Links to Carnivals from January 24 - 30, 2012

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from January 24-30, 2012:

Road to Financial Independence #39

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

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #64

Welcome to the sixty-fourth 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 onto the Carnival:

Earning

Jon Elder presents How to Raise Kids to be Wise with Money posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, "Today’s children still need to be taught good financial habits so that they end up more like Millennials and less like Millennials’ Gen X parents and Boomer grandparents. That’s why I’m sharing a few things you can do to teach your kids about good personal finances:"

Tim @ Faith and Finance presents 16 Great Jobs For 16 Year Olds posted at Faith and Finance, saying, "We’ve all known what’s it’s like to be a 16 year old looking for a good job. Here are 16 job ideas that any 16 year old can do to make some extra money."

Linsey B. Knerl presents Working from Home… With Toddlers posted at 1099 - Mom, saying, "I can imagine that for most Moms, there is at least one “high-needs” kid in the household. Working from home with one in your care, however, takes a delicate balance of being attentive and not allowing yourself to be completely run over."

Insuring and Protecting

Jason@LiveRealNow presents Insurance posted at Live Real, Now, saying, "Thankfully, I sock a bit of money away every month to cover things that break. It’s my warranty fund. That, combined with a good(hopefully) find on eBay, means that losing my phone, while irritating, isn’t going to break my budget. It won’t actually touch my budget in any way."

Investing

B.B. presents Sharebuilder Returns Update posted at Beating Broke, saying, "Overall, there really isn’t much comparison of the returns between the Lending Club and Sharebuilder accounts. Taken on their face, Lending Club wins hands down."

Jim Tolley (aka Kidgas) presents What Would I Do With $50,000? posted at Cash Flow Mantra, saying, "Recently, Joe over at Retireby40.org discussed his options for a $50,000 emergency fund, and I must confess that I thought they were rather poor. Now Joe has certain requirements, and I am not trying to change his mind regarding them. But he did ask the question posed in the title and since my answer was going to be longer than could be held in a comment, I thought I would write a post about it."

Lazy Man and Money presents Grading Men’s Health’s Tips to Build Wealth in Trouble Times posted at Lazy Man and Money, saying, "I was very surprised by the lack of useful information provided by these financial experts. I'm reminded by the people who are giving the advice, Wall Street economist types. As Abraham Maslow said, "It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.""

passive family income presents What is the Best Source of Passive Income? posted at Passive Family Income, saying, "One income stream that does not require a lot of my time are dividend paying stocks. In my opinion, these investments offer the best source of passive income possible"

John presents Money Market Funds vs. Money Market Accounts posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "What’s the difference between Money Market Funds and Money Market Accounts? Determine which may be best for your individual financial needs."

Living Frugally

Kevin presents 3 Frugal Ideas for a Romantic Valentine’s Day posted at Invest It Wisely, saying, "Remember, there’s no need to spend a fortune on Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, a bit of cheap fun is all you need."

Matt presents Home Buyers: Do you Feel the Power? posted at Living In Financial Excellence, saying, "Although sellers stand to lose a healthy chunk of money when they move out of their home, they also stand to gain a lot on the other end when they buy a different home. Home prices are really low, which means there are a lot of bargains out there."

Bucksome presents Delay Your Gratification and Grow Rich posted at Buck$ome Boomer's Journey to Retirement, saying, "The next time you’re tempted with a purchase (big or small), remember to think twice about it and consider what it might do to your future. Chances are, if you delay the purchase, your future will be much better off."

Lisa presents The Frugal Home Buyer’s Guide | posted at Thriftability, saying, "y taking a look at your financial situation, you can save money to reach this goal of a new home. Here is some advice on how to shoot for this goal, as well as knowing if it is the right time."

Jonathan from Debt Loans presents Seven Fun Hobbies that Won't Cost You a Cent posted at Wallet Watcher, saying, "Here’s a handful of hobbies that are sure to be entertaining, beneficial and basically free of charge."

Theresa Torres presents Guest Post: 6 Workout Tips for Moms on a Budget posted at Deal Finding Chik, saying, "This article shares some tips on how moms can get in shape without breaking the bank."

Retiring

Dr. Dean presents A Million Bucks? In My 401K? Ya Gotta Be Kiddin’! posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Retirement account millionaires don’t have to be market savvy investors. No, they are often not investing gurus at all. How do they grow millions in their retirement accounts? It’s not rocket science-read all about it!"

Investor Junkie presents Why Your Small Business Should Offer a 401K posted at Investor Junkie, saying, "The following are six reasons that your business should offer a 401K program to its employees."

Saving

Little House presents Stash Some Cash with Mind Bending Tricks posted at Little House in the Valley, saying, "Since I know saving money isn’t easy, I’ve concocted some mind bending tricks to make me save more of my money."

Taxes

Robert Moore presents Important News On The 2012 Tax Deadline posted at 2011 Taxes, saying, "The IRS has kicked off the 2012 tax filing season by revealing that taxpayers can now file their taxes up until April 17."

Mark Roberts presents How To Choose The Right Filing Status posted at Tax Brackets, saying, "This blog post looks at how to choose the correct filing status for your situation."

Jessica Bird presents Taxing Your Car posted at CarTaxBands.org, saying, "If you need to pay tax on your car, this blog post will outline three important documents that you will need."

Al Peters presents Self Assessment Tax Return 2011 Deadline Approaching posted at TaxFix Feed Update, saying, "The tax return deadline is fast approaching. If you have earned income or had taxable gains in the UK then don't forget this important deadline."

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 - Q4 2011 Update

Here is our Q4 2011 Wealth Builder Ratios update. During the fourth quarter of 2011, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P500 indices were up at 12.6%, 7.9% and 11.2% respectively. Our investment portfolio returns improved from -3.0% to 3.0% due to the overall market improvement and my company stock having a  6.4% return during Q4.

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

Ratio and Target	Q3 2011	Q4 2011	Comments
Investment Income to Salary Target= 0.8 2007= 3.41 2008= -5.47 2009= -1.38 2010= 1.29 2011= 0.5	-0.50	0.50	2011 has started out poorly due to a negative return for my company stock, but has recovered nicely in the fourth quarter, ending with a positive return for the year.  I have sold all the company stock in our IRA, keeping only the low basis shares 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	16.1	17.1	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.  So the change mainly reflects the positive change in my company stock and the contribution of the salary from my temporary full time job.
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 2011 were:

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 positive performance of my company stock and the high proportion of cash, our portfolio increased less than the indices in Q4.

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.

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

Working on my Terms in 2012

When I retired early a little over four years ago, I was a very good corporate employee.  I understood and supported the corporate priorities.   I put in a lot time on my career, working 60+ hours a week and investing time in professional and personal development.  I was a very good corporate employee, doing what was needed and working on the company's terms.

I took that attitude with me to the part time jobs that I did after I retired.   However, after four years, I've decided to change.  I will continue to do great work for the companies.  However, I will be doing on my terms, instead of the companies' terms.

Here is are my terms for working in 2012:

Scheduling hours that are convenient for me.   Initially, I gave my availability as any hours I didn't have scheduled activities, which often included weekends and evenings.  Before I retired, I was used to working 24/7.  However,  I found that I sometimes was scheduled to work during times when I rather would have been at a family activities.  Now I provide only limited time commitments (e.g. no weekends) that I know won't conflict with potential family activities or vacations and that includes taking the entire summer off.  So far, all my employers have been comfortable with my new scheduling approach.

Working at my pay grade.  In the past, I used to expand my work past that for which I was responsible.   In my career job, this approach was clearly the norm, especially if one wanted advance.  However, I've learned that working above my pay grade is typically not appreciated nor rewarded in my retitrement part time jobs.  In a couple cases, my supervisor objected to me doing parts of his job.  (I attributed it to job insecurity :-)  In other cases, the company would seem to ignore the improvements I was doing.  Recently, I told my supevisor that the company's request to "help make it better" was way above my pay grade, which is slightly above minimum wage.

Focusing on what I love to do.  When I was working full time, I may have loved the work about 10% of the time.  As I tell college students, there's a reason it's call work :-)  and people are paid to do it.   However, in my retirement part time jobs, I'm finding that I mostly love doing the work , about 80 to 90% of the time, because I focus on leveraging my strengths  .  Also, I don't worry about doing performance appraisals, not getting a pay raise or being terminate for under performance. :-)

In 2012, I plan to fit work in when it's convenient for my schedule and I definitely will avoid being over committed as I was in 2010.

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

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Author Name

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Humorous Perspective On Any Profession

The following three jokes help me as I listen to the "promises" being made by a professional who I don't think can keep them:

How do you know when a ________ is lying? When his lips move :-)

What's the difference between a ________ and a catfish? One is a muck raking, scum sucking, bottom feeder and the other is a fish :-)

The problem that 99% of _________ give the other 1% a bad name :-)

Put the targeted profession in the blank space and the joke is complete.

