Some great posts to choose from, another tough week to narrow it down to a brief list to share.
Money Energy would like to tell you Why You’re Wrong If You Think Gold at $2000/oz Is Unlikely… or Worse, Just a Bubble. This is one example of me offering a post for the fact that it’s insightful and well written, not necessarily because I agree with its conclusion. On the other hand, if gold were still on the rise, my post Will Gold Break $1250 by 2011? offers some thought as to how to use options to maximize your return on a crazy upside in gold.
Redeeming Riches asks Does Your Money Define You? This kind of post falls into the group that get you thinking. Nothing wrong with some introspection every now and then. I think that of late, money is infront of our thoughts so often that “How does Money Define You” may be an even more accurate question. My 11 year old tells us that kids in school talk about money all the time, who has a cell phone, a laptop, the latest video game console. She’s still trying to understand where we fit in. “Dad, do you make more or less than a teacher, doctor, lawyer? Do policemen make more than plumbers? Does mom make more than you?” This is what kids are thinking about?
As December snuck up on me, I started to think about a “year end tax advice” post. Money Answer Tree offers 6 things you should do before 2010 and it’s a great start for your year end planning. Me, I’ve always felt the April visit to your tax man is always too late for certain things you need to do by year end.
Dr. Thomas Stanley is the author of a number of books in The Millionaire Next Door series, the latest of which is titled Stop Acting Rich. It’s on my own list for a read and book review in the next month or so, but meanwhile I continue to find one blogger after the next referring to Dr. Stanley’s work. Free Money Finance wrote this week on The Greatest Detriment to Building Wealth. I don’t wish to ruin the punchline, you should read the full post yourself.
If you haven’t figured it our by now, my motivation for blogging is a mix for my desire to help others, sharing my knowledge, as well as my own insatiable curiosity. Toward this end I find the posts of Dragos Roua to be among the most thought provoking. His latest, 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life, is one that I’ve been reading and re-reading. When I get around to posting on the top motivational bloggers. Dragos will certainly make the short list.
Another post I enjoyed this past week is Jeff Rose’ 7 Things that Make Good Financial Cents for Managing Your Finances. (disclosure – I am officially a staff writer for Jeff’s blog, but I am still objective)Â In this brief post Jeff shares a number of cliches which contain enough wisdom to still be worthwhile. The ones I ignored over the years cost me dearly.
Man vs Debt offers his Top 10 Money Movies of the Decade. And just when I scan it and ask “where’s Wall Street?,” I see he limited his list to 2000-2009. Me, I thought the decade ran from 2001 to 2010 as the first decade was 1-10, but let’s not go there. I now hads a few movies to watch, as I’d not seen his entire list.
To wrap up this week, I’ve been thinking, if it’s possible to have a ‘tax crush’ on someone, mine would be Kay Bell, who writes Don’t Mess with Taxes. This week she broke the news that the First step toward permanent estate tax was passed by the House. The current law exempting the first $3.5M of one’s estate will be extended indefinitely, superseding the 2010 law doing away with the estate tax, and the 2011 return to a $1M exemption. Good news actually.
Joe
Hey there,
Thanks for including me in your weekly roundup. I am honored to be in such good company (being on the same list with Baker from ManvsDebt would be just enough, but I find so many other interesting articles mentioned here).
Have a great week 🙂
Oh Joe, you silly boy!
Would you say the year 1990 belongs in the 80’s? No way, Jose!
🙂
I am SO excited the first $7 million for couples will be exempt from taxes. This seriously is some of the BEST NEWS EVER to come out of this administration!
$3.5 million was pretty fair to begin with, but to raise it to $7 million? Mama mia awesome! $7mil is definitely achievable with a lot of hard work and discipline, and a great goal for all of us to achieve.
Go USA!
Sam-urai
I said it half joking. Recalling the debate when we celebrated 2000 but there was a 2001 group insisting that was the new millennium.
The law passed extended the rules in place for 2009. $3.5M/person (or $7.0M/couple if you want to look at it that way).
Joe, thanks so much for the link and including me in the Round Up – some very good company here. Keep up the great work my friend!
All about the extension to make it permanent and passing it through the Senate. Fingers crossed!
Joe, I’m blushing! Thanks. Kay
Although gold may reach $2000 or even $800, unlike a commenter thought, it’s hard to tell when and it’s ultimately a bet. While gold is not quite a commodity (since the stock of gold is not used up and remains fairly flat) and is even used as money by central banks and international bank settlements, it’s still traded as any merchandise, when prices may go up or down purely based on the perception of its value, perhaps more so than a regular commodity, whose use determines its value. In conclusion, nothing is for sure, neither $2000 nor $800, or rather, one should consider both $2000 and $800 as possibilities and act accordingly. After all, merely months from a bubble having popped, when houses couldn’t but go up, we should have learned the lesson that, yes, gold prices may go down. For instance, just like the subprime crisis threw gold prices down in a deflationary crash, a similar widespread default could occur next year again when many ARM loans reset, maybe triggering another deflationary event.
WRT to FSA with balances, many charities will accept over the counter medication as donation. So you might put those before-tax dollars to use for a good cause and still get a deduction, a double-whammy!
Technically, FSA money is supposed to used for one’s (or immediate family) own needs. I’d only caution against buying an unusually large ammount of one product, a case of aspirin is certainly a potential to flip a red flag. If you go this route, a small number of many different items shouldn’t get any attention.
Thanks for your note. The community is one of the things I love about blogging. Always good to find a blogger new to you. Dragos is excellent.
Thanks for sharing your weekly roundups, through them I found very interesting blogs I didn’t know before. For example, yesterday I spent the whole night reading Dragos´ self development blog, an excellent reading.
Regards, Mizé.