A Rest in Peace, George, Roundup

This past week, one bit of news seemed to be more popular on the finance front than others, the news of the death of George Steinbrenner and the impact of the 2010 estate tax laws.

Bible Money Matters discussed this in his No Estate Tax In 2010 Means George Steinbrenner’s Family And Others Will Save Millions In Taxes.

At Aggressive Progress, The Steinbrenner Way offered a partisan view of the topic. I’m not judging, just offering a variety of takes on this matter.

Kelly Phillips Erb (AKA TaxGirl) wrote Steinbrenner’s final win — over estate taxes. Kelly is a pro who understands this complex topic better than most, she does a great job in this article covering the issue regarding step up in basis, which does not occur in 2010 (not beyond a token amount).

Kay Bell mentioned this as well, but her post was titled The Boss’ estate tax bonanza and for a moment, I was expecting to find out how Bruce Springsteen was handling his estate planning.

The Oblivious Investor answers, Student IRA: Can a Student Open a Roth IRA? — Ok, I’ll ruin the surprise, yes they can, and Mike tells you why they should.

At Money Help For Christians, I enjoyed Expensive Shopping is Good | How To Shop For Value, Not Price, a post that help address the age old frugal vs cheap debate.

At Green Panda Treehouse, Mike gives us a glimpse of his Financial Timeline. A mini financial autobiography, and an interesting read. We all have a story of how we got where we are today, and I enjoy when others share their experience.

Financially Poor discussed Why Won’t Money Buy Happiness? This is another recurring theme, the discussion will continue. I suppose it depends on more factors than just money. There are happy poor people, and miserable rich people, so the correlation of money and happiness certainly isn’t 100%.

Last, this week (after all, my roundup posts are intended to be a “best of” not enough reading for the whole afternoon) is Johnathan Chevreau’s article
The case for managed money: DC and 401(k) pensions roared back in 2009, Vanguard finds. I like John’s writing, he’s one of my regular reads, but in this case, I’m not sure I agree with his conclusion. Vanguard stated “at the end of 2009, the average account balance was US$69,000, up 23% from 2008.” That’s an increase from a starting point of about $56,000. Given, the 2009 deposit limit was $16,500 ($22,000 if 50 or older) and there were still companies matching deposits, it’s tough to parse out the growth from deposits vs growth from market return. John referenced a Vanguard report that ran 84 pages. I’ll be studying it for a future article of my own.

Have a great week.
Joe