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

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

Focusing on Leveraging Strengths

When I was working full time, part of every performance review had a section on improvement areas, the weaknesses that needed to be addressed to advance.   Working on weaknesses was always one of the toughest things for me to do.  It was challenging to improve in areas I wasn't naturally good at doing.  However, improving weakness was very important since I wanted to advance in my career.
One of the benefits of retirement is the ability to choose part time jobs that leverage my strengths.   For example, I am very good at math, science, finances and test taking.  Skills in these areas are very easy for me to learn and doing work in these areas sometimes feels effortless.    Although I've tried a variety of different jobs, the one's like like best are teaching science in after school programs, tutoring for college entrance exams, and doing seasonal tax preparation.  When I'm working, I often feel like I'm in "the zone."  In the two jobs with performance appraisals, I scored well with no weaknesses identified. 

For reference, none of these jobs are in the field of the career from which I retired.   While I'm glad I majored in engineering and worked in R&D, I'm even more glad that I can fully leverage my strengths in the retirement part time jobs that I've found.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday.


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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Addressing What Our Daughter Doesn't Know

How do you make good decisions?  Good judgement.  How do you develop good judgement?  Experience.  How do you get experience? Bad judgement.  ~ my paraphrase of a discussion from a Salomon Brothers' new hire training session reported in Liars Poker.

Youth has many advantages:  energy, enthusiasm, quick thinking, and resiliency are among them.   I can no longer keep up with younger employees.   In fact, sometimes I find it challenging to keep up with my daughter who is a first grader.  However, youth does have one major disadvantage.  A great challenge for youth is not knowing what one doesn't know.

There were times in my youth that I didn't have a clue, but I do now. Sometimes I think if I only knew what I know now when I was younger.   However, since going back in time isn't an option, I recently shared with my seven year old daughter the by talking to mom and dad.  We certainly don't have all the answers, but we definitely can help with lots are topics, especially those which she doesn't yet know she doesn't know.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday  for a new segment.

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Wealth Building Activities

In my experience, I've learned there are several financial activities that helped build our wealth.   Although the activities can be challenging to do, making them habits can be a great enabler.  Here were the financial activities that I found helpful.

Living below our means.  I consider this our number one wealth building activity because it meant we had money beyond our expenses, grew our savings and created an emergency fund.  We have lived a comfortable but not extravagant lifestyle.   For reference, here are some examples of products or services we don't have:  cable or satellite service, gym memberships, smart phones, flat screen TV, and local newspaper subscription.  We pay cash for our cars and they will turn eight years old in 2012..  My spouse has a pre-paid cell phone.  I don't have a cell phone. 

When I received a raise, we would put most of it into savings and use only a small part to increase our lifestyle.  Before  I retired, we were saving 20-30% of my gross salary each month.

Avoiding  debt.  With the exception of college, cars and homes, we never used debt to make a purchase. Even so, we've have been able to eliminate these sources of debt. We've paid off our college loans and are saving so that our daughter won't need significant loans.   While we financed our first cars, I've paid cash for the three cars since then.  My spouse has paid cash for her car since we've been married. Finally, in 2009, we paid off our mortgage since our bank would not refinance the loan.

Earning more.  Although my starting salary as an engineer was good, it would have been impossible to save enough to retire if there was no salary growth.  During my 27 years of employment, my base salary increased eightfold by the time I retired.   This enabled us to have a comfortable lifestyle and still make significant contributions to savings.

These activities worked for us.  Despite the economic crises of the past decade, I still believe these activities are still important to building wealth. 

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

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #63

Welcome to the sixty-third 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 onto the Carnival:

Earning

Super Saver presents Parenthood and Poverty posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, "I expected married parent households to be better off financially, but I didn't expect the differences to be as large as the data shows."

Jim Tolley (aka Kidgas) presents How to Start a Money Making Blog?Part 2 posted at Grand Per Month, saying, "You can make money with a blog, but that shouldn’t be the primary focus. I am suggesting plenty of other ways to make extra money on this site, so if you don’t think blogging is for you, then check out another way to make $1000 per month. However if you feel that these traits describe you, let’s move on to step 2 in “How to Start a Money Making Blog”. Here is a link to part 1 in case you missed it."

Jon Elder presents 8 Tips on How to Get Along With Your Boss posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, "If you get into the all too common habit of seeing your boss as an enemy—or at least as an adversary—you will display that through your behavior and attitude. But see your boss as a friend in authority, and you might forge the kind of alliance that will advance your boss’s career and yours at the same time."

