Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Monday, August 8, 2011
Review: Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere
Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest.
The title of this book convinced me to pick it up at the library recently, but it was the introduction that caused me to actually take it home and give it a full read.
The introduction, entitled “Life as a Sucker,” makes the case that society is stacked against individual financial success unless you already have a lot of capital. Almost every element of modern society and government works against you without a large bankroll in your hand with which to generate more money.
In some ways, I agree with him. The path to personal finance success is not an easy one. I receive far more notes from people in financially disastrous situations than I can ever possibly address in my reader mailbags. There are, of course, reasons for that phenomenon, many of which the author, Jason Kelly, addresses in this book.
1: The First Rule of Finance
Live within your means by spending no more than 80% of your take-home pay. That’s the first rule of personal finance and I absolutely agree with it. If you can commit to doing that on average, you’re going to find yourself building up a lot of money in your savings over time, money that will keep financial disasters (like a job loss) at bay and make moves like buying your own home or buying a replacment car much, much easier. A big key, though, is to bank on that money, meaning that if you take money out of your savings, make extra payments beyond that 20% to restore what you took out.
2: Credit, Cars, and Castles
Kelly identifies these three elements as the most devastating opponents of personal finance success. Your credit cards (and the availability of easy consumer credit, your automobiles, and your home – together, they eat up a lot of your monthly resources if you’re paying off all of these loans. If you’re taking out a big debt for a home or an automobile that goes beyond what you minimally need, you’re essentially locking down your finances each month for the sake of having something beyond what you actually need. You’re chaining yourself to your job and walking a tightrope because you wanted more stuff.
3: Toxic FSP in the Alphabet Industry
The housing bubble only happened because people forgot the first rule of personal finance and allowed themselves to live beyond their means. When lots of people start doing this, you’ll eventually see a financial bubble of some sort, and when the people with a lot of money decide that the bubble is going to burst, they move their money and lo and behold, the bubble bursts. Prices revert to the mean and people who bought in during the bubble are left holding the bag.
4: The Society You’re Up Against
Society in general encourages overspending. It lauds having the latest consumer goods, encourages people to buy the latest and greatest things, and idolizes people who have great material wealth while encouraging others to emulate them. The end result of this, of course, is widespread financial hardship as people use their limited means to chase an affluent lifestyle that they think they deserve. The only people that win in this equation are the people who own the companies manufacturing all the stuff.
5: Government of the Corporations, by the Corporations, for the Corporations
The laws of the United States protect corporations by giving them most of the rights of people but few of the restrictions of people. For example, if a company is neglectful or abusive of someone, they are only penalized a small cash amount – you can’t send a corporation to prison. Thus, corporations push the boundaries of what would be legal or ethical behavior for an individual person because there is minimal penalty for them to act in that way.
6: How Money Is Power
Money is power because it both influences the laws of the land and also influences the methods people have of getting information. The more money you have, the better access to information that you have and the better decisions you’re able to make. In short, if you don’t have money in the bank, the deck of society is stacked against you.
7: Financial Freedom
This brings us back full circle to the idea that freedom is bought by having control over your finances. Kelly makes the point that of the money we earn, roughly a third goes to government, another third goes towards maintaining what we need, and the other third goes towards maintaining what we want. The problem, of course, is that people are clever at extracting money from that third that defines what we want, either by convincing us that it’s a need or justifying the want. The path to financial freedom is understanding that “want” section: knowing what is and isn’t a need and having control over the things you want.
8: Guarantee Your Own Well-Being
The best thing you can possibly do for your future is simply to gain control over your wants and put some of that want money to good use. Money in the bank is the best guarantee we have for present and future well-being that isn’t reliant on banks or government or any other entity to hold us up. If you want to succeed no matter what the future holds, you have to be self-reliant.
9: On the Front Lines of Freedom
Kelly closes the book by offering a few examples of real lives: people who are fighting this battle for themselves, getting control over their wants and their finances for a long-term healthy future.
