Don't Quit Your Day Job…

Posts We Liked! Read these.  We did.  We liked them enough to provide the links for you here. “Will Buffet’s Value Principals Survive Buffet?” – Warren Buffet’s advancing age means one day soon his investing principals will have to carry on without him.  Will the value investing movement survive without it’s de facto leader? “Oil [...]

It’s a quickly moving target, but as of August 04, 2009, the national debt is $11,653,350,207,790.34. With 307,212,123 people in the country (July Estimate), that works out to $37,932.59 per person. President Obama promised on the campaign trail to not raise taxes on people making under $250,000 annually. Is that promise now on shaky ground?

Gold, the 79th element in the periodic table, is perhaps the most controversial of any investments. Every investor seems to have an opinion on the metal. Some people, particularly enamored with the constitution, read into it the necessity for the government to only issue gold (and silver) coins.

Regardless of your viewpoint on the legality of fiat currency, perhaps you have decided to invest some of your hard earned funds into the stuff. There are many ways to approach investing in gold; I will lay out a few approaches to gold investing in this article.

I’ve written plenty about gasoline lately, but only about gas taxes. Let’s shift gears a bit… Do you think gas prices will increase? If gas prices increase, is there a way for you to hedge against that increase so it doesn’t affect you? Of course!

If you saw $1,377.71 lying on the ground, would you pick it up?

I hope you would. That’s the sort of savings you could find from opening a Roth IRA. Any increase in your future tax rates means you made money simply from choosing the right account to invest in. Sound good? Read the article.

A commonly heard refrain in the personal finance world is ‘Keep 3 months of living expenses in an emergency fund!’ If fact, this is heard so much it’s almost become a mantra for people taking control of their finances for the first time. Where does this ‘3′ come from? Why do you keep it? All this and more will be answered, read on…

If you come into money, don’t ignore paying down debt as an option. Oftentimes paying down debt can save you much more money than you can earn with another option. Additionally, paying off a loan in full will increase your future cash flow. Read on for a look at debt as an investment and a closer look at tax-equivalent yield.

However you got it, you’ve got it now. Cash, and a good chunk of it at that. The big question for you now… Where are you going to put it? When you realize the mattress isn’t a good place to stash it, read on for some ideas!

Next month, the minimum wage in America is going to raise from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour. The $6.55 to $7.25 jump is the last of the increases to the minimum wage under the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The minimum wage is a sexy law; politicians can stand hand in hand with the lowest income workers and say, “I’m fighting for you!”. Unfortunately, the low income workers are holding the hands that hold them down.

“A penny saved, is a penny earned,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack. The quote is repeated as fact by many people, often while picking pennies off the ground. Our friend Ben lived in a simpler time, and it’s time to revisit this famous quote with a little (disgusting? intriguing?) math to see if it holds up to closer scrutiny.