Insuring and Protecting

My Journey presents Most Readers Will Hate What I Did With Part of My Bonus posted at My Journey to Millions, saying, "My initial goal was to increase my term coverage with a 20 year term policy. I ultimately decided against this for two reasons, one my available income ratio would decrease which wouldn’t be good for getting that mortgage I mentioned earlier, and two, I got blood work back the other day and it wasn’t that great."

John presents Want Better Healthcare at a Lower Price? New Primary Care Models Are Gaining Traction posted at Wallet Blog, saying, "I think your reader’s will enjoy my submission this week because it talks about contemporary health care models that offer a lower cost to patients! Affordable healthcare? Now that’s a deal!"

misst presents Buying a Home With the Help of Mortgage Insurance posted at Prairie Eco-Thrifter, saying, "Today I want to share with you the top 20 foods you can eat for increased brain power. Eating these foods will increase your energy, provide clarity of thought and help sustain a good memory."

Investing

Dividend Growth Investor presents My Dividend Retirement Plan posted at Dividend Growth Investor, saying, "I invest in dividend stocks, in order to generate a sufficient income stream, that would meet and exceed my expenses in retirement. Retirement to me is the point where my dividend income exceeds my expenses, which means that I no longer have to work for money.I am a big proponent of value investing, which is why I would only consider myself financially independent whenever the dividend income stream generated by my portfolio exceeds 1.5 times my annual expenses. In order to get there, there are several simple, but crucial principles I need to follow."

MoneyCone presents 10 ETFs Cheaper Than Their Vanguard Peers posted at Money Cone, saying, "Here’s a list of the ten, commonly used ETFs that have an expense ratio lower than that of Vanguard’s."

Jim Tolley (aka Kidgas) presents Selling Covered Calls and Time Value posted at Cash Flow Mantra, saying, "I had a reader question last week about selling covered calls so I wanted to take the opportunity to offer up some practical tips regarding selling call options."

Dividends4Life presents Utilities Stock Funds Were 2011's Bright Star posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Utility dividend stocks. When you hear those words what do you think of? Long considered the domain for "widows and orphans", utilities have developed a somewhat stodgy reputation. Why are utilities considered good for widows and orphans? Here a few reasons:"

Kanwal Sarai presents Learn Investing Online |Online Investing Course: Dividends posted at Simply Investing Blog, saying, "When considering a stock for purchase, don’t think of it as a piece of paper (a stock certificate), think of it as buying ownership in a company. If you had the money would you buy the entire company? If not, then reconsider why you are buy shares in this company."

Novel Investor presents Asset Allocation And The Benefits Of Rebalancing posted at Novel Investor, saying, "How your money is invested, its asset allocation and consistent rebalancing will be the most important decision you'll make as an investor."

Living Frugally

B.B. presents Frugality Will Change You posted at Beating Broke, saying, "Drug habits, smoking habits, and coffee habits are all habits that are easy to pick up because they cause a pleasure response in you body. A savings habit is a bit harder to pick up. But, as Ninja will attest, it can be done.How? Repetition"

Jonathan from Debt Loans presents Party Tips for the Broke Young Professional posted at Frugal Living, saying, "How can you open your home and make your friends feel welcome without going broke in the process? Check out the frugal party tips below."

Theresa Torres presents Can You Afford Another Baby? Yes You Can! Seven Money-Saving Tips posted at Baby Development Milestones, saying, "Before you give in to the thought of having another rosy-cheeked angel, here are some things to consider so that you will be better prepared."

Retiring

Peter presents The Future Value Of Your Roth IRA posted at Bible Money Matters, saying, "Maybe it’s time to reassess your retirement plan, and a self-directed Roth IRA presents you with a unique opportunity."

Saving

W presents Additive vs. Multiplicative Thinking About Money posted at Off-Road Finance, saying, "A look at two different ways of thinking about money, and some ideas about which is appropriate for a given problem."

Taxes

Jackson presents Tips For Small Business Owners posted at 2009 Tax, saying, "For many sole traders or small businesses it can be difficult to find the time to maintain all paperwork on a regular basis, meaning a large amount of admin is left until it is absolutely necessary to sort out."

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

Links to Carnivals from January 17 - 23, 2012

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from January 17-23, 2012:

Carnival of Financial Planning #220

Fun For Your Friday

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

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

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC