More Carnival Hosts - From 6/5/07 and 6/6/07

Here are two more Carnival hosts from this week:

My Two Dollars - Festival of Frugality #77

Insure Blog - Cavalcade of Risk - 1st Anniversary Edition

Hope there are tips and ideas one can use.

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Waiting For A Pause In The Market Is Working

Earlier this week, I wrote that I had not yet purchased two the stocks on my buy list, Terex (TEX) and Potash (POT), and would be waiting for a buying opportunity. While it appeared the market would keep rising, the last two days have created an opportunity with a 200+ point drop in the DOW and a 21 point drop in the S&P 500.

At this point, I do not think this is the beginning of a major decline. I will be looking to make initial purchases of both TEX and POT. However, I may be conservative and only purchase a portion of my desired amount, in case there is a further drop in the market.

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Stuart Whitmore

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

My House Payment As A Percent of Salary

MSN.com published a Home Affordability Calculator that estimates the maximum price one can afford. For people with an excellent credit rating, the calculator uses up to 34% of gross monthly salary to determine the maximum payment one can afford for Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance (PITI).

While the calculator allows up to a third of monthly income to be spent on PITI, I feel uncomfortable with that high of a percentage because there is no margin of safety for unexpected expenses. For my first house, I put 25% of my gross salary towards PITI and felt stretched. For our current house, we spend 20% of gross salary on PITI and that amount feels very comfortable. In each case, we used a higher down payment (20% and 43% respectively) to keep our monthly payment lower.

Of course, how much of one's monthly income to spend on PITI is a personal decision. One can always choose to cut spending elsewhere to enable a higher house payment. However, I am glad we never spent over 25% of gross salary and are currently at 20% of gross salary.

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Daniel T. Yara

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Final Freebie Update

Previously I wrote about getting freebies for activities I was already planning to do - i.e. double dipping. Here is an update on the status of the rewards for participating.

	Update on Freebies
Promotion Sponsor	Reward	Submitted	Status
TD Ameritrade	IPod Nano for opening and funding a new account with $10,000	February 14, 2007	Received a silver 2GB IPod Nano on April 13, 2007.
Mazda	$25 Visa Gift Card for test driving any Mazda.	March 9, 2007	Received $25 Visa Gift Card on June 4, 2007. I had called in April and the processing center told me that my form was received and the card would be sent out in June.
Chevy	$25 Best Buy Gift Card for for test driving a Chevy HHR.	March 31, 2007	Received Best Buy Gift Card on April 28, 2007. I enjoyed driving a loaded HHR, which is a new SUV crossover design. MSRP was about $23,000.
Bausch & Lomb	Free Bausch & Lomb Wear&Care Program Kit.	April 7, 2007	Received April 28,2007. The kit included 12 contact lens cases and a bottle for rewetting eye drops. Estimated value - $35 to $45.
Ford	$50 Target Gift Card for for test driving a Ford Edge.	April 16, 2007	Received April 30, 2007. I enjoyed driving a loaded Edge, which is a new SUV crossover design. MSRP was about $32,000.

Since these were activities I was already planning to do, the promotions were a nice additional bonus. However, since I qualified for each promotion, I tracked them until the bonuses were received :-)

Overall, I am impressed with the timeliness of most of the bonuses. The Mazda promotion is the only one that is that took a long time (almost two months). The Ford Edge promotion was the fastest, being delivered in two weeks.

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

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Hosts of Carnivals from June 4, 2007

Here are the Carnival hosts from Monday, June 4, 2007, that My Wealth Builder would like to recognize:

Clever Dude - Carnival of Personal Finance # 103

$tock Rake - Festival of Stocks #39

Online Stock Trading - Investors Blog Network Festival #8

downwiththekids.net - Carnival of Family Life

Verve Coaching - Carnival of Powerful Living

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Stock Purchase Update - 6/4/07

Last week I wrote about my stock buys and "almost" buys. Specifically, the buys were Terex (TEX), Potash (POT), Shaw Communications (SJR) and Avnet (AVT). I already owned Avnet and had intended to purchase some of my other buys last week. However, two things happened that caused me to delay my purchases. First, all of my buys rose significantly (6-10%) over the last week. Mistakenly, I was thinking there might be a slight pause in the market that would enable me to buy at a lower price. Second, the steep decline in the Chinese stock market, due to a tripling in taxes on stock trades, on Wednesday caused me further concern. So I held off buying, much to my chagrin.

