May 10 2007 Edition of the Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Financial Planning - May 10, 2007 Edition

Welcome to the May 10, 2007 edition 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.

The Skilled Investor has made parenthetical comments beneath some listings. These comments are the opinion of The Skilled Investor and not of the blogger.

Blogroll Picks**
To increase the breadth of article links in each Carnival of Financial Planning, The Skilled Investor, proactively searches blogs to find articles that could be of interest to those interested in long-term financial planning. Each week, The Skilled Investor searches our blogroll in alphabetical order until we find a half-dozen interesting posts in addition to those that other bloggers have submitted to this Carnival. Next week, we will start again where we left off in the alphabetical rotation. Blogroll Picks are marked below by a double asterisk (**).

Enjoy!

Budgeting

Sagar Satapathy presents 10 Common Sneaky Fees Credit Card Companies Charge posted at Credit Card Lowdown.

Debt Management

Kevin Surbaugh presents Desire to Date and Desire to Be Debt-Free posted at Becoming & Staying Debt Free, saying, “The biggest struggle I have right now is a war between my two biggest desires. My desire to find a wife, settle down and raise a family and my desire to be debt-free. As tight as my budget is, I cannot afford to to go out, let alone take out a girlfriend who might become the future princess of thrift.”

Steve Faber presents - To Do Today - Get Your Free Credit Report and Avoid These 3 Money Mistakes posted at DebtBlog.

Financial Planning

**Flexo presents Ten Questions to Ask Before Getting Hitched posted at Consumerism Commentary
(There are few commitments in life longer than marriage, unless shortened by divorce. A couple needs to be roughly on the same page regarding finances or their road into the future could be very difficult or could lead to a premature parting. Flexo provides ten important questions with commentary that may help you both to assess your financial compatibility prior to when you both strap on the ole ball and chain.)

Health

Maureen presents Gaps In Medicare Coverage posted at Empty Nest, saying, “Medical coverage may well end up being your largest single bill in retirement.”

Housing

Darius presents How much worse can housing get? posted at Related to Mortgage.

Steve Leung presents Why the Perfect House Wasn’t So Perfect posted at 1SiliconValley.com, saying, “”It’s perfect,” he said and he wondered why I wasn’t celebrating the fact that we’d just found a house that nailed all of his requirements. As much as I advocate personal responsibility, some things in life need effective warning labels to help educate people of dangers that may not be obvious.”

Investing

**John C. Bogle presented New Videos - NICSA Miami 2007 posted at The Bogle eBlog
(John Bogle posted four video clips of his keynote speech at the 2007 conference of the National Investment Company Service Association. These clips address 1) mutual fund turnover, 2) retirement, 3) mutual funds versus ETFs, and mutual fund board independence (or lack thereof).

Silicon Valley Blogger presents A First Look At Asset Allocation posted at The Digerati Life.

**Lazy Man presented Compound Interest Week: An Introduction posted at Lazy Man and Money
(This article provides a simple chart that shows how long it takes to double your money depending upon the percentage growth rate. The chart starts at 1% annually and increases in increments of 1% up to 20%. At a 1% rate your money doubles in about 70 years, at 10% it doubles in about 7 years and at 20% it doubles in under four years. The trick, of course, if to have a realistic appraisal of how different asset classes (e.g. cash, bonds, and stocks) grow — with and without inflation. For more information on historical risk premiums that the markets have paid in the past, take a look at these 10 Returns and Risk Premiums articles on The Skilled Investor’s main website.)

Mortgages

John Barker presents Interest-Only Mortgages - Are they for you? posted at John Barker’s Mortgage Blog.

Brian Brady presents What’s my rate? It looks like I gotta WACC you ! posted at The Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker.

Retirement Planning

mbhunter presents A really simple retirement formula posted at Mighty Bargain Hunter, saying, “There was a discussion over in the Money Blog Network Forums about different ways to calculate how much to save to allow a particular monthly payment during retirement. Some people responded with future value and present value functions and the 4% retirement rule. These are perfectly legitimate ways of estimating what you’ll need in retirement. Almost in jest, I came up with a really simple retirement formula …”

**mbhunter presented Top five ways to kill your retirement dreams posted at Mighty Bargain Hunter
(MBH had already submitted another article in this Retirement Planning section. Nevertheless, he is in my blogroll and was in this week’s rotation. I also liked this additional posting. Sometimes we learn rationally from arguments made in positive terms. At other times, negative terms work, as in these five ways to mess up your retirement.)

Risk Management

Tracy Coenen presents A pair of pants worth $65 million posted at FRAUDfiles, saying, “When carefully planning your finances… never, ever get a pair of pants worth $65 million.”
(We could not resist including this posting about a judge-plaintiff in D.C. who is putting a hardworking couple, who run a drycleaners, through incredible legal duress. Their long-term finances are being eroded by legal costs, because of a lost pair of pants that the plantiff believes are now worth $65,000,000.)

Savings

**FreeMoneyFinance presented How to Save on a Small Income, Part 2 posted at FreeMoneyFinance
(This follow-up article discusses ways to economize on a limited income, so that you can free up more money for savings. This post summarizes the ideas of several readers who provided ideas about what has worked for them.)

**Jeremy presented The Top 5 Ways to Become a Millionaire posted at Generation X Finance
(This article is basic and straightforward, and thus it is very refreshing. No get rich quick rubbish. Just a clear statement of what really works in wealth building: A) increase your income, B) constrain your consumption, C) save, D) invest sensibly, and E) keep at it. Yes, it does work.)

FIRE Getters presents Online Checking Accounts-Part-1- Freedom Checking From BOFI posted at FIRE Finance.

Tushar Mathur presents Shopping at Costco…the frugal way !! posted at Life of a Resident Alien….

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.

Technorati tags: carnival of financial planning, blog carnival.

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