It might be hard to accept (I know it was for me), but this post marks three years that I have been blogging here on the Amateur Financier.  Yes, three years ago this very day, February 6th, I wrote my first post in what would become The Amateur Financier.  Now, things were a bit different back then; I was only twenty-six, rather than the ripe old age of twenty-nine where I currently find myself.  I was only dating Sondra, rather than planning to marry her (which looks like it’s going to happen in March).  Perhaps most importantly for the founding of this blog, I was, at the time, unemployed and looking for a way to bring in more money (as well as express my increasing interest in investing and personal finance).

The blog itself has changed quite a bit, as well.  I spent the first month and a half on Blogger (where you can still see my initial few blog entries), before getting help moving to my current location and starting to use WordPress.  I had done much less reading about personal finance, and was much less informed than I have become in the years since.  (If you spend several hours each week, every week, for a few years, you pick up a few things.)  My opinion on various personal finance issues has grown and expanded as I’ve learned more and explored the concepts in more depth; one of the best examples is the Fair Tax, where I’ve gone from cautious supporter to opponent, albeit one who still thinks it would be an improvement on the current tax system.  (Although, it’s hard to think of a tax system that wouldn’t be an improvement on the current hodge-podge of laws, restrictions, loopholes, and thousands of pages of notes we call the US Tax Code.)

Throughout all of this, I’ve been pleased to have friends, readers, and fellow bloggers who have supported and encouraged me along the way.  Thanks to all of them, and all of you, I’ve kept going even when it seemed at times that I was sending my posts off to the abyss, never to be seen again.  So, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say: Thank you.  Thank you all very, very much for all the comments, questions, support, and, if I can use this term to refer to the feelings that online readers have for the writers of their reading material, love, that you all have shown me over these past three years.  I appreciate it more than I could ever properly express, and it makes me want to keep this blog going for not only another three years, but another three hundred.  Thanks for everything,

Sincerely,

Roger the Amateur Financier.

Here's to Another Great Three Years of Blogging!

Ah, the car; it’s a fundamental part of many people’s lives (particularly in the United States, where the alternatives can be few and far between), but it’s also a pain in the rump.  Keeping your vehicle or vehicles up and running is a task and a half, requiring numerous maintenance tasks, extensive knowledge of how to make repairs, and increasingly, the combined skills of a computer programmer, plumber, electrician, and construction worker.  If you are lacking in any of these skills (and who isn’t), you’ll need to take advantage of a car repair organization, which can be quite expensive.

To try to keep that expense to a minimum, you should attempt to do as much maintenance on your own as possible in order to cut down the expense of owning an automobile.  I’ve included maintenance in my suggestions on saving on automobiles before, but it’s worth taking a closer look.  Unlike, say, being sure to buy a quality car used the next time you need a new vehicle, it’s possible to keep on maintenance throughout the lifetime of the car.

It does help if your car isn't a classic...

So, how can you help to maintain your automobile in drive-able condition?  Well, there are lots of possibilities, including:

1. Keep Your Tires in Good Shape: You need functional tires in order to keep driving, and there’s much you can do in order to keep your tires functional.  Make sure you keep the tires inflated to the proper level, which should be on the tires themselves or included in your car maintenance maintenance manual or inside the car, on the door jamb, glove compartment, or fuel door.  (These places should also have the specific type of tires your vehicle needs, which is important if you hope to keep your car running properly.)  Also, when buying replacement tires, consider warehouse stores or online locations as a means of getting the tires you need while still saving money.

2. Change the Oil as Often as Needed (But Not More Often): If you know anything at all about automobile maintenance, you’re probably aware that the recommended oil change interval is every 3000 miles or every three months.  You might also be aware that such recommendations, while usually touted by maintenance companies (aka, the people you’d be paying to change your oil), the actual intervals recommended by manufacturers are usually different, and frequently much highr than the 3000 miles commonly cited.  You only need to change your oil as often as the manufacturer recommends.  (Also, you can save even more by changing your oil yourself, always a fun and money-saving way to spend a weekend.)

3. Do What Maintenance You Can On Your Own: Alright, this one is a bit vague, but there’s a lot of different types of cars, lots of different sorts of repairs they might need, and a wide ranging level of skills that people can have when it comes to car repairs.  Nevertheless, there are quite a few repairs that should be within most people’s ability level, from changing batteries to changing wiper blades.  If you are at all mechanically inclined, you can find plenty of do-it-yourself guides to various automobile repairs online or in numerous books, and reading through these (and acting on the suggestions inside) possibly saving yourself thousands of dollars over your lifetime.

4. Find a Good Mechanic: It’s a tricky to find a maintenance organization that you can trust; particularly if you aren’t that skillful in automobile work yourself, it’s easy for someone to take advantage of you, and sometimes difficult to know if you are being ripped off.  Make sure to ask your friends and family to find mechanics that will treat you fairly; there are a lot of them out there (I would hope that nearly every mechanic would fall into that category, but that’s not always the case), but it can be tough at times to find the right one.

5. Make Sure You Have a Good Towing Service: No matter how much you prepare, you can still find yourself with a car that won’t run (or won’t run safely), somewhere too far from your mechanic to get help from them.  As a result, it’s important to have a towing service, particularly if you are driving an older or less reliable car (or are inclined to do things like lock yourself out of the car or run out of gas).  Personally, I use AAA, and other than sometimes long waits, it’s been quite good to me.   While I hope you won’t need it, think of it like insurance: not the most pleasant thing to think about, but invaluable to have when you need it.

If you follow these tips, you should keep your car running, keep more money in your pocket, and keep yourself safe.  Good luck, and save money!

The weather seems to be getting weirder and weirder lately.  You might recall from my Yakezie Carnival introduction that it has been a surprisingly snow-less January.  Well, in one of those odd coincidences that make me think that God is listening to me (and has an odd sense of humor), later that very day we had a snow storm that was so severe, and occurred so suddenly, that I was almost afraid to drive.   But in less than an hour, it had finished, leaving an inch of snow.  That alone would be pretty odd, but then yesterday, a mere two days later, the temperature is up to 60 Farenheit (about 15 Celsius, if all that metric training I had as a biochemistry undergrad is worth anything).  I have been walking my dog without even wearing a jacket and feeling a bit warm while doing so.  It is nuts.

So, it is in a world where the weather seems to be going mad, I find myself looking over my finances, as always, trying to figure out where my monetary situation stands.  It’s always interesting to see where things stand, and of course, it’s hard to determine how to improve your finances unless you know what improvements you need to make.  So, with little more ado, here’s where my finances stand:

So, quite a few changes have occurred in the last thirty-one days.  On the investment side of things, I’ve sold my non-retirement investment in the Vanguard STAR fund, using the money to cut down my credit card debt.  I’ve also put much of my most recent student loan installment toward decreasing my outstanding credit card debt; it seems appropriate, as much of the debt accrued as a result of my needs when joining graduate school.  So, on the plus side, my credit card debt is much lower than before, but my net worth has taken a big hit anyway.  Not the best possible result, but still, it could be worse.

On a much, much, MUCH happier note, my Alexa score is doing significantly better than last month.  (Hosting two carnivals, the aforementioned Yakezie Carnival and the Carnival of Financial Planning, in the space of a few days will do that to you.)  On that note, let’s see how the rest of my resolutions and goals for the year are doing:

Not too shabby; my alternate income, while not nearly as high as last month, still did pretty well, and my charitable giving for the year is actually ahead of the game.  The credit card paydown thing is tricky one; on one hand, I did technically cut down my credit card debt by more than four thousand dollars, on the other hand, I added six thousand dollars to my student loan debt, so it’s not exactly a clean debt elimination.  So, I decided to set a new goal line of sorts: if I can get that Amex debt under nine thousand dollars, I can consider my ‘Repay $5000 in Credit Card Debt’ resolution as complete.

It’s been an interesting year so far, in both weather and my money.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the year continues to be productive and entertaining.

More and more, the method that crooks, criminals, and other ne’er-do-wells use in order to get their hands on your money is not robbing you in person, but rather, by getting your personal information and commiting identity theft.  While the number of victims decreased last year, there’s still more than a small chance that you (or someone you care for) could be affected, with 8.1 million US residents who were victims of identity theft in 2010 alone.

Of course, there’s nothing that says you MUST be a victim; in fact, there’s more than a few steps you can take to ensure that you avoid identity theft altogether, saving yourself lots of time and aggravation (if not a sizable chunk of money). So, what sort of things can you do to keep your personal information personal, and your identity safe from theft? Well, for starters:

You too will be able to protect your identity

1. Watch What You Share: With social networks like Facebook and Google+ becoming ever increasingly popular, would-be identity thieves have more ways than ever to obtain information about you that can be used to gain access to your accounts. To cite but one example, Facebook enables women to include their maiden names as part of their user profile; with many accounts using ‘Mother’s Maiden Name’ as a security question, it’s not much of a stretch to see how a hacker could use that info to gain access to other accounts. Be careful about what information you share, and the people with whom you share it. Also, on a similar note:

2. Don’t Use Real Information for Your Security Questions: For most places you need a password (which is most of them, it seems), you will need to provide further information to allow you to get back online if you forget your password. Most of them offer questions like ‘What was your first pet?’ and ‘What’s Your Father’s Middle Name?’; the problem is, when you use real answers to such questions, you run the risk that others will figure it out (particularly when, say, your father’s middle name is the same as yours.) Instead, use answers that you can remember, but which aren’t actually the real, say, name of your first pet. It might take a little while to figure out good answers, but should be possible to figure something out.

3. Watch the Mail You Receive and Send: In spite of all the worry about the use of the internet to steal identities, a large amount of identity theft occurs the old-fashioned way: would-be thieves getting a hold of your personal information via the mail. It could be getting a hold of mail heading towards you, or intercepting outgoing mail. How can you prevent this? Well, among other means, you can make sure that your outgoing bills are mailed from the post office (so criminals don’t take it from your mailbox), use the Internet to pay your bills when possible, and make sure that your address is up to date with all your creditors.

4. Only Give Personal Information When You Instigate the Interaction: There are many times when you will be asked to give personal information to some individual or organization. DON’T DO IT! Or at least, don’t do it unless you are the one who initiates the encounter. It’s one thing to give credit card information as you check out of Amazon; it’s a much different situation to give personal information to someone sending you an email that CLAIMS they are from Amazon. This goes for all forms of contact, from email and telephone calls to offers you receive in the mail. If you do respond to something, make sure you verify with the organization that they are the source of the contact information.

5. Watch Those Credit Scores: If something does happen to your identity, one of the first places it will be reflected is in your credit scores. You’ve probably heard about these, the scores maintained by three organizations that attempt to determine how likely you are to pay back your loans. If something happens, if someone uses your identity to take on more credit, it’ll be reflected here. If you want to really be safe, you can also contact the credit bureaus and ‘freeze’ your credit, to prevent new credit from being open in your name. (Using LifeLock will not typically be enough; luckily, there’s plenty that you can do without needing their services.)

If you follow these tips, you should be able to prevent your identity from being stolen, and prevent yourself from having to pay for it, either with money or the time and effort to fight an identity thief.

It’s nearly the end of January, and there hasn’t been much snow so far, which is always an odd thing for Pennsylvania.  It makes me a bit, you know, paranoid.  The last winter the weather had been this nice this far into the season, it ended up being all the worse for the rest of the season.  It makes me a bit nervous, thinking that the next time I have to travel somewhere, I might have to dig my car out from five feet of snow to do so.

Of course, there are advantages to the winter holiday; it’s much more acceptable to spend most of your day inside when the weather is so cold and there’s so much precipitation to worry about.  And when you’re inside, most of the day, you can spend more of your time online, catching up on all the great articles that have been written and posted.  Of course, a particularly good source of articles is the Yakezie network.  Want some examples of just the sort of articles in the Yakezie network (as well as from those writers who want to join the group)?  Well, read on, and enjoy a TON of such articles:

Yakezie Carnival Posts

Penge Snak! – Hybrid Cars: Are They Worth The Hype?  ”Think we’ll ever see a gallon of gas at $1.89 again? Probably not.
Sales of hybrid cars has gone through the roof in recent years and the popular notion is to save money … but do you actually save money buying a hybrid? Is it worth it compared to cheaper high-milage cars?

The Frugal Toad - How Frugal Living Can Build Wealth  Frugal living does not mean shopping in thrift stores and having soup every night for dinner. Being frugal simply means being deliberate in how you spend money, not impulsive. There are many ways to be frugal but the key to making frugal lifestyle changes permanent is to find ways to save money that will work for you.

Money Cactus – Wealth Creation and the Secret to Happiness  Money can buy a lot of things, some say it can even buy happiness. Here is my definition of the secret to happiness, how does it stack up to yours?

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance – WHY YOU NEED FEEDBACK FOR SUCCESS  THIS ONE DISCUSSES HOW THE PAINFUL COMMENT….”You may not like what I’m going to say,” is a blessing in disguise. Take feedback well and prosper.

TotallyMoney – The two savings accounts you must have  Simple budgeting and saving tips for the new year.

Thad Thoughts – Scanning and Evernote  Using Evernote as a destination point for scanning adds incredible value to your MFP and provides ready access to your scans. This article explains the values and the processes for getting scanned documents straight in to Evernote.

The Loonie Bin – Buying to impress Most people let spending define who they are. One has to break free from this mindset and the key is to start small and improve slowly.

See Debt Run – The debit-only strategy Reasons why it is better to avoid using cash entirely, and instead favor entirely electronic payments (debit).

My Journey to Millions – My American Express Spending: December to January Last month I almost had a panic attack when I ran these numbers and found out I spent over $5,400 on my American Express Card. (Probably closer to $4,400 after being paid back and rebates receives). This month’s $3,100 is still much too high for my tastes and it seems it comes from one main expenditure: FOOD.

Invest It Wisely – Problems with Askimet? Try These Great Free Alternatives  Akismet was once the only game in town, but this is true no longer. Here is a list of plugins that can improve upon or even replace Akismet entirely.

Money Cone – How to Cancel DirecTV without Paying a Penalty Yes I actually did cancel DirectTV before the end of my contract without paying a fee and without even asking (at least not directly)!

Living in Financial Excellence – My (Lame) Debt Free Story Last week I was interviewed by Jon White on his Debt Free Living podcast about how my wife and I got out of debt and how we live without debt today. I’m pretty modest and I don’t think we have a sensational story, but it’s still worth sharing since we don’t talk about the specifics a whole lot on our show.

Live Real, Now – Insurance Thankfully, I sock a bit of money away every month to cover things that break. It’s my warranty fund. That, combined with a good(hopefully) find on eBay, means that losing my phone, while irritating, isn’t going to break my budget. It won’t actually touch my budget in any way.

Beating Broke – Are Personal Loans a Scam?  Truthfully, there is very little different between a personal loan and a payday loan.

Newlyweds on a Budget – Taking control of our finances How one young couple hopes to take control of their finances, pay off debt and save money in 2012.

Smart Family Finance – Get Your Family Out of Debt  Being in debt can feel like you are being held captive by your finances. Many find that once they begin getting into debt, it begins to spiral out of control. There are ways to get out of debt if you put your mind to it, and focus on being debt free.

