How Can You Save Money on Kids – Festival of Frugality

I’ll be hosting the Festival of Frugality next week. Submissions for any articles on being frugal are welcome but I’m particularly interested in tips on how to save money on kids.

Our little guy is just under a year old and can cost us a pretty penny at times. Any articles on ways to save money when buying for young kids would be fabulous! Of course if you have different frugal insights please share them as well. You can submit your articles here, be sure to check back next week for the festival!


Good News for American Century Mutual Fund Investors

As an investor in American Century mutual funds I was disappointed when I read about a month ago that the fund company was changing its funds to load funds.

My wife’s retirement account is with American Century so I knew it was going to be a hassle to find and switch to another fund company. Plus, we’ve been investing in American Century Equity Income Fund (TWEIX) for several year now and have been pleased with its performance. However, I’m not a believer in the fees that load funds charge so I called in yesterday to inquire about switching the accounts.

I was pleased to discover that any person that invests directly into an American Century mutual fund before the last week in September will not be subject to the load fees now or in the future. Basically, any existing investors will be grandfathered in and won’t have to pay the load. My guess is they didn’t want to chase away existing investors but wanted to implement a load so this is their approach.

This is good news for us. We’ll be rolling my wife’s 403b into a Vanguard IRA at some point in the future after she stops working. Now we won’t have to hassle with finding a new fund company in between. No load fees, no hassle, good news!


Personal Finance Mid Week Review – Free Stuff Edition

Five Cent Nickel has been writing about personal finance for two years now and is giving away free iPods and other goodies to celebrate!

The Digerati Life tells us 10 Ways To Organize and Simplify Your Finances.

Free Money Finance warns us about the greatest enemy of a good investment plan.

Binary Dollar offers a tip on a good way to pay off our mortgage early.

Generation X wraps up his 24 Signs You Could be in Financial Trouble series with the final post ignoring the signs.

The Frugal Duchess gives tips on bargaining for furniture & electronics. Our neighbors did this just last weekend to get a great deal on a TV at Best Buy.

The Simple Dollar talks about setting and reaching short-term and intermediate-term financial goals. I imagine we’ll soon see an article on long-term financial goals to round it out.

Blogging Away Debt tells us how she makes extra money for her family.

This mid week review is a new edition to the lineup. I’d typically been doing a weekly summary of personal finance articles but there are so many to mention that the weekly list was getting pretty long. I decided to break it up into twice a week and smaller lists, enjoy!


4-Hour Work Week – A New Way of Valuing Your Income

Warning: Do Not Read This Book Unless You Want to Quit Your Job

I knew I was in trouble when I read this on the back cover of the 4 – Hour Work Week. I’ve been beat up with high stress and long hours at work the last few weeks so quitting is a tempting option.

I’m not ready to jump ship just yet but The 4 – Hour Work Week has me looking at things a little differently in the office recently. The author, Timothy Ferriss, provides an interesting approach for valuing the income you receive based on the work you do.

He suggests four items to help value the money you earn:

  • What You Do
  • Where You Do It
  • When You Do It
  • Whom You Do it With

If you’re in control of all four W’s then you have much more freedom in your life and it’s easier to live with lower monetary compensation. I definitely earn decent money in my current job but the only W I have some control over is when, and that’s only because my hours are somewhat flexible.

This view on the relationship between the income you earn and the freedom you have resonates with me and the theme of this site. Earning a good salary is definitely important to meeting my financial goals but I need to look more closely at the four W’s in the future and evaluate the third of my life that I spend at work. How about you? How many of the four W’s do you control?


Personal Finance Decision Guide – 1st Edition

Simplifying Your Personal Finance
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Personal Finance Decision Guide! Read more about the goals and strategy behind the decision guide here. Then check out the articles listed below to help you focus on simplifying your personal finances by making one decision at a time. If you’ve written about a personal finance decision, you can submit your analysis or experience to the guide.

