A Quiet Sunday Round Up

Another week of Personal Finance blog reading, so with Super Bowl a week away there’s lots of time for another roundup.

First, let’s start with The Car Negotiation Coach’s Auto Industry Trends: 2015 and Beyond Will Be Great for Car Buyers. I like forecasts. Not because I believe the experts all the time, I’m still waiting for my food replicator, after all, but because those who study an industry can often see the trends. In this case, the Coach offers 12 long term trends he sees. I like his prognostication that we’ll be buying cars without having to even go to the card dealer. I also am as hopeful as he is that the Electric Car will become more prevalent.

At Five Cent Nickel, Lisa White wrote Accelerating Your Mortgage Payment. A decent discussion of the bi-weekly mortgage, along with the decision to pre-pay principal each month. I understand the desire to be debt free. No one ever lost sleep knowing their mortgage was paid in full. On the other hand, current mortgage rates are now at record lows. I am now in a 3.5% 15 year fixed rate. Years ago, I’d have bet I’d never live to see a sub-5% mortgage. This also means my after tax cost is 2.5%. With many stocks yielding more than this, the prepaying vs long term investing is one tough decision.

Personal Finance Whiz asks How Much Should I Have Saved for Retirement By Age 30? What I found most interesting was the graph showing the remarkable difference the next 30 years of compounding would bring, ranging from a probably too low 3%, to a high of 12%. It was the difference between $500K and $5.5M. It’s not just about saving, but also getting a decent return.

37 Must-Read Posts for Tax Savings was an excellent resource at Money Spruce. ‘Tis the season, as they say. Tax day isn’t far behind.

Fabulously Broke asked Am I the only one who does this? She used to imagine the things she’d like to buy with that next pay check. Me? I imagine much larger windfalls, tens of millions, but that’s another story.

Last, but most exciting of all, is my refreshed guest post at Don’t Mess With Taxes, titled How your future retirement tax bracket affects today’s Roth IRA decisions. The choice we have each year between investing pre tax in the traditional 401(k) or IRA, vs the Post Tax Roth variants of these accounts isn’t so clear cut. In my guest post at Kay Bell’s site, I go into a deep dive of the numbers. It’s an important decision, choose wisely and you’ll be richer for having done so. Choose wrong, and Uncle Sam will benefit.