The Ultimate Juggle – Efficiency for your Business If you are trying to be more efficient at work, you may be curious of ways to maximize your time and lower your costs. Jester and I certainly value the importance of multitasking, but sometimes this just isn’t an option.

MoneySmartGuides – Live A Life of Wealth If I were to ask you to describe what being wealthy means to you, how would you answer? A young me (late teenager) would have answered that question as follows: Wealthy to me is a huge house with an outdoor pool, but now I see wealth differently.

Financial God – Immigrant Workers Are Coming to a Shore Near You to Steal Your Jobs! Silicon Valley has been put on notice: A new startup, Blueseed, plans to set up ship just 12 miles off the coast. These ships will hold hundreds of bold and creative entrepreneurs from countries such as India and China. They will circumvent immigration laws and restrictions by placing their ships just outside of the territorial! admin@financialgod.com

Beating The Index – Hyperion Exploration Carries Strong Operational Momentum into 2012  Hyperion Exploration exited 2011 with a bang; the company was able to exceed its exit guidance by spending less capital than anticipated. I believe this strong operational momentum will carry into 2012 with the upcoming operational update and the 2012 capex program due at any day before the end of this month. Find out why!

Money Spruce – Making Space For Roommates: Are the Savings Worth the Hassles? Sharing an apartment with roommates can save money, but it often means making other sacrifices too. I weigh the pros and cons of roommates for my next move.

My Broken Coin – Stop Being Cheap and Invest In Yourself The following post was featured in a blog swap in November 2011 at My Personal Finance Journey. Now, that I have many more readers and much better exposure, I decided to publish it on my blog. I am a spender. But even big spenders like me have their limits.

The Penny Hoarder – How People Buy Real Estate with “No Money Down” Some of my favorite infomercials include the ridiculous No Money Down real estate videos. If you haven’t already wasted your $360, allow me to spill the beans.

KrantCents – Term Life Insurance Is My Choice! Term life insurance is my choice, should it be yours? We all know that life insurance is important, so it is a matter of choice which one is right for you. If you are young, healthy and expect to stay that way, term life insurance should be your choice.

Funancials – Are You A Mental Accountant? I hope most of you have had a chance to read my previous article about The Legend of the Man in the Green Bathrobe. If you haven’t, go back and read it. It’s a prerequisite for continuing this post. I anticipated what the responses would be in the comments before they came rolling in.

Passive Income To Retire – My Blog Owning Strategy Find out my blog owning strategy that I am using to approach building up my multiple blogs.

Finance Fox – 5 Rules to Teach Your Kids About Credit Cards Some parents think that credit cards are evil and that keeping kids on the other side is the only way to keep them safe. My parents just never had the time or true knowledge to share anything with me about credit cards.

Darwin’s Money - Mortgage Activity Gone Wild Due Record Low Rates – Are You Taking Advantage? Last week, there was a 20% surge in mortgage activity driven primarily by refinancing activity from record low rates. The mortgage banker’s association said seasonally adjust refinances were up 26% while home purchase loan activity was up 10%. Something’s Working! What are you going?

Your Finances Simplified – Can I Survive At the Poverty Line? I completed my interview with 107 WINA on Sunday December 18th concerning my article on “Can you survive the poverty line?”. I would like to thank Wendy Edwards for reaching out to me and giving me the opportunity to conduct the interview.

101 Centavos - Nickel-Plated Trailers: a Centavos Dividend Portfolio Update With the last portfolio update back in November, we’re about due for another one. Some new additions to the lineup: United Mobile Homes (UMH), read more to find out my lineup!

Money Reasons – Are Famous Personal Finance Authors Too Rich To Understand You? Do rich personal finance authors forget what it’s like to live in the middle? Do you think personal finance bloggers walk the walk and talk the talk better?

Sweating the Big Stuff – Should Tax Evaders Be Given A Safe Haven? The IRS has given tax evaders who have hidden money in offshore accounts a chance to avoid jail time, netting the IRS at least $4.4 billion.

Broke Professionals – Need a $100,000 a year Job? Be a Butler and Earn Big Bucks The job market has been bad for a very long time, but there are high paying careers out there. Apparently being a butler is one of them! Free room and board plus up to a hundred thousand dollars a year why not consider being a butler? You don’t even need a college degree, and Need a $100,000 a year Job? Be a Butler and Earn Big Bucks!

Financial Success for Young Adults – Some Unusual Savings Tips If you find yourself short of cash when it comes time to add to your ISA, it may be time to consider a few money saving tips for individual savings accounts.

Thousandaire - My Budget Spreadsheet is Too Much Work My budget spreadsheet is too complicated. I’m making things easier on myself and switching to Mint.com

Money Q&A – How I Recently Invested In A Rock Band There are tons of other great projects on Kickstarter that you can invest in like the new Crowfield album. Kickstarter is a great way to invest in a rock band and other awesome projects.

20s Finances – Confessions of a Street Canvasser Have you ever been walking down the street in New York City, Boston, DC, Chicago, or San Francisco and been stopped by a young person carrying a clipboard and wearing a charity t-shirt? This strange phenomenon has a name street canvassing.

My Retirement Blog – How Much Should You be Saving? The following is a guest post. When you are young, retirement seems to be a lifetime away. Being told that you should save for that day is difficult to comprehend. But the fact of the matter is that even if we are young and healthy and fit, we have parents and grandparents who are older. So the question is how much should you be saving?

The College Investor - Using a Brokerage as your Bank Have you ever considered using your brokerage as your bank? Here are some reasons why you should!

My Multiple Incomes – Top Blogging Verticals A look at some of the top blogging verticals.

Entrepreneurship Life – Are Office Politics Killing Your Business? A look at how office politics can kill your business.

The Dividend Ninja – What Should I Invest In for 2012? Part-2 I originally set out to write a wrap-up of investing strategies for 2012. While I was writing this post, the thought occurred to me why not ask the other well known bloggers and financial writers what they think? Here’s what I asked them: “What do you think is the most important lesson investors need to remember going into 2012? Where do you think the best investment opportunities for investors will be?”

MoneyGreenLife – Read The Fine Print When Applying For Balance Transfer Credit Cards Balance transfer cards can be godsend for those who have outstanding credit card debt, especially if the fee to transfer the balance is waived and the interest on the transferred balance is 0%. But read the fine print!

Bucksome Boomer – Recession Romance: Frugal Recipe to Show Your Love There are plenty of frugal date ideas to make Valentine’s Day special without tearing your wallet to shreds. But for me, the recipe that hits the heart every time has three simple ingredients – Appreciation, Care and Respect.

Money Beagle – Making One Good Decision Is The Key To Everything One good decision leads to another and to another and so on…

Smart Wealth - Can You Eliminate PMI? Until recently, I always thought that you had to get to 80% loan to value by either paying down your mortgage, or hoping that your home’s value rises and then refinance to eliminate PMI.

Money Is the Root – Blog Goals and Updates, 2012 – #3 Reach earnings of $30,000 from all blogging related activites in 2012. (This is $2,500 per month average, I’m at $1,735 through so far, can I do it?)

Sustainable Life Blog – The Easy Workout Want to start going to the gym but having a tough time getting motivated? Here’s how I handle that.

American Debt Project - I Want to Invest in Real Estate #1: Here’s How I’m Getting Started A beginner’s take on jumping into real estate. Tread slowly and out more money down!

Married (with Debt) – Talk About Money: How to Do It the Right Way We all talk about money, but how we do it with the people we love can have a big impact on how our advice is taken. Let’s explore when it’s appropriate to talk about money, and to whom we should give advice.

Free Money Wisdom - The Legend of the Three Magic Spells for an Inexpensive Date Although the girl was by no means of high social status, tradition dictated that he demonstrate his fondness for her in a manner which in some fashion involved the spending of money in a substantial amount. Still, as a gentleman, chivalrous to a fault, he was unwilling to consider an solution which involved her having to surrender any of her earnings, even if it was small.

Thriftability – You Don’t Have to Live on Less – Ask for a Raise When it comes time to ask for a raise, there are many details to consider. Here are several tips to follow.

Money Talks Coaching - 5 Myths of Budgeting Everyone can and should budget their money. The budget is the starting point of all things financial. You can’t make informed decisions about your money until you are know (and ideally are controlling) where you spend your money

Cash Flow Mantra - What Would I Do with $50,000 “Recently, Joe over at Retireby40.org discussed his options for a $50,000 emergency fund, and I must confess that I thought they were rather poor. Now Joe has certain requirements, and I am not trying to change his mind regarding them. But he did ask the question posed in the title and since my answer was going to be longer than could be held in a comment, I thought I would write a post about it.

Frugal Confessions - How to Save Money on Dieting Comparing diet program costs is one way to maximize the amount of money you have to spend on dieting (or to make you run the other way with your hard earned money), see how they stack up against one another!

Master the Art of Saving – Everybody Can Have an Emergency Fund! If you don’t have an emergency fund at all, then why not start with a goal of $100? Sure it’s not going to be too helpful should a big financial emergency.

Young Family Finance – Cheap Movie Alternatives It isn’t uncommon for young families to be strapped for cash. When you are looking for creative ways to save money without making a huge sacrifice, it is time to get creative. With the popularity of motion picture, it is hard to give up movies. Yet, going to the movies is not getting cheaper.

Stock Trend Investing – Are You Missing the Rally with Your Stock Market Strategy? How to avoid impulsive investment decisions when stock markets fluctuate as much as they have done recently? Here is a tip.

Squirrelers – Will Less Teens Driving Today = Fewer Expensive Car Purchases in the Future? Becoming of age to drive a car was once a rite of passage. Is that changing, based on recent data? Also, will these trends lead to fewer expensive car purchases in the future?

CultOfMoney – Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) Portfolio “My overall goal is to maximize my returns give a few conditions. I want “limited” risk, I want low draw downs (aka low downside volatility), and I don’t want to spend hours and hours every day managing my money.  The theory that I am using is based in relative strength or momentum. The academic research shows that there are lasting affects that I am trying to harness. Therefore, my model weights the top performing sectors more heavily than the poor performing sectors. As you can see above, Large Cap Domestic currently gets a 15% portfolio weighting, while Foreign Emerging Markets only get 5%”

Personal Finance Whiz – How Much Should I Have Saved For Retirement By Age 30?  For the past 5 years I’ve been systematically investing 6% of my income with a 50% employer match each month. But is that enough? What amount do I need in my retirement accounts by age 30 to be confident that I will have enough to retire on?

Everything Finance Blog – Itemized Deductions Vs. Standard Deduction To determine if you should file with itemized deductions or the standard deduction, you also have to look at the cost of filing the long tax form (itemized deductions) vs. the short tax form (standard deduction only). It costs an extra few hundred dollars to fill out the longer tax form, so you want to make sure the overall worth of your itemized deductions will cover the extra expense.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff – Hanging with Blogging Buddies – Just What I Needed I spent last weekend in Los Angeles, California hanging out with my close blogging buddy, Suba from Wealth Informatics, and meeting up with a bunch of other bloggers along the way. It ended up feeling like I was just hanging out with my friends back home – it was that relaxing and awesome.

Saving Money Today – Homer Simpson’s Top Ten Business Ideas Time and again Homer Simpson has tried to start his own business to help support his family. These are the best of his ideas.

The MoneyTrail Blog – Books for Kids & Teens that are Great for Teaching about Money I absolutely love using literature as a method for teaching kids and teens about money. Here are some of my favorite books for young readers and teens.

Meal Plan Rescue – Food Waste is a Choice I’m always shocked by how much food gets wasted so I’ve shared some tips to help people use the groceries they buy. No reason to throw money in the wastebin!

Off-Road Finance – Adjusting to Market Volatility This article looks at what market volatility is, how it’s measured, and how it impacts you as an investor or trader.

Prairie Eco Thrifter – What Buddhism Teaches Us about Personal Finance The Buddhist lifestyle is one of self discipline, self improvement, motivation, self empowerment and mindfulness. This is exactly how I want to live. All of these principles can also be applied to our own situations, even when it comes to managing our personal finances. Today I want to explore what Buddhism teaches us about personal finance.

Saving Advice – Trying to Lose Weight? Don’t Get Scammed There are many products and companies that play to this desire for quick, easy weight loss, but almost all of them are scams or at least worthless junk. If you want to lose weight but keep your money, here are some things to look for to avoid getting scammed.

Narrow Bridge Finance – How I Ripped People Off With Store Credit Cards In high school, I worked after school and on weekends as a cashier at a large retail chain. Despite my working less than half the hours of my full time counterparts, I consistently managed to reach the top of our weekly credit card signups contests.

Faith and Finance – 16 Great Jobs For 16 Year Olds We’ve all known what’s it’s like to be a 16 year old looking for a good job. Here are 16 job ideas that any 16 year old can do to make some extra money.

Redeeming Riches – 4 Easy Ways to Winterize Your Car Winter is upon us and if you haven’t winterized your car, you should be thinking about it soon. Use these tips to keep your car running strong in the winter.

My University Money – Afraid of Life? Grad School Isn’t the Answer Many have of course moved on to jobs, others to careers, and still others are pursuing leisure travel or other whims. One option I am seeing taken more and more is to go back to grad school.

Investor Junkie – Why Your Small Business Should Offer a 401k The following are six reasons that your business should offer a 401K program to its employees.

HowToSaveMoney.ca – Buying on Sale: Are You Really Saving Money? It seems that everybody loves a good sale, but the real question is when you buy stuff on sale are you really saving money? Well, sure, you are saving money off the regular price of that particular product at that particular store, but is that even meaningful?

Frugal Living – Financial Software for Your Computer Whether you are running a small business, creating a family budget or filing your taxes, there is a myriad of computer software available to serve your financial needs. Many of these programs not only help declutter that mess of financial papers you may have lying around, but also allow you to see exactly where your money is coming from and where it’s going.

RamblingFever Money – Should You Get a Loan for Your Car or Pay Cash? In this hypothetical example, two sisters pay the exact same amount monthly for their cars over a five year period. One sister ends up with a 1-year old car worth $20,000 and the other sister ends up with a 5-year old car worth $11,000. How is this possible?

Don’t Quit Your Day Job… – How Did Mitt Romney Get a $20.7 Million IRA? Mitt Romney, almost unbelievably, has an IRA worth between $20.7 and $101.7 million. How is that possible? DQYDJ crunches some fake numbers and attempts to answer the question!

Little House in the Valley – Mint.com for My Significant Other I don’t intend to relinquish my obsession, I mean responsibility, with our finances, but I realize it’s important for my significant other to know what bills we (I mean “I”) pay, when they’re due, and how to pay them. I’d hate for something to happen to me and my SO to be completely clueless as to what to do next. So, I signed up for Mint.com – for his sake.

Mom’s Plans – Debt Snowflake Challenge #4, Get Your Food Costs Under Control Just like you should plan when you go out to eat, you should also plan to curb your grocery expenses. Hopefully you regularly make a menu plan. You might want to consider implementing freezer cooking too.

The Millionaire Nurse – You wanna be work-happy? Or work sad? Burnout is the commonly used term for those whose “giver” got up and left. Here are some tips to keep work from getting the best of you.

