Welcome to the August 24, 2012 Edition #251 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
Budgeting and Economics
Crystal presents Budgeting Can Change Your Life And Get You Out Of The Debt Hole posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, saying, “Budgets and budgeting are the key to savings and getting out of debt.
krantcents presents Start a Business at 59 Years Old? posted at KrantCents, saying, “Would you start a business at 59 years old? Bob Chinn did! His seafood restaurant is the highest grossing restaurant in the United States. It is not in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles! It is in Wheeling, Illinois. It is just thirty 30 miles from Chicago.
Ryan presents How Solar Power Can Make You a Passive Income posted at Early Retirement Investments, saying, “Learn how solar power can make you passive income. I bet your in for a small surprise!
Liana presents Another Mobile Wallet? Are You Kidding? posted at Card Hub, saying, “The latest in mobile wallets is a team effort from more than 12 of the nation’s largest retailers. But does the new joint company – Merchant Customer Exchange- have what it takes to climb the mobile wallet mountain and claim the crown as King?
Janet presents Expense budgets posted at Independent Financial Planner , saying, ” Many people do not track their living expenses and do not understand the magnitude of their consumption.”
SBB presents Is Budgeting Worth Your Time? posted at Simple Budget Blog, saying, “Find out how you can keep budgeting simple and avoid the time consuming tasks that are often associated with managing your finances.
PITR presents Negotiating Your Salary and Benefits posted at Passive Income To Retire, saying, “Find out important career tips and what you can do to negotiate your way to a better job.
Financial Planning
Eddie presents The Cold Hard Truth On Being a Personal Finance Blogger – What I Learned In Less Than 2 Years! posted at Finance Fox, saying, “Looking back now at your blogging journey, you can agree with me on this: Being a blogger and blogging is anything but easy.
Young presents How Far Would You Go to Score a Deal? posted at Young And Thrifty, saying, “This is my journey to get myself 16,500 free Aeroplan points. It took a while, but in the end I was able to take a mini vacation!
Suba presents Brown Bag It: Tips For Making Cheap Lunch posted at Broke Professionals, saying, “Deciding to brown bag it doesn’t meal relegating yourself to a life of school lunches with PB&J and baby carrots. Here are my favorite adult lunch ideas.
Marie at Family Money Values presents Kids and Money posted at Family Money Values, saying, “Make sure your kids know the basics of money management so your estate will not be squandered. Learn about 5 things you can teach your 5 – 8 year old child.
DL presents Global Financial Markets posted at Nerds on Wall Street , saying, ” Stock markets are almost perfectly transparent, with full information available to all, and the best electronic clearing and settlement in history. These technologies were omitted in building the skyscraper of cards (“house of cards” seems too mild) out of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), synthetic collateralized debt obligations (SCDOs), and the rest.”
Parker presents Index Funds posted at Preferred Funds, saying, “Some mutual funds and ETFs must be better than others, but which ones are they? How can you tell beforehand.”
CCS presents Are Those Credit Card Rewards Worth It? posted at Credit Card Smarts, saying, “Who doesn’t like a credit card with generous rewards? But sometimes those credit card rewards may not be worth it. See when credit card rewards aren’t worth it.
Income
Ray @ Financial Highway presents How to Make Money with Amazon posted at Financial Highway, saying, “There are dozens of different ways for you to make extra money online, and you don’t need to spend any money on an expensive course to teach you how to do it either.
Insurance and Risk
Jeremy presents Vehicle Insurance Better Safe Than Sorry posted at Modest Money, saying, “I am sure none of you are guilty of this, but amazingly some people take the risk of driving without insurance. Here in BC that is illegal and a pretty dumb risk regardless where you live.
Lawrence presents ID theft protection posted at Best Financial Planner, 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.”
Investing
Squeezer presents Dividend basics and important dates to remember posted at Personal Finance Success, saying, “Dividends are when companies pay shareholders (investors) for owning a portion of the company. Money must be invested by a specific date to earn the dividend.
Ted Jenkin presents Getting Your Children Started With Stock Investing posted at Your Smart Money Moves, saying, “It was important to me for my children to learn about stock investing from an early age. We all know how grandparents try to get back at us by overloading our kids with holidays full of latest gadgets and electronics that money can buy. Whether you have $20 or $200 stashed away in your kid’s drawer, there is an opportunity to get your children started in the stock market.
Dividend Growth Investor presents How to get dividend investment ideas posted at Dividend Growth Investor, saying, “Some of the dividend paying companies in my portfolio are corporations, whose products I and millions of other consumers worldwide use on a daily basis. Here is a summary of how my daily routine provides me with dividend stock ideas for further research. The narrative is rather simplistic, but the point is that we are surrounded by investment ideas everywhere. Only after training ourselves to spot these opportunities, will investors be able to capitalize on them.
Passive Income Earner presents Is RIM a Good Investment? posted at The Passive Income Earner, saying, “Research In Motion RIM for short has been an icon for Canada with their Blackberry but the fierce competition it has faced since Apple came out with the iPhone has challenged their market hold on the smartphone. Not only has Apple taken a bite of their market but so has the Android based smartphones.
