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	<title>My Link 2 Cash - Money,Finance,Debt,Mortgages</title>
	<link>http://mylink2cash.com</link>
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		<title>How to Barter for Goods &amp; Services – Tips and Methods to Trade</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Have you ever had an item sitting in your home that&#8217;s just too good to discard, but you know you&#8217;ll never use it again? You can turn an old possession into something new by bartering. Bartering is the process of obtaining goods or services by direct exchange without the use of currency. In times of How to Barter for Goods &#038; Services &#8211; Tips and Methods to Trade is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog . ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/how-to-barter-for-goods-services-%e2%80%93-tips-and-methods-to-trade</link>
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		<title>Tricky Tactics by Mutual Funds</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ We've talked a lot about index fund investing and, specifically, how they beat most actively managed funds over a long period of time once costs are deducted from returns. As well as they do, Wise Bread thinks index funds probably beat more actively managed funds than is generally accepted because of some tricky tactics by those other funds. Their summary: Most funds try to compare themselves to the S&#38;P 500, but many of them cite the performance of the index itself instead of the performance of the index plus the dividend that the 500 companies in the S&#38;P 500 distribute. The current yield on the S&#38;P 500 is around 2%, which means that your fund (or your own stocks) better be outperforming it by more than 2% for it to be worth your while. Here's my take on this: Some mutual funds probably do try to compare themselves to index funds without dividends to give themselves an unfair advantage. I would guess (assume) that most reputable rating sites would take total return into account (which would include dividends) when they do their comparisons. I'm not so sure that many mainstream media journalists would be smart enough to add in dividends. Even if this issue is widespread (which I'm not sure it is), index funds STILL beat the vast majority of actively managed funds over time once all costs are deducted from gross returns. Anyone have an informed opinion on how commonplace the "not including dividends" comparison is? ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/tricky-tactics-by-mutual-funds</link>
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		<title>Top 10 Female CEOs &amp; Influential Business Women of American Companies</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Margaret Thatcher once famously said, &#8220;If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.&#8221; Neuroscientists have reported that there are innate differences in the way men and women think, but that doesn&#8217;t mean men make better leaders, despite the fact that more men have secured top leadership positions. Top 10 Female CEOs &#038; Influential Business Women of American Companies is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog . ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/top-10-female-ceos-influential-business-women-of-american-companies</link>
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		<title>Worst Money Advice Ever</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ MSN Money lists six stories of people telling the worst financial advice they ever received . Here are the stories with my thoughts on each: "About 10 years ago an old accountant advised we cash in a substantial 401k plan to pay off credit card debt, instead of instituting a plan to pay it off over time and learn how to spend and save at the same time." I've learned this the hard way over the years of advising people: if the underlying habits don't change, then normally good money moves are worthless (not that cashing in a 401k is a good money move.) But hitting on their latter point, the focus needed to be on getting their spending under control and paying off the debt. If that didn't happen, no amount of money management would. "To buy an extra house, get a tenant and let the tenant's rent pay the mortgage and all the bills. So many people and books say this, but many tenants are horrible. I've had great (renters), nightmare (renters) and everything in between." This can be very good or very bad advice. I know some FMF readers do quite well buying and renting real estate. But these people are smart about it, buy right, and manage their affairs based on sound business practices. They don't simply buy a place at any price, put up a "for rent" sign, and that's it. It takes work and effort to do well in this sort of venture. "Someone told me not to invest in my own small business. My partner and I decided to ignore this advice and invested in our start-up, MyFreebeez.com, anyway. It has turned into a huge success, and we are absolutely glad we did it. We've already earned our investment back many times over and are still continuing to earn on that investment." The result could have easily been "we lost everything", but I know what he's saying. If you have a good idea and believe in it, then why not invest in it? If it does well then it's likely to be the best investment you'll ever make. "During college, I was told to open a credit card and use it to charge all my books and school fees on. The 19% or more interest on a credit card is far more than the subsidized government loan that ended up covering my school costs." Uh, yeah. Whoever told you that you should open up a credit card, charge money you didn't have, and let interest build at 19% is not the type of person who should be giving out financial advice. "Around 1998, before the tech crash, my husband's grandfather passed away. He left $5,000 for each of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. My husband's mother and father advised us to invest in mutual funds for ourselves and our children, (saying) the fund would grow exponentially and by having (the money) in a fund, it would be diversified. It never grew much at all; in fact, it lost money. I kept it in there with the philosophy of 'leave it and forget it' -- don't watch what it is doing because it will go up and down." I feel their pain. I saw my investments go up and down with the market during that time as well. It was rough. Then again, investing involves risk. Putting money away for a long time actually is a fairly good idea. Perhaps they simply put it in the wrong fund? "To not pay off your student loans until you're done with college. If I had started making payments in college like I had planned to do, it could have saved me thousands." If you're able to make payments in college, why are you borrowing money? Does he mean paying on loans he once needed but didn't later on in college? I'm not sure what the worst financial advice I ever received was. I don't think I ever got much because no one around me knew anything about managing money (and hence the problem -- we were all learning as we go.) But I know the best advice I ever received -- it was from the book The Millionaire Next Door . What's the worst financial advice you ever received? ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/worst-money-advice-ever</link>
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		<title>Do You Plan to Move When You Retire?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Kiplinger recently had a piece saying people should stay put when they retire . In other words, don't look to move to Florida or Arizona -- simply keep living in the same city (even the same house) that you lived in pre-retirement. Staying put in retirement seems to be a growing trend, forced on many people because of the housing market. They can't sell their house, so they are kind of forced to stay put. But Kiplinger argues that there are other benefits to living in the same place. Their summary: Staying local during the traditional retirement years benefits you financially in two major ways. First, nurturing the different networks in your community is truly a critical investment -- the way stocks, bonds and other types of financial savings are important to a secure old age. Second, you have a good vantage point for researching ways to improve your current home, rather than looking into possible digs in far-away climes across the country. For instance, do your bathrooms need remodeling for safety as you age? How about the kitchen? Or would it be smarter to downsize to a nearby condo or even a continuing-care community? What's the local place where you can best see yourself working, living and aging gracefully? I'm not sure what we'll do when we retire, but here are my current thoughts on this issue: 1. One argument for staying where we are is that we have friends/contacts/relationships here, just as Kiplinger notes, that we've developed over 10 years (and it will be over 20 years by the time we retire.) There is value in that -- both monetary and social value. 2. We live in Michigan. May through October is beautiful. The rest is an argument for moving. If we could simply miss January and February, that would make living here much, much better. Perhaps we could travel or rent a condo for those two months every year, then live the rest of the time in the hinterland. 3. Even if we stay in the same area, we'll likely change homes. Our neighborhood is changing -- and not for the better. Besides, we will likely want a condo or something similar where there's a limited amount of maintenance and commitment to being there year-round. 4. Where our children end up living will be a big deciding factor for us. We have never had our parents living close by and we've missed it, so we would like to be close to where at least one of our kids lives. That's about the extent of my thinking on the subject at this point. How about you? Are you planning on moving when you retire? Why or why not? ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/do-you-plan-to-move-when-you-retire</link>
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		<title>Help Out with a Study on Finances</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ The other day I received an email from Utpal Dholakia from Rice University . It is as follows: I am a management professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas. I conduct research on financial decision making and specifically, how to get individuals to make good financial decisions. Please see examples of media coverage of my research here: Psych Central USA Today CBS News Currently, along with a colleague at Texas A&#38;M University, I am conducting a study to examine self-control and how people  use (and fail to use) it when making various decisions including financial ones. To this end, I am seeking your help in encouraging your circle of readers and followers to participate. The link to the survey is here . I told him I would pass along the offer if he would write a summary of the results for FMF, and he agreed. So I'm passing along the survey link as promised. If you're interested, click the link above and answer the questions. ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/help-out-with-a-study-on-finances</link>
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		<title>Profitable and Unprofitable Grad Degrees</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ We've talked a lot about the value of a college degree , but lately I'm been focusing on posts and articles that try to ascertain the "profitability" of a degree -- basically the increased income from the degree less the cost of it (including lost income while studying.) This article is a perfect addition to the conversation since it summarizes an analysis of Census data from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce that determines the payoff from various graduate degrees (not schools, which we've discussed previously, but actual degrees). They offer a general guideline for determining the profitability of a grad degree and whether or not it is worth the investment. Their summary: When it comes to determining how much a degree is worth, the "starting-year salary" guideline is a good rule of thumb. Basically, prospective grad students should calculate what their expected salary at graduation, then borrow no more than that amount. According to the Student Loan Network, most federal student loans follow a 10-year repayment schedule, which means that students who limit borrowing to a year of salary can expect to dedicate about 10% of their paychecks to paying off their educational debts -- a manageable percentage. By contrast, they note, students who borrow 15% or more stand a much greater likelihood of defaulting. Note they say to "borrow no more than" the annual starting salary. Hopefully you can borrow far less than it -- thus making the return on your grad degree investment even higher. For instance, my borrowing for all six years of school (undergrad and grad) was 12.5% of my starting salary. How did I pull this off? Several factors: I qualified for several government grants, leadership scholarships, and academic scholarships. I worked both during school and in the summers. I had assistantships as both an undergrad and grad student which were substantially more valuable than my other on-campus jobs. I attended good (not "great"), affordable schools. I lived on peanuts (not literally, but not far off.) I selected a higher-income grad degree (more on that in a minute.) One thing to note, I got very little financial help from my parents. The money that I did borrow was from my grandmother, and I paid her back a few years after I graduated. Using the data available noted above, here's what the piece lists as the most valuable grad degrees: The big winners are health and medical preparatory programs, from which graduate or professional degrees can increase salary by 190%. Similarly, social sciences (134%), zoology (123%), molecular biology (115%), public policy (107%), biology (106%), biochemical sciences (101%), chemistry (93%), pre-law (81%) and physiology (78%) majors can all expect to get a major dividend from pursuing graduate or professional degrees. They also list the least valuable grad degrees as follows: The worst graduate major for salary improvement is meteorology, which only improved wage prospects by 1%. Only marginally better were studio arts (3%), petroleum engineering (7%), oceanography (11%), mass media (11%), advertising/public relations (12%), pharmaceutical sciences (13%), forestry (15%), computer engineering (16%), and miscellaneous education (16%). So maybe this is "back in the day" information, but when I graduated with an MBA, my starting salary was 122% higher than what I was set to earn out of undergraduate school -- a pretty good investment IMO, especially considering my low level of debt. That's why I say a pretty small investment helped me make millions . The key part of this research emphasizes a point that some readers brought up in a previous post -- that the degree you get (in this case it's a grad degree, but the same can likely be said for an undergraduate degree) is more likely to determine whether or not a college education was "worth it" or not than the school attended. Now if we can just find an analysis that includes both school attended as well as degree earned, then we'll be much closer to developing some sort of general guideline/decision-making process that really gets to the financial value of any given degree at any given school. ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/profitable-and-unprofitable-grad-degrees</link>
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		<title>Using Credit Cards to Save Money</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ We talk a lot about using credit cards (specifically cash back credit cards) to MAKE some extra money over the course of a year, but does anyone ever get a credit card because it will SAVE them money? Recently I've gotten two cards just for this purpose and I'm wondering if any of you have as well. The first card I got was the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express . Yes, it came with 30,000 miles, but the real reason I got it is that I fly four or five times a year on Delta (if you live where I do, you don't have much choice.) I am usually gone for three days or so on each trip, so I have a medium-sized bag with me. I also usually have a connection (if you live where I do, you don't have much choice.) I HATE dragging my bag through the airport for seven hours over the course of arriving, flight 1, going to flight 2, flight 2, leaving the airport, and so on. So I check my bag. As you probably know, Delta charges $25 for one checked bag (each way). So if I travel five times for a total of 10 trips out and back at $25 each, that's a cost of $250 per year. But with the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express , the first checked bag is free. So even though the card has an annual fee of $95 (which is waived the first year), it still saves me over $150 per year. Better yet, I can use it for personal travel too. When we went to the Caribbean, we had three checked bags (both ways). Using the card, I saved $150 on this trip alone! The second card I've already told you about. I got the Chase Sapphire SM Preferred Card ( my first points-based card ) even before I knew everyone loved it . I then used the sign-up bonus as a $625 savings to airline tickets I purchased to get us on our cruise. Not bad at all, huh? Maybe this issue of "saving" with a credit card is limited to travel. I can see where others save on airfare (or related) costs, hotel stays, and the like, but I don't see anyone saving on groceries, eating out, and so on. They can EARN money on groceries, eating out, etc. of course, but they aren't really saving money. Then again, maybe it's all semantics. Whether you "save" $500 or "earn" $500, you're still $500 ahead, right? That may be the case for the Chase card above, but the Delta card does earn something (30,000 points) PLUS saves money (on the baggage fee), so I think that one is a true savings move. What's your take on the issue? Have you ever gotten a credit card to save money? ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/using-credit-cards-to-save-money</link>
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		<title>Update on Our Shopping List, February 2012</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ It's been awhile since I've given an update on our shopping list , so I thought I'd bring you all up to speed in this post. Here's what we've accomplished in the past several months as well as our plans for the next few months: Vacations -- We completed our Caribbean cruise in January (details coming soon). It wasn't the most frugal trip, but it was a blast. Next on this front is planning out summer (trips to see family) and fall 2012 trips (potentially a trip to Chicago during Christmas season). Furniture -- Still need a couple recliners or a second couch for the living room and perhaps a desk for my daughter's room. This is the item that we just can't seem to get past. Bed -- It's time for a new bed for us. I hate bed shopping more than I hate doing taxes. But I'm (grudgingly) putting it on the list. Snowblower -- Old/smaller one was given to a neighbor who needed it. New/bigger one has a nice place in our now-cleaned-out garage. Landscaping -- Completed "phase 2" last summer which included some rock as well as plantings around the house. We also had our yard professionally sprayed since what I was doing wasn't fighting off the weeds. We'll be planning for "phase 3" soon which looks like it could include the removal of some dead trees from our property (and replacement plantings). Attic insulation -- Really want to do this in 2012, but it may take a backseat financially to the landscaping. Tablet -- Thinking of getting an iPad or other tablet as a laptop replacement when I travel. Repair -- Had repair work done below our fireplace. Next we're considering getting an updated fireplace unit (old one is 20 years old) but am not sure what we'll do. Car -- My wife's car is now eight years old and my son is close to driving age. Does anyone see a "transition car and new car purchase" in our future? ;-) I think that's it, but as you can see, the list is kind of a moving target as we decide we don't need certain things and do need others. How about you? What major purchases do you have planned for the rest of 2012? ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/update-on-our-shopping-list-february-2012</link>
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		<title>How to Get Affordable Dental Care Without Insurance</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ Can&#8217;t afford a trip to the dentist? You&#8217;re not alone. The cost of dental care has consistently risen by nearly twice the average rate of inflation over the past half-century. In addition to rising dental costs, the number of consumers with access to dental insurance decreased 5.7% from 2009 to 2010 alone, leaving only about How to Get Affordable Dental Care Without Insurance is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog . ]]></description>
		<link>http://mylink2cash.com/how-to-get-affordable-dental-care-without-insurance</link>
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