Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 7 – Frugal Living Group – Posts 49-52

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 7th Stage (featuring posts from the “Frugal Living” category of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post. Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 5th for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

•  It Pays to Have Your Small Claims Case on a Court Television Show (Television): Court reality television shows love to arbitrate stereotypical cases to get their paid audience members in an uproar (like the snot-nosed teenager who takes his friend’s car for a joyride and crashes or the girlfriend who cheated on her boyfriend and his credit card). It turns out that these people we love to giggle at might just be smarter than the rest of us. If you are willing to have your case tried in front of a national audience (not to mention people like Judge Judy), then read on to find out the rewards that await you.

VERSUS

• 8 Ways to Save Money While Saving the Earth (Earth): There are few things more important to the future than saving money, except for saving the planet.  Luckily for all of us, it’s not always a choice between spending more money or doing more damage to Earth.  Sometimes, it’s possible to save money and the planet at the same time, without even adding any further stress to your life.  This blog entry provides several techniques to do just that, getting a start on living a frugal, eco-friendly lifestyle with just eight easy methods.

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• Americans Think You Need How Much Money To Get By?!? (Think): Apparently, Americans think a family of four NEEDS $58,000 to get by in today’s world, and I think that is outrageous. Why? Americans have lost sight of what is a need versus what is a want. Granted, everyone will strive for nicer versions of needs, but those nicer versions are wants. The base model is the need. People are out of touch.

VERSUS

• Could You Live on Minimum Wage? (Wage): 4.4 Americans live on minimum wage. SPENT is a game designed to show the tough choices made everyday by the working poor.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life continues today with Stage 4, the team time trial! It should be the first big challenge for the contenders for overall victory.

I’ve really been enjoying my “all access” subscription to viewing the Tour de France on NBC Sports. It was only $29.99, and has already provided me with HOURS of entertainment! haha You can watch the Stages live as they happen, or go back and view completed Stages if you missed something!

***Photo courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/1984_Olympics_-_100k_Team_Time_Trial_(USA_team).jpg

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 6 – Saving and Psychology Groups – Posts 45-48

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 6th Stage (featuring posts from the “Saving/Investing” and “Psychology of Money” categories of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 3: Mutual; Sprint 4: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post. Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 4th for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #3

•  Build Your Own Berkshire with Dividend Paying Stocks (Dividend): Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of all times. Few realize that he is a closet dividend investor, because he buys assets that produce excess cash flows. These excess cash flows provide him with the capital to invest in more income generating assets, thus snowballing his net worth exponentially. Dividend stocks deliver a rising stream of rising passive income, which makes them ideal for investors who need to live off their portfolios and for those who want to emulate Buffett’s success in investing.

VERSUS

• My Life Insurance Mistake (Mistake): Get an inside look at my encounter with the seedy underbelly of the life insurance sales world. Learn from my mistakes so that when the time comes you can avoid getting suckered into a bad deal.

Intermediate Sprint # 4

• 7 Habits of Wealthy People (Habits): Have you ever wondered what it takes to be wealthy? If you want to be rich then you need to imitate successful people. Here are 7 habits of wealthy people that will help you start building wealth today!

VERSUS

• Why Your Mind Wants To Make Bad Financial Decisions (Decisions): There is actually a psychological trigger that motivates you to make bad financial decisions, and everyone is affected. In this post, we brought in psychological expert Sophia Dembling to get a better idea of the trigger that actually suppresses logic and reason, and pushes you in the wrong direction.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life continued today with Stage 3, taking the riders 146 km from Ajaccio to Calvi on the island of Corsica.  It was another medium-mountains stage, with a 60-rider peleton coming to the finish line together. Sprinter Simon Gerrans took the Stage’s sprint only a half-wheel ahead of famous sprinter Peter Sagan to win the Stage. Since the whole peleton came in together, the winner of yesterday’s Stage, Jan Bakelants, holds on the Yellow Jersey in to the team time trial tomorrow around Nice. Should be fun!

I’ve really been enjoying my “all access” subscription to viewing the Tour de France on NBC Sports. It was only $29.99, and has already provided me with HOURS of entertainment! haha You can watch the Stages live as they happen, or go back and view completed Stages if you missed something!

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 6 – Saving-Investing Group – Posts 41-44

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 6th Stage (featuring posts from the “Saving/Investing” category of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post. Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 4th for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

• Why an Early Start Makes All the Difference  (Early): I started to work, save and invest early, and it has allowed me to retire from the corporate world at age 29. This post shows how important it is to get an early start in your finances, and how much it would cost you to get to the same point if you start 5 or 10 years later. If you are off to a late start and should have started yesterday, it is not too late to get on track, but today is the best day to take control of your finances.

VERSUS

• What I Learned From a Lost Purse (Purse): Have you ever lost anything important? Recently my wife lost her purse and it was a brief nightmare for us! I believe that you can learn useful things from basically anything, so these are the lessons I learned from that lost purse.

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• My Best Financial Tip (Tip): The best financial tip I received was given to me by my father.  In his teens, my father worked long hours after school and on weekends to help support his parents and family.  Without any formal financial training my father learned the value of a dollar very early on because funds were so scarce.  When you grow up with more brothers and sisters than digits on both hands you learn how to be frugal faster than most.  Read on to learn about the greatest financial tip I ever got and how it can be essential for your financial future.

VERSUS

• Are We Headed For Another Great Depression? (Depression): America’s economy has been struggling for nearly five years now, and there’s a division among experts and laypeople alike as to whether this is a crisis that we’re on our way out of, or if the worst is yet to come.  Are we headed for the 21st century version of the Great Depression?  How would we know if we were?  What are the warning signs?  And what would happen to America if another large scale depression hit our shores?

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life continues today with Stage 3, taking the riders 146 km from Ajaccio to Calvi on the island of Corsica.  It’s another medium-mountains stage today, so it should be exciting! I’ll be sure to bring an update on the completed action when the other Stage 6 sprints go live later tonight.

Mid-Year 2013 Blogging and Personal Goal Setting Check-In and Progress Update

Back in January of this year, I laid out some personal goals for my life in general and blogging goals for My Personal Finance Journey for the 2013 year.

As I experienced in 2012, (click the following link to view my 2012 blogging goals and year-end progress updates) by tracking these goals periodically, it provides me with more accountability and visibility to what I am doing and where I want to go with this community/blog and in my life. As such, the purpose of this post is to review how I’ve been doing so far in 2013 in reaching the aims I set up for myself.

As far as life goes from a personal and blogging perspective, the first half of 2013 has been very successful in my opinion. As usual, graduate school has taken quite a bit of time/effort, and as such I wasn’t able to spend quite as much time on my blog (and we’ll most likely see this reflected by a good number of Not on track status updates below). But, such is life I suppose, so I’m not too disappointed about it all!

I’ve really been glad during the times that I’ve gotten busy with graduate school to have a solid group of staff writers to continue producing top-notch content. However, in the madness of it all, I have had some time to do around 5-10 back-test/historical pricing analyses to analyze the various asset allocation components that I employ.

So, here goes! An update on my progress so far in 2013 for my blogging and personal goals, with updates highlighted in bold text below. This should be fun!   

The blogging goals for 2013 were as follows:

• Get to bed at midnight or earlier.
  • On track. Been doing very well at this! I don’t seem to have the energy to stay up until 2am every night anymore! haha
• Take 1 day off per week (Saturday or Sunday) completely from doing work on my blog or from my graduate research job to keep my mind feeling more “fresh.”
  • More or less on track.
  • Instead of taking an entire day off each weekend, I’ve been focusing on getting out and doing a big bike ride once per weekend. Afterwards, I generally am pretty tired, so even though I might answer a few blogging emails or do a few things, I don’t work all that much. 
• Become better at following the Getting Things Done email/work flow management system to focus my time and energy on high value projects first and avoid distractions.
  • On track. 
• Hike or bike ride 1 time per week with a group.
  • On track. I’ve been doing quite a few 4-5+ hour rides recently on the weekend! 
• Do a bike race if my Achilles starts to feel better.
  • My Achilles has been feeling better, but I haven’t felt the need to do a real bike race yet. I’ve just been enjoying doing it recreationally on the weekend. 
• Hike more with the Charlottesville Hiking Group.
  • I have not been doing this very much since I’ve been biking a lot.
• Read one personal finance book per month.
  • On track. 
• Go backpacking one time per month in warmer months.
  • Now that it’s summer, I’ve started to think about doing this soon! 
• Take a trip out-of-town 1 time per month. Visit sister’s new home in Raleigh. Visit one of the beaches in Virginia.
  • Not on track. As usual with the biological/cell-based nature of my experiments in graduate school, it’s been hard to get totally out of town during the weekends.
• Learn how to build a group speaking business.
  • Have not done. 

How about you all? How have you been progressing on your personal/professional goals you set for yourself in 2013? 

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 5 – Saving-Investing Group – Posts 37-40

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 5th Stage (featuring posts from the “Saving/Investing” category of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 3rd for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

• The Dow at 15,000 – Now What? (Dow): This post gives my perspective on the stock market and shares a story of mine that my broker advised me to hold off on putting my transferred 401k money back in the market when it was around 14,100.

VERSUS

• How to Handle a Windfall (Windfall): It seems that just about every finance site in existence has at least one post about handling windfalls. But how many of these authors have firsthand experience in dealing with a significant windfall? Very few. That’s where this piece differs. I didn’t dream up a hypothetical list of things that you should do if/when you receive a windfall. Instead, I laid out the things that my wife and I did do when it happened to us.

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• How to Pay Yourself First (First): Personal finance folks often throw around the term “pay yourself first.” It is a bit big-headed of us to assume you know how to do that. Here are some steps you can take to put the most popular finance advice to work.

VERSUS

• Bond Market Forecast: The Interest Rate Paradox (Paradox): Everyone wants higher interest rates, but without the side effects. So if your investment search led you to higher yields the past few years, it might be riskier than you think.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life continued today with Stage 2, taking the riders 156 km from Bastia to Ajaccio on the island of Corsica.  It was a more hilly stage today and was quite exciting. The pack stayed together a lot of the time, with a breakaway of 5 riders getting off the front during the last few kilometers.

Jan Bakelants from Team Radioshack Leopard got off the front of the breakaway and held off the pack by only a single second at the very end of the day. That single second was also enough to secure him the leader’s Yellow Jersey as well! Nice!

Reader Profile – Michael from Student Loan Sherpa

Today, in the ongoing Reader Profile Series, we’re getting to know MPFJ.com reader and enthusiastic commenter, Michael, from the site, The Student Loan Sherpa. Let’s all give Michael a big round of applause for sharing his life with us and listen to his story. Enjoy!

Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own financial story/journey with us in a reader profile of your own, just shoot me a quick email, and we can get the ball rolling!  

1. Please Tell Everyone a Little Bit About Yourself (Background, Education, Family Situation, etc).

Math and numbers always fascinated me, so I went to college to become an engineer.

While I enjoyed my studies, I knew I would be happier in a profession that involved more interaction with people, so I went on to graduate school to become a lawyer.  I love being a lawyer for three reasons: 1) I love the role of advocate.  It’s a pleasure to be able to speak passionately on behalf of another.  2) On a daily basis I am required to learn and understand a difficult topic/subject and translate it to basic English.  I love this challenge.  3) It’s a privilege to be able to earn a living helping people.

I now live in Indianapolis with my girlfriend and dog.  We owe obscene amounts of money on our student loans (except the dog, his obedience schooling has been paid off).  Due to this debt, I was forced to educate myself on the subject.  I found some helpful information on the internet and some information that was just terrible.  I created The Student Loan Sherpa to help people navigate their student loan debt.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet some really interesting people with inspiring stories, and it’s been amazing and humbling to see how my little website has been an asset to them.

2. Describe Your Current Financial Situation (Who Works in Your Family, How Your Income Is, Your Expenses, etc).

My girlfriend and I both work in public service.  We have a very modest income, so we spend a great deal of time making sure we get the most out of each penny.  If we don’t, our student loans will never be paid off.

3. What Are the Current Financial Challenges You Are Facing (Saving, Paying Off Debt, Student Loans, Merging Finances After Being Married, etc)?

We have two primary financial challenges.  The first is the student loan debt and the second is the credit debt obtained while we studied for the bar exam.  Right now, we are working very hard to remove the stress that this debt puts upon us.

4. What Are Your Plans for the Future (Retire Early, Build Your Career, etc)?

I can’t imagine what I would do with my time if I wasn’t working.  I don’t think early retirement is in my future.  I’d just like to put myself in a position where I don’t have to worry about what will happen if I get sick or lose my job.

5. What’s Your Best Piece(s) of Financial Advice and/or Your General Philosophy on Personal Finances?

My best piece of financial advice would be to not ignore your problems.  I’ve seen many people who just ignored their student loans, and all it does is make their problems worse.  If you are spending too much money, make a budget and pay attention to where your money is going.  Personal finance is about simple math.  If you are willing to put in a little effort you can solve most of your problems.

As for my general philosophy on personal finance and money in general, I seek to use it in a manner that makes my life most fulfilling.  We are saving to take a road trip next summer with the goal of hitting as many national parks as we can.  It’s probably not the most frugal way to spend a vacation, but it will be an epic journey.  I want to get the most out of my money by putting in the least effort.  I don’t ever want to have to stress out about it because I spent too much, nor do I want to stress out about maximizing my income.

***Photo courtesy of http://studentloansherpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/P1020125.jpg

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 5 – Saving-Investing Group – Posts 33-36

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 5th Stage (featuring posts from the “Saving/Investing” category of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 3rd for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

• Do You Want to Become a Millionaire? (Millionaire): Ever dream of becoming a millionaire, but think the only way to do it is winning the lottery? Well, I’m here to tell you that dedication and hard work can be just as effective. Find out how you can become a millionaire using two different strategies.

VERSUS

• Why Saving In Your 20s Is Easier Than Waiting (Easier): Many people wait until their 30s or 40s to start saving for retirement. But, the reality is that saving in your 20s is much easier and with compound interest, it really pays off!

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• A Ridiculously Simple Way To Build Wealth (Wealth): Building wealth is ridiculously simple. It doesn’t require luck, genius or special connections. You don’t have to attend overpriced, weekend financial seminars or learn the latest tricks and gimmicks sold by slick marketers. Everything you need to know can be summarized in just two sentences…

VERSUS

• Is it Time to Get Out of the Stock Market? (Time): Whenever we see highs or lows in the stock market we see an increasing number of talking heads telling us what we should do with our portfolios. The problem with listening to them is they have no idea of your personal situation. That said, these are great times to analyze your portfolio while remembering the importance of maintaining a long-term view of your investing.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life continues today with Stage 2, taking the riders 156 km from Bastia to Ajaccio on the island of Corsica.  It’s a more hilly stage today, so it should be exciting!

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 4 – Retirement Planning Group – Posts 29-32

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 4th Stage (featuring posts from the “Retirement Planning” category of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 2nd for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

• If You Plan to Work Until Old Age, Change Your Plan (Plan): To be successful financially, it can help to be realistic when assessing risks. Along those lines, it’s important to keep in mind that we might not be able to work for as many years as we might believe. We should plan accordingly and save and invest as much as possible when younger!

VERSUS

• How My Retirement Plans Got Derailed – Big Time! (Derailed): I left my secure job at a major bank to open a small retail store with my husband.  We struggled along for three years, using up almost all our savings and making the terrible mistake of financing the business with our many credit cards. Eventually we gave up and closed the store.  With no money and over $100,000 in credit card debt, we sank to our lowest point of despair.

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• Extreme Retirement is Fools Gold! (Gold): Doing anything extreme is unsustainable for any length of time.  Saving 60-70% to retire early so you could live a minimalist life is crazy!  I do not want to lower my standard of living in retirement, do you?

VERSUS

• When Can I Retire – It All Depends On How Badly You Want To! (Depends): The reason that I love this post is because it is the advice I wish someone would have given me when I started my personal finance journey.   The message is that financial freedom (retirement) doesn’t have to be tied to age – it can happen anytime.  You just need to start making it happen!  Readers will not only find a lot of practical advice about how to accomplish this, but they will also find something else that lacks in a lot of other financial planning literature – encouragement!

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life started today with Stage 1, taking the riders 213 km from Porto-Vecchio up to Bastia on the island of Corsica.  It was a flat stage for the most part, with a small breakaway staying off the front until about 30 km remaining.

It was a very exciting finish because a team bus got stuck under the finish line, and was only removed about 5 min before the riders got to the line! There was also a big crash that took out pretty much every big name sprinter and overall contender from contesting the stage. Marcel Kittel took the sprint victory, and also the yellow jersey for now in the Tour de France.

It’s a more hilly stage tomorrow. Should be exciting!

***Photo courtesy of  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Tour2013.jpg

Debt Free Direct Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 4 – Debt and Retirement Planning Groups – Posts 25-28

Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 4th Stage (featuring posts from the “Debt” and “Retirement Planning” categories of articles submitted) of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

We greatly appreciate Debt Free Direct for being the title partner of the 2013 event and for all their great support. If you’re interested in learning more about the help and advice Debt Free Direct offers to people in debt or their money-saving tips on how to prevent building up debt, click here.

A Quick Reminder On Prizes For The 2013 Competition

The 2013 edition of the Tour de PF will be doubly exciting because we have some very nice cash prizes to give away to the winner and also to charity to continue helping the community.

These will be as follows:

• Yellow Jersey (1st Place) Winner of the 2013 Tour de Personal Finance will receive $100 cash via PayPal.
• In addition, the Yellow Jersey Winner will also get to decide what charity they want me to donate $700 to in honor of their efforts/victory. 

To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2013 Debt Free Direct Tour de PF Bracket

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)  you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites. I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) 

Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.Here are today’s competitions:

Voting will continue until July 2nd for this Stage!

Intermediate Sprint #1

• Our Debt Free Story: Paying Off More than $147,000 in Debt (Story): Becoming debt free is totally doable, so long as you’re willing to do what it takes.

VERSUS

• Things to Avoid with Quick Loans (Loans): Quick loans, sometimes referred to as payday loans, can either be an absolute life-saver in times of need, or if handled badly, a great burden. Take your time to research your fast loan options.

Intermediate Sprint # 2

• The 3 Best Free Retirement Calculators (Calculators): Retirement calculators have an impossible job — predicting the future. This post discusses the pros and cons of retirement calculators, and gives tips for using them. It presents a detailed retirement scenario and puts a number of free calculators through their paces, then recommends the top three free calculators. Use retirement calculators regularly to optimize your near-term financial decision making, but remember that the future will inevitably turn out different than planned.

VERSUS

• How Much Should I Save Toward Retirement If I’m Starting Late? (Late): Knowing how much you should save for retirement is critical. But what if you are late getting started? The longer you delay, the shorter the time that compound interest can do its magic on your savings.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The Tour de France in real life is going on right now with Stage 1, taking the riders 213 km from Porto-Vecchio up to Bastia on the island of Corsica.  I’ll be sure to bring everyone an update on the action when the other Stage 4 posts go live later today!

***Photo courtesy of  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/LOTOJA_starting_line_2007.jpg

The Help to Buy Scheme

The following is a guest post. Enjoy! 

Since the UK budget announcement in March, there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the Help to Buy Scheme – which, for many, came as a surprise when announced by the Chancellor. With low lender confidence meaning that high deposit requirements have scuppered the chances of many getting on the property ladder, as well as leaving many unable to move up a rung, could this get the housing market moving again?

What is Help to Buy?

The scheme comes in two parts.

The first, which started on April 1, is equity loans to help people buy new build properties. The second comes into effect in January 2014, and will guarantee some of a borrower’s debt when they take on a mortgage with a bank or building society. In both cases, borrowers will only need to find a 5% deposit, with the government scheme offering a loan for a further 20%, on an interest-free basis.

Who can apply?

Help to Buy is designed for those who find it hard to save the large deposits needed in order to get a mortgage. It’s open to both first time buyers and those already on the ladder, and is available on properties worth up to £600,000. There is no upper earnings limit criteria to qualify.

Those interested in the first part of the scheme should contact a participating builder. It’s unclear at the moment what products banks and building societies will offer when it comes to the second part of the scheme – and whether the rates for this products will be cheaper or more expensive.

Potential borrowers will still need to fulfill lending criteria – with those with a bad credit history or unstable employment are still likely to find it difficult to borrow without a large deposit. You can check your credit report online.

Will it work?

As the figures for mortgage lending for May are at their highest level since October 2008 (according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders), some may argue that the scheme is already having the desired effect of getting the property market moving. However, other factors, such as the ‘spring bounce’, increased confidence and slow and steady increase in-house prices are also likely to be playing their part, making it difficult to attribute any improvement to one factor.

It’s clear though, that the Help to Buy Scheme will be of use to many who had thought themselves stuck in the rental trap for a long time to come – unable to save a deposit due to increasing rental prices. If that sounds like you, now may be a good time to think about looking into buying your own home.

How about you all? How is the housing market looking these days in your area? Do you think a program like this will be effective in jump-starting the market?

Share your experiences by commenting below! 

***Photo courtesy of http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7128/7846926570_28320bd2d9.jpg