No Debt MBA

Welcome to the August 7, 2011 edition of the Yakezie Carnival.  This is the first time I've hosted a carnival so let's hope I don't mess anything up!  I recently broke the 200,000 Alexa rank barrier in the Yakezie Challenge and I couldn't have done it without this great network of bloggers.  There are a ton of great articles this week; let's get to it!


My Personal Finance Journey: Tour de Personal Finance 2011 Post-Race Show - Awards Ceremony, Race Recap, and Goals for Next Year's Tour - This past month, I organized a personal finance blogging competition on my blog called the Tour de Personal Finance. This post details the outcome of the event, awards given, and goals for next year.

Our Journey To Zero: Me vs. The County Fair - In the past, my family and I have dropped hundreds of dollars at the county fair. This year, I was determined to have a great family outing on a budget. How'd we do?

Wealth Informatics: Comparing myself with the Joneses - Comparing myself with the joneses and feeling bad/stressed about it... what does that get me?

Retire by 40: Live On One Paycheck - Living on one paycheck is a great way to turbo boost your saving.

Stock Market Basics: Best Android Stock Market App - Use your latest iphone or android phone for being financially savvy and get the best stock market app for trading and investing. This will help keep track of yoiur investments on the go.

The University Of Money: Jim Cramer dividend stock picks - For those who do dividend investing it is a must to know the Jim Cramer ( host of Mad Money show) dividend stock picks. He has been right on the money almost every time he has made predictions about the stocks that will appreciate and give dividends.

Good Financial Cents: Best 529 College Savings Plans - Interested in savings for your kids college education? Here's a look at some of the best 529 options offered by different states.

Investorz' Blog: Investment Mistakes - Do you want to suceed at investing? Then read about these 7 common investment mistakes made by investors, and avoid them!

Financially Consumed: Online Education Advantage - The online learning experience mirrors and reinforces the connected way live today. Success is largely determined by how well students collaborate given the modern tools at their disposal. The same is true of the modern, connected work environment.

One Cent At A time: Do you need store Credit card? I dont - Why regular credit card from your bank or card issuing companies like AMEX, Discover are better than store cards that offer high discount at that store.

Money Reasons: Roth IRA Benefits for Kids - This article is about the benefits of helping your kids start a Roth IRA and why it's a good idea to do so! It's also what I'm planning on doing with my kids once they are old enough to have earned income.

The College Investor: 5 Easy Steps To Get The Cheapest Vacation - Five easy steps to follow to get the best deal on a vacation.

My Multiple Incomes: How To Generate a Passive Investment Income - My strategy for developing a passive investment income.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: My New Insurance Costs - OUCH - I just found out that I'll be paying almost $6000 a year on health insurance through my husband's plan! Ow!

Frugal Confessions: It's Not What You Earn, It's What You Keep - Imagine how different the dating world would become if the financial metric of interest changed from how much money people make to how much money people put into savings. Suddenly Mr. $150,000-per-year-VP-Match.com-Hotshot who only banked $1,000 in the whole of 2010 would be picked over for Mr. $30,000-per-year-Nonprofit man who manages to bank $400 of his income per month.

My Journey to Millions: August 2011 Net Worth Update: Look Where I Came From Edition - From July 1, 2011 to August 1, 2011 my net worth has increased 3.38%. From January 18, 2011 to August 1,2011 my net worth has increased 46.84%

Invest It Wisely: Why Spending Money on Life Insurance Trumped Building Up the Emergency Fund - For my family, the emergency fund has taken a back seat to life insurance.

Prairie Eco Thrifter: Kindergarten to College--Back to School - Parents already know that back to school time is the second most expensive time of the year (right after the holidays). Here are a few money tips to help you plan your back to school activities and maybe reduce that $600 per child amount.

Money Cone: Cash a Check Through Your Smart Phone Even If Your Bank Doesn't Provide This Service - For those who have a smartphone and a PayPal account but don’t have an eCheck deposit service with their bank, the Pay Pal free app is a clever alternative to physically depositing a check.

The year of shopping detox: Instead of cash, use your chicken! - Bartering: not just for medieval peasants. Although they could teach us a thing or two!

Everything finance: How Interest Rates Work? - Mortgage lenders show their interest rates prominently, but they hardly ever illustrate exactly how these rates work. If you have a $200,000 mortgage for 30 years at, say, 7.5 percent interest, your monthly payment would be about $1,400. But the question is why the rate of interest if 7.5 percent? The suitable answer is that the annual rate is divided into the monthly interest rates and this monthly interest rate is applied to the monthly balance.

Living in Financial Excellence: Are You Managing Your Money or Is It Managing You? - Everyone must realize the need to manage their money wisely. When you actively take control of your money,you will find it goes further,especially when you are trying to pay expenses.

Live Real, Now: How Much Is Your Pet Worth? - How much is too much to spend on an animal?

Not Made of Money: Which Is Better – A Fixed Rate Or Variable Rate Mortgage? - Anybody in the market for a real estate loan knows that there a lot of loan products out there to choose from. Finding the best loan product for your needs can be really difficult.

The Penny Hoarder: How to Rent Your Car Out for $10/Hour - Move over Avis! You might have heard about a new trend that has been popping up over the last few years – renting out your personal car for extra cash. We wanted to give you a quick rundown on how it works and what the risks are.

Control Your Cash: Don't Reach for the Middle - A guest post from fellow Yakezie member Financial Uproar exploring why people think they’re doing well because they’ll compare themselves to the masses instead of comparing themselves to the wealthy.

Darwin's Money: Debt Ceiling Vote Explained – What Media ISN’T Telling You - The debt ceiling vote got all the press this week. But after seeing this chart, you'll see what the real issue is - and wonder why the mainstream media isn't talking about it.

Money Talks: Are Ivy League Schools Worth the Extra Cost - Is it worth spending the extra to go to a prestigious school, or will a less selective university be just as good? This article talks about a study that followed those who attended Ivy League schools and those who were accepted to Ivy League schools but didn't attend.

This week I was included in the Festival of Frugality and Totally Money Blog Carnival for my post How I cut the cost of college. The Carnival of Financial Planning featured Handling money as a couple.  I was also included in the Carnival of Personal Finance for my post on The full cost of attending a wedding.  Finally, I was included in the Yakezie Carnival for my post When buying in bulk doesn’t make sense.

I also had a guest post up at Get Rich Slowly:  Budgeting Dilemma: How Do You Decide What You Can Afford? If you're a reader from GRS who has stuck around, thanks!  Feel free to drop me a line with feedback.  The email address is on the About and How you can help pages.

For more interesting reads check out:

• What Top MBAs Earn Five Years Out 
• Container gardening using DIY self-watering pots 

This week I was profiled at Asking About Money.  I answered ten questions about my relationship with money so check out the profile to see my answers.  Asking About Money is totally new and I'm very excited to see where it goes.  The idea is to compile a lot of answers to the same question so you can see how people like you have dealt with similar issues.  They're looking for profiles so contact them if you'd like to join the fun!

In the last week I had a few guest posts:

• Saving Money on Housing @ The Saved Quarter
• 9 Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget @ Fat Guy Skinny Wallet 
• Contentment Through Appreciating the Basics @ Faithful with a Few

And the big surprise of the week was my guest post on paying cash for my MBA which got published at Money Saving Mom without a word.  I didn't know that it was even being considered, much less going to be published, until my traffic spiked!  

So if you're a new reader from Money Saving Mom or any of these other sites, welcome and thanks for sticking around!  You can subscribe to posts via email or RSS using the links in the upper right of the website.  You can also get updates through Twitter and Facebook. 

This week I was also featured in the Totally Money blog carnival at Family Money Values for my post on Handling Money as a Couple and was included in the Festival of Frugality at Parenting Family Money for my Eat Slower, Spend Slower! post.Finally, I was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Dealerity for Luxuries on a Small Budget.

If that's not enough reading for you than check out the carnivals for more ;)

If it's scorching hot where you are then stay inside and get some great reading done this weekend.  Here's what I've been reading:

• Vacation Homes vs. Investment Properties: Where Mortgage Lenders Get it Wrong @ Lazy Man and Money - I've been loving Lazy Man's series on his new vacation home in Newport and this installment covers their mortgage approval issues.
• Why You Should Invest Like a Girl @ Five Cent Nickel - "According to the report, though women have better investing habits, they tend to have (again, on average) shorter job tenures and lower incomes. In other words, they have much more to overcome when it comes to preparing for retirement."  Interesting stuff.
• Tips for Combining Finances @ Sweating The Big Stuff - Crystal has some great advice for couples looking to merge their money
• A Stack of Bills Reaching to the Moon: How to Quantify Our National Debt @ Freakonomics - It's so much money I have a hard time relating to it.
• What is an ETF and Buying it as Your First Investment, Oil ETF List and Comparison, Global Energy ETF for Exposure to International Oil and Gas Stocks @Oil and Gas ETFs - I'm trying, so slowly, to build up my investing knowledge beyond index funds.  It's slow going.
• What Separates the Dreamers From the Doers @ Money Crush - Great advice to motivate you to achieve. 

This week I was included in both the Yakezie Carnival and the Festival of Frugality (editor's pick!) for my post on saving money through laziness.


I also had two guest posts:

• Using Your Unique Skills to Save Money @ Saving Money Today
• Stability can Help Build Wealth @ Money is the Root

This weekend is set to be as packed as the week was,  but it's all fun or productive so I can't complain.  What are your plans for the weekend?

Here are some links this week that I found interesting:

• Pushing MBA’s Out of the Driver’s Seat at Tough money Love
• The Disadvantages of Student Loans at Not Made of Money
• Using an HSA as a Super Retirement Account at Free Money Finance  
• How You Can Start Making More Money Right Now at Studenomics
• Business school lessons: Why a B+ can far outweigh the benefits of an A at Super Frugalette
• Higher Education Deductions at Frugal Students
• Ask The Reader: What Is Considered “Well-Off” at 30? at The College Investor
• The High Price of Professional Degrees on Your Finances at Free From Broke
• It Can Be Hard To Turn Down A Free Thing, Even When It Isn’t So Free at Everyday Tips and Thoughts
• How to Save up to $500 on Home Improvements While Helping The Environment at Squirrelers
• Tips for Combining Finances at Sweating the Big Stuff
• When Can We STOP Saving Money? at Retire by Forty

I also had a guest post over at Squirrelers this week, 7 Strategies for Saving More Money. Thanks to them for having me!

My project at work has wound down a little bit so I'm looking forward to some R&R this weekend.  There will probably be at least one other sprint just before I start school and wrap up my time here so I'm trying to take advantage of the free time I get as I get it.  Hoping for some good weather around here!

Here are some articles to kick off your weekend:

• 5 For Friday: New Year’s Resolution Check-in @ Budgets are Sexy - Did you make resolutions?  Have you forgotten all about them?
• How did you earn money while in school? @ Little Miss Moneybags - She had a huge variety of jobs in school!  I just did internships and part time work in my field.  What did you do?
• Financing Business School @ Military to Business - A guide to some of your options in paying for an MBA.  I'll be paying for my first year in cash!! and hopefully the second year as well.  how did/will you pay for graduate school?
• Is Living Within Your Means The Right Way to Live? @ Sweating the Big Stuff - Daniel has a great rebuttal to arguments for consumption smoothing.

Things have been and are going to be a little quiet around here this week since I've been swamped with a project for work.  Please pardon the interruption to your regularly scheduled programming (schedule? what schedule?).  In the meantime, I've been included in the Yakezie Carnival for my post  Is the expansion of women in professional schools harming our economy? Since there's not much happening here, head over to the Yakezie Carnival to find some other great articles.

The Carnival of Personal Finance came out a little late last week so it's only fitting that I'm a little late in linking back.  They featured my post on Why Student Loans are the Worst Kind of Debt.  Thanks to Revanche for hosting!

I'm also late in mentioning my guest post over at Mom's Plans on how to afford your child's college education.  If you've come over from there welcome! Drop me a line if you have comments or something you'd like to read about.

More timely, the Festival of Frugality just came out over at Debt Free by 30.  My post on The graduate student lifestyle was featured there.

 I've also got a guest post up at Early Retirement Extreme talking about my long term goal of becoming financially independent and how an MBA plays into it.  If you've come over from there welcome! Drop me a line if you have comments or something you'd like to read about.

Finally, I was included in the Yakezie Carnival at Not Made of Money with But don’t take my word for it…. Mortgage debt.

And in case you're sick of hearing from me here are a few posts I liked from the carnivals:

• How to Overcome Frugal Fatigue at Cool to be Frugal
• How Far is Too Far to Live Debt Free? at Minting Nickels
• If It Feels Good Do It: Maybe Strategic Defaults Aren’t So Bad After All at Len Pezo
• Are Experiences The New Stuff? at Financial Uproar

The Weakonomist put out a link round up yesterday and he's gathered some good ones, go check it out.

Military to Business has a great discussion about serving in the National Guard or Reserves while in business school.  This hadn't occurred to me as a way to support yourself, but I'm not from a military background either.

The Freakonomics blog has some great charts arguing that we're halfway to a lost decade.  The article hits on a great point of controlling for population growth when talking about individuals' economic well being.

Kevin at 20s Money has a great point when he argues that you may not invest well but you should do so anyway.

Similarly, Kris at Everyday Tips is giving important advice when she says you must diversify your retirement savings now.

My Journey to Millions has a straight shooting post about how you spend your free time and using it to be productive.

There's a thorough discussion of the pros and cons of becoming a one car household at Sustainable PF.

Many of the Yakezie bloggers had swaps up this week detailing their biggest financial mistakes.  I found all the posts really interesting since I'm pretty risk averse and sometimes feel like I don't make enough mistakes.

Enjoy your weekend!

For a four day week it sure felt long.  We've been very busy around here but have a lazy weekend lined up.  In case you want to read a bit during your weekend, here are some articles I enjoyed reading recently:

Visualize This: Brainstorming book ideas @ Flowing Data - I found the evolution of Nathan's book theme pretty interesting.  I like the idea of  the concept flowing naturally from emails he was getting.

How to Make Your Own Luck @ I'm a Money Grubber - Paul summarizes some really interesting research about attitude and success.

Budgeting for Graduate School @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff - These are really great strategies for paying for a graduate degree.  I've done #s 1, 2, and 5 but so far haven't really acted on 3 and 4 which tackle the income side of things.  I expect to work on those once I'm closer to the start of school or just after once I'm familiar with my schedule.

Personal Finance Geekdom: The Economics of Picking Up Pennies @ Squirrelers - Let me just admit that I love picking up change.  It's fun to see that others do the same.  I also love their "Squirreling Gone Wild" series - it makes me feel positively normal. 

Did Lobbying Contribute to the Financial Crisis? @ Freakonomics - This is something I assumed to be true to some extent, but the fact that there is data correlating the two is fascinating.  May I also admit that I am hopelessly cynical about our political system?

Congress Gets To Trade Insider Information @ Weakonomics - While not surprising to me (see cynicism above) I'd be interested to see the impact of blind trusts on this study.  I'm pretty sure that the working paper could not include politicians who had set up blind trusts since they don't have to report specific assets.  So perhaps there is a bias in favor of insider traders since theoretically honest politicians would be more likely to have blind trusts set up to avoid conflict of interest.  I'm not sure a blind trust would be able to prevent insider trading since there's nothing really constraining the flow of information from the politician to their trust manager, right?  Thoughts?

This week I was featured in two carnivals:  the Totally Money Blog Carnival at The Family CEO for my post Money lessons from The Naked Gun  and the Carnival of Personal Finance at Miss Thrifty for Saving for your MBA (or other graduate degree).  Thanks to the hosts of both carnivals!  Here are some of the other posts I liked from each.

The Totally Money Blog Carnival had some great posts on income and investing:

• Women Investors: An Oxymoron? at The Millionaire Nurse Blog
• How to Develop Passive Income at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
• Six Hobbies That Can Make You Money at Bargaineering

The Carnival of Personal Finance had some great posts on money mistakes:

• Is it better to learn about money the hard way? at TotallyMoney
• Biggest money mistakes we made at Wealth Informatics
• 4 Financial Mistakes A  Brain is Wired to Make (And How to Avoid Them) at GenYWealth

I've had a stash of articles that I've been meaning to write about but don't really fill a whole post so let me clear my back log so I can actually stay current.  Here are some articles I found interesting and my thoughts:

• The treasury is borrowing money from the Federal pension system to bankroll Federal government spending until Congress can stop arguing about the debt ceiling and actually address the problem.  This measure only buys breathing room until August at which point we may default on some obligations unless something changes.  The article says the borrowing isn't a problem because the Fed is legally required to pay it back, but it would make me pretty nervous if I were a federal retiree since a lot of states basically did long term borrowing from their pension systems in the form of underfunding and now retirees are paying the price in some areas.
• On a related note, I've been seeing many bloggers and news outlets comparing the Federal government sticking to a budget to an American family.  I find this a bit silly because historically neither really has been successful budgeting and Reuters has an article that agrees with me and gently mocks the comparison. 
• Apparently it's becoming common practice in some restaurants to round a bill to make giving change easier.  Rounding down is more common than rounding up, but both happen and the waiter rarely explains ahead of time.  I'd appreciate my bill being rounded down but it would really irk me to have my bill rounded up for the restaurant's convenience.  If easy change is so important to them the prices on their menu should be changed to round numbers instead of altering the bill without communicating with customers.
• Apparently graduate schools outside the US have improved significantly in quality and reputation over the last decade and US schools are beginning to see drops in international applicants because of it.  There is also more international interest in graduate degrees and international students outnumbered Americans in taking the GMAT.  I think the top US graduate schools are safe for now, but long term they will face more competition to stay in the lime light.  This will probably hit schools below the top tier a lot harder since it will be very tempting for international applicants to stay home and get a comparable degree.
• The LA Times debates the end of the 30 year mortgage due to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's diminishing dominance in the mortgage market.  I agree with their analysts' conclusions that the 30 year won't go away, but instead will become more expensive and include additional fees.  Americans are just too hooked on it and credit in general for banks to stop offering what is a very profitable, but somewhat risky product.  So prices will be raised to offset risk.
• Forbes profiles executive MBA programs for under $50,000.  In my mind these would likely be the best option in only a few circumstances.  Most executive MBAs would be only worthwhile, in my opinion, if your employer is paying for it.  As an entrepreneur you would either want a better network than these would provide or would not need the credential at all and could pursue classes or independent learning in a specific and self directed way for much cheaper.  But I'm sure there are counter arguments here and cases I'm not seeing.  Anyone have one?
• Student loan debt is now officially bigger than credit card debt according to the New York Times.  I suppose this makes sense since educational costs have far outpaced inflation, but it's still a scary thought since student loans are so tough to get out of compared to credit card debt. 
• Complementing the New York Times article, Today has a student loan debt clock up.  Not sure what the point is since student loan debt isn't a shared burden like the national debt, but an interesting concept.
• Finally, as others have posted, there's an interesting study out showing the pathetic state of most American's finances.  The main point is that almost half of Americans probably wouldn't be able to cope with a financial emergency on the order of $2,000.

Here are some of the articles I read this week that I thought were worth passing along:

• Why you should sweat the small stuff when it comes to money at Totally Money
• Financial perks contractors can't take for granted at Smart on Money
• How Much Money Do You Need To Start Your Own Business? at Life and My Finances
• Personal Finance and the End of Days at The Simple Dollar
• Four Ways Your Spare Time Can Lead to Thousands of Dollars at Studenomics
• Would $12,000 Convince You to Move Closer to Work? at Krantcents
• Reader Story: I’m a Sugar Mama (and Proud of It!) at Get Rich Slowly
• When Grandma Runs Out of Money at Her Every Cent Counts
• Ten More Reasons You Need to Quit Your Job Right Now! at Freakonomics
• The most important lesson HBS taught me at Military to Business
  

I just wanted to mention that I was featured in the Festival of Frugality over at Canadian Finance Blog this week for my post on reducing the costs of applying to business school.  Thanks to Tom for hosting and selecting my post for inclusion.  Here are some of the posts I found valuable from the festival:

• How to save money on Amazon purchases @ Chief Family Officer
• How to be satisfied with less @ Simple Life Habits
• Income vs Expense: Where Should You Focus Your Time and Energy? @ PT Money
• Meatless Mondays @ Smart Frugality
  

Here are some of the interesting things I found to read this week:

• Net Worths by Age Groups at Free Money Finance - I found this data on median and 25th and 10th percentile net worths by age group to be fascinating and a little disappointing.  I'm nearly to the 10th percentile for my age group! But the median is so small - my peers have what I'd consider a very low net worth.
• Your Take: A Driving Tax? at Bargaineering - A driving tax based on miles driven is an interesting question.  I'm not sure our government has a good handle on taxing the environmental impacts of driving.
• Housing Bubble History: Book covers from 2005-Present at My Money Blog - In hindsight these book covers are hilarious.  How did no one see how ridiculous it was at the time?
• What is the "Bottom"? at The Simple Dollar - This article raises some really good points about helping others in financial trouble.  It also made me feel really bad for the reader who wrote in - she helped out of the goodness of her heart and was treated very poorly.  Her sibling wouldn't even clean up their dog's waste when it went in the house!
• So You Want To Invest In Real Estate? A Tale of How One Average Guy Got Started at 20s Money - We've been considering purchasing a rental property for a while and it's a big decision so any extra  information is really useful.
• Coupled Up=Money in the Bank at Well Heeled Blog - The comments were good.  It was interesting to hear how living together impacted other people's relationships.