The Motley Fool is a web site devoted to helping average people make better investment and financial decisions. Recently, GRS forum administrator (and resident economist) Jericho Hill got a chance to visit The Motley Fool headquarters. This is part two of a report on his experience. (Here’s part one.)

When I was in high school, I participated in my state?s stock market game. It was designed to introduce our economics class to the world of investing. That?s where I first heard of The Motley Fool, an upstart website for financial investors that went against the grain of having advisors manage your money. Their newsletter analyzed the advantages of managing your investments yourself, and advocated indexed mutual funds over managed funds.

So, when I received an invitation recently to visit the Fool Headquarters in Alexandria, VA for a focus group, I jumped at the chance. The purpose of the focus group was two-fold.

• One part of the meeting focused on The Motley Fool?s free CAPS service, a community stock-picking tool. I discussed this experience last week.
• The second part of the focus group dealt with how the participants used financial information, where they got it from, and what our views on investing were.

It was the second part of the meeting that I felt was the most valuable. Along with various Motley Fool staffers, the group members spoke about their personal investing habits, beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes. We heard from people ranging from first-time investors saving for retirement, to a professional financial planner, to well, myself. The breadth and depth of perspective was illuminating.

Prior to the focus group, I had walked around the office floor and noticed quite a few quotes on the walls. One by Peter Lynch read ?Never invest in any idea you can?t illustrate with a crayon.? Another said ?Though it?s easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket, its part ownership in a business.?

Later, during the group discussion, another quote came up by Warren Buffett: ?If you have one or two great ideas a year, you?re doing great.? The two new investors in the room stated that they felt pressure to succeed and succeed often as they started to invest for retirement. Knowing there were resources that played on the psychology of investing rather than mathematics of investing was important to those attendees. They also didn?t know where the best sources of information were, or who to follow.

Many of those in the room felt that it was not prudent to follow one particular author or person. Rather, it was the subject matter that as important, and as Burton Malkiel said ?Investors should act like intelligence agencies, gathering information no matter how seemingly insignificant.?

Somewhere during the conversation, I brought up the problem of risk. Individuals have different risk profiles, just as some people can ride very scary roller coasters while I?m stuck on the Dahlonega Mine Train ride at Six Flags. Further, not only do we handle risk differently, but another attendee pointed out that we even define risk differently. Our group took five minutes to write individual definitions of risk. They were all different when we reconvened.

We had a long discussion about risk, and about how our differing views on risk can make conversations on financial topics difficult. Different risk tolerances create difficulties in determining just what one?s best financial plan is. How does one define risk? More importantly, how do you define risk? All agreed that becoming more comfortable with one element of risk (volatility) was exceptionally important to being a successful long-term investor.

When the focus group ended, there was no general consensus on what information we should consume, to whom we should listen, where we should invest, or even how we should invest. That seems like a profound thought to me: that your best personal finance advisor is yourself, regardless of whether you?re just starting out or finishing up.

Jericho Hill also recently had a chance to speak with David Gardner, one of the founders of The Motley Fool. Look for excerpts from that interview at Get Rich Slowly in the future.

---
Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• Picking Stocks with The Motley Fool’s CAPS
• How to Get Out of Debt
• links for 2007-05-16
• How to Obtain Your Free Credit Report
• Daily Roundup: Money Myths, Going Organic, and DIY Halloween Calendar

If you could save a lot of money on gas by trying something new would the hassle of learning a new system be worth the cost savings to you?  I imagine several years ago most people would have answered no but with the high price of fuel everyone is looking for tips on how to save money on gas.

Save Money with Public Transportation
I spent many years riding the bus as part of my daily commute during which time I saved thousands of dollars not just on gas but also on parking and wear and tear on my car.  Having lived in Europe for several years, where everyone rides the bus or the train, I was very comfortable taking public transportation.

In major urban areas in the US people are using to hopping on a bus but throughout suburbia many people are clueless about the ins and outs of public transport.  They’ve never had to use it and can be a bit intimidated by learning the system.  Sure it sounds simple, just catch the bus, but it’s a whole new experience and people tend to shy away from things they’re no familiar with.

I’m always amazed at how many questions people have about riding the bus.  I’ll try and address some of those here and give some tips for the best experience riding the bus.

Learn How to Read a Bus Schedule
Here’s an example of a bus schedule from Oklahoma City.  Let’s say you lived there and wanted to commute from your home at 22^nd. & Vine into work at 10th & Walnut every day. 

First off you’d notice that the schedule doesn’t list 10th & Walnut as a stop, not too worry.  Most schedules don’t list every stop, there simply wouldn’t be enough room, so they only publish the major stops.  The bus may go right by 10th & Walnut and even if it doesn’t, it will probably get you to within a few blocks of there.

Many bus schedules, such as this one, will include a map of the route on the back or at the bottom so can get a feel for where the bus travels.  If you don’t understand the map you can just call the local metro office and they’ll help you out. 

So in this example, lets say you need to be at work by 8 AM.  You could catch the bus at NE 20th & Vine at 7:32 and get off at NE 8^th & Lincoln at 7:52.  Notice you’d want the Inbound schedule, the Outbound schedule will list the times you can catch the bus in the evening on the way home. 

Also note that you want to look at the Weekday section of the schedule.  Most weekend routes are different, which can mean different pickup times and fewer trips.

Take a Trial Run
The best way to get comfortable with a bus route is to ride it on a day when you’re not in a hurry and there is no schedule breathing down your neck.  Most of us make a few mistakes the first time we try something, making a mistake is a big deal if you’re in a hurry but if you have time to spare a mistake isn’t such a big deal so take a trial run of the bus.

Get to the bus stop 10 minutes early the first time to get a feel whether the bus runs early, on time, or late.  Drivers try and meet the schedule but my experience has been that buses can come up to 5 minutes before or 5 minutes after the listed time due to traffic and other variables.  You can also ask the people waiting for the bus whether it runs early, late, or right on time.

Get on the Right Bus
Most buses will have the route number and the final destination displayed in the window.  Make sure you check it before you get on, don’t assume because a bus is stopping for you that it’s the one you want.  Different routes can share the same stops, just check with the driver the first time you get on.  Tell them where you’re headed and ask if it’s the right bus.

It might sound silly but don’t be afraid to ask.  I’ve seen people who are obviously riding the bus for the first time, too intimidated by the new environment to ask questions.  They end up getting on the wrong bus and going to the wrong place simply because they didn’t take 30 seconds to ask before getting on.

Paying Your Bus Fare
If you’re going to commute regularly I’d recommend buying a buss pass.  You almost always save money with a pass as opposed to paying for each trip individually.  You might also be able to get cheaper fares through your job.  It’s also easier, you just get on and swipe your buss pass rather than having to fumble around with putting in money every time.  If you are going to pay with cash be aware many buses have automated ticket booths that only accept exact change.

Getting Off the Bus
Obviously you’ll want to take a schedule along with you the first time you ride the bus.  As you get closer to your destination start to pay attention to where you’re stopping and how close you are to where you want to get off.  One way to do it is tell another rider where you want to get off and ask them to let you know when its coming up.  The bus will either have a button to push or a cord to pull to let the driver know you want to get off at the next stop. Make sure you signal before you get to your stop or the driver might just drive on by.

If you have to switch busses as part of your commute, make sure to ask the bus driver for a transfer.  Most metro systems allow you to travel across multiple bus routes for one fare if they’re all part of one trip.  If you forget to ask for a transfer the driver of the next bus you get on will ask you to pay again.  If the whole reason you’re riding the bus is to save money you don’t want to have to pay twice for the ride.

Combining Driving and Riding
Of course riding the bus won’t eliminate the need for spending money on gas.  Some days you’ll have to drive in because you need to get there early, leave late, or maybe run errands after work.  Depending on where you live you may also have to drive partway into town to a park and ride, parking your car in a lot designed for commuters then catching the bus from there.

Even though you won’t eliminate your gas bill completely, riding public transportation can drastically cut the amount you spend on gas.  Combine that with strategies such as getting cashback with one of the best gas credit cards and gas rebates from grocery stores and the prices at the pump won’t take quite the same bite out of your paycheck.

You may or may not have heard the term ?ethical will?. But, for those who care about making their values and ethics part of their legacy, it is a tool to consider when planning your estate.

Unlike a ?last will and testament?, which provides for the distribution of a person?s material assets, or a ?living will?, which contains instructions for how you want to be treated medically at the end of your days, an ?ethical will? is designed to let someone preserve and share their values, principles and beliefs for heirs and future generations, though it?s not legally binding.

According to Personal Legacy Advisors? Web site, an ethical will is a letter that transmits the non-material assets that are also of great importance: your values, your story, the lessons life has taught you and the other information that is too valuable to risk being lost. Your ethical will is the tool that enables you to address the question, ?What do I want my loved ones to know??

