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Best Personal Financial Planning and Personal Investment Articles this Week from Personal Finance Blogs

Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #204 – September 30, 2011

Welcome to the September 30, 2011 Edition #204 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.

The Carnival of Financial Planning takes a long-term view of personal financial planning for individuals and families. We focus on efficient and sustainable personal financial planning practices that can lead to lifetime financial security.

This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.

Enjoy!

The Skilled Investor, Editor

Budgeting and Economics

Jon Elder presents Pay Cash or Finance a Car? That is the Question! posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, “Whether you pay cash or finance a car, it’s likely to lose value almost as soon as you drive it off the lot. That’s why it takes careful consideration to make sure that you’re making the right decision for your personal financial situation.”

Jonathan presents Is Buying in Bulk for You? posted at Money Mum, saying, “Buying products in bulk can be extremely beneficial for your wallet as you often get more for your money with bulk buys. It can also be a great time-saver as you won’t be running to the store every day to pick up the ingredient or household product you forgot to buy during your last shopping trip. Before you start buying all of your products in bulk, however, there are a few important items to consider:”

misst presents My ‘Free’ Kitten Cost Us Over $9000 | Prairie Eco-Thrifter posted at Prairie Eco-Thrifter, saying, “I hope I don’t sound too mercenary, I do love pets and know that many people consider them family members – and you don’t put a price on a family member. Still, it pays to know the costs related to a family member so you can plan for them in your budget. Put your pet’s needs in your budget.”

Jason@LiveRealNow presents Hiding Money: The Invisible Cushion posted at Live Real, Now, saying, “I’m bad at keeping secrets from my wife, especially about things that affect both of us, but if i let it slip, the invisible cushion will go away.”

Mr. Money Smarts presents Are Your Emotions Getting In The Way Of Your Financial Success? posted at Smart On Money, saying, “Making a plan is a good idea no matter your situation. Whether you are creating an investment plan for retirement, or making a debt reduction plan, having a road map to follow can help you avoid the pitfalls of letting your emotions rule you.”

Rogan Seager presents Retirement Savings Calculator posted at Retirement Savings Calculator, saying, “Valuable future investment portfolio assets and future investment returns slip through many people’s fingers at the checkout stand every day, because they spend beyond their long-term means.”

Jacob presents 10 Effective Things You Can Do When America is in a Double-Dip Recession posted at My Personal Finance Journey, saying, “During recessionary periods, effective financial planning is of absolute importance. This post takes a look at 10 things normal individuals can do to in their finances and career to enable them to not only survive the recession, but perhaps prosper…”

Bob presents How to Stick To A Budget posted at Christian Personal Finance, saying, “Budgets have always been a tough sell. However, in workshops I teach around the country, I’ve noticed a hopeful sign – Instead of flat out resisting the idea, more and more people are asking questions about how to stick with a budget.”

Estate Planning

My Journey presents Why I am Not A Big Proponent of Revocable Living Trusts posted at My Journey to Millions, saying, “In both my law practice and day job Revocable Living Trusts come up often, however, I am not a particularly big proponent of using them for one specific reason discussed below.”

Crystal presents Preparing for the Inevitable posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, saying, “Nothing lasts forever and in fact, you can estimate the life of most things you buy so start saving to replace them before you need to!”

Financial Planning

Craig Ford presents Please Don’t Let Your Bank Make Your Financial Decisions posted at Money Help For Christians, saying, “Plan your finances with purpose, not by default.”

Jose D. Roncal presents Can You Spot Fudged Financials? posted at Jos? Roncal, saying, “It’s been more than a decade since the financial scandals perpetrated by Enron, World Com, and a host of others hit the evening news. Yet the images of top executives being forced to do the perp walk are still fresh in the collective mind. So are the memories of millions lost in retirement savings.”

DGB presents 6 Reasons Why You Should Panic and 1 Reason Why You Should Keep Investing posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “Are you going to panic?”

Ciana Locke presents Market Index Funds posted at Best Index Mutual Funds, saying, “The dominant issue in choosing among passively managed index mutual funds and ETF funds benchmarked against the S & P 500 is that securities industry management and trading fees are all over the map from reasonably low to shockingly high.”

Suba presents Big dreams, small income : Financial planning for the middle class posted at Wealth Informatics, saying, “How to find a financial planner for the middle class? ”

Echo presents 11 Steps To Financial Freedom – Determine Your Net Worth posted at Boomer & Echo, saying, “Fewer partnerships would end in divorce if couples thought more objectively about their finances. That means treating your marriage like a business.”

Frank Knight presents Investment Asset Allocation posted at Retirement 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

Nathan Richardson presents What Is A Good Credit Score To Buy A House posted at Deals & Tips, saying, “Credit Scores and Interest rates are correlated, learn what it takes to achieve a optimal credit score.”

Mckay presents Buying versus Renting: The Last Article You’ll Ever Need to Read posted at Vacancy.com, saying, “A comprehensive look at buying a home versus renting.”

DJ presents Walking Away from Your Home – What Are The Alternatives? posted at The Family Wallet, saying, “Losing your home brings forth a deluge of emotions. It’s a sad event, and it may also make one feel angry or ashamed. It’s certainly not ideal, yet desperate homeowners often feel that they have no other alternative. But in most cases, there is help available.”

Financing Education

Jeri Ford presents 7 Situations Where Cash Back Credit Cards Are Better Than Air Miles Credit Cards posted at Help Me Travel Cheap, saying, “Help determine situations where cash back credit cards are better than mileage credit cards”

Annette presents Higher Education: Economic Boon or Bubble? posted at CreditDonkey.com Tips, saying, “Is college worth it? A look at demographics, degrees and debt”

Andy Boyd presents Bear Markets Explained posted at Wise Bread, saying, “So what exactly is a bear market? It’s the opposite of a bull market (which is why the bear market is sometimes known as a “heifer market”). A bull market is when traders are making a killing on the stock exchange, prices and indexes are rising, people are making money, and optimism fills the offices of the NASDAQ and NYSE. Unfortunately, this means that a bear market is when share prices are falling, traders are panicking, and the economy looks perilously close to tail-spinning out of control.”

Financing Healthcare

Consumer Boomer presents Cheap Medications For Seniors On Line posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Here is a look at how you can save money by ordering your prescriptions on line and some great tips to help you find an on life pharmacy that will work for you.”

Income

David Leeman presents Extra Ways to Make Money posted at Financial Freedom Advantage, saying, “Here are some of the best extra ways to make money to help supplement income. Most of these easy ways to make money require no investment and no special training.”

Kyle Taylor presents Is This a Good Time to Start Selling Real Estate Part-Time? posted at The Penny Hoarder, saying, “A friend of mine recently told me that he is thinking about becoming a real estate agent on the side to help generate extra income. I couldn’t help but blurt out an inappropriate, “Are you crazy?!” Weigh in on our debate…”

Mike @ Green Panda presents Are You Going To Graduate and Go Back To School? posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Will you boost your income with graduate school?”

Dr. Dean presents Couple Financial Role Reversal! posted at The Millionaire Nurse Blog, saying, “Most couples do things with finances separately in some way..one partner makes the money while the other spends it, right? Jokes aside, preparing for the possibility that you may have to take over the opposite role is a good idea.”

FMF presents Merit Alone May Not Get You that Promotion posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Performance alone likely won’t get you promoted. You must also be liked.”

Investing

Kevin presents The Biggest Unknown Risk of Stock Investing posted at Invest It Wisely, saying, “We say that stocks are risky because we know that prices can suddenly drop hard — stock prices are volatile. But we also believe that stocks are not really all that risky for those committed to holding them for the long term. In the long term, stocks always provide good returns. By following a Buy-and-Hold strategy, we can overcome the riskiness of stocks. I don’t think it is so. I view this as dangerous thinking”

Alex Foster presents What is the Market Multiple posted at AF Capital Management’s Blog, saying, “ if the economy is less than 30% likely to fall into a recession again in the near term, why has the market sold off so much so quickly?”

Ken Faulkenberry presents Top Global Investment Trends to Invest In – 2011 posted at Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP) Blog, saying, “These are some of the top global investment trends that should be included in every portfolio asset allocation in 2011 and beyond.”

Mirelle Rowden presents Fixed Income Funds posted at Best Bond Mutual Funds, saying, “Vanguard dominates this low cost United States bond mutual funds marketplace for direct purchase accounts with both low and high minimum deposits.”

Corey presents Is it Hard to Time the Market in a Recession? posted at 20′s Finances, saying, “With the stock market in a major slump, many people are cutting their losses. If you are investing for the future, now is the time to buy.”

Dividends4Life presents 7 High-Yield Dividend Achievers With 25 Years of Increases posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, “While the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats may be the most recognized list of dividend stocks, it is certainty not the largest. Since the Dividend Aristocrats list is limited to only stocks included in the S&P 500 Index, many smaller stocks are excluded. To expand the population of potential investments, many investors look at the dividend growth stocks included in Broad Dividend Achievers™ list.”

The Financial Blogger presents September Net Worth Update (-5.01%!) posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “In another fully transparent report, I share my updated finances.”

DGB presents Dividend Growth Index posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “Are you a dividend growth investor? You need to check this out.”

Intelligent Speculator presents Amazon (AMZN) A Must Buy Stock? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “Have you purchased this stock?”

Glen Craig presents What is a Mutual Fund Prospectus? posted at Free From Broke, saying, “So you want to invest in mutual funds but you are clueless about them? A good place to start is to answer the question: What is a mutual fund prospectus?”

Janet Russell presents The illusion of superior professional mutual fund manager performance posted at Personal Investment Management, saying, “If investment mutual fund managers were truly skilled at beating the market, then you would expect mutual fund manager performance prowess to persist over time. The effort to find those few supposedly superior money managers willing to sell their services sufficiently cheaply is a costly, time consuming, and futile, “Where’s Waldo?,” searching exercise for the individual investor.”

Darwin presents Seriously, a 9% Risk-Free Return in 1 Month. Here’s How posted at Darwin’s Money, saying, “Here’s how I earned a 9% return in 1 month – risk-free! This is a once per year opportunity that few people take advantage of!”

Frank Bertin presents Index Funds posted at Top Index Funds, saying, “Top ten no load index funds that track the Standard and Poors 500 composite index in terms of lowest costs.”

Dan presents 5 Reasons to Avoid the Most Popular Gold ETF GLD posted at ETF Base, saying, “Everyone’s talking about gold – and buying the gold ETF GLD. Here are 5 reasons why you should RUN!”

Managing Credit and Debt

Melissa Batai presents How We Plan to Tackle Our Debt posted at Mom’s Plans, saying, “We would like to have a significant chunk to put down on a house in a few years, and I don’t want to purchase a house if we have other debt. Here is our plan for paying down our current debt quickly:”

Jen presents The Life of The Evil Credit Card- part 5 posted at Master the Art of Saving, saying, “Documenting the life of a recently acquired credit card and my journey to paying it off. Tracking the interest, payments and balances as well as what it would cost to only pay the minimum payments.”

Matt presents 079 Financial Excellence: Why Dave Ramsey?s Advice Doesn?t Make Sense posted at Living In Financial Excellence, saying, “Dave Ramsey has a lot of critics in the financial world. Many of them criticise his methods because they don’t make mathematical or theoretical sense. But Dave isn’t trying to make mathematical sense.”

J.R. Weber presents Current Credit Card Rewards Offer Rankings posted at Smart Balance Transfers, saying, “Consumers who are debt free can benefit from credit card rewards offers, but there are a number of factors that influence whether a rewards card is the right option.”

MainstreamMom presents Get Out of Debt With the Help of Debteye posted at Mainstream Mom, saying, “I had a chance to check out a new program called Debteye. I wanted to find out more about how their program worked, and how it’s different from other debt relief companies out there. I had a chance to speak with Kevin Yu, who is one of the co-founders of Debteye.”

Janet presents Building Good Credit: It Doesn’t Have to Mean Debt posted at Credit, Eh, saying, “One of the misconceptions that many people have is that building good credit means that you have to get into debt. However, this just isn’t true. ”

Miscellaneous

Marie presents Compare DIY Material Costs and Save posted at Money Spending Mommy, saying, “When you hire a contractor, you usually have little say in the materials used for your home improvement project. But when you’re in charge, you can shop around for the best deals. Here are some tips that will help you save money on materials.”

DJ presents Budget Tips For School Trips and Activities posted at The Family Wallet, saying, “Handling requests to go on field trips and participate in activities can be difficult. Here are some ways you can work these things into your budget.”

Tim @ Faith and Finance presents 12 Seasonal Jobs for This Holiday posted at Faith and Finance, saying, “With the holidays around the corner, you might find a few extra job opportunities if you look hard enough. Be prepared and get some good ideas with these suggestions.”

Kevin presents Apple Picking posted at Invest It Wisely, saying, “Apple picking can illustrate three important life and financial lessons.”

MoneyCone presents Using PayPal To Send Money? The Deal Just Got Sweeter! posted at Money Cone, saying, “What if I told you you can send money via Paypal, fund it with a credit card yet not get charged any fees by either the credit card company or PayPal and actually earn cash back on your PayPal payment?”

Tripp Danner presents No Load Funds posted at No Load Fund, saying, “There are over 60,000 different mutual fund investment share classes sold worldwide. Some mutual funds and ETFs must be better than others, but which ones are they? How can you tell before the fact?”

Consumer Boomer presents Beware Of These Baby Boomer Scams posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Baby boomers need to know what to look out for in order to protect their assets. Here is a peek at just a few of the top scams to watch out for.”

Suba presents How sleep affects finances posted at Broke Professionals, saying, “Lack of sleep is often attributed as a sign of hard work and competitive strength. But do you know all the negative effects lack of sleep can have on your finances?”

Jaimie presents Seven Holiday Movies That Put Money and Materials in Perspective posted at Paid Twice, saying, “It’s a little early but here are some movies that put life back into perspective.”

The Skilled Investor presents Market Timing Does Not Work posted at Personal Financial 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.”

Retirement Planning

James Bush presents Withdrawing from Your 401k Early (If You Absolutely Have To) posted at 401k Calculator, saying, “It’s often not a good idea to tap into your 401K but if you have made the decision to do so here are some things to consider.”

Brockton Eaton presents Long Term Investment Strategies posted at Retirement Investment Strategy, saying, “The investment research literature repeatedly demonstrates that a fully diversified, low cost investment strategy is superior.”

Risk Management and Insurance

FMF presents How to Buy Long-term Care Insurance: What Every Policy Should Include posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Some of the basics you should look for when you’re thinking of purchasing a long-term care insurance plan (LTCI). There are standards that every policy should uphold as well as additional, more personal considerations to take into account.”

Savings

Matt presents Back-to-School Shopping… Saving Money After the Dust Has Settled posted at Living In Financial Excellence, saying, “To me – both as a parent,and as a thrifty adult – the best part of the back top school sales starts now… just in time for several upcoming occasions.”

Walter Binkle presents Large Cap Mutual Funds posted at Mutual Funds, saying, “You can save a lot by paying attention to mutual fund expenses. Each of these S & P 500 index funds is among the least costly on the market.”

SB presents When and How to Buy Holiday Airline Tickets to Save posted at One Cent at a Time, saying, “Summer is now gone, when you are waiting for the leaves to change color, this is the best time to buy airline tickets for holiday travel. How to get the cheapest airline fare this holiday.”

Bradson Oakley presents Bond Mutual Funds posted at Best Bond Funds, saying, “Higher bond fund expenses tend to mean lower net returns to individual investors. It is not worth paying higher bond fund fees.”

Mike Holman presents How to avoid cell phone data roaming charges when traveling to the United States posted at Money Smarts Blog, saying, “How to save on cell phone data roaming charges when traveling to the US or other countries.”

Jonathan presents Millionaire Master Class: 6 Tips from the Top posted at Wallet Watcher, saying, “When it comes to money management, millionaires aren’t so different from the rest of us after all. In order to maintain their position at the top and avoid the dreaded status of bankruptcy they tend to watch their every dollar and cent, budget, live frugally and avoid financial risk just as we do.”

Taxes

Investor Junkie presents What Does Netflix and Taxes Have In Common? posted at Investor Junkie, saying, “Now you might be wondering what does taxes have to do with Netflix? Everything! This is a classic example of elastic demand”

Gemma Flannery presents Tax Codes and your Personal Allowance posted at Tax Codes, saying, “Each year you can earn a certain amount tax free. This post shows how your tax code is affected by your tax code.”

Finley Merriwether presents Retirement Planning Calculator posted at Retirement Plan Calculator, saying, “Tax-advantaged retirement savings plans give you the opportunity to make investments with deferred taxes in 401k, 403b, 457, Keogh, Simple, or other employer sponsored retirement plans.”

Mark Roberts presents How To Choose The Right Filing Status posted at Tax Brackets, saying, “This article provides a guide to choosing the right filing status for your tax return.”

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.

Technorati tags: carnival of financial planning, blog carnival.

Over the past three years I’ve gained 26.27%, lost 52.61% and gained 25.49%.  The past two years were odd years to say the least and in 2007 I was trading with a more aggressive style than I’m using today.  That leaves me with a tough way to predict my growth for 2010.  I’d like to think I could repeat the 25% range of growth, but I’m more realistic now than I used to be, so I’ll cut that down a good bit and hopefully surprise myself to the upside.  I plan to beat the S&P 500 this year and if its returns are close to its historic return of 10% (give or take a percentage point depending on how far back you go) I’ll randomly set my goal for 15% although I will do my best to get back up to 25% again.  A 15% gain on top of my starting balance of $101k is $116,150.

As I stated a few times since my 2007 year end review, we have been planning for a new car.  I wanted this account balance to be $100,000 before we diverted funds to the car.  Once I knew I had the deposit ready for this account we finally got around to buying the new car in the final week of 2009 and put down $7,000 on top of the $5,000 I got for my old Honda.  Our car payments are only about $450 per month, but we plan to overpay fairly aggressively most likely.  Ideally my current contract will last another 20 months and we’ll have most of the car paid off by the time I’m looking for new work.  If my new investment advisory business can produce enough income 20 months from now I won’t have to look for a new job and can start managing investments full time.  Without a doubt it’ll be a pay cut from what I’m making now, so we want our fixed expenses as low as possible by that time.  Having low fixed expenses also eases my mind when investing.  If I know I could use the money elsewhere I have a harder time taking a risk.  I’ve always had some of that in my mindset, but that feeling increased in 2008 when I lost what would have been enough to pay cash for the new car in full with some left over.  The point of this tangent is that I plan to send in $1,000 each month starting in March for the rest of the year (my son’s college ESA comes first).  That’ll give me another $10,000 towards my account spread throughout the year.

Without taking into account the time value of my additional deposits, my goal is to have an account balance of $126,000 by December 31, 2010 at a minimum.  The point of all of this planning is to figure out how much I need to average on each trade to reach my goal.  If I need to make $16,000 from growth over the year, not accounting for losing trades, I need to net $1,333.34 per month after accounting for losing trades.  That’s only $310.08 per week.  I could do that with one successful trade per week and no losing trades.  Since I will continue to have losing trades mixed in with my winners this approach is lacking.  Another way to look at it is by account value and how hard I have to make it work for me.  If my average trade has an underlying value of $10k, that gives me the opportunity to make 10 trades per month if I’m only writing nearest month options or five per month if I’m writing second month out options.  $1333.34 divided by 10 trades per month is only $133 per trade or $266 per trade if I’m not sticking to the nearest month and making an average of five trades per month.  I mentioned recently that my plans to switch to writing my options farther out.  This is one of the reasons.  I have a better chance of making five good trades per month than 10 per month.  (I’ll really have to aim for at least seven trades per month or almost two per week to make up for the trades where I lose money.)

If I do this correctly, I’ll have half of my account sitting on expiring options each month.  That will keep me from having all of my eggs in any one month basket which means I’ll stay more heavily invested than I have been the past few months and can benefit from the greater time value in the options I write.  The downside is that time value doesn’t deteriorate as quickly for longer term options, but I have to change something to improve my gains again.  I stand a chance of getting back to the 25% return range if/when we get a good correction and I start investing more aggressively again.  I don’t see a move back to trying to roll my full account every other month, but there’s probably a middle ground I can find that’ll work for me without incurring too much risk.  What you’ll see from me in the very near term is a lot more opening up small positions, just to have some more skin in the game even though I’m expecting a correction.  I’ve been wrong about when the impending correction would get here for a while and should at least have a little more at risk than I do right now.

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Welcome to the November 13, 2009 Edition #115 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.

The Carnival of Financial Planning takes a long-term view of personal financial planning for individuals and families. We focus on efficient and sustainable personal financial planning practices that can lead to lifetime financial security. 

This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.

Enjoy!

The Skilled Investor, Editor

Budgeting

Adam Williams presents Eat food in your pantry, you’ll save money. Really. posted at RabbitFunds.com, saying, “I think we’ve all read articles talking about how we should make a shopping list before going to the store. We almost always make a list. And yet, we still have what I’m going to call “unintentional food storage.””

April presents Large Amounts Matter Too posted at Get Rich Slowly, saying, “Remember: Saving money on the little things every day is great, but saving money on the big things can make an awesome difference to your budget.”

Four Pillars presents Get Out Of Debt With YNAB – You Need A Budget Financial Software Review posted at Quest For Four Pillars, saying, “Indepth review of You Need a Budget software.”

Baker presents Budgeting Ups and Downs: October and Beyond posted at Man Vs. Debt, saying, “Ever since we’ve left overseas, our budgeting system has been on one huge roller coaster ride. I’ve outlined what we DIDN’T plan for and what areas we had success. What about you, though… how was your budget in October? What about November?”

Susan Saverton presents Personal Budgets posted at Family Financial Planners, saying, “When you don’t understand how much you spend and how much you save and invest, you do not have a financial plan. This dramatically increases your family’s long-term financial risk.”

The Debtress presents Financial Lessons from a Man Who Lives for Free posted at - The Debtress Blog -, saying, “Daniel Suelo of a Utah lives in a cave and has no money. Lessons we can all learn from his lifestyle.”

Wise_Bread presents The First Step to Budgeting posted at Wisebread.

Estate Planning

The Financial Blogger presents Estate Planning: 5 Reasons Why You Should Have A Professional Among Your Liquidators posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “managing an estate is more complicated than simply writing a few checks! Fortunately, for those who can afford it, you can name a professional among your liquidators.”

Jeff Rose presents Your Estate Planning Checklist posted at Jeff Rose.

Financial Planning

Dividend Tree presents Building Core Competency for Long Term Survival posted at Dividend Tree, saying, “whether it is running a business or individuals’ investment portfolio, it is important to build a core competency for long term sustainability. In my case, I focus on good quality companies that consistently pay or have potential to pay growing dividends over time.

jim presents Conduct a Financial Fire Drill posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, saying, “Conducting a financial fire drill is one of the most important financial planning steps you can take. You can make better decisions when you aren’t emotionally involved.”

Susan Saverton presents Financial Advisor Pasadena California posted at Pasadena Financial Planner, saying, “Appropriately setting your personal asset allocation in line with your personal risk tolerance is a critical decision for every investor. The percentages that are allocated to various asset classes tend to change slowly over time, so it is important to get it right at the outset.”

Financing a Home

Joe Manausa, MBA presents Home Buyer Tax Credit Expanded By Congress posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, “Congress has extended and expanded the homebuyer tax credit. The modifications will become effective when President Obama signs the bill, which could occur as early as November 6, 2009.”

Roshawn Watson presents Should You Buy A House Outright? posted at Watson Inc, saying, “Suppose you find yourself in the somewhat unique predicament of having the resources to purchase your house outright without a mortgage. Is it then financially-wise to make the purchase?”

Madison presents $6,500 Home Buyer Tax Credit for Existing Homeowners posted at My Dollar Plan, saying, “Great news for those planning to move soon! A tax credit for existing homeowners.”

Alex Fotopoulos presents When to Refinance a Mortgage? posted at My Trader’s Journal, saying, “Some key points to consider when refinancing your home.”

Financing Education

Praveen presents Will Education Follow the Housing Bust? posted at My Simple Trading System, saying, “Tips for students to avoid excessive loans and debt”

Health Care

Jeff Rose presents What’s the Best Health Savings Plan For You? posted at Jeff Rose.

PT presents Save Money on Health Care: A Quick Summary of Tax Advantaged Medical Savings Accounts posted at Prime Time Money.

KCLau presents Withdraw EPF Fund to Pay Insurance Premium? posted at KCLau’s Money Tips, saying, “Vincent Lee generously shares an idea to use your EPF”

Income

Ted Reimers presents Tips for making a Career Change posted at A Degree Online, saying, “The road to financial independence requires many changes. Here are a few tips when changing careers.”

nissim ziv presents What Are Your Salary Expectations? posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “It is worth being prepared to answer this question wisely because you can, accidentally, make some critical mistakes that greatly weaken your negotiating power down the road.”

Dividend Tree presents Three Companies with Sustainable Dividends posted at Dividend Tree, saying, “Even in soft economic environment, there are companies out there that are continuing to increase dividends for their shareholders. While dividend increase is good, it is more critical to make sure we understand that companies can sustain their dividends.”

Investing

Soo-Young presents 10 Things Zombieland Taught Me About Stock Market Investing posted at Bullishness.com, saying, “Applying The Zombieland Rules To The Stock Market”

ABC presents Top Down Investment Approach posted at ABCs of Investing, saying, “An explanation of the “top down” investment method.”

Aussie Investor presents How To Buy Shares In Australia posted at Australian Investing, saying, “Investing in the stock market can be a rewarding experience, but where do you start? This post introduces the mechanics of buying shares. What sort of things do you need to consider beforehand and how do you actually go about making your first purchase?”

Zach Scheidt presents Blue Nile Reports Growth posted at ZachStocks, saying, “Blue Nile Inc. (NILE) reported earnings growth in the third quarter. The company is growing market share but the stock is simply overpriced. Watch for a 50% drop in the coming months.”

Super Saver presents Dow 10,000 3.0 – What’s Next? posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “After the Dow crossed 10,000 in October, 2009, the big question is where next . . . up, down or sideways?”

Fred Elkins presents Diversified Munis Offer Good Value and Minimize Your Tax Burden « Finance Banter posted at Finance Banter, saying, “Diversified muni funds offer investors current income without increasing their tax liability. Here is advice on what to look for and a few core choices.”

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Best Discount Brokerage Firms posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “A list of the top online discount brokerage firms, including a short review of each to give information about what gives each brokerage an advantage over the others.”

Jules Wells presents Best Investment Strategy posted at Financial Planning Software, saying, “Personal investing seems incredibly complex, but the best investment strategy also tends to be a more simple investment strategy.”

Roshawn Watson presents Save For Retirement or Avoid Student Loans posted at Watson Inc, saying, “If a student is working and has acquired some cash, should he or she use that money to avoid future student loans or invest the money for retirement?”

Praveen presents Just Bought Hyatt Hotels (H) posted at My Simple Trading System, saying, “About Hyatt’s recent IPO and why its a good stock.”

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Alternative Investments to High Yield Savings Accounts posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “Looking for a safe place to stash your cash and still receive a decent rate of return on your money? Then check out this article, which lists several good safe investment alternatives to standard high yield savings accounts.”

Silicon Valley Blogger presents EverkBank Review: Online Bank For High Yield Investment Accounts posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “I look into some interesting CD products from Everbank.”

MoneyNing presents How to Get Your Wife to Invest posted at Money Ning, saying, “Talk and discuss. Learn how to get your significant other to invest!”

Control your Cash presents Reading this post will make you sound 477% more financially literate posted at Control Your Cash, saying, “What does Dow 10000 really mean?”

Curt presents How I Plan to Double My Money Twice Next Year posted at PennyJobs.com.

Zach Scheidt presents Blackstone Sees Improving Trends posted at ZachStocks, saying, “The Blackstone Group, LP (BX) reported earnings and the stock is trading sharply higher. The environment is improving for the private equity company as liquidity and risk premiums increase.”

ABC presents More Exciting Facts About Stock Indexes posted at ABCs of Investing, saying, “Some interesting facts about stock indexes.”

GeoffG presents Technical Analysis | Stock Market Timing Signals | Top Stock Picks » Blog Archive » Technical Analysis and Market Timing Update for 11/10/09 posted at Market Timing and Top Stock Picks, saying, “Want to know the best and worst time to own stocks. Use technical analysis and market timing signals for long term investing success.”

FMF presents Portfolio Recommendation Beats S&P 500 by 9.4% posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Suggestions on a market-beating portfolio.”

lifestyles presents Chunking: Using Passive Income Streams from Real Estate to Pay for Chunks of Your Bills posted at Lifestyles Unlimited Real Estate Investing and Mentoring, saying, “Brian Lee addresses the concept of “chunking.” Pay off parts of your bills by investing in real estate!”

Frank Vertin presents Low Cost Index Fund posted at Best Index Fund, saying, “Buying an S&P 500 index fund through an investment counselor can substantially increase your initial purchasing costs and and drive up your annual management expense fees. Unfortunately, the vast majority of individual investors buy mutual funds and ETFs through brokers and investment advisers. Rarely do financial advisors recommend that you buy index funds with low fees. This is because low cost, no load mutual funds do not pay them as well as loaded, high fee mutual funds.”

Dividends4Life presents 4 Stocks With Higher Dividends posted at Dividends Value, saying, “Investing in Dividend Stocks is a long-term strategy. Frequent buying and selling of dividend stocks can significantly increase your expenses and taxes, thus lowering your returns. A growing dividend is a strong indication of a company’s increasing intrinsic value.”

ABC presents “Bottoms Up” Investment Method posted at ABCs of Investing, saying, “A short description of “bottom’s up” investing style.”

Steve Alexander presents Magic Formula Buyouts and Bankruptcies 2009 posted at MagicDiligence – Optimizing Joel Greenblatts Value Stock Strategy, saying, “In addition to normal capital returns and dividends, the Magic Formula has a knack for finding stocks that are good acquisition targets – but also some that go bankrupt. A look at some buyouts and bankruptcies on the MFI screen in 2009.”

Mike Piper presents Where to Rollover My 401k posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “For anybody who has left their job recently, one of the biggest questions is what to do with their old 401k. This article helps sort through the three major options.”

Tomas Escent presents Professional Investment Management posted at Nerds on Wall Street, saying, “Think of this book as sort of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to Wired Markets. There are no robots parking cars for six million years, but there are robots trading millions of shares in six milliseconds, so maybe that’s close enough.”

The Skilled Investor presents Investing Strategy posted at Personal Investment Manager, saying, “Investors more easily understand investment costs that are directly measurable, such as fees deducted on investment statements. However, many investors ignore or are unaware of the opportunity costs of their sub-optimal investment behaviors. Opportunity costs are usually much more difficult to measure directly, but these investment costs can be even higher than more visible investment fees.”

The Financial Blogger presents The Financial Blogger » Blog Archive » Canadian ETFs That Pays Dividends – Am I in Heaven? posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “There are a lot of people that love dividends. There are 2 major reasons why so many investors love them. #1 they are usually issued by very stable companies which mean less volatility in a stock portfolio. #2 they pay quarterly income, which is great for revenue seekers.”

Mike Piper presents Is Technical Analysis Profitable? posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “An extremely thorough study was recently performed, testing over 5,000 different technical analysis trading rules. The results: Not so rosy.”

Diane Laine presents The Definitive Inverse ETF Guide posted at ETFdb.

Tushar Mathur presents Can’t Control the Markets? Try controlling the Costs posted at Everything Finance, saying, “As 2008 proved, the financial markets are prone to unpredictable periods of turbulence. That can make investing feel a bit like a roller-coaster ride. The disappointing results that many mutual funds posted in 2008 and at the outset of 2009 may have left you feeling concerned over your financial future. You’re not alone.”

Larry Russell presents NoLoad Mutual Funds posted at Best No Load Mutual Funds, saying, “Taken as a whole, the vast body of investment research studies show that there really are better approaches to buying and owning mutual funds and ETFs. You do not need to frantically chase fund performance. Performance chasing simply does not work.”

Zach Scheidt presents Rosetta Hits IPO Price – Lowest Trading Since April posted at ZachStocks, saying, “Rosetta Stone Inc. (RST) has traded below it’s IPO price, leaving all investors with losses. Weakness in consumer spending, and a difficult macro environment will likely continue to pressure this vulnerable company.”

Managing Debt

Darwin presents The Truth About Rewards Credit Cards – But, Is it Really True? posted at Darwin’s Finance, saying, “After ABCNews published some rather disturbing data on the spending habits of users of reward cards, it’s worth evaluating their assertions because Correlation is not necessarily Causation. Is this just sloppy reporting or is there something to be concerned about?”

Manshu presents Disney Rewards Visa Credit Card posted at OneMint, saying, “A look at the rewards and features of the Disney Visa Credit card.”

MoneyNing presents Credit vs Debit Transactions with Your ATM Card posted at Money Ning, saying, “Are there any difference with saying credit or debit when you hand over an ATM card?”

Tristan presents How Do Debt Collection Agencies Work posted at How To Eliminate Debts, saying, “A quick look at how debt collection agencies work with creditors to collect on delinquent debts.”

oneadvice presents Debt Management Solution posted at One Advice, saying, “Looking for a debt management solution which is right for you? Be clear and concise about your debt management requirements before signing ANYTHING….”

The Smarter Wallet presents How 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards Can Save You Money posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “You can save money with the right kind of credit cards!”

The Dough Roller presents Balance Transfer Credit Cards posted at The Dough Roller, saying, “Balance Transfer Credit Cards”

Miscellaneous

FMF presents How to Buy a New Furnace and Air Conditioner posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Keys steps to buying a great furnace and AC unit at a great price.”

No Load Bond Funds presents Low Cost Bond Funds posted at Bond Index Fund, saying, “Simply put, if you pay higher bond mutual fund fees, then these bond management expenses tend just to be a deadweight loss to you. The best bond fund buying strategy is to pick only very low-cost no load bond funds.”

Mike presents Journey of 1000 Miles: Part III of III posted at Minting Pennies – Personal Finance, Investing, and Microfinance, saying, “A post about finishing the journey to achieving good credit and reaping the rewards you are at the final destination. It is also about the importance of reaching out and helping others during your journey.”

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog presents Do You Know If You Are Owed Money From A Bankruptcy? | The Canadian Finance Blog posted at The Canadian Finance Blog, saying, “To help you find out if you are owed money from bankrupt debtors, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy maintains an Unclaimed Funds Database.”

Frank Knight presents Identity Theft Prevention posted at Personal Financial Planning Software, saying, “Financial Planning and Identity Theft Prevention — Identity theft prevention is a key, but often overlooked, component of a prudent financial plan.”

Tyler Tervooren presents Stop Feeling Guilty and Go Do Something Awesome posted at Frugally Green, saying, “Guilt gets in everyone’s way. We use it as motivation to do all kinds of junk we don’t really care about, but think we should. What could you accomplish if you forgot about what everyone else thinks you should be doing and started making your own rules?”

Susan Saverton presents Personal Financial Strategy posted at Family Financial Planner, saying, “When pursuing optimal financial planning and investing strategies and controlling your costs and capital gains taxes, you also need to establish a time-efficient system to monitor, adjust, and adhere to your financial plan.”

Retirement Planning

FMF presents The World’s Best Places to Retire posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “One way to make your retirement savings go farther is to retire overseas.”

Jeff Rose presents 2010 Traditional and Roth 401k Contribution Limits posted at Jeff Rose, saying, “401k limits for 2010 have been announced.”

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents 2010 Roth IRA Contribution Limits posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “The IRS recently released the 2010 Traditional and Roth IRA contribution limits. Now is a great time to get started on your retirement and tax planning for next year!”

Frank Knight presents Roth IRA Retirement Planning posted at Financial Planning Software, saying, “Roth IRA Retirement Planning — Deciding between traditional retirement plan contributions and Roth retirement plan contributions”

Jeff Rose presents What you need to know about your Medicare and Medicaid Benefits posted at Jeff Rose, saying, “Many seniors have misconceptions on the differences between Medicare and Medicaid eligibility benefits. Throw in long term care insurance, and the water gets even more muddier.”

Top Stock Index Mutual Funds presents Stock Index Funds posted at Top 10 Index Fund, saying, “To build your retirement portfolio, buy some of these top 10 very low cost no load S&P 500 index mutual funds directly. You do not have to pay the heavy added expenses of buying through a stock broker, financial adviser, investment adviser, or investment counselor.” 

Risk Management and Insurance

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Save Money on Auto Insurance Rates posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “Tips on how to save money on your auto insurance rates, including multi car discounts, multi-line policies, defensive driving courses, and more.”

Chris McClelland presents Things to not say to your insurance company posted at Lucrative Investing.

Patrick @ Military Money presents COBRA Benefits 2009 Economic Stimulus Recovery Act posted at Military Finance Network, saying, “The 2009 Economic Stimulus Plan includes additional COBRA and unemployment benefits.”

Savings

MBB presents Best Online Bank: Savings and Checking Accounts posted at Money Blue Book Blog.

The Smarter Wallet presents HSBC Direct Review: Top Savings Account posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “Reviewing an online savings account”

Four Pillars presents $8,000 Credit For First-Time Homebuyers Extended 6 Months – Not Increased To $15k posted at Quest For Four Pillars, saying, “Home buyers credit extended 6 months.”

Jody T Fransch presents The Law of Saving | jody fransch posted at jody fransch.

David Carlson presents Attitudes Towards Savings posted at Dual Income No Kids, saying, “This article is about American’s view towards saving and how we as a nation are saving less than the past. This is done through comparing past attitudes towards saving to today’s attitudes towards saving. It also talks about how saving can be more than just an emergency fund and can serve other purposes.”

KCLau presents Caring for the Elderly posted at KCLau’s Money Tips, saying, “Problems faced by the elderly”

Taxes

Super Saver presents End of Year Tax Planning – Deductions posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “For me, October is a good time to review my 2009 financial status for tax return filing purposes. It gives me a few months to make any changes that can lower my taxes.”

Jacqulyn Richey presents First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended posted at Las Vegas Real Estate News, saying, “Details of the extension of the 2009 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. A breakdown of who now qualifies, the new income limits and the extension deadline.”

Jeff Rose presents 2010 Traditional IRA to Roth IRA Conversion Tax Rules posted at Jeff Rose, saying, “Tax implications of converting from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Don’t forget the after-tax contributions.” 

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.

Technorati tags: carnival of financial planning, blog carnival.

The main questions came down to how long we planned to stay in the house, if we wanted to take any equity out of our house and how much we wanted to come out of pocket in cash at the closing table. 

Our plan is for our current home to be our final home purchase so we have a long term horizon.  We bought it less than three and a half years ago and have more than 30% equity in it.  After we bought our starter house we began saving for our next/final house the next year and lucked out to have the starter house appreciate too.  Those two pieces together gave us a nice down payment for our new home.

We didn’t want to increase our principle balance and take money out of the deal.  Our goal is to pay the house off sooner so we have lower fixed expenses when we are ready to retire.  I’m not a big believer in the perceived benefit of writing off interest for tax purposes on a home loan versus not paying the interest in the first place (by paying off the house, not defaulting).  A home owner deducts interest from a home loan from income, not directly off of taxes owed.  That means that for every dollar spent on interest only 20-30 cents is saved on taxes.  That’s 70-80 cents wasted.  The counter argument is that with rates as low as they are today you can make more investing the money.  That can be valid I suppose, but as aggressive as I can be with my investments I like the diversification paying down my mortgage gives me.  The other option might be to keep our home loan principle balance higher thereby giving us more cash and then I could put part of my investments into safer bonds, but that would be at a lower return on investment and not guaranteed. 

We decided we didn’t want to pay more than $5,000 at closing and would roll the rest of the costs into the loan balance.  $5,000 was somewhat arbitrary, but was close to what I thought I had available in our account at the time I started talking with our mortgage broker. 

To decide when it was smartest time to refinance for us came down to how soon we’d see the benefit.  The best option for us was to pay no loan discount points (basically pre-paying interest) and low loan origination points (this is negotiable since it’s basically the commission the mortgage broker gets – We got it down to 0.375).  These two parts combined kept our closing costs lower.  We also dropped our home equity line of credit, aka HELOC, which was costing us $50/year to keep open and would only come into play after we spent our savings we keep in our CD ladder and our investments I blog about here all the time. 

I used the free mortgage calculator at bankrate.com to figure out the loan amortization schedule.  We reduced our payment by $233 per month.  Based on our 4.875% interest rate and approximately $6,250 in closing costs after our escrow refund it will take us 27 months to see a benefit from this refinance.  In other words, after 27 months we’ll owe less than we would have if we had not refinanced.  Every month after that puts us farther ahead.  Since we’re not short on cash flow right now, while we’re both still employed we plan to keep paying what we were used to paying before the refinance by adding $233 towards principle each month.  This will save seven years on our mortgage which means we’ll pay off our house around three and a half years sooner than if we had not refinanced.  If we don’t have to refinance again down the road we’ll have our house paid off in 23 years, soon after I turn 61.  We’d both like to retire before then.  Our son should graduate from college in about 17 years, not counting grad school if he decides to go that route.  Without a mortgage payment or child care costs our lowered fixed income will help us be able to retire with lower income restrictions.

By the time we closed this week a month and a half had passed since we planned our closing costs and how much we’d pay at the table.  We were off a good bit because we had made two payments since we first figured out our payoff cost and I didn’t expect to get as much of a refund from our escrow account as we did (escrow holds insurance and tax payments and pays on a quarterly or semi-annual basis in most cases).  We only paid $3,276 at closing and will get back more than $3,500 from our escrow.  That means I have an extra $5,000 to send in to our investing account today.  I thought about sending in an extra payment on our new mortgage, but decided to just stick to the original plan.  Once I get my investing account over $100k, I might consider sending more to pay the mortgage off sooner, but that’ll be a decision to make at the time.

Anyway, I’m praising Quicken today because of their excellent customer service.  As I mentioned last week my home computer was down and out due to a virus that wouldn’t let me stay booted up.  I was able to get on long enough to back up my Quicken data which I usually do monthly, but will return to doing weekly.  Now that I got it running again I tried to reload Quicken.  I found my Quicken 2005 CD and my Quicken Premier 2008 upgrade CD.  I started to load it, but got stuck when I couldn’t find the “unlock code”.  Their packaging had the customer service number printed clearly on it so I didn’t have to waste time looking around for it.  I called, but they said I had to go to their site and they’d call me back whenever I scheduled it.  At first I was peeved that I couldn’t just get through, but when I went to their site I saw a link to chat or schedule a call back.  I like to chat so I can avoid sitting on hold for too long, so I chose that route.

They have a good system.  I clicked the link to chat, had to fill out my issue and then was moved into queue.  I figured I’d have a long wait, but the first support agent popped in 20 seconds later, greeted me nicely and moved quickly.  I fully expected to have to pay for a new license since I lost my unlock code and explained my story.  He asked for my purchase order which of course I didn’t have handy and I reminded him that my hard drive had crashed.  He said no problem, took my phone number and zip code and immediately said he’d send me a link for a full new download.  The whole process took about 2 minutes.  I sent the link home since I was doing all of this at work, but when I tried to download the 60 MB application my computer timed out.  I was warned I could only click the link once, but tried again and it worked, but timed out each time.  I was out of time for my long lunch and gave up.

When I got back to my office I started a new chat with Quicken and in less than one minute had a new link and was able to download it.  I asked the agent to stay on the phone with me while I downloaded it to my work laptop and he patiently waited with me.  It downloaded fine and with his suggestion I was able to move it to a flash drive and installed it at home with no issues and now I have the back-up installation on my flash drive if this ever happens again.

I’m assuming the two Quicken customer service agents were part of an outsourced call center based on their names and that it was a call center and most have moved overseas.  Had they used aliases I wouldn’t have questioned that they might have been in the building next to me.  Their responses were quick and in perfect English.  I didn’t have to repeat or rephrase any of my word choices to find something they’d understand.  All in all, Quicken impressed me and will continue to retain my business.

20 months ago I had surgery on my neck to remove a couple of bad discs.  I was an hourly contractor at the time and only missed about 15 hours of work since I had a cool boss who let me work from home some for a week afterwards.  The 15 hours of missed pay hurt, but I think I missed more in the perception from my boss and co-workers on my reliability.  I went to physical therapy every week or two for more than six months and was on pain medication all day while at work and home.  I recovered from the surgery and kept my reputation in tact, but can imagine that those who aren’t as lucky as I am post surgery could have a hard time with promotions.

This same neck injury, which I’ll need a second surgery for sometime in the next two to six years, also shaped my decision for my job change.  I ended up taking a pay cut to find a job that was within walking distance to my house in case I can’t drive again for a month post surgery like 20 months ago.  I also changed industries and returned to the same type job I had five years earlier.  I can practically do the job in my sleep and can take pain meds as needed without it affecting my job, much.  The cost for this is the lower salary I’m making due to my change in industries and jobs.

The direct costs can be big for poor health even with decent insurance.  Every time I go to physical therapy I have to pay a co-pay of $40 a visit.  I’ve been as often as four times a month this year and have had gaps in between visits no longer than six weeks.  That has added up over the past five years I’ve had this issue to well over $3,000, maybe closer to $4,000.  My wife had a dental problem that insurance didn’t cover and we’ve paid over $2,500 for it and have more expected.  We also both took time off from work for her surgery and had to miss vacation time. 

While I was recovering from my surgery last year, my wife had a scare with her heart due to the stress and a false positive from her stress test.  She spent four days in the hospital being examined, lost out on vacation time and called for extended family involvement  as our parents had to be on call and stop their lives to help us take care of our son since I couldn’t drive and my wife was stuck in the hospital.  Throw in the direct costs of both of us hitting our max coinsurance limits added in another $2,000 in unexpected expenses.

The idea for this post came up for me because I’m spending the afternoon with my mother-in-law today and am missing work again.  She had surgery for an intestinal issue.  My father-in-law took off all of last week and the first two days of this week.  My sister-in-law took a half day yesterday and my wife is taking a half day tomorrow to be with her since she still can’t do much for herself.  As I would expect most family members would do, we’re all happy to take care of her, but the cost for all of us is still there.  Taking half-days and (kind of) working on line while here we all avoid having to use vacation time, but missing in office time always burns a favor with the boss that could have been used later.  Lost productivity in stressful times like this is a cost that doesn’t show up immediately, but seems to add up as these instances become more frequent. 

Then again, maybe having a bad neck and thereby having access to pain pills isn’t such a bad thing on some of these bear market days.

I’ve been talking to him for the past few weeks about what kind of new car he should get.  He’s been thinking of getting a new car for months and finally his car’s engine started acting up.  He took it to the shop, got it “fixed” only to have another problem hit.  He took it back and got the run-around about when they’d have it ready for him.  Eventually, after not receiving a returned call from his mechanic, he was in the area and decided to drop by only to find the gates chained and bolted.  That was last week.  I talked to him yesterday and he got his car back, not fixed.  Looking for a silver lining I have to remind him that at least he is buying a car at a time when dealers will be willing to cut a great deal to unload some inventory.

His blog post on AC/360 is worth the short read.  It’s such a great example of the state of our economy.  It’s interesting to see how a car dealership can go under in the same town where technology jobs are still being hired at a premium for good candidates.  We’ve noticed a slow down in our IT recruiting this month, but not too much considering the headlines we’re seeing for other industries.

I’ll give a review of Quicken 2008 Premier after I’ve had a little more time to play with it.  First impression is good though.  A problem I’ve seen with Quicken/Turbo Tax in the past and again this year is that it doesn’t pull over all dates for my trades.  For about a third of them I had to enter the sell date for my options manually.  I don’t know what made some import correctly and others didn’t.

As expected we owe due to my capital gains for 2007 being more than I planned for.  I’ll work it a little differently from now on.  After I build back up from the losses I currently have on paper (which will be realized losses before too long), I’ll get a feel for the rough amount of capital gains I’ll have for 2008.  My current plan is to adjust my W-4 to take out extra so I still owe some next year, but not as much.

Our effective tax rate ended up being 21.98% of my taxable income this year compared to 20.4% last year.  Our effective tax rate on total income was 17.5% versus 15.3% last year.  We have a little bit more of our income falling in the 33% tax bracket now thanks to my gains in stocks and my wife’s employer stock options and extra exit bonus she received at the end of her employment with her last company.

I’m not taking anything out of savings to pay the taxes, but will reduce my deposits to my trading account for a couple of months.  I already skipped January in anticipation, so I think I’ll skip March and be OK.  I sent $2,000 in on Friday, so February is taken care of.

I use these 10 11 reasons why I like money (among many others) to help keep me motivated to stay active in my investing accounts.  I almost called this “Why I want more money”, but that’ll be a whole new list when we get to that level.

1. I can buy $15 worth of desserts at the mall with my wife and son and not feel guilty knowing we could have bought a whole 1/2 gallon of good ice cream for less than $5 at the grocery store.

2. I can have a surprise $1200 car repair and not let it affect how we live our daily lives.

3. I can relax when I see the soaring costs of a good four year college knowing we have been steady in funding our son’s tax deferred education savings account (ESA).

4. I can have realistic plans for both my wife and me to retire the day my son graduates from college, if not sooner.

5. I can buy organic foods and in turn feel better, go to the doctor less and have even more money.

6. I can keep 12 movie channels on DirecTV, just in case they show something we want to see one day, although they rarely do.

7. Within the next three to four years we can stop fearing losing our jobs for financial reasons, but only for social reasons.

8. My wife can go to one of the top hair stylists ($$$$) in Atlanta on a regular basis and it doesn’t hurt our long-term financial plans.

9. We can afford a maid so we don’t have to clean toilets or showers or floors or windows.

10. We can realistically plan to take our four siblings to a villa in France for a week and not ask them to pay.  (OK, this last one is two years away, but will be incredible if we can do it.)

11. I can afford to buy good beer and single malt scotch and be happy with each taste.  My dad might argue that PBR is worth every penny he saves.

These are the first 10 reasons I like money that jumped into my head when I started to write this.  What else should be on this list?  Remember, you might just be aiding in my addiction.

Technorati Tags: money, investing, spending, finance