Is Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere Worth Reading?
I really enjoyed this book simply because it stands out distinctly from the pack of personal finance books out there. It says some distinct, interesting, and thought provoking things about the causes of individual financial malaise and offers some unique angles about how to escape that malaise.
Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere has more of a political tinge to it than most of the books I review – it’s an integral part of the book, one you’ll figure out within fifteen seconds of reading the introduction. Because of that nature and because Kelly keeps that focus throughout, Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere becomes a pretty compelling and thoughtful read.
I don’t purely agree with everything Kelly says in the book, but I do think there are a lot of worthwhile ideas in here to consider, and that makes Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere a worthwhile read.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Financial Price Of Being A Stay At Home Mom
I stayed home with my young children, putting my career on the back burner, for five years. Financially speaking, it was a bad move. Economists say that the stay-at-home parent who gives up a career may lose about $1 million over the years. While I didn’t lose $1 million, I have lost 5 years of wages, of 401(k) contributions (and growth) and of accumulating social security benefits.
Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I loved being there for my kids when they were little, devoting myself 100% to them and forgetting about everything else. But I was lucky: my five-year stint as a stay at home mom took place while the economy was strong; my husband was employed and earning well throughout those five years; he didn’t leave me for another woman (happens more often than you’d like to think); and I am now back to working almost full time, from home, this time for my own growing business.
Despite my successful experience dropping out of the workforce for a few years, I believe I took a risk. I know for sure that I didn’t plan it fully. I believe that many of us choose to stay home with our kids because of strong maternal instincts that make us forget other considerations. Ideally, a woman should weigh all her options and make this decision very carefully.
Patricia left an interesting comment on a previous post, Money Mistakes Women Make, that sparked the idea for this post (Thank you Patricia!) In her comment, Patricia says, “I think the biggest mistake that women make is ‘staying home to raise the children.’ The US economic system penalizes you on every front and it is very hard to get sufficient quarters of Social Security in to get medicare or any return. It is essentially SLAVE Labor, which no one in our country can truly afford to pay for. We don’t notice it because it seems like it has always been so. We need to redefine work and benefits.”
I agree with Patricia that the US economic system penalizes stay at home moms. It also penalizes working moms, by the way, as we’ll discuss later. But as long as this is the system and we need to work with what we’ve got, is there a way to stay at home and protect yourself financially, or is staying home always a mistake?
“I quit my job and never looked back” sounds freeing, but you shouldn’t do it. When you quit, do it professionally, giving your employer plenty of time. Do everything you can to leave on good terms, and stay in touch with your former employee, coworkers and colleagues via emails, visits and taking the occasional professional seminar. As much as it would be great to just forget about work for a few years, a safer way to go about it is to keep your skills fresh and stay in touch with the people who could be your ticket back into the workforce.
I used to be an attorney, and specialized in Family Law. My advice to women in general: If you can help it at all, do not sign a prenup. And if you must sign one, hire an attorney to make sure the prenup is fair. A standard prenuptial agreement typically protects the wealthier side of the relationship, but a fair agreement needs to address the possibility of you staying home with the kids. In this case, any future settlement should compensate you for loss of wages and benefits. Splitting everything in half upon divorcing may seem fair, but if you gave up $150,000 a year in salary to take care of him and the kids for 10 years, is it really fair to split everything in half when that portion might just be worth $100,000?
Staying home doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” type decision. Many women around me, myself included, have chosen to build a career, have two kids just 1-2 years apart, enabling us to stay home with both of them for around five years, then go back to the workforce. Staying home for five years is easier, in terms of going back to the workforce, than staying home for 10, 15, or 20 years.
Despite attempts at changing this culture, Corporate America still expects employees to have no life outside work and punishes working mothers in the form of paying them less (20% less than women who are not mothers according to some sources) for doing the same work.
Many mothers find that being a mother in Corporate America is simply too hard, and opt instead to start their own business. I recently read about a woman who quit her job to start a cupcake baking business. While others like myself started a freelance writing business. It can be done, and you can make good money. Be prepared to work very hard, but you’ll be doing something you love, and working at your own time and on your own terms.
