Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #208 – October 29, 2011
| October 29, 2011 | Posted by Roshawn Watson under Uncategorized |
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Welcome to the October 29, 2011 Edition #208 of the Carnivalof Financial Planning.
The Carnival of Financial Planningtakes a long-term view of personal financial planning for individualsand families. We focus on efficient and sustainable personal financialplanning practices that can lead to lifetime financialsecurity.
This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you canbrowse efficiently.
Enjoy!
The SkilledInvestor, Editor
Budgeting and Economics
Lazy Man and Money presents Reviewing My Necessary Expenses posted at Lazy Man and Money, saying, “Some ask why one would want to review their necessary expenses. I have three reasons:”
BIFS presents Tipping after a Bad Experience posted at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff, saying, “What is the proper way to handle tipping when service sucked but they tried to correct it?”
Roshawn @ Watson Inc presents Did Americans Get Poorer or is USA Today Wrong? posted at Watson Inc, saying, “USA Today suggests the typical American family got poorer, but does the data support their story?
Everything Finance presents 4 Tips to Help You Save Your Budget this Christmas posted at Everything Finance, saying, “Yeah, I know: We’re not to Halloween yet, so why are we talking about Christmas? Well, if you’re like the average consumer, Christmas represents a huge change to your budget. Many of us see things spiraling out of control during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Mike @ Green Panda presents What Are The Best Ways to Save For Major Purchases as a Married Couple? posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Are you planning for the major expenses?”
Philip presents It’s Okay to Spend Your Money on Things You Really Want posted at PT Money Personal Finance,saying, “A little discipline never hurt anyone, but the thought ofdepriving yourself of everything, every kind of spending, leads manypeople to just give up.”
Rogan Seager presents RetirementSavings Calculator posted at RetirementSavings Calculator,saying, “Valuable future investment portfolio assets and futureinvestment returns slip through many people’s fingers at the checkoutstand every day, because they spend beyond their long-term means.”
David Leeman presents Envelope Budgeting Software – Best Budget Software for Financial Freedom posted at Financial Freedom Advantage, saying, “Are you familiar with the traditional envelope budget system? Envelope budgeting software takes this successful method into the 21st century, enabling proactive control of spending in order to achieve financial freedom.”
Jason@LiveRealNow presents 53 Percent | Live Real, Now posted at Live Real, Now, saying, “Some day, I’ll be out of debt, and that will also be due to hard work, not charity. I love my family. I pay my taxes. I give to charity. I am the 53%.”
Estate Planning
DJ presents Estate Planning 101 posted at The Family Wallet, saying, “No matter what your age or the amount and nature of your property, having an estate plan is a good idea. Here are answers to some of the basic questions often asked in regard to estate planning.”
Financial Planning
Bill Smith presents Making the Right Decision for Your 401k Investments is Important posted at 2008 Taxes, saying, “One really important thing to consider regarding your 401k investments would be that the IRS, throughout the tax code 401k, deliver all qualifying employees a direct tax reduction alongside an upside market potential for your savings.”
Flexo presents What I Learned as a Financial Planner posted at Consumerism Commentary, saying, “Neal provided a fantastic guest post on the life of a financial planner.”
Dough Roller presents Social Security Increase (COLA) for 2012–3.6% posted at Dough Roller, saying, “HOORAY! For the first time in three years, social security COLA benefits are on the rise.”
Larry Russell presents Identitytheft protection and prevention posted at PersonalInvestment Managementand Financial Planning,saying, “As a threat to your financial security, you should take thepotential for identity theft very seriously. Identity theft sometimesentails a loss of your money, but whether or not you lose money, it cantake a very large amount of your time to rectify. Taking these steps toprevent an occurrence is prudent.”
FMF presents Economic Lessons from Chess posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Chess encourages a long,strategic approach, something that also works well in financial planning.”
Frank Knight presents InvestmentAsset Allocation posted at Retirement PlanningSoftware,saying, “When you are already there and invested in an asset class, youare following a passive asset allocation strategy. Tactical assetallocation strategy advocates suggest that you can anticipate thecrowd, but flow-of-funds studies show that almost all tactical assetallocation fund flows are late money flows that chase performance aftervaluations have already moved.”
