Chatzky: 8 great rules to grow your money

In a USA Weekend issue from a month or two back, Jean Chatzky had written an article called "8 great rules to grow your money."

Here are the major take home points.  For more details, click the link below to be taken to the article on usaweekend.com.

• Bank your windfalls.
• Manage what you can.
• Credit cards don't have to equal debt.
• Don't let your money run out before you do.
• Put your 80-year-old self first.
• Buy experiences, not things.
• Tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance is smart.
• Face your finances.

These are all basic and important tenets to live by.

For more details, click here: http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20120330/MONEY/303300006/8-great-rules-grow-your-money

Forbes.com - Going, Going, Gone

Just going through a recent issue of Forbes magazine (which I am still getting for free).

Here is another article on helping get rid of (a lot) of stuff.  The examples they give include "downsizing, helping a parent move or handling an estate..."

The key points include the following:

• Accept that downsizing is tough
• Do your homework
• Call in an appraiser
• Be wary of family lore
• Don't junk that Buck Rogers patch
• Call in an auction house
• Donate and deduct
• Pass down some heirlooms as gifts
• Consider capital gains
• Reduce paperwork for your heirs

Read here for more details:

• Click here to read the article on Forbes.com

You can support me by subscribing to Forbes with the following simple steps:

• Click on this link to be taken to Upromise
• Click on the See Deals and Shop button
• In the next window, you can either click on Barnes and Nobles or enter the following address in your web browser: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/forbes

Forbes.com - 10 Steps to Make Your Kid A Millionaire

I am going through a recent of Forbes Magazine.  Here is another article that covers 10 steps to "ensure that your family's next generation is an affluent one."

Here are 10 steps:

• Don't Overeducate
• Find a Cheap B.A.
• Fund a Roth
• Shun Card Debt
• Shop for a 529
• Give Away Grandpa's IRA
• Start them Young (budgeting)
• Give Stock
• Put Your Kids In A House (gift of downpayment)
• Hire Your Offspring (if you own a business)

For more details click here to be taken to Forbes.com 

You can support me by subscribing to Forbes with the following simple steps:

• Click on this link to be taken to Upromise
• Click on the See Deals and Shop button
• In the next window, you can either click on Barnes and Nobles or enter the following address in your web browser: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/forbes

5 Things to Do in the New Year (or at least think about it)

Woohoo!  It looks like I will be receiving Money Magazine for another year.  If you have been reading my blog, you will know that my previous issue had Dec10 on it which usually means that my subscription will expire, but the most recent one has Dec11 on it.

One of the articles lists five things to do in the New Year.  They are as follows:

• Shop for a no-fee checking account
• Save your raise
• Go for a checkup
• Score a better rewards card
• Use your vacation days

For more details, click here to read: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/pf/1101/gallery.Things_to_do_in_2011.moneymag/index.html

To subscribe to Money Magazine click here:

Forbes - Investment Guide for 2011

I just recently posted a guide from Money Magazine and to be fair, I am now posting the Investment Guide from Forbes Magazine.  This is another magazine that I am currently receiving for free.  Here are the key components:

• Rethinking Your Risk:  Career (potentially your biggest investment), Dollar, Real estate, and Spending
• Estate Planning On the Cheap: Use software or hire someone?
• Being a Smart Client of a Financial advisor: Trust them (or take a hike), Take the long view, Let the pros decide, and It's a business
• Tracking Vital Signs: Quicken Health Expense, Microsoft HealthVault, and Google Health.  All of which have limitations which you will need to read about. 
• Global Attraction
• Get Naked for Income: Sell calls and puts to gain an additional 1.5% per month?
• Tax-Smart Energy Investing:  for good or bad, the tax rate roll-backs were delayed for another two years.  This portion discusses the use of Master Limited Partnerships
• The Secret Housing Boom:  How to invest in apartment REITs
• High Fliers: Investing in aerospace stocks
• Cashing in on the Comeuppance of Hedge Funds: Why the heydey of hedge funds is over.
• Staying On Target.  How to make target-date funds work for you
• Dividend Stocks for Bond Investors: with interest rates and inflation rising, shift from bonds (which face values go down when rates go up) to stocks with a good dividend yield
• Crash Course: tips for buying car insurance such as raise your deductibles, get uninsured motorist coverage, carry an umbrella, look for obscure discounts, don't buy your teen their own car, avoid limited tort insurance, and insure for a total wreck.
• How to give like Mark Zuckerberg:  like public stock, private equity, liquidation fund, collectibles, and real estate, but look out for the IRS.
• Protection Racket:  look out for indexed annuities
• Florida Fire Sale: how to evaluate buying housing in Florida
• Folk Hero: use your money to fulfill your dreams (and hopefully make money too)

There's a lot of reading (and maybe some skimming), but the information is dense and useful if you want to simply get an overview.

To subscribe to Forbes Magazine, click below:

Welcome to Zombieland - A foreclosure reminder

Here is another article in the December Money Magazine that covers specifically Ladera Ranch in Orange County, California.

Just another reminder that housing should remain a "need" and not a "want."  Make sure you can easily afford it based on monthly cash flow.

Click here for the article.

To subscribe to Money click below:

Money Magazine - Make Money in 2011

Yes, I am still trying to catch up for 2010.  If you have been reading my posts, you will know that I am getting Money Magazine for free.  If I read the label correctly, the December 2010 issue will be my last (unless they renew for me).

They had a couple of quick blurbs that comprised "Make Money in 2011."  They have each individual piece online that you can find by clicking on the following links:

• Your Savings: Spread amounts over short terms from savings to five-year CDs, Increase your credit score to 750 or higher, and Don't settle for low interest rates on savings accounts
• Your Investments: Tilt towards stocks, Go big (dividend yields), Venture overseas, Stay Short (as far as bond terms), and Take a calculated risk.
• Your Home:  If buying, don't try to time the market perfectly and if selling, hang on a few more years until the market recovers (or try to unload fast).  If you already own, refinance if you are able.  If you are an investor and want to buy, wait until foreclosure numbers ramp up again.
• Your Job: Angle for that promotion, Toot your own horn, Raise your visibility in-house, and Nurture your network.
• The Economy  

For more details click on each link above.  To subscribe to Money Magazine, click the link below:

Money Magazine - Manage your money like a Man...or a Woman

If you have been following my blog, you know that I am receiving Money Magazine for free.  In the November 2010 issue, there was a feature on how to manage your money depending on which sex/gender you are.

The online version has 13 strategies for each gender.  It probably does not hurt to read both.

• Click here to read how to manage money like a man
• Click here to read how to manage money like a woman

To subscribe to Money Magazine, click here for 1-year with auto-renewal

Tips for Raising Money-Smart Kids

In the current USAWeekend money feature, Jean Chatzky, gave five tips for raising "money-smart" kids.  Chatzky is an financial expert and author of many books including Not Your Parents' Money Book.

The five tips include:

• Give children money to manage
• Offer incentives for saving
• Strongly encourage work
• Talk about money
• Let them fail

To view details and to read the feature on-line, then click here.

To go to Amazon.com to look at other books by Chatzky, click here.

Secrets of Extreme Savers

In this recent feature by CNNMoney.com it features eight people or families and what they have done in their lives to be able to save a

Their key strategies are at the very core of nearly every "get rich" or "get out of debt" books in print and include the following:

• Avoid debt
• Delay gratification
• Create multiple streams of income
• Live below your means
• Cut down on everyday expenses
• Track your spending
• Live on one salary while bringing in two
• Automate saving

For more details, click here to read the entire feature.

Trade a cell phone (eventually) into a Porsche?

I recently read an article on Yahoo! Finance about a person who over the course of two years made multiple trades off of Craigslist and turned an old cell phone into a used Porsche Boxster.

I applaud his efforts, but here is my point.  It states that he spends five to six hours a day looking for possible trades for two years.  The value of the car was $9,000 and it reports that he later decided to get rid of it because maintenance was too high.

I am just wondering what would have happened if he had just worked for two years and bought the $9,000 car outright?  I know someone reading this will throw in that it is a poor job market and that it would be difficult to get a job, and on and on...   At the Federal Minimum wage of $7.25 per hour at five hours per day and 250 days per year for two years, he would have earned (before taxes of course) $18,125. Of course if someone would be able to get a job paying more than the minimum wage or worked more than 25 hours per week, this amount would be higher.

Was it worth it?

For more details, click here to read the article

No estate taxes for this billionaire

Yahoo! Finance had this article about Dan L. Duncan who passed away in March 2010.  Because there are no estate taxes for those who pass away in 2010, his full net worth has been passed on to his wife and children.  In any other year, his estate (estimated at $9 billion) would have had to pay up to 45 percent in taxes.

About 5,500 estates are affected each year.  The article reports that Congress is working to reinstate the estate tax for 2010, but up for debate is whether it can retroactively affect those who have passed before it has been reinstated.

Click here to read more on Yahoo! Finance.

LATimes.com: Payday lenders sink loan limits

Here is another piece by David Lazarus on how Payday lenders are able to continue charging customers over 400% per year in interest.

Click here to read more.

21 Best Money Tips Ever

I am still getting Money Magazine for free.  In the April 2010 issue, there was a section on 31 Ways to Improve Your Finances.  The first section had seven tips and the last part contained the 21 tips.  I think they are worth reading.

Links:

• 21 Best Money Tips ever

Click here to subscribe to Money Magazine for 1 year or 2 years.

Yahoo! Finance "How to Be Your Own Financial Regulator"

In this article by Laura Rowley she discussed the recent proposals for financial reform.  It is 1,300 pages long!  I know there are debates back and forth "For" or "Against" reform.

She makes the following points where if you adhere to them, the chance that you making a bad decision is low:

• Thou shalt not live beyond thy means.
• Thou shalt set aside cash for emergencies.
• Thou shalt not carry a revolving balance on they credit card.
• Thou shalt not use a financial product without searching for the best deal.
• Thou shalt save early and often for expensive goals.
• Thou shalt not be overconfident whilst demonstrating financial ineptitude.

Click here to view the article and more details about the above recommendations.

Your 2010 Financial To-Do List

This is courtesy of Morningstar posted to Yahoo! Finance.

It is a quick summary of what to do each month in 2010.  For example, the big thing for the month of January is to create a personal balance sheet which determines your net worth.  You will need to list all of your assets and liabilities.

Click here for the article and the complete list for 2010.

Where are you in relation to the "Peak Age of Financial Reason"?

David Laibson and his co-authors have studied whether there is an age at which you peak out with financial reason.  The logic is trying to determine how sophisticated your financial life should and can be.

One strategy for example is to simplify your financial life after you have peaked because you may no longer be able to handle complicated investments and scenarios.

What is this age?  What should you do? 

Click here to read the article.