Worth by Age 27 — and Seeks to Retire by Age 40

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:45:00 +0000

The September 2008 issue of Money magazine brings us the story of Gina and John Rodrigues. At age 27, their net worth is $515,635. Some of their main assets include: $483K in investment properties (rentals); $146K in mutual funds and 401(k) savings; $137,000 in regular savings; $125,000 in a business (a retail gift shop); and $88K in individual stocks. Their current goal is "to become millionaires and retire by the time they turn 40, just 13 years from now."

How did they do it (or how have they done it so far)?

They have been quite frugal. As a few examples: they moved back to John's childhood home, which they are renting from his parents; they eat out rarely and when they do, they sometimes order just an appetizer and tap water; they cut their clothes budget to $300 a year; and they do little traveling (for instance, John declined when his friends invited him to fly to Las Vegas for the weekend).
They have historically saved well, on the order of 15-20% of their income. And they are currently saving quite a bit more than that, about $91K a year—more than half of their combined salaries. About $54K of that goes into investments.
Their incomes from their jobs have mostly been quite strong. Their current combined salaries total $174K.
They have invested in real estate, including: they made $110K from the sale of their first home (a condo in Dublin, California); they bought an investment property in Phoenix, Arizona; and taking money out of the Phoenix house, they bought two investment properties near San Antonio, Texas.

The article observes that the Rodrigues couple did not start off making all the right moves. They were not at first on the same page on spending habits; and early on, they followed the advice of a financial adviser to buy a pair of variable life insurance policies—and later found that the policies were a bad deal because of their fees and cancellation penalties (which they went ahead and swallowed in order to get rid of them). Over time, they have learned to make compromises regarding their different spending proclivities—including allowing certain planned splurges.

Interestingly, the Rodrigueses' strategy is quite conventional in its concentration on spending less and saving more; but past that, they have been entrepreneurial and aggressive, by many people's standards. Gina quit her job in the mortgage underwriting business because of dissatisfaction with the long hours and lack of creativity involved in the work—and quit without having anything else lined up. She was out of work for about a year. Of course, their savings were down quite a bit during that year. Gina found her calling in the form of running a boutique that sells imported soaps and hand bags—and they took out a $75K loan to buy the store. And of course, owning three investment properties means additional debt load. The business loan and the mortgages comprise all of their debt though (no car loans or anything else), at a total of $516,365.

And though they did well with the sale of their first home, their real-estate strategy is suffering from the current market. They project that they might barely break even if they were to sell the three properties; and the cash flow on them is negative by about $9K a year. From my read of the article on the Rodrigueses, that negative cash flow is their current situation going forward, with all three properties rented—and does not account for a 9-month period during which the Phoenix property was vacant because of a dispute with a former tenant. The Rodrigues seem to acknowledge difficulties in owning investment properties far away, although it sounds like they try to deal with this by hiring local property managers. Reading about this was quite interesting for me, because we have our one modest investment property far away as well. I would guess that their reasons for buying far away were similar to ours—at the time, houses in remote areas were much more affordable than houses nearby.

Money magazine brought in two financial advisors to consult with the Rodrigueses, and I thought their advice was interesting to note. They advised that the Rodrigueses stock portfolio was too concentrated in company stock (37% in Microsoft) and recommended getting that down to 5%. They advised adding bonds to their 401(k) portfolio, moving from their current 99% in stocks to a 90% stocks/10% bonds split. And they advised selling one or two of the investment properties, to reduce the negative cash flow. The Rodrigueses stated disagreements with at least two of the recommendations. John stated that he wanted to keep the Microsoft stock, saying "it's dumb to sell low" and expressing confidence in the safety of the stock; and he strongly disagreed with selling any of the properties:

I think those properties are going to come back eventually. Even if they don't, our retirement plan is not based on any return from those properties anyway.

I think the Rodrigueses are doing great. At their ages, my net worth was negative—debt as far as the eye could see—and I definitely knew less than they do about investments; and I would have been too shy to plunge into real estate. I would have loved to have had as strong a start as the Rodrigueses have accomplished. As for their personal-finance strategy and approach, I agree that it is quite aggressive—and not recommended for many. But it seems to work for them. Their high income and liquid savings give them at least some significant ability to absorb the negative cash flow on the investment properties to try to wait out the market, as well as to absorb problems such as vacancies. I'd be curious to know more about the retail business, such as how much income it's spinning off, whether it's growing or has much more upside, and whether it has much risk (for instance, if it includes a long-term lease and generally what its level of fixed expenses are). But I also tend to get excited to hear about someone quitting their safe job to find one that they love. On their investments, I'd be interested to know how John's company stock purchase plan works, because if he gets any kind of benefit or discount, that does not seem to have been factored into the advice. And otherwise, my leanings tend somewhat more toward the Rodrigueses. My wife's and my 401(k) mix is closer to 99% stocks (including stock funds), and we are quite a bit longer in the tooth than the Rodrigueses. But our approach has some aggressive leanings too and also is not recommended for all.

What do you think of the Rodrigueses' strategy, particularly in the places where they disagreed with the advice of the financial planners?

[Editor's Note: At the time of this post, the profile of the Rodrigueses was not yet available online. For further reading, the Prime Time Money blog has several articles on magazine profiles of "Millionaires in the Making," including links to profiles and aggregate analysis of the group of "Millionaires in the Making." It's totally worth checking out! See: Millionaires (at Prime Time Money).]

Success Stories: Retired At Age 43 With Nearly $2,000,000

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Success Stories: Couple Retires at Age 44 With 3 Young Kids

Success Stories: 6th-Grade Teacher Worth $500,000

Rethinking the Job Search: Your Resume in a 140-Character Tweet?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:27:00 +0000

Please check out my guest post at Free Money Finance. Here's how it begins:

There are probably four-year-olds out there updating their tweets through their cell phones—but me, I’m a little slower and have only recently gotten around to opening an account on Twitter. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the Wikipedia entry on Twitter describes it as “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send ‘updates’ (or ‘tweets’; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website…” And the Twitter website beams your tweets to the screens of other users of Twitter who are “following” you.

I launched into this new medium with gusto, announcing, “Thinking of blog topics.” I was soon thrilling a fan base with follow-ups such as: “Still thinking about blog topics”; “Having trouble thinking of blog topics”; “Having trouble thinking generally”; and “Going to sleep.”