Dave@50plusfinance presents How To Move Your Checking Account In 7 Easy Steps posted at 50 Plus Finance.
David J presents Top 10 Rewards Checking Accounts posted at CardViews Blog, saying, “With all the banks now that are offering rewards programs, how do you know which one to sign up for? Who offers the best “bang for your buck”? Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 banks and credit unions across the country.”
Financing Education
N.W. Journey presents College Savings 529 Plans posted at Networth Journey, saying, “Learn basic and important information about 529 plans.”
Charles Chua C K presents 10 Poverty Ways to Avoid posted at All About Living with Life.
Health Care
Money Beagle presents Help!!! Do You Think Families Benefit From HDHP/HSA Plans? posted at Money Beagle, saying, “Looking for insurance advice. What do you think”?”
Income
The Financial Blogger presents What My 6 Yr Old Told Me About Running a Company posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “What kids can teach us about running a business.”
Hank presents How To Make Money With eBay Arbitrage posted at Money Q&A;, saying, “Have you ever wondered where people get the things that they sell on eBay or Half.com? Learn how you can make money from arbitrage.”
Kevin presents Getting Laid Off for the First Time: What I Learned from the Experience posted at Invest It Wisely, saying, “The first time I was laid off, I wondered what I was going to do for money. It wasn’t even that great of a job, but it was paying the bills and I had made friends there. I felt like I had been punched in the face. However, I learned three important things:”
Matt presents 083 Financial Excellence: Mystery Shopping and Other Extra Income Opportunities posted at Living In Financial Excellence, saying, “Over the last few months I’ve been taking on some side hustles to earn extra income and see if they’re legitimate ways for our listeners to earn some extra cash. Today I unwrap the mystery behind mystery shopping and discuss whether it’s really worth your time.”
Marie presents Saving for Your Self-Employment Taxes posted at Money Spending Mommy, saying, “eing self-employed has numerous benefits. But when it comes time to pay taxes, self-employment might seem slightly less attractive.”
Investing
Dividend Growth Investor presents Enterprise Product Partners (EPD) – quietly building wealth for unitholders posted at Dividend Growth Investor, saying, “Enterprise Products Partners is a dividend achiever which has increased distributions in every year since 1999. As a unitholder, it pays well to get paid a high yield while also having my income increased over time.”
Aussie Investor presents Highest Dividend Paying Shares – The Micro-Caps posted at Australian Investing, saying, “Over the long term dividends make up a large part of a share portfolio’s returns. With that in mind, lets see what attractive dividend yields are available to us at the moment. We’ve already looked at the large caps and the small caps, so now it’s time for the micro caps.”
Martha presents 12 Must-See TED Talks on the Recession posted at onlinemba.com, saying, “TED Talks have become a go-to resource for finding thoughtful discussion on global issues from some of the world’s biggest and best thinkers.”
Intelligent Speculator presents Are You A Forex Trader Wannabe? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “Are you into Forex?”
Janet Russell presents Theillusion of superior professional mutual fund manager performanceposted at PersonalInvestment Management,saying, “If investment mutual fund managers were truly skilled atbeating the market, then you would expect mutual fund managerperformance prowess to persist over time. The effort to find those fewsupposedly superior money managers willing to sell their servicessufficiently cheaply is a costly, time consuming, and futile, “Where’sWaldo?,” searching exercise for the individual investor.”
Corey presents What Should Your First Investment Be? posted at 20’s Finances, saying, “Asking where to invest your money first may seem like a challenging question, but there is an obvious place to start investing.”
Mike Piper presents ETFs vs. Index Funds (revisited) posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “As recently as last year, the ETF vs index fund question was about commissions and expense ratios. Now that those are (mostly) moot points, how should investors choose?”
Frank Bertin presents IndexFunds posted at Top Index Funds, saying, “Top ten no load indexfunds that track the Standard and Poors 500 composite index in terms oflowest costs.”
Dividends4Life presents 13 Higher Yielding, Lower Debt Dividend Stocks With A Reasonable Payout posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, “New income investors naturally focus on yield, but the highest yielding stocks aren’t always the best investments. To find the very best dividend growth stocks an investor must identify companies that will not just sustain their dividends, but increase them every year. To find these jewels in the rough, there are two very important things the investor must look for.”
Mirelle Rowden presents FixedIncome Funds posted at BestBond Mutual Funds,saying, “Vanguard dominates this low cost United States bond mutualfunds marketplace for direct purchase accounts with both low and highminimum deposits.”
DGB presents Dear Investor, Why Are You Paying Those Fees? posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “Why pay the fees?”
Managing Credit and Debt
Nathan Richardson presents What is a Good Credit Score: 2011 Range, Credit Score Scale & Chart posted at Deals & Tips, saying, “We’ve created a consumer’s guide to credit scores including what are good scores, how to raise your score, how scores are calculated and more.”
Jason Price presents How to Get Your Debt Snowball Rolling posted at One Money Design, saying, “Essential tips to get your debt snowball rolling again.”
Paul Vachon presents Personal Financial Ratios Everyone Should Know posted at The Frugal Toad,saying, “Do you now what your household debt ratio is? It is animportant factor in determining the amount of credit you are offeredand plays an import role in your credit rating.”
Glen Craig presents Find the Money to Pay Down Debt posted at Free From Broke,saying, “Debt will make you feel overwhelmed. What do you do? You needto find the money to pay down debt. See this author’s story and choicesshe made to pay down debt.”
Odysseas presents Down with Default Rates! posted at Wallet Blog,saying, “Usury laws, which cap interest rates for lenders, completelyfail to serve their intended purpose of forcing banks to deliveraffordable loans — but there may be one feature of our contemporarylending industry that could actually benefit from usury laws: Penaltyrates.”
Miscellaneous
Sustainable PF presents Autumn Home Maintenance posted at Sustainable Personal Finance, saying, “While I wrote here earlier in the year about spring time home maintenance I still consider myself a newbie to home ownership, but I know the key to saving money on costly home maintenance is prevention! Do yourself a favor and check out my suggestions below for fall home maintenance.”
Irene Beckerr presents 25 Great Q&A; Sites to Learn About Human Resources Careers posted at Business Resource Master, saying, “For human resources students, it’s helpful to have resources to turn to when you want more information about the field and various careers. With these excellent Q&A; sites you’ll learn about HR in various environments, as well as personal insight and expertise from experts themselves.”
The Skilled Investor presents MarketTiming Does Not Work posted at Personal FinancialManagement,saying, “Always stay invested to earn risk premiums. You must have yourmoney invested and at risk to get risk premium returns. Jumping out andin or “timing the markets” doesn’t work.”
Suba presents Steps to Be Your Own Boss posted at Broke Professionals,saying, “Self employment means taking a calculated risk to hopefullymake more money, be happier, or both. Here are a few steps to selfemployment when transitioning from a full time job.”
Tripp Danner presents NoLoad Funds posted at NoLoad Fund,saying, “There are over 60,000 different mutual fund investment shareclasses sold worldwide. Some mutual funds and ETFs must be better thanothers, but which ones are they? How can you tell before the fact?”
Jeri Ford presents 2 Simple Steps to Go from Zero Miles to a Free Business Class Ticket to Europe posted at Help Me Travel Cheap, saying, “Learn how to get a free business class ticket to europe in two easy steps.”
Retirement Planning
Roger White presents 401k Contribution Limits in 2011 and 2012 posted at 401k Calculator, saying, “This posts lets you know about your 401k contribution limits for 2011 and 2012.”
MoneyCone presents HOWTO Do A 401K Rollover Correctly posted at Money Cone, saying, “When you leave behind your old job for a better opportunity, in your excitement, don’t forget your 401K! Consolidation will make your life a lot easier.”
SB presents When is the right time to retire posted at One Cent at a Time,saying, “Every one of us think about retirement. Depending on your ageand saving situation you might ponder on taking early retirement. Whenwe work we postpone many good things for post retirement life hence,it’s important that you thoroughly plan your retirement to decide onwhen to start retired life.”
Brockton Eaton presents LongTerm Investment Strategies posted at RetirementInvestment Strategy,saying, “The investment research literature repeatedly demonstratesthat a fully diversified, low cost investment strategy is superior.”
FMF presents Two Ways You Could Be Sabotaging Your Retirement posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Two things you could be doing (or planning on doing) that could severely impact your retirement.”
Walter Binkle presents LargeCap Mutual Funds posted at Mutual Funds,saying, “Retirees can save a lot by paying attention to mutual fundexpenses. Each of these S & P 500 index funds is among theleastcostly on the market.”
Risk Management
Evan presents Is Paying Car Insurance in Full Really Worth the Savings? posted at My Journey to Millions,saying, “One way you can save significant money is by paying your carinsurance in full. While this is a much larger up front cost, it canadd up to hundreds of dollars in savings over a policy period.”
Savings
SavingMentor presents 11 Car Buying Tips To Get The Best New Car Price posted at HowToSaveMoney.ca, saying, “Over the years I’ve learned many car buying tips and tricks from various friends and relatives as well as from my own online and offline research. I have been buying vehicles for about 18 years and these tips can and do work very well. Some are easier to use then others, but if it means saving a few hundred or thousands of dollars, it’s worth it!”
Jonathan presents Six Secrets to Better Coupon Clipping posted at Wallet Watcher, saying, “In order to make the most effective use of your time and stretch your budget, the following are several helpful tips to simplify the coupon clipping process.”
Mike Holman presents Long Distance Voice Plan vs Skype With Roaming Data Plan posted at Money Smarts Blog,saying, “I recently got burned on roaming data charges on my iPhonebecause I used Skype for some long distance calls back home. Inretrospect I should have signed up for a long distance voice plan.”
Bradson Oakley presents BondMutual Funds posted at BestBond Funds,saying, “Higher bond fund expenses tend to mean lower net returns toindividual investors. It is not worth paying higher bond fund fees.”
Suba presents Illusion of saving money posted at Wealth Informatics,saying, “Frugality doesn’t always save money and not all frugal tipsare applicable to everyone. Do the math and do what works for you.”
Jonathan presents “Free Money” Frenzy! posted at Frugal Living, saying, “Making that decision is fine at times, but there is a time and place for everything, and sometimes when we save money or get extra money, we need to use it carefully and wisely.”
Ciana Locke presents MarketIndex Funds posted at BestIndex Mutual Funds,saying, “The dominant issue in choosing among passively managed indexmutual funds and ETF funds benchmarked against the S & P 500 isthat securities industry management and trading fees are all over themap from reasonably low to shockingly high.”
YFS presents How to shop for the holidays like a boss posted at YourFinancesSimplified, saying, “This shows you how to shop for the holidays like a boss! (debt free).”
Peter presents Perkstreet Financial Is Paying Me To Use My Debit Card Instead Of Charging Extra Fees Like The Big Banks posted at Bible Money Matters, saying, “I signed up for my Perkstreet Financial free checking account earlier this summer. What did I discover once I signed up? Not only is the checking account free of charge – with no fees for debit card usage – but Perkstreet also pays you 2% cash back!”
Jon Elder presents Ultimate Guide to Grocery Store Savings posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, “So, here are some tips for those of you who are looking to save money every time you go to fill up your pantry”
Taxes
Gemma Flannery presents Your Tax Code For 2011 posted at Tax Codes, saying, “Your tax code is used by your employer to calculate the amount of tax to deduct. Each year this changes with as tax brackets change. This posts explains the tax code for 2011.”
Amanda presents More Time from the IRS for Innocent Spouses posted at My Dollar Plan,saying, “If you are filing your deductions and income on the same taxform as your spouse and he/she fudges information, evades taxes, etc.then you are held liable for any taxes and penalties owed due to thismistake. However, you can apply for spousal relief – read on for moreinfo.”
Finley Merriwether presents RetirementPlanning Calculator posted at Retirement PlanCalculator,saying, “Tax-advantaged retirement savings plans give you theopportunity to make investments with deferred taxes in 401k, 403b, 457,Keogh, Simple, or other employer sponsored retirement plans.”
Al Peters presents 4 Things You Should Know About Your Self Assessment Tax Return 2011 posted at TaxFix Feed Update, saying, “There are many things that you should know about completing your tax return but this post higlights 4 of the top things to remember.”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog articleto the next edition of Carnival of Financial Planningusing our carnival submission form. Pastposts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Copyright 2012, Roshawn Watson, Pharm.D., Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.
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