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Posted
Jan 18 2008, 07:16 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Millionaire Mommy Next Door offers a suggestion for making $1 million for retirement, and it all begins with lunch. You don't spend $9.50 for lunch every workday, and instead eat a $3 lunch from home. You invest the difference in a Roth IRA, and "let the account simmer for 41 years," she says. (We can only imagine how much more money you would have if lunch were a simple tuna fish sandwich and an apple, instead of, say, Lean Cuisine.) This wonderful post illustrates the beauty and power of compound interest in a way everyone can understand. Her point is that you can make even small amounts of money work for you in a meaningful way.
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Posted
Jan 24 2008, 01:12 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Jeremy at Generation X Finance writes that the 401(k) debit card is "probably one of the worst ideas ever." This increasingly popular card allows you to tap your retirement account for any kind of purchase, including your silliest impulse buys. "That's right," Jeremy writes. "Now people can go shopping for that big-screen HDTV and instead of using a credit card or money they have in the bank, they can just swipe their 401(k) debit card and use those funds."
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Posted
May 07 2009, 10:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Frank Curmudgeon at Bad Money Advice.
A reader named Trent pointed me to a story that "60 Minutes" did recently, "Retirement dreams disappear with 401(k)s." It's not their best work, and I'm not one who thinks much of their best work.
Helpfully, the CBS Web site gives a near transcript of it, so I can easily quote the way over-the-top copy read by the reporter, Steve Kroft.
It was a gray, chilly morning in midtown Manhattan and a line of unemployed, mostly white-collar workers stretched for blocks around the Radisson Hotel. More than 1,000 middle managers, stockbrokers, consultants, secretaries and receptionists had come hoping to find a job.
It was called a career fair, but there was no merriment -- only a whiff of desperation.
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 04:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. How much do we miss out on because we fail to do one really simple, free and easy thing? This one thing can greatly improve your finances. Amazingly, it can lower the interest rate you pay on a home-equity line of credit. It can eliminate the balance-transfer fee on a credit card. It may get you a raise at work or more money at your next job. And I know from experience that it can get you more investing options in your company's 401(k) plan. And this one thing has applications far beyond money management. It can improve just about every area of your life. So what is this one thing?
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Posted
May 29 2009, 06:55 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.
Recently I published an article called "Dave Ramsey unleashed." I learned long ago that any post about Dave Ramsey will receive a passionate response from readers. Those who follow his financial teachings do so with "gazelle-like intensity," as Dave would say.
One response I received in both comments and e-mail is that Dave Ramsey teaches that one should stop contributing to retirement savings (whether 401(k) or IRA) while paying off nonmortgage debt. The question is whether this is the right choice.
The first thing to keep in mind is that there is no "right" choice. There is a reason it's called personal finance, as a reader reminded me just the other day. That's not to say that any choice is a good one. But there is almost always more than one reasonable approach to a money-management decision. For example, while Dave Ramsey would stop saving for retirement to pay off debt, as would Michelle Singletary, Liz Pulliam Weston believes we should not stop saving for retirement to pay off debt.
With that in mind, let's walk through several steps that will help you make the best decision for you and your family:
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Posted
Mar 27 2009, 06:37 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.
Picking your first mutual fund is kind of like a first date -- scary at first, but later you wonder what all the fuss was about. And with the recent market volatility, investing in the stock market can be downright horrifying.
A couple years ago, a close relative spent some time with my family and me. We'll call her Susie (not her real name). Susie was 31, had one daughter (cute as can be), and had no retirement savings (not so cute). Her employer not only offered a 401(k), but also matched 100% of all contributions up to 6% of Susie's pay.
We got to talking about why she'd never starting saving for retirement, and her answer was illuminating -- she was intimidated.
Sure, there were times when money was tight, but one of the biggest hurdles for her was not knowing what to invest in. We spent about 30 minutes looking over her investment options, and I'm happy to report that she enrolled in her company's Fidelity 401(k) plan and began contributing 7% of her gross pay.
If you or somebody you know is in a situation similar to Susie's, this article is for you.
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 05:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What do you have to show for your last few pay raises (assuming you've been getting some)? Not sure, eh? Todd at Harvesting Dollars has a plan for getting real value from those raises while amassing retirement savings and preventing the insidious, invisible creep of lifestyle inflation. He calls it the Save Your Raise finance game.
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Posted
Jan 10 2008, 01:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ana's thoughts upon reaching her 35th birthday will sound familiar to many people: "Looking back, I've been a bit of a wild child. I shudder to think of how much money I have spent over the years on alcohol, cigarettes and assorted junk that has long been thrown out," she writes at DebtFree-Revolution. She also has a mere $391 in her retirement account.
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Posted
Jan 09 2008, 06:00 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. ![clip_image002[6]](http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/images/smartspending/WindowsLiveWriter/ThinklikeMr.SpockbutactlikeCaptainKirk_104EF/clip_image002%5B6%5D_thumb.jpg)
Sound personal-finance and investing decisions flow from two things -- knowing the numbers and knowing ourselves. If we know the numbers but not ourselves, our decisions will look good on a spreadsheet, until our real-world decisions deviate from the plan. If we know ourselves but not the numbers, our decisions may feel right, but will lead us down the wrong path. What's the answer? We need to think like Mr. Spock, but act like Captain Kirk. Allow me to explain.
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Posted
Apr 25 2008, 08:04 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. My big, overarching dream is to achieve true financial independence. By that, I mean that I have enough money saved and invested that I can live off the interest and investment income -- a point that I've discussed before as the crossover point. This is a huge goal, one that I won't achieve for many years no matter what path I choose. I dream about achieving this goal about the time my final child graduates from high school -- roughly 25 years from now.
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