Personal Financial Planning and Personal Investment Articles this Week from Personal Finance Blogs
Carnival of Financial Planning - April 11, 2009 Edition
Welcome to the April 11, 2009 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.
Enjoy!
The Skilled Investor
Budgeting
The Smarter Wallet presents Budget Your Money and Control Your Spending Using This Simple System posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “Thanks!”
Pasadena Financial Planner presents Living Expense Tracking Methods posted at Pasadena Financial Planner.
Larry Russell presents Financial Planning Reading List posted at Pasadena Financial Planner.
Economics
Insurance Toolbox presents How to Take Advantage of Falling Mortgage Interest Rates posted at Fine-Tuned Finances.
Michael Haltman presents Mark To Market Eased: Making A Silk Purse From A Sow’s Ear? Example Included posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator, saying, “These are complicated products that even the banks themselves, save for a few of the quants that created them, could either explain or describe. Products created with and about most every type of esoteric financial product available. Products with bid/ask spreads wide enough to drive a truck through. Products so illiquid that they may never trade and therefore can’t be priced yet that allow the firms selling them to make huge money on them. You get the gist.”
Diego Cervantes presents Top 50 Economics Blogs posted at Bankling.
Financial Planning
John Howshall presents What To Do With Your 2009 Tax Refund posted at John’s Investing Tips, saying, “Ah, tax season… For some this time of year is a dreaded part of life, while for others it’s something to look forward to. Getting that tax refund in the mail, knowing that you have some extra money on hand to do whatever you want with– it’s so exciting! But before you get your refund it would be a good idea to have a plan for what you’re going to do with that money. Whether you want to invest it, save it, use it to pay down debt or spend it and buy a new big screen TV, it’s wise to know what you want to do with it before it comes.”
Ralph Jean-Paul presents Building Self-Discipline posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, “The most disciplined business people are usually the most organized, efficient and successful. They are also the people that make the most money. Learn to build self-discipline in your personal and professional life and see the difference it will make.”
Tushar Mathur presents Health Savings Accounts explained posted at Everything Finance, saying, “One thing is certain with healthcare: premiums continue to climb higher. As a result, more employees may find that health-savings accounts (HSA) have been added to their benefits packets this year, in some cases replacing HMO and PPO offerings.”
Jack Schmidt presents Check Your Impulse Spending At the Door posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, “Personal Finance - Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget! Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you’re on a money diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic Money Journal!”
Financing a Home
Raj Patel presents The Rise of Mortgage Scams posted at DebtGoal, saying, “Mortgage scams are on the rise. Here’s what a family should keep in mind and how they impact one’s financial health.”
Brian McKay presents Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) posted at MonitorBankRates.com, saying, “Mortgage rates and home equity line of credit rates are so low now we just found another great deal.”
Tallahassee Real Estate presents How To Make An Offer In Today’s Real Estate Market posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, “Regardless of who is receiving the offer, there is a definite plan one should follow if attaining the property at the best price is the primary goal. Too often, I see buyers and agents alike making amateurish mistakes that end up costing them the home that they wanted to buy.”
kathryn presents Top Ways to Waste Money on Your Home posted at Out of Debt Christian, saying, “Most people are being money conscious these days. It may surprise you to discover that you are doing a few things through out your home that is about the same as burning that money that you may be working so hard to save.”
Handy Saputra presents How Does A Home Mortgage Loan Work? posted at Home Loan and Mortgage Info, saying, “A mortgage is commonly obtained by a home owner who has an outstanding debt or is getting a loan out from a bank or other government operate establishment. The mortgage transfers the interest of the property as a form of collateral to the lender. The home owner will then have a set stop of time in which they must pay back the overall of the borrowed money. If they fail to pay back the money they will end trailing their mortgaged property and assets!”
Financing Education
Khan presents The Economics of Education posted at Higher Education and Career Blog, saying, “A breakdown of non-traditional education options for businesses.”
DebtLite presents Why Consolidate School Loans? posted at School Loans.
Nate Desmond presents Why Rent Textbooks? posted at Debt-free Scholar.
