A Financial Fear Roundup

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.