personal finance | Online Savings Blog

Money Saving Links: 10/12/08
10.12.08 | Savings Links | 1 Comment | by junger

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We're going to try posting the Money Saving Links on Sundays from now on — hopefully you'll have some light reading and we'll be able to highlight some great content from around the Web.

This week, we participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance #173 hosted by Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, who has a lot of great stories on finance for women.

Some of the highlights from this week's carnival include …

Mint.com Review: Beautiful Money Management Tool - Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

In Summary, I think Mint is a pretty slick tool (after looking at the screenshots, I think you have to agree with me there). Can you live without it? Of course you can. Will you likely learn more about your spending if you use it? Definitely. Is it worth the security risk? That depends on your level of risk aversion and how well you trust the securities measures they’ve taken with your data.

Six Ways to Get Intense About Your Money and Finances - Prime Time Money

Read Personal Finance Blogs
Browse the Personal Finance Sections of Your Local Paper and Online News
Head to the Library and Check Out a Few Personal Finance Books
Learn About Other People Who’ve Had Success With Their Money
Find a Money Mentor
Analyze the Details of Your Own Finances

My 3 Biggest Personal Finance Successes - Value for Your Life

These are my three biggest successes because they changed my focus, my relationships, and how I live my life and look at money. They have made my marriage stronger, my life happier, and my relationship with money so that I rule it–not the other way around.
Money Saving Links: 9/26/08
09.26.08 | Savings Links | 1 Comment | by junger

This week, we participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Sound Money Matters.

While there weren't too many stories directly related to online banking and using the Internet to save you money, there were a lot of great tips. Here are a couple of the highlights:

The 60 Percent Solution and Mint.com - Cash on the Barrelhead

Super, super cool, because everything goes into pie charts, which is the only way that money (or math of any kind, really) makes sense to my brain. Just click, and you can see one month of where your money is. Or three months, etc. Click on any pie slice for the gory details of what your money is doing. After we’ve got enough data in it, we’ll be able to see (in bar graph–I like those, too) how our spending stacks up against other people.

29 Steps I Took to Leave the Workforce at Age 29 - My Dollar Plan

At age 29 I left the corporate world behind and I’m embarking on a new chapter in my life: spending more time with my kids (ages 1 and 2), following my passion (teaching others about personal finance), and an overall life of freedom not tied to a JOB! Here’s how I did it (and how you can too!)

Are You a Millionaire in the Making? - The Dough Roller

Becoming a millionaire is about the simple, daily choices we all make. So with that, let’s see whether you are a millionaire in the making.
What Are Your Favorite Personal Finance Books?
05.28.08 | Money Management | 3 Comments | by junger
Open thread: what are your favorite personal finance books?

I'll start it off. Two of mine are:
- The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
- The Automatic Millionaire
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing got me started on the path to index investing, helping me realize that there is no way to long-term successfully beat the market. It preaches paying low fees and going along for the ride, rather than trying to actively outperform benchmarks.

The Automatic Millionaire taught me about paying yourself first and automating savings and investing. When you're automatically socking money away, you're increasing your net worth without even thinking about it.

Share your thoughts. What are your favorite personal finance books?
Money Savings Links: 4/11/08
04.11.08 | Savings Links | 0 Comments | by junger

This week's Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Money Ning. It includes Why an iPhone is a Worthy Investment.

Here are a couple of the highlights that'll save (and make) you money.

Saving for Specific Goals at ING - Handling Finances

Once you’ve entered all your information and started an account at ING, it’s extremely simple to create additional separate accounts for various purposes. You just pick which type of account (checking or savings — I only use savings) and give the account a name.

Save to Retirement Fund or Emergency Fund? - My Retirement Blog

If you’re just starting out, you may be put to the decision of whether you should fund your retirement accounts or fund your emergency fund. In order to answer this question, you need to have a grasp of your total financial picture and you can do so by asking yourself the a few questions.

Readers' Choice: The Best High-Yield Online Savings Banks - Five Cent Nickel

I frequently receive e-mails asking which online savings account is the best. With that in mind, I asked FiveCentNickel readers to list their favorite online savings banks. Even though the interest rate landscape is constantly changing, I thought that it would be worth compiling the results into a handy list of the best online savings accounts.

Objective Personal Finance Answers Are Hard to Find - The Skilled Investor's PERSONAL FINANCE BLOG

Very often, people do not have access to disinterested and reasonably priced advice and information. Financial advisors are expensive, whether or not you pay them directly. No advisor can work without compensation. If you do not pay your advisor directly, then the industry will. When the industry pays your advisor, your best interests may quickly fly out the window.
Money Saving Links: 3/21/08
03.21.08 | Savings Links | 0 Comments | by junger

Being Frugal hosted this week's Carnival of Personal Finance — here are some money saving links for you from it:

Banks are Tightening Credit - What it Means for You - BankerGirl

From the perspective of a casual observer, what’s going on in our economy is really interesting - we’re seeing unprecedented lending standards result in unprecedented charge-offs. No one knows how bad it’s going to get, but everyone I visited with over the course event agreed that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better.

So, how is this going to impact the average bank customer? Here are my best guesses on how the next couple of years are going to shape up for bank customers.

Pros vs Joes: Are Professional Athletes Better Than You With Money? - My Family's Money

An eighteen year old good at hitting a baseball can see more money come his way for signing a piece of paper than most Americans can make in their entire lifetime (source). But are athletes good at managing money of that magnitude? Can they cope with copious amounts of capital? Should they shutter when success sends them seductive spoils?

You Can't Time The Market So Try Dollar Cost Averaging Instead - Plan Your Escape

"Buy low, sell high" is often one of the first things you'll hear when you're learning about investing. The problem with this is that it's tough to know what "low" and "high" actually are even when they are staring you in the face. When markets seem like they are down, like they are today, it can seem risky to make a large investment in case the markets keep going down. One way you can help limit your risk while entering into a falling market is through Dollar Cost Averaging.
Money Saving Links: 3/16/08
03.16.08 | Savings Links | 0 Comments | by junger

This week's Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Quest for Four Pillars.

Prevent Identity Theft - Military Finance Network

Identity theft is a serious crime that can destroy your finances and ruin your life. Identity theft can ruin your credit score, destroy your ability to take out a loan, or even get you arrested for crimes you did not commit.

There are three methods to protect against identity theft and the damages it can do to your finances and your freedom

ING Electric Orange Check Experiment - The Happy Rock

I have been using the ING Electric Orange checking account for almost a year now and I have been very pleased. One downfall to being able to earn 2.25% on your checking account balance is that they don’t offer a regular paper check book, but you can fill out an electronic check form and they will mail out a check for you.

MMA Rates are Falling, What are You Going to Do? - Dividends4Life

Let me state the obvious: Since year-end, money market rates have been in a free fall. At the end of the year my best money market account (MMA) was earning 5.11% APY. That same account still has my highest rate, but it is now earning a measly 3.75%. So what's a guy to do? Here are a couple of actions that I have taken

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