Let’s start this week with My Retirement Blog’s U.S Retirement System a Success. To be fair, Andy doesn’t quite agree with the title, but was referencing a paper put out by the Investment Company Institute (ICI). I’ll be reading the paper and writing my own take on it later this week.

Now that she’s finished her Walk For Hunger (congrats for passing $2000 raised, and your team for $5,000+!!) Stephanie is asking herself, “Was my Traditional to Roth IRA conversion a mistake?” You see, she did fine projecting her tax bracket, but the extra income negated her ability to deduct her student loan interest. If it’s any consolation, Steph, the market is up nearly 17% year to date, so you may have already broken even or are ahead of the game despite that small faux pas. If it still bothers you, you have until October 15th to recharacterize that conversion and amend your return, but hopefully you caught much of the market increase this year and are happy with the decision to stay in the Roth. Check out her site Graduated Learning: Life after College.

At Five Cent Nickel, I found out that Overdraft fees soared to $32 billion in 2012. WTF? (This is a family friendly site, WTF = “what the factorial?”) You can do the math here, this is $100 for every last person in the US. And probably $300+ given that at least half of us must be more responsible than that. The take-away here? Balance your checkbook. Now.

At Lazy Man and Money, a guest post by Kosmo – Saving Money At The Store. One day you will make enough that you might be able to waste money without a second thought. Few people are there right now, so these ‘frugal’ articles are always welcome reading to me. From this article, one gem of a line – “If you’re paying $3.60 per gallon for gas and get 18 mpg, you’re burning 20 cents worth of gas each mile you drive.” Which is why planning your grocery store trips is a great first step in your path to saving.

At Monevator, The Investor tells us why he’s “Thinking of Hetty Green as I dial back on shares.” I have to admit, I’ve been thinking about this as well. As we went through the 2008-09 crash, we hung in and bought into the market. It’s pretty cool to see a net worth 2-1/2 times as great as it was in 2009 just over 4 years ago. But it would also be ok to take a bit off the table so if and when the market starts to get frothy, I’m not the last one hanging in there.

Let’s close this week with the question If you had be selfish and spend $5,000 by the end of today, what would you buy? This was asked at Punch Debt in The Face, and it got 60 answers pretty fast. I haven’t responded yet, gotta think on this one.

written by Joe \\ tags: Debt, Finance, Frugal, Retirement

At Bargaineering, Miranda offered her take on Proposed Retirement Cap: More People Could Be Affected Down the Road. Interesting times ahead, my bet is that this legislation isn’t going to pass. Not without some major edits to the current proposal.

Stephanie at The Empowered Dollar shared How I’ll Retire Rich After Only 3 Years of Saving. At 25, Stephanie has already saved $40,000, a nice start. By age 60, it should be worth over $300,000, not too shabby, but not quite rich. Hopefully she’ll not call it quits so soon, she’s has too many years until retirement to stop saving.

Adjustable Rate Mortgages are Not Evil, or so Brock thinks. He posted some compelling reasons at Clever Dude, and won me over. It’s important to make a distinction between the interest-only teaser rate ARM, and the normal ARM whose adjustments aren’t going to double your payment. As I commented – A $400K 1% interest-only is $333/mo. Cool, huh? Now, adjust it to 4%/30 year, and it’s $1910/mo. These are the ARMs I’d avoid at all cost.

At Financial Finesse Blog, Eric Carter asked (and answered) Does the 401(k) “Suck?” This topic has been getting a lot of press, more bad than good, lately. Eric offers a balance view, and some great reasons to stand by your 401(k).

How Well Will Your Retirement Expectations Match Reality? A great discussion at Sound Mind Investing. I learned that few than half of 55 year olds have saved more than $50,000. A bit scary, that statistic.

And we’ll wrap this week up with Fixing an IRA With the “Wrong” Beneficiary, excellent info if you inherit an IRA but felt that siblings were left out.

This week’s title? A once in a lifetime event this week. At 1:12:03 5/8/13 the click/date showed the Fibonacci series. Math geeks everywhere paused for a moment of silence.

written by Joe \\ tags: bebt.savings, Mortgage

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day which is on September 16. It was first celebrated as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War,and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Just saying.

Earlier this week I wrote about the Frontline Report, The Retirement Gamble. My friend and fellow blogger Roger Wohlner, The Chicago Financial Planner, also wrote about this program at My Thoughts on PBS Frontline The Retirement Gamble. My opinion and Roger’s a re close but not identical. Check out his article for his take on this program. The Investor Junkie also offered his view at Are Retirement Accounts Flawed? If nothing else, a PBS show like this will get people’s attention. I hope it’s for the better. An unintended consequence would be for people who are too lazy to even check their fund expenses decide that they won’t bother depositing. Or that those with a good company match will lose that match in a misguided effort to avoid high fees.

Sometimes Len Penzo offers a quirky article not quite related to finance. This week is was 100 Words On: Why It’s Not Poor Etiquette to Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog. As I commented to Len,”Fortunately, we live in the US, the land of choice. You are free to do some pretty awful things, and ketchup on the hot dog is one of them. In the not-so-free countries, you’d be handcuffed and taken away for this offense.” To me it’s not a matter of etiquette, it’s a matter of not being gross.

At Budgets are Sexy, J Money tell us the Things I’d Tell My 20 Year Old Self… If only we could go back in time and change one or two things. A few good stock picks, perhaps? This article left me thinking, I’ll have to get back to you.

In contrast to Paula’s If Everyone Jumped Off a Cliff article a few weeks back, Kyle at Amateur Asset Allocator asked If Everybody Indexed, Would It Stop Working? An interesting thought and Kyle offered a great discussion and analysis of the effect that indexers have on the market. More than that, he slipped in the phrase raison d’être, which raises the quality of most articles, save for those advocating ketchup.

