Archives for Thoughtful Thursday category
3
Sep
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger, the Amateur Financier |
Well, it is now September, the time of year when students begin to dread the ever closing time when they will have to go back to school (if they haven’t already). I’m well past the joy and pain of school, myself, but I still have to be aware of the start of school because I’m dating a current college student. Between her starting school now and my new job, it’s going to be much be harder to find the time to go out to see her.
Of course, there’s plenty else to keep me busy: my new job, the impending Labor Day Holiday, and of course, trying my best to keep up to date with my blog. (It’s been kind of tough lately, with the new job and trips out to my fiancee every break from work that I’ve had, but I’m still here!) In the spirit of keeping the joy and wonderment of this blog flowing to your eager eyes, here are a few of the more interesting blog posts I’ve read from the past week, and my thoughts on them (in case you thought I was trying to avoid doing any real writing for this blog entry):
Review: A Million Bucks by 30 – I have to be honest, whenever I see a book that claims to show me a way to retire before the age of fifty, my internal warning system goes off. At best, they seem to rely on investment methods much riskier than I would be comfortable using myself, and at worst, they are little more than ways to enrich the authors at your expense. However, Stephanie makes a very good case for A Million Bucks by 30; it seems like a story of a pretty normal guy, peppered with money saving tips. As she notes, first looks can be deceiving.
5 Reasons to Take Another Look at DRIPs – A guest post on Consumerism Commentary looks into DRIPs, or Dividend ReInvestment Plans, a phrase purposely mis-capitalized to make the acronym work. The basic idea is to buy stock directly from a company, who will then use the dividends to purchase even more shares of stock for you. It’s a pretty decent article, and not a bad investment plan, assuming you are only interested in owning stock in a few very large, dividend paying companies. Otherwise, sticking with a brokerage will save you on time, if not investing costs.
Buying a Home Without the Money – WC Porter writes on Wisebread about considering a house purchase, even without having a twenty percent down payment, due to many of the compelling ‘incentives’ that currently exist. While the article itself is kind of interesting for mentioning things like the current tax credit and low mortgages, what’s more interesting is the comments. Yes, over the course of the comments, just about every argument both for and against such a purchase was raised, and eventually, WC decided against the purchase. (Which, as an aside, is what I would recommend, after reading that he would have no emergency after spending on his partial down payment.) I find it kind of interesting, just how talking it out and getting feedback can help the decision process.
5 Things Your Parents Didn’t Teach You About Money – I’m a sucker for lists, and having posted on how my mother influenced my current financial acumen, I could hardly resist this post from Green Panda Treehouse. There are quite a few things you’ll never learn from your parents (at least, not directly) when it comes to money, and her last point, on the trade offs of making a lot of money, is enough to make you reconsider your plans to forgo every indulgence in order to a millionaire by thirty.
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20
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger, the Amateur Financier |
Ah, it’s Thursday already. Time flies by when you’re spending hours each day in training at your new job. So far, things have been going pretty well; a lot of general information about the company (Sanofi Pasteur) and the practices it follows are being presented, and we’re just starting to go over the actual building and area where I will be working. I’ll working on vaccines for the H1N1 strain of flu (swine flu, don’t you know), so feel free to give me a passing thought when you’re lining up for your injections this flu season.
The only bad thing is that a combination of this job training and the fact that I’ve been feeling under the weather lately means that my blog has had to take a back seat for much of the week. Once I am officially on shift and can get a good rhythm going, I should be able to catch up, but for now, I’m having a little trouble in keeping up with everything. Don’t worry, though: short of coming down with the flu myself, there’s nothing that will keep me from updating my blog as often as life allows me the opportunity.
On that optimistic note, let’s see what some of the other personal finance bloggers out there are talking about:
Dairy Farms Rely on Illegal Immigrants – So often in debates about immigration, some basics of economics are lost in the shuffle. Namely, more immigrant workers mean lower labor costs which in turn mean lower prices in the store (particularly for agricultural products, a field where most Americans aren’t exactly jumping for jobs). On My Life ROI, these points and others are discussed in detail, a discussion that we as country seem to be endlessly trying to put off (but really can’t).
The Ultimate Financial Survivial Guide for New College Students – While the ‘ultimate’ in the blog title might be mostly good marketing on his part, Studenomics does an impressive job of covering many of the financial considerations of which incoming college students should be aware. In fact, I’d go even further and extend his first few points to everyone over the age of twenty: if you are old enough to drink, you should have an online bank account, a retirement account, and a credit card already. If you don’t, it’s time to get on the ball.
Deciding on Home Ownership – Given the recent decline in house prices as well as government incentives for new home buyers, it’s a good time to purchase a house. That’s the thinking over at Green Panda Treehouse, apparently, as they finally took the plunge and purchased a townhouse. Also covered is some of the logic behind the decision; while it’s a good time for those who want to be homebuyers, that doesn’t mean it’s the right time for all potential home buyers. You need to consider your own needs and resources.
Spend Time to Save Money – Mrs. Micah provides a few good ways to spend a little extra time in order to save money on your purchases. Using coupons (both online and off), creating a price book, negotiating lower insurance rates, and opening a higher yielding bank account are all good suggestions. If you put your mind to it, there are plenty of ways to add some value to your life with only a (relatively) small investment of time.
What Kind of Saver Are You? – A list of different savings personality types, covering a range of people, is up on the Weakonomist’s website. It’s kind of neat to read through his different descriptions and see which one fits you the best. I like to think of myself as a Sweeper, for the most part.
Don’t Chase High Rates for Savings Accounts – I’ll admit, I’ve tried to chase high interest rates in the past (and actually, would probably continue to do so if the chance to earn a much higher rate presented itself). Luckily, Stephanie of Poorer Than You provides a good idea of what to do with a wide number of online savings accounts, using each one for a different savings goal. Not bad advice if you have a number of different accounts you want to put to go use.
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13
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger, the Amateur Financier |
Yes, yes, tomorrow is the day that I go in to do some paperwork, listen to some information about my soon to be new job, and take a mandatory drug test. It’s not quite as fun as the first day of actual work (which comes next Tuesday, happily enough), but it’s still a pretty sweet day.
The only problem is, I seem to be having trouble getting to sleep; it’s nearly four in the morning as I write this, and I’m still not tired. I don’t know if it’s nerves or just inertia, but the Sandman has been eluding me tonight. I have gotten a chance to read up on some of the articles that, with spending the past few days with my girlfriend and then going home to get ready for this interview, I haven’t had a chance to read up to this point. So, here are a few of the articles that caught my eye in my late night ruminations:
Marriage and Money: Joint or Separate Accounts - An interesting view of the future, provided by Green Panda Treehouse. I haven’t had to worry too much about combining my expenses with my fiancee up to this point, as a result of the aforementioned living on opposite sides of the state, but at some point, we’ll have to combine our finances, and this is a pretty good template to follow.
To Prepay Your Mortgage or Not – In general, paying down your mortgage early is a good thing; you’ll save on interest payments and there’s the always fun ‘being free from debt’ aspect to consider. But, as My Life ROI points out, doing so at the expense of your other investments is generally not a good option. Basic money nerd rule: if the (after-tax, where applicable) return of the investment you’re considering doesn’t beat the return of your current investment, stay with what you have.
Moving: Maximizing Space When Packing Your Car – Some surprisingly time appropriate advice from Stephanie at Poorer Than You, just as I find myself needing to move my stuff across Pennsylvania again. Most of the advice should make sense; reduce what you take, remove extraneous packaging, and using clothing as cushioning. My favorite part of the article is that she refers to packing a car as ‘Tetrising’, which tickles my dork senses.
9 Small College Expenses That Add Up – On Mrs. Micah’s blog, there’s yet more advice for future (and current) college students: watch out and save up for situations where you spend small amounts that can add up. Sure, ten cents a page in the computer lab doesn’t sound like much, until you have to spend the money you were saving for the weekend on in order to print out the five research papers your teacher assigned you to read, each averaging about 30 pages. Yup, there goes your beer money. Moral: Small expenses add up quickly, a lesson we can apply both in college and out.
Carnivals and Round-Ups Featuring my Columns
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6
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger, the Amateur Financier |
On Sunday and Monday this week, I helped my baby sister move into her first real apartment. She is going to be attending medical school in Philadelphia starting this fall, and I had to help her get her stuff down there. It makes me feel both proud that she is smart and talented enough to get into med school, and just a bit old that my baby sister has graduated college and is now going onto med school. Time does fly sometimes.
The most interesting part of the move, from my perspective, was shopping for furniture for her at IKEA. I’ve never really gotten anything from them before, and it was rather interesting to see their massive warehouse filled with unassembled furniture. Weird side note: we discovered that the covers for the couch she wanted to get came in several colors, with most colors selling for $159 and white covers selling for $11. Luckily for my credit card balance (as I was playing the good big brother and paying for the furniture until my mother could reimburse me), she opted for white, although she did end up getting a total of three covers. I’m proud of her frugal nature (although, I wish she had done more of the work assembling the furniture herself).
On the subject of going back to school, Studenomics offers up a few suggestions for Ways College Students Can Make Money Fast. A pretty decent selection of money making ideas for students, including reselling your old textbooks and increasing your hours at a summer job. My favorite suggestion is to get a job at your school during the year; it’s an excellent way to make money during the education process. (Although, it doesn’t strike me as very fast…) Some other interesting posts:
Library Fines Don’t Support Your Library – One of the more depressing things I’ve read this week (which might show how much of a geek I really am), Mrs. Micah shares the fact that paying late fees doesn’t directly support your library in many cases. Luckily, I perked up a bit when she listed some ways to help your library, like donating your time or old books.
When Will My Investment Double? – A short but sweet post from Stephanie of Poorer than You, reviewing the Rule of 72. Don’t know what the Rule of 72 is? Well, the short version is that, if you divide 72 by the rate of return you are getting, you can find out how many years it will take your investment to double, assuming a reasonable rate of return. (The rule breaks down at extremely high return rates, although that’s the sort of problem we all want to have.)
TED Spread-What is It? – On My Life ROI, there’s an interesting post explaining the TED Spread, the difference between three month Treasury bills and three month Eurodollar contracts. It’s used as a proxy to indicate how much banks trust each other; lower TED values indicate more trust. The chart he presents for the past two years is interesting: until late 2007, the spread is quite reasonable, then around October it increases and bounces up and down for most of last year, before spiking in October 2008, and then slowly settling down. The goodness: we seem to be back to normal, according to TED, which is a good start.
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