Owner: Moolanomy - The Science of Money URL:http://www.moolanomy.com/ Join Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:03:24 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Personal blog about my journey to improve my personal finance knowledge, and the things I am doing to build a $1 million investment portfolio by 2017. Site statistics:Click here
Getting A Good Job Is A Matter Of Luck? 2007-10-30 08:00:52 It always pains me to see good people stuck in jobs that are obviously well under their capabilities. On the opposite end, how some people ended up with their great jobs occasionally surprise me. This made me think about my own career, and wondered if luck has anything to do with getting a good job?
Photo by Kevin Labianco via Flickr
At first, I thought the answer was “yes, luck is a big factor.” But as I write this post and reflect on several instances where I thought I was lucky, I concluded that luck is overrated. Here are the 5 factors I felt helped my career the most:
Always giving it my best — Whatever the job is, I always try my best. May be it’s pride, or may be it’s my competitive nature, but whatever it is, I like my work to stand out as great work. As a result, I have notable accomplishments to show for every one of my jobs.
Managing my brand — Whether we like it or not, we are all labeled — e.g., techno wiz, smart, logical, la
Moolanomy weekly roundup #14: “Frugality” edition 2007-10-28 08:00:00 This has been another great week for the M-Network with our aggregate feed now moved to FeedBurner Ad Network. For our subscribers, this mean faster feed, less encoding errors, and you can actually see who wrote the post now! As always, we are committed to provide high-quality full feed.
Group Writing Project
On the week of November 12th to the 16th, members of the M-Network will share with you our philosophy of car ownership. Some of us love new cars, some of us swear by old junkers, and some think the rest of the group are nuts for owning one.
We invite you to join us and write about your car ownership philosophy, as it related to personal finance, of course! If you do, just let us know and will link up to your post so that our readers can enjoy it as well.
The Roundup
Frugal Moving Tips @ Cash Money Life — Great tips, but there comes a time in everyone life when enlisting friends to help is no longer cool.
5 frugal things about autumn @ Plonkee Money — Early night Read more:Frugality
How To Keep Your Skills Current 2007-11-07 08:00:59 In “Getting A Good Job Is A Matter Of Luck?“, Minimum Wage asked, “How do you keep your skills current if you have a menial dead-end job?” I believe that despite your situation, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Since I don’t know where Minimum Wage lives and the kind of skills he seeks, I will just cite some common organizations that offer some sort of free job training.
Photo by Stompy via Flickr
Organizations that offer free job training and some examples:
Community Colleges
St. Clair County Community College Free Job Training
San Diego Community College Free Classes
Public Libraries
Brooklyn Public Library Free Job Placement & Training / Career Counseling Agencies for Young Adults
Government Agencies
Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), and more about SCSEP on About.com
Michigan Jobs and Career Portal
Online
HP Business Learning Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course Ware
About.com Read more:Skills
, Current
Carnival of Money Stories #33 - Autumn Beauty 2007-11-06 08:00:09 Welcome to the 33rd Edition of the Carnival
of MoneyStories
; a carnival that shares stories about personal experiences or the experiences of others on saving, investing, finance, money management, money generating, business ventures, success and tales of struggle. There were many great submissions from PF Bloggers around the world, so let’s begin
Photo by Pinyo
Editor’s picks
The Dough Roller presents What A Financially Painful Childhood Can Teach You about Money posted at The Dough Roller — DR recounts his childhood stories of broken family and financial hardship that helped make him better with money as an adult — A truly touching story. DR also shares a great quote: “We are the sum of our circumstances multiplied by our choices.“
Glblguy presents To Whomever Stole My Debit Card posted at Gather Little By Little — One family’s vacation ruined when their only debit card was lost.
Melissa presents Don’t Get Me Anything = You Better Read more:Autumn
, Beauty
10 Reasons to have an Emergency Fund 2007-11-05 08:00:36 Many financial professionals and experts advocate that we keep at least 3 months of living expenses in liquid investments such as CD, money market, and high-yield savings. If you have any doubt regarding the validity of this advice, here are 10 reasons that may change your mind.
Photo from morgueFile
If you are in a money crunch…
Your friends could be just as broke, and you could ruin a good friendship over money.
You can only ask so much from your family. You don’t want to be the person that everyone shies away from during the family reunion.
Charging your credit cards without a good payoff plan is a path to financial imprisonment.
Payday loans are worse than credit cards. They charge exorbitant amount of interest and fee to lend you money for a few days.
It’s not fun to liquidate your investment in the middle of a market correction.
Borrowing from 401k will result in double-tax penalty, stunt your retirement growth, and may result in early withdrawal penalty if Read more:Reasons
, Emergency
Moolanomy weekly roundup #15: “Habits” edition 2007-11-04 08:00:46 As you can see, I have adjusted my sidebar a little and split it in two halves — I hope you like the new design. I wonder what the original template designer think about all the changes I have made so far. I will be hosting the Carnival of Money Stories #33 on November 6th, and I look forward to your submission. Now for the roundup…
The Roundup:
This week roundup is about fighting the inner demon called Habit — no, not Hobbit.
Slipping back into bad habits….ALMOST! @ Single Guy Money –I’ve got one of those Blackberry phone from work, and I can tell you that you are not missing much. It’s like being on-call 24/7.
Old Habits Sure Do Die Hard @ Gather Little By Little — I agree that old habits die hard (that’s why it’s called habits).
How to Develop the Habit of Spending Less Than You Make @ The Dough Roller — Excellent list of 7 suggestions to help us develop the good habit of spending less than we earn.
Frugality by
My Cars and My Life 2007-11-12 09:57:30 This article is part of the M-Network group writing project about cars and what they meant to us. This series will run from November 12th through the 16th, and we welcome you to share your stories with us.
At first, I was going to launch into this long history about how I loved the Transformers cartoon, built cars with LEGO(R) blocks, and learned how to drive when I was 9. But I figured a long blog post would just bore you to death. So, I will just jump right in and tell you my thoughts on car:
Always Buy Used. My motto used to be “Always Buy Used American, or New Japanese.” I think American cars depreciate a lot during the first 2-3 years so there are plenty of good deals out there. On the other hand, Japanese cars retain their value so well that I would spend the extra money to get a brand new car. However, ever since I started this blog, my stance has shifted to “Always Buy Used.” Buying used has several advantages:
You can save 20% or more buying us
Moolanomy weekly roundup #16: “Money Saving Tips” edition 2007-11-11 11:00:57 This is a great week for money saving ideas. On Friday, I wrote about how I saved $50 a month by switching from Time Warner to Verizon Triple Play, and then there’s a whole slew of posts about money saving ideas from the M-Network. Before I go to these posts, I just want to summarize a few events that were just announced, or are coming up.
We now have “Ask The Expert” feature where you can send your questions to Larry Swedroe
Nov 12th to 16th - the M-network and friends will be writing about our cars, please come back Monday to find out more.
Nov 15th to 30th - I will be hosting writing project with 5 books giveaway.
Nov 19th - I will be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance
Dec 3rd - I will be hosting the Investors Blog Network Festival
Jan 1st - I will be hosting the Festival of Frugality
MoneySaving
Tips Roundup
6 Tips for a Debt Free Christmas @ ChristianPF
50 Frugal Christmas Ideas @ Being Frugal
51 Painless Money-Saving Tips @ The Dough Roller —
Loyalty Is Dead, It’s Better To Be A New Customer 2007-11-09 08:00:52 Did you know that you can get things for cheaper and better by making a couple of phone calls and ask? That’s right. You could be paying premium for antiquated and inferior services right now. As part of the Reduce a Bill Challenge at Working For Financial Freedom, I’d like to share this story with you.
Usually, I am lazy enough to leave things alone — hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This was true until a few months ago when our phone died, and Verizon wanted to charge something ridiculous to come out and fix the problem. As a result, I decided to try out the digital phone service offered by Time Warner. This move didn’t lower the base charge, but it did offer several advantages:
Saved $5 off the taxes and fees
Consolidated 3 bills (Time Warner, Verizon, and MCI) into one
Free long distance within the U.S., 24/7
Free call waiting and caller ID
Things were relative good for a while, except the minor voice quality problem. Then our digital p Read more:Loyalty
, Customer
Ask The Expert With Larry Swedroe 2007-11-08 08:00:27 Last month, I reviewed Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry
Swedroe’s Tales to Enrich Your Future. Over the weekend, we happened to exchange some emails, and as a result, Mr. Swedroe had offered to write a monthly Asked The Expert
column for Moolanomy! If you are looking for a second opinion, and want to hear his insight, please use the contact form below to send in your question.
If your question is selected, your question along with Mr. Swedroe’s answer will be posted here (schedule to be determined). Please indicate if you would like to be anonymous; otherwise, we will publish your first name along with the post.
About Larry Swedroe
Larry Swedroe is a Principal and Director of Research for Buckingham Asset Management Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor firm in St. Louis, Missouri. He is also a Principal of BAM Advisor Services LLC, a service provider to CPA investment advisors across the country.
Previously, Larry was Vice-Chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage. He has held
Putting Credit Cards to Work for You (GP) 2007-11-16 08:00:27 About the Author
Stephen Bishop Jr. is a contributing editor for Apex Credit Cards
, a site that provides comparisons on a wide range of credit card offers. ApexCreditCards.com also features consumer credit card reviews and articles from experts in the industry.
Credit cards can be extremely beneficial to individuals and even small business owners. Then again, many can tell or have at least heard of one credit card horror story. Either way you look at it, a responsible and well disciplined person can use credit cards and their perks to their advantage.
Photo by Ian Britton via FreeFoto.com
Benefits of Credit Card Usage and Good Credit Score
One of the most beneficial aspects of credit card usage is your credit score. So how can a high credit score work for you?
These days, interest rates on auto and home loans can be highly affected by your credit. It is simply amazing how raising your credit score just slightly can save you a bundle of money.
Also, insurers may base their cover Read more:Putting
Giveaway: Share Your Investing Story for a Chance to Win a Book 2007-11-15 08:00:51 Today, Moolanomy turns exactly 4 months old. To celebrate this occasion, I am holding a contest to give away Wise Investing
Made Simple to 5 lucky winners. In case you don’t know, Larry Swedroe, an investing expert who offered to write a monthly Q&A “Ask The Expert” column for Moolanomy wrote this fine book.
There are two ways to enter
To enter, you’ll need to share your personal investing story…good, bad, or ugly.
Do you have a wildly successful investing experience? Did your investment bomb and you swear never to go near the stock market again? Did you have your entire retirement invested in Enron? What about the first time you tried your hand at investing?
If you have a blog, write a post sharing your personal investing story. When you’ve finished, contact me with the URL, or send a trackback directly from your post. Note, I will not accept stories written prior to the publication of this contest.
If you don’t have a blog, you can simply sh Read more:Share
Review of Moolanomy at Chance Favors by Ciaran McKeever 2007-11-14 11:00:12 I know this is going to be a good day when I woke up to see a glowing review of Moolanomy at Chance Favors by Ciaran McKeever; especially, when the other two blogs he previously reviewed were Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar.
Ciaran McKeever is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and President of McKeever Wealth Management. What does this means? This means he knows his money stuff a lot better than a typical personal finance blogger like me. Here is a quick blurb about his blog:
“Chance Favors hopes to educate, encourage and empower those in their 30’s and 40’s to achieve financial independence. There’s a heavy focus on all things Roth IRA, with special attention given to the upcoming 2010 Roth conversion event using ‘down home’ financial planning tools.”
Coincidentally, we both start to blog about the same time and live in the same region. Perhaps when I saved my first $1 million, I will give Ciaran a call for some wealth m
I Just Saved A Bunch Of Money On My Insurance 2007-11-13 08:00:14 “I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO.” I am sure you heard that famous line before. In this post, I will share my story about how I saved $1,145 per year, or 30% off my original insurance bills — and it wasn’t with GEICO.
Photo by Pinyo
It all started about 3 weeks ago when I received my renewal notice from Allstate. Allstate wanted $1,312 per year to insure my 2100 sq. ft. home with a dwelling protection of $362,000, plus $342 for other valuables. It was quite a shock simply because I didn’t want to spend that much money right now. Surely, I can get someone else to insure my home for less.
I started by doing some searches on Google and found NetQuote. I entered all my information, and it told me that agents from Liberty Mutual and Start Farm would be contacting me. I was disappointed, because I thought I was going to get a real-time quote online. Anyway, both agents did call me. They were both very nice, an Read more:Bunch
, Money
How Much Should We Invest Internationally? 2007-11-21 08:00:23 First, I want to declare that I know little about world economy, but I am intrigued by it. I am writing this in hope that you (my readers) can pitch in with your thoughts on this. So let’s get started… Last week, I asked my readers What’s Wrong with this 401k Asset Allocation? In the post, SJean commented that “25% international is risky” — a sentiment that is shared by a few other commenters. So the question I want to ask today is:
How much should we invest internationally?
Photo from NASA
A quick search landed me on The Digerati Life where she offers a chart that shows foreign exposure from 25% as “aggressive”, down to 0% a “very conservation”. In it, she also offers 5 points on the risk and cost involved.
As I continued my search, I also found this cool The U.S. Economic Map Vs. The World at The Global Guru. I don’t have the permission to show the map here, but you should give the article a read. This article Read more:Internationally
22 Money Maximizing Moves You Can Do Today 2007-11-20 09:10:22 Now that the benefits enrollment for my company is over, I can start thinking about things that I could do before the end of the year to make my money work harder for me. Here are 22 ideas that I want to share with you.
Photo from morgueFile
Boost 401k contribution – I think I will hit the 2007 maximum contribution limit of $15,500; otherwise, I would consider bumping up my contribution before the year is over. The contribution is 100% tax deductible. Remember if you are 50 years or older, you can contribute additional $5,000 in catch up contribution.
Pay property taxes due next year – I pay my real estate tax quarterly. However, I can pay property taxes due in January 2008 before December 31st, and claim taxes paid as deduction against 2007 income tax.
Pay January 2008 mortgage in December 2007 – Likewise, this allows me to deduct mortgage interest paid against my 2007 income tax instead of waiting for 2008.
Sell the losers – Due to the recent weakness in Read more:Money
, Today
Carnival of Personal Finance #127 - Wonders of the World 2007-11-19 08:00:39 I found this great list on Wonders
of the World
so this week carnival will be based on wondrous things in the world. There are a lot of submissions this weekend but I did manage to read through them all, and could certify their high quality. I list these in the order in which they were submitted and according to the category; so late submissions appear toward the bottom of each category.
The Great Wall of China via morgueFile
Editor’s Top 10 Picks
Out of all the submissions, I thought these were some of the more creative, unique and informative posts.
Raising4Boys presents What’s the Right Age to Start an Allowance? — Dad offers an excellent framework on giving out allowance. This systems teaches savings, charity, match fund, and even “live within your mean” — awesome!
Cash Money Life presents A Penny Saved is Worth More Than a Penny Earned — Patrick offers a great build on the saying popularized by Benjamin Franklin: “A penny saved i Read more:Carnival
, Personal
7 Steps Debt Reduction Illustrated 2007-11-28 08:00:14 1. You owe money on 4 credit cards. Oh, oh!
Note: The 1st number is the balance, 2nd number is the credit limit, and 3rd number is the interest rate
2. Call for lower interest and “no fee 0% APR” transfer
Call each company and ask for a lower interest rate; also check if they will offer you a “no fee 0% APR” transfer*. If the first rep won’t budge, hang up and call again. There are good reps and bad reps, you don’t want to waste time with the bad ones.
If a company gives you a better offer, feel free to share that information with the others — it might motivate them to be more generous.
* If you can get a “no payment” grace period (i.e., no payment for 12 months), that’s even better!
Tips:
Don’t limit yourself to credit card companies, seek out other lenders who might offer you a better deal — i.e., credit union, bank loan, Prosper, etc.
If your existing credit card companies refuse, you might try applying for a new card that w Read more:Illustrated
Using Pareto Principle to Improve Personal Finance 2007-11-27 08:00:14 The ParetoPrinciple
, also known as the 80-20 rule or the law of the vital few, is an observation that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. I often use the Pareto Principle in my job, especially when we work on quality or process improvement projects. A nice thing about Pareto is that we can apply it to almost anything. Today, I will demonstrate how to use the Pareto Principle to improve our finances.
The graph above shows my semi-accurate household expenses in percentages based on the way I categorized them. If you are disciplined about budgeting, you will have this number handy, and can create a similar graph based on your categories. Unlike, typical budget numbers, this graph is organized from the highest to the lowest category.
Visual Revelation
Immediately, the graph (also known as the Pareto Chart) says something about my priorities and value. For instance,
I am a saver. I save more than 13% of my income toward retirement — compares to the U.S. Personal
S Read more:Improve
Transforming Goals Into Actions 2007-11-26 08:00:47 I have to admit that when I first start this blog, I didn’t have a solid goal. The truth is that I had just finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and felt motivated to improve my finances. I used to have a meta-blog (blog about blogging) and recognize how proficient I became with that subject. I thought it was a good idea to start a blog about personal finance to hone my money skills. I also knew that I can make decent money selling advertisement on my blog, and if I do it right, the blog itself could be worth something.
So there you have it. I am blogging because I want to learn more about money and build a source of alternative income.
Photo by Kyle Stauffer via Flickr
Now, blogging has a very low cost of entry and low risk, so I was able to jump in without a formal business plan. If this was a more traditional business like starting a McDonald’s franchise, I wouldn’t have jumped in like this. I would have consulted the Small Business Administration, take ad Read more:Goals
, Actions
Moolanomy weekly roundup #16: “Prosper” edition 2007-11-25 08:00:08 Ever since Prosper signed up as an advertiser on Moolanomy, I have been thinking about lending out money on Prosper as a way to build alternative income. Looking around the web, this seems to be a legitimate way of growing my money without relying on the stock market. Here are some excerpts from other web sites:
Lazy Man and Money has a Prosper.com account that is worth over $9,800, and he continues to reinvest payments from other loans into it.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich suggested Prosper to his friend.
Blunt Money also recently took the plunge and signed up for Prosper.
Chief Family Office is thinking about expanding her investment to include a small $50 lending account on Prosper.
My Money Blog has a lively discussion about the pluses and minuses of Prosper (the meat is in the comments).
Get Rich Slowly Forums has a discussion on the intricacies of Prosper interest calculation.
Hyve Up has a video of Chris Larsen, CEO of Prosper.com.
From the M-Network and friends:
The Two Saf
Public Declaration 2007-11-23 08:00:54 A while ago Brip Blap started a PublicDeclaration
Meme, and challenged a few friends to declare something publicly — great for accountability by the way! In this post, I commit publicly to…
…hug my parents every day…
Photo of Pinyo and nephew by his wife
When we were young, our parents held us and nurtured us — pretty much the same way I held my nephew in the photo. As we grow older things change at a different pace for each of us. Some remain very close to their parents, and they never lose that childhood intimacy. Some simply show less affection, although their loves remain strong. Some grow aloof. And most unfortunate of all, some become estranged and get to the point where they don’t even talk to each other.
For me, I don’t show enough affection, and I think that’s sad because they are some of the most important and loved people in my life. Sometimes we let little things take precedence over big things in life:
When did a golf g
What Difference Does A Decade Make? 2007-12-04 08:00:43 In “7 Costly Retirement Savings Mistakes to Avoid,” I had mentioned that waiting too long is the number one mistake. I am afraid I didn’t demonstrate it well, so here is a different look at the concept.
Assume that in each scenario, the investment grows at 10% per year*.
* Based on historical data, investment gain averaging 10% per year is feasible.
Investor A started saving and investing $4,000 per year when he was 25 years old. By the time he was 35 years old, he had already saved $82,000. When he is ready to retire at the age of 65, he will have accumulated $2.1 millions dollars.
Investor B didn’t start early. When he saw that investor A had accumulated $82,000, he wanted the same for himself. At the age of 35, he started savings and investing $4,000 per year just like his friend. When he turns 65 years old, he will only have $800,000. In essence, a decade cost him over $1.3 million dollars.
Investor C also wants in after he witnessed his friend succ
Winners of Wise Investing Made Simple Giveaway 2007-12-02 08:00:57 On November 15th, I announced that I was holding a contest to give away Wise Investing
Made Simple
to 5 lucky winners. There were 20 submissions in total, so the odd of winning was really good at 1:4. To pick the winners, I used the random number generator found at Psychic Science. Don’t ask me why, it turns out to be one of the most practical one to use, so I used it.
According to the participants list below, the winners are:
Being Frugal (#2)
Smart Healthy Rich (#4)
Credit Withdrawal (#5)
The Dividend Guy (#12)
Remodeling This Life (#19)
Congratulation, and thank you for your participation! If you haven’t read these excellent stories, I encourage you to give them a visit.
Participants list
My Spouse’s 401K ~ What It Really Means @ I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
My Only Investing Experience @ BeingFrugal.net
My Personal Story: Background, Taxes, First IRA @ My Dollar Plan
Investing a Large Inheritance @ Smart Healthy Rich
Losing My (Investing) Virgi Read more:Winners
Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #18 2007-12-03 08:00:07 Welcome to the Investors
Blog Network (IBN) Festival
#18. This carnival is a bi-weekly collection of commentary on personal finance, investing, and other business related topics. Articles are collected from member blogs of the Investors Blog Network (IBN).
Photo by Ken Kiser via morgueFile
Editor’s Top 5 Picks
A Great Way to Change Your Portfolio @ Free Money Finance — Excellent idea to rebalance your portfolio without incurring any capital gains tax, and getting tax deduction instead.
8 Reasons Why the Dollar Will Continue to Fall @ Invest with Dax — Great post about the weakening Dollar and 8 reasons why it will continue to drop.
How to Make Money Off Interest Free Credit Card Offers @ Bentley Humphreys — A very thorough and interesting discussion of the credit card arbitrage game. How would you like to make some free money?
Collateralized Debt Obligations - What the Heck Are They, How Do They Affect You, and Why (The He…) Should You Care? @ Debt Free &#
November 2007 Site and Net Worth Review (-0.39%) 2007-12-01 08:00:40 November was a very volatile month for the stock market with pressure from the oil price, sub prime mortgages, and foreclosure problems. The negativity was further fueled by bad news from companies like Citigroup and E*Trade. As a result, the S&P 500 index dropped -4.40% from 1,549.38 to 1,481.14.
According to NetworthIQ, my net worth declined by -0.39%, and my liquid assets went down by -2.76% from 24.31% to 23.64% of $1 million goal.
Financial highlights:
We are now a single income family, since my wife stopped working to get ready for childbirth.
We continue to add $425 a month to our son’s 529 college savings plan; and it’s now up to $929. We are planning to contribute the difference before the end of the year to reach our $5,000 contribution goal.
Big purchases this month included a roomful of baby stuff — e.g., crib, beddings, changing table/cabinet, stroller, etc. Luckily, my sister gave us a lot of hands me down from our 2 years old nephew.
My reti Read more:November
, Worth
, Net Worth
My 2008 Financial Resolution and a Chance to Win an iPod! 2007-11-29 08:00:31 Cash Money Life is running a contest Share Your 2008 FinancialResolution
for a Chance to Win an iPod
! that will end December 4th at 11:59 PM, Eastern Daylight Saving Time. I never own an iPod before, so I am going to give this a try.
My best friend and his wife recently bought me the An Inconvenient Truth DVD and book by Al Gore for my birthday. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I love the DVD. So, I am going to kill two birds with one stone and make this 2008 financial resolution about saving money and the environment.
Photo of 4GB iPod Nano via Amazon.com
Currently, there are 5 people living in our 2,100 sq. ft. house (not including the constant stream of welcomed visitors). Each month, I am paying on average about $350 in utilities; broken down as $175 for natural gas, $125 for electricity, and $50 for water.
My 2008 goal is…
To reduce our household utilities expenses on average by 10%, or $35 dollar per month, by December 2008. I am planning to accomplish this by d
10 "Preparing For Baby" Tips For the Frugal-Minded (GP) 2007-12-13 08:00:04 About the Author: Paidtwice blogs about frugality, budgeting, and her family’s journey out of significant debt at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already. If you enjoyed this post, give her RSS feed a try!
+ + +
As his readers most likely know, Pinyo and his wife are expecting a baby. In fact, why you’re seeing this post I wrote for Pinyo is most likely because they’ve had the baby and are off in the hospital or at home enjoying their new little bundle of joy. Having had two babies of my own, I’ve picked up a few tips on saving money in feeding, clothing, and raising your new bundle of joy — at least in the beginning. Babies are expensive — it is just a fact of life. But they don’t have to be as expensive as you think.
Photo of Pinyo and nephew taken by his wife
1. Tell everyone you know you are having a baby
Seriously — people love babies. People love buying things for babies. No, not everyone, but a LOT of people. I got gifts Read more:Frugal
12 Investing Mistakes I've Made, and How You Can Learn From Them (Reprint) 2007-12-12 08:00:02 This is my guest post that appeared on Get Rich Slowly on September 26, 2007.
I've been investing since 1996. In the process, I have learned a lot, mainly from trial and error. I'd like to share my experience with you. Here are some of the mistakes I've made:
Not investing soon enough — I have been working part-time since my first year at college in 1991. If I had known what I know today, I would have invested my money in an IRA from day one. But like many other young adults, I was thrilled to have money and to spend it all on things that I enjoyed — movies, games, electronics, etc. If I had invested just $2,000 per year while I was in college, that $8,000 invested in an S&P 500 index fund would be worth about $36,000 today.
Not knowing the basics— When I finally began investing, my first move was to give my money to a full brokerage firm to invest for me. I didn't know anything about stocks or mutual funds. I just knew I should invest money to make more money. Thi Read more:Investing
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