I never tire of the great mortgage debate, and guest posting at PT Money was Emily Guy Birken with Pros and Cons of the 15 vs 30 Year Mortgage. There’s no right or wrong answer, in my opinion. I’m in favor of the 30 year, but if there were just one right choice Emily made a strong case for the 15. That’s one of the great things about the PF Blogging community, we’re opinionated but open to new ideas. Check out Emily’s article and the comments it’s been getting.

At My Financial Independence Journey, a look at What’s your financial independence (retirement) number? It’s a great question, with no two people having the same answer. (Not quite true, I’m sure there’s overlap) I am sure that each person’s situation is unique and they come to their conclusion their own way.  In this case the comments are as revealing as the article itself. Have you thought about your number, the amount that you need to save to afford to retire?

written by Joe \\ tags: Debt, Mortgage, Retirement

Donna Friedman was taken a bit aback by some dialogue on a recent web chat, and turned her thoughts into Cards and consequences, a great discussion of when to introduce the concept of credit cards to your kids. I’ll give you a hint – if you wait till the kid’s off to college, you might be a little lot too late.

At The Wisdom Journal, Ron asked (and answered) Should You Invest While You’re In Debt? I have to say, this was on my short list of topics I planned as upcoming posts of my own. The issue is complex, and Ron addresses a number of aspects in the pay vs save decision. Me, I tend toward the boring spreadsheet approach, numbers that make your eyes glaze over. Ron avoids the risk of putting the reader to sleep, a nice piece.

A new blog to the roundup, Our Taxing Times, wrote a clever post on Do Overs, not quite the do over that I love in the Roth recharacterization, but the 1040X do over, the amended tax return. This do over comes with a three year limit, so you just missed the chance to update your 2009 return. Check out the full article, and tell Trish I made the introduction.

My 13-Year-Old Daughter Shares Her Financial Fears is Nina Penzo’s guest post at her dad, Len’s, site. This young woman has some important matters on her mind. Part of me hopes she’d just be a kid a while longer, but the stronger feeling is that she’s so far ahead of other kids, and many adults, that she’s getting a great start in life. Congrats, Len, it’s you and your wife who will have one less concern on your minds, not to mention a daughter to be proud of.

At The Financial Finesse Blog a clever Can Dr. Seuss Help Us With Financial Literacy Too? Some classic works of the master children’s book author are quoted and applied to finance.

And last, a recurring topic - Should you pay off your mortgage? This is one that’s always going to be out there, every financial author has either written about it or will soon. Check out Nick’s spin on it at Pretired.org, and see if you agree.

written by Joe \\ tags: Debt, Finance, Mortgage

I remember David Letterman’s first broadcast after 9/11. He stood in front of the audience and said he was having a tough time getting back to work, going from such horrific events to getting back on stage trying to be funny. I am a Massachusetts resident, and while I live over 20 miles from Boston, I, as many of my suburban neighbors will refer to Boston as our home, and only when asked specifically where we live would we mention the exact town. It was a tough week, a frightening week, an event that has yet to be explained. What struck me most was the scene right after the explosions occurred. People were running. Not away from the blast, but towards where it happened, to help their fellow person. This tweet really said it best.

This past week produced many victims, but also highlighted a city of heroes. Onto my weekly roundup.

The Weakonomist lamented how Cell Phones Killed The Dial Tone. One of those subtle things you don’t often consider. The dial tone takes network time. No need for it, just get the whole number queued up and send it. Dial tone is an artifact of a bygone day. Our children won’t know what a dial tone is, or for that matter what a dial is. How many dials are still in your house?

The Financial Buff, Harry Sit, wrote about Obama Budget Limits Tax Deductions On 401k, Health Insurance, and Muni Bond Interest to 28%. It will take some more time for all of this to be understood, the budget is a huge 256 pages, with a huge list of proposals likely to impact your finances. We’ll see how much of it actually passes, and as details come in, share some planning tips with you.

Jim Wang asked Your Take: Do You Owe Anything for Free Sporting Event Tickets? This took me back to Barb Friedberg’s Mental Accounting post. If someone invited me to an event, why should the source of the tickets matter to me? Of course there’s a difference between me jumping on 4 Rolling Stones tix, and then asking who’d like to join me, but pay for their ticket, and tickets that I’d gotten free. But when you’re invited to a ticketed event when you know the friend got those tix free, why wouldn’t you buy a round or two, or pay for parking?

Brock, the Clever Dude, told us about A Little Known Cut of Steak That Will Rock Your Face. This sounds like a good thing, so I’m all for it. You have to read the article to find out what cut he’s talking about, but I’m in. Next visit to Costco, I’m checking out this cut of meat. It might even warrant a frugal Friday mention if it’s that good.

Craig Ford discussed 4 Reasons to Give While Paying Off Debt. At Money Help For Christians, Craig writes on the usual financial topics, but with a focus on Christian values and charity. Craig has a special place in his heart for philanthropy and after reading his blog for some time now, I can only say the world would be a better place if more people adopted his attitude. He takes ‘generous giving’ to a new level.

We’ll close this week with a post from My Retirement Blog – Can One Retire on Social Security Alone? Andy Hough made an interesting observation, new to me; According to the Social Security Administration, benefits make up 90% or more of the income of 36% of the people receiving benefits. An interesting point to note. I always thought of Social Security as a supplement, not my primary retirement account.

That’s it for this week. Be well.

written by Joe \\ tags: Frugal, Retirement, Savings