Investing
-Technical Analysis Versus Fundamental Analysis
-Actively Managed vs. Index Funds
-Investing: Real Estate vs. Stock Market
-Stocks vs. Real Estate

Retirement
-Roth 401k vs. Regular 401k
-Roth IRA or Regular IRA

Real Estate
-Pros/Cons: 15 Year Mortgage vs. 30 Year
-When Renting is Better Than Buying a Home

Insurance
-HSA vs HMO Analysis

Debt
-Paying Cash vs Going Into Debt: Looking at the Numbers
-A New Look at Good Debt vs. Bad Debt

Taxes
-Tax Talk: ETF vs Mutual Funds
-Passive vs. Active Management – Tax Effect
-Tax Credit vs. Tax Deduction

Consumer Spending
-Shopping small versus big- Mom and Pop vs. Big Box Stores


What Do These Ladies Obsess About?

I failed to pass the torch in my recent post covering the things I obsess about so I’m rectifying that now. I read Amanda’s post on the gender salary gap and thought I’d help spread the awareness of the continued inequality by choosing several different sites run by women.

So I’d like to know. What do these ladies obsess about?


Personal Finance Week in Review – Bachelor Party Edition

T-R-O-U-B-L-E, that’s how you spell bachelor party! Actually a friend’s bachelor party this weekend should be pretty tame. Just a bunch of guys that haven’t seen each other in a while getting together to catch up and celebrate. I’m sure no one will get arrested since George won’t be at this party 🙂 . While we’re out partying it up you can catch up on some good personal finance articles.

Gen X Finance says you’re in trouble if you don’t have Financial Goals.

Five Cent Nickel warns we may have to pay $4 a gallon for gas.

Binary Dollar discusses Home Equity Loans & Taxes.

Jim takes the Devil’s Advocate approach to rolling over your 401k.

Lazy Man talks about the Income Divide in our country.

Free Money Finance looks at the cost of owning vs renting.

The Digerati Life compares Fundamental vs Technical Analysis of stocks.

My Money Blog tells us about renting out your credit score.

The Sun asks how we compare to the National Savings Rate.

The Simple Dollar talks about money lessons for kids.

Money, Matter, & More hosts the Festival of Frugality: Definitions of Frugality.

Mighty Bargain Hunter wonders if a jump in home foreclosures is an investing opportunity.


Personal Finance Ultimate Fighting Championship

Are you imagining two guys in a cage fighting for the championship? Where does personal finance fit into this picture? Well the cage is actually this website, the two guys are you readers, and the prize is honor & glory.

The Concept
Inspired by a mixture of Devil’s Advocate and Guest Writer Days I’ve decided to introduce a new series here at Money Smart Life. Most personal finance topics have two sides and I know that many of you readers have something to say about one or the other.

I’ll publish a topic, for example, Renting vs. Owning a Home and two readers that have something to say on the subject will send me a guest post defending or reasoning why one is better than the other based on their personal experience. In order to provide both sides of the equation we’ll need one post for each side.

The Details
This idea is still being hatched so I’m looking for feedback on the details. I’d publish the concept two weeks before it was planned to go live. Anyone interested in arguing their case would contact me with the side they wished to present. The two competitors would have a week to write their views and submit them to me as guest posts. I would publish them either both on the same day, or one Monday and one Tuesday. If only one person submits a guest post, I’ll argue the opposite of whatever position they take.

A new set of head-to-head articles would be published every two weeks. The name of the series is yet to be determined, I just thought the Ultimate Fighting Championship would be a good eye catcher to get some initial feedback; I’m looking for suggestions for the name.

As I mentioned before, the prize is the honor and glory of convincing the world that you’re a personal finance guru. We could vote on the winner via comments or a poll, or we could just let everyone decide in their own minds which approach they prefer and works best for them.

The Feedback
So what are your thoughts? Leave some comments about what you think will work and what could use some tweaking. Thanks!


5 Simple Ways You Can Create Competition that will Benefit Consumers

Low price competitors lost me over $100 this week! eBay was running a 24 – hour auction promotion for sellers and as I priced and listed items for sale late into the evening, I was reminded of why competition is great for consumers.

