December 2009

Financial Resolutions for the New Year

December 31, 2009

I suppose it’s that time again, when people everywhere promise to stop smoking, go back to school, get a new job, master a new hobby, lose weight, etc… etc.. etc… While there is no shortage of personal improvement projects I could undertake in 2010, I think I’m going to focus on my finances this year. [...]

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Tax Breakdown

December 30, 2009

I found a great article on VisualEconomics about the tax breakdown in wealthy countries (“How Wealthy Countries TAX Their Citizens“). All percentages are expressed as a percent of GDP, and it was interesting to see how the United States stacks up to other wealthy nations. The most interesting fact was that the U.S. has one [...]

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Recession Teens

December 29, 2009

I couldn’t help but follow up to Michael’s last post about the generational impacts of recessions. As personal finance bloggers we get a variety of emails that inspire with different topics. I just got one that linked quite appropriately by suggesting that teens are being impacted by the recession by downloading an extremely popular iPhone [...]

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How Recessions Shape You

December 28, 2009

Hello readers, I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I know I haven’t been around much; a combination of traveling and a nasty cold made sure of that. But I found this interesting article on boston.com about how living through a recession shapes our views towards money (“The Psychological Effects of Recession“). A lot of [...]

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Hemorrhaging Money

December 27, 2009

I may not be alone in feeling like I’m hemorrhaging money these days. I don’t know about you, but for it often feels that spending ebbs and flows. At the holiday season, and particularly while traveling, it feels like money is draining into a black hole. I try to be conscience of those times when [...]

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Holiday Compromises

December 26, 2009

So this year we’ve got a unique and busy holiday schedule. This was a result of compromise on both parts to share the holidays together in a way that gave us both what we were looking for out of the holidays.This resulted in a very expensive and busy holiday schedule. It meant driving up to [...]

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Happy Holidays!

December 25, 2009

Hello DINKs Readers, Wishing a very happy holiday season to you and your family. May the New Year bring prosperity and joy. Best Wishes, Miel&James

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Investing In Detroit

December 23, 2009

I don’t know what to think about Detroit. The collapse of such a large city is pretty much unprecedented in U.S. history. It’s not uncommon for smaller cities to fall and become ghost towns – they’re scattered all over my home state – but this is a completely different scenario of course. I know that [...]

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ROTH 401(k) v. 401(k)

December 22, 2009

Since we are at the end of the year and considering various tax implications, I thought I would mention to our readers some of the reasons why I choose to starting funding a ROTH 401(k) instead of a traditional 401(k) when my employer offered a new retirement plan. For those of your wondering about the [...]

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Confessions of An Underwater Homeowner

December 21, 2009

It’s real people – 24% of homeowners are underwater. From the Wall Street Journal. What we didn’t foresee was home values–ours included–dropping so steep, so fast. Zillow.com now estimates our home is worth $270,000. There’s been some debate in academic circles lately about why more financially distraught homeowners don’t just pack up their belongings and [...]

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