Recognizing a Losing Stock Trade

Trading stocks means identifying stocks that can be a profitable trade and then making a buy/sell transaction.  Inevitably, some stocks will not perform as expected and result in a loss.  Often it is hard to sell a stock at a loss, especially since it was expected to be a gain.  An active stock trader shared with me some four letter words that indicate a stock position is likely to continue to be a loss.

Hope.  "I hope the stock gets back to my purchase price."  or "I hope the company news gets better."  Hoping doesn't make good things happen in stock trading.  Usually, it takes a good plan and good execution.   This includes deciding when to cut one's losses.

Can't.  "The stock can't go any lower."    The only hard bottom for a stock is zero.   Above that, a downward trending stock can, and probably will, go lower.

Must.  "The stock price must be near the bottom."  See Can't.

Pray.  "I pray the stock price will go up again."  Asking for a miracle is not a good stock trading strategy.

Combinations of these four letter words are only a stronger indication of a dire situation.   For example, "I hope and pray the stock will get back to my purchase price" probably means it definitely is time to sell to prevent any further losses.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday.

This is not financial or investing advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #89

Welcome to the eighty-ninth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Super Saver presents Escape Velocity Aids Wealth Building posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, "Here are some income sources that helped me achieve escape velocity."

Insuring and Protecting

Jason P. presents Why Is Life Insurance Important for My Family? posted at One Money Design, saying, "Years ago something important happened in my life. I got married and it caused me to get serious about my finances. Getting life insurance was one of the top things on my list."

Investing

Vytas presents 11 reasons you should buy gold posted at Trend, saying, "People are searching for safe investments. Unfortunately, a lot of them end up holding very risky ones. In present times, investing in gold has become both safe and profitable way to invest your money. Find out the reasons."

Dividends4Life presents This Mega-Cap Tech Stock Increased Its Dividend 75% posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Move over Intel (INTC) and Microssoft (MSFT). Two years ago this networking giant didn't even pay a dividend. In April of this year, it increased its dividend 33%. Most investors would be satisifed with that increase, but the company wasn't finished boosting its dividend in 2012..."

Bill Smith presents Google Inc. Trading in a Range posted at FastSwings, saying, "Google’s main business is providing a large database of indexed web pages from across the Internet, the largest database of any other organization."

MikeAhi presents Would Warren Buffett Really Buy Chubb (CB)? posted at After Hours Investing, saying, "The lesson here is simple: beware of the talking heads, and do your own homework. Here's why a recent video of CNBC talking heads is full of hot air."

Living Frugally

Jonathan Milligan presents Why I Love YNAB Personal Finance Software posted at CPACareerCoach.com, saying, "The first step to financial freedom is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Here is how a simple budget software helped me get my finances back on track."

Wallet Hub presents Is it time to Refinance Your Mortgage? posted at Wallet Hub, saying, "We've all heard how mortgage rates are at record lows, but will refinancing actually save you any money? Hint: The answer isn't as straightforward as you might think!"

John K presents Do You Know Your Mortgage Credit Score? posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "So you're applying for a mortgage? Did you know that there is a special credit score used just for that? You better have a good record for paying your utilities on time."

Saving

Greg Field presents NerdWallet Interest Rate Monitor: Deposit Accounts that Beat Inflation – August 2012 posted at NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch, saying, "Here is NerdWallet's review of deposit accounts with interest rates that beat inflation, along with some upcoming predictions. Enjoy"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Reducing Expections for Company Stock

Part of our retirement savings are stock options which were awarded when I was working.  When I retired in October 2007, I conservatively estimated my company's stock price would grow 6% annually, yielding a 33% gain by October 2012.   That would have provided a savings to salary ratio of 25.   Unfortunately, the stock is down 11% which resulted in a savings to salary ratio of only 17. 

With the remaining stock options expiring in 2-5 years, I can no longer expect a 33% return :-( So I am reducing my expectations to a maximum of a 11% total return at 5 years, or about 2% annually.   Even then, I believe it may be difficult to achieve this return given the global economy and the business situation for my company.  In fact there may be more downside risk than upside potential.

Currently, I still expect a market decline in the next few months given the due to the EU sovereign debt and US fiscal cliff issues.   So I will start selling the oldest options, which start expiring in early 2014.   This will minimize the loss of option value should the market decline significantly in the next few months.

