Carnival of Financial Planning – May 3, 2007 Edition
Welcome to the May 3, 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 at a half-dozen interesting posts. 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
**Beachgirl has presented a series of four articles thusfar on Living on $46K or Less (Part 4) posted at Beachgirl’s Budget Blog (These articles summarize the budgetary constraints of different couples with annual incomes close to $46k. The bad news is that things are not easy. Debt and job loss have hurt some of these couples badly. The good news is that these couples at least have a budget and are trying to get / keep expenses and debts under control. Housing, healthcare, and debts can be substantial expenses for these couples, but some are still able to save. It is important to note that there is a big difference between consumption debt acquired because of excessive past consumption and investment debt acquired to control a valuable asset (e.g. mortgages for housing) or to improve earnings potential (e.g. student loans). Investment debt is a form of savings. Consumption debts just indicate that past living expenses exceeded past income. Also, note that borrowing to invest in the stock market is not “rational investment debt”, because margin interest rates significantly exceed historical market risk premiums that the equity markets have paid on average.)
College Savings
Kristine McKinley presents Juggling Retirement and College Savings posted at Paying for College.
Financial Planning
**JLP presented The Number of Millionaire Households is at a Record. Should This Surprise Anyone? posted at AllFinancialMatters (With [...]