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Posted
Sep 26 2007, 01:50 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Which makes more financial sense: applying extra cash to low-interest debt (we're assuming you're not carrying a credit card balance) or investing it? Investing will likely get you a better return, but freedom from debt is a powerful draw. The bottom line is it's a very personal decision.
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Posted
Oct 12 2007, 10:04 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Simple Dollar . It's part of The One-Hour Project , in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change -- through frugality and other financial choices. Regardless of whether you include individual stocks as part of your investment plan, having a general idea of how a stock works can be an incredibly valuable piece of knowledge. Even for those who only invest via a retirement plan, that retirement plan is usually a collection of stocks. So knowing how stocks work can help teach you how your retirement plan works -- and it might give you insights on how to invest your money more effectively. What can be gained from this? First, you’ll get in touch with your risk tolerance. Most stocks, over the course of a small period, stagger up and down a little, and possibly see a big lurch. If you imagine that you have some significant money in a stock, the sight of it going up and down day after day will probably
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Posted
Oct 24 2007, 03:26 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Crime-fighter Trent, otherwise known as a mild-mannered blogger at The Simple Dollar , warns about spam e-mails promoting an individual stock . If you take the bait, you could be the victim of a " pump and dump ," he writes. Generally, it works like this: You get an e-mail claiming that a certain stock is about to go crazy. When the market opens, the scammer buys the stock, causing its price to rise. As more and more people fall for the scam, the stock price continues upward. The con man sells his shares, gets the profit, and the victims are left with worthless stock. Trent advises how to spot the scam and tell if a stock is worthy. Better yet, he says, when you get stock tips from strangers, don't open them and let your delete key do the talking.
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Posted
Nov 21 2007, 07:49 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller . Congratulations! You've just made a change in your cable service that saves you $8 per month. Or you've sold some clutter on eBay that netted you $50. Where did that extra money go? If you can't answer that question or the money went to buy more clutter, then you, my friend, are a fritterer. Harsh words, to be sure, but some situations call for tough love. It is easy to become a fritterer. Small savings are easy to spend because they don't appear to make a big difference in your finances. Yet, like the power of the pawn , these small savings can make a huge difference given enough time. The consequences of being a fritterer can be even worse for people like me. Why? Because I'm not all that frugal to begin with. I watch my money, but I have no interest in clipping coupons, having a garage sale, or figuring out 37 ways to save money in the (fill in some part of the house here). But I do watch my money closely when it comes to monthly expenses
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Posted
Dec 26 2007, 04:17 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The Dividend Guy has concluded that women investors have the edge over men, based on an article in the Toronto Star detailing research on the subject. The studies mentioned -- and we recommend that you read the Star article -- showed that women's portfolios outperformed those of men. Why would that be, we wondered. To avoid any appearance of subjectivity or sexism, we'll simply present The Dividend Guy's explanations.
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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 11 2008, 07:43 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Lots of people have written to me recently asking how I am preparing for an economic downturn. Take, for example, this e-mail from Arnold: A lot of major publications (The Economist being the biggest) have been predicting that the U.S. will have a recession this coming year. My question has to do with preparing and surviving during a time of recession. Also, another idea would be how to work with the dropping in value of the dollar. First of all, I think most mainstream articles on economic downturn are sensationalistic. For most people leading normal, everyday lives, a recession doesn't mean too much. Unemployment might rise some as companies trim fat. Stable companies don't fire good employees because of downturns. If you're worried about an economic downturn affecting your financial status in a significant fashion, consider the following scenarios, most of which have more to do with your own choices than the market:
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Posted
Jan 15 2008, 03:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller . Did you ever notice that personal-finance gurus reduce attaining financial freedom to a number of steps? Dave Ramsey has seven "Baby Steps." Suze Orman has nine "Steps to Financial Freedom." I searched for the phrase "steps to financial freedom" and Google returned 2,050,000 hits (in .29 seconds, no less). That's a lot of steps, and everybody seems to have a different number of steps. I guess if I were choosing one, I'd pick the one with the fewest steps. And they all want to make their steps sound easy. Instead of Ramsey's seven baby steps, how about seven really difficult steps that anybody can climb, but most won't. Well, I guess that wouldn't sell as many books, but here's a simple truth -- attaining financial freedom is simple, but not easy. Over the next few weeks, I plan to write a series of posts about how I attained (and am still attaining) financial freedom. Unlike a lot of the financial gurus, however, I don't look at success
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Posted
Jan 17 2008, 07:04 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Filed under: college, debt, marriage, The Dough Roller, student loans, children, getting started, stocks, mutual funds, frugal, cars
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. The best thing about being 40 is having survived your 20s and 30s. And at 40, I'm considered an old-timer in the personal-finance blogging community. Reflecting back on the past 20 years, I realize that I've learned a thing or two that I wish (oh, how I wish) I had known when I was 20. Here they are, in no particular order: School loans are like a bad date -- easy to get, but hard to get rid of. At 40, I still have more than $20,000 in school loans. Education is important, but I spent far more money during school than I needed to spend. Compounding, like the 1970s Big Red Machine, is pure magic. Assuming you retire at 65 and earn a 10% return on your investments, $1 invested when you're 20 will be worth 2.5 times more than $1 invested when you're 30, 6.5 times more than $1 invested when you're 40, and 18 times more than $1 invested when you're 50.
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Posted
Jan 23 2008, 05:56 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blogger The Dough Roller. Would you cash a 35-cent check? Two days ago I wouldn't have known the answer to that question. Now I do, and, I'm sorry to say, the answer for me is yes. Yesterday I spent 30 minutes traveling to my bank and back to cash a 35-cent check. Here's the story and what I plan to do with my spoils. Two weeks ago I received a letter from my health insurance carrier. Excited to be receiving an unexpected check, I tore into the envelope and retrieved a check written out to me for the grand sum of $0.35. I went to chuck the check into the trash bin, but some unknown and unseen force held me back.
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