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Month: April 2006

Top three gadgets that can actually save you money

Top three gadgets that can actually save you money

Ran across this article today about gadgets that can actually save you money. I guess the topic of the article got me because lots of times items that are suppose to “save you money” actually cost your more in the long run. Example: hybrid cars. Anyway one item that caught my eye from the article was the Spin-x-dryer. It is a spin dryer that uses centrifigal force to dry your clothes. Supposably it uses the same amount of energy that your normal dryer uses in the first 15 seconds of operation (I’d like to see some more stats on this as that is kind of a unique statistic), but anyway it seemed pretty cool. On top of that it supposably dries your clothes that much faster, although I am not sure what the capacity on that thing is. Anyway I had never heard of a spin dryer before and well I’ve never bought a dryer and hopefully won’t be in the market for one for quite a while I guess I would at least take a closer look at a spin dryer.

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Carnival of Investing #18

Carnival of Investing #18

This week I am participating in the Carnvial of Investing #18 being hosted over at BluePrint for Financial Prosperity. I submitted my article on Realist Rate of Return, which right now is a 3-part post, but I hope to be adding at least 1 or two more parts to the series this week. There aren’t a ton of entries in the carnival at this point due to some confusion as of late with this carnival due to the creator of the carnival (RetireAt30) being MIA. Hopefully he is alright, but in the meantime if you wish to participate in this carnival you will need to email your submission directly to the weekly host as the submission forms over at Conservative Cat and Blog Carnival no longer work. Jim @ BFBluePrint will be accepting entries to this week’s carnival until Tuesday night otherwise if you wish to participate in next week’s carnival it’s probably safest just to contact Kirby on Finance (next week’s host) directly through his contact form.

Why save when you can barter instead?

Why save when you can barter instead?

Check out this pretty interesting article on CNN about a guy who started out with a big red paper clip and plans on trading and bartering his way up to a house.  He’s made some incredible progress already and if I had to make a guess I’d say he ends up suceeding.  If you are too lazy to read the article,  the just is he trades the paper clip for something he thinks has more value and then takes that item and trades it for something that is of more value, etc. etc.  Kind of like value investing is some weird twisted way.

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Best Jobs in America

Best Jobs in America

CNN has an article today that lists the Top jobs in America. The #1 job listed was Software Engineer, which is essentially what I do for a living. I’ve also noticed that a pretty good chunk of personal finance bloggers are also software engineers. Interesting survey and it kind of makes it hard to complain about your job if its ranked #1 in the country, but I still don’t think I’ll be doing this my whole life. While I enjoy the work and it’s good money (although I don’t make anywhere near the average salary listed in the survey), I eventually will want a job with a little more freedom or that is more rewarding.

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Realistic Rate of Return – Part III

Realistic Rate of Return – Part III

In Part I of this series I talked about how important it is to come up with an accurate rate of return when doing financial planning.

In Part II I talked about my asset allocation being 100% stocks and some of my rational for that and briefly touched on some of expected rates of returns for stocks and some of the reasons why most individual investors can’t attain those rates.

In Part III of this series I am going to try to justify why I am not following the smart path of investing in index funds.

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Realistic Rate of Return – Part II

Realistic Rate of Return – Part II

As I mentioned in Part I in the comments, I am invested 100% in stocks. My rational for this, which could be flawed, is that stocks have historically without a question been the best long term investment vehicle for your money. Yes there area a lot of up and downs, but over periods of 10-20 years this volitility is less of an issue, so in my mind the risk is mitigated. Like I said I’m young and don’t know everything, but until someone proves me wrong this is the strategy I’m sticking with. In my mind I would be throwing money away by investing in bonds, real estate, gold, etc.

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