A Farewell Canadian Cent Roundup

This week, Five Cent Nickel discussed his Roth IRA Conversion: What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been. And was it ever. You see, one way to avoid taxes on a conversion (of traditional pre-tax IRA money to a Roth) is to make sure there’s no pre-tax money to convert. The way to do that is to transfer the pre-tax money into your 401(k) account. So Nickel first had to open a Solo 401(k) and then…… well you get the idea, why not visit his site to get, as they say, the rest of the story.

Next, Fiscal Fizzle offers a 6-Step Analysis of a Grocery Store Receipt. While Wojo looks at the high/low cost, best/worst deal it helps him view his buying in a certain light and adjust accordingly next time. A few days back I tweeted “Bag of tortilla chips supermarket 8oz $2.50 / #Costco 40oz $3.90 1/3 the cost. Just saying why I don’t like Jane or J2 to go to store.” So that’s what I do, I obsess a bit on the fact that within a day or two of Jane buying something, I pass our Costco and could have gotten it cheaper.

It appears my good friends to the north (in case I have any non-NorthAmerican readers – In the US when there’s a draft, many flee to Canada. I’m too old to get drafted, but still like having friends there just in case I need a place for a while, ooops, I digress) are considering saying Bye-Bye Penny – Hello Swedish Rounding? It now costs the Royal Canadian Mint 1-1/2 cents to mint a penny. In the US, until 1982 our penny was mostly copper. Those pennies were about 146 to the pound. With copper trading at over $4, these pennies are worth 3 cents in melt value. So if you loaded up on these in 1982, your rolls of pennies increased about 4% per year till now. Not bad considering. Back to the point, pretty soon no pennies up north. (Edit – and no link to the article, they redecorated and many articles were moved)

In Personal Finance By The Book, Joe Plemon offered his view on The Problem With Tithing Your Time. If you aren’t aware, tithing is the practice of giving 10% of your income to charity. First a disclaimer – I am not a follower of this practice. I donate, as I’ve shared in a number of posts, but don’t follow a rule of any particular percent. I have been known to run across people who are so buried in debt that I’ve suggested that if they are unable to raise more money by working more hours than perhaps they can donate their time to a charity. That suggestion  is in conflict with Joe’s view. My logic is that if one worked overtime and donated that money, it’s the same result as donating one’s time and not having the money change hands. Since most references within the Bible are to farmers and sheep herders, I wonder. How did the cobbler tithe? Did he sacrifice 10% of the shoes he made?

One Money Design asked his readers one simple question – What Are Your 2011 Financial Goals? I’ll add my own – do you have any goals for ’11? Do you write them down and review how you performed to those goals?

And to wrap it up – Kay Bell announced Merry Taxmas! House OKs tax bill. So it appears that the tax bill has passed. I’m a bit surprised, but not floored by this. I’m sure we’ll be discussing more over the next weeks.