Mathew
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Homepage: http://www.moneybeat.info
The 1% More Savings Calculator
Posted in Saving on August 2, 2011
Need some motivation to help you save a little more from your paycheck? The New York Times has a nice calculator that will show you exactly how increasing your savings by just 1% can make a significant difference over time. One thing to note, by default they have the “expected annual return” set to 5%. I’m not aware of any savings accounts that currently offer that kind of interest rate, so you’ll want to move that slider to whatever your savings/money market/CD is earning for you.
Increasing your savings by one more percentage point – or even better, another percentage point a year – can add up to big additional savings over time.
Monday Money – August 1st, 2011
Posted in Monday Money on August 1, 2011
Going to try a regular feature here. Monday mornings tend to have an influx in articles and blog posts, since most journalists and bloggers try to take some time off on the weekends. Every week, I’ll post a roundup of some of the articles I’ve found interesting and helpful.
Our First of the Month Financial Routine | Frugal Dad – Read about Frugal Dad’s beginning-of-the-month routine. Some neat ideas I’m interested in trying out.
New Report Reveals Consumer Confusion in the Credit Score Marketplace | MintLife Blog – With more and more websites offering “free” credit scores, it’s important to know what you’re getting.
“Piggybacking” can pose a serious risk | Ask Liz Weston – Things to know about adding an authorized user to your credit card.
The Federal Debt: When Compound Interest Is Crushing | The New York Times Bucks Blog – The harsh reality of compound interest.
If you’ve found any useful or interesting articles around the web, share them in the comments.
Back-to-School Shopping
Posted in Shopping on August 1, 2011
Get Rich Slowly outlines plenty of ways to save money on your back-to-school shopping. My kids aren’t quite at the school age yet, but I still found this post interesting. I’ll definitely be revisiting this post in the future, when back-to-school shopping is on the agenda. The following quotes were quite surprising to me:
According to the National Retail Federation, we’ll spend $68.8 billion outfitting our students for school this year. Yes, I said $68.8 billion. Sounds like a lot of money, right? But the NRF actually considers this “flat.”
The NRF notes that families with kids in elementary and secondary school spend an average of $603, and parents of college students fork over about $808. This includes clothing and electronics as well as notebook paper.
How Debt Impacts Your Net Worth
Posted in Knowledge on July 29, 2011
For many people, the word “debt” always carries a negative connotation. This post by Credit Sesame on the MintLife Blog puts the concept of debt into perspective. If used properly and under the right circumstances, debt can actually increase your net worth. From the article:
Don’t blame debt. It’s not debt that is bad. It is how you use it that matters.
Here are some tips on managing your debt so that it doesn’t end up hurting your net worth.
-When financing, investments are the only thing that can have a positive impact on net worth
-Never finance any item that is consumed immediately (e.g. dinner, vacations, etc.)
-Durable consumer purchases (e.g. TVs, cars, iPads, etc.) can never improve your net worth because they depreciate
-Always factor finance costs into the cost of a financed consumer purchase
-Debt used to finance consumer purchase should be repaid before the you stop enjoying the benefit.
Be sure to read the full article. Also, Mint has some great tools for tracking your net worth. Read my previous post explaining why I use Mint to manage and track my finances.
via How Debt Impacts Your Net Worth | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice.
Estate Planning
Posted in Planning on July 29, 2011
A recent article from Get Rich Slowly poses a very important question:
What would happen if you, your spouse, a parent, someone who you shared a financial life with died today? Not next week after the car payment is sent in. Not next month when you’ve finally gotten around to writing down all of your passwords and account numbers. Not next year when you’ve updated your will. What would happen if they died today?
When I read this, I didn’t have a good answer to the question. I still don’t. I handle nearly all of the finances in our marriage. Most of our finances are automated at this point, but there are still aspects of our financial life that my wife is probably unaware of, or under-informed about. I realized I have some work to do in order to ensure that things would be able to continue as smoothly as possible if this unfortunate situation were to come about.
Where would you be in this scenario?
via Reader Story: Estate Planning – The First Month | Get Rich Slowly