Kelly presents Investment risk tolerance posted at Investment Risk, saying, ” Individual investors with different levels of investment risk tolerance for financial risks tend to be more satisfied with risk management strategies, which are better aligned with their financial risk and return profile.”
Tushar presents How Are Stocks Classified? posted at Start Investing Money, saying, “Read my article to learn how Stock are classified, and in the process gain a possible new perspective on them.
Teacher Man presents Investing In Yourself Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive posted at My University Money, saying, “There is plenty of buzz out there these days about “investing in yourself”. Usually it is in reference to some magical product that you should buy. The logic is that by investing in what they have to offer, you are really just spending the money to improve themselves, and really, who doesn’t want that?
Willie presents Superior Fund Performance posted at NoLoad Funds , saying, ” Screen out inferior mutual fund performance — but only after using other ETF and mutual fund selection criteria. Superior or even average mutual fund performance in the past simply does not predict similar fund performance in the future.”
Echo presents Fee Only Financial Planner Vs. Commission Based Advisor posted at Boomer & Echo, saying, “A fee only financial planner is a worthwhile investment, especially as you get older and your income, investments and tax situation becomes more complex.
Managing Debt
Ben Feldman presents Car Loan or Home Loan: Which Would You Pay First? posted at ReadyForZero Blog, saying, ” Is it wiser to pay your car loan or your mortgage? It might seem like a silly question – after all, ideally you want to pay both – but if you had to choose, which would you pay first?
Luke presents Emerging Market Debt: Having Your Cake and Eating it Too posted at Learn Bonds, saying, “Emerging market debt trades at – twice the yield of developed country debt and triple the fundamentals.
Jon the Saver presents Lack of Liquidity May Be Why You Don’t Feel Rich posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, “Having a lack of liquidity has real negative consequences that can be really bad for your finances.
Real Estate
John presents Do You Know Your Mortgage Credit Score? posted at Wallet Blog, saying, “So you’re applying for a mortgage? Did you know that there is a special credit score used just for that? You better have a good record for paying your utilities on time.
Jen presents Preparing Our Finances 4 Home Ownership posted at Master the Art of Saving, saying, “By estimating our mortgage and bills and preparing our finances for home ownership now, we can begin to adjust our budget to avoid a financial apocalypse later.
YFS presents 2 Home Buying Tips That People Never Tell You! posted at Your Finances Simplified, saying, “I would like to talk about home ownership, in particular, mortgages. Now everyone tells you that home ownership is better than renting.
Retirement
FMF presents Delaying Social Security Payments is Worth 7% posted at Free Money Finance, saying, ” The Wall Street Journal has an interesting take on the value of Social Security. Specifically they look at what it’s worth to delay taking benefits. They calculate the value of the delay and give it a return percentage as if it was any other investment you might make. What makes this compelling is that under certain circumstances, the value of Social Security is the same as that of a bond yielding 7%.
IMB presents Investing Money is Important posted at Investing Money, saying, “Find out why investing money is important. You could be missing out on a lot of money.
Brock presents Retirement Spreadsheet posted at IRA Account Investment, 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.”
Paul Vachon presents Deciding When to Retire posted at The Frugal Toad, saying, “Deciding when to retire can be a difficult decision to make. Will I have enough income from my retirement accounts, pension, and social security to live comfortably in retirement?
Knowles presents SandP 500 Funds posted at Large Cap Index 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.”
Corey presents Young Adult Retirement Planning – Benefits of Saving a Lot Early posted at 20s Finances, saying, “Find out when you should start saving for retirement and how much you should be saving for retirement.
Savings
Charles Davis presents Is it time to Refinance Your Mortgage? posted at Wallet Hub Blog, saying, “We’ve all heard how mortgage rates are at record lows, but will refinancing actually save you any money? Hint: The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think.
Jason presents 4 Ways to Build an Emergency Fund Faster posted at Work Save Live, saying, “Should You Have an Emergency Fund? Despite conventional wisdom suggesting that it would be wise to have a stash of savings set aside for unforeseen events that life could throw your way, many Americans opt to forgo the safety net and face lifes challenges on a whim.
TSI presents Hard work and wealth posted at The Skilled Investor, saying, ” How much you earn, spend, budget, and save are by far the most dominant determinants of your long-term financial well-being. Self-control in your financial decision-making regarding budgeting and consumption is far more important than clever investing.”
Taxes
MR presents Is A Roth IRA One Of The Best Protection Against High Future Tax Rates? posted at Money Reasons, saying, “With tax hikes more than likely in the future, is a Roth IRA your best protection against the government being able to tax all of your money?
A Blinkin presents Should I Die This Year or Next Year? posted at Funancials, saying, ” 2013 Federal Estate Taxes. When you are dealing with a death in your family, the last thing you want to think about is what fraction of the estate goes to the United States government. Whats remarkable is that depending on WHEN you die, that fraction could be significantly higher or lower.
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