An Oil-Leak Capping Roundup

Let’s start this week with Neal Frankle’s How To Convince Your Spouse You Need A Budget. Neal offers some great advice that I’ll admit, I can use myself. As retirement draws near, for me a budget needs to be discussed for two reasons. First, to be sure we are on track, saving enough to retire on time, give or take. Second, to understand what our spending limits are during those retirement years. I’ve done a decent job running the numbers on my own, but it’s way past the time that Jane and I sit down to discuss this. Thanks, Neal, I’ll let you know how it goes. If I ring your bell, and ask to sleep on the couch a few nights, you’ll know I messed up.

B Simple also wrote about spouses in Financially Prepare your Spouse in order to Simplify. B suggests documenting the who, where, why of all your finances, so if the financial CFO of the house meets his/her maker first, the surviving spouse will have a simple job of continuing on plan. A  post you shouldn’t ignore.

Jason at one money design answers What are the Benefits of a 15 Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage? I think I know, but I never tire of seeing how others feel about this, and often, I learn something new. Nothing like a fresh spin on this topic.

Kevin at Out Of Your Rut tells us about Tax Benefits of Homeownership – Three Reasons Its Over-rated. Kevin helps bring to light an overlooked aspect of the tax code – that for many, the tax deduction on their mortgage interest is either reduced or is of no help to them at all. It’s unfortunate this is the case, but there’s nothing simple about our tax code, it takes a bit of understanding to benefit from the myriad of rules.

Am I Living In A Parallel Universe? asks Financial Samurai.Sam sees increased traffic, long waits at expensive restaurants, and brisk business at his local BMW dealer. Which may very well raise new and troubling questions. Are we in a recovery and no one told us?

Next, a post on Buying a Car: Is It Wrong to Buy Foreign? Here, Balance Junkie asks what makes a car foreign, the location of the manufacturer’s headquarters, where it’s built, where the parts are made? Good question, and in this “world is flat”economy, a tough one to answer.

Last, this week, a pair of Estate Tax posts from two of my favorite Tweeps (fellow Twitter users.) First is Taxgirl’s Fix the Tax Code Friday: Federal Estate Tax. Here, Taxgirl comments on one of the proposals congress is pondering to update the estate tax rules. Then Kay Bell tells us how the  Estate tax [is] inching along going into further depth how the code might change moving forward. Both articles are great reads if you would like to understand the estate tax future.

A really excellent week of financial blog reading.
Enjoy the week ahead.
Joe