All posts by Jacob A Irwin
Balancing Frugality With Fun
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The following guest post is part of the Yakezie blog swap. In this monthly event, Yakezie participants pair up and exchange articles on a common topic. For May, we are trading posts on the common topic of balancing frugality and fun. This article was written by Ashley over at Money Talks. If you enjoy it, you can subscribe to her feed or follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Enjoy!
You can view my swap post over at Money Talks today at the following link – Balancing Frugality With Fun.
Balancing frugality and fun relies on one tactic. It requires focusing on the people in your life rather than your stuff.
You can spend all of the money in the world, but if you have to spend that money alone, it wouldn’t be very much fun. Conversely, being in a room with your favorite people can be a blast and cost nothing.
When you look back at your fondest memories, they include the people you were with, right? You might not remember how much dinner cost, or what you were wearing, but you remember who was there. You remember the jokes, the laughter, the good times. Those things are free.
Being Frugal With Friends
A good friend is the most valuable thing you have, and it costs nothing to obtain. A smile, a joke, and a kind gesture are all free. Good friends help you to be happier, healthier, and will help you live longer. These amazing benefits can be had for free!
However, even in friendship, you have to watch your wallet. Some friendships are based on spending money together. Be careful of this. If your friend always wants to spend money or pressures you into buying the latest iPhone or Dolce and Gabbana purse, then you need to mindful. Breaking the budget in the name of friendship might be fun, but it isn’t frugal.
I had a friend that liked to meet for lunch. If you’ve known me for 5 minutes, then you know I like to eat out, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she always picked expensive places. This is fine every once in a while, but I couldn’t pull it off every week.
So, sometimes, I would have to suggest pizza instead of the new trendy place. Or, I would even invite her over to my place for lunch once in a while. The point wasn’t the lunch, the point was spending time together. Lunch just facilitated us hanging out. I didn’t see my friend as an excuse to eat lunch out. Lunch was an excuse to see my friend. If you keep the emphasis on the friendship instead of the lunch, you can balance frugality and fun.
Frugality and After School Activities
After school activities for the kids are another place where you have to be careful to balance the frugality with the fun. You sign them up because you think it will be fun. You knew you would have to pay the initial fee, but then you are buying equipment, uniforms, snacks, chipping in for gifts, for the coach, transporting kids all over town, throwing team parties, buying professional pictures, and it seems like it never ends.
Help your wallet and your kid’s expectations of money by keeping the focus on the activity. Why did you sign up for the activity? Stay focused on that. Was it to meet people in the area or was it to learn a sport? Don’t get sidetracked. If the goal was to learn the sport, then stay with that. Do you need to throw a party to learn a sport? Do you need professional pictures? Do you need special pants? If the fun was to play baseball, then balance the frugality by cutting out the extras.
Being frugal doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. The spirit of frugality is to get the most out of your money. I certainly don’t think you are getting the most out of your money if you aren’t having fun. When you only spend money on the things that matter you can have more fun. You can spend those dollars where they will give you the most happiness. Being frugal means you can have more lunches with friends and more activities for your kids.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. To close, I’ll leave you with an insightful quote I found!
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy. – Author Unknown
How about you all? How do you balance frugality and fun? Do you know any one that does either a really BAD job or a really GOOD job at this? What do they do?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- Great post Ashley! Thanks so much for your contributions!
- @ Being frugal with friends – Friends can either be a great source of improvement or destruction for your finances. And, it really all just depends on who they are.
- I know quite a few people that seem to either 1) go out to bars or 2) go shopping at the mall when they are around certain friends. It’s almost like that’s just the default thing that they feel comfortable doing around each other.
- As you can imagine, whenever they go on these outings, it always hurts the wallet!
- @ Balancing frugality with after school activities – This is definitely a tough one! This is mainly due to the fact that you would prefer your son/daughter to be outside or doing these activities as opposed to being stuck at home playing PSIII or Nintendo Wii.
- However, the cost for these sports definitely ads up! With all of the sports I played growing up (baseball, cycling, and cross country), there was definitely a lot of cost involved.
- We did try to keep the spending to things centered around enabling me to excel at the sport and less on the ancillary, non-essential things, which I think helped.
- Also, I know that sometimes, kids can jump in to a certain activity “full-bore” only to get tired of it several months down the road. If you can wait until the child is certain that he or she will be committed long term to the activity, that can help save money as well.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/ventsislav/2524315816/
Is It Cheaper To Be a Man or a Woman (or Girl/Guy, Depending on Your Age)?
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I’ve got a couple of questions for you all today, folks. Is it cheaper to be a girl or a guy in today’s society? Is it cheaper to raise a guy or a girl?
I recently told my girlfriend my idea for this post, and she immediately said, “It’s loads more expensive to be/raise a girl! Are you nuts? How is that even a question?”
So, even though the answer to this question may seem apparent to some, let’s do our due-diligence and find out once and for all if it’s cheaper to be guy or a girl.
In doing some quick research, I couldn’t find any definitive studies on this subject. However, there was some good general guidance out there about the types of things that guys/girls have to spend money on.
Let’s take a look at some of these to see if we can find a concrete answer!
