Money Walks

Welcome to the 33rd edition of the Festival of Stocks. I want to first thank George from FatPitchFinancials for letting me host this weeks edition, it’s been a pleasure. There were exactly 11 articles that made it to this edition and I broke them down into three categories. Stock tips and tricks, stock news and stock stats. Please take the time to view each article and also highlight any that you like. Okay without further delay, I present the Festival of Stocks #33.

First off, I would like to start off with a nice poem from Market Poetry, Now’s the Time to Trim.

Stock Tips and Tricks:

The Skilled Investor Blog says No Financial Software or Calculator can Predict the Future

WorldWide Sucess gives advice on how to Succeed with your Investments.

The Financial Whiz’s Investment Strategy.

The Time and Money Group breaks down the Anatomy of Stock Trade:Entry Techniques.

Stock News:

Financial Pragmatist on The Return of Volatility.

Sox First explains What Happens to the Company’s Stock Price when the CEO Buys a Mansion

Fat Pitch Financials brings up Warren Buffets Response to Shai Dardashtis question. 

Stock Stats:

Please Don’t Take Me Seriously gives a general review over the Eagle Plains Resources (EPL)

Trader’s Narrative takes a look at the Monster Worldwide(MNST)  

And that will conclude this edition of Festival of Stocks. I hope you enjoyed all the articles here. Don’t mess out on the next edition over at Stock Market Prognosticator. Have a great week!

Hey guys, I will be hosting the Festival of Stocks edition #33 this up coming Monday. So if you have any good articles, then make sure to use this form to submit. If you have any questions regarding submission guidelines, then you can go here.

Many people are confused with the difference between frugal and cheap. Being frugal means making smart spending choices or getting the most for your money. Cheap while on the other hand, is looked more upon as selfish and stingy. When I looked up the synonyms for frugal, I got thrifty, chary, provident, careful and economical. Synonyms for cheap resulted in stingy, shoddiness, inferiority, showy imitation, complete unworthiness.

Living well for less money is frugality. Leeching off of people to get by is cheap.

For example, I want to get a book for my brother for his birthday. Say I saw a nice book in new condition at a garage sale and I only spend $1.00 opposed to the $24.99 price at Barnes and Noble. Some people would see this as being cheap, only spending a dollar for a gift, however if this is something that my brother would like, it doesn’t really matter how much I spend. There is no point in spending more for the gift if I could get something the person would like just as much for a lot less. Now this kind of giving is just good money management, it’s not being cheap.

Some more example of frugal vs cheap:

• Frugal - Going to a buffet and eating enough to get full and satisfied.
• Cheap - Getting full and satisfied, then filling your pockets and bags before leaving
• Frugal - In a group, a person with 10 dollars would order at a restaurant taking in consideration of tip and tax.
• Cheap - In a group, a person with 10 dollars would order 10 dollars worth of food and intentionally leave the tip and tax for others to pay.
• Frugal - Satisfied with only spending a dollar on a kids meal for your child.
• Cheap - Ordering an extra kids meal for your self to avoid the regular price.
• Frugal - Deciding not to go out to eat because you don’t have enough for the food + tips, instead you go to buy something to make at home.
• Cheap - Intentionally going out to eat when knowing you don’t have enough to tip.

Important note: frugality is not just for those who are on low income. Take Warren Buffet for example. Big Warren, with a net worth of more than 42 billion dollars still live in the house he bought more than 40 years ago at $31,500. He also prefers a burger and a coke over an expensive lunch at his desk.

One of the most important life lessons you can teach your kids is to develop successful money management habits  and  a sense of financial responsibility. When it comes to teaching your kids about money, the sooner they learn the better.

1. Help your child understand the value of saving money.  Here is where you start showing them the importance and the  benefits of saving money. This can be done with a simple but balanced form of an allowance. While they are young, giving them small amount of money will help them prepare for the future when the amount becomes larger.
2. Discuss the privileges and pitfalls of owning a credit card.  Show that credit cards can be a very powerful tool which could help you dramatically with your finances and also in return, how you could misuse a credit card and how much that could affect your life.
3. Give your teen ‘real world’ experience with money and budgeting. Instead of buying their yearly school clothes yourself, give them a set amount and let them decide what they need and what they don’t need. Emphasis that that is all they are getting so chose wisely.
4. Teach your child how to track spending. Get them in the habit of tracking their spending by either getting a notebook or a creating a simple excel spreadsheet on your computer.
5. Cover the basics of investing. It’s never too early to start explaining the general overviews of investing. The earlier you start, the better they’re equipped when it’s actually time for them to start investing.

This week sure has been a busy one. I’m glad that it’s finally Friday-time to relax and recap our week. Here are some highlights for this weeks carnivals. Enjoy!

Carnival of Credit Card edition #9 hosted at CreditCardLowdown.

1. Grad Money Matters posted a piece called Stop Blaming Your Credit Card.
2. Wealth Building Lesson shows us How to Improve Your Credit Score by 100 Points.
3. 3DebtConsolidation writes on the Importance of Your Credit Rating & FICO Score.

Carnival of Personal Finance #95 hosted by Accumulating Money.

1. Cents You Ask tells us What You Can Buy With 23Cents
2. Advanced Personal Finance on Financial Records- What to Keep, What to Toss.
3. The Real Returns with Connecting Bottoms of S&P500

Carnival of Taxes #16 hosted by Don’t Mess With Taxes.

1. PfAdvice posted an article called When Should You Opt For A Professional Tax Preparer.
2. Getting Green asks, Tired of Being Taxed to Death?
3. FiveCentNickel on Roth IRA Income Limits for 2007

The Festival of Frugality #69 hosted by Digerati Life.

1. The Frugalist shows us 27 Fun Ways to Destroy your Credit Cards.
2. Frugal Upstate wrote a piece called Throwing a Birthday Party Fit For a Princess On a Budget.
3. Stop the Ride shows us how to make Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Carnival of Debt Reduction edition #82 hosted by NCN.

1. Verve Coaching on Getting Out of Debt(Part 1)
2. MoneySmartLife brings us Should you Use your Emergency Fund to Pay off your Credit Card Debt?
3. Picture of Wealth writes When you Don’t See Eye to Eye on Finances.

Well that about sums it up. There were so many great articles this week from each of the carnival so if you have the time, please go visit them.

Also, don’t forget the Carnival of Money Stories #9 is coming up this Monday on the 16th over at FireFinance. If you have not submitted your money story yet, you can do that here. Have a great weekend!

So I managed to bring my credit card debt down to an even $4,000.00 just this past weekend. Paid off $1,404.22 out of the $5,404.22  which brought my total to an even $4,000.00 I plan on paying off a little more as soon as I receive my refund from my federal return. My goal is to bring it down to $3,000.00 by next week. It would be nice if I could have it completely paid off before summer starts but I doubt that will happen, simply because I am only working part time and spent money on worthless junk. However, this will not stop me form trying to get it down as much as possible. Here is a general idea on how I plan on getting it down as much as possible. Some of the stupid/unnecessary things I spend on includes:

1. Chinese food - This one is really stupid considering I have a meal plan on campus which is completely already paid for. I just need to throw out all my carry out menus from my room.
2. Starbucks - Ah, how I love coffee. This one is going to be a little hard to stop but I am going to try to cut down little by little. I go about 5-7 times a week. I love their new Dulce de Leche Latte. Such temptation makes this one quite tricky.
3. Random grocery shopping. Yes, I am truly a college student. I all I do is eat and study. Although I love the infamous Ramen Noodles, I tend to spend a little more on the hot pockets and frozen pizzas.
4. Car gas. Gas price is no joke. Especially since my car only takes premium fuel.
5. Pure junk. Stop carrying my cards and cash everywhere. Simple.

I think that if I am able to cut down on these 5 things I can save so much more. I’m going to set my target date for May 21st. Until then, I plan on keeping a record of how much I would of spent and instead saved.