Search results for financial planning
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 06:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Jim Wang at partner blog Bargaineering.
Movies today can rely on special effects, monster marketing efforts, and a few pretty faces (*cough* "Transformers 2" *cough*). In the 1980s and early '90s, movies had to rely on the story and the acting to achieve success.
Out of that era, which coincided with my childhood, came a lot of classic movies that teach powerful lessons about how to deal with your money, how to approach your career, and how to find success in both.
I thought it would be fun to pick out five lessons from just five movies from that era (one of them is from 2000, but no fancy special effects there).
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 07:47 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Wojciech Kulicki at Fiscal Fizzle.
A critical skill for a fulfilling financial life is understanding your own money priorities. Without taking this first step, it's like driving without a destination -- you will simply end up wherever the road takes you.
I've touched on the topic of setting priorities in a number of past posts:
Now I'd like to take a more detailed approach and propose a list of seven independent activities that will drive you to find what's at the heart of your financial desires.
I guarantee that doing even one of these will bring you much closer to understanding what you value and aligning your daily actions with where you'd like to finish. It's worth the effort.
Consider these seven individually, or as a group:
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 02:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Baker at Man vs. Debt.
I think I'm going to enjoy writing this much more than you enjoy reading it.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Tyler Durden, he is an essential character in "Fight Club," which is both a novel and movie. While the novel came a few years before, the movie escalated into a cult classic in the years following its DVD release. If you aren't familiar with the character, well ... we should probably part ways here.
For those who are still with me, let's get some things out of the way. We aren't going to be talking about masculinity, violence, mental disorders, religion, or even politics. Those themes run rampant through the movie and have been discussed in great length and detail by individuals much smarter and more witty than me.
Instead, we are going to have fun. We are going to dive into some of Tyler's most famous quotes (from the movie) and attempt to pull any applicable personal-finance wisdom from them. The movie's strong anti-consumerism message will make some of these very easy, while others may seem like more of a stretch. I'll let you decide.
Here are Tyler's thought on a wide variety of personal-finance themes:
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 09:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from "vh" at Funny about Money.
Ever think about what you'd do if you could turn back the clock and be 20 again? Though I wouldn't especially want to live my life over, there are a number of money moves -- and decisions that had more influence on lifelong personal finance than I could have guessed at the time -- that I'd either not do at all or that, given a peek forward 40 years, I'd do differently.
For example:
I would have taken advanced degrees in disciplines whose graduates make decent pay. Can't say I regret having prepared for an academic career. It has allowed me to earn an adequate (not generous) living after spending way too much time as a lady of leisure.
However, I'd never recommend to a young person who wants a life in academe that she or he pursue a doctorate in the humanities. University faculty in business, engineering and law earn more than those in other disciplines. A Ph.D. in accounting can start at the assistant-professor level with a six-figure salary, and believe you me, that is one hell of a lot more than you earn teaching history or English.
Mind-numbing major? Puh-leeze! What could be more mind-numbing than postmodern theory? Oh yeah: postmodern feminist theory! Give me a bag of beans to count, any day.
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 06:12 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
It's been a long time since I wrote about the general state of my financial affairs. A few readers have written to express concern that I've lost my way. I haven't. If anything, I'm more devoted to this stuff than ever.
But as I wrote earlier this year, I've entered a different stage of money management. During the first two stages of personal finance (debt elimination and establishing a foundation), things happened quickly. They did not seem quick at the time, but they were.
Now I'm in the third stage of personal finance. Progress is steady, but there's not a lot of scenery. Have no fear: I'm still on the road to financial freedom.
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Posted
Aug 17 2009, 06:17 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Money is more about mind than it is about math -- that's a core piece of my financial philosophy.
If you improve your self-esteem, if you improve your mental attitude, if you improve your knowledge, you will improve your finances. To this end, it's important to avoid negative messages about money. But it's difficult to improve your mental attitude when you are besieged by financial trolls.
What are financial trolls? Steve Pavlina writes:
Financial trolls strive to sabotage your financial pursuits. These trolls can be internal or external. They're the people who make comments like, "Wealthy people are so greedy. They only care about themselves and will take advantage of anyone to make money." Financial trolls are also the internal voices that say, "If you make too much money, people will judge you harshly for it. They'll assume that's all you care about."
In order to be successful with money, it's important to learn how to face -- and fight -- these financial trolls. If you can defeat them, you'll have a better chance of meeting your financial goals.
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Posted
Aug 10 2009, 04:52 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Kris called me at 7 the other night, just as I was sitting down to write the Friday "Ask the Readers" post. I was sorting through the week's questions when the phone rang.
"Are you busy?" she asked. "Can you do me favor?"
"Maybe," I said. "It depends on what it is."
"Ryan's car broke down," Kris said. "He's stranded here at the lab and can't get home. Can you give him a ride across town?"
"Sure," I said. But I did the mental math: The trip would take me a couple of hours. Because I hadn't yet started on the morning's post, I knew I'd be up late.
I drove to Kris' office to pick up Ryan. Ryan's a young man, just out of college. He did some temp work in the construction industry before getting a job as a scientist. He and his girlfriend are getting married in two weeks. They rented a house together and were supposed to have moved out of their apartment by tomorrow. With Ryan's car in the shop, that was going to be difficult.
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Posted
Aug 07 2009, 01:52 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Trust us. Monevator is not your run-of-the-mill personal-finance blog. "The Investor" can deal with rather high-brow topics like "the uncomfortable truths" of quantitative easing.
His ruminations on whether to buy an iPhone -- plus his analysis of his analysis -- probably exceed the mental energy some people expend before buying a house.
And this UK blogger has never had consumer debt. "The closest I've got to the D-word was in my second year at university, when I borrowed money from a friend between grant cheques to buy a stereo," he writes.
So, we were delighted interested to read that The Investor has made some money mistakes, just like the rest of us. But his are not typical.
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Posted
Aug 07 2009, 11:52 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What's life like for professional poker players, particularly those who earn their living online? An anonymous pro sheds some light on the occupation in a guest post at Budgets are Sexy.
It's a fascinating read, and enough to convince us we'd rather work at Wal-Mart than embark on multi-table tournament play. Too much stress. Too many possibilities to go broke going for broke.
Oh, and did we mention that while the legal status of online poker appears to be somewhat murky, the people who really count -- those at the U.S. Justice Department -- insist it's a crime?
According to The Associated Press, the Poker Players Alliance is lobbying Congress to pass a bill to license and regulate online poker, and return $30 million in poker winnings the government recently froze in the accounts of payment processors.
Here are some of the highlights from "Confessions of an online poker player":
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Posted
Aug 06 2009, 01:15 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Here's a chance to get some free financial advice from the National Association of Personal Financial Planners, a group that normally charges a fee for its services.
The group is launching a series of 12 free webinars -- seminars on the Web -- on personal finance for consumers. The first session, Aug. 7, is about the basics of personal finance.
The Consumer Webinar Series will be done live online once a month at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Each session will last an hour, with a 40-minute presentation and 20 minutes for questions from viewers. If you can't watch the live sessions, they will be archived online so you can watch them later. You have to register on the site to participate.
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