To read the full post, please click below:
Rethinking the Job Search: Your Resume in a 140-Character Tweet? (at Free Money Finance)

40% Wealthier?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:38:00 +0000

Here's a quick bite-size morsel for digestion. According to an article in the September 2008 issue of SmartMoney:

Consumers who plan and budget are on average almost 40% wealthier than those who don't, one study says.

I've done some several permutations of Internet searches trying to track down this study but haven't able to find it. Does anyone know of it or have an idea on how to look for it?

It'd be interesting to see what the study concludes about how much planning and budgeting specifically creates more wealth—as opposed to planning and budgeting just being correlated with people who happen to be wealthier. In other words, it could be that wealthier people tend to be people who plan and budget, save and invest at least 10% of their income, have brown eyes, and brush and floss at least twice a day. Some of those activities or attributes just go together by coincidence or for other reasons—and some have a causal relationship with wealth.

Particularly flossing.

The book, The Millionaire Next Door, discusses some similar research as to whether millionaires spend more time on planning their personal finances:

Planning is typically found to be a strong habit among people who have a demonstrated propensity to accumulate wealth. Planning and wealth accumulation are significant correlates even among investors with modest incomes. In our survey of 854 middle-income respondents… a strong positive correlation was found between investment planning and wealth accumulation.

The book notes that people who were better at building wealth spend nearly twice as much time on their personal finances than people who are poor at building wealth. But one of the most powerful observations, in my view, is: the people who were better at building wealth did not really spend all that much time on their investments in total. They only spent an average of 8.4 hours per month planning their investments—or approximately 1.2% of their time.

8.4 hours per month? I spent that much time watching the Olympics in the last 48 hours, I think.

How much time do you spend per month? I mean either budgeting and planning generally (per the study mentioned in SmartMoney) or planning investments (per The Millionaire Next Door study)—though if you'd rather disclose your time watching the Olympics or flossing instead, go for it.

Ed McMahon Personal Finance Fairy Tale?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:05:00 +0000

This past Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on Donald Trump riding in as a white knight trying to help Ed McMahon avoid foreclosure of his home. If you're not familiar with the general story, the longtime television personality and Tonight show mainstay lives in a six-bedroom house in Beverly Hills—and has defaulted on his mortgage. Specifically, it sounds like he defaulted on the $4.8 million mortgage in first position on the house—though he apparently owes a total of about $7 million on the house, which I take to mean he has several mortgages. I wasn't all that familiar with the story myself, other than the headlines, so I checked briefly for some more details.

According to an MSNBC article, McMahon was $644,000 behind in the payments on his first mortgage, as of back in February. And according to a more recent Chicago Tribune article, another lender has filed a lawsuit against McMahon for failing to pay a $250,000 loan, also secured by the house. This follows a July lawsuit filed against by McMahon by his own lawyers (or ex-lawyers, one would think), for payment of $275,167 in legal bills.

McMahon has been trying to sell the house for over two years, starting with a list price of more than $7 million and recently reducing the asking price to $4.6 million.

It's sadly not news that some celebrities—even longtime ones who've presumably made tons of money through their careers and who presumably have access to good advice—may not be so great with their personal finances. McMahon and his wife apparently bought more house than they could afford, used it as an ATM by taking out personal loans secured by the house, and did not have much in the way of reserve funds—and were essentially living paycheck to paycheck. McMahon reported he first fell behind on payments after a neck injury interrupted his work making television commercials—which indicates to me that he had little in the way of savings. As McMahon himself put it in an interview:

If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. A couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that.

Trump has apparently stepped in to try to help negotiate a deal that would allow McMahon and his wife to keep their home—possibly to be structured with Trump buying the first-lien mortgage of $4.8 million. Trump is quoted as saying, "Even a man who hadn't had such a great career shouldn't have this happen to them in their later years. I'm doing my very best, but this is a very difficult situation." But when asked whether Trump might help others, his spokesperson replied, "I really can't answer that…"

The bad part of being a celebrity with personal-finance trouble is, it would seem to me, having your troubles plastered all over the paper. The good part is that someone might read it and want to ride in as a white knight, like Trump for McMahon.

Perhaps the U.S. government will do something that may be effective in helping folks facing foreclosures, with one estimate that 1.65 million homes will be lost this year. But most people can only wish for white knights.

Double-Shot of Blog Carnivals

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Can I Get Rich On A Salary participated in two blog carnivals this past week.

Festival of Frugality:

Money Ning hosted Festival of Frugality 138 – The First Principles on August 11. Here are some excerpts:

Squawkfox presents eBook: Frugal Food and Fitness: Get fab without spending a fortune…
Cash Money Life presents Online Bill Pay - Cheaper, Faster, Greener, More Secure…
Amy presents Your Local Library: Netflix for Books…
Silicon Valley Blogger presents The Cost of Being Overweight!..
Lisa Spinelli presents Reasons to Pass on the Extended Warranty…
Penelope Pince presents Is "Simple Living" Just Another Term for "Giving Up?"…

Check out the rest of the Festival! My post, I Get Frugal With A Little Help From My…, was included under "Learn It."

Money Hacks Carnival:

The Personal Financier hosted The Money Hacks Carnival #25 – The Olympic Edition on August 12.

The Digerati Life examines Your Free Credit Score: (and asks) Is There Such A Thing?…

The Financial Blogger continues his discussion of the Basics of Estate Planning…
Free Money Finance discusses The Best Way to Get a Raise…
Erica Douglass @ erica.biz asks Is Extreme Frugality A Waste of Time?...
The Happy Rock offers A Guideline For Your Budget And Spending Plan and links to a nice tool which helps in checking how reasonable your exp[e]nses are compared to the average…
Dividend Growth Investor gives us The ultimate passive investment strategy…

Visit the rest of the Carnival! My post, Personal Finance Lemonade, was included under "Other" and gained The Personal Financier's "*" notation. Thanks!

Other Mentions

Thanks also to Prime Time Money for mentioning Can I Get Rich On A Salary in his post, PF Buzz Will Bring You Quality Traffic. Please check out his great personal-finance blog!