As a concept, ethical wills are not new. The first written reference to ethical wills occurs in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Examples are Genesis, chapter 49, and The Book of John, chapters 15-18. Over time, they evolved into written documents. While ethical wills were traditionally shared after death, along with the reading of an individual?s last will and testament, today they are often shared during the author?s life.

While exact figures aren?t available for how many people are writing ethical wills, they are on the rise, based on increased Web activity and sales of ethical will resources. They have gained impetus particularly in the wake of tragedies like the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Why create one? People are inclined to write an ethical will when facing a challenging event, or at a turning point in life. Some examples are facing the loss of a loved one, birth of a grandchild, expectant parents, becoming an empty-nester or approaching the end of life. Other reasons to create an ethical will include:

• Your reflections will confirm what?s important and renew appreciation of your life to date
• You will create a personal message to those you love, of priceless value in the event of your absence
• If you do not tell your personal (and family) stories, they may be lost forever
• Your material assets can be given within a personal context
• You will mitigate confusion and hurt feelings with a personal explanation of potentially controversial elements of your legal will
• Your spirit will be expressed on paper, living beyond you in a timeless way
• Your words will link the past, present and future generations of your family
• You will enjoy peace of mind knowing the most important things will have been said.

Pros and cons. The pros of an ethical include having an opportunity to influence future generations. Through the process of writing an ethical will, the writer can gain self-knowledge and come to an understanding of what?s most important to him or her. This is valuable information not only for their families but their professional advisers as well. Another pro is that ethical wills are private documents. Unlike a will, which if admitted to probate will become a matter of public record, an ethical will is a private communication and will not be made public unless the author (or recipient) so desires. The con is that an ethical will is not enforceable in a court of law. Those who want to provide specific instructions, such as who is to receive which asset or how assets are to be distributed and under what conditions, would need to put the instruction in a will or trust.

Setting up an ethical will. Ethical wills come in a variety of forms, from a short letter to a lengthy autobiographical statement, from an audio-recorded message to a bound album. There are three basic ways to create an ethical will.

1. Begin with an outline and list of suggestions. Once you?ve created a rough draft, you can review and personalize it as much as you wish.
2. Begin with guided writing exercises. For example, start with phrases such as ?From my grandparents, I learned?? or ?I am most grateful for??
3. Begin with a blank sheet of paper and write down whatever is relevant about your thoughts, experiences and feelings. This is an open-ended approach. Eventually you should be able to create a comfortable structure for your ethical will. For one-on-one help, an organization like the Association of Personal Historians may be of assistance.

Other tips from Personal Legacy Advisors include the following:

• Start today: If you were not here tomorrow, what is the most important thing you would not want left unsaid? Write it down - now you’ve begun
• Relax: You are not trying to write for the Pulitzer Prize. The letter is a gift of yourself, written for those you love
• Ask yourself: What do I want to make sure my loved ones know and have in writing
• Take it topic by topic: Don’t try to write it all at once
• Be yourself: You cannot bequeath what you never owned to begin with
• Be careful, be loving. The reach of this letter is unknowable.

Sharing your will. It?s a good idea to share your ethical will not only with family and friends, but also with your financial adviser and attorney. Knowing what you value and what?s important to you will help them to develop a personalized plan that can help you to leverage your values in the future.

An ethical will speaks to one?s posterity or descendants long after the legal will has been probated and forgotten. Of note, an ethical will is a dynamic document. Just as a will or living trust document needs to be revisited so does an ethical will, because events occur in ones’ life that have an impact on ones’ value systems.

Share This

She’ll want that stimulus check now! Is it possible to win a million dollars and still file for bankruptcy in 2 months? Apparently so!

How to become a millionaire? Well winning a game show is one way to do it. But then again, here’s this story of such a “millionaire”, which I can only describe as a tale of riches to rags, or maybe of rags to riches to rags.

There’s this woman — no other than a State School Superintendent — who won a million dollars on the game show “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”? She won the grand prize and pledged to donate it to various schools. But since her win 2 months ago, her husband’s home building company has failed, forcing her family to file for bankruptcy.

Click this link or the image to see this CNN video.

Goes to show you just how tenuous our financial situation can be at any point in time. For many people, it only takes a layoff, one bad business cycle, one bad trade in the stock market or one major illness to wipe out the family’s fortunes. I covered a lot of this when I wrote about the only 3 reasons why people go bankrupt.