Low Price Strategy
My competitive strategy on eBay is pretty simple, sell for the lowest price. On several occasions I ran across items that I had to sell for $50 – $90 off retail to come in lower than some person in California or Florida. I’ll tell you, as a seller I moan every time I see someone out there unloading stuff super cheap because it means lost income for me. However, as a consumer, market forces like this help me find great deals.

Is There Enough Competition?
It seems there has been an uptick in merger and acquisitions lately. The more mergers you hear about the less competition there is for the product or service provider. I started wondering how we consumers can increase the amount of competition out there; here is what I came up with.

How To Create Competition to Benefit Consumers

1) Favor Small Businesses
This one is hard because sometimes the big retailers can offer it for a lower price but if the price is pretty close, go with the small business. Small businesses are often looking to make a big sale so you could offer to buy a lot at once if they’ll lower the price. A small business owner will often prioritize winning you as a long term customer over making a few extra bucks on a sale.

2) Mention the Competition
The example I like to use is pitting cable companies like Comcast against satellite TV companies like DirectTV. I mention the competition every time I call in to save money on cable TV and it works every time.

3) Tell Your Friends
If you find a product or service you really like tell your friends about it. The more people that use it, the more competitors will take note. This will make life better for you as competitors try and differentiate through innovation, customer service, or price. Many companies offer a referral program so you can even make some money by telling others about the product or service.

4) Use Multiple Services
Google Checkout and Paypal recently offered customers free money in return for using their service. Obviously their goal is to win you over as an exclusive customer; however, if you keep using both services they’ll probably continue innovating to win you over and may give out more free money.

5) Try New Products or Services
A key point in the lifecycle of a product is getting from the market introduction phase to the growth phase. Trying new products and services as they come out will help new companies move their products from one phase to the next. If it achieves the growth stage then guess what, competitors will start to worry. If you really like the product you can use the “Tell Your Friends” step to help spread adoption and move into the growth phase.

Extra Credit: Start Your Own Business
Obviously this one is a lot more work but if you see a need that’s not being met or something you think you could do a better job of then throw your hat in the ring. Not only do you stand to potentially make some money out of it but you’re providing more options for us consumers.

What are some other ways we consumers can leverage or increase competition among retailers or service providers?


What is the Most Effective Way to Donate Money?

Do you ever wonder how much of the money you donate actually goes to the people that need it?

Overhead Costs
Companies that solicit contributions on behalf of charities get some type of payment for their services. A co-worker once told me that some of these organizations get a percentage of all the money they bring in. It seems it would provide a good incentive for the calling company, the more contributions they get, the more money they make. The problem is I’d like as much of the money I give to go directly where it’s needed instead of into the pockets of another company.

I asked this question of a phone rep working for a third party who was calling on behalf of Mercy Corps this week and never received a good answer. The longer the person on the other end of the line avoided answering the question, the more I realized it might be a mistake to pledge over the phone. I ended up saying I did not want to donate so his company wouldn’t take a cut. Instead I plan on taking my usual approach of donating directly to Mercy Corps.

Stewardship
Not only do I like the mission of Mercy Corps, I also like the fact that the organization works hard to keep overhead low so the money goes where it’s needed most. Mercy Corps includes a financial summary and balance sheet at the bottom of its annual report. They don’t have 2006 listed yet but in 2005, 11% of their spending was for administrative support.

I would like to see more detail provided here, for example how much do they pay third parties to fund raise for them or how much do they spend on mailers asking for donations. Since charitable organizations are making an effort to be as efficient as possible, I decided to come up with ways I could be more effective about donating.

How Can We Make Our Contributions More Effective?
1) Donate directly to cut out any middle men. I’ve donated via their website in the past but I should think about mailing in a personal check so they don’t have to pay credit card fees either.

2) Sign up for monthly giving. Often if you choose this option, the charitable organization will remove you from mail & call lists which will save them on promotional costs.

3) Donate what you pledge. If you speak with a representative of an organization and pledge a certain amount make sure you donate at least the amount you promised. From what I understand, some organizations allow for those pledges in the budget in some way. If many people give less than estimated it could cause problems with the planning the charity has done.

4) Use matching programs. Increasing the amount that is given is always more effective.

What are other ways we can be more effective with our donations?



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