Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #242 – June 22, 2012

Welcome to the June 22, 2012 Edition #242 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.

The Carnival of Financial Planning takes a long-term view of personal financial planning for individuals and families. We focus on efficient and sustainable personal financial planning practices that can lead to lifetime financial security.

This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.

Budgeting and Economics

Miranda Marquit presents How to Negotiate Your Bills posted at ReadyForZero Blog, saying, “When you receive a bill that seems impossible to pay, you may feel like the situation is hopeless. However, you may be surprised which bills you can get a break on. This article will help you understand how to negotiate various types of bills.

Emily presents Budgeting, Tracking, or Neither? posted at Evolving Personal Finance, saying, “If you are meeting your savings goals and living within your means, do you think it’s necessary to keep a budget? Would you ever stop tracking your spending?”

A Blinkin presents How To Get A Job and Girlfriend posted at Funancials, saying, “Have you ever been without a job? I have heard that, aside from losing a child, being unemployed is one of toughest experiences to go through. If you have been fortunate enough to have not experienced this anguish, lets find another angle.

Janet presents Expense budgets posted at Independent Financial Planner , saying, ” Many people do not track their living expenses and do not understand the magnitude of their consumption.”

YFS presents My 1000 Dollar Budgeting Mistake and How You Can Avoid it posted at Your Finances Simplified, saying, “I want to talk to you about budgeting. I am actually going to give you a story about budgeting mistakes. By this time I feel that you should know how to budget. But, if not, I will create another video.

Financial Planning

Hank presents Killer Stock Characteristic #4 – Dividend Growth Rate posted at Money Q&A, saying, “A company’s dividend growth rate is a good proxy for how much their share price should also grow. A company’s share price is the present value of all its future cash flows.

JP presents My Biggest Money Mistake posted at My Family Finances, saying, “My biggest money mistake ended up being a chain reaction of mistakes.

SFB presents Battle of the Bulk: Costco, Sam’s Club, & BJ’s posted at Simple Finance Blog, saying, “I’ve broken down the membership costs of some of America’s biggest bulk retailers for you.

Jen presents Avoiding Having Kids Costs Money Too posted at Master the Art of Saving, saying, “There are a ton of posts out there that talk about the cost of having kids, but not many or any about the cost of not having kids. While we already have a kid and know how expensive it is, our goal since then has been to not have any more kids. Oddly though, avoiding having kids can still cost money.

Don presents Alpha Returns posted at Wall Street Financial Engineering , saying, “For typical individual investors, without special access to information, it offers what is likely the best financial advice they will ever get: It is hard to consistently beat the market, especially after fees. A passive strategy will do better in the long run. ”

krantcents presents The 3 T’s of Success posted at KrantCents, saying, “The 3 T’s of Success is the twentieth in a series of articles to help you reach your goal.

Miss T. presents Keep It Simple: Strategies for Financial Security posted at Prairie Eco Thrifter, saying, “What you need to know now, is small steps you can take on a daily basis, to ensure your financial security and peace of mind. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

PFP presents Financial planning reading posted at Financial Planning Reader , saying, ” Clients often ask what they should read to improve their financial literacy. ”

Dr. Dean presents Dementia And Your Money posted at Dr. Dean’s TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, “Does your retirement planning guard against the risk of decreased mental capacity as you age? Mental decline can happen even if you take steps to avoid it.”

Traci Hayner Vanover presents It’s Time for “That” Talk with Your Kids: The Finance Facts of Life posted at FinanceGuideTips, saying, “If you expect your kids to become responsible with their money show them how and explain what you’re doing with your own money. Set a good example of what it means to save, spend wisely and share with others. You’ll make more of an impression on your children if they see and hear what you’re doing to manage your money.”

Franklin presents Passively Funds posted at Investor Strategies, saying, “On average, higher mutual fund turnover is far more likely to result in lower investment fund performance — instead of superior risk-adjusted performance.”

Kyle presents Smart Phone App Pays You to Look at Displays While Shopping posted at The Penny Hoarder, saying, ” Surely there is an app that will pay you while you shop? As it turns out, there is such an app and its called EasyShift.

Sustainable PF presents Staycation: Better for Your Wallet and the Environment posted at Sustainable Personal Finance, saying, “By staying home during your time off you save money and the planet.

Crystal presents How in the World Did I Get Here? posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, saying, “Has anyone been transparent about how they got into their massive debt? I will share some of my story regarding my downward spiral into endless debt.

TSI presents Fund Manager Performance posted at Skilled Investor , saying, ” If investment mutual fund managers were truly skilled at beating the market, then you would expect mutual fund manager performance prowess to persist over time.  ”

Luke presents Why We Don’t Need the Fed posted at Learn Bonds, saying, “Summing up the argument for why we do not need the federal reserve and would be better off with another system.

Jeff Rose presents How To Repair Credit After Bankruptcy posted at Good Financial Cents, saying, “Have you recently filed for bankruptcy? Are you feeling defeated and thinking there is no way you will ever be able to repair your credit

Income

Jeremy Waller presents My Search for Residual Income posted at Personal Finance Whiz, saying, “Over the last 5 years I have constantly had a number of side projects to earn an extra income. In most cases it wasn’t much, maybe a couple hundred per month. There have been a few times I did really well and brought in over $1,000 of extra income.

Daisy presents Trick Yourself Into Saving Money posted at Add Vodka, saying, “In the past couple of years, my income has doubled, and so has my desire to buy, buy, buy.

Roger the Amateur Financier presents Job Hunting Success – Building Your Resume(s) posted at The Amateur Financier, saying, “A guide to creating a resume, or even resumes, in order to increase your chances of getting a decent job.

Insurance and Risk

Odysseas presents What to Do if You Lose Your Wallet posted at Wallet Blog, saying, “Until it’s gone, most of us don’t even realize how much of our life we carry in our own wallet. If it goes missing, you should know what to do. If you haven’t lost it, you should still know what to do.

Jeff Rose presents How to Find Unclaimed Insurance Policy Money posted at Life Insurance By Jeff, saying, “Unclaimed Life Insurance Policies are very difficult to find for many beneficiaries. Due to this reason, many insurance policies go unclaimed. Most people are unaware they are entitled or that an insurance policy even exists.

Sally presents Risk and returns posted at Do-It-Yourself Finance , saying, ” More conservative portfolio investments have yielded substantially lower investment returns than the returns that riskier investments have delivered. With either lower or higher risk-adjusted market return strategies, you simply cannot have your financial cake and you eat it too.”

Maria presents Do you really need insurance? posted at The Money Principle, saying, “We all need insurance because shit happens; and when it hits the fan we have to be protected. If you are thinking that while this is true, the statistical probability of something happening to you is pretty slim you are wrong. For two reasons, read more to find out why!

Investing

Super Saver presents Resisting the Urge to Buy Beaten Down Stocks posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “Usually, by this time of a market correction, I am buying stocks which have had significant corrections. For the past month, I’ve been resisting my normal practice of buying beaten down stocks.

Martin presents Do You Want More Out of Your Checking Account? posted at Studenomics, saying, “Are you tired of blowing money on random account fees?

Jason presents How to Invest in Consumer Debt posted at Work Save Live, saying, “How to Invest in Consumer Debt Many investors are familiar with investing in corporate and government debt through the purchase of bonds. Bonds are often attractive because they’re considered one of the safer types of investments. This is especially true of U.S. Treasury bonds which are guaranteed by the U.S. government.

Parker presents Index Funds posted at Preferred Funds, saying, “Some mutual funds and ETFs must be better than others, but which ones are they? How can you tell before the fact?”

Kanwal presents Are You An Investor Or Speculator? posted at Simply Investing, saying, “Are you an investor or speculator? Or are you a speculator thinking that you are investing? Over the years I’ve heard people say things like, -I’m going to play the stock market. I’ll gamble a few hundred dollars on this stock.

DL presents Global Financial Markets  posted at Nerds on Wall Street , saying, ” Stock markets are almost perfectly transparent, with full information available to all, and the best electronic clearing and settlement in history. These technologies were omitted in building the skyscraper of cards (“house of cards” seems too mild) out of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), synthetic collateralized debt obligations (SCDOs), and the rest.”

Karl Marrion presents All you need to know about Index ETFs posted at WiseStockBuyer, saying, “A guide to investing in the Dow and S&P500 index ETFs.

Willie presents Superior Fund Performance posted at NoLoad Funds , saying, ” Screen out inferior mutual fund performance — but only after using other ETF and mutual fund selection criteria. Superior or even average mutual fund performance in the past simply does not predict similar fund performance in the future.”

Habeeb presents Fidelity Strategic Income Fund (FSICX) Review posted at Best Dividend Mutual Funds, saying, “Fidelity Strategic Income (FSICX) is has $9.5 billion in assets under management and yields a sporty 4.7% dividend according to Morning Star. The fund invests money in 4 major asset categories including US Government securities, emerging market bonds, high yield bonds and foreign developed market securities. About 93% of the fund is invested in bonds with NO exposure to equities.”

FMF presents Your Money or Your Life, Become a Great Investor posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Become knowledgeable and sophisticated about long-term income-producing investments and manage your finances for a consistent income sufficient to cover your needs over the long term.

Managing Debt

Jason Steele presents June 2012 SBT Balance Transfer Index posted at Smart Balance Transfers, saying, “For the third month in a row, rates and fees on balance transfer credit card offers were unchanged. This trend is beneficial to consumers seeking to refinance high interest debt with 0% rates, as offer quality is close to multi-year highs.

Wayne presents How to Work Your Way Out of Debt Quickly posted at Young Family Finance, saying, “Many young families are struggling to get out of their debt. As a result of college expenses and traditionally lower salaries, overcoming large amounts of debt can be quite the challenge.

John presents Free Debt and Budget Spreadsheet posted at Married with Debt, saying, “A debt and budget spreadsheet is an essential tool to help you take control of your money and get out of debt. Get a free spreadsheet here.

Real Estate

Jon the Saver presents Can You Become a One-Car Household? posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, ” If youre interested in cutting your living expenses radically the best way to do that is by eliminating big expenses.

Retirement

Ryan presents 7 Savings Steps to Take Before Retirement posted at Early Retirement Investments, saying, “Here are 7 saving steps to take before retirement. Are you making them?

Knowles presents SandP 500 Funds posted at Large Cap Index Funds, saying, “The no load index fund strategy of the Schwab S & P 500 Index Fund tracks the S and P 500 stock index. This no load index fund was listed as one of the top 25 lowest cost index mutual funds in a research study.”

Don presents How To Invest When You Are Scared of The Stock Market posted at MoneySmartGuides, saying, “There are many stories about the younger generation being scared to invest in the stock market because they started to invest at the peak of the market back in 2007 and lost almost everything.

Franklin presents Traditional and Roth IRA  posted at Retirement Planning , saying, ” Many taxpayers puzzle over whether to contribute to traditional versus Roth tax-advantaged retirement plans. For most people, contributions to traditional tax-advantaged plans will probably provide a higher net present value over their lifetimes.”

Savings

Jester presents Myrtle Beach – The Perfect Affordable Family Vacation posted at The Ultimate Juggle, saying, “The following are some of the reasons that my family like to vacation down in Myrtle Beach for our primary family vacation

TSI presents Hard work and wealth posted at The Skilled Investor, saying, ” How much you earn, spend, budget, and save are by far the most dominant determinants of your long-term financial well-being. Self-control in your financial decision-making regarding budgeting and consumption is far more important than clever investing.”

Todd Tresidder presents A Ridiculously Simple Way To Build Wealth posted at Financial Mentor, saying, “The truth behind how to build wealth is public domain knowledge, simple to understand, and nobody is going to get rich selling it you. In fact, it is so simple it can be explained in just two sentences…

Taxes

Teacher Man presents Average vs Marginal Tax Rates posted at My University Money, saying, “When I was in university I couldn’t have cared less about knowing the difference between average tax rates and marginal tax rates. I just knew that I got a nice juicy refund every spring (when it was sorely needed) because as a student I got a lot of cool tax breaks and I didn’t make much money. In saying that is all that I knew, I should mention that, that was more than almost all of my friends knew!

Monroe presents Roth Conversions posted at Do-It-Yourself Finance , saying, “Key to you making a better decision about your lifetime Roth account contribution and asset conversion strategy is the need for a sophisticated financial planning software tool.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Financial Planning using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.