In addition, I will begin working on a strategy to develop more stable sources of retirement income from our savings, since CDs are paying very low interest rates.   I have already started looking a higher dividend paying stocks.  Annuities are another option.  Finally, rental real estate, which my sister and I will be inheriting, is a third option.
For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Looking for Income Producing Stocks

After reviewing our Q2 2012 financial status, I've decided to evaluate a strategy of using regular income dividend paying stocks, instead of income from capital gains, to cover our retirement expenses.  In the past, I would have considered CDs or money market funds which paid about 5%.  However, with the Fed keeping interest rate I am getting almost 0% on our cash and slightly more on short term CDs. 

For now,  I still think the market has more downside than upside potential.  So I am mainly developing a list of dividend paying stock to consider once the market experiences a correction.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

How Taxes Will Increase for the Middle Class

Without an extension of the Bush tax cuts, Federal income taxes will be raised for everyone including the middle class.   At this point, it is unlikely that the Bush tax cuts will be extended prior to the end of 2012 since the current elected officials will be in office until January 2013. So it's higher taxes for all.

For the President and Congress, this approach will be a painless way to increase taxes, which needs to be done to address the deficit.   The Democrats will blame Republicans for not passing a middle class tax cut, and the Republicans will blame Democrats for not extending the Bush tax cuts.  President Obama will explain how partisan politics and a divided government prevented him from helping the middle class with a tax cut.

However, whatever the reason, the middle class should plan for now on paying higher Federal income taxes in 2013.  

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.
This is not financial or tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Character Building

"They say adversity builds character.  I'm working the Empire State Building of character." ~ Kevin Young, player for 2001 Pirates in its ninth out of nineteen losing season.

I've had a lot of opportunity to build character due to economic conditions since October 2007, when I retired at 49.   As I've noted previously, I'm glad that the Great Recession happened early in our retirement, giving us some time to recover. 

Here are the elements that didn't go as planned:

Company stock value.    When I retired, my company stock was at an all time high.  At 6% growth, the projected price in 2012 was 30% higher.  Instead, the stock is 11% lower today than in 2007.   At this point, the future growth of the stock price is uncertain as the company has struggled during the recession and post recession.

Home value.   The value of the house we purchased in 2003 has declined about 35% from the purchase price.   However, because we put down a 40% down payment, we were able to pay off the mortgage in 2009.

Part time jobs.  I envisioned getting paid well to do part time jobs that I loved.   While this situation happened two jobs, part time jobs paid between 1.2 and 3 times minimum wage for doing jobs that I liked.

The economic situation has caused me to rethink my plan of primarily living on capital gains income from our retirement account and part time jobs.   First, while long term returns on the stock market average 8%, short term returns can vary significantly for a long period.  Therefore, I have been considering plans that provide more stable income, e.g. dividend paying stocks.   Second, I realized that a $1 change in my company stock can more exceed or eliminate the annual earnings from a part time job. In the future,  I will no longer include part time jobs in our retirement planning, although I may occasionally work at one that I find interesting to try.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Escape Velocity Aids Wealth Building

Escape velocity is the speed a rocket needs to exceed the gravitational pull of the Earth and launch into space.  It takes a great deal of energy to reach escape velocity.  Once escape velocity is achieved, the amount of energy needed to move further away is greatly reduced.

The concept of escape velocity can also be applied to personal finance.   Once escape velocity is achieved, it is easier to continue in the same direction.  Here are some factors that helped me achieve escape velocity.

Wage Income.   I have always been a saver.   In the early years, it never seemed that my savings amounted to much.   The prospects of saving enough for retirement didn't seem possible for the first 16.   For example, even I had been saving $10,000 a year, which I didn't come close to doing, it would have only resulted in $160,000 in principal.

However, from 16-20 years several things happened that helped achieve escape velocity.  First, during that time, I was promoted twice and my base salary compensation increase significantly.   We chose to keep basically the same lifestyle and save most of the pay increase.  In addition, the company was contributing about 25% of my base salary to my retirement account.  Both elements helped me grow our retirement savings the last third of my career.

Interest Rates.  Higher interest rates help also help achieve escape velocity.  At 5% interest rates, $1 million in savings earns $50,000 per year.   At 1% interest rates, the same $1 million only earns $10,000 per year.  At current 0.1% interest rates, $1 million only earns 1,000 per year.

Stock Market Returns.  Similar to interest rates, higher stock market returns also help to achieve escape velocity.

For many of us, escape velocity has been harder to achieve since in 2007.   Savings growth due to wage income, interest rates and stock market returns has declined significantly and hasn't recovered.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.


This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #88

Welcome to the eighty-eighth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Shamelle presents YouTube Video Money How To Make Money Off YouTube Videos posted at Promote Youtube Videos, saying, "YouTube is the largest and most popular online video website, providing free access to a wide variety of videos, many of which are made and self-produced by private individuals. YouTube began as a means for people from virtually anywhere to post and share video content. Lately, it has become possible to monetize videos and earn cash. Here are steps on how to make money on YouTube"

seamonster presents How to Make Money on YouTube posted at Seamonster, saying, "There is money to made on Youtube, here are the tips to get you started right"

Investing

Dividends4Life presents Dividend Income Progress Update - July 2012 posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income increased in July, extending the streak to 25 consecutive months of increases after June 2010's decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 54 of the last 56 months..."

Miranda presents Financial Risk Tolerance posted at Wallet Hub, saying, "Investing; it's all about risk, calculated or otherwise. But how much risk are you willing to take? How much do you really know about your own risk tolerance?"

Gayan presents Gold for Green: Ian Manning on the Ins and Outs of the Cash for Gold Industry posted at CASH CAB, saying, "In today's fluctuating economy, stocks are out and gold is in. Studies by the World Gold Council show that gold prices soared over 20 percent in 2011, reaching a staggering $1,700 to $1,900 per ounce."

Living Frugally

Theresa Torres presents Four Tips for Saving Money on a Camping Vacation posted at Travel Guideline, saying, "A camping vacation for your family can be fun and affordable at the same time if you follow these tips. Aside from planning carefully, here are some good ways on how to keep your spending low."

Jonathan Milligan presents 11 Money Saving Tips for New Parents posted at Simple Life Habits, saying, "Young parents sometimes jump into parenting without thinking of ways to save their hard earned dollars. here are 11 ways to save money as a parent of a little one."

Saving

John presents Checking Accounts for Students & Seniors: Are They Worth It? posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "Are banks showing age preference to their customers, or is it just a way to get new account holders through the door? Age specific bank accounts may or may not be the best way to go."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Wealth Builder Ratios - Q2 2012 Update

Here is our Q2 2012 Wealth Builder Ratios update. During the second quarter of 2012, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P500 indices were down  2.5%, 5.1% and 3.3% respectively. Our investment portfolio returns were -8.7 % due mainly to a decline of  my company stock of 8.9%.

For more details on the relevance of these ratios, please see this How Much Is Needed To Be Wealthy - The NUMBER. 

Ratio and Target	Q1 2012	Q2 2012	Comments
Investment Income to Salary Target= 0.8 2007= 3.41 2008= -5.47 2009= -1.38 2010= 1.29 2011= 0.5	0.07	-1.42	Q2 2012 was not kind to us.  While the indices fell 2-5%, my company stock fell 8.9%.   This resulted in a negative return of 1.42 my pre-retirement salary.   I have sold all the company stock in our IRA, keeping only the low basis shares in my company retirement for a future NUA execution. As my company stock (hopefully) advances, we plan to continue execute the remaining stock options I own.
Savings to Salary Target>20 2007=23 2008=16.7 2009=15.3 2010=16.6 2011=17.1	17.2	15.7	I sold most of our stock investments in June 2011, and kept my company stock and stock options. We avoided most of the volatility in the fourth quarter but missed the gains in the first quarter of 2012 and the percentage drop of my company stock fell was greater than those of the indices. The change mainly reflects the negative change in my company stock.
Debt to Salary Target=0 2007=1.51 2008=1.46 2009=0 2010=0 2011=0	0	0	We said bye-bye to our mortgage on May 20, 2009. Eliminating a mortgage payment has reduced our expenses by 24%.

My financial goals for 2012 are:

1. Continue to maintain an Investment Income to Salary ratio > 0.8. (off track)

2. Maintain a Savings to Salary ratio of 20. (off track)

3. Maintain Debt to Salary Ratio at 0. (met final goal of 0)

(For reference, Salary refers to gross salary just prior to early retirement in October, 2007.)

Both #1 and #2 were directly correlated with how well our stock, bond, and CD investments returns. With the negative performance of my company stock and the high proportion of cash, our portfolio fell  farther than the indices in Q2.  With my company stock trading in a narrow range, it appears a Savings to Salary ratio of 20 may not be achievable with our current plan.  In late 2012 or early 2013, our savings will have a positive impact due to an inheritance from my parents.   However, this will be a windfall and not due to investment results.

It has been very challenging retiring at the beginning of a bear market. Our short term expenses (next 3-5 years) are invested in CDs, bonds and money markets. So we can wait for the stock market to continue an upward trend. I continue to be concerned about volatility of our investment portfolio, but believe there is more downside than upside potential going forward due to EU sovereign debt crisis and continued deleveraging.  So I continue to stay mainly in cash, which the exception of my company stock and stock options

I continue to have the same financial goals for 2012. At this point, I am pessimistic about the economy and the stock market.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #87

Welcome to the eighty-seventh edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now on to the Carnival.

Earning

Kerin Gedge presents Kerinthian's: Pimp My Twenty Bucks - The Half Way Mark posted at Kerinthian's, saying, "How I doubled my money, the slow way.."

Insuring and Protecting

Liana presents 2012 Credit Card Extended Warranty Study posted at CardHub.com, saying, "Don't be fooled into buying that extended warranty plan! Your purchase may already be nicely covered by your credit card's policy."

Investing

Dividends4Life presents Mid-Year 2012 Top And Bottom Performing Dividend Stocks posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Investing in dividend growth stocks is a long-term proposition. One of the beauties of following a dividend growth strategy is that you don't have to watch your portfolio or the market on a daily basis. For the most part, daily, monthly and yearly movements are just noise in the system."

Mrs. PoP presents Our Diversified Real Estate Portfolio posted at Planting Our Pennies, saying, "How we turned the biggest RE bust of the past 30 years into the biggest buying opportunity of our lives - seeking a place to live, cash-flow, and medium-term value appreciation."

Living Frugally

Theresa Torres presents 5 Tips for Trimming Your Health Budget posted at Dose of My Own, saying, "Most of us spend more on health care that what is necessary because we don't focus more on prevention. Following these tips can help us become a healthier person and save us money in the long run."

John presents Should We Be Worried About Corruption & Ineptitude With Student Financial Aid? posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "Matriculation fees, student activity fees…financial aid fees? Has higher education found another way to profit under the guise of being useful and convenient to the students? It would appear so."

Your Smart Money Moves presents I Make $100,000 And Live Paycheck To Paycheck posted at Your Smart Money Moves, saying, "I’ve been practicing financial planning for over 21 years, and there is a new financial phenomenon spreading like cancer. I haven’t come up with a name for this group yet, but there is a growing population of people between the ages of 30 to 50 who make more than $100,000 per year and are literally living paycheck to paycheck."

Retiring

Miranda presents Reverse Mortgages posted at Wallet Hub, saying, "Reverse mortgages - everyone's talking about them. But are they truly beneficial to the people who have them? Well, I guess that depends on what kind of reverse mortgage you get."

Kurt presents What’s Your Number? posted at Money Counselor, saying, "Feeling overwhelmed and almost hopeless because of the daily warnings that you need to save millions for retirement? Here’s a fix: Ignore this useless blather."

Taxes

Bill Smith presents Four Distinct Advantages Of Using The FreeTaxUsa Software posted at 2010Taxes, saying, "FreeTaxUsa is ideal for anyone who wants to use a reliable electronic tax filing service that will provide positive results."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Make Abundance the Solution

When abundance exists, cooperation is the norm.  Everyone works together to get the more of more than sufficient resources.  When scarcity exists, politics is the norm.   Everyone works to get disproportionate amounts of limited resources.

Today there is a scarcity of jobs so politics has become the norm.  There has been very little cooperation, as exemplified by the inaction of Congress and the President.  And the politics has become much more divisive.

Instead of focusing on how to divide limited declining resources, our leaders should think about how to create abundance.   Instead of deciding which segment should pay more taxes, government should think about how to increase the breadth of the tax paying base.  Perhaps then everyone can work together to solve (instead of politicizing) the issues and prevent a future economic crisis.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or policy advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Gut Check

This week I've started tightening my belt two more notches than when I retired about 5 years ago.   In addition, I'm comfortably wearing pants with waist size that are 2-3 inches less.  I am below the weight at which I entered college and almost down to my highest weight in high school. I am probably within an inch of my lowest waist size since college.

I feel I'm on the right track.   The only divergent data is my cholesterol and triglycerides values which are still on the high side.   I've started taking Metamucil and fish oil on a regular basis to address this outage.  I'll see if this change is positive at my next quarterly health check.

For more on  New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or health advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A New Level of Kicking the Can

Government is notorious for depending on non-beneficiary tax receipts to pay for benefits today. A California school district has decided to take deferring paying for current benefits to a new level.   The school district has issued a 30 year $105 million capital appreciation bond which requires no payments for 20 years and then about $50 million a year for the next ten years for a total of $982 million.   So today's taxpayers will receive immediate benefits, but it will be taxpayers 20 years in the future that pay for the cost.