- Cars/Car Insurance
- It’s a well known fact that girls have cheaper car insurance than guys. I think this is because girls tend to get in to smaller, more frequent accidents, but when guys get in to accidents, they are more likely to be making a HUGE error and total the car.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Clothes/Shoes
- There is no question in my mind that girls spend more on clothes and shoes. Guys wear the same clothes for years and have 4 pairs of shoes (brown, black, sandals, and running shoes). Girls have 10^100000 pairs of shoes. One for every outfit.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a guy.
- Dating
- The generally accepted practice in today’s dating culture is for the guy to pay for the date. Both guys and girls probably buy about the same amount on birthday/Xmas presents. However, guys also have to pay for Valentine’s Day ideas and other random gifts/flowers (even if you get them discounted like I do from 1-800-Flowers.com) that cause the overall cost to go up.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Marriage
- The guy has to buy the engagement ring. Sadly, the generally accepted practice for this is to spend about 1 month’s salary on this (if you make $60,000 a year, this amounts to $5000). So, this causes the price of being a guy to go up.
- When it comes to the actual wedding, the girl’s parents usually pay twice as much as the guy’s parents.
- Winner = Tie. Cheaper to have a guy as a child, but cheaper to be the girl getting married.
- Food/Drink
- Guys definitely eat more. However, I feel like girls tend to eat higher quality/expensive food. But, I think that guys tend to eat out more often, driving the cost up.
- In addition, guys tend to be the “providers/buyers” of drinks at parties and bars. This also drives up the cost of being a guy.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Hygiene
- Since girls wear makeup, I believe that this drives the comparative costs up.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a guy.
- Sports
- This category is a tough call, as I think that for the most part, it is equal between boys and girls.
- However, I think that our culture places more importance on guys playing sports (for better or for worse). Therefore, guys are more apt to be involved in multiple sports.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Personal note – It was probably my sports of baseball and cycling that made me slightly more expensive to raise than my sister growing up. This was due to the fact that competitive cycling required a lot of expensive equipment (think multiple thousand Dollar bikes, shoes, wheels, etc) and the traveling that was involved.
How about you all? What do you think? Is it more expensive to raise a boy or a girl? Is it more expensive to be a girl or a guy? Did I leave out any big categories of spending?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/4915591835_721ab43540.jpg
My Current Asset Allocation and Net Worth Growth – April 2011
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Overall, the 1st half of 2011 continues to go very well.
The market continues to trend upwards, and investors are enjoying some nice gains in their portfolios. Here in Virginia, it feels that summer is almost upon us (inspired picture at right). You can smell the barbecues cooking on your way home, and neighborhood pools are beginning to open. For me, summer means a couple things – trail running, hiking, camping, and road biking!
However, I’m getting off track here. You all stopped by for the net worth growth update!
Net Worth Growth (not including condo)
From April 1st, 2011 (when the last portfolio update was published – see link below for more information) to 29-April-2011, the S&P 500 index went up by 2.85%. Pretty nice little run for a month, eh?! Let’s hope it keeps up!
My Personal Finance Journey – January-March, 2011 Portfolio and Net Worth
During that time period, my net worth (excluding condo ownership) increased by 2.55%.
Condo Equity Growth
Currently, I have 10.7% home ownership in my condo (up from 9% at the end of December, 2010), with this accounting for 26% of my real net worth (so net worth subtracting the condo loan – this is different from the net worth above).
I have now achieved the following financial goals in 2011. I have done quite well I think – thanks to everyone’s help for keeping me motivated and accountable!
- Am maintaining a my target of 6-9 months of expenses in a cash reserve fund in my Dollar Savings Direct high yield online savings account.
- Have rebalanced my mutual fund portfolio to meet my asset allocation target %’s (75% equity, 25% fixed income overall)
- Have donated $1,300 to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in 2011 (5% of income).
For a detailed list of my short term, mid term, and long term financial goals, click on the link below:
My Personal Finance Journey – Financial Goals
Review of Current Asset Allocation (excludes condo)
- Overall Fixed Income / Equity Allocation
- Currently, 24% of my net worth is invested in fixed income instruments (cash or bond funds), and 76% is invested in equity.
- This is almost perfectly aligned with my targets for these categories of 25% (fixed income) and 75% (equity).
- Equity Allocation
- In the equity portion of my portfolio, 73% is invested in US Domestic Equities with the remaining 27% being held in international equities.
- This is almost perfectly aligned with my equity breakdown targets of 71% and 29%, respectively, for US Domestic and international holdings.
While the overall percentages for these categories looks pretty good, a detailed look (table below) at the allocation breakdown reveals the real story and provides for better analysis of the current state.
Remember: a red flag goes off if your current % allocation in a category is greater than +/- 5% off of the target allocation. This is my trigger that I need to rebalance that aspect of my portfolio.
% Cash (money market target 5%) 7%
% non-inflat Bond Funds (target 15%) 14%
% TIPS Bonds (target 5%) 3%
% International Equity (Target 11%) 11%
% International Emerging Markets (Target 11%) 10%
% Domestic Large Cap (Target 8%) 8%
% Domestic Small Cap (Target 8%) 9%
% Domestic Small Cap Value (Target 14%) 15%
% Domestic Large Cap Value (Target 13%) 14%
% REIT (target 10%) 9%
Analyzing my current asset allocation percentages, it appears that I am lucky enough to be exactly on target with all of my asset classes (within +/- 5% banding) .Therefore, no rebalancing is required. Always a good thing!
My next moves for the May-June, 2011 time frame will be to do the following:
- Continue contributing to my Roth IRA for the 2011 year. I only need to contribute $1450 more to fully fund it for 2011.
- After fully funding my Roth IRA, any extra money I have will most likely go towards paying off my condo loan and obtaining even more equity in that investment. The only other option I would have is to invest in my individual mutual fund (taxable) account. But, I feel that it would be a more efficient use of my time to build up more equity in my condo. What do you all think?
- Continue investing $41.67 each month in microloans to help the working poor in Peru. This is part of my 2011 goal of having $500 in microloans.
- Try to reach and pass my $5000 fundraising goal for the Multiple Sclerosis bike ride I am doing in June of this year. Currently, we have reached $5,000 (including company matches), but let’s keep it going! If you are interested in making just a $10 donation, click here.
Wish List
- At some point, purchase the Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx (MUTF:VTSMX) to replace S&P 500 index fund. This gives better, broader diversification to the US stock market.
- Install a stacked washer/dryer combination unit in to my condominium. This one will be a long shot, but it just may be possible! More than likely, this will be something that I will do in 2012.
How about you all? How did you progress with your net worth in April 2011? What are your thoughts about the strength of the market?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2225/2038075453_65b965fb97.jpg
Would You Have Locked In a 13.5% Fixed Rate Investment in the 1980’s?
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My my my. I think we all have and will always have a special place in our hearts for the 1980’s. Any decade that produced Back To The Future, one of the best movie series ever made, has got to be awesome! Not only that, 1980’s/Back To The Future gave us 2 minutes of the best Biff insults of all time. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the video clip below!
But, before the 1980’s made like a tree and got outta’ here (excuse the Biff line), it also gave us one of the most CRAZY and random music videos I have ever seen in Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Just take a look at the video below. This video has slow motion doves, football players, ninjas, fencers, and preppy guys making a wine toast!
Interest and Inflation Rates During the 1980’s
Aside from these unforgettable media contributions, the 1980’s was also a time of incredibly high interest rates (and indeed inflation as well).
According to Money Cafe’s Prime Rate History page, the prime interest rate (the rate at which banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve) during the 1980’s was well above 10%. In fact, during the early portion of the 80’s, prime interest rates as high as 20% were seen. Now, it’s important to realize that as an investor, you wouldn’t be able to invest money at the prime interest rate (since the banks have to have a spread of around 3% less on investment products in order to make money). However, opening up a fixed income investment at 10% annual interest doesn’t sound too bad at all, right?!
During this same time (according to Jeremy Siegel’s book, Stocks for the Long Run
), the annualized inflation rate was 4-5%. While this is still higher than the average annualized inflation seen from 1888-2001 of 2.68%, it is much lower than I expected it to be. Before beginning to write this post, I was suspecting that inflation was above 10% in the 1980’s.
Applying this knowledge along with the fact that the average nominal return of the stock market since 1888 has been 9.72%, it begs the following question….
Did People Take Advantage of this Situation By Locking in This High Interest Rate for a Long Period of Time? And If Not, What The Heck Were They Thinking?!
In a search for an answer to this question, I reached out to my Dad for some insight.
However, he further went on to explain that what he did do with any of his extra money was to pay off his 14.5% interest rate mortgage taken out in the early 80’s. This definitely was a wise decision, and I do believe that for people that opened up mortgage accounts in the 1980’s, it would have been a better use of your money to pay off your loan, due to high interest rates.
On the other hand, for people that didn’t have a mortgage, it would reason that it would have been a great idea to lock in a 30 year T-bond at a cushy 13.45%, knowing the historical trends.
What Can We Learn From This?
In my opinion, there are some powerful takeaways that we can learn from this analysis. I’ve tried to concisely summarize these below:
- Keep history in mind and don’t doubt it.
- Since 1888, the average inflation rate has only been 2.68% and the average nominal (before inflation) has been 9.72%. Period. End of story.
- Compare current fixed income interest rates to the interest rates on your debt accounts.
- For example, let’s say that I am a 30 year old that has locked in a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at the current national average of 4.62%.
- However, in the year 2015, the world economy goes haywire and inflation goes up to 10%, but the rate on 30 year T-bonds goes up to 13%.
- Since you have locked in a lower rate mortgage, I feel that it would be beneficial for you to invest a substantial amount of money in a fixed rate bond.
- Remember to invest using tax-deferred/favored accounts.
- My Dad’s concerns about the effect of paying taxes on CD investments in the 1980’s is very prudent. However, according to eHow.com, fixed rate investments (CDs and T-bonds) can be housed in IRA accounts. This takes care of the tax worry! Hurray!
How about you all? Did you lock in a high fixed rate investment during the 1980’s? If so, what type and what interest rate did you get? If not, what kept you from doing so?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Carnival of Financial Planning #184 – May 13th, 2011 Edition
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Budgeting and Economics
BIFS presents We Went Over Our Budget | Budgeting In the Fun Stuff posted at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff, saying, “My husband and I have gotten a little lazy with our money. We haven’t gone hog wild, but we’ve definitely loosened the reigns. See what we did right and what we did wrong.”
Judy Blackburn presents Is having an emergency fund essential? posted at Debt Consolidation, saying, “Having an emergency fund is very important in these uncertain times in case of unforeseen issue that might arise.”
Big Cajun Man presents Alcohol + Money = Nothing Good posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “There is a reason that most banks don’t serve liquor, so why do bars have ATM machines?”
Financial Planning
Judy Blackburn presents What You Should Know About Bankruptcy Attorneys posted at Debt Consolidation, saying, “Helping a bankruptcy attorney represent you is the best way to achieve the bankruptcy that you need.”
Frank Knight presents Portfolio Asset Allocation posted at Best Personal Financial Planning Software, saying, “When you are already there and invested in an asset class, you are following a passive asset allocation strategy. Tactical asset allocation strategy advocates suggest that you can anticipate the crowd, but flow-of-funds studies show that almost all tactical asset allocation fund flows are late money flows that chase performance after valuations have already moved.”
Financing a Home
FMF presents The Three Worst Reasons for Buying a Home posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Do not buy a home if any of these three are your reasons for doing so.”
Nathan Richardson presents What Is a Good Credit Score for a Mortgage? posted at Deals & Tips, saying, “Financing a Home in today’s market is tough, especially if your credit score is low. Learn what lenders look for in a mortgage applicant.”
Financing Education
Hussein Sumar presents What is a Federal Pell Grant & How to Apply for Pell Grants? posted at Pell Grant, saying, “The Federal Pell Grant program provides financial aid to low-income & need-based undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students to pay for college expenses. Awards from Federal Pell grants can be used at approximately 5,400 post secondary institutions across America. The Pell grant, unlike student loans, does NOT have to be repaid.”
David Leeman presents How to Afford College, Affording College with Limited Savings posted at Financial Freedom Advantage, saying, “Many families with meager college savings funds are wondering how to afford college for their children. Fortunately, there are creative ways of financing college without breaking the bank.”
Income
The Financial Blogger presents Should I Do A MBA? posted at Experiments in Finance, saying, “Will an MBA increase your income?”
The Financial Blogger presents April Monthly Blog Income Report posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “A look at the income picture from the last month.”
Mike @ DNW presents 3 Reasons to Keep Working posted at Do Not Wait, saying, “Why you might need an income in your retirement years.”
Investing
Consumer Boomer presents Is Commodities Investing Safe? posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Commodities trading is another way to add to ones investing portfolio but, is it safe?”
Tyler presents Dividend Growth Model posted at Dividend Money, saying, “An explanation of how to use the Dividend Growth Model to evaluate stocks and find the right purchase price for those dividend stocks on your watchlist.”
Ken Faulkenberry presents Benefits of Risk Management in Stock Market posted at Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP) Blog, saying, “Risk management in the stock market is an essential part of successful investment management.”
Hussein Sumar presents S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats of 2011 posted at Best Dividend Stocks, saying, “The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index is the most honorable list of dividend paying stocks as measured by the S&P 500 Index that have consistently increased their dividends for the past 25 years, without missing a single dividend payment. The index measures the performance of large cap, blue-chip companies within the S&P 500 that have a market capitalization of at least $3 billion.”
Alexander presents Use Dividend Funds to Build Your Portfolio posted at Dividend Stocks, saying, “Dividend funds are composed of investments that offer regular payouts. There are high dividend funds, funds comprising dividend aristocrats, and other specializations.”
The Skilled Investor presents Market Timing posted at Personal Investment Management, saying, “Always stay invested to earn risk premiums. You must have your money invested and at risk to get risk premium returns. Jumping out and in or “timing the markets” doesn’t work.”
Intelligent Speculator presents Can you go wrong shorting Research in Motion (RIMM) against Apple (AAPL)? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “We examine two financial moves.”
DGB presents Why Your Portfolio Needs a Few Heroes posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “What’s missing in your portfolio.”
Mike @ DNW presents Women Decide to Retire posted at Do Not Wait, saying, “How do women retire compared to men?”
Frank Vertin presents Top Index Funds posted at Index Mutual Funds, saying, “Top ten no load index funds that track the Standard and Poors 500 composite index in terms of lowest costs.”
Sun presents Buy and Sell ETFs for Free [Review] posted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.
Intelligent Speculator presents Feels like everyone is investing in Facebook…except me posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “Are you investing in Facebook?”
DGB presents AT&T Stock Analysis posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “We analyze this popular stock.”
Dividends4Life presents 18 Stocks Meeting The Goal Of Higher Dividends posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, “I have stated many times that my goal is to create an ever growing income stream from dividend growth stocks. Secondarily, it is my desire to beat the S&P 500 over time. With that said, I rarely look at the capital performance of individual stocks. What I do watch is the ability of the stocks I own to sustain their dividend growth.”