Investing
Darwin presents How to Profit from Employee Stock Options Regardless of Share Performance posted at Darwin’s Finance, saying, “This article highlights how employees can capture income on their employee stock options regardless of how the shares perform in a down market.”
ifvat presents Investing in the Stock Market posted at ifvat, saying, “If you want to start investing in the stock market, first spend quite a bit of time learning about investing and learning about the stock market. Don’t invest a dime if you don’t know what you’re doing. You could lose it all. Are you interested in learning more about investing your cash in the stock market? You should first be asking how does the stock market work to earn extra money and then keep working.”
Silicon Valley Blogger presents Best Online Stock Brokers For Cheap Stock Trades posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Thank you!”
Frank Vertin presents Just Buy Index Funds Directly posted at NO LOAD INDEX FUND, saying, “Buying an S&P 500 index fund through an investment counselor can substantially increase your initial purchasing costs and and drive up your annual management expense fees. Unfortunately, the vast majority of individual investors buy mutual funds and ETFs through brokers and investment advisers. Rarely do financial advisors recommend that you buy index funds with low fees. This is because low cost, no load mutual funds do not pay them as well as loaded, high fee mutual funds.”
Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Leave Your Money in Your Retirement Accounts! posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “Withdrawing your money in a down market virtually guarantees you will not meet your retirement needs.”
etrades presents Day Trading Tips From The Pros - Time To Cash In! posted at eTrades, saying, “Becoming a day trader is becoming an increasingly hot means for the average person to earn money. You will find individuals who treat it as a full time occupation while others treat it as a means to earn some extra cash. With its outstanding earnings potential and the charge it gives you, it’s no surprise more people are diving into day trading opportunities.”
Silver Investor presents The Obama Budget, Inflation, And Gold posted at Gold Investing Info, saying, “The Obama budget will give rise to record deficits and the corresponding debt may result in a fierce inflation.”
Walter W. Fouse presents 7 Ways to Pick the Best Noload Mutual Funds and ETFs posted at Best No Load Funds, saying, “The vast body of investment research studies show that there really are better approaches to buying and owning mutual funds and ETFs. You do not need to frantically chase fund performance. Performance chasing simply does not work.”
Richard M. Rothschild presents The Top 14 Low Cost Taxable United States Bond Mutual Funds (Low Minimum Deposit) posted at Bond Market Index Funds, saying, “The top 14 low cost taxable US fixed income funds with a $10,000 or lower initial deposit. Low investment management fees are very important with fixed income funds. Simply put, if you pay higher bond mutual fund fees, then these bond management expenses tend just to be a deadweight loss to you. When you pay more in bond mutual fund fees, you are just wasting your money.”
James Fowlkes presents 5 Steps to Becoming a Better Investor posted at JamesFowlkes.com, saying, “Diversify - Diversification is a powerful investment tool that helps you reduce the risk of holding aggressive investments. Diversifying simply means that you should hold a variety of investments that do not move in tandem in various market environments(for instance bull and bear markets).”
Stock Trading Brokers presents SEC Considers Proposal for Uptick Rule posted at Stock Trading Brokers, saying, “Bring back the uptick rule. There was actually no harm done when it was there. When it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Now that people have shed light on it, of course there are criticisms.”
Dividends4Life presents Will ETFs Be The End Of Traditional Mutual Funds? posted at Dividends Value, saying, “A relative new comer to the investment world is the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). You can think of it as a cross between individual stocks and mutual funds, with a mixture of advantages and disadvantages of each.”
Ricky presents Stock Trading Terminology posted at Stock Tips, saying, “Thanks!”
Frank B. presents Beginners Guide to Investing posted at Investment Basics.
cody butler presents How Do Mutual Funds work? posted at Investment-For-Beginners Blog, saying, “A basic overview of the way in which mutal funds work and who they are for.”
Pius Ephenus presents The Best Time to Invest in Mutual Funds posted at Retirement Planning Information | Investing For Retirement | Investing For Retirements.Com, saying, “The best time to invest in mutual funds is NOW. These investment packages do not go in and out of favor like stocks or gold or other investments do. They have been the investment of choice for everyday investors for a good 40 years, because they offer investors a wide array of opportunities”
Larry Russell presents 7 Ways to Pick the Best Noload Mutual Funds and ETFs posted at Best No Load Funds, saying, “Taken as a whole, the vast body of investment research studies show that there really are better approaches to buying and owning mutual funds and ETFs. You do not need to frantically chase fund performance. Performance chasing simply does not work.”