Mothers have worked throughout history. Ignore the headlines reporting studies that tell you you’re damaging your kids when you work outside the home. There are countless other studies who show your kids are just fine. The privileged upper middle class mom who stays home with her kids and takes them to the playground each day is a relatively new phenomenon. Mothers have always worked, taking their kids with them when they could, or leaving them to be cared for by the extended family when they couldn’t.
You can also think about it this way: Being a working mother is not something selfish that you do for yourself and to the detriment of your children. When you keep working, your family is stronger. If something were to happen to your husband’s job, or to your marriage, you won’t lose everything. You’ll be able to land on your feet and keep going.
Tagged as: Kids and Money, Make Money, Money Management Top prizes include $25,000 and a free college tuition. Click here to enter the Cute Kid Photo Contest Today. Follow me on twitter! In addition, subscribe to grab free amazing content or take advantage of the newsletter to have content delivered to you. For starters, a 7-part mini course to help you spend less and be happy will be delivered to you when you subscribe!(Don't worry about spam, because we hate it as much as you do!)
Milking It: 5 Easy Homemade Cheeses
One of the things that always amazes me about cooking is how, if you have a little bit of patience and a willingness to follow directions, certain totally intimidating foods turn out to be relatively easy to make. Like bagels. OK, your homemade bagels might not taste exactly like the ones at your favorite NYC nosheri. But if you can make a yeast bread, you can make tasty bagels — all you really have to do is add a step where you boil them.
In this way, cooking is like a drug to me. Quick breads are a gateway to yeast breads. Yeast breads are a gateway to bagels. Bagels are a gateway to making homemade puff pastry dough. And cheese...well!
Cheese was one of those foods that I always assumed I couldn't make. Since some cheeses are complex, I assumed they all were, requiring months of aging, crazy bacterial cultures, and area-specific milks.
The truth is that many fresh cheeses are startlingly easy to make, requiring few or none of these things (although the better the milk you get is, the better your cheese will taste). Here are five kinds of cheese you can easily make yourself. (See also: Homebrewed Beer: Make Your Own and Save Money?)
Remember Little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey? If she had spent a little more time in the kitchen, she could have ended up with some cottage cheese. The process is simple — after heating milk, add an acid (usually vinegar or lemon juice), and the milk will separate into curds and whey. Then, simply drain the whey from the curds, and what you have left is cottage cheese.
Homemade cottage cheese doesn't taste like the salt-laden store-bought stuff — it's much closer to the "farmer's cheese" you can sometimes find. To get your homemade cottage cheese going, try this cottage cheese recipe from Alton Brown. Or, if you are interested in trying an easy cheese that uses rennet, a cheesemaking enzyme traditionally found in animal stomachs (there's vegetarian rennet as well), make this recipe from chef David Lebovitz.
When they're made professionally, ricotta and cottage cheese are different — cottage cheese uses the curds, and ricotta uses the whey. However, if you want to make a homemade ricotta, the two cheeses are somewhat interchangeable (just look at this ricotta recipe from Epicurious).
A staple of Indian cooking, Paneer is a type of cottage cheese that is typically cut in blocks and served in dishes such as Saag Paneer. The process to create it is very similar to cottage cheese. This paneer recipe from Indian cooking site Manjula's Kitchen has both a video and written instructions.
A staple of Caprese salads, sliced-baguette sandwiches, and pizza, fresh mozzarella follows a similar process to cottage cheese, with a bit more complexity. After you curdle your milk and allow the cheese to drain, you then knead it until it reaches that elastic fresh-mozzarella consistency.
Most recipes for fresh mozzarella do call for rennet, which you can find in the baking section of some grocery stores. Another great resource is Leeners, a company that sells supplies for cheesemaking, homebrewing, and similar endeavors. As for a recipe, Chow has one that instructs you how to make mozzarella from scratch or from cheese curds.
Obviously, if you want to tackle goat cheese, you'll need to find goat's milk. Once you've done that, creating a cottage-cheese style goat cheese is simple. The blog Jules Food has instructions for making an easy, herbed goat cheese.
If you're feeling ready to tackle another level in cheesemaking, chevre is a great place to start since it doesn't require any aging. What this fresh, creamy goat's milk cheese does require is a starter bacterial culture (you can purchase it from Leeners or elsewhere online if you don't have a local cheesemaking supply shop). Then, simply follow these chevre instructions from Tarte du Jour. The page also features a recipe for a tart that incorporates said chevre.
Have you tried cheesemaking? What did you make? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Walmart Deals 10/3
Walmart has some great rollbacks going on now. I stopped by my local store yesterday and was thrilled to find the bags of Pepperidge Farms Fish crackers on roll back for $1 each. No coupons out for them but that’s a price I can handle to pay without coupons.
Here are more rollback offers available right now:
Campbell’s® Soup Variety of flavors $1.00
Use $0.30/4 Campbell’s Condensed Soups 10/3/2010 SS Insert (exp 12/15/2010)
Use $1.50/3 Campbell’s Condensed Great for Cooking Soups
Use $1/3 Campbell’s Healthy Request Condensed or Light
Use $1/3 Campbell’s Healthy Request Condensed or Light
Use $0.50/2 Campbell’s Soup at Hand 8/29/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/10/2010)
Use $1/1 Campbell’s Select Harvest Soup Healthy Reques
Possibly free after coupon
Green Giant® Frozen Vegetables with Sauce 24OZ $1.62 (was $2.48)
Use $0.40/1 Green Giant Frozen Bagged Vegetables
Use $0.50/1 Green Giant Frozen Vegetables Rolling
Pay as low as $1.12 after coupon
Freschetta® Naturally Rising Pizza 25.12OZ $3.73 (was $4.98)
Use $0.75/1 Freschetta Pizza 9/12/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Use $1/1 Freschetta Pizza (IE) Printable (FF) Rolling
Pay as low as $2.73 after coupon
Progresso® Soup 19 OZ $1.23
Use $1/4 Progresso Soup 10/3/2010 GM Insert (exp 11/27/2010)
Use $1/4 Progresso Soups 9/12/2010 GM Insert (exp 11/6/2010)
Pay $0.98 each after coupon when you buy four
Chex® Cereal 12.8 OZ $1.65 (was $2.00)
Use $1/2 Chex Cerealsc
Use $1/2 General Mills Cereal
Pay $1.15 after coupon
Nature Valley® Granola Bars or Fiber One®Chewy Bars $3.16 (was $4.00)
Use $0.50/1 Nature Valley Granola Bars (exp 11/2/2010)
Use $0.50/1 Nature Valley Granola Bars (exp 11/2/2010)
Use $0.50/1 Fiber One Chewy Bars (exp 11/2/2010)
Use $0.50/1 Fiber One Chewy Bars (exp 11/2/2010)
Use $0.50/2 Fiber One Chewy Bars 10/3/2010 GM Insert (exp 11/27/2010)
Pay as low as $2.66 after coupon
Scrubbing Bubbles® Cleaner with Power Sprayer $4.63 (was $6.97)
Use $3/1 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Starter Kit
Use $3/1 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Starter
Pay $1.63 after coupon
Dove® Damage Therapy Shampoo or Conditioner 25.4 OZ $3.64
Use $0.75/1 Dove Hair Product 10/3/2010 RP Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Use $1.50/2 Dove Hair Product
Pay $2.89 after coupon
Olay® Body Wash 23.6 OZ $3.68 (was $5.00)
Use $1.50/1 Olay Bar, Body Wash, In-Shower Lotion & Hand 9/26/2010 P&G Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Pat $2.18 after coupon
Colgate® Toothpaste 3-Pack 8.2 OZ $4.00
Use $0.75/1 Colgate Toothpaste 10/3/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/23/2010)
Use $0.75/1 Colgate Max White or Max Fresh Toothpaste All You Oct 2010 (exp 11/30/2010)
Pay $3.25 after coupon
Cottonelle® Bath Tissue12 PK $5.01 (was $5.97)
Use $0.50/1 Cottonelle Bath Tissue (IE) Printable (FF)
Pay $4.51 after coupon
Viva® Paper Towels 6 PK $5.74 (was $7.62)
Use $0.75/1 Viva Towels Big Roll All You Oct 2010 (exp 12/4/2010)
Use $0.50/2 Viva Paper Towels Rolls
Pay as low as $4.99 after coupon
Friskies®Canned Cat Food 5.5 OZ $0.31 (was $0.40)
Use $1/15 Purina Friskies Brand Canned Cat Food
Pay $3.65 for 15 cans or 24 cents each
Lysol® Cleaners Select products 22-40 OZ $1.50 (was $2.00)
Use $1/1 Lysol Disinfectant Spray 9/19/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/19/2010)
Use $1/2 Lysol Disinfectant Spray Rolling
Pay as low as $0.50 each after coupon
Downy Bonus-Sized 105 loads $5.88 (was $6.97)
Use $1/1 Downy Fabric Liquid Softener 9/26/2010 P&G Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Pay $4.88 after coupon
Bounce® Dryer Bar 4 MO $5.58 (was $6.97)
Use $1/1 Bouce 9/26/2010 P&G Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Pay $4.58 after coupon
Gain® Liquid Laundry Detergent 100 OZ, 64 LDS $9.20
Use $1/1 Gain Detergent 9/12/2010 RP Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Pay $8.20 after coupon
Aleve® Caplets (150ct) or Bayer® Low Dose(300ct) $7.99 (was $10.00)
Use $2/1 Aleve Product (exp 11/2/2010)
Use $1/1 Bayer Aspirin or Heart Health Advantage 8/1/2010 RP Insert (exp 10/31/2010)
Pay as low as 45.99 after coupon
Through my involvement with the Walmart Moms program I will be able to bring you the scoop on these rollback deals. It beats hunting the store looking for them. All of these rollback offers are national so you should be able to find them at your store as well.
I am a participant in the Walmart Moms program. Walmart has provided me the information in the post and has commissioned me to post this. Participation in this program is voluntary. All opinions expressed are my own.
IJR, MATL: Big ETF Outflows
Turning today to week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, the largest outflow was seen in the iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index Fund (AMEX:IJR), which shed 3,600,000 shares, or a 3.6% decrease week over week. Among the largest underlying components of IJR, in morning trading today Regeneron Pharmaceutical Incorporated (NASDAQ:REGN) is down about 0.8%, and Crocs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CROX) is up by about 3.8%. 
All videos » Any ideas and opinions presented in all Market News Video clips are for informational and educational purposes only, and do not reflect the opinions of BNK Invest, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or partners. In no way should any content contained herein be interpreted to represent trading or investment advice. None of the information contained herein constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All viewers agree that under no circumstances will BNK Invest, Inc,. its subsidiaries, partners, officers, employees, affiliates, or agents be held liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained. Read Full Disclaimer.
And on a percentage change basis, the ETF with the largest outflow was the Daily Basic Materials Bull 3x Shares (AMEX:MATL), which lost 50,000 of its shares, for a whopping 33.3% decline in outstanding shares. Among the largest underlying components of MATL, in morning trading today Materials Select Sector Spdr (AMEX:XLB) is up about 0.6%.
For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase
All videos » Any ideas and opinions presented in all Market News Video clips are for informational and educational purposes only, and do not reflect the opinions of BNK Invest, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or partners. In no way should any content contained herein be interpreted to represent trading or investment advice. None of the information contained herein constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All viewers agree that under no circumstances will BNK Invest, Inc,. its subsidiaries, partners, officers, employees, affiliates, or agents be held liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained. Read Full Disclaimer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)