The game show winner is still honoring her promise to gift her winnings to schools, with the funds sheltered in a “gift foundation” that is supposed to be protected from her creditors. Hopefully, her donation stays intact and untouched throughout bankruptcy proceedings.

Now what else caught my eye this week? Some more reads from the financial web:

• The Sun’s Financial Diary: FDIC Problem Bank List Now Includes 171 Banks
• Money Smart Life: Black Friday Deals or Cyber Monday Savings?
• My Dollar Plan: An Administrative Error Could Cost You Your Retirement
• Bible Money Matters: Christmas Is For Debt?
• The Wallet: What’s Your Black Friday Strategy?
• Personal Finance Analyst: Online Consumer Education and Rip Off Report
• Happy Rock: The “Paying Cash” Experience - 2 Months Later

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Personal Finance
• Festival of Stocks
• Carnival of Money Hacks
• Review Bloggers Carnival
• Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival
• Best of Me Symphony

This is a post from The Digerati Life.

Bookmark It

What Happens to My Pension if My Company Goes Bankrupt?

If you’re lucky enough to have a pension through your employer, you’re probably wondering what effect this significant economic downturn will have on your benefit. What happens if your employer goes bankrupt? What does it mean if they freeze your pension? Can your pension benefit just disappear? And where do you go if your employer does go out of business and how can you receive what you’re entitled to?

These are important questions, and if you’ve accumulated a decent pension benefit, you certainly want to be able to get what is owed to you, and understand what companies can and can’t do.

Defined Contribution vs. Defined Benefit

If you take part in a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or other similar employer-sponsored plan, then you’re using a defined contribution plan. This just means that you (and/or your employer through a match or profit sharing) contribute a specific amount of money into the plan. The amount of the benefit is not defined as the investment choices you make and amount you contribute will ultimately dictate how much you receive in retirement.

Pensions are defined benefit plans. These types of plans pay out a defined benefit that is based on a calculation. The calculations usually takes into account length of service, pay, and your age. The benefit that is defined is paid out to you, and it doesn’t depend on how much money you or your employer puts into it or market conditions.

Defined Benefit Plans and Investments

Even pension plans invest in the stock market, and since you don’t make the investment choices, there isn’t much you can do. Your benefit will be determined by the calculation that was established by the plan. So, if the market takes a big hit like it has recently, your pension benefit doesn’t decrease like the value of your 401(k) did.

But, a shortfall in funds has to come from somewhere. Since pensions are funded by the company, a shortage of funds to pay out the benefits could eventually affect you. When a company is forced to inject millions or billions of dollars into a pension plan, it can put strain on an already struggling company. A less profitable company can turn to layoffs, reducing workforce, closing plants, or a number of cost-cutting measures.

In addition, the company may decide to freeze their pension plan. When this happens, any additional service you have with the company wouldn’t be added to increase your pension benefit. You’re still entitled to any benefits you obtained previously, but additional time won’t mean additional benefits. A pension freeze may be temporary or permanent. While it isn’t an ideal situation to be in, at least you will get what you earned prior to the freeze.

If Your Company Goes Bankrupt

Most people assume that if their employer goes out of business, it takes their pension plan with it. In most cases, this is not true. Are you familiar with FDIC insurance for bank deposits and SIPC insurance for investment accounts? Both the FDIC and SIPC insures your money up to a certain amount in the event the company that holds these accounts goes under. Thankfully, pension plans have similar protection.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC is responsible for insuring your pension benefits. In most cases, your pension benefit would be insured up to certain limits. For 2009, a 65 year old has a maximum insured benefit of $54,000 annually. So, as long as your pension benefit is equal to, or less than this limit, you’d still have your full pension benefit even if your company goes under or the pension plan terminates.

Just like banks pay premiums to obtain FDIC coverage, pension plans also pay premiums to the PBGC, and in the event of a failure, the PBGC would take over the plan and administer it while paying out insured amounts. Some types of benefits are not guaranteed. These include health and welfare benefits, severance benefits, lump-sum death benefits and disability benefits when death or disability occurs after plan termination.

Even in this Economic Crisis and with Failing Companies Your Pension Should be Safe

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt

People wish a lot, but do they plan just as much? Set small financial goals, make them attainable and stick to them. Don’t set a goal like “This year I’ll get my act together.” Set a goal such as: “This year, I’m going to put $100 of every paycheck into my savings account.” That is a realistic goal. Setting short-term realistic goals is good because it gives you confidence every time you reach them. That confidence gives you the determination to do it again the next paycheck.

Let’s do some quick math..

$100 every 2 weeks in a month is:$200
$200 a month one in a year is: $2,400
Plus $100 in interest earned: $2,500

This means that if you save up just $100 from every check you can take you and your family on a vacation every single year. The only thing left is the hard part, sticking to your goal.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Yes! What if your wallet is lost or stolen? Many of us have our driver's license, social security cards, etc. in them. Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch lays out why credit monitoring is a good way to know whether your identity has been stolen....

Full article: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7B5D8BA284-55D6-49AC-8DCD-9E15E6EEB064%7D&keyword=

The bill specifies 10 key provisions that are designed to structure and regulate the claims process to an even more stringent degree. However, the bill requires business owners to be more involved in employee claims or risk incurring substantial fines and litigation.

Therefore, while the SB 899 has the potential to provide significant cost-reduction options, employers need to drive the process and remain involved in the handling of employee claims to benefit from these savings.

The following key points are areas of the bill specifically designed to reduce claims costs.

2. Attorneys for injured workers do not get to select doctors for treatment or evaluation of injuries, if the employer has a comprehensive medical network available for care of injured employees.

4. Temporary disability payments are limited to 2 years in most cases, down from 5 years previously.

6. Utilization review guidelines are strengthened, specifically defining what constitutes ?medically necessary? treatment.

The following points could result in an increase in employer operational costs.

2. Disability awards are increased by 15% if modified work is not offered.

1. Effective 1/1/2005, a medical provider network should be created and active.

3. Review and update the ?carve out? portion of your Collective Bargaining Agreement.

If a claim has already been filed, the following steps should be implemented:

2. Each injured employee should submit an accident statement directly after the injury has occurred.

4. After the employee has been examined, diagnosed and approved to return to work, the employer should submit a written offer of return to work.

Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I read a few days ago:

Says Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the University of Rochester in New York: “The pastor’s not gonna say, ‘Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,’ but I have heard, ‘Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can still bless you ? if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation to the church], you’ll get that house or that car or that apartment.’ ” Adds J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma: “It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, ‘If you give this offering, God will give you a house.’ And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy.” If so, the situation offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological market.  …

“Narratives of how ‘God blessed me with my first house despite my credit’ were common. Sermons declaring ‘It’s your season to overflow’ supplanted messages of economic sobriety,” and “little attention was paid to … the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.”

Read the rest of it here.

In addition to Wall Street, it looks like the faith business also needs a little more scrutiny. Apart from that, I am always surprised at how gullible people can be when it comes to being sold out divine rhetoric.

If we keep up with this even God will need a bailout someday!

Finally, God helps those who help themselves, for everybody else there is Mastercard everybody else needs to clearly understand the meaning of the words “deliquency” and “foreclosure”.

I try to keep it simple, and for me that means keeping the clutter down. Whenever possible I opt-out of paper bills and receive notices via email. I make payments electronically in order to minimize the number of stamps I have to lick. I send my tenants directly to the bank to post their payments and check their timeliness from the comfort of my nearest web browser.

But I’m still getting a mailbox full of junk – mainly due to a daily avalanche of catalogs. Big box retailers. Pet shops. Travel agents. Watches. Cigars (I’m a non-smoker). Wedding supplies (I’m already married). I get it all. The photo shows the haul of stuff that I threw out today.

This is a) a pain, b) dangerous, cause it makes it easier to lose something important like a bill or a check, and c) shamefully wasteful.

But there may be something that consumers can do.  The vast majority of this stuff is sent out by a single outfit, the Direct Marketing Association. If you go to their website you can opt out – either online or via mail. The online option requires that you submit a credit card.

I don’t yet know if this works – I just tried it today. According to their website it takes up to sixty days for your new preference to be registered. I’ll post a follow-up in two months time to see if my situation has improved.

Addendum, 6 August::  EA from New Hampshire points out in the comments that Catalog Choice is another option for shutting off the flow of unsolicited mail.  The DMA is the industry advocay group, whereas Catalog Choice is a non-profit environmental organization.  You can sign up on their website and customize delivery options. 

Any more bright ideas out there?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had the time to post a weekly recap, but I’m bringing it back today. Given the market conditions over the past few weeks, my job has become incredibly difficult, and the last thing I want to do when I get home is to read about, or talk about finance. But, I had some time at a remote location earlier this week which meant sitting in a hotel room by myself with only a few channels on TV, so I had some time to get caught up on everything and see what everyone is talking about these days.