Pius Ephenus presents Profitable ETF Trading Strategies - 3 Tips For Developing a Market Classification Scheme posted at Retirement Planning Information | Investing For Retirement | Investing For Retirements.Com, saying, “In previous articles I have described why a market classification scheme is a high payoff strategy for improving your trading results. I now want to describe a few things for you to consider as you look to take advantage of your edge in market classification.”
Managing Debt
Joe Mueller presents I Am Debt Free posted at Debt Freedom, saying, “Becoming debt free is an important step toward becoming financially independent. Once you have achieved that status you can focus more of your efforts and money on building your own wealth rather than that of another.”
The Dough Roller presents 10 Tips to Declutter Your Finances posted at The Dough Roller, saying, “In his new book, Leo Babauta, describes “the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential . . . in business and in life.—
Colin presents The Secret to Transforming Debt Into Wealth posted at Financial Advice For Beginners, saying, “What I am going to show you is a way to use debt to generate more income for you. Once you start generating more income, you can then use that money to pay down your existing debts, fire your boss, take a dream trip, or whatever else you would like. There really is no limit to the potential wealth you could generate for yourself.”
Miscellaneous
Bank Savings Review presents Four Banks Give Back TARP Already posted at Bank Savings Review, saying, “We’ve got to hand it to the banks that’s already been able to hand back the TARP. Hopefully, only responsible banks will survive after this crisis so we promote responsibility.”
Peak Personal Finance presents 3 Smart Personal Finance Tasks You Are Probably Putting Off posted at Peak Personal Finance.
Retirement Planning
Peter Jones presents Tax Free Retirement: Planning for the Future in Today’s Economic Times posted at Great New Books that Are a Must Read.
FMF presents Social Security 5: File and Suspend for Soon-to-Be Widowed Homemakers posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Knowing how to make the most of Social Security is a key part of retirement planning.”
Jeff Rose presents Do Baby Boomers Need a Roth IRA? posted at Consumer Boomer.
Risk Management and Insurance
Aaron R presents An Immodest Proposal posted at Aaron Rogier, saying, “A suggestion for new considerations in risk management focusing on epistemic value of inputs in risk models.”
John Russell presents 14 Auto Insurance Secrets - They Don posted at The Low Cost Auto Insurance Guru, saying, “Your Credit Score and Risk Is Important. Out of the 22 auto insurance companies we spoke with, 20 now consider your credit history as extremely important in determining your auto insurance rate. This number is up from 12 when we last spoke to the same auto insurance companies in May-2006. Although many factors influence your auto insurance rates, most of the auto insurance companies now consider it one of the most important factors they look at.”
Savings
KCLau presents 5 Ways To Take Charge Of Our Finances posted at KCLau’s Money Tips, saying, “Are we doing the right things when it comes to managing our finances? Ask yourself five questions to know if you’re on the right track.”
Larry Russell presents Most Individual Investors Are Poor Personal Portfolio Managers | Personal Investment Management posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog, saying, “Investors more easily understand investment costs that are directly measurable, such as fees deducted on investment statements. However, many investors ignore or are unaware of the opportunity costs of their sub-optimal investment behaviors. Opportunity costs are usually much more difficult to measure directly, but these investment costs can be even higher than more visible investment fees.”
MoneyNing presents Everbank Review posted at Money Ning, saying, “EverBank is one of the best banks and it offers a very high rate with its money market account and even checking account. You should check it out.”
Taxes
Patrick @ Military Money presents Stimulus Plan Helps Military Members Who Lost Money Due to PCS posted at Military Finance Network, saying, “The new economic stimulus plan offers military members certain tax breaks if they were affected my the mortgage meltdown.”
Jeff Rose presents Last Minute Tax Deductions and Credits 2008 posted at Jeff Rose.
Barb A. Ryan presents Asset Allocation, Investment Asset Tax Location, and Emergency Cash Management posted at Pasadena Financial Planner.
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.
Pingbacks & Trackbacks