Archive for June, 2008

“Personal Finance: The Week in Review” is a weekly series of posts highlighting my favorite personal finance articles from around the blogosphere.

It’s hard to believe that the 4th of July is right around the corner – this year is already half-way over! Wasn’t it New Year’s Eve just a few weeks ago? It is absolutely amazing how fast time flies sometimes.

I’m actually leaving for vacation to Virginia Beach (my hometown) on Wednesday, July 2 for five days of seafood dinners, swimming, and suntans. Don’t fret though, I already have posts scheduled to publish while I’m away and I’ll be checking in periodically to respond to all comments. (Not-so-subtle hint – I really appreciate comments from you all )

I should also mention that I would absolutely LOVE to get your feedback on MoneyRemix if you have a few minutes to spare. If there’s a particular topic you’d be interested in reading about, let me know and I’ll add it to the queue.

Oh, and don’t forget, If you haven’t already subscribed, you can receive instant notification of new posts from MoneyRemix by subscribing to the feed or by subscribing through email.

With that said, please enjoy this week’s “Personal Finance: The Week in Review”!

• Five Cent Nickel: Three Things You Should Know About Political Donations
  Political donations are governed slightly differently than charitable ones.

• Moolanomy: Test Drive Your Home Ownership Experience
  A terrific idea if you’re contemplating the purchase of a home but aren’t quite sure if you’re ready to take the financial plunge yet

• Millionaire Money Habits: Money and Happiness
  Can money buy happiness? That’s a subjective question that only you can answer.

• Consumerism Commentary: Are You Expecting an Inheritance?
  If you’re relying on an inheritance to build your nest egg, you may want to give that strategy a second thought.

• brip blap: how to be a location independent family, part 1
  Like the thought of being able to pick up your stuff and move without a care in the world? This article’s for you.

• Frugal Dad: How We Spent Our Economic Stimulus Check
  This was one of my favorite blog posts I’ve read in quite some time and I can totally relate to the “natural high” from paying off debt.

• Get Rich Slowly: My Mid-Year Financial Checkup: I Am Spending Too Much on Food
  J.D. came to same realization that I probably would if I actually sat down and crunched the numbers like he did.

• Money Ning: Setup Google Alerts to Get Coupons and Deals
  Money Ning provides some excellent tips for getting the most out of Google Alerts.

Interested in reading more from my favorite personal finance blogs? Head on over to my list of Must Read Personal Finance Blogs.

Last week, I purchased a docking station for my laptop on ebay and it arrived yesterday afternoon, in extremely poor condition. Before I even opened the severely mangled box, I was already trying to recall the company’s return policy.

After inspecting the contents of the box, I wasn’t terribly happy with the significant wear I saw on the components, but I decided to plug everything in and test the functionality anyway. To my surprise, despite the broken keyboard/mouse receiver, everything worked pretty well although I continued testing it thoroughly the rest of the night.

Irrespective of the fact that the product actually worked, I felt hat I had been duped into purchasing something I otherwise wouldn’t have. The ebay auction stated that the item was “new in an open box”, however it had clearly been used, extensively, and in my opinion, that’s false advertising.

With that thought in mind, I decided to write an email to the seller informing him of my dissatisfaction and requesting a partial refund. Below is the email I sent: Continued

As I was putting the finishing touches on the design of MoneyRemix, I sent an email out to my family and closest friends, asking for their feedback on various aspects of the site. Nearly everyone had nothing but positive and encouraging comments, however my dad brought up an interesting gripe. He told me that I should remove my NetworthIQ badge because displaying my net worth was a little too personal.

Initially, that comment took me by surprise, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to see his point of view and understood where he was coming from.

First of all, my dad is twice my age and isn’t quite as in-tune with various aspects of social media as my generation is. I literally grew up online and have used bulletin board systems, chat rooms, and forums for nearly two decades, so sharing information with complete strangers all over the world is second nature to me.

Second of all, he’s right – personal finance is, in fact, personal. That can be taken two different ways though. The way he sees it, if something is personal, it should be kept to yourself. On the other hand, I see it a little bit differently. I see this blog as a creative outlet for myself that lets me connect with readers all over the globe. When I sit back and really think about the mass of knowledge and stories that people are sharing with each other over the internet, it absolutely blows my mind.

Granted, there are plenty of other ways to connect with people over the internet without revealing your personal finances, but these are the reasons I choose to do so:

I love receiving feedback
When I first began using NetworthIQ to track my net worth, I received a comment from a complete stranger who told me what a fantastic job I was doing with my retirement savings. Call me crazy, but something as simple as that comment made my day. Over time, feedback from others, either positive or negative, keeps me intensely motivated to stay on top of my finances.

I’m held to a higher level of accountability
If I decide to go to the mall next weekend to treat myself to a shopping spree and max out all of my credit cards, you all are going to notice…(and will hopefully rip me a new one)! One of my goals with MoneyRemix is to be 100% transparent to my readers so you know the exact state of my finances and can detect causes of fluctuations. By doing so, you’ll be able to compare your finances to mine and discover just how well, or worse off yours are.

I want you to learn something
Like I said, nothing would make me happier than for you to learn something useful from MoneyRemix that you could use to better your financial situation. I could sit here and write generic, personal finance articles until the cows come home, but I think personal stories can really help to drive lessons home.

Final Thought

All this leads me to wonder – am I completely naive or crazy for divulging my finances to the entire world? According to the Wall Street Journal, I may not be as 16 million households are expected to track and/or share the state of their personal finances in the next ten years.

So let me ask you: Do you currently or would you ever make your finances public? Why or why not?

Photo by: Joshua Davis

Who knew that Google would work so quickly to get us free real-time quotes for NYSE-based securities? It was only 3 weeks ago, yesterday, that Google first brought us the news that it was making real-time quotes available for NASDAQ-listed securities.

From the Official Google Blog:

We’re excited to let you know we’re adding more real-time market data to Google Finance, Google.com and other Google properties. Starting today, you’ll have access to real-time, last sale prices from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), along with those from NASDAQ, which we recently launched. Here’s the NYSE press release.

Hooray! Now I can watch the unfounded decline of my Berkshire Hathaway holding as it’s actually happening!

Ever since I first began shaving, I’ve always used the same disposable razors that my dad has sworn by his entire life – the Gillette Good News! Pivot Plus with Lubrastip. Anything other than that exact razor made my neck break out into a hideous case of razor bumps. I’ll never forget that one time when I tried using a cheap Norelco electric razor that I found at Wal-Mart – my face looked as if I had just been attacked by an angry swarm of killer bees. Continued