Pasadena Financial Planner presents Vanguard Funds posted at Top Mutual Funds, saying, “Compares Vanguard’s actively managed mutual funds and Vanguard’s passively managed index mutual funds. Vanguard investors should read and understand this study.”
Mike Piper presents Assessing Your Risk Tolerance: Need and Ability posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “The first step in creating an investment portfolio is to assess your risk tolerance.”
Managing Credit and Debt
Tim Chen presents First Premier Bank Aventium and Centennial: Cards to Avoid posted at NerdWallet Blog – Credit Card Watch, saying, “The Aventium and Centennial credit cards, offered by First Premier Bank, are among the few credit cards offered to those with bad credit and may seem attractive to people who don’t qualify for any other card. However, the cards come with a low credit limit, unreasonably high fees, and a number of “gotcha” charges.”
Hussein Sumar presents What Can Bankruptcy do for you and what can it Not do? posted at Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying, “Bankruptcy is an effective tool for thousands of Americans who are struggling with all kinds of debts. However, it is important to know what type of debts bankruptcy can discharge you from (in other words what types of debts it can ‘free’ you from) and what type of debts are NOT discharged through bankruptcy.”
Steve presents Small Banks Vs. Big Banks: Which is Better for my Business posted at FastSwings, saying, “Going with the big banks was the ideal solution for small business prior to the recent financial crisis.”
Miscellaneous
Mike @ Green Panda presents Free Money Tools for Young Adults posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Some cool free money tools.”
Gal Josefsberg presents Retired At 31, A Lesson In Purposeful Living posted at Equally Happy, saying, “I thought I would show people a lesson in what it means to live with a purpose, especially when it came to retirement. Too often we live our lives without consciously deciding what it is we want to do and how we will get there. So I wanted to inspire people to think otherwise.”
Walter W. Fouse presents Large Cap Funds posted at Best Mutual Fund, saying, “This table of low cost top 10 S&P 500 mutual funds has been organized with the lowest cost index fund first. Nevertheless, each of these S & P 500 index funds is among the least costly on the market.”
Retirement Planning
Dana J. presents Three Tips For Optimizing Your Retirement Plan posted at Not Made Of Money, saying, “It doesn’t matter if you are 25 or 55, you should be actively involved in the retirement planning process. This means selecting a good retirement plan that will make you money while reducing your taxes at the same time.”
Jareth presents Retirement Calculator posted at Retirement Software, saying, “Retirement investment calculator software automatically acts as a comprehensive compound investment calculator that applies historical investment return growth rates to your cash, bond, and stock assets.”
Mike @ Green Panda presents What Are Your Retirement Needs? posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “What do you expect in retirement?”
FMF presents Health Insurance for Those Retiring Early posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “One issue early retirees face is what to do about healthcare. This post offers some suggestions for covering this major expense.”
Jim Wilkerson presents No Load Mutual Funds posted at Best No Load Funds, saying, “Very young stock and bond mutual funds are more likely to put you into the position of being an experimental guinea pig of mutual fund companies and the ETF industry.”
Risk Management and Insurance
Consumer Boomer presents New Health Insurance Law and How It Affects You posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “With the new health care law, it can be a confusing subject with varying opinions. Here are some helpful facts about that new law.”
Moneyedup presents Self Employed Medical Insurance posted at MoneyedUP, saying, “For reasons not expected nor welcomed by some, the ranks of the self employed have swelled in the last few years.”
Susan Howe presents Are Mom’s Really Worth $61,436 a Year? posted at Insure, saying, “Flowers and cards can never quite repay mom for all she’s done, but have you ever thought about how much she’s really worth?”
Jeff Rose, CFP presents Why Bundling Your Insurance Policies is a Good Idea posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Have you wondered whether bundling your insurance policies can benefit you? Here are a few good reasons to make the switch.”
Savings
Sustainable PF presents Don’t lighten your wallet with inefficient bulbs posted at Sustainable Personal Finance, saying, “As part of our ecoEnergy Retrofit we will replace all of the incandescent lightbulbs the previous owners had installed. Upgrading light bulbs is not covered by the ecoEnergy Retrofit program, however, we recognize that upgrading to compact fluorescent lights (CFL) or even LED (light-emitting diode) ligh bulbs will save us money.”
The Financial Blogger presents Where Are You Keeping Your Money? posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “Where do you save your money?”
Taxes
Financial Freedom presents IRA Contributions, posted at Retirement Worksheet, saying, “The Roth tax optimization puzzle for asset conversions, as well as for annual Roth contributions during working years, is one of the most complex decisions that the ridiculously complex US taxation and retirement planning system forces upon individuals.”
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.
***Photo courtesy of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5099605109_bd04b3c786.jpg
Hiring/Renting a Car For The Whole Family
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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All you need to do to get to mainland Europe is to pick up a car, drive to your nearest port, and board the ferry. Once you’re on the other side, you can make your way to your destination. Your hired car will provide a veritable home-from-home on wheels, while you’ll be afforded the freedom to travel where you want, exactly when you want to.
- Where will you be travelling to?
- What types of roads will you be driving on? Gravel, rocky, or paved? For more rugged terrain, you’ll probably need a truck or Sport Utility Vehicle. Also, consider if you will need 4-wheel drive or not.
- How long will it take?
- If you have an incredibly long journey ahead of you, it’s most likely best to get a more comfortable/larger car. This will enable every one to feel relaxed and happy when you reach your destination.
- How many passengers will be travelling?
- Does anyone in the party have any problems with travelling or any special requirements?
- Note from Jacob: For my family, one thing that is a requirement is that the car has to have working/functioning seat belts. While one might think that this would be a given, in some countries, seat belts are still not required in all cars (especially in the backseat).
Make a comprehensive list of all these aspects of the holiday and read up about car hire and car journeys online.
How about you all? What considerations do you think about when renting/hiring a car? What techniques do you use to save money? Do you have any entertaining car renting “horror” stories?!
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @Taking a ferry to get from the UK to mainland Europe – How long does the ferry trip take? It seems like a fun trip! I wish we could do that sort of thing here in the USA!
- @ A cheap trip idea being to rent a car and go camping in the South of France – I am incredibly jealous of this. If only it was considered a cheap trip for me to go from Virginia to camp in Southern France…I went to Southern France in the summer of 2008 after studying abroad and absolutely loved it. I want to go back!
- @ The cost of renting a car –
- One thing that you can do to save money on renting a car is to avoid renting the car at an airport. Generally, prices for rental cars at airports are approximately 30% than it would be to rent the same car in town.
- Additionally, you can save money by returning the car to the same location from which you rented it.
- Lastly, when evaluating whether or not to rent a car, you should compare the price of renting a car to other transportation options. For example, when my family goes skiing in Colorado in the United States, renting a car costs the same amount of money as getting a shuttle directly from the airport. However, because we simply don’t need the car the entire time we’re at the ski resort, we opt for taking the shuttle.
- @ Added stress of driving a rental car – While driving a rental car in the countryside of the USA or Europe is fairly easy, you should also consider if driving a rental car in a foreign country will induce added stress. This can be caused by differences in traffic etiquette in other countries. You want to make sure that the added convenience of having your own rental car is not outweighed by the stress of driving in congested, dangerous, traffic situations.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuttinbutlove/3495518365/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Cheapskate Jake’s Frugal Ramblin’s # 3 – Ultimate Cheapskate Meal Idea!
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Cheapskate Jake here with ya today. Jacob finally let me fill in for him because he was takin’ some kind of mass transfer test for his graduate schoolin’. I ain’t totally sure, but I think that there class has somethin’ to do with learning how to move furniture. Don’t know how that really pertains to whatever field of engineering he’s doin’, but all I do know is that I’d rather have about a double dose of the clap than to have to take a class by that name.
Anyway, if you missed the introductory postin’ about my series, you can click here to read all abouts it.
First, one thing you gotta know about me is that I don’t have a real steady job. I try to keep ole LaTisha, Raymond, and Inez fed through any type of odd-job I can get aholt of. Recently, I came up with the idea to polish river rocks and make concho belts out of them and stand up at the Little Rock University campus and sell them to the students passin’ by.
And, while I was there this past week, I came up with a fine-dining full proof cheap lunch idea! Read all about it below.
Cheapskate Jake’s Meal Idea
- I bring a loaf of bread to work and stick that thing in the frigermerator.
- Come lunch time, I mosey on down to the cafeteria and grab myself about 4-5 of the free containers of peanut butter and jelly put out for the people to spread on the bagels they buy.
- Next, I grab about 5-6 free lemons and some sugar packets (or Splenda if I’m feelin’ like a real high class bloke), along with a cup of ice water.
- I come on back to my desk and make myself a great big ole’ PB&J and a cup lemonade with my free fixins!’
Boy howdy! It’s finger lickin’ good!
How about you all? Got any good high class meal ideas like mine you use?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Disclaimer Jacob made me put up: This post is not a recommendation for you to engage in this activity, and is intended for entertainment purposes only.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkyandy/354487609/sizes/m/in/photostream/
May 2011 Financial Goals Update – Short Term, Mid-term, and Long Term
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Back in January of this year, I laid out my short term, mid-term, and long term goals for the 2011 year. I do this once every year as part of my goal to create what author David Bach calls a Purpose Focused Financial Plan. The goal of this system is to employ money in your life in a way that matches your life values and dreams.
You can read more about my journey to create this system at the following links – Creating a Purposed Focused Financial Plan & My Personal Finance Journey’s Investment Strategy.
As part of making this system work, I wanted to give an update on how I’m doing so far this year with the goals I established. Overall, I feel that I am doing a satisfactory job. I got semi-behind on these updates (had to give a bulk one for the months of January-April, but this past month, I am much more on top of things! 🙂 Let’s keep our fingers crossed to keep this up!
Short Term (< 1 year) Goals:
- Contribute $5000 (or $420 per month) to my Roth IRA with Vanguard this year (maximum allowed) – Have contributed $3,550 so far this year. This puts me a little ahead of my target of $420 per month, but that’s all right. Only need to contribute $1,450 more to reach my target for the year. At the rate I’ve been going, this should be accomplished in the next 1.5 months. At that point, I will then begin pouring any extra money at the end of each month towards my condo home loan. Nice!
- Reach net worth target for this year (not displayed here) – Ongoing – getting closer and closer! Requires 20% increase in net worth. May not be possible to obtain, but will attempt.
- Maintain target 6-9 months of expenses in cash reserve fund in Dollar Savings Direct account – Correct for this month, but ongoing.
- Rebalance mutual fund portfolio to meet asset allocation target %’s (75% equity, 25% fixed income overall) – Correct for now, but ongoing.
- Obtain 15% ownership / equity in condominium – Ongoing – currently have 10.7% ownership.
- Put together a will and have it reviewed by a lawyer – Will completed. Not yet reviewed by lawyer.
- Continue to save money for trip to Grand Canyon – Ongoing – need to figure out when to take this.
- Upgrade condominium with investment in stacked washer/dryer combo – $1000 for unit, $1000 for labor/installation – Currently saving $87.50 per month for home maintenance and upgrades – Ongoing, but on track. By September of this year, I will have accumulated 1% of my home value in my home maintenance savings account. After that, I will be able to begin accumulating the $2000 that it will cost to get the washer/dryer in my condo. I’ll probably just keep the auto-transfer of $87.50 from checking to savings to accumulate this money.
- Invest $500 in Microloans for Latin America in 2011 ($41.67 per month) –Ongoing – Have invested a total of $208 this year so far to working poor fund in Peru. This comes with a pretty nice 3% interest rate.Note: I use Microplace.com to invest this money. It seems to work well and be dependable. I just logged in to my account, and it says that my money has been used to help 30 people down there! Pretty cool stuff if you ask me!
- Donate $1,300 to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in 2011 (5% of income) –Done. So far, I have raised approximately $5000 to support finding a cure for this disease (with the help of company matches). If you’re interested in making just a $10 donation to my ride, click here.
- Save 3% of take home pay each month (after taxes) for Dream Account.On target – Have an automatic transfer each month from my Bank of America checking account to my ING Direct high yield savings account.
- Save ~30% of blogging income (if any) in a high yield online savings account in preparation for 2010 taxes. I have been very bad at doing this so far. I have a pretty large cash reserve built up, but it is all earmarked as emergency fund money. Thus, I need to get started doing this so I am not surprised come tax time in April of 2011.
Mid-Term (3-5 years out) Goals:
- Continue contributing $5000 to Roth IRA each year
- Reach intermediate net worth target (not displayed here, but is 2X my current net worth)
- Own a rental property by 2016.
Long-Term (>5 years out) Goals:
- Obtain a net worth of $1,000,000
- Own a home free of mortgage payments
- Own a vacation home in the mountains somewhere remote
- Accumulate enough funds not have to work, but will probably anyways because I would get bored.
How about you all? How have the months of April and May been for achieving your goals? What are your next milestones?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4207563765_954cd50863.jpg
Are Coupons Right For You?
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A little over a week ago, I published a post about how online coupons can be used to actually save money on things you want to buy. This is in contrast to print coupons which, in my opinion (for the most part), just make you spend money on things you probably don’t need at stores you don’t need to be in.
For example, let’s say you are a consultant and need to meet face-to-face with clients in another country. However, you don’t want to pay for the plane ticket every time you need to meet. So, you decide you want to buy computer meeting/desktop sharing software. Indeed, you could easily go online and search for “GoToMeeting coupon” and find promo codes that could make this acquisition a little less burdensome on your wallet/business cash position.
Of course, this is all well and good. However, another important consideration to think about is whether or not coupons are a good fit for you/your situation in the first place.
To start out, let’s take a look at when, in my opinion, everyone can benefit from the use of coupons.
When Can Everyone Benefit From Using Coupons? – Larger, Infrequent Purchases
Even in the case of my stingy, Great Value generic-brand-buying self, I honestly believe there is an important place in everyone’s life for coupons.
What is this place? Easy! I believe that everyone can benefit from the use of coupons/deals on “one-off,” larger, infrequent purchases such as laptops, iPods, cars, kitchen appliances, etc. These are the purchases that are typically planned out in advance, and one can easily find the time to search for any deals that are on offer at the time.
However, in the case of everyday purchases, the answer to this question becomes slightly more complex.
When Does The Advantageousness of Using Coupons Become Situation Specific? – Everyday Purchases
For me personally, when I go to Wal-Mart once a month to purchase mass quantities of food (most of which is Great Value brand) for my $2 per meal or less consumption, the last thing on my mind is coupons. Buying Great Value is a coupon! 🙂
When it comes to every day purchases, the question of whether or not to use coupons becomes very situation-specific. Because of this, I’ve tried to summarize some of these situations/considerations below.
- Do you buy generic items?
- In my experience, the majority (if not all) of the coupons I have seen were for brand name items. Has anyone ever seen a coupon for Kroger brand corn or Great Value brand green beans?
- Because of this, if you tend to buy a lot of generic items, it most likely won’t be all that advantageous to cut/clip coupons.
- However, if you and your family likes brand name items (for example, my mom absolutely will not buy anything but brand name items for special dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas), clipping coupons can save you hundreds of Dollars throughout the year!
- Where do you shop?
- Being honest with yourself about where you typically shop is important as well.
- If you do most of your shopping at places like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco, you are probably saving quite a bit of money just from the mere act of shopping there, so coupons will probably be less crucial to save you money.
- However, if you do a lot of shopping at smaller, boutique stores (natural food stores, vitamin shops, etc), the prices can be much higher. And, it becomes very advantageous to plan out what to buy there in advance and obtain coupons for your purchases.
- Do you enjoy clipping coupons?
- Personally, I obtain no pleasure whatsoever from clipping coupons, since most of what I buy is generic brands. Also, I’d much rather be doing other things like learning more about index investing, asset allocation, or blogging.
- However, I have a lot of friends who really enjoy sitting down with a magazine or newspaper on the weekends and finding deals. If this is the case for you, clip those coupons and enjoy it! It’s probably one of the cheapest forms of entertainment you can do!
- What’s your time worth to you (or to your family)?
- The last consideration relates to the economic shape/state of you (or your family).
- If your family has a high net worth and both of the “breadwinners” of the family make $50-$100 per hour, it probably isn’t necessary to clip coupons. However, if you all enjoy clipping coupons, go for it!
- On the other hand, if your family is in a more modest economic situation, you need to be looking for every little way to save money.
So, those are the main considerations I could think of in order to help you determine if coupons have a place in your life. I hope you got some value out of this post!
How about you all? Do you use coupons? If so, when do you use them? Do you know any one that uses coupons for everyday purchases?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/24218656@N03/4589929510/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Does The Market Perform Better When Democrats or Republicans Are President? – An Update On Recent Results
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Note: This post was selected as the #6 pick in the 103rd edition of the Best of Money Carnival, hosted at My Journey To Millions. Stop by and take a peek at all of the other great articles as well!
In the 2002 edition of the book, Stocks For The Long Run
, Siegel includes a lovely little analysis/study of whether or not the stock market has had higher real returns (so this = after inflation has had its effect) when Republicans vs. Democrats have held the office of the President of the United States.
What exactly did he find from this study? Let’s take a look!
Siegel’s Results
Now, I definitely don’t want to make this a big political battle, because I am not a very “involved” political person.
However, it is no secret that the stock market in general reacts better to Republicans than Democrats. Republicans pride themselves on being champions for lower capital gains taxes and supporting the businesses that make up the stock market.
Indeed, Siegel’s findings support the theory that sentimentally (short-term), the markets do favor Republicans being President as compared to Democrats. This was determined based on the study results showing that since 1888, the market has risen 0.7% (on average) on the day following a Republican victory vs. falling an average of 0.5% the day after a Democrat victory.
This is definitely an interesting finding. However, what is really important is to determine how the market acts during the entire term of having either a Democrat or Republican in Office.
To do this, Siegel and his research team computed the annualized real return (after inflation) during each Presidential term since Harrison became President in 1888. The results of this portion of the analysis are listed below:
- From 1888-2001…
- For Republicans, the annualized nominal return was 8.79%, and the annualized real return was 7.20%.
- For Democrats, the annualized nominal return was 10.84%, and the annualized real return was 6.48%.
- Result = Republicans win. Democrats produce higher stock returns, but also higher inflation. Republican have produced higher real returns since 1888 by 0.72% (so not by much).
- From 1948-2001…(the results are quite different)
- For Republicans, the annualized real return was 6.11%.
- For Democrats, the annualized real return was 11.25%.
- Result = Democrats win by a landslide. To give an idea of the magnitude that this difference in returns would make, if you invest $10,000 in 1948 and assume a 6.11% annual return, your money would have been worth $231,785 in 2001. However, if you had realized an 11.25% return, your same $10,000 would be worth $2.8 million. Wow! That is a huge difference!
So, from these results, we can conclude that during the time that most people reading this blog have been investing, having a Democrat in office has been favorable.
However, since I just have the 2002 version of Siegel’s book, I wanted to check up on this and see how our Presidents have performed since then.
Update on Recent Presidents
Just as an example, I pulled up the Google Finance chart of the performance of the S&P500 index during the Clinton presidency. During his terms, the stock market went up 203%.
The same S&P500 chart for G.W Bush’s two terms is shown below. During his time in office, the market decreased 29% overall. However, he did have a nice run in the 2007 time frame!
Obama is fairly new to the Presidential office compared to the others. However, the performance of the S&P500 index during his term so far has shown a 44.18% increase (see chart below).
So, it appears that the trend of the markets performing better when Democrats are President vs. when Republicans are in Office has continued.
Will it continue to be this way? As far as this question goes, I don’t have any answers, as I am not one to ever try to time/predict the market. As a passive investor, I merely adjust my asset allocation to my targets on a monthly basis based on the fluctuations in the market.
Another thing I don’t have an answer to is why Democrats being President cause the markets to do better (at least in the past 60 years)? Because one would think they would do better with Republicans in Office! I need your help to shed some light on this.
How about you all? Why do you think the market has performed better when Democrats are in Office the past 60 years? Is it just residual policies being enacted from when Republicans were there? Is it because Republicans control the Senate/House during this time? Or, is it because Democrat policies enable lower and middle class people to have more money/spend more money?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3602/3366720659_b746789dfd.jpg