Search results for retirement savings
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Posted
Nov 16 2007, 08:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar . Recently, one of my friends quit his job as an actuary for a large insurance company. He’s single, has a Ph.D. in mathematics, and has no debt. He quit for one reason and one reason alone. I’ll let him tell it to you: I got tired of going home every night mentally exhausted and sitting in front of the TV playing Xbox. It’s what I did almost every night, without a weekend. I made a lot of money, but I had no life to do anything at all. My job ate all of my energy. What’s he doing now? He works the night shift at a local factory, driving a forklift. Half the time he sits on the forklift waiting for a new load, so he has started reading a lot of the classics. He makes $11 an hour, far less than he earned as an actuary, but enough to live on, because he banked most of his income from his actuarial work. You know what? I applaud him. I think it was an excellent response to what I call professional exhaustion. Here’s why I think
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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
Dec 20 2008, 12:13 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Filed under: debt, spending, savings, Karen Datko, tips, credit cards, retirement savings, shopping, bills, save money, frugal
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you're considering a purchase that you feel uneasy about -- or any purchase, for that matter -- read The Strump's "10 ways to tell if you can afford it." In fact, if you struggle with spending, print it out. If you're about to rationalize a purchase, remove the list from your wallet or purse. In it, you'll find the discipline you need to keep focused on your personal-finance priorities. Here are a few examples from this concise and wise post.
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Posted
Mar 25 2009, 08:17 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Mr. ToughMoneyLove at Tough Money Love.
What goes around, comes around. How many times have you heard that phrase used as a subtle threat or reminder of another's misbehavior?
Boomeranger. That's a word that baby boomers invented to label -- in a semi-demeaning sort of way -- adult children who return to their parents' home to escape the realities of their own financial problems. (I actually don't think that all boomerangers should be demeaned, but that's another topic for another day.)
I have a new phrase to talk about: the boomer boomeranger.
Now that the retirement nest eggs of many baby boomers have been crushed by falling markets, some of those boomers are a future threat to boomerang on their adult children. Retirement Plan A (or for some boomers, Plan Zero) has failed. Retirement Plan B may become "mooch off my kids."
Mr. ToughMoneyLove has some thoughts about how to dodge a boomeranger parent. First, a little background.
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Posted
Mar 30 2009, 04:46 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.
In general, the frugal person who saves and invests will slowly build wealth, and will find herself far ahead of her peers. But sometimes the progress is slow -- or even nonexistent. When this happens, good financial habits can seem frustrating. Recently, a reader named Sara wrote to ask what to do when frugality seems to be getting you nowhere.
Although I practice extreme frugality, I feel that I cannot get ahead financially. Every month I seem to be back in exactly the same place as I started the month before. Here are the details:
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Posted
May 26 2009, 04:36 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.
I thought it would be fun to share an interview with my real millionaire next door, a man we'll call John. He used the basic tenets of money management to build wealth and to retire early. Here's how I described John when I first wrote about him last year:
John is a 71-year-old retired shop teacher who lives in a modest ranch house on half an acre, the same house he's had for over 40 years. He has an old barn filled with salvaged lumber, outdated appliances, and who knows what else. When he's around, he drives a junkie 25-year-old station wagon. But most of the time, he's not around.
He spends his winters in New Zealand helping friends on a dairy farm. His summers are spent fishing in Alaska. For a couple of months each year, he's home, puttering in the yard. Year-round, he rents his house to boarders. He leads a very active retirement.
John's story was popular with Get Rich Slowly readers, and many of you asked me to interview him. I had to wait for him to return from New Zealand, but recently the opportunity finally presented itself. John agreed to sit down for a chat.
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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
Dec 10 2008, 03:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are you asking yourself this question? When did we devolve from people and companies that accept responsibility to a bunch of whiners (or opportunists) looking for a bailout? If you're getting fed up with all of these federal handouts -- and all of the people and companies with their hands out -- you'll find lots of company online.
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Posted
Nov 28 2008, 01:15 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Christmas songs are already playing -- nonstop, in fact -- where "rutgerskevin" works, and that's gotten him in a holiday frame of mind, tinged by the economy.
Thus was born his clever version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" at The Red Stapler Chronicles. Sing along: "On the first day of Christmas, this economy gave to me a shrunken 401(k)."
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Posted
Dec 21 2007, 06:28 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Even though I'm on a very healthy financial track, I'm still prone to the weakness of buying material goods. I think of things I want, and over time I tend to talk myself into buying them, spending money I really shouldn't be spending. Many readers ask why I shouldn't be spending that money. It's my hard-earned money, and I'm in at least a reasonably decent financial position. Besides, you only live once, right? Let's use that philosophy when evaluating the purchase of a game for my Wii. Let's say I want to buy a new game that costs $50, even though I have three Wii games at home that I enjoy playing and am not close to mastering. This is actually a common temptation for me. Let's consider two scenarios.
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