And since tomorrow is going to be the biggest day for college football in many years, the last thing I’ll be thinking about tomorrow is finance or the economy. I need my Spartans to pull off something special and beat Penn State. Then, in a bittersweet turn of events, to clinch a Rose Bowl spot we need our sworn enemies, the Wolverines to upset Ohio State. I’m a bit torn, because I’d like to see the Buckeyes tear Michigan apart, but considering we haven’t been to the rose bowl since 1987, obviously that would be quite special. Of course, odds aren’t in your favor anyway when you need to beat one of the top teams in the nation, and you need one of the worst teams to upset another great team. But, it makes for an exciting Saturday!

Common Job Interview Questions -With unemployment on the rise, you might find yourself looking for a job in the near future. If it’s been a while since you’ve interviewed for a job, it can take a little time and practice to brush up your interview skills. Here are some common interview questions and how you should approach them.

Matt Furey: 101 Ways To Magnetize Money -Would you like your money to act like a magnet and pull in more money? That’s the first thing I visualized when I read the title of this post and book with the same name. Lazy Man reviews Matt Furey’s book to see whether or not it will help you make more money.

What is ROWE and How Does it Affect the Workplace? -What is ROWE? I had no idea, so I had to read this one. It was interesting to see that this business management strategy is used by Best Buy, and I hate that store more than anything. Maybe it’s because I know more about the products I’m buying than the people that work there and understand I don’t need $500 worth of Monster Cables to go with any audio/video product.

E-Trade Online Savings Account Opening Process -Have you thought about opening a savings account with an online bank, but was unsure about doing something like that online? Well, nickel gives a step-by-step outline of what this process is like with E-Trade, complete with pictures. This should give you a better idea of what to expect when opening your account.

Quick and Easy Ways to Start a Savings Plan Today -When times are tough and money is tight, saving money might seem impossible, but it’s during times like these that you need to have savings, and need to be disciplined. Frugal Dad has some great tips to help you get started with a savings plan today, and it won’t hurt that much.

Last Minute Gift Ideas and Shopping Tips For Holiday Procrastinators -I’m a big advocate of shopping early, mainly because I hate dealing with idiots on the road and at the mall. Unfortunately, I haven’t started any shopping yet! The clock is ticking, and the stores will only continue to get busier in the coming weeks. There are some good ideas on this list I can probably take advantage of to save me a headache or two.

Are You Ready to Lose Your Job? -Most people aren’t really “ready” to lose their job, but being mentally and physically prepared can make a job loss that much easier. If you know how a job loss will affect you, what benefits you’ll lose, what you’ll gain, and what your prospects are, you’ll be in a better position to get back on your feet.

100 Money Saving Tips for the Holiday Gifting Bonanza -Do you want to save money this holiday season? If so, this is probably the only post you’ll need. Jim has 100 great ways to save money, not only during the holidays, but at any time. It is quite a list!

Debt Reduction 101 - Beginner?s Guide To Debt Reduction -Are you trying to get out of debt but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we have NCN to the rescue. Here is a great beginner’s worksheet to help you start your quest to becoming debt free.

Transfer A Brokerage Account: How Much Does It Cost? -There are a lot of different brokerage options, and finding the best account with low fees is great, but it can come at a cost. Transferring out of an account often costs money. So, finding out what it will actually cost and help you determine whether or not it’s worth the move.

Five Things You Don?t Want to Hear From Your Financial Planner -This is a guest post by Jeff Rose, a CFP over on Moolanomy’s site. But here are 5 things you probably don’t want to hear your financial advisor tell you. Sadly, I’ve had to tell people all of these things quite a bit in the past few months. Of course, most people already know they need to do these things, but they just never admit it, or take action to fix it.

S&P 500 Down Nearly 50% in 2008 -I had to include at least one really depressing post. The S&P is down almost 50% this year. It sucks, I know. Be thankful you don’t have to work with clients who come to you for answers on a daily basis.

Friday Finance Findings for November 21st

My wife has wanted to move into town for quite some time so that she can be a little closer to friends and to our other activities.  I’ve been reluctant to move for a few reasons.  First, I think if we bought now, it would be like trying to catch a falling knife.  Second, it would be a longer drive to work for me.  Third, I don’t like change.  (None of these are her fault. )

And just as much as I feel pressured when my wife tells me about a good house that’s come up for sale, she probably feels frustrated by my reluctance to take any serious action on it because “this is just the beginning of the downturn” and “there will be more, and better, deals later.”

Actually, regardless of how far I feel the housing market is going to go down, I don’t really know.  I can get warm fuzzies that it’s getting to be more of a buyer’s market, but I won’t really know until I start tracking home prices.  Tracking prices is pretty straightforward, and has some advantages:

• It’s easier to recognize a deal when it comes along.  There is a huge amount of information literally a mouse click away, and tracking the price of desirable houses over time shows clearly what these houses were being offered at.  Rather than sensing that a house is a good deal, I can see that it is.
• It’s active.  It’s searching with a purpose.  It’s still basically window shopping, but I know which stores I’m going to. 
• It’s focused.  We’re looking for a house to move into.  This narrows our search and makes it more time-effective.

Here’s how we’re going about it now:

1. I signed up for an account at Realtor.com.  This allows me to save searches — and have daily or weekly e-mails sent to me — filtered by ZIP code, price, number of bedrooms, etc.
2. Since my wife is pickier (!) she chose the acceptable candidates among the few dozen houses that met the search criteria that Realtor.com allowed.  We could have fewer results to go through if we filtered by square footage, but not all of the listings include a square footage.  So, we pile through some more listings but turn up a few more candidates.  We eliminate most split foyers since she really doesn’t like those.
3. We build up a spreadsheet with the following columns:  ZIP Code, Address (to identify the house), Subdivision, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Square Footage, Basement (no, yes, or split level), Garage (no, one-car, or two-car), and Asking Price.  We make one row per house, and add columns at the end to track the asking price over time.  We also list the houses that meet the search criteria but don’t meet our criteria so that we don’t have to re-visit those listings each week.  The columns are the criteria that are important to us; if you do this, you may have other columns you want to consider.
4. Houses keep getting prices added as long as they’re listed.  If they’re taken off, then we keep them to see if they come back on again.
5. Later we may add houses listed for auction or on other services, since some sellers are going the route of national real estate listing without the commissions.

Here are some of the measurements that can be done from these numbers:

• Number of listings.  The number of listings can fluctuate with the seasons (winter is slower).  If prices are going down for similar properties, or if the prices for properties we’re following are going down, then an increase in the number of listings could be good, as it means people are coming to their senses and trying to sell for what they can get.
• Time on the market.  We’ve gotten a few new listings, so we can see how long they stay on the market.  Knowing this would help us should we want to make an offer.  If the house has been on for a good long time, we can offer more aggressively (lower).
• Price per square foot.  This is a rough measure but a useful one.  If we really can buy more house for our money, we should see a reduction in the price per square foot.

The nice thing about this method is that it’s free.  Once we get the hang of this and get closer to making a decision we may sign up for www.RealtyTrac.com to get a handle on foreclosed and bank-owned properties.  We’ll probably pull the trigger on this when we are in a better position to make offers.

Tracking prices takes a little time but I’m sure this will help us to make a wise decision when we decide to look in earnest.

How you see yourself is likely how others will see you as well. Here’s a few examples of how you can implement this to your advantage.

- You’re unemployed. No you’re not. You’re advancing in your career, you’re an ambitious person looking to move up.

- You do freelance graphic design. No you don’t. You’re an artist.

Think of yourself as a product. You’re selling yourself to others. From your clothing to your way of speaking, you are a product to everyone you meet. Everyone from strangers to business owners subconsciously ask themselves if they want to buy you. So sell them your product. If you don’t market yourself or brand yourself in the way you want, others will most certainly do it for you.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

With a divorce rate of around 50% and many people not marrying until they are in their thirties, it is surprising to find that there are still many women who aren't financially educated. Most of this can be traced back to two factors: upbringing at home and society. In both cases, boys have often been given much more training and many more resources than girls have and the effects are damaging women financially today as they face a world in which they have to take care of monetary issues on their own but have never developed the skills to do so.

The Safe, Secure 1950's

In the 1950's most women quickly married and settled down to raise families. Very few of them worked outside the home, and finances were handled by the men. It was a financially prosperous time and women were expected to focus on the home and child-rearing. This focus on home-making was passed on to daughters while sons were groomed to the "breadwinners" of the family.

The obvious separation between girls and boys activities also managed to keep girls "sheltered" from financial concerns. They weren't expected to pay for anything on a date and parents didn't often expect them to hold down jobs. Boys, on the other hand, were expected to get a job at a young age, even if it was merely a paper route. The expectation was that a young man needed to "take on some responsibility" and "contribute."