PT Money – The Costa Concordia Tragedy and the Need for Travel Insurance Uses the cruise ship tragedy as a springboard for a discussion on the necessity of travel insurance.

One Cent At A Time – 8 Tricks to Get Cheap Flight Tickets Over the years, I learned to be more observant, practical, and strategic with my flight ticket purchases. They became some of my techniques in looking for cheap flights. If you want to get them at a bargain, take note of these tips.

The University Of Money – Best Gold ETF for 2012 Gold is the safest asset class in these tough economic times and gold ETF make it simple to invest in gold.

Stock Market Basics - Best stock market apps for iphone and Ipad With tablets and smartphones becoming a rage you will need these apps to keep track of your portfolio and help analyse the stock market.

Thirty Six Months – Think you can’t afford to budget There is always a hard to budget and it is easier than you think.

Free From Broke - TurboTax Online Review TurboTax has become the industry standard for online tax preparation. See the different tax software editions are available and which one is best for you in this review.

Parenting Family Money – How to Save on Groceries When You Have a Food Intolerance “When you discover you have a food intolerance, your diet has to change. But you’ll find that groceries get expensive. Save with these tips.

Watson Inc – Goals Are NEVER Enough: 3 Reasons You MUST Cultivate Your Desires Having a strong desire towards high goals is a phenomenal way elevate your performance. Here are 3 reasons to cultivate your true desires.

There you go, more articles than you can shake a stick at.  Enjoy reading through some truly impressive articles!

Best Personal Financial Planning and Personal Investment Articles this Week from Personal Finance Blogs

Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #221 – January 27, 2012

Welcome to the January 27, 2012 Edition #221 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.

The Carnival of Financial Planning takes a long-term view of personal financial planning for individuals and families. We focus on efficient and sustainable personal financial planning practices that can lead to lifetime financial security.

This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.

Enjoy!

The Skilled Investor, Editor

Enjoy the Incredible Selection of Great Personal Finance Articles! – Roger, the Amateur Financier, and your host for this carnival.

Budgeting and Economics

Bob presents How to Make A Budget: An exhaustive Guide posted at ChristianPF , saying, “I set out to create a guide that would help anyone create a budget – the disciplined who want a complex budget as well as the lazy folks out there. This guide should help each extreme and everyone in between.”

Jon the Saver presents How to Raise Kids to Be Wise with Money posted at Free Money Wisdom , saying, “Today’s children still need to be taught good financial habits so that they end up more like Millennials and less like Millennials’ Gen X parents and Boomer grandparents. That’s why I’m sharing a few things you can do to teach your kids about good personal finances:”

Pam Whitlock presents Teaching Your Kids about Money: January Edition posted at The MoneyTrail Blog , saying, “What sources of income are available for kids and teens? We kick off our Teach Your Kids about Money series by examining common resources for kids, from allowances to part time jobs.”

D.J. presents Tips for Feeding a Family on a Budget posted at The Family Wallet , saying, “We use a lot of different methods to keep the family fed without spending more than we have to spend. A few things that have worked for us are these.”

Janet Russell presents Personal Budgeting Spreadsheet posted at Best Financial Retirement Planner, saying, “If you do not understand how much you spend and how much you are saving and investing, you simply do not have a financial plan. This situation dramatically increases your family’s long-term financial risk.”

Ashley presents 5 Myths of Budgeting posted at Money Talks Coaching , saying, “Everyone can and should budget their money. The budget is the starting point of all things financial. You can’t make informed decisions about your money until you are know (and ideally are controlling) where you spend your money”

Sunil presents Negative People Will Impede Your Progress – Act and Respond Accordingly posted at The Extra Money Blog , saying, “The world is full of skeptics and negative people. Just the other day we met a couple at a friend’s house who was extraordinarily vocal about their negativity, so I thought I’d take a quick break from entrepreneurship, internet marketing, blogging and personal finance to discuss this topic, which can impede your progress toward achieving your goals and objectives in the endeavors you choose to embark on.”

Sustainable PF presents The Real Reason Nobody Is Buying Electric Cars posted at Sustainable Personal Finance , saying, “Thus far, the Volt electric car has been a giant flop. There are all sorts of reasons why, all of which are different symptoms of the same root problem. Let’s see if you can figure it out.”

Estate Planning

Don presents Live A Life of Wealth posted at MoneySmartGuides , saying, “If I were to ask you to describe what being wealthy means to you, how would you answer? A young me late teenager would have answered that question as follows: Wealthy to me is a huge house with an outdoor pool, but now I see wealth differently.”

MR presents Are Famous Personal Finance Authors Too Rich To Understand You? posted at Money Reasons , saying, “Do rich personal finance authors forget what it’s like to live in the middle? Do you think personal finance bloggers walk the walk and talk the talk better?”

Financial Planning

Teacher Man presents Pay Off Debt Fast or Build Assets? posted at My University Money , saying, “Yes, I would rather have all my currents debts paid off than be in my current financial position… because then I could turn around and put myself in much better debt all over again!”

Walter Binkle presents Fixed Income Bond Funds posted at Fixed Income Investing, saying, “The bond investment fund market is no place for an individual investor to try to beat the market and get higher returns through attempts at clever fixed income investing. Even professional bond market money managers do not beat the bond market.”

Jeffrey presents Money Lessons from Aesop’s Fables posted at Saving Advice , saying, “Many of Aesop’s Fables deal indirectly with financial topics. As an adult it’s fun to go back and re-read some of these tales. Knowing what I know now, I see how spot on many of the author’s observations were. If you ever want some snippets of inspiration or instruction about personal finance, go back and re-visit some of these tales:”

Larry Russell presents Personal ID theft protection posted at Personal Financial Planning, saying, “As a threat to your financial security, you should take the potential for identity theft very seriously. Identity theft sometimes entails a loss of your money, but whether or not you lose money, it can take a very large amount of your time to rectify. Taking these steps to prevent an occurrence is prudent.”

Miss T. presents What Buddhism Teaches Us about Personal Finance posted at Prairie Eco Thrifter , saying, “The Buddhist lifestyle is one of self discipline, self improvement, motivation, self empowerment and mindfulness. This is exactly how I want to live. All of these principles can also be applied to our own situations, even when it comes to managing our personal finances. Today I want to explore what Buddhism teaches us about personal finance.”

Frank Bertin presents Top Index Funds posted at Best Investment Strategies, saying, “Short-term mutual fund trading is a zero sum game played against other very well informed mutual fund traders and other securities market traders. On average, higher mutual fund turnover is far more likely to result in lower investment fund performance — instead of superior risk-adjusted performance.”

Aubrey presents Discovering Adulthood.: My Plan for the Next Five Years … posted at Discovering Adulthood, saying, “I know I SHOULD be saving, I SHOULD have some kind of a plan, but when you’re 19 its okay to make mistakes. I am, however, done with living like that. I am the kind of person who needs to know where I am going.”

Financing a Home

Madison presents Pay Off Your Mortgage with a Credit Card posted at My Dollar Plan , saying, “Paying off your mortgage with a credit card may sound risky but, if done correctly, it can save you a lot of money in interest paid!”

Kyle presents How People Buy Real Estate with “No Money Down” posted at The Penny Hoarder , saying, “Some of my favorite infomercials include the ridiculous No Money Down real estate videos. If you haven’t already wasted your $360, allow me to spill the beans.”

Matt presents Home Buyers: Do You Feel the Power? posted at Living in Financial Excellence , saying, “Although sellers stand to lose a healthy chunk of money when they move out of their home, they also stand to gain a lot on the other end when they buy a different home. Home prices are really low, which means there are a lot of bargains out there.”

KT presents How People Buy Real Estate with “No Money Down” posted at Personal Finance Journey , saying, “Some of my favorite infomercials include the ridiculous ‘No Money Down’ real estate videos. If you haven’t already wasted your $360, allow me to spill the beans.”

Evan presents Can You Eliminate PMI? posted at Smart Wealth , saying, “Until recently, I always thought that you had to get to 80% loan to value by either paying down your mortgage, or hoping that your home’s value rises and then refinance to eliminate PMI. ”

Lisa presents The Frugal Home Buyer’s Guide posted at Thriftability , saying, “Taking a look at your financial situation, you can save money to reach this goal of a new home. Here is some advice on how to shoot for this goal, as well as knowing if it is the right time.”

Cash Flow Mantra presents Eliminating Private Mortgage Insurance – An Update posted at Cash Flow Mantra , saying, “Since I earned over $1000 with blogging in December, I thought I would try to pay off some principal on a rental house and eliminate private mortgage insurance (PMI) since I had read that once you had paid off the loan to 78% of the purchase price, you could do so”

Financing Education

Forest Parks presents Hidden College Costs posted at Frugal Zeitgeist , saying, “Education is expensive enough as it is but on-top of all the obvious fees college tends to bring up a lot of extras. This article looks at some of the areas you should be aware of.”

Dr. Dean presents Educate Yourself: Free! posted at Dr. Dean’s TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, “The cost of a college education is outrageous. What about all those free courses offered by some of those same terrifically expensive institutions? That’s right. Free courses. Sometimes a free course or two or more might be just what the doctor ordered. Read all about it!”

N.W. Journey presents Teaching your Children about Money posted at Networth Journey, saying, “Tips for teaching children about money”

Financing Healthcare

Lisa Belkin presents The 10 Best Countries for Maternity Care posted at Medical Billing and Coding Certification, saying, “In a perfect world, maternity care would be at a similarly excellent level for all moms and babies around the world, but the fact is that some countries just seem to do better than others.”

Income

PITR presents My Blog Owning Strategy posted at Passive Income To Retire , saying, “Find out my blog owning strategy that I am using to approach building up my multiple blogs.”

Suba presents Need a $100,000 a year Job? Be a Butler and Earn Big Bucks posted at Broke Professionals , saying, “The job market has been bad for a very long time, but there are high paying careers out there. Apparently being a butler is one of them! Free room and board plus up to a hundred thousand dollars a year ‘ why not consider being a butler? You don’t even need a college degree, and Need a $100,000 a year Job? Be a Butler and Earn Big Bucks!”

John presents What Is the Best Source of Passive Income? posted at Passive Family Income , saying, “One income stream that does not require a lot of my time are dividend paying stocks. In my opinion, these investments offer the best source of passive income possible”

Everything Finance presents Advance in the Career that You Enjoy posted at Everything Finance , saying, “While you may not be forced to do manual labor or work horrible hours, are there financial pressures at work that you give into because of the current state of the economy?”

Brad presents Upgrade Your Resume By Going Back To School – Just Remember To Bring Along Your Tablet posted at RESUME Mag , saying, “With the launch of the newest app for the iPad, iBooks 2, Apple has set out to reinvent the textbook. Here are five ways that this makes it easier to go back to school and upgrade your resume.”

Investing

JP presents Asset Allocation And The Benefits Of Rebalancing posted at Novel Investor , saying, “How your money is invested, its asset allocation and consistent rebalancing will be the most important decision you’ll make as an investor.”

Marissa presents The importance of investing in the new year posted at Thirty Six Months , saying, “Discusses why you should make investing a top priority this year.”

Mike @ Green Panda presents When You Should Not Get into Dividend Investing posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Dividends are not always a great investment.”

Intelligent Speculator presents How I Caculate Returns For Long And Short Tech Picks posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “How do you calculate returns?”

Craig Ford presents What Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You About How to Successfully Reduce Your Nest Egg posted at Money Help For Christians, saying, “What Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You About How to Successfully Reduce Your Nest Egg”

Dividends4Life presents 6 Industrial Strength Stocks With Growing Dividends posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, “Companies in the Industrial Sector are often referred to as members of the “smokestack industry” and are classified as cyclical stocks. A cyclical stock is one that rises and falls in step with the economy. The Industrials Sector consists of companies that manufacture products or provide business services. The products are sometimes inputs into another manufacturing process.”

Janet Russell presents Investment fund manager performance posted at Personal Investment Management, saying, “The effort to find those few supposedly superior money managers willing to sell their services sufficiently cheaply is a costly, time consuming, and futile, “Where’s Waldo?,” searching exercise for the individual investor.”

Mich presents Hyperion Exploration Carries Strong Operational Momentum into 2012 posted at Beating The Index , saying, “Hyperion Exploration exited 2011 with a bang; the company was able to exceed its exit guidance by spending less capital than anticipated. I believe this strong operational momentum will carry into 2012 with the upcoming operational update and the 2012 capex program due at any day before the end of this month.”

Echo presents Using Tax Free Savings Accounts In Retirement posted at Boomer & Echo , saying, “While young Canadians are looking for ways to save inside their TFSA, older Canadians must consider strategies for using Tax Free Savings Accounts in retirement. Here are three approaches to consider:”

Finley Merriwether presents Index Bond Mutual Funds posted at Low Cost Bond Funds, saying, “Vanguard dominates this low cost United States bond mutual funds marketplace for direct purchase accounts with both low and high minimum deposits. Investment research overwhelmingly shows that lower cost fixed income funds tend to yield higher bond investing returns.”

Barbara Friedberg presents Biggest Money Story of 2011 or How to Get a Decent Return on Your Cash posted at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance , saying, “MSN Money selected their Top Money Stories of 2011. Initially, I began to dissect their list and intended to write about them all. But, I got stuck on the low interest rates for savings. ”

Maxim Kazawy presents Companies Raising Dividends in January 2012 posted at Best Dividend Stocks, saying, “It has been a great start to the year 2012 with the S&P 500 up 4.6% year to date while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has racked up 4.12% in gains. The corporate business climate in America is improving with unemployment claims falling below 350,000 which is the lowest it has been since April 2008. In this bull market, I am searching for the best dividend paying stocks that are raising distributions. Let’s start off with companies operating in the energy distribution and storage businesses.”

Justin presents Investing to Beat Inflation posted at Money is the root…of all things GOOD!, saying, “I’ve noticed that many people are content to keep their money in savings accounts, checking accounts, or even under their mattresses. It amazes me how obsessed people become with clipping coupons to save pennies, but they allow inflation to eat away at their life savings without a flinch.”

Jack Ping presents Top Noload Mutual Funds posted at My Investment Funds, saying, “There are over 60,000 different mutual fund investment share classes sold worldwide. Some mutual funds and ETFs must be better than others, but which ones are they? How can you tell before the fact?”

Beating Broke presents Sharebuilder Returns Update posted at Beating Broke , saying, “Overall, there really isn’t much comparison of the returns between the Lending Club and Sharebuilder accounts. Taken on their face, Lending Club wins hands down.”

Managing Credit and Debt

Stephen Vanderpool presents The Easiest Way to Raise Your Credit Score posted at NerdWallet , saying, “Raising your credit score requires diligence, but we have a neat credit-building trick that requires little time and no upkeep. While it’s important to make punctual payments and stay below your limit, establishing credit doesn’t have to consume your life. Here’s a cost-free, time-efficient technique for increasing your FICO score.”

Shaun presents Get Your Family Out of Debt posted at Smart Family Finance , saying, “Being in debt can feel like you are being held captive by your finances. Many find that once they begin getting into debt, it begins to spiral out of control. There are ways to get out of debt if you put your mind to it, and focus on being debt free.”

Evan presents My American Express Spending: December to January posted at My Journey to Millions , saying, “Last month I almost had a panic attack when I ran these numbers and found out I spent over $5,400 on my American Express Card. (Probably closer to $4,400 after being paid back and rebates receives). This month’s $3,100 is still much too high for my tastes and it seems it comes from one main expenditure:”

Eddie presents 5 Rules to Teach Your Kids About Credit Cards posted at Finance Fox , saying, “Some parents think that credit cards are evil and that keeping kids on the other side is the only way to keep them safe. My parents just never had the time or true knowledge to share anything with me about credit cards.”

Erika presents Taking control of our finances posted at Newlyweds on a Budget , saying, “How one young couple hopes to take control of their finances, pay off debt and save money in 2012.”

Darwin presents Mortgage Activity Gone Wild Due Record Low Rates – Are You Taking Advantage? posted at Darwin’s Money , saying, “Last week, there was a 20″

Marie presents Best Ways to Pay Off Credit Card Debt posted at Money Spending Mommy , saying, “Here are the best ways to pay off credit card debt to get you on the road to financial freedom.”

Peter presents 10 Ways to Protect Your Financial and Personal Information When Shopping Online posted at Bible Money Matters , saying, “There are a variety of ways that you can protect yourself from hackers, criminals and identity thieves when shopping online.”

Liana presents Credit Card Delinquency posted at Card Hub , saying, “Be proactive, protect yourself by knowing how credit card delinquency works!”

Mike presents Scotia Rewards Program Review posted at Rewards Cards Canada , saying, “The Scotia Rewards program is a points-based system where members are awarded one Scotia Rewards point for every $1 in purchases charged to your ScotiaGold Passport Visa account or ScotiaGold Passport for business Visa account.”

Mike presents Create A Plan To Earn More Rewards Points posted at Rewards Cards USA , saying, “One of the biggest complaints that many people have regarding their credit card rewards is that it takes too long to earn the requisite number of points to redeem for anything worthwhile.”

The Financial Blogger presents January Net Worth + 14.62% It’s Payback Time! posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “Time to pay off debt.”

Miscellaneous

Kevin presents My Budget Spreadsheet is Too Much Work posted at Thousandaire , saying, “My budget spreadsheet is too complicated. I’m making things easier on myself and switching to Mint.com”

Corey presents Confessions of a Street Canvasser posted at 20s Finances , saying, “Have you ever been walking down the street in New York City, Boston, DC, Chicago, or San Francisco and been stopped by a young person carrying a clipboard and wearing a charity t-shirt? This strange phenomenon has a name ‘ street canvassing.”

101 Centavos presents Nickel-Plated Trailers: a Centavos Dividend Portfolio Update posted at 101 Centavos , saying, “With the last portfolio update back in November, we’re about due for another one. Some new additions to the lineup: United Mobile Homes UMH, read more to find out my lineup!”

Jester presents Efficiency for your Business posted at The Ultimate Juggle , saying, “If you are trying to be more efficient at work, you may be curious of ways to maximize your time and lower your costs. Jester and I certainly value the importance of multitasking, but sometimes this just isn’t an option.”

Joe Morgan presents Want to Build Wealth, and be Secure? Focus on Learning Instead of Earning! posted at Simple Debt-Free Finance, saying, “Many people focus on the details of financial planning and increasing their wealth, but often time forget this simple 1st rule..”

Jeri Ford presents Southwest Companion Pass: How to Get Two Years of Free Southwest Flights in 15 minutes posted at Help Me Travel Cheap, saying, “Southwest Companion Pass: How to Get Two Years of Free Southwest Flights in 15 minutes”

The Skilled Investor presents Investment Timing Strategies Do Not Work posted at Financial Management, saying, “You must have your money invested and at risk to get risk premium returns. Jumping out and in or “timing the markets” doesn’t work.”

Jeffrey presents Making Space For Roommates: Are the Savings Worth the Hassles? posted at Money Spruce , saying, “Sharing an apartment with roommates can save money, but it often means making other sacrifices too. I weigh the pros and cons of roommates for my next move. ”

Aloysa presents Stop Being Cheap and Invest In Yourself posted at My Broken Coin , saying, “I am a spender. But even big spenders like me have their limits.”

Hank presents How I Recently Invested In A Rock Band posted at Money Q&A , saying, “There are tons of other great projects on Kickstarter that you can invest in like the new Crowfield album. Kickstarter is a great way to invest in a rock band and other awesome projects.”

YFS presents Can I Survive At the Poverty Line? posted at Your Finances Simplified , saying, “I completed my interview with 107 WINA on Sunday December 18th concerning my article on ‘Can you survive the poverty line’. I would like to thank Wendy Edwards for reaching out to me and giving me the opportunity to conduct the interview.”

Brockton Eaton presents IRA Retirement Calculators posted at IRA Account Investing, saying, “Whether or not to make investments into “traditional” tax-advantaged employer accounts and IRAs versus investing in “Roth” tax-advantaged employer accounts and personal IRAs is never a straightforward nor simple financial planning decision.”

A Blinkin presents Are You A Mental Accountant? posted at Funancials , saying, “I hope most of you have had a chance to read my previous article about The Legend of the Man in the Green Bathrobe. If you haven’t, go back and read it. It’s a prerequisite for continuing this post. I anticipated what the responses would be in the comments before they came rolling in.”

FG presents Immigrant Workers Are Coming to a Shore Near You to Steal Your Jobs! posted at Financial God , saying, “Silicon Valley has been put on notice: A new startup, Blueseed, plans to set up ship just 12 miles off the coast. These ships will hold hundreds of bold and creative entrepreneurs from countries such as India and China. They will circumvent immigration laws and restrictions by placing their ships just outside of the territorial!”

Jen presents Everybody Can Have an Emergency Fund! posted at Master the Art of Saving , saying, “If you don’t have an emergency fund at all, then why not start with a goal of $100? Sure it’s not going to be too helpful should a big financial emergency.”

Amanda L Grossman presents How to Save Money on Dieting posted at Frugal Confessions , saying, “Comparing diet program costs is one way to maximize the amount of money you have to spend on dieting or to make you run the other way with your hard earned money, see how they stack up against one another!”

Wayne presents Cheap Movie Alternatives posted at Young Family Finance , saying, “It isnt uncommon for young families to be strapped for cash. When you are looking for creative ways to save money without making a huge sacrifice, it is time to get creative. With the popularity of motion picture, it is hard to give up movies. Yet, going to the movies is not getting cheaper.”

Retirement Planning

Philip Taylor presents 2012 Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits posted at PT Money Personal Finance , saying, “A list of the 2012 IRA contribution limits to help readers plan their retirement savings this year.”

Frank Knight presents Low Cost S&P 500 Mutual Funds posted at Best Mutual Funds, saying, “The no load index fund strategy of the Schwab S & P 500 Index Fund tracks the S and P 500 stock index. This no load index fund was listed as one of the top 25 lowest cost index mutual funds in a research study.”

Andy presents How Much Should You be Saving? posted at My Retirement Blog , saying, “When you are young, retirement seems to be a lifetime away. Being told that you should save for that day is difficult to comprehend. But the fact of the matter is that even if we are young and healthy and fit, we have parents and grandparents who are older. So the question is how much should you be saving?”

Carlos Sera presents An AARP Tale | Financial Tales posted at Financial Tales, saying, “For all those who may be interested in purchasing an immediate annuity from AARP and New York Life, please read this tale. I apologize to my younger audience but remember one day, this may apply to you and you must know the difference between the payout rate and the rate of return.”

Roger White presents Making 401k Withdrawals posted at 401k Calculator, saying, “If you are thinking about making a 401k withdrawal, you should consider the choice very carefully. This blog post highlights some of the risks of making a withdrawal.”

Whitney Broad presents Retirement Savings Calculator Worksheets posted at Retirement Savings, saying, “By looking at wealth as a lifetime pattern of sustainable expenditures within one’s budget, then people who are indeed wealthy cannot be identified solely by their current assets or income. While personal wealth should measure current financial investments and other salable assets, it should also measure your ability to sustain your household budget, build up your investment portfolio, and weather potential financial risk and misfortune across your lifetime.”

FIRE Finance presents Three Good Habits of Successful Retirees posted at FIRE Finance , saying, “Vanguard’s chairman and CEO Jack Brennan has nearly three decades of valuable experience in investing at this great firm. He has observed that successful long term investors share some common traits. Here is our spin to his observations.”

Risk Management and Insurance

krantcents presents Term Life Insurance Is My Choice! posted at KrantCents , saying, “Term life insurance is my choice, should it be yours? We all know that life insurance is important, so it is a matter of choice which one is right for you. If you are young, healthy and expect to stay that way, term life insurance should be your choice.”

Lisa presents Saving Money on Insurance: Simplify by Bundling | posted at Thriftability, saying, “As the quest continues to save money on insurance premiums, individuals and families may be overlooking a common method to doing so. Going with one company could just be the ticket, not only for the health of your bank account, but also to make things just a bit simpler.”

Rachel C. presents Insuring a Teenage Driver: Mitigating the Cost posted at Auto Insurance Quotes, saying, “Insuring a teen driver is extremely expensive. Depending on the age of the driver, the type of vehicle driven and applicable state restrictions, adding a teen driver can increase insurance rates as much as 100 percent or more. With the cost of insuring young drivers so high, it’s surprising that parents are even willing to license their teens.”

Savings

Jason presents Overbanked posted at Live Real, Now , saying, “I find it’s simpler to keep track of my savings goals by moving the money to separate accounts than to track everything in a spreadsheet.”

John presents Money Market Funds vs. Money Market Accounts posted at Wallet Blog , saying, “What’s the difference between Money Market Funds and Money Market Accounts? Determine which may be best for your individual financial needs.”

Andrew Boyd presents The 7 Best Money Saving Extensions for Chrome posted at Edugree, saying, “If you use Google Chrome to browse the web, then take a moment to browse these money saving extensions (all available for free).”

Joe Plemon presents 7 Weird Ways to Save in 2012 posted at Personal Finance By The Book, saying, “There are undoubtedly several ways to save that you haven’t considered. You might find some in this post.”

Paul Vachon presents How Frugal Living Can Build Wealth for the New Year and Beyond posted at The Frugal Toad , saying, “Frugal living does not mean shopping in thrift stores and having soup every night for dinner. Being frugal simply means being deliberate in how you spend money, not impulsive. There are many ways to be frugal but the key to making frugal lifestyle changes permanent is to find ways to save money that will work for you.”

LaTisha presents Some Unusual Savings Tips posted at Financial Success for Young Adults , saying, “If you find yourself short of cash when it comes time to add to your ISA, it may be time to consider a few money saving tips for individual savings accounts.”

Taxes

Everything Finance presents How to Claim the Adoption Tax Credit posted at Everything Finance , saying, “Did you adopt a child in 2011? If so, you know how expensive and time consuming the entire adoption process can be. However, to offset some of the costs, you are eligible for the adoption tax credit, which was to be phased out in 2010 but has now been expanded and extended thanks to the Affordable Care Act.”

SB presents all you need to know about 2012 taxes posted at One Cent at a Time , saying, “All you need to know for filing income tax for the year 2011, which is needed to be filed on or before April 17, 2012. Contains links to relevant IRS notices and web pages for you quick reference.”

Mr. Money presents Should You Itemize Your Tax Deductions? posted at Smart on Money , saying, “If it looks like you will have a larger number than the standard, it’s a good idea to itemize in order to increase your tax efficiency.”

Paul Tabbet presents Retirement Planning Software posted at Retirement Worksheets, saying, “Retirement planning software should automate the development of lifetime projections that incorporate tax laws and rules associated with tax-advantaged retirement investment incentive programs such as traditional IRA, Roth, 401k, 403b, SEP, Keogh, and other retirement plans. Retirement calculators hides the complexity of the tax laws that are associated with these various personal retirement plans and employer-sponsored retirement plans.”

Glen Craig presents 10 Common Overlooked Tax Deductions posted at Free From Broke , saying, “Don’t pay more taxes than you have to. Take a look at these ten common overlooked tax deductions and see how you can save on your taxes.”

Daniel presents Should Tax Evaders Be Given A Safe Haven? posted at Sweating the Big Stuff , saying, “The IRS has given tax evaders who have hidden money in offshore accounts a chance to avoid jail time, netting the IRS at least $4.4 billion.”

Sandy presents Applying All the Right Deductions to Increase That Return posted at Yes, I Am Cheap , saying, “Many people rely on their tax return to once again give them a savings account or an emergency fund for the New Year. To help you get the most out of your tax return, make sure to not miss out on these useful deductions.”

Steve presents What are Our Income Taxes Used For? – 2008 Taxes – Free Tax Filing Options posted at 2008 Taxes, saying, “No one likes to pay taxes. In fact, you may even wonder where your hard earned money goes”

Steve presents Essential Tax Tips for Freelance Writers – 2009 Taxes – Free Tax Filing Options posted at 2009 Taxes, saying, “The career of a freelance writer can be very rewarding. However, the career can quickly lose its appeal when tax time arrives and you owe several thousand dollars”

Robert Moore presents Romney Has Investments Funds In Cayman Islands posted at 2011 Tax, saying, “It might not be immediately obvious, but Mitt Romney has millions of his fortune in investments funds in the Cayman islands, an infamous tax refuge.”

Robert Moore presents The Brownback Plan For 2012 Taxes Is Not Well Thought Out – 2011 Taxes – Free Tax Filing Options posted at 2011 Taxes, saying, “The Brownback plan for 2012 taxes has not been thought out very well by the Kansas Governor.”

Mark Roberts presents How To Choose The Right Filing Status posted at Tax Brackets, saying, “This blog post looks at how to choose the correct filing status for your situation.”

Jessica Bird presents Taxing Your Car posted at CarTaxBands.org, saying, “If you need to pay tax on your car, this blog post will outline three important documents that you will need.”

Jackson presents There?s an App for That: Taxes from Your Phone posted at 2009 Tax, saying, “We do pretty much everything from our phones these days, turns out, taxes are no different.”

Al Peters presents Self Assessment Tax Return 2011 Deadline Approaching posted at TaxFix Feed Update, saying, “The tax return deadline is fast approaching. If you have earned income or had taxable gains in the UK then don’t forget this important deadline.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Financial Planning using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

(It’s time for another guest post here on the Amateur Financier, and this week we have a doozy: advice on how to sell your home through a short sale.  While a decade ago such a sale would have been rare, with the real estate boom and bust in that time, it’s become much more accepted.  If you are underwater on your mortgage and need a way to handle it, or are just curious about this increasingly common practice, here’s what you need to know:)

If your home is worth less than what the property can be sold for right now, you can use a short sale to avoid foreclosure. This does affect your credit. If you have other assets your lender may require you to sell those first.

Do the calculations

Your first step is to find out how much your property is worth. A realtor can tell you, you can get an assessment or you can look at other property values in the area. Ask the realtor for a comparative market analysis. This will analyze homes sold in your area that are similar to yours in square footage, age, condition, and upgrades.

Next find your closing costs for when you sell the home. Add up all your loans including second mortgages on the property. Calculate: Estimated selling price minus loans minus closing costs minus any pre-payment fees. In a short sale this will be a negative number. If it’s not a negative number, you probably don’t need a short sale.

