May 17 2007 Edition of the Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Financial Planning - May 17, 2007 Edition

Welcome to the May 17, 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 several 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

edithyeung presents 7 Habits of Highly Effective Money Managers posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

College Savings

Steven Silvers presents Rankles over U.S. News best colleges list hint at bigger issue with media rankings. posted at Scatterbox at stevensilvers.com, saying, “Information-age transparency turns what used to be slam-dunk annual marketing promotions into ongoing controversies about news media methods.”

Ted Reimers presents 10 ways to save money in College posted at CampusGrotto.

Financial Planning

savingadvice presents The Confusing Process Of Measuring Net Worth & Financial Progress posted at Personal Finance Advice, saying, “Trying to come up with a good way to measure net worth and financial progress.”

WBL presents Top 5 Ways To Go Broke posted at Adventures in Money Making.

FIRE Getters presents Online Checking Accounts: Part 2 - Electric Orange Checking From IngDirect posted at FIRE Finance.

Kevin Surbaugh presents 33 Ideas for Dating Frugally posted at Becoming & Staying Debt Free, saying, “You’ve made a love connection, but now you’re weary of the wooing process because you’re on a tight budget. But don’t worry, because dating without much cash is possible and it can allow you to be creative while showing your date a good time. If you think that showing your true frugal colors may be a turn-off, then no need to tell your honey how much money you’re saving.”

Investing

**John C. Bogle presented Mr. Bogle’s appearance on Consuelo Mack’s Wealthtrack posted at The Bogle eBlog
(Mr. Bogle’s appears on Consuelo Mack’s Wealthtrack podcasts talking about Real Investment Returns. The discussion focuses on the likelihood that future returns will be subdued relative to the past, and hammered on the issue of driving out investment costs from your portfolio. The three guests are generally very good, but in any area of conflict pay attention to what John Bogle says. Listen to the whole podcast, it is uniformly good. (For more, see The Skilled Investor’s articles on historical market returns and risk premiums.)

**My Money Blog presented Why Aren’t Money Managers Paid Purely On Performance? posted at My Money Blog
(This nice post challenges the industry to accept pay for performance rather than promises of performance that are not kept. This will never happen because the high cost, actively managed fund industry knows that it is feeding off the naivete of the mass of individual investors. At 28, the author of My Money Blog has a huge head start, by having figured out that low costs are more likely to lead to higher returns. (For more on this subject, see The Skilled Investor’s article, Pay Less to Get More and the article categories, Payment of Advisors and Controlling Investment Costs.)

FMF presents All Index Funds Are Not Created Equal posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Why some index funds are better than others.”

fletchlives presents Sometimes You Should Roll The Dice posted at fletchlivesforecasts, saying, “An Estimate Of Certain Stocks: Where They Have Been And Where They Are Going”

Mortgages

ISPF presents Why Do Some People Prefer to Pre-Pay Mortgage, while Others Prefer to Invest the Money Instead? posted at Grad Money Matters.

Retirement Planning

**Smart Money Life presented Are your friends investments performing better than yours? posted at Smart Money Life
(This Smart Money Life posting muses about whether his 401(k) portfolio is right for a him. He invests in very broadly diversified and mostly low cost funds. His friends are taking risks that tend not to be compensated by markets. His friends commit the investment concentration sin of owning the company that that cuts their paychecks or moving around their portfolio. A three year performance comparison is nothing in the retirement funding race. A broadly diversified, low cost strategy is the horse to ride for the long-term. Also, his asset allocation is about 30% bonds, which lowers overall risk as it dampens relative performance. The important question is whether this allocation is appropriate for his risk aversion relative to other investors. (For more, see The Skilled Investor’s articles on diversification and on asset allocation.)

Super Saver presents Retirement Saving - Self Service posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “Companies are changing from a defined benefit (e.g. pension) to defined contribution retirement plans. In 1985, 91% of major companies provided a pension. In 2005, the number had declined to 61%. One can only expect the defined contribution plan percentages to increase. This means that retirement saving is becoming more self service, with the bulk of the responsibility on the employee.”

Kay Bell presents Getting your rocking chairs on the same porch posted at Don’t Mess With Taxes, saying, “Most couples agree on how to save for retirement. Too many, though, haven’t discussed what they want to do when they quit working. Knowing that can affect your retirement investing strategy.”

Savings

**Not Made of Money presented Lessons Learned Growing Up On The Farm - The Art of Price Haggling posted at Not Made of Money
(This post makes that point that you do not necessarily have to pay the price quoted. You will never get a discount, if you do not ask for it. If you are not willing or able to pay the asking price it is time to haggle. Negotiating is a skill that gets better the more you practice.)

Taxes

Jimmy Atkinson presents How to Avoid Being Audited When You’re Self Employed posted at Ask the Advisor.

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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