As the generation raised in the 1950's grew up and raised families of their own, they passed on the financial biases that had been instilled in them to their own children. Many of today's parents have made the same mistakes their own mothers and fathers did, ignoring the obvious need for women to understand and learn to handle their own finances in favor of hoping that their daughters wouldn't have to face the harsh financial facts of life.

The belief that men would take care of women's financial needs was so ingrained that many of the "big picture" financial lessons were overlooked. Women tended to learn how to shop for bargains at the grocery store, stretch the budget at the holidays and that was about it. More complex lessons such as long-term investments, retirement planning and stock portfolio development were not a part of the picture.

Boys learned how to manage their money, save for a rainy day, and make smart investments and a host of other financial strategies.

Play and School Contribute to Gender Gap

Interestingly, boys more than girls tend to develop habits that are more geared toward understanding numbers and how they relate to finances from a very young age. While girls tend to be "collectors," says Joline Godfrey, founder of Independent Means, "boys develop informal economies based on relative value from the age of six on while trading cards and other items. By the time boys start trading stocks and bonds, it's just another form of the game." Independent Means is a company which promotes economic independence and growth for girls and women aged 14 to 24.

Even in school settings, boys are rewarded more consistently for being risk-takers, and investing is often perceived as a risky venture. Girls aren't encouraged to take risks and aren't rewarded for these types of behaviors and instead are likely to be cautioned to be careful. When faced with the prospect of learning about investing in the stock market or learning about retirement options, these same girls - now women - are more fearful of making decisions and less sure of themselves in making choices for themselves.

Statistics Show Gender Bias

A recent survey showed some startling discrepancies even today between teenage boys and girls and how much education they have received in the very basics of finance. Some of the findings include:

* Many more teenage boys than girls report understanding of how to write a check and how a credit card works, including accrued interest. * Teenage girls are much more likely to be in debt than boys, with almost 50% reporting credit card debt as opposed to less than a quarter of teen boys having any debt. * Girls are more likely to report that learning about investing is boring, while boys report a real interest in learning about it. When asked to elaborate, girls often pointed out that this wasn't something they would be doing in the future, while boys indicated that it was important to learn so that they could be successful.

The perception that girls shouldn't have to worry about their financial future in the long term (based upon the faulty premise that a man will take care of her or that she can hire a financial consultant to handle all of the boring stuff) is still present in many homes. Fortunately, the balance is beginning to shift as more parents realize that women who are successful in their careers must also be able to guide their own financial futures, not rely on others to do it for them.

Programs Aim at Closing the Gap

Today's girls are more likely to learn how to handle money at a young age. Cautionary tales in the news and on talk shows about women left destitute and the fear that social security can no longer support an individual in their golden years has, perhaps, contributed to this. After all, with most women outliving their spouses and more than half of women divorced, it's likely that today's girls will be supporting themselves in their retirement years - understanding Roth IRAs suddenly becomes very important.

Companies and organizations are also stepping to the forefront with programs designed to educate teens in general and girls in particular. Boys and Girls Clubs of America, in collaboration with Charles Schwab, offer Money Matters: Make It Count programs in cities across the country.

Visa works with Girl Scouts of the USA to provide two resources, the Cashin' In workbook and the Makin' Cents web game, to teach girls aged 13-17 financial responsibility. The web game specifically challenges players to find real-world solutions for characters' financial challenges.

With such programs increasingly popular and the need for women to understand finances now a hot topic, it's to be hoped that this generation of fathers will teach their daughters as much about finance as they teach their sons.

Carrie Carter: Author of: Think Your Way to Riches Kids' Style

For more information or to arrange an interview with Carrie Carter at 810.252.2281 e-mail: carrie114cr@aol.com or visit: www.ThinkYourWayToRichesKidsStyle.com

Carrie's passion is to help people on their inner journey to discover their personal road map for abundance, peace, and happiness. Her main passion is to give children worldwide the "Tools" which are lacking in the normal educational system and understanding to create the abundant lifestyle they are all worthy of. Experience Carrie's educational seminars, workshops, and private life coaching.

About the Author

Carrie's passion is to help people on their inner journey to discover their personal road map for abundance, peace, and happiness. Her main passion is to give children worldwide the "Tools" which are lacking in the normal educational system and understanding to create the abundant lifestyle they are all worthy of. Experience Carrie's educational seminars, workshops, and private life coaching.