Another week of new articles by fellow personal finance bloggers. Always something to learn or a new perspective to consider.
Phil at PT Money offers 15 Surprising Places You Can Trim Your Budget. As my frugal Friday series passed week 22, I find that ideas on ways to save are without limit, and every time I see a list like this I’m sure to find at least a couple that I’d not considered.
I had alerted my tweeps that I’d seen the IRS was raising the mortgage limit to $1.1M and found myself credited in the article Should rich homeowners get a bigger mortgage interest deduction? posted at Don’t Mess With Taxes. Kay elaborates further at Eye on the IRS. Who is going to pay for this unexpected tax cut? Oh, right, they’re cutting back on my Flex account.
Bad Money Advice (tag line – Because Mainstream Personal Finance Advice Is Not What It Should Be) wrote Dammed Lies, Statistics, and the Great Recession about how government data is so delayed “taking 9 months to collate data that would take 9 hours in the private sector.” Indeed, it’s easy to present data to push a certain view.
Some messages, I’ve heard before, but they are worth repeating. How Emotional Investing Negatively Impacts Your Bottom Line on the Smart 401(k) blog tell us that $1000 invested in 1988 would be worth $5,043 at the end of 2008, but only $2594 had you missed only the ten best days of these 21 years. The article then goes on discuss how chasing returns (i.e. buying last years good mutual funds) can also hurt your portfolio returns. An excellent read.
On the topic of decluttering, I enjoyed Oh, Goody! It’s National Clean Out Your Files Month! I say “whatever it takes” as for me it’s the week between Christmas and New Year that I use to go through my files and remove what’s really aging or no longer needed. Sign up for Lorie’s newsletter and get a free download of her 30 Ways to Find Time to Get Organized.
Next, I’d like to offer some kind words to Mrs. Micah who has volunteered to donate PBSC, the stem cells that create new bone marrow. She’s doing this years after signing up to be a donor and finally getting matched to someone she can help. The procedure is in a couple more weeks and I wish her well. I recently commented on another blog that for those who tithe to their church but are in tough times financially, there are other ways to give. This is an example of a selfless young woman potentially saving someone life. To the recipient, this is priceless, what a wonderful way to help out and give. I wish both Mrs Micah and the stem cell recipient the fastest of recoveries.
Craig Ford posted at Money Help For Christians on 10 Ways to Save Money by Organizing a Frugal Community. One suggestion got my attention. Creating a shopping co-op to take advantage of big packages of items it would take a long time to use or cost too much. I often am at Costco and find that gallon size jar of hot relish too tempting, but after taking nearly three years to go through the mustard gallon, my wife said I’m not allowed to buy my condiments by the gallon. This is just one of many ideas Craig offers, a great list to save money and build your relationship with some friends or neighbors.
And lastly, Baker assembled 92 Quotes About Debt That’ll Make You Think, Laugh, & Tweet! As a fan of lists, quotes, and money, I couldn’t pass this one up.
Enjoy the week ahead.
Joe