The Lady Who Wouldn’t Pay Her Mortgage

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:48:00 +0000

There are at least a few schools of thought on the order in which you should pay down different debts. Mathematically, paying down debts with the highest interest rates first should result in paying off total debt the fastest—and paying the least in interest charges, presuming one can still make all the minimum payments on each debt account. Psychologically, paying down the smallest debts first could lead to feelings of accomplishment when those smallest debts are fully paid, helping keep one on track—and arguably reducing the chances of a late or missed payment as the number of debt accounts shrinks. Logically, paying down secured debt first is more important based on the importance of the security pledged for the debt—for most of us, that's our home for our mortgage and perhaps our car for a car loan. So for many of us, the mortgage would trump everything else, because it's not tenable to consider losing our homes.

This past weekend, a caller into the Suze Orman Show took the opposite path. In juggling her debts, she decided to stop paying her mortgage and put her home at risk. She continued making payments on her car loan and credit cards, as well as relating to her living and other expenses. She planned to start renting after what she expected to be a foreclosure.

What the…?

The caller's profile looked like this:

Age 46
Owes $516K on mortgage on condo (value of condo estimated at $475-499K)
Owes $25K on car loan (value of car estimated at $16K)
Owes $38K on credit cards

Okay, so this was not a person naturally good with money. If I recall correctly, she had purchased her home with a variable-rate loan that adjusted upward—such that she could no longer afford to make the payments along with all of her other debt payments and living expenses. So she probably couldn't afford the condo in the first place. And her other debts indicate a similar record of spending more than she could afford. She was in trouble—but her solution seemed a rather odd choice. Suze Orman had a fairly strong "are you crazy" sort of reaction to the caller's decision to stop paying the mortgage, with which I more or less agreed.

And really, my initial reaction was about the same as when I'm watching a game show where I know the right answer—and the contestant is stumbling. At that point, I yell out something helpful like, "C'mon, this one's easy! Everyone knows this one!" In this case, there were numerous paths worth considering before intentionally seeking out foreclosure—to throw out just a few: trying to negotiate a short sale of the condo; just selling the condo at a loss; cutting other expenses; consolidating credit card debt; negotiating payment plans on the credit card debt; and even just deciding to default on credit cards first.

But then I wondered if I should be giving that caller more of a break. After all, how easy is it to make good decisions when you're in big trouble? It's a little easier for me to shout answers at a TV from the comfort of my living room, lounging around in old and comfy clothes in which I wouldn't particularly care to be seen by other members of the human race, with no bright lights shining down, and bolstered by my honed mental ability to pretend I always buzz in faster than anyone on the show. And at least the caller knew enough to question her own solution and call in to a show to try and get some help (though perhaps she could have called in before making the decision to stop making mortgage payments, rather than two months later…).

My living-room-chair psychoanalysis (which may only be as good as my armchair quarterbacking and backseat driving) is that the caller had a "fight or flight" response to the stress of her situation. Lacking the personal-finance knowledge and tools to fight, she was trying to flee. Some of the things she said indicated this posture. Roughly quoted, she said things like, "The mortgage is upside down. I don't see any way to get over that," and talked about how she wanted to instead pay down her credit cards to try and get a "fresh start." She may have been so anxious to get to that fresh start that she was willing to hasten a foreclosure, thinking there were no other options.

Maybe this is a natural response, and you have to get to stop and think about fleeing before deciding to stay and "fight." Have any of you had these types of experiences with your own personal-finance situations? How did you get from "flight" to "fight," if you were able?

The Lady Who Wouldn't Pay Off Her Credit Cards Even Though She Had The Money

Carnival Chaos

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:21:00 +0000

Here's the weekly rundown on what's going on with Can I Get Rich On A Salary, personal-finance blog carnivals, and the universe as we know it—hopefully with some useful reading along the way.

Carnival of Personal Finance:

Squawkfox hosted Carnival of Personal Finance: City Slickers Edition, on August 4. Here are some selected excerpts:

Money Answer Guy, a newer blogger, shares the humble secrets to his financial success in How I Live on Just $600 a Month…
MoneyNing decodes corporate up-selling techniques in Saying Yes to Up-Sell is Saying No To Being Frugal…
My Two Dollars is convincing in Following The Rule Of 10 Percent Is Easy And The Savings Add Up…
Antishay Ventenne lets her feet do the talking in In Defense of Expensive Shoes…
Poorer Than You declares a call to action in "Know Where The Money Goes" Challenge…
Wide Open Wallet shares 5 easy ways to increase your savings…
Personal Finance Analyst considers the games car salesmen play in Read This Before You Buy That Used Car…
Generation X Finance warns of the awful annuity, praises the marvelous employer match, and tells you if your retirement plan "sucks" in How to Tell if You Have a Bad 401k Plan…
Our Fourpence Worth draws a moneyed time line in Our Family Financial History…
Gather Little by Little gets his motor running in 10 least expensive to own vehicles - not one is hybrid…
The Happy Rock deals with a job loss in At a Crossroads, considering a new career…

Check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, Sex or Credit?, appears under "Miscellaneous: Tool Box" (scroll all the way to the bottom!).

Money Hacks Carnival:

Greener Pastures hosted Money Hacks Carnival #24 - The Dog Days of Summer, letting the dogs out on August 6. Here are some selected excerpts:

The Shark Investor offers up How To Profit From Ideas posted at The Shark Investor…
Dividends4Life presents The Perfect Dividend Stock posted at Dividends 4 Life…
glblguy at Gather Little By Little submitted a great guest post from Todd at HarvestingDollars called Improving Your Career Prospects…
Mr Credit Card presents Does Having Too Many Credit Cards Hurt Your Score? posted at Ask Mr Credit Card…
FMF presents When to Hire a Tax Professional posted at Free Money Finance…
The Financial Blogger presents Basics of Estate Planning Part 3 posted at The Financial Blogger…

Check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, The "Smartest Advice I Ever Got" Was…, appears under "Investing."

I Get Frugal With A Little Help From My…

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:18:00 +0000

I think I have two main weak spots when it comes to practicing frugality.

The first is the little things. Buying a small toy that I think one of our kids will like. Eating out a bit too often, particularly lunch at work. Places where the expenditure is not that large, and even in aggregate is not particularly troubling, but there’s still more waste than desirable. Witness the bin of toys with which our kids never really became all that enthralled and which currently serve primarily to gather dust.

The second is gadgets. Typically electronics. As these are bigger purchases, I actually tend to be more careful, doing more research and shopping around more. But many electronics are impenetrable if you don’t really spend some time learning about the product and are good at extrapolating how you and your family will use it. Otherwise, many of us can’t really tell the practical, day-to-day impact it will have on our lives to make the choice between 12 megapixels and 6 megapixels. I, for one, only notice that I have a primal urge to get the higher number.

In trying to think deep thoughts about how to do better at frugality, I and my little pea brain quickly developed a headache. So instead I tried to think simple thoughts about frugality and came up with these three influences that can help our frugality:

personal accountability

frugality of spouse/family

frugality of friends, co-workers, and other peers

The first one, you can do yourself: measuring certain aspects of frugality (perhaps through a budget or tracking expenses) and comparing them against benchmarks or goals. The second and third are essentially good old-fashioned peer pressure. If the people around you are practicing frugality, it makes it easier for you to do it too. If your co-workers bring their lunch and congregate to eat together, you don’t have that same urge to socialize by going out to eat with them.

I know, not exactly brain surgery.

So here’s my attempt at a mild insight. You can gain some peer support for your frugality through online networks.

Here’s one specific example of how this worked for me. I wanted to buy a new camera, a digital SLR , to upgrade from the camera that we already have (although it works fine). Primarily, I wanted to be able to take photos more quickly so as to be able to catch “action” shots. (This would be pretty much any shot of our kids.) And I figured out to really be able to click away as fast as my little finger could press, I “needed” a digital SLR.

Which can run from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.

Ah, my gadgets weakness comes to the forefront. I could shop around pretty easily to figure out where the best prices were—but I quickly realized just how little I knew about cameras and higher-end photography. And I knew I had some propensity to over-spend on electronics. That is, I knew I’d be enticed by some numerical rating or other feature without a very deep understanding of what it meant or whether I’d actually use it.

So I thought, a number of folks with whom I interact on Twitter are into personal finance or frugality (or both)—so they might be more likely to push me toward a reasonable camera. So I asked for help on Twitter.

Within about two minutes, I was in conversations with three different people who were able to give me some specific advice based on their own experiences with digital SLRs. They were all bloggers, from Free from Broke, Sense to Save, and Feed the Bull. They relayed their experiences with their own cameras and what they knew about the two brands I was considering; and Free from Broke pointed me toward the Ken Rockwell website, which had several reviews of cameras (and refreshingly had a review in which he describes why he prefers the Nikon D40 over some of the more expensive Nikon models.)

While I could have found some of this information out myself, I am pretty sure I got information and resources within 5 minutes that I would have otherwise spent more like 30 minutes digging up myself—and of course, I got the chance to have some actual interaction with someone to ask some specific questions. I saved time and helped convince myself not to go for some of the more expensive models, because I didn’t need the extra functionality.

In addition to services like Twitter, you can interact with folks in similar ways on blogs (through comments), through e-mail, through online discussion forums, and probably a bunch more ways I’m not thinking of right now.

Do any of you use online networks in ways like this, and do you have any resources you’d like to share?

Frugality and Chocolate Sundaes

My Personal Finance One Step, Two Step

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:38:00 +0000

Can I Get Rich On A Salary was tagged with Mrs. Micah’s Single Step Personal Finance Challenge meme by Andy S. of $aving to Invest. (Check out the tagging post: Single Step Personal Finance Challenge- Roth IRA. Plus a Trifecta of Hundreds!). The general idea is:

Find one step you can take to make your financial system better or more organized.

I’m going to shuffle my feet and talk first about the one step that I’m going to undertake in the near term—and briefly mention two runners-up.

The first step was fairly straightforward to identify, because I’ve let a problem languish longer than I should have—so it’s very obviously at the top of my to-do list now. I need to: regain access to our Quicken software.

Essentially, technology is wonderful and evil. We track and run most all of our finances using the Quicken software—including paying most of our bills through Quicken. This translates into fairly good organization with the ability to assess our finances in a lot of different ways through the software’s functionality. We back up the data files frequently, so we have somewhat protected against a data-loss disaster.

But we are currently not able to use the software. We have one desktop computer and one laptop computer—and we are not currently able to use Quicken on either. The desktop computer is running Windows Vista, and trying not to bore you with all the details, there is a glitch in compatibility. So we were running Quicken primarily off the laptop. And the laptop now has a problem in that it freezes up. (It’s just a year and a half old—quite disappointing.)

So my “one step” is some combination of fighting through the compatibility glitch with Vista so I can get Quicken running on our desktop and getting the laptop fixed. (For a parallel situation, check out another personal-finance blogger’s post for the Single Step Personal Finance Challenge involving making up for the data loss he suffered when his computer went down: My Microsoft Money Is Bigger Stronger Faster (at Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Money).)

Now if you don’t run Quicken and aren’t interested in moving your finances over to Quicken or a similar application, this has been a particularly boring post. So here are my two runners-up, which are at least potentially less boring for a wider audience.

First, I’d like to figure out a better way of tracking the diversification of our investments. For some reason, I had not had great success doing this on Quicken, either because it doesn’t support it well or because I haven’t figured out that functionality. Perhaps I need to upgrade to a more-current version, because part of the problem there was that it was not classifying ETFs in the way I’d like. At one point, I tried putting everything on an Excel spreadsheet with my manual classifications into things like asset class, capitalization (e.g., large cap, midcap, or small cap), style (e.g., growth, value, or blend), and industry sector. That worked well enough to give me a fairly good snapshot, based on which we made some adjustments to our automatic saving and investment plans. But it’s not a great tool going forward, because it’s currently set up so that I have to any updating of it manually. Do you have a way of doing this that you particularly like?

Second, I’d like to take a closer look at our investment expenses, particularly for our ETFs and mutual funds. I am pretty comfortable that the expenses are reasonably low and have paid some attention to them along the way. But I think there may be some ways to lower them further. This step is just going to take a good amount of time and research though.

As part of perpetuating the meme, I’ll tag Heather Allen of The DebtFree Playbook Blog — write along if you’d like, though no obligation, of course.

What about you? Is there one step that you can and should take?

[Editor’s Note: If you’re unfamiliar with what a blog meme is — and care to read more — check out: What is a Blog Meme? (at ChrisG); Blogging 101 - The Blog Meme (at QuixtarBLOG); Internet meme (at Wikipedia).]

Money Hacks Carnival #23 — It’s Gotta Be The Shoes!

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Dwayne idolized Mary Jane. And who wouldn’t? Mary Jane was the greatest personal-finance guru in the universe. She knew everything there was to know about personal finance, and she gave advice freely, articulately, and without pretense. She authored one of the all-time most popular personal-finance blogs, was a 14-time all-star and former Defensive Player of the Year, and had more StumbleUpon friends and Twitter followers than could be counted without computer assistance.

And she had a cool nickname and went simply by “MJ.”

Dwayne aspired to be like MJ. And he was always asking her questions.

“MJ, what makes you the best personal-finance guru in the universe? Is it the great understanding of how to save money?”

MJ smiled at Dwayne and responded, “No, Dwayne.”

Saving Money—Big Picture

How I Save Money With My ING Direct Checking and Savings Accounts posted at The Digerati Life.
How to Become a Millionaire Step Three - Save Money posted at Cash Money Life.

“MJ, is it all the subscribers to the blog?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it all the specific ways to save money?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Saving Money—Specific Tips

10 Extremely Frugal Moves posted at Frugal Fu.
Financial Wisdom From India posted at The Shark Investor.
The Zen of Shopping posted at Our Common Cents.
Combining cell plans into one "Family Share" plan rocks! posted at Budgets are Sexy.
10 Ways to Save at the Grocery Store posted at To Be Debt Free.
How to Save Gas and Time With Google Maps posted at Our Fourpence Worth.
Economy of Technology: Do It Yourself Geekiness posted at Uncommon Cents.
How to Save Money by Cleaning Your House posted at PennyJobs.com.
Cheap Flights to Europe? Just Follow Me posted at Personal Finance Analyst.
$10 Amazon Prime Promotion posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
Earn Cash Back with Big Crumbs posted at My Dollar Plan.
Earn free Visa gift cards for searching the web posted at Mighty Bargain Hunter.

“Is it the shoes?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the FDIC-insured banks?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Banks, Banks, Banks

Stretching FDIC Insurance Limits posted at Daily Money Hack.
Money In The Bank - How Much Of It Is insured? posted at Your Finish Rich Plan.
3 Warnings Signs Your Bank May Fail posted at Bankaholic.

“Is it—MJ, is it the cool Wordpress theme?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the money management?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the goal setting?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the net worth?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Managing Your Money and Making Progress

Make a better budget! posted at Bible Money Matters.
Lessons My Parents Taught Me About Money posted at artofthecoupon.com.
The Money Book: A CAP Guide to Managing Your Money posted at KCLau's Money Tips.
How to Find a Good Financial Advisor Part 4 posted at The Financial Blogger.
Goals Are Great Motivators posted at Free From Broke.
How to Get More Done posted at Mrs Nespy's World.
Small Cities Better at Growing Net Worth posted at Free Money Finance.

“It’s the shoes then, right?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the treatment of debt?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“MJ, hook me up! Is it the use of credit?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Debt & Credit—Mortgage Debt, Credit Cards, and Credit Scores

Historic Mortgage Rates posted at Save and Conquer.
Mortgage Debt Consolidation – What to Watch Out For posted at DebtBlog.
0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards posted at Credit Card Blog.
How To Generate Valid Credit Card Numbers posted at Money Blue Book.
Stop Using Credit Cards posted at Phil for Humanity.
Creative Ways to Re-Establish Credit posted at FSC Blog.
Does Paying Off Your Credit Cards Hurt Your Score? posted at Ask Mr Credit Card.

“MJ, it’s gotta be the shoes!”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the career success?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the handling of adversity?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Career, Business, and Unemployment

Career Skills: Tips and Strategies for AFTER Your Job Interview posted at Trees Full of Money.
100% Success posted at axel g.
Why You Must Stop Giving Away Your Money… posted at Self Improved Life . com.
One of life’s curveballs posted at The Happy Rock.
Season 1: Episode 11 - Unemployment Crisis Interview Pt. 2 posted at HelpMyCashGrow.com.
Financial Instability? posted at LivingAlmostLarge.

“Is it the social networking?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the cool blog name?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the search engine optimization?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the sustainability practices?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Going Green

Go Green & Put Some Green Back In Your Pocket posted at Natural Family Living Blog.
13 Ways to Be Green and Save your Green ($$) posted at The Q Family Adventure.
When Will a Hybrid Car Actually Save You Money? posted at The Green Motorist.

“Sure, it’s not the shoes? What about the shoes?”

“No, Dwayne.”

“Is it the investments?”

“No, Dwayne.”

Investing—Stocks, Forex, Real Estate, Policy, and Economic Indicators

Investments That Provide Monthly Income posted at HarvestingDollars.
I Heart Luby’s (LUB) posted at Stock Tips.
Three Forex Trading Strategies posted at Awesome Forex Alerts.
Tallahassee Real Estate — Market Graphs Updated posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.
Democrats and Offshore Drilling posted at Stock Investing.
The Big Mac Index – Applying Simple Economic Common Sense posted at The Personal Financier.

“It’s gotta be the shoes!”

“No, Dwayne.”

Dwayne paused.

“Is it all of those things I just said rather than just one?”

“Yes, Dwayne.”

“Is it that I should stop looking for one secret, one magic bullet?”

“Yes, Dwayne.”

“Is it reading the Money Hacks Carnival every week so I can learn thousands and thousands of money hacks over time?”

“Yes, Dwayne.”

“But…. it’s especially the shoes, right?”

MJ’s Picks (Editor’s Picks)

Though already mentioned above, here were MJ’s favorite hacks of the week:

How to Become a Millionaire Step Three - Save Money posted at Cash Money Life.
Career Skills: Tips and Strategies for AFTER Your Job Interview posted at Trees Full of Money.
The Zen of Shopping posted at Our Common Cents.
Lessons My Parents Taught Me About Money posted at artofthecoupon.com.

Finally, I’m not sure I ever found the money hack in this last post, but with a theme revolving around shoes, it would be remiss not to include: Why do Women Love Shoes? posted at Financial Learn.

Editor’s Endnote: Thanks for all the submissions! Please remember, under the Money Hacks Carnival rules, you can only submit one article per blog per week. You can submit through this link for the next Money Hacks Carnival. The next edition will be hosted by Greener Pastures: Personal Finance. Past and future editions can be found at the Money Hacks Carnival homepage.

Here are links to other personal-finance blog carnivals that I have hosted.

Money Hacks Carnival #12 — The Twelve Labours of Heracles

Carnival of Money Stories #56—Once Upon A Time

Festival of Stocks #85—Man on the Moon

Whoa Nelly—The Festival of Stocks #81 at Gettysburg!

Personal Finance Lemonade

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:57:00 +0000

Can I Get Rich On A Salary was tagged with the Lemonade Meme by Heather Allen of The DebtFree Playbook Blog. (Check out the tagging post: Sucking Lemons). The general idea is to write about a situation where:

Life gave me some lemons.
It's ok, I made delicious lemonade.

Now I like lemonade just fine, but if we’re going to aspire to grand words like “rich” or “financial independence” on this blog, it seems to me I should set my sights a little higher than lemonade. Maybe something with a little more zip, say, a lemon drop martini, a limoncello, or lemon vodka — or, with my sweet tooth, maybe something more like lemon meringue pie.

But I digress.

The first thing we need are some lemons. And I’ve decided I’d stick with personal-finance lemons. Here are some types of personal-finance lemons:

Loss of source of income (e.g., losing job)
Reduction in source of income (e.g., reduced salary, not earning bonus that was attainable)
Running up debt
Investment loses money
Unpredictable financial loss (e.g., fire, earthquake, hurricane, or other disaster, health issue requiring treatment)

I’ve experienced several of these and have mentioned some along the way in past posts. When I was in college, and when I was first out of school, I foolishly ran up credit-card debt—with the last chunk of debt even more foolishly based on the idea that I would soon be making “plenty” of money. I’ve had my compensation adjusted in ways that were not to my liking. I’ve had actual losses in investments, particularly stock investments—and I might have considerable paper losses in the stock market, depending against what point in time I might compare against. And I’ve developed some computer-use or repetitive-use issues with certain joints that have ended up dictating treatments not fully covered by my health insurance.

From my perspective, there are also a few specific ways lemons become lemonade—recipes, if you will:

You learn a valuable personal-finance lesson or lessons that help you take better control of your personal finances and reach new heights, perhaps heights you wouldn’t have reached without having started out with lemons.
You reinforce a valuable personal-finance lesson or lessons that you mostly knew and maybe that you even planned around, increasing your personal-finance expertise all the more or giving you a story to relate to others to help them (e.g., your emergency fund helping you ride out a setback).
You gain perspective outside of personal finance and learn or reinforce what’s important outside of personal finance—and what’s more important than personal finance.
They only looked like lemons—but in actuality were a new and great opportunity all along.

I’ve done a few of these too.

Once I got a handle on how stupid I was being in running up credit-card debt, I educated myself on personal finance and turned completely around—I paid the debt down, I became quite focused on saving (and then investing), and I never carried a credit-card balance again. If I hadn’t run up the amount of debt that I did, I might have “coasted” for quite a while longer, not running up debt but not accumulating wealth either.

When I got over being ticked off about my compensation adjustment, I checked out my other job opportunities. There were many, which was comforting. But all involved trade-offs. Some involved more money but involved a heavier workload (and likely considerably more time away from my family). Some involved less money. Ultimately, I decided to stay where I was. I had a reasonably good year and earned a bonus that essentially left me in the same place as I would have been had my compensation not been adjusted.

I have other examples—possibly equally boring—but the lemonade path I’d like to discuss and highlight is the last one: They only looked like lemons—but in actuality were a new and great opportunity all along.

This is the path that I think is probably the hardest to get on—and perhaps the most important to seek out. It’s really a mindset. If you recall my discussion of the Success Factors Of The Really Rich?, this was one of the themes I culled out from the two magazines discussing how successful folks achieved their success. The U.S. News magazine described the “super rich” in this light: “Where some may see risk, they see opportunity.” This can be recast and applied here: Where some may see setbacks, they see opportunity.

Some might see dropping out of college a setback, an impediment to earning higher income, and generally a set of personal-finance lemons. Bill Gates found this path to have much better opportunity. Some might see having your company file for bankruptcy as a pretty sour experience. Donald Trump emerged from that experience, ultimately attaining even more vast financial success.

No, I’m not recommending dropping out of college or trying to learn business by plunging into bankruptcy. But I am saying that personal finance—including dealing with setbacks—is largely mental. Largely how you look at it and how you choose to deal with it.

Kinda cheesy, kinda “self-help”-aisle-in-the-bookstore stuff.

But true.

As part of perpetuating the meme, I’ll tag Nicole of Breaking Even and vh of Funny About Money — write along if you’d like, though no obligation, of course. (And sorry if you’ve already been tagged or even written along. The original meme post doesn’t seem to list out who’s already participated.)

What about you? Can you share a lemons-to-lemonade story or some lemonade recipes or advice?

[Editor’s Note: If you’re unfamiliar with what a blog meme is — and care to read more — check out: What is a Blog Meme? (at ChrisG); Blogging 101 - The Blog Meme (at QuixtarBLOG); Internet meme (at Wikipedia).]

Success Factors Of The Really Rich?

To Get Rich, Be Happy—But Not Too Happy

Looking Back — 10 Years And More Than $1,000,000 Ago

How Did I Get Here? My Personal-Finance Origins

Double Trouble, Blog Carnivals Bubble

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Ah, our landscaping project is (knock on wood) in the home stretch. With that distraction hopefully subsiding, the posting here can hopefully become more predictable in the relatively near future! In the meantime, Can I Get Rich On A Salary participated in two personal-finance blog carnivals this past week.

[Editor’s Note: In case you are not familiar with blog carnivals, a blog carnival is a multi-blog event in which a number of bloggers aggregate their articles within a certain theme or subject area into one post. The “host” of the carnival writes up the post on his or her blog and includes links to the various articles. Hopefully, this helps readers as they get a “one stop shop” of articles. I post a weekly recap of the blog carnivals in which I have participated—and try also to cull out a few articles that I’d like to share with you here.]

Carnival of Personal Finance:

Taking Charge hosted The 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance: Baseball edition on July 21. Here are some selected excerpts:

Broke-Ass Student reminds us with a pictorial journey that while things may seem tough now, in the '40s, gasoline, clothes, food and other staples were rationed by the government…

The Red Stapler Chronicles lists some of the best money lessons learned from well-known movies.…

American Consumer News gives readers a list of seven ways to make more money.

Christian Personal Finance tells how the untimely death of his uncle helped him form the idea of a financial preparedness tool called FLOP, or Financial Life on One Page…

Single Guy Money lists past financial mistakes he regrets and realizes how different his future could be…

Harvesting Dollars describes the forms of mental accounting we use to categorize finances. More often than not, it leads to trouble...

You Need a Budget has trouble understanding how some married couples live separate financial lives, and argues that these couples should open up communication and talk about money…

The DebtFree Playbook gives you a quiz to help determine if you are a food snob…

Mighty Bargain Hunter realizes his food budget will be in great shape if he uses the new Amazon grocery subscription service…

MoneyNing discusses two families featured on Larry King Live who lost their homes and provides wise lessons we can learn from their mistakes…

The Digerati Life writes about the Salwen family's decision to sell their $1.8 million home in order to downsize and donate the proceeds to charity, and lists the perks of downsizing…

Be sure to check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, If I Were a Rich Man… and Really Tall…, was included under “Money Management.”

Carnival of Money Stories:

Almost Frugal hosted The 69th Carnival of Money Stories on July 22. Here are some selected excerpts:

Ashley at Wide Open Wallet shares her personal finance history as part of the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project…

Living Almost Large also shares a personal finance story, about growing up with a single mom and not overspending…

Connie Brooks at Money Smart Life talks about what the Kung Fu Panda can teach you about being a millionaire.

Free Money Finance is approaching buying a house calmly and coolly…

Check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, Success Stories: Realtor Accumulates $1,300,000 by Age 52, was included under the photo of Paris.

Money Hacks Carnival:

I am hosting this week’s Money Hacks Carnival on Wednesday, July 30! If you have a personal-finance blog, please check out the Money Hacks Carnival website to read the submission guidelines and go to the corresponding Money Hacks submission page on Blog Carnival to submit your posts.

The “Smartest Advice I Ever Got” Was…

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:01:00 +0000

New?

Innovative?

Life-changing?

Earth-shattering?

The August 2008 issue of Money included an article about “The Smartest Advice I Ever Got,” featuring “the favorite money lessons recalled by 35 of the most successful, knowledgeable people around.” The 35 included a range of well-known financial pundits, economists, professors, authors, actors, and miscellaneous celebrities. Among them: Maria Bartiromo; Bill Miller; William Bernstein; Steven Levitt; Burton Malkiel; John Bogle; Richard Branson; and various directors or professors from institutions such as the Wharton School, Leavey School of Business, Cornell University, and Harvard University.

So I thought I would compare the “smartest advice” against my early summary of what I thought I’d learned in reading several bushels of personal-finance books. To refresh, the Cliff Notes length version was:

Get out of debt—stay out of debt.
Start saving earlier—as early as possible
Save and invest more.
You can’t beat the market.

And I had broken the last point down further into:

Stick mostly to low-cost index funds (or in some cases ETFs).
Diversify your portfolio.
Check your portfolio regularly (some folks saying annually is enough) to rebalance it back toward your desired diversification.

By my rough count, 15 of the 35 people consulted for the article reported a “money lesson” that more or less fit into one of these high-level points. I think that’s quite a lot!

For the rest of the 35, I am loosely categorizing them like this:

Personal-finance advice on spending (“Be frugal but not stingy”)
Personal-finance advice on investing, including at least some suggestion that you can beat the market (e.g., “Don’t follow the herd”; “Take risks when you can”; “Buy low, sell high”; and a few variations on the idea that companies have intrinsic value that can and should be assessed)
Personal or career advice (e.g., “Do what you love”; “To excel at something, immerse yourself”; “Don’t get too good at the wrong stuff”; “Be humble about what you don’t know”)
Miscellaneous other advice for which I wasn’t able to come up with a pithy category description (e.g., “Money doesn’t make you happy”; “Careful of people you trust”)

Check out the article for a little more explanation of the advice. (At the time of this post, it’s only shown without a link or full text on the Money website—so it appears only to be available in the print copy right now.)

I didn’t feel that I really learned anything all that new. In other words: most of “the smartest advice I ever got” was… old news and repetitive (though this underscored that it was tried and true).

This was comforting and actually quite valuable. It reinforces for me that:

Personal finance isn’t rocket science.
Figuring out what you are supposed to do isn’t hard.
The trick is all in actually doing what you are supposed to do.

Articles like “the smartest advice,” the books in the crowded personal-finance aisle in your local bookstore, and the myriad personal-finance blogs out there that sometimes seem to be saying the same thing over and over again stop giving you revelations at some point. But when you get positive reinforcement of what you think you know, I think it helps you execute or act based on that knowledge. It helps you do what you are supposed to do.

And I don’t know about you, but I can always use that kind of help!

What Do I Supposedly Know About Personal Finance?

Market Plummeting! Recession! Plague!

Sex or Credit?

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:44:00 +0000

According to a MarketWatch article discussing several consumer surveys, “Consumers are more likely to talk about sex and the death of a loved one than they are to broach a conversation about their credit.” The article suggests this may be caused by consumers’ discomfort with—and lack of understanding—of credit. Among other things, it notes that consumers were alarmingly ignorant of what goes into their credit scores. One survey indicated that consumers believed their credit scores were based more on income, age, and marital status than how they use credit cards or what their payment history is.

The article’s lead-in on talking about sex versus credit seems to come from a CreditCards.com survey on which topics are the most “taboo.” That survey polled people among a randomly-ordered pre-set list of topics and asked the following question:

Sometimes when people first meet, they're comfortable talking openly about some topics but not others. I'm going to ask your opinion about a series of topics. But first, just assume for a moment that this topic came up between you and that person during a harmless conversation. Please tell me how likely you would be to talk openly to someone you've just met about this topic.

The percentage of respondents stating that they would be somewhat or highly unlikely to discuss the topic breaks down like this:

Amount of credit card debt: 80%
Your love life: 78%
Your salary: 77%
Your housing costs (mortgage or rent): 69%
Your health: 58%
The death of a loved one: 49%
Your weight: 47%
Your religious views: 37%
Your political views: 36%
Your age: 26%
Gas prices: 13%
The weather: 8%

The CreditCards.com article discussing the survey didn’t seem to focus on whether consumers disliked discussing their credit because of their lack of understanding it though. It focused more just on the related stress levels:

Peter Kanaris, coordinator of public education for the New York State Psychological Association and a clinical psychologist in Long Island, says the poll results are a sign of our tough economic times. "What's very interesting is that toward the top of the list it is dominated by financial and money issues except for love life," he says. "What the poll suggests, because of the preponderance of items high on the list being financial, is the sensitivity and emotional stress that people are experiencing around money matters."

The survey also found that women were less willing to discuss many of the topics than men—but the accompanying article suggested that women were more likely to take action to tackle a problem.

As a reader of personal-finance blogs or other personal-finance literature, would you be somewhat or highly unlikely to reveal details like your credit card debt, salary, or housing costs to a person you just met? Any thoughts on why?

I’d be curious to know if it would make a difference if you were not speaking with the person face to face. What if you were speaking on the phone—or more aptly, on e-mail, in an Internet discussion forum, through something like Internet chat or a service like Twitter, or on or through a blog? There do seem to be a proliferation of blogs in which the authors are divulging all of these details publicly—sometimes anonymously but oftentimes not!

On which would you reveal more to a stranger—sex or credit?

Welcome to Visitors from MSN Money!
If you are new to this blog, please look around if you have the time. This is a personal-finance blog aimed at helping people accumulate wealth while still working their regular jobs. To go to the front page, where the most recent posts appear, go to the top of this page and click on the blog title "Can I Get Rich On A Salary" or on the "Home" tab. Or go to the upper right, where you can click on any of the "Selected Top Viewed Posts" or posts under "Getting Started At This Blog." If you like what you find, I hope you'll consider coming back or even subscribing (see the link immediately below this post or near the top of this blog).

Three Blog Carnivals, and You’re Out!

noreply@blogger.com (G Blogmaster) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:20:00 +0000

Things have been a little extra hectic at work, at home (major landscaping project—ugh!), and working on a blog re-design—but spirits are high! I hope yours are too. In the meantime, Can I Get Rich On A Salary participated in three personal-finance blog carnivals this past week.

Carnival of Personal Finance:

The Budgeting Babe hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #161: The "Feeling Renewed" Edition on July 14. Here are some selected excerpts:

Kim at Alpha Consumer was reading my mind this week. She published a great letter from a reader who lost it all, along with some great advice for starting over…

The Happy Rock has a pretty good breakdown of his financial hole. It’s interesting to read and compare strategies. I personally was shocked at the cost of day care!...

Christine at Blue Jeans Millionaire does a great job of explaining all the factors to consider when choosing a health care plan. Wow, she’s through. And smart…

Bob at Platinum Years Network wonders why we’re so sensitive to some kinds of spending, and so careless about others?

Blunt Money wonders if people who say “I have everything I need” ever really mean it…

The Dividend Guy spends some time reflecting on the fundaments of investing…

Dorian, The Personal Financier, shares why buying groceries online is the way to go.

Visit the Carnival to feel renewed! My post, The Lady Who Wouldn’t Pay Off Her Credit Cards Even Though She Had The Money, was included under “Debt.”

Carnival of Money Stories:

Funny About Money hosted Carnival of Money Stories, #68 on July 15. Here are some of the stories I wanted to mention:

Benjamin, Trees Full of Money, The Story of My Day Trading Addiction...

Silicon Valley Blogger, The Digerati Life, Making Money through Day Trading: The Secret Lives of Stay-at-Home Mommy Speculators…

Heather Allen, The Debt-Free Playbook Blog, Life’s More Than Debt…

Amanda Milne, Value for Your Life, When Career Plans Change…

FMF, Free Money Finance, The Other America…

Finance Girl, Finance Gets Personal, For Me, Spending Leads to More Spending…

Read the rest of the stories at the Carnival! My post, Success Stories: Retired at Age 43 with nearly $2,000,000, was included under “The Financial Journey.”

Money Hacker’s Carnival:

This Writer’s Wallet hosted Money Hackers Carnival #20, Chicago style on July 16. Here are a few of the money hacks I wanted to mention:

J. Money presents Start Investing by 26, Retire a Millionaire by 67 posted at Budgets are Sexy...

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Get Hired, Get a Raise and Get Paid More By Improving Your Appearance posted at The Digerati Life…

Tanesha Morgan presents The Basics of Life Insurance posted at Personal Finance Analyst…

Lisa Spinelli presents “I Haven’t Saved a Dime,” or “Will I Have a Heart Attack When I Retire?” posted at Greener Pastures…

Aryn presents The Documents You Need: List of Accounts posted at Sound Money Matters….

Check out the rest of the Carnival! My post, Is Big Brother Lowering Your Credit Because of Your Drinking?, was included under “Debit and Credit.”

Other Mentions

Here are some other recent mentions of Can I Get Rich On A Salary:

My post, Success Stories: Realtor Accumulates $1,300,000 by Age 52, was picked by Main Street for mention in its Blog Roundup and was called out by Panzer in Panzer’s Friday Feature: Roundup of Personal Finance RSS Feeds (at Five Cents Ten Cents).
My post, The Lady Who Wouldn’t Pay Off Her Credit Cards Even Though She Had The Money, was called out by Silicon Valley Blogger in Shop For Groceries Online, Not Paying Off Credit Cards @ The Carnivals (at The Digerati Life) and by So Sick of Debt.
My post, If I Were a Rich Man… and Really Tall…, was called out in Momma’s Favorites - What are you reading? (at Tales from the Road Less Traveled).
My post, The PLASTIC Made Me Do It!, was called out in Make Things Last Longer, Survive a Down Economy and My 200th Post @ The Round Up (at the Personal Financier).
This blog was mentioned by Brip Blap in work-life balance is a false choice (for Can I Get Rich On A Salary’s consideration of whether you can gain financial independence “on a salary”).

Thanks to each of these websites and personal-finance blogs for bringing Can I Get Rich On A Salary to the attention of their readers. Please visit them!