This seems like a financial disaster waiting to happen.  According to the article, the assessed value of real estate would need to quadruple in order to order to cover payments.  That is quite a high expectation given the recent real estate decline and slow recovery.  In addition, the school district will likely need addition renovation funds in 20 years.  Finally, if I lived in that school district, I would definitely move out before 20 years. :-)

To me, the better financial decision would have been to cut back on the upgrade plans or let the current taxpayers decide whether to pay the costs.     That way the current beneficiaries would make the decision on whether the benefits are worth the cost.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Retirement Accounts Hurt by Low Interest Rates

Recently, there has been a lot of political rhetoric on taxes about the helping or hurting the middle class.   The bigger issue for me is low interest rates.   Just a few years ago, it was possible to get 5% interest rates on CDs.  Now, I'm lucky to get a 1% return.

Here's how higher interest rates can help retirement accounts:

• Spendable earnings.   At 5% interest rates, $1 million in savings yields $50,000 per year in a CD that is FDIC insured and guaranteed to return principal.   $50,000 is a very good income since the median middle class income is just a little under $50,000.   Add the average Social Security benefit of $14000 and get an annual retirement income of $64,000.     At 1% interest rates, $1 million in savings yields only $10,000, quite a bit less than $50,000.
• Savings growth.  Also at 5% interest rates, my savings will double about every 14 years.   At 1% interest, it will take about 70 years to double, five times longer.  This fact is also important for those with pensions since the ability of companies to meet these obligations may depend on savings growth. 

Unfortunately, interest rates will likely stay low until 2014, which will make it difficult to grow and live on retirement savings for the next few years.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.


This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #86

Welcome to the eighty-sixth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now on to the Carnival.

Insuring and Protecting

Brandon Lewis presents Should You Choose A Lump Sum or a Structured Settlement Annuity? posted at Annuity Structured Settlements, saying, "Our guide will help explain the difference between a lump sum and a structured settlement annuity."

Mac Hildebrand presents Best Places for Finding the Cheapest Car Insurance posted at Car Insurance Comparison, saying, "This article includes where to look online as well as what to expect from large companies and independent agents."

Investing

Habeeb presents Fidelity New Markets Income Fund (FNMIX) posted at Dividend Paying Mutual Funds, saying, "Fidelity New Markets Income Fund (FNMIX) has $5.5 billion in assets under management and pays an outsized 5.2% dividend. The fund has a strategy of investing 80% of its assets in debt securities of emerging markets including sovereign bonds, agency bonds, corporate and treasury bonds. Examples of emerging market countries include Venezuela, Mexico, Turkey, Qatar, Brazil, etc. If you had invested $10,000 in this fund on July 11th, 2002, your portfolio would be worth $33,085.59 as of July 11th, 2012. This means an average annualized rate of return of 12.8% which is superb"

Dividends4Life presents A Simple Approach To Earn More Than 4% In Dividends posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Eventually, someone else will have to manage your portfolio. Will this hand-tuned marvel you've spent a lifetime constructing collapse under a spouse or child's oversight? Now might be a good time to design a plan for your portfolio for the day when you are no longer available to call the shots..."

Living Frugally

Josh Champagne presents Why We Don’t Clip Coupons posted at Josh Champagne, saying, "Most simple and frugal living bloggers suggest you clip coupons as part of your saving strategy. We don't and here's 3 good reasons why."

Nivene presents Comparing and Contrasting Free Personal Finance Software posted at CashNetUSA Credit Resource Center, saying, "There’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars on online financial software when there are plenty of free options to choose from. This infographic compares some of the most popular and helps you decide which is the best for all your needs."

Theresa Torres presents Five Money-Saving Tips for Finding Used Photo Equipment posted at ThePhotoWork, saying, "Buying used photo equipment can be a good option if you don't have cash for a brand-new one. Check out these tips to ensure that you're getting the best for your money."

Katie presents 7 tips for saving cash on camping by keeping it simple! posted at Money saving tips & advice from Discount Coder, saying, "Everyone loves going on holiday but sometimes we just don't have the spare cash to make it happen when we really want. Well, camping can solve that problem and these thrifty camping tips will get you sleeping under the starts for even less cash!"

Retiring

John presents How High Fees and Conflicts of Interest Are Hurting Your 401(k) posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "Retirement - The American dream! Sock away as much as you can into your 401(k)! Sounds like sure thing - right? But do you really know what the cost of 401(k) retirement planning is?"

Saving

Miranda presents How the IRS Classifies Your Income posted at Wallet Hub, saying, "Money coming in for work we do. The IRS, though, takes a different view. It uses a system of different income classifications, and the way yours is classified will decide exactly how much in taxes you pay on it. Before you fill out your tax return, it’s a good idea to understand the different types of income that you might have."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC