Reading other PF bloggers

A few good articles I read this past week: The first article, on 401(k) planning is titled,”Should You Stop 401k Contributions When There’s No Match?” The author (there’s no byline) offers a nice chart comparing the long term (35 year) results with a 6% deposit and 3% company match vs no match. In the past, I’ve suggested that one should take advantage of that pretax match even ahead of paying down high interest debt, as the match is an immediate 50-100% return, tough to get even paying off that 15% credit card. But with no match, the decision changes a bit.

In Track Your Spending: The First Battle In The War On Debt, Adam Baker goes into far more detail than I did in my first Frugal Friday post on why you should track every cent for some time. Adam suggests a 30 day run at this. In my post, I suggest that since many expenses aren’t monthly, that those who are serious about creating a budget should take this process seriously and let it run 6 months or even a full year. That will capture the seasonal items, semi-annual property tax, holidays, etc. On a personal note, Adam is leaving the good ol’ US of A to move to Australia soon. I wish him a safe journey and look forward to his first posts from down under. Remember, Adam, Vegemite is an acquired taste.

As I mentioned last month, Pinyo of Moolanomy fame launched Greatnexus an excellent compilation of sites ranging from personal finance to automotive, gaming, science, etc. I am proud to be listed there. Quite the project. Now, he’s added an ‘Answers‘ section on his Moolanomy site where visitors and regular posters can post questions or respond to open ones.. A bit like the Yahoo offering only without the 10 yr old kids. Nice addition to his site.

And last, is 5 Reasons to Use Your Credit Instead of Your Debit Card, a guest post on Mrs Micah’s Finance for a Freelance Life blog. The post title says it all, and the content is a good rebuttal to the Dave Ramsey “there’s no such thing as responsible credit card use.”

Joe