This week, I again expected a slight pullback in these stocks. However, in spite of a 8.6% decline in the Chinese market today, each of my buy stock rose slightly (up to 1.3%) again. So I decided to stop fighting the tape and begin buying with a 50 share purchase of SJR at $43.51. I still remain somewhat cautious on TEX and POT. However, I will continue to look for buying opportunities (read that as small dips) for these two stocks this week.

For reference, two stocks, Game Stop (GME) and Agilent (A) were added to the "almost" buy list. This list of stocks meet all buy criteria except for the relative price strength rating. I will look at the "almost" buy list after I have completed purchases of stocks in my buy list.

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

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Earning Money Online

One of the great entrepreneurial opportunities is to use the Internet to make money. There are many excellent examples out there. The biggest one is Google, with on-line contextual advertising. My Space and You Tube are examples of businesses that have been sold for hundreds of millions. Digg and Facebook are potential multimillion dollar businesses when they are sold. If one has a business like these, reading My Wealth Builder is not needed:-)

For the rest of us who are looking for opportunities, the title of this post should be Trying to Earn Money Online. Here's my experience with different online opportunities.

Surveys - These are online surveys by reputable research companies. American Consumer Opinion and Survey Savvy are the two I have tried. Survey payments are typically $1-2 for Survey Savvy, with occasional $15 or $25 surveys (that fill up fast) and $4-5 for Consumer Research Opinion. Overall, I've made very little income, primarily because I only qualify for about 5-10% of the surveys sent to me.
Mystery Shoppers. The Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003, published an article about Jennifer Voitle , who was making about $80,000 a year as a mystery shopper. This income did not include the free items she received as part of her work. She shared that many mystery shopping jobs paid around $30 and that she found the jobs online from the Internet.

I signed up from Corporate Research International - Mysteryshop.com (CRI). CRI had many mystery shopper opportunities. However, the payments are typically $5 to $8 with a $1 to $3 reimbursement for a purchase, which is quite different from the article referenced above. The compensation covers both time (preparation, mystery shop, and report submission) and transportation. For me the compensation did not sufficiently cover the effort and time involved and I passed on taking any assignments.
Affiliate programs. In most affiliate programs, one becomes a commission based sales person for the product or service offered by a company. For example, as an affiliate of Amazon, My Wealth Builder has a product recommendation (WD-120GB Passport Hard Drive) and an Amazon search tool. Any purchases made by someone who accesses Amazon via this links earns My Wealth Builder a commission. While there are many who earn respectable commissions via affiliate links, My Wealth Builder has earned zero affiliate based income in nine months.

Advertising. This approach uses Google adsense, Text Link ads or other systems to provide advertising on a website or blog to earn income. Millionaire Bloggers posted at Worldwide Success shares estimated incomes from 9 bloggers ranging from $77,000 to almost $500,000 per year. The author also notes that the average blogger, of which there are over 50 million, make less that $100 per month.
Many bloggers hope to make sufficient income to replace their day job income and some do. However, the majority of bloggers may make enough to cover their out of pocket costs, but probably not enough to cover the time invested. Count My Wealth Builder among the majority of bloggers after nine months of blogging:-)
I have not tried selling items online nor writing posts for pay (e.g. Pay per Post or Review Me) and cannot comment on these forms forms of earning money based on personal experience.

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Jane M. Sawyer

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Bad Personal Finance Choice? - I Don't Expect The Government To Save Me

Since the early 1900's , the government has made protecting citizens from there own mistakes one of it's responsibilities. Bank failures from the 1920s led to the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1933 by the Glass-Steagall Act. When poverty rates among senior citizens exceeded 50%, Social Security was created in 1935 to provide "social insurance." When corporate insolvencies began to put pension programs at risk, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was created in 1974.

These programs all have good intentions - protect the financial security of US citizens. While initially solvent programs, many of these government protections are starting to have financial sufficiency issues. Many of these programs seem like Ponzi schemes to me, where the benefit to current recipients are paid by current participants in the program. And Ponzi schemes are doomed to eventually fail. The PBGC is struggling with possibly absorbing auto and airline pensions and probably will no longer able to guarantee 100% of everyone's pension. Social Security's funds are estimated to be depleted by 2042. The FDIC, while still strong, would likely have some issues if several major banks failed simultaneously.

Therefore, I am conservative with personal finance choices and do not count of the government to save me.

I am saving as if there will be no Social Security. My personal goal is to have 20 times my income saved before retirement. At this level of savings, I will not need Social Security payments. Thus, any Social Security received will be a bonus :-)

I choose to have accounts diversified at strong financial institutions. I use Merrill Lynch, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab for my brokerage account. I bank at a very strong regional bank. While I find new financial institutions, such as Zecco.com, interesting, I will not put any money there until they are a proven to be a strong financial institution. Net, unless there is a total failure of the US economic and monetary system, I will not lose all my financial assets if one of these companies fails.

I take high risks only when I am willing to lose 100%. High risk mortgages? Never, since I can't afford to lose my home. Buy equity options? Yes, I can minimize my losses to the cost of the option. Invest in a bar? Yes, but only as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) so that my maximum loss is my investment.

Net if I ever expect the government to protect me, I first look at how I can save myself :-)

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Paul Anderson

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Hosts for The Week

Here are some of the Carnival hosts from the past week that My Wealth Builder would like to acknowledge. If you have some time, check out their Carnivals for some great ideas and tips.

Money Smart Life - Carnival of Personal Finance #102

Colloquium - Carnival of Family Life - Memorial Day Edition

How to Make a Million Dollars - Festival of Under 30 Finances.

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Retirement Saving Challenge

Want to get started on saving? Don't know how much to save for a comfortable retirement? This challenge will help work on a very important aspect of wealth building - saving. Here's how My Wealth Builder will help. This will be a simple six month doing and personal tracking process that will get one started on the journey. It will be self directed and honor system -one will only need to report to oneself. My Wealth Builder will post three items on a monthly basis: 1) Recommended nest egg size; 2) daily savings amount; 3) target progress. The challenge will start on July 1, 2007 and end on December 31, 2007.

My Wealth Builder has been sharing the principles over the past nine months in a number of posts. A few readers, who agree with the principles, have asked more more specifics on the hows. Being a firm believer in learning by doing, I will share the hows I have personally used as part of this saving challenge.

I first start with an overarching goal and plan.

Have an overall life goal. Money is a tool, not a goal. Money is a great enabler for what is important to one and one's family. My life goal is explained in Developing A Personal Mission.

Develop strategies and plans. Here are my three strategies:

1. Maintain a frugal lifestyle and save.
2. Preserve my wealth
3. Grow my income (faster than expenses grow)

For more details see My Wealth Building Strategies.

Here are the specific hows, which I will describe in more detail on the Fridays leading up to challenge start date of July 1, 2007.

Set a savings goal. How much of one's income should be saved? What is one's target saving amount at retirement. The answers are a minimum of 12% of one's income and a minimum of 12 times one's income, respectively. For some additional details, see How Much To Save - The NUMBER. More about this how on Friday, June 8, 2007.

Create environments and behaviours that enable saving. Saving is hard work and requires sacrifice - specifically delaying immediate gratification for future rewards. Changing environments and behaviours can significantly help. An example is buying only what one needs. More about this how on Friday, June 15, 2007.

Track and measure results. This is the most important part. How well one is doing versus one's savings goals is very important to know. I track my progress through periodic reviews. More about this how on Friday, June 23, 2007.

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Michael Connors

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

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC