The Banana Roundup : First Edition
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Sometimes the simplest path to wealth is the most simple if not the straightest line. David at MoneyNing offered us the Simplest Way to Wealth. I would add “Grow it” before you have fun with it. Another commenter also suggested to have fun with it wisely. I wonder what kind of a mind set I would be in once I reach my targeted wealth in regards to how I would manage my personal finances which certainly would include having fun.
Pinyo at Moolanomy piqued my curiosity about the book, Meandering Into Real Estate Investing since I have been reading a lot of real estate books lately. It seems like every author has their own “formula” for a successful real estate investment venture. As a matter of fact, I will be post a few reviews next month so it will be an interesting comparison between REI authors. But one thing is evident, it is better to read books by authors who have actual experience than writers who don’t since it will be closer to the truth if not complete.
Advanced Personal Finance realized that the recent volatility of the stock market and his current retirement portfolio status was not a bad problem to have. I have to agree because I have some funds in a money market which is still making money while some of my funds have dropped in value in the past three months. A year ago, I had 100 percent of my retirement portfolio invested and now I only have roughly 98 percent of my retirement portfolio invested. As a result of pulling my fund out of a volatile fund last year during the beginning of the credit crunch, I managed to preserve my capital whereas if I had kept it in the fund, I would have lost 20 percent of it this year.
Mrs. Micah reminds us that a surprisingly large number of things can be lived through. I think it is refreshing to see the younger ones (she’s in her early 20s) are aware of the financial times their grandparents lived through. With many of our elders slowly moving on into the next life, it is becoming a forgotten commodity, the lessons of our grandparents and the times they went through. All too often today, we hear about the baby boomers and very little about their parents. In today’s time, I often marvel at how my grandparents never had a credit card and many of us have at least 1 if not 10 credit cards.
I have to admit I enjoy reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad series so it was no surprise to see many of his repeating themes show up in Cash Money Life’s review of yet another RK book, Increase Your Financial IQ. Now I can understand how best selling authors can generate passive income through royalty checks like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Kiyosaki. This is must be Kiyosaki’s what, 20th book? If he sold a million of each book and eared a dollar per book, that’s 20 million right there.
LuluGal loves to save money by buying in bulk, especially good ole toilet papers. Having experienced bulk shopping myself, I can safely agree with this, especially in regards to disposable items such as toilet paper or dry food that lasts a good while such as pasta, rice, and in some cases, spices (just the ones I use the most like crushed red peppers, cinnamon, etc…)
That’s it for now. Thank you for reading my first roundup of personal finance bloggers whose posts I enjoyed today. If you are a personal finance blogger and would like to trade blog links or let me know of your blog, leave me a comment and I will be happy to check out your blog in the coming week. If I see an article I enjoyed on your blog, I will certainly post about it. Don’t forget to subscribe (Note: The subscription is to Just Personal Finance @ TheLocoMono Website, not TheLocoMono Website itself so all the articles you see here is just about personal finance).
Technorati Tags: Personal Finance,Saving,Shopping,Review,Real Estate,Investing
Comment by Mrs. Micah on 23 March 2008:
Thanks, Mark.
Sometimes when older people come into the library, I wonder how much they’ve lived through—Depression, wars, etc.
Comment by Mark from TheLocoMono on 23 March 2008:
Yeah, I can relate. Every time I see an old fella with a Navy hat, you know the kind that says, U.S.S. Eisenhower I would ask them about it or such because one of my grandfathers was at Iwo Jima which I never really appreciated until reading the Flags of Our Fathers. And this was after the Depression so it is impressive to see them just ambling about while us youngsters panic over cell phone coverage, price of oil, etc…
Comment by David on 26 March 2008:
If you check out today’s Wall Street Journal, there’s a nice article about how the SP500 is basically at the same trading levels today as it was 10 years ago.
Quite fascinating to see how people made it big in the 80s and early 90s compared to the last ten years. Maybe the 20s and 30s something generation is in better shape to invest because eventually the market can only go up past its 10K range. For the older folks its more a flat growth now and may not have another 20 years to wait for it to go up. Check it out.
Comment by Lulugal11 on 29 March 2008:
Wow Mark you just had to put all my ‘biz-niss’ out there and tell folks about my toilet paper. You could have mentioned the socks or something like that. Now everyone is going to think that I must REALLY use a lot of toilet paper if I have to blog about it.
Lulugal11’s last blog post..Save Money by Walking to WalMart
Comment by Johnnie from Car Insurance Quotes on 5 June 2008:
Well, buying in bulk maybe helpful but for some it can be a costl addiction. Take your local Sams for example. The may sell you 20 boxes of macaroni for $15 but if you shop around you’ll probably find 20 boxes of macaroni for less.
People become “comfortable” with spending a few extra dollars just because they’re shopping at Sams or buying bulk. But with the economy in the shape it’s in, saving money should be on everyone’s mind.
Comment by Mark from TheLocoMono on 5 June 2008:
Johnnie - Good point on the “comfortable” with the bulk stores. That is true about the boxes of mac and cheese, the bulk food stores only sells brand name items so you will find it cheaper than the stores but the stores also carry generic brands which are often 50 percent less or more.
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