Contact a lawyer

A Realtor can’t give you the legal ins and outs. Protect yourself by getting a real estate lawyer. And check with your tax accountant who can tell you the tax costs of a short sale.

Contact the lender

Next contact the lender with this information and your situation. Ask their procedures for doing a short sale. A lender has to agree to accept less than what is owed. Keep calling until you find the person that can give you the decision.

The seller must submit a letter of hardship to qualify for a short sale – like unemployment, medical expenses or divorce.

Submit a letter of authorization so your lender can talk with your real estate agent. Include:

1. your name
2. date
3. property address
4. loan reference number
5. your agent’s name & contact information

Always be honest with your financial situation and current assets. Get your bank statements and the other financial information you need for re-financing.

Sell the home

Sell the property. Usually it’s listed with a realtor with the express approval of the lender to do the short sale. It’s best to find a Realtor with experience in short sales. The realtor finds someone willing to pay, but less than what is owed. The lender has to approve the price.

One of the most difficult tasks if finding a price that is good for the buyer, the lender, the second mortgage owner and the homeowner. The second mortgage holder is often the obstacle.

The lender(s) may re-negotiate things like termite inspection that the seller usually pays for.

It can an average of 6 weeks to 120 days to close. The buyer pays the sale and the lender releases the lien so the buyer can get the deed.

The short sale is not first option when you can’t make payments, but it may be for you if you can show financial hardship and are about to foreclose.

Author Information

This is a guest post from Andrew Wang who blogs about making money online.

Alright, with January coming to a close, we’re approaching the end of our guide to improving your success with your resolutions.  This is not to say that you should be calling it quits with your resolutions; the whole goal of resolutions should be to start new habits that can last through the entire year, and ideally, for the rest of your life.  But I’m limited in my ability to cover suggestions on keeping your resolutions; there’s only so many resolutions that are appropriate for a personal finance blog, after all, and even taking that into consideration, I can only cover so many resolutions before, well, most people have completely given up on their resolutions.  Here’s one, I hope you definitely don’t give up on:

Giving More to Charity

Most resolutions that we make are intended to improve ourselves in some way, from increasing our financial standing to getting in shape to graduating and finding a good job.  There are few things we can do that will do more to not only make ourselves better, but also help out others than if make the strongest effort possible to give more to charity throughout the year.  I’m sure you know plenty of reasons to give to charity already (but here are some from Sweating the Big Stuff if you need some help), so our focus is on how to keep up your donations when there seem to be so many other things in your life that require your money.  Here are a few suggestions to help ensure that you give what you can, when you can:

1. Start Small and Build Gradually: If you try to give thousands and thousands of dollars right away, you’re likely to run into trouble pretty quickly.  Trying to put a large amount of money towards any new goal, whether it’s investing, saving, or charity, will likely throw off your normal spending so much that you end up quitting after only a few months and going back to not donating anything.  Instead, start with a relatively small portion of your income, a few percentage points or so, and once you have adapted your budget to your new charitable spending, then slowly increase until you reach your desired giving level.  On that note:

2. Make it Automatic: You might think that this suggestion takes away some of the fun of charitable giving; if you simply go to a site like Just Give, enter an automated investment schedule, and then sit back as your money is taken on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, it might not feel as if you’re really contributing.  But you’ll still be giving, and you won’t have to worry that issues in your personal life (from distractions that keep you from making your next contribution to other expenses that seem to have a greater pull on your money) will keep you from giving what you can to charity.

It feels good to give.

3. Do Your Due Diligence Before You Give: It’s tempting, as you try to give more, to open up your wallet to any charity that pulls on your heart strings.  But giving more doesn’t mean that you have to give recklessly.  Make sure you do research into any new charity to which you want to give, and make to follow up on the charities you are currently giving to, as well.  I’ve written before on researching charities, and the same rules still apply: with how easy the Internet has made it to find out money about any organization, there’s really no excuse to give to frauds.

4. Consider Non-Monetary Contributions: So, you want to do more to help your favorite charities this year, but money is incredibly tight.  By the time you put money towards paying down your debts, building up your savings, and investing toward your future, you’ve barely got enough left to keep food in the refrigerator and the lights on in the house; if you try to give any money to charity, you’d quickly need charity yourself just to make it through each month.  Well, don’t worry, you do have options: most charities are just as happy (if not moreso) to get people volunteering to help them in their work, rather than simply monetary contributions.  If you have special skills, from accounting expertise to cooking abilities, it shouldn’t be hard to find a charity in your area that could use your help.  Even if you lack such skills, many charities simply need able-bodied individuals to handle any number of tasks that would otherwise require paid help; by offering up your time, you can save them money, and possibly end up contributing more than if you simply gave money

Alright, that takes care of how you can increase your contributions to charity this year.  Here’s hoping you have a wonderful year filled with lots of giving, and that the world becomes a much better place because of it.

Contest is Over, Winner is Being Selected,  Thanks to Everyone who Entered and Everyone Who Helped Promote the Contest!

Ah, there’s nothing quite as fun as reading, is there?  I know that I am a hardcore bibliophile, and enjoy reading at every opportunity that is presented to me.  I’m guessing more than a few of my readers are the same; particularly given the high percentage of you that are fellow bloggers anyway, it just seems fitting that you’d enjoy reading some more personal finance books.  So, I’m giving some away.

As I did before, I’ll be giving away ten books to one lucky reader, allowing him or her to catch up on their own personal finance reading.  I’m going to simplify the means of entry this time around: all you have to do is leave a comment to win; none of that tweeting about the contest or sharing it in your own blog stuff.  (While I hope you’re willing to pass along information about this giveaway, I can see where it could lead to conflicting feelings, wondering whether it’s better to share the info and get another entry or two or keep the information to yourself and decrease the number of competitors.)  As to what to include in your comment, I’d like you to answer this question:

What’s the Best Personal Finance Book You’ve Ever Read?

I’ve read quite a few, myself, but I’m always on the hunt for more.  As with most things in life, one of the easiest ways to learn more about what good personal books are out there is to ask my friends and acquaintances to share some of their suggestions.  If you’re willing to share one or more of your favorites, I’ll give you a chance to win some of the books that I’ve read recently, including:

• The Wealth Cure - A look at the true nature of money in our lives, provided by Hill Harper of CSI:Miami (but don’t let that dissuade you; it’s really quite good).
• Get a Financial Life - A well-written guide to personal finance, aimed at a group that is sometimes neglected due to limited available funds: those people in their twenties and thirties.
• Gimme My Money Back - CNN’s Ali Velshi shares the story of the 2008 downturn, and provides plenty of ways for the average person to get back on track, financially.
• Boiled Down Money Goo - In spite of the odd, and perhaps a bit peculiar, title, this book does a pretty decent job of boiling down all those facts about money that you need to know into a simple to understand message (or, ‘goo’) for easy absorption.
• Trading in the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes - If you are planning on doing more stock trading than buy and hold investing, you could do worse than looking to the deliberate style of Sherlock Holmes for your inspiration.
• The New Coffeehouse Investor – A guide to building up your investments while ignoring the typical Wall Street noise; it’s definitely a nice read for the starter investor.
• Be a Real Estate Millionaire – I know you’re probably suspicious of a book advertised on late night cable television (I was, too), but it’s actually a surprisingly solid introduction to real estate purchasing (if a bit too optimistic for my tastes).
• Jim Cramer’s Real Money - If you’ve ever admired Jim Cramer’s stock picking methods, either as a fan of his show or from his hedge fund work, here’s your chance to learn more about what makes him tick.
• Jim Cramer’s Mad Money - Speaking of fans of Jim Cramer’s show, if you want a view behind the scenes (and to learn some of the lessons that running the show has taught Cramer), here’s another book you’ll love.
• Rich Dad’s Plan for Financial Success (a collection of Rich Dad, Poor Dad; Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant; and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing) – Here are Robert Kiyosaki’s first three Rich Dad books, all bundled up in one nice, neat little package and ready to read.

Alright, we’re two-thirds of the way through January, which means that about two-thirds of people who made resolutions for the new year have given up on improving themselves this year. I hope that you’re not among them; the year has barely started, you can’t already be willing to give up on improving yourself. Still, I know that it can be tough to keep up with resolutions, which is why I’m here once again to share some advice on how to stick with your resolutions and achieve your goals for 2012. This week, we’re looking at one of the most important things you can do to improve your financial situation, namely

Saving More Money

Alright, there are several different ways to approach this particular goal. You can attempt to cut down your spending, a goal that my Frugal Friday posts can help you achieve. On the other side of the coin, you can attempt to boost your salary in a number of ways, from improving how hard much you work at each elemental of your job to how much you are able to earn by working in alternative jobs and earning more money as a result. Better yet, use a combination of the two, earning at least enough each month to cover you expenses and have some money left over. (Remember last week and creating a budget? Probably good to check it out again and make sure you include some money to put towards your savings)

Probably not the best to mix your budget money with your card playing

Once you have a budget that allows you to put some money aside, here are some suggestions to help you save money for the future:

1. Make It Automatic: One of the best ways to ensure that you build up savings for the future is to take advantage of the automatic transfers that most modern banks allow you to do. Figure out how much you can set aside each month (a goal to shoot for when you first start to save is five to ten percent of you income; that’s a small enough amount that it shouldn’t affect your money situation too much, but large enough that you’ll make some progress with your spending soon enough), and set up an automatic transfer from your main checking account. Where should you go with the money; well, that’s the next question…

2. Set Up a Separate Savings Account: Let’s be honest, if you try to keep your savings in the same place, as say, the account you use to pay your monthly bills, you savings will end up be spent; it’s natural when you have such an account like that to use it in that way. What you need to do is create an account that you will use purely for saving. You might want to open up said account in an entirely new company on a new website (a good site for such savings accounts is SmartyPig, which focuses on automated savings accounts); that way, the chance that you feel tempted to use your savings for random spending is limited.

3. Have a Goal for Your Savings: It’s important that you know what you are shooting for; whether you are aiming for $5000 or $50,000 in savings will have a lot of impact on everything from the best methods to use to how hard you’ll have to work to meet your goals. (The smaller an amount you need, the easier it should be to find extra money in your monthly expense account and put it into a fresh account.) There’s quite a bit of debate about how much you should try to save, from $1000 to twelve months’ worth of expenses, but it’s probably best to keep putting money aside until you can cover at least three to six months’ worth of your typical expenses. Speaking of which…

4. Resist the Urge to Spend Your Savings: As you build up your savings account, it will become increasingly tempting to spend the money. Don’t. Alright, a bit more advice than that: part of the reason we want to keep our savings in a separate account from our regular checking account is to avoid the temptation to spend the money. If that alone isn’t enough to keep you from you breaking into your savings, you’ll have to find other ways to keep your savings safe. Things like CDs can provide you with a means of increasing how much interest you earn with your savings, while helping to prevent you from withdrawing the money on a whim (or at least, slowing up the process).

5. Keep Updating Your Goals: As you go through life, the amount of money you need to set aside to keep yourself safe and secure will change; the amount that could supply you for months as a recent graduate might barely cover two weeks by the time you are in your mid-fifties, married, and with a future graduate or two of your own. While this is more of a long-term goal than simply a one-year resolution, it is good to double-check your saving needs every few months, or at least every year, to make sure you still have enough set aside to meet your goals.

There you go, a guide to building up those old savings. It will take some time and some effort, but if you stay devoted to your goal, you should have no problem setting aside plenty of money for a rainy day (or any other purpose). Good luck, and happy resolution completion!

Hello, My Appreciated Readers,

I’m going to make this short and sweet, particularly as you may not be able to see it until tonight when things wrap up.  If you spend much time online, as I do as a personal finance blogger, you might have heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the United States House of Representatives (and its companion bill in the Senate, Protect IP Act (PIPA)).  In case you haven’t, or want more information about what these bills are and why they have so many people riled up, check out this story to determine just what is happening.

To protest these bills, numerous sites are going to be blacked out today, from Wikipedia and Reddit, massive sites that dominate the internet, to much smaller sites, including, well, me.  Yes, I will going offline at eight a.m. EST today, and will not be coming back until eight p.m. tonight (assuming that my sometimes not the best understanding of my blog allows me to do so successfully…).  My participation is because, well, I can see how these laws, although I believe they are well-intentioned as laws tend to be, could be misused by future (or even present) Justice Department officials to censor parts of the Internet, regardless of whether they are directly doing anything wrong, opening up the possibility of wide-spread censoring and legal actions that could drive new websites out of business.

So, for the next twelve hours, my blog will be down.  Hold back your tears, I will be coming back soon, and when I do, here’s hoping that it will be to a world that is more willing to consider the side effects of legislation being considered.  Have a safe SOPA blackout day!

Roger Raby

Ah, it’s that time again: time to stop simply doing research, hunting for jobs, and working on my thesis, and instead get back into the habit of going to classes and teaching labs on top of doing research, hunting for jobs, and working on my thesis.  Don’t get wrong, I like to teach; there’s a reason I said I want to be a professor.  Learning new things is fun, as well; I definitely appreciate the opportunity to expand my knowledge and increase my wisdom.

But darn if it isn’t going to be a pretty jam-packed semester, particularly if I want to graduate according to schedule.  (Not everyone in my school does; I’ve seen more than a few students stay past the scheduled two years to finish up their research, and even noticed one young lady who came back to defend her thesis after getting a job outside the university.)  By May, I fully expect to be eating, drinking, and breathing biochemical research (not literally, of course; that stuff’s not that healthy).  While I still intend to be updating my blog on at least a semi-regular basis, don’t be surprised if decrease the number of times each week that I share things with you.

Luckily, there are plenty of other great bloggers out there who know plenty about personal finance, and have the willingness (and time!) to share that knowledge with you.  As always, I’m proud to share some of them with you:

Good Yakezie Posts

How Much People Should Have Saved in Their 401(k)s at Different Ages – It’s always good to know where your savings stand, and whether you are on the right track to saving enough for retirement.  The Financial Samurai shares a guide to 401(k) savings that is ambitious, to say the least, but nobody’s ever accused him of not shooting for the moon.

Book Review and Giveaway Part Three: Millionaire Teacher – I love being able to share giveaways, almost as much as running them myself (but that’s a post for this weekend…), and Kevin of Invest It Wisely is no different.  Want a chance to win what sounds like a very interesting book?  Go ahead and check out his page and the associated contest!

The Ten Ways to Become Wealthy – Ever wonder how you can end up being a (multi-)millionaire?  Well, Ryan shares several possible methods over on Planting Dollars, from the good (investing in real estate, saving and investing over time) to the bad (marrying money, becoming a lawyer (Kidding!)).

15 Ways to Grow and Protect Your Net Worth – It’s always good to have plans in place to improve your financial lot in life.  Knowing how to grow your net worth is important, and as this article on Squirrelers shows, there’s quite a bit you need to keep in mind as you build up your value over time.

How to Take a Break From Toxic People – There are some people in your life that just aren’t healthy for you, and spending too much time with them will make you miserable.  Stacy of First Gen American shares some of her stories of one person like that, and some advice on how to deal with family members or others who are toxic to be around.

Free Online Money Management Tools – It’s tough, at times, to keep track of all your financial accounts; particularly nowadays, when you might have a dozen accounts between retirement accounts, non-retirement investments, savings and checking accounts.  Luckily, as the College Investor shares, there are plenty of services that help you keep track of all these accounts; I personally am a pretty big fan of Mint.com.

How to Volunteer More – It’s a great way to help the less fortunate, even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend.  Miss T. of Prairie Eco Thrifter shares some advice on how to volunteer, as well as encouraging her readers to help those who are less fortunate.

That’s it for today; here’s hoping you all have a good week, as well as a happy and productive semester to everyone who, like me, finds themselves back in school this spring.

The world is increasingly wired.  In modern society, it’s more possible than ever for a single individual, armed with nothing more than a computer and desire to share a story, to spread information so far and wide that in the past it would have required a small media empire to have the same impact.  It’s never been easier for activists or devoted customers to spread the word about businesses and organizations that they love; from a business’s perspective, this can be great, as it allows businesses that might otherwise never be able to compete with the 800 lb gorillas in their field to get the word out and promote themselves without having to break the bank on budgeting.

But it’s something of a double-edged sword.  For every business that has watched itself being promoted by social media like Twitter and Facebook, there’s another that has had a bad decision echoed to the far ends of the internet, or watched as business that would normally be conducted behind closed doors was put on display for all to see.  It’s a new world of marketing and handling public relations, one in which many companies seems to be at a loss as to the best way to function, and sometimes, makes some pretty horrifying mistakes along the way, the sort of mistakes that can ruin reputations and corporations.

Here are two examples of such mistakes; think of this as a ‘How Not to Handle Criticism’ guide to the new media age.

Suze Orman’s Approved Card

Chances are, if you’re anything of a PF blog reader, you’ve heard of this already; it’s a pre-paid debit card being promoted by Suze Orman, personal finance guru and author of several books (including The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke, one of the best personal finance books I’ve read).  Unfortunately, the card has some flaws; a fee of $3 each month, other possible fees, and the fact that its major difference from the typical free bank debit card (unlike other debit cards, your transactions are reported to TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus that determine your credit score) is not as impressive as it first appears to be.  (The transactions, while recorded, will not actually affect your credit score; why would they, when debit cards aren’t really a form of credit and indicate little about your ability to repay a debt?)  All these facts were pointed out by PT Money and others, first on Twitter, then through blog entries.

How NOT to Handle the Situation

Facing criticism of the card she is approving, Ms. Orman decided the best defense was a good offense, leveling insults via Twitter towards those who criticized her new card.  (Including calling Phillip Taylor, the ‘PT’ in PT Money, ignorant.)  That ended up resulting in a small firestorm of attention from the personal finance blogging media, a surprising large (and willing to stick up for each other) group.  Although Ms. Orman eventually apologized to PT and others whom she had harsh words for, it still did little to improve her image, even among those of us who consider her advice pretty good.  (You’ll note that I’m still discussing this issue nearly a week after it first happened; not exactly the sort of promotion I imagine Ms. Orman was hoping for.)

The apology was accepted, by the way

A Better Approach

Rather than letting emotions take control, a more reasonable approach would be to calmly and rationally discuss the issue, acknowledging the problems (Ms. Orman has come out against pre-paid debit cards before, so justifying a change in position will require some effort) while stating why such a shift was warranted.  Granted, Twitter, with its 140 character maximum, is hardly the best place to have a detailed discussion, but it’s easy enough to link out to other sources that make your point (as Ms. Orman did when linking to this article, for example).  Your detractors may still disagree with you, but will better understand your position and still have as much (if not more) respect for you than they had before.

So, you might assume from this example that insulting someone, even someone with a blog and wide readership, is rude, but pretty harmless.  Suze Orman is still the host of a major money show, the writer of numerous books, and is generally well-respected in the personal finance community; she didn’t exactly suffer much for what she said.  But not everyone’s so lucky when they mess up public relations like this, as our second example shows:

Ocean Marketing and Penny Arcade

So, our next story starts with a fellow named Dave trying to order two Avenger controllers, video game controllers especially designed to be easier for disabled people to use.  He hadn’t received his controllers for a while, and wrote to the company asking about their location.  He also noted that new people ordering the controllers now were paying less than he did over a month before, and asked whether there would be any compensation for him as a result.  The response he got…wasn’t good

How NOT to Handle the Situation

Rather than honestly explaining what was keeping the controllers from being shipped, the president (and only employee) of the marketing firm Ocean Marketing, Paul Christoforo, instead sent a series of increasingly insulting and derogatory emails, while also name-dropping major gaming sites like Kotaku, IGN, and Penny Arcade.  This last one, in particular, was a mistake.

In case you’ve never had the pleasure of reading it, Penny Arcade is an amazingly popular webcomic.  (For those of you who are  bloggers, who make up more than a few of my readers, here are a few numbers to put its popularity into perspective: it has an Alexa Rank of 3378 and a Google Page Rank of 6, with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of regular readers.  Yup, pretty impressive.)  After Dave let him know what was happening, one of the guys in charge of Penny Arcade posted a complete summary of the email exchanges, its readers took up the mantle, and in short order, Ocean Marketing was out of business, the companies that used to work with it had nothing but bad things to say, and Christoforo was begging for mercy.  I’ve never worked in public relations, but it’s hard to imagine a worse way for things to play out.  (Oh, unless it involved a mocking YouTube Video that was still less insulting than the actual email exchange.)

A Better Approach

Honestly, it’s hard to think of a worse approach that doesn’t involve actual torture.  But alright, here’s some thoughts: when approached by a paying customer who wants to know about a product delay, try being upfront about any problems that have arisen.  If a discount is offered to new customers, make sure that existing customers (particularly those still waiting for delivery) can benefit as much, if not more.  One more, from what I’m sure are dozens of lessons that can be drawn from this incident: maybe, just maybe, don’t name-drop people and organizations unless you know for a fact that they’d approve of your actions on their behalf.

There you have it, some examples of just how badly some people can mess up the process of public relations.  Try to learn from these examples about what not to do when trying to promote your business.

Let’s be completely honest: most personal finance advice is not directed toward younger people. There are plenty of reasons for this, some good and some not so good. (Most personal finance magazines don’t write articles directed at young people, so most young people don’t read those magazines because they have no relevant information, and in turn the magazines don’t write articles for the young people who aren’t reading. It’s something of a Catch-22.) The end result is a tendency for younger people to ignore personal finance until much later in their life.

Get a Financial Life is one of the books that bucks the trend. Directed at people in their twenties and thirties, it covers a variety of personal finance information from many aspects of life. Does it provide enough information to help readers, well, get a financial life? Let’s read on to find out!

Summary

After a short introduction, Get a Financial Life opens with a ‘Crib Notes’ chapter, covering everything from insurance needs to preparing taxes in short thirteen page burst. Chapter two is about getting your personal life in financial order. It touches on everything from putting a price tag on your dreams to filling out a form to monitor where your money goes, and ends (as all the chapters do) with a ‘Financial Cramming’ section that summarizes the major points in the chapter on a page or so.

The third chapter covers debt, and how to repay it. Starting with one of the trickiest types of debt, credit card debt, it covers student loans, car loans, and home equity loans, providing information about each type and suggestions on how to handle the debt. Chapter four is all about banking, starting with finding a good checking account and ending with a variety of ways to save, from a standard savings account to Certificates of Deposit (or CDs, if you prefer).

Chapter five gets into investing, focusing on mutual funds and breaking them up into three broad categories: money market funds, bond funds, and stock funds. It stresses the importance of finding a good fund company and keeping inflation in mind while investing. The sixth chapter continues the theme, looking into retirement accounts and the importance of retirement saving (as well as what can happen if you don’t save enough to meet your needs).

The seventh chapter looks into renting or buying a place to live. For renters, there is advice on getting the best deal on rent and helping to ensure that you don’t have to deal with crazy or oppressive conditions from your landlord. For would-be buyers, there is plenty of information about the financial aspect of home-buying and mortgage financing, as well as how to get the best prices. Chapter eight covers insurance, insurance, insurance. From basic advice on shopping for any type of insurance, the chapter then covers a whole range of insurance types, including health, auto, disability, and life.

The ninth and final chapter is all about taxes: how to pay them, and how to minimize how much you need to pay. There is advice on how to fill out the forms and determine your tax rate, as well as advice on how to maximize your deductions and find a decent tax preparer, if you decide to go that route. The book ends with a long list of books for further reading.

Pros

The book is well-written, humorous and very informative. The chapters are generally fairly thorough, most doing a good job of covering their financial topic. There’s also a good amount of humor and congeniality in the writing style, making for a pretty entertaining read.

Cons

There are parts of the book where more depth could be helpful; the investing chapter doesn’t give more than a vague sense of a decent asset allocation, for example. The sheer amount of data in some of the chapters can be a bit overwhelming, or at least make it harder to sort out the most important data.

Overall

Get a Financial Life is a solid introduction to personal finance in all its glory. If you (or someone you know) want to get a decent start organizing their finances, it makes a good introductory guide, if a bit much to take in for some of the chapters.

It’s already the 13th, and you know what that means: half of the people who created resolutions for this year have already failed at them. (Conservatively estimated, of course; it’s fully possible that even more resolutions have already met an untimely end.) Here’s hoping that you aren’t among them.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand how it can happen; it takes a lot of time and effort to keep up with even a relatively minor resolution, and more than a few of us have taken on some pretty big ones this year. Still, if you don’t keep up with them and try your best, you’re guaranteeing failure, and that’s the last thing we want when it comes to things like building up our financial foundation. Particularly when it comes to things like:

Creating a Budget

This is one of the most basic things that needs to be done if you’re hoping to improve your financial situation. I’ve touched on the subject of budgeting before, but mainly looking at how to stick to a budget. I was a bit short of advice on how to actually create a budget; unfortunately, simply adding up your spending and your earning, while technically a budget, will leave you in the same sort of situation as the US government, that is, greatly indebted and unlikely to get out.

Don't worry; I'll help you avoid partisan squabbles as you crunch the numbers

How do you make a budget properly? Well, there are few simple steps to help you produce a workable budget, starting with:

1. Watch Where You Spend: Before you can create a budget to get you where you WANT to be, you need to see where you ARE at now. For a month or two, watch where you are spending your money. Record EVERY expense, no matter how small, from monthly bills to that can of soda you got with lunch. To get the most possible out of this, you have to be sure not to change your spending habits; if you live like a pauper while keeping track of your spending but spend like a prince when you don’t, you’re not going to get the sort of data you need to make a decent budget.

2. See Where Everything Lines Up: When you have data from a typical month or two, it’s time to see where how it fits together. Make a table of your income on one side, and your expenses on the other. (It’s helpful to divide your expenses into the regularly reoccurring kind (mortgage/rent, electric, gym memberships, etc.) and discretionary expenses (meals out, shopping, spending on those morning coffees and similar things that can vary from month to month.) Don’t forget to include expenses or income sources that don’t come every month; if you pay your automobile insurance twice a year or get investment dividends every quarter, you’ll need to factor them in, by dividing the amount by the number of months between each event.

Now, you’ll need to see whether your expenses are sustainable on your income level. This is pretty easy to see: simply total up all those expenses, total up all that income, and see which total is higher. If it’s the income, congratulations! You’re already living on less than you take in, the goal for our budgeting plan. (Well, if you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to be sure that you are doing things like putting money aside for emergencies and investing enough for your retirement; if you can do that and still be under budget, great! If not, please read on.) If your expenses are higher, well, then, it’s time to:

3. Trim Your Budget Where Possible: Yup, I know, the least fun part of creating a budget: trying to figure out what to cut. There aren’t too many rules I can give you; everyone’s life is different, and what is essential to me might be nothing but an extravagance to you. That said, things like keeping food in your belly, a roof over your head, enough gasoline in your car, and proper insurance coverage on yourself, your family and your belongings, all should take priority over things like, say, buying all the latest video games or going out to the movies. (That said, don’t give things like food spending a free ride; just because you need to eat, doesn’t mean you need to go out to eat each day of the week.) Your goal should be to cut enough spending so your income meets (or better yet, exceeds) your expenses; not an easy task, even before we look at those retirement contributions and emergency fund building (which do need to be included). When you do reach that point, it’s time for…

4. Sticking to Your Budget: You could make the best, most fantastic budget in the world, one that allows you to meet all your goals, plan for all contingencies, and still have enough money left to enjoy your life. It won’t matter if you don’t stick to it. This is tricky, no doubt about it, but important to really benefit from your budget. There is quit a bit of advice out there on sticking to a budget (much like a diet, it’s an area where many people have trouble). Here are a few tips to help maximize your chances of bucking the trend:

-Make sure your budget allows for some fun and enjoyment: Most of us aren’t would-be monks or hermits; we enjoy an active social life and plenty of fun. While it might seem like your movie budget should be the first thing to go while trying to balance your overall budget, if you don’t include some fun and free money in your budget, it’ll be no time before you simply decide not to follow it any more, period.

-Take advantage of free services: There are a surprising number of places where you can get goods and services that would otherwise cost a pretty penny for free (or at least, vastly reduced prices). Libraries offer books (and increasingly, CDs and DVDs) for nothing to members, there are free sources of information online, and speaking of online, it’s increasingly easy to enjoy all kinds of entertainment through online portals (even without relying on pirated info). Particularly with access to a decent computer (also becoming cheaper all the time), it’s possible to enjoy a full entertainment life without having to pay an arm and a leg (or any body parts, really).

-Make sure to reward your successes: We respond to rewards (and punishments); that’s just the way we are wired. To take advantage of that, try to reward yourself when manage to stick to your budget; just don’t go over budget doing it. Try this: take any money you manage to save during the month by staying under budget and split it in half; one half will be added to your savings (that emergency fund I kept mentioning before), the other half will be ‘fun money’, for you to use as you desire in the coming month. If you get to enjoy the results of sticking to your budget, you’ll be more likely to do so.

Alright, that should be more than enough on how to create (and stick to) a budget in the new year. Good luck, and here’s to a successfully budgeted 2012 for everyone!

(It is time once again for a guest post, providing a different perspective on issues of personal finance and money management than I am amble to do.  This week, we’re going to take a look at different types of retirement income sources, from retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs to pensions and annuities.  Since we all want to retire someday (or at least, have the option fo retiring, if we so desire), it’s always good to know about the different ways we can generate an income.  In order to learn a few of the options, please read on.)

As the baby boomer generation approaches age 65, new employees are just learning how to plan for their own retirement. Younger workers will be forced to pay into the Social security system, but most likely will not reap the benefits (Roger’s Note: Or at least, likely not the full level of promised benefits), as its demand, far exceeds its cost. The Social Security System in the U.S. is burdened by longer life spans, increasing medical costs, and lower than normal tax revenue (due to the poor economy). Young workers will have to consider other retirement options as they will not be able to rely on it when they end their careers. There are different types of retirement options other than Social Security, which vary in risk and reward. These plans include 401(k)s, IRAs, Annuities, and Pensions. These plans have differing advantages and disadvantages. The best plan for each individual will vary depending on their goals after retirement.

Here are 4 different accounts that can be used to prepare for retirement:

401(k) Plans – These plans have funds that are automatically deducted from each paycheck and is sometimes matched by an employer. They allow workers to slowly contribute to a fund, over the course of their working life. 401)k) plans can be personalized and placed into a range of investments such as stocks, mutual funds, and bonds, according to what the company offers. Individuals with these plans can choose a riskier or more conservative strategy when investing these earnings.

- One big advantage to a 401k plan is that the money is not taxed until it is withdrawn in retirement. It is allowed to grow “tax-free”, up until it is “cashed out” by the employee. These funds are subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty, if the money is taken out before a retiree reaches age 59 1/2. There are exceptions to this tax penalty including disability, death, and early termination.

IRAs – Individual Retirement Accounts (or IRAs) are a type of retirement (or savings) plan, created in 1974 by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).  IRAs allow a worker to contribute up to $5000 per year into an account that is non-taxable until it is withdrawn. This money is also tax deductable and allows the money that would normally be paid in taxes to grow in an account. There are different types of IRAs, including a Traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, Spousal IRA, SEP IRA, and Education IRA.

A Roth IRA is a popular type because it allows for money to avoid taxation completely, BUT only if certain conditions are met. Money from a Roth IRA can be invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and even real estate. With a Roth IRAs, contributions are taxed when they are placed into the account, instead of when they are withdrawn, as with a traditional IRA.

- One negative to Roth IRA’s are that contributions to it are NOT tax deductible. This negative is offset by the fact that the funds are not taxed upon withdrawal. Another negative is that the yearly contributions are limited to $5000 annually. This may be a small amount depending on a person’s income level.

Annuities – This is an investment type that is slowly paid back over time by an insurance or investment company. A retiree makes either a large lump sum payment or a series of payments which are then paid back by this annuity to them over a period of time. These payments can be paid out on an annual, semi-annual, or monthly basis. Annuities grow tax-free until it taxed in the payment phase. They are a good way to provide financial support upon retirement, as they guarantee a consistent payment for a period of time (frequently until the recipient’s death).

Fixed Annuity – This annuity type gives the investor a fixed rate of return that will NOT vary over the lifetime of the contract. It is a very low risk type of investment that allows for consistent returns, regardless of the behavior of the market. The main criticism to this type of investment is that there are high fees including a sales commission and surrender charges.

Variable Annuity – Variable annuity contracts guarantee a certain percentage of return, but will vary as the selected portfolio performs better or worse. These accounts grow tax-free, just as fixed annuities do. They also allow investors to choose from different type of investments including mutual funds, stocks, or bonds.

Pensions – this is a form of compensation that is set up by an employer, to pay workers upon retirement. Pensions are funded in a variety of ways that include employers, labor unions, and government agencies. These payments are made regularly to retirees, usually on a monthly basis. There has been controversy about this type of plan because they can become extremely expensive for some employers.  They are also increasing hard for younger workers to find.

About the Author: Ross runs the website Great Credit Score which focuses on economic news, investment strategies, using secured cards to build credit, debt reduction, and the stock market.

It’s important to have dreams. Not just tasks, which we actively work to achieve. Not hopes, those wishes we send into the wind that may, or may not, be accomplished ‘one day’. Not even resolutions, those tasks we set for ourselves at least once a year in order to improve our lot in life.

No, dreams, those far off, seeming impossible for the moment (but we WILL achieve one day) goals that help to motivate and inspire us as we move through life. I shared a rather impressive sounding dream yesterday, one from Mrs. Accountability of Out of Debt Again, a dream of owning a yarn shop. It’s a bit of an odd dream, as even Mrs. Accountability admits, but you can tell as you read through her post and can see the passion in her writing that this goal is one she is determined about and focused on.

Have you ever tried to find an image for 'dream'? It's not easy...

That sort of passion is the type of thing I think we all could use a little of in our lives, so I thought I would take a page from Mrs. Accountability’s play book and share my own dream job:

I Want to Be a Professor

I know, it probably doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that will convince anyone that I am anything but a huge nerd at heart. (Not that I would try; as Sondra is fond of pointing out, I don’t exactly come off as anything BUT a huge nerd, so why fight the inevitable?)

There’s just something about teaching that I have to admit I enjoy. One of the more enjoyable parts of being a graduate student is that I have the opportunity to teach undergraduates in the lab courses and recitations (essentially, a sort of study/review session the students go to once a week to try to make sure they are actually learning the material). Being able to help the students understand the material is a great feeling, as is seeing the look in their eyes as things finally click.

There’s also the opportunity to do research, not because it might lead to a new drug or other product (although, do not misunderstand me, such research is very important), but simply to advance human knowledge, and build up such knowledge that might, one day in the distant future, lead to medical or other scientific advances. Being able to add to the sum total of human knowledge is a pretty impressive thing to add to the old resume, and it’s one of the reasons why I first got into the physical sciences.

But First…

Now, you might assume from all of this that I’m heading as quickly as possible towards being a professor. That’s not quite the case. While I do want to become a professor at some point in my career, there is the issue that work in academia tends to pay significantly less than work in the business sphere for biochemists such as myself. Heck, I know this from personal experience, having earned nearly as much in entry level industrial positions with a Bachelor’s degree as I could expect to earn in the academic field with a Ph.D.

So, my plan actually looks a little more like this: I intend to graduate this year (hopefully in the spring, although given how much trouble I’ve been having getting my research to turn out properly, I’d be willing to settle for the end of summer). I will start an industrial job, probably in the pharmaceutical area which is where many of us biochemists end up, soon after graduation (the job hunt is already a foot), marrying my dear Sondra around the same time, and before long we will add a child or two to our little family.

Where does becoming a professor fit in, then? That’s more for the second act of my life (or perhaps third, if I’m already on act two with going back for a Masters’ Degree); my dream is to work for a decade or two, helping to support my family and allowing Sondra to be the stay a home mother (and work from home artist) that she wants, before I continue my education, get a Ph.D., and do what I can to become a tenured professor. It’s not impossible; it’s actually semi-common in the biochemistry field to come back to academia after a stint in industry, although I will have to earn a Ph.D. at some point to even hope to become a full professor. It will mean gearing up for a second career when many people are settling into the same rut, trying to push through another decade or two before they can call it a lifetime and retire.

But here’s the thing: I WANT to keep working. I can’t foresee a time when I’m ready to spend all day fishing or lounging at a retirement home or traveling the world. (Although, if I do want to do that last one, there are academic opportunities all around the world I might be able to take advantage of, as well as an ever increasing ability to work with other scientists, even those outside of the United States. To say nothing of a good old-fashioned hiatus or two.  Plus, there are advantages to becoming a professor emeritus after a successful career.)

Being a professor is just something I’ve wanted to do, for at least the last decade now. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to put it into action.

What is your dream profession? What are you doing to make it a reality?

It’s only been ten days so far, but so far, 2012 has been pretty rough on me.  I’ve missed several days at my university I had hoped to attend, in order to get some more work done on that research I need to finish if I hope to graduate (with only one semester to go before I’m scheduled to graduate, it’s crunch time in a big way!), for a number of reasons.  We got the first snow storm of the season on Monday night into Tuesday, there was a busted tire on Sondra’s jeep on Wednesday, and I had to stay to help her pick it up on Thursday.  End result: I got only a fraction of the research work done that I had hoped to do, to say nothing of all the trouble that the whole situation caused my fiancee.

Still, I’m trying to remain optimistic about the new year; it might have lost a little of that new year shine, but there’s still plenty of time to make things right.  By the end of the year, I should be married, graduated with a Masters Degree, and (if I manage to keep my resolution from the start of the year)  gainfully employed.  All in all, it should be a good year, if at times a bit overwhelming.  While I work to build my life up with school and other improvements, let’s take a moment to look at some of the good blog entries floating around out there:

Good Yakezie Posts

How We Prevent Wealth – Briana of Twenty and Engaged (a no longer accurate title, but that’s another story) shares some information about a personal finance book written by another blogger, one that looks like a pretty interesting read about how we sabotage our financial futures.

youngandthrifty’s 2011 Personal Finance New Year’s Resolutions Reviewn - What can I say, I like to read about resolutions, and it looks like youngandthrifty had some pretty impressive ones.  It looks like there was quite a bit of success in some areas, but some lagging in others (although to be fair, I can vouch that trying to write down everything you spend money on gets exhausting pretty quick).  Good luck this year!

Make 2012 Your Best Year Ever! – On the subject of resolutions, youngandthrifty is hardly the only one thinking about them this time of year.  This post on Bucksome Boomer helps to put those resolutions into perspective so you have a better chance of achieving them.

Landlord Nightmares! – I’ll be honest, I would be very nervous to be a landlord, mainly for many of the reasons covered here by Krantcents.  There are ways to work around such issues, by avoiding problem tenants, but it can still be tricky (and being a landlord is always going to require more time and effort than, say, buying a REIT mutual fund).

Financial Crisis Situations – What You Can Do and How You Can Prepare – There’s plenty that can go wrong financially, I’m sad to say.  Luckily, you don’t have to let unexpected issues derail your plans and goals for the future, as long as you take some precautions such as those  as shown in this My Journey to Millions article.

Fresh and Easy 50% Meals – I can’t say I’m too familiar with the store Fresh and Easy, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out if what Buck Inspire says is true.  Ready made meals from about to expire food offered for half price?  I could have a great place to get my new lunches!

My Dream Business – What’s Yours? – It’s certainly an interesting question posted here by Mrs. Accountability of Out of Debt Again.  Her answer is a unique one: being the proprietor of a yarn shop.  As for me, I wouldn’t mind running a book store, although given how much trouble even big book stores like Borders have had, I’m not sure that’s the best approach if I want to actually make money…

Where the Amateur Financier Was Featured

My post on Learning From Unmet Resolutions was included in the 49th Totally Money Blog Carnival hosted by Mother Miser

So, the Occupy Wall Street (or OWS, for those of us who like our abbreviations) movement seems to be dying down (or at least, moving towards a less extravagant method of trying to meet their goals). This is not going to be an article about OWS. I’m not going to comment on whether they are enlightened leaders who will help lead us to a better economic future, or whether they are a bunch of whiners who aren’t willing to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. That’s not what this post is about.

What this is about is my attempt to answer where in the spectrum of income I happen to fall. I can say off the bat that I’m not part of the 1%, unless the country is in even worse shape than I have been led to believe. This is not to say that I won’t get there one day; one of the advantages of living in the United States is the ability to improve one’s lot in life. (I’ll leave it to the OWS crowd and their detractors to argue about the best way to make it easier to do so; I’m big enough to admit that I don’t know off the top of my head which way to shift policies to help the most people.)

Luckily for me, and for anyone else who is curious as to where they fall, there are ways to find out. The Wall Street Journal (possibly the group least likely to support the protesters’ cause, but that’s neither here nor there) has put out a calculator that allows you to enter your salary and find out your earning percentile. It’s kind of a neat concept, and given how much I think about money, earning, and where I happen to fall, I was curious.

The Calculator In Question Shown in Action

So, I decided to figure out where I stand, and then, because this entry was running a little short, I mean, my curiosity was aroused, I decided to try a few other options to see how possible (and likely) changes in my income could affect the percentage where I fall. (Now granted, the income levels will shift, at least a little bit, in the coming years, making my percentages less than 100% accurate. But hey, this is just for fun anyway, so I’m just going to run with it.) Alright, onto some annual incomes and percentages:

Occupation: Graduate Student; Salary: $12,000; Percentage: 13%; Reaction: Ouch; there might be a reason that so many of the protesters were students…

Occupation: Grad Student (with my Blogging Side Income From Last Year); Salary: $16,000; Percentage: 19%; Reaction: Well, my blogging does help me, quite a lot; not quite enough to pull me out of the bottom quintile, but hey, every bit helps.

Occupation: Biochemistry (Starting Salary with a Masters Degree); Salary: $47,000; Percentage: 53%; Reaction: Yee-ha! Right from the start, my fancy new degree should elevate me to the top half of earners in the country. Not a bad way to spend a couple years, it seems.

Occupation: Biochemist (Average Salary); Salary: $89,000; Percentage: 76%; Reaction: Hey look, with some experience under my belt, it looks like I could be earning some serious coin. Ka-Ching!

Occupation: Biochemist in Pennsylvania; Salary: $105,000; Percentage: 82%; Reaction: Apparently my home state is pretty generous to biochemists, allowing us to clear six figures, on average. Not too shabby.

Alright, one more; although this is fun, I should probably be getting back to the whole process of earning that degree so I can earn some of those high incomes.

Occupation: President of the United States; Salary: $400,000; Percentage: 98%; Reaction: I don’t think I’ll ever be the President of the United States (I’m not nearly good enough at begging for money and playing politics to become mayor of sizable city, let alone President), but I did think it was interesting that I COULD be the President and technically still be part of the ‘99%’. Helps to put things into perspective, or something, I suppose.

Alright, that should be enough for now. It’s definitely kind of interesting to see where different wages stack up in the scheme of the country’s overall earning. On that note, back to increasing my percentage!

It’s January, and that means that all around you, people are trying to improve their lives. More than any other time of the year, January is when everyone attempts to fix past problems and make their lives better. I’m certainly including myself in that group; it’s only six days into 2012, and two of my posts so far have involved my goals for the coming year.

Given that so many people are taking the time to focus on their resolutions and trying to improve their lives, I figured that it would probably make for a good blog entry (or four) to look at some of the more common personal financial resolutions and provide on how to accomplish them. So, for the next four Fridays, I’m going to providing advice on achieving Resolution Success, starting with

Paying Down Debt

This is a perennial favorite resolution: most of us have some debt, and it’s a rare person who doesn’t want to be debt free. Heck, I’ve covered this exact resolution before. (Although, looking back on it, I realize that I wasn’t as clear on how to actually pay down debt as I should have been; ah, the things you can learn by being a blogger.)

It's almost as good as book learnin'

But it’s obviously a tough one to actually achieve, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many people who make the resolution year after year. Since I find myself in the same boat as many people, facing quite a bit of debt and wanting to pay it down, it’s an area I definitely want to focus on this year. With that said, here are some tips to help you (and me) pay down debt this year:

-Figure Out a Plan of Attack, and STICK TO IT: As you might guess, the topic of paying down debt is a popular one, which I am hardly the first person to tackle. There are more than a few gurus with their own personal favorite ways to tackle debt, from Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball to Flexo’s Debt Avalanche, and pros and cons of each. Hashing out the best method is not what this article is about (and the best method for YOU is something I can’t tell you, anyway), but the important thing is that once you have a plan you feel will work for you, you need to stick with it. Going from one plan to another to another (or worse, dropping your plan altogether) will be worse than sticking with a single plan, even if that single plan is less than ideal.

-Pay More Than the Minimum: The centerpiece to every debt elimination plan is to pay more than the minimum on one particular debt. (Which one is a major source of debate, of course.) Trying to pay off your debt while paying only the minimum is a surefire method to remain in debt for years, if not decades, longer than you need to be. While some debts, like student loans, are designed to be paid off in a specific number of years (ten for most student loans), others can take decades to pay off at the minimum payments (and may not necessarily ever be paid off at those rates). If you aren’t putting more than the minimum into one of your debts, you’ll need to do so if you hope to ever declare yourself debt-free.

-Negotiate Better Rates, if Possible: It’s a situation of ‘ask, and ye shall receive’, at least sometimes. The simplest way to lower your credit card or other debt interest rates? Ask for lower rates. It really can be that simple. The worst that happens is your creditor says no, and the best is that you find yourself charged hundreds or even thousands less as you work to pay off your debt.  While I can’t say for certain whether your lenders will be willing to cut your rates, asking is the only way to know for certain.  Better yet: find out the rates you could get by transferring your debt to another creditor, and use those rates to negotiate better rates.  Worst case scenario, you know where to get to get lower rates if your current creditors won’t play ball.

-Put as Much Money as Possible Towards Debt Elimination…: Regardless of what particular repayment tact you choose, you’ll be most successful by putting the maximum amount of money possible towards debt repayment. You might say that you don’t have any money available; if you did, why would you be in debt? But there’s usually money to be found, if you put your mind to it. There are probably services you use, from cable TV to subscription websites, that you can cut, at least until your debt is gone. There are likely items in your house you could sell to bring in some extra money. And speaking of extra money, have you heard that some people even make a few bucks online doing something called ‘blogging’? If you put some time and effort to it, you can potentially derive quite a bit of additional to help your debt repayment.

-…But Make Sure to Have a Reserve: It’s tempting to go whole hog when you are paying down debt; after all, every dollar of credit card debt you eliminate is one less dollar you owe, and thus one less dollar accruing interest. But you need to have some money set aside in an emergency fund; otherwise, the moment you run into financial trouble, you’ll find yourself in even deeper debt. How much of an emergency fund to have is another of those issues you’ll hear numerous opinions on, but you should have enough that any foreseeable problems can be handled without having to add further debt.

-Be Careful About Adding New Debt: I’m going to take a different tact here than the average debt elimination adviser. Most sources you’ll read say to not add any more debt as you pay down what you owe; things like cutting up your credit cards and canceling them as soon as you eliminate what you owe. This is not bad advice, particularly if you find yourself spending money you don’t have anytime there is plastic in your wallet. But, I understand that there are times when you find yourself all but unable to avoid adding further debt. Particularly if you are a student and making little, if any, income, you’ll likely have to go into debt simply to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly. The trick is to be careful and only add more debt when it is absolutely necessary. So, food, gasoline (assuming you are going to and from classes or work, not joyriding across the country), and rent: yes; expensive parties, fancy clubs, and high-class booze: no. A good rule of thumb: Try not to add any debt that doesn’t directly help you to earn more in the future.

There are a few tips to help you take that debt off (and keep it off). Does anyone have further suggestions they’d care to share? Or perhaps horror stories of finding themselves in too much debt thanks to doing things wrong? Inquiring minds would like to know!

(It’s time once again to learn about some important money management tips from someone other than me.  This week, I’m proud to present a repeat guest poster, ready to share some helpful hints about buying in bulk.  It can be a great way to get what you need, and save some money while doing so, but if you don’t do it right, it can end up costing you more than you save.  To avoid that sort of problem, read on to learn how to best take advantage of bulk purchases!)

Buying products in bulk is a great money saving strategy, but only if it is implemented correctly. There are many ways that buying in bulk can also end up costing you far more than you expected. Before you run out and start filling your cart with a month’s supply of all your favorite items, read up on these dos and don’ts of buying in bulk.

Do stock up on paper goods. My household goes through paper goods like there is no tomorrow. Toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and paper plates seem to disappear overnight. Items like these are great to buy in bulk because they will definitely be used and they won’t ever go bad. Just because you have a lot of these products does not mean you should be wasteful! Remember that these products come from trees, so make sure you only use and much as is needed.

Don’t stock up on perishable foods. Even if you see an amazing deal on a bulk food item, don’t buy it if it is perishable. Unless you are having a party or are feeding a huge family, only buy food items that won’t perish. If you get a great deal on food that just goes bad, you won’t be saving any money at all. Plus, all that wasted food is also wasted resources.

Do shop for parties or special events. If you are hosting a big party at your house or you are bringing snacks for your child’s sports team, you should definitely consider shopping in bulk. Buying a large quantity of specific items at grocery stores can get very pricey very fast. Instead, see if you can get what you need in bulk so that you will get a discounted price.

Don’t make shopping in bulk a habit. Buying in bulk undoubtedly provides you with some great deals. It’s easy to buy something just because it is such a great deal. But before you put that item in your cart, take a second to think if it is something that you really need. If you wouldn’t even think about buying it at full price, chances are you probably shouldn’t buy it at a discounted price either. Spending money on something unnecessary ends up not saving you any money at all.

Do bring friends with you. Shopping in bulk can be a great way to save if you bring along some friends. This way, you can all split the cost and you won’t be stuck with 50 rolls of toilet paper. If you are shopping at a store that requires a membership card, see if you can split the price of the membership with your friends as well to save as much as you can.

Don’t overbuy items. If you shop alone, it is very easy to accidently overbuy. When you see a great deal, it can be hard to pass it up. However, if you already have a good supply of paper towels, you shouldn’t buy a brand new pack. Otherwise, your house will just become crowded and cluttered, which isn’t helping anyone.

Do come prepared. Just like any ordinary trip to the grocery store, come prepared with a list and a budget. It’s very easy to get sidetracked and start filling up your cart, which adds to your total very quickly. Know how much you want to spend and exactly what you want to buy before you get to the store.

Don’t impulse buy. Being prepared with a list and a budget will help you cut down on your impulse buying. It’s one thing to purchase a pack of gum on impulse, but it’s a whole different thing to purchase a 50 pack of gum on impulse. Go shopping with frugal friends so that they can help you keep your spending under control.

About the Author: Kiley Theiring is a film student at Chapman University who also loves to write. She writes about saving money and living frugally for Coupon Mountain and also maintains her own personal blog.

The new year is well and truly upon us now. The resolutions have been made, the plans to achieve them have been drawn up, and we’re all ready to meet our goals in the coming twelve months. Everything is set, right?

Well, maybe. Chances are, you made some resolutions for last year, too, and probably didn’t get everything you wanted accomplished. After all, it’s sometimes tough to lose fifty pounds, pay down your credit card debt, and dominate the world, all at once. (Although, that last one might just be me.)

As you've probably heard more than once, you can't win the race if you don't run

While it’s tempting to push all those missed resolutions to the back of your mind and never think about them again, there’s much that you can potentially learn by looking back and reviewing your failed resolutions, seeing where you ran into trouble last year could help you see how to do better this year. I tried to do so myself in my latest resolution review, and it did help me to determine how to approach my goals this year.

Here are a few Dos and Don’ts to keep in mind as you look back at the year that was, and consider how to do well in the upcoming year:

DON’T Be Too Hard on Yourself: There are any number of reasons why you might not have gotten everything done that you wanted to do in the past year, many of which were likely outside of your control. Beating yourself up over not getting everything done that you wanted doesn’t do anything to help you improve in the new year, nor does it make the past year any more productive. What it does do is make you feel bad, and put you in a poor state of mind for getting your new goals done.

DO Think About What Went Wrong: This is not to say that you shouldn’t review what happened with your goals in the last year, and try to figure out why you weren’t able to achieve what you hoped to achieve. Looking back on your goals can give you some excellent insights into how to go about improving in the new year. Some possible reasons you ran into trouble could include trying to do too many things at once, making resolutions that were too ambitious (losing two hundred pounds of weight or building up your net worth by $100,000 would both be stretches for the average person), and not creating a reasonable plan for meeting your goal.

DON’T Forget to Learn From Your Mistakes: It’s not enough to know what went wrong if you set yourself up to make the same mistakes again in the coming year. If you discovered that your resolutions were too ambitious, for example, don’t allow your new resolutions for this year to be equally ambitious. Instead, review your resolutions for this coming year in light of what you learned about the past year, and adapt your new resolutions accordingly.

DO Share Your Resolutions: One of the best ways to motivate yourself to get your resolutions accomplished is to share them. Not only can your friends, family, or blog readers (for those of us write blogs, at least) help you to meet your goals through advice or other help, but the simple act of making your goals public can help to make it more likely that you will put in the time and effort needed to accomplish them.

DON’T Get Discouraged: Finally, it’s easy to discouraged when you look back at things you wanted to get done and ended up failing to do. The last thing you want as we start a new year is let past difficulties cause you not to try your hardest. Remember that your success this year is determined only by how hard you try.

That’s some good advice on how to be successful in this new year, if I do say so myself.  Here’s hoping you have plenty of luck accomplishing all your goals for 2012 and beyond!

Alright, it’s a brand new year, and for most of us, that means one thing above all others: resolution time! Yes, as the calendar rolls over, we try to improve ourselves, by focusing on the aspects of our lives we’d like to to improve. There’s plenty in most of our lives that we would like improve, and it tends to be easier when so many other people are also trying to make their lives better.

You might recall that last year, I made a number of resolutions (ten in fact), which I’ve been trying to achieve over the past year. I’ve done a somewhat decent job on achieving them all, but trying to do ten different (if generally inter-connected) things proved to be a bit too much for me to achieve.

Yup, I felt a bit like this at times during the past year

Rather than spread my focus in so many different directions, this year I’m going to make a smaller number of more focused resolutions. Hopefully, if my goals are more focused, I can have more success in achieving them during the next year. So, rather than creating ten different resolutions and dividing them into three categories, I thought that this year, I’d only create three goals to keep my attention more focused. So, with no further ado, here are my resolutions for 2012:

For my Blog, get my Alexa Ranking Under 100,000: I had hoped to reach this point by now, anyway, but things just haven’t quite worked out like that yet. So, rather than five different goals that should get my ranking to this point, I figured I would focus on the hopeful end goal instead. (I have mentioned, when going over my resolutions from last year, that I’m a bit leery about making goals that are dependent on other people’s responses, but I feel in this case that it should be more than possible if I focus on my blogging more.)

For my Finances, Eliminate $5000 in Credit Card Debt: Rather than the rather vague ‘Pay Down My Credit Card Balances’ goal I had last year, this year I’m giving a specific dollar goal and going to try my best to achieve it. It won’t be easy, but by focusing on doing so a little at a time, I should be able to get this accomplished. (As a side note: I will be taking out more money in student loans later this month; any portion of that money which goes to paying down my credit card balances won’t count. The last thing I want to do is simply trade one debt for another while calling it ‘paid down’.)

For my Personal Life, Finish Graduate School and Get a Job: This is another of those that depend on people other than me, that is true, but finishing grad school is certainly within my control, and if I start working diligently on job hunting now, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to find myself some gainful employment. It’ll take some effort, but more than anything else I can do in the coming year, this will help me get my life off to a better start.

There you have it, three new goals for the new year. What do you hope to accomplish in 2012?

Well, well, well, look at that.  You look away for what seems like only a minute, and when you look back, a whole new year has come around.  It’s practically some sort of conspiracy, designed to age us all before our time!

Or maybe it’s just the natural flow of time, and my increased busy-ness, combined with the natural perspective on time that comes as I age, just makes it seem like time is going steadily faster every year I am alive.  Nah, it’s a grand cosmic conspiracy, I tells ya!

Well, regardless of how the universe is plotting against me, I still need to try my best to be diligent and productive in my life, as well as earn some more cash to support myself.  Let’s see how well I did with that this past December:

In a word, ouch.  In more than one word, my investments didn’t do too shabby (there’s been a decline in my foreign holdings, but my domestic ones aren’t doing half bad), but my savings took a bit of a hit, and I added on much more debt than I had planned getting ready for (and celebrating) the Christmas season.  It’s going to take sot to recover from all that, I’m afraid.  On the plus side, after a few months of rising, I got an early Christmas present in the form of some improving Alexa scores.  On that note, let’s see how my goals for 2011 went in the final month:

Not too shabby.   My alternate income finally surpassed $1000 per month, a personal goal (and resolution) of mine for the year, although keeping it that high in 2012 is going to be tricky.   I fell a little bit short of my charitable giving goals for the year, but still managed to do pretty well in that respect, as well.  It’ll take some effort, but I’ll have to try even harder in the coming year to make myself a better, richer person.

Ah, electronics, the basis of much of modern society. Given how important they are to most people nowadays, you can see how many people spend a lot of money to purchase such electronics, and how such purchases are increasingly seen as ‘needs’, rather than wants, by the typical person. (Just how accurate such a view is a subject for another post, although it’s worth noting that you probably don’t need the newest and most expensive electronics just to get things done in life.)

Of course, as with any area with expensive items, there’s more than a little bit of opportunity for you to cut your spending while still buying enough to stay close to the front of the curve. I don’t imagine that there is much I can do to get you from not wanting high level electronics (heck, I’m writing this article on a three month-old laptop my fiancee got me for my birthday, so I’m in no position to throw stones when it comes to buying new technology), but you should try to cut down the costs. Some ways you can do so include:

1. Asking for a Discount: Simple, but sometimes quite effective; it is possible to ask for deductions on your major electronics purchases and actually receive them. There are some ways to improve your odds: shop at independent stores, where owners have more ability to change prices, make sure you are speaking to someone with the power to make such a discount, and be reasonable with the discounts you seek. A good way to do the latter is to look up the prices being charged by other nearby stores, so you have an idea of what you can expect as a minimum (add in the fact that many stores will match the best prices of their competitors, and it’s a pretty solid place to start your research).

If you don't ask, you'll never know what sort of discount you could get

2. Don’t Buy the Newest and Best: One of the surest ways to cost yourself more on electronics than you need to spend is buy new electronics as soon as they are released. If you want to save money, you can generally just wait a few months (a year or two, tops, in most cases) for a new version of the electronics to become available, or at least, for the price to be lower as the sales organizations attempt to make more sales and clear out their inventory. You can end up saving quite a bit of money, while only being a bit behind on the technology curve.  On that note…

3. Consider (Carefully) Buying Used Items: Given the number of new electronics that come out each year, the rate at which updated versions of electronics are released (there have been four versions of the iPhone since its release in 2007, for one example), and of course, the number of people who simply must have the freshest and newest technology, and there’s usually quite an assortment of barely used electronics available for purchase, online and off. There are some risks to buying used items (particularly through sources like Craigslist, where you cannot examine the item yourself before purchase), but it remains possible to buy electronics at a fraction of the price if you don’t mind buying them gently used.

(A side note: if you opt to sell your electronics used, please be sure to clear out any information you don’t want the next owner to see. There are more than a few stories of people finding pornographic or other personal material on used computers, and the last thing you want is to wind up in a story like this. Just an issue to consider, unless you want to wind up in this sort of story in the future.)

4. Skip the Extended Warranty: With electronics in particular, you will be offered extended warranties on almost everything you try to buy. As a general rule, they aren’t worth the cost. Most manufacturers offer warranties that should cover the first few months (or years) of use, and many retailers and credit cards offer their own coverage for the first few years after purchase (American Express is particularly noted for their coverage). While you should do your own research into the particular product to see if an extended warranty is worthwhile, as a general rule, you’ll be better off paying for repairs as needed for quality electronics.

There you go, a few pieces of advice on how to save money while you purchase your electronics and enjoy the advantages of the Information Age!