Top Ten Decisions for Your Personal Finances in 2008
Well here we are in 2008 already. December and the Christmas season whizzed by. I was only able to get my Christmas tree a week before Christmas and decorated it only the weekend before!
Let’s start 2008 on a positive note; a different take on the list of New Year’s resolutions.
Here are the top 10 factors that will enable you and your family to be financially successful. These tips are invaluable because they come from experience working with real clients like you and I. Real people and families have increase dtheir net worth making great progress towards a future of financial independence because they've taken control of their money.
Top 10 Personal Financial Recommendations for 2008
The Rule of 72 in Reverse - Helping Your Personal Finances
How many of you would purposely spill ten dollars worth of quarters down the grate of a sidewalk? Would you leave your five-dollar bill on a windy open windowsill?
Wallet Woes: The Rule of 72 in reverse.
Which would you prefer, paying a parking or speeding ticket or having strangers (*cough* the banks *cough*) help themselves to money from your wallet? Here's one of our more popular posts originally released in 2006.
Times like the holiday season involve buying gifts, parties, going places, spending paper, coin, or plastic money. Come January many people may greet the New Year with a big financial hangover. Well there's help! Forget the vitamin B and hair of warthog during the full moon.
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Great Intro Articles on Economics
Found at About.com here are some intro-economics terms explained in an easy to understand way:
- What is Inflation?
- When is it a depression or recession?
- What is the difference between nominal and real interest rates?
Enjoy!
Too Much Flexible Spending - What to Do With Your Income
Hi and Lois Nov 25, 2003.
There are 3 types of people in life: The spender, the lender, and the investor.
"Poor people spend and buy stuff, the middle class buy liabilities, and the wealthy buy assets."
Let's take a look at these truisms.
The spender will buy stuff, putting off achieving their financial goals until they have more money. In fact habits become harder to break over time. The day they plan for their financial future may never arrive. The spender needs to realize that almost every wage earner is capable of both meeting their every day expenses and investing for their long term goals.
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Merry Christmas From DiscussEconomics
From everyone here at DiscussEconomics we want to wish you a great Christmas. Hopefully your bills won't get the better of you this season, but hey, if people didn't spend we'd have nothing to talk about! If you don't do the Xmas thing then hey, Happy Holidays nonetheless. Keep yourself tuned for the latest news re: the economy and personal finances, in the new year. Winter is slow but we'll be on top of it.
Exciting changes and additions are planned for next season including an new design so don't forget to come back soon for a visit and to bookmark us in your browsers and news feeds.
Smart Financial Planning Steps for Beginners - Part 2
Picking up where we left off from the first part of this article, remember, pay off debts which includes your mortgage. A good strategy for this room of the house is to take on a minimal amount of fixed debt. A person's ability to manage this aspect of their finances will impact their whole financial future. Remember: there is bad debt, and in some cases good debt. Be smart because much of easily accumulated and accessible debt is bad debt!
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Smart Financial Planning Steps for Beginners
Some First Steps to Secure Financial Planning
I am sure that none of you reading this would think that building a house by beginning with the roof would be a great idea. In fact it would be impossible. The roof would need support. Let's use the analogy of a house to see the elements of a financial plan and their priorities.
Every house starts with a foundation. The foundation of financial success is as follows:
US Won’t Block Climate talks in Bali
Turns out somebody in the US wants to talk climate change. US delegates to a UN climate conference suggested they will not be a roadblock to a new international agreement aimed at reducing potentially catastrophic greenhouse gases, but refuse to endorse mandatory emissions cuts. Many governmental delegations at the meeting in Bali see mandatory cuts as crucial for reining in rising temperatures.
Faced with melting polar ice and worsening droughts, delegates from nearly 190 nations opened the two-week conference with pleas for a new climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. That deal required the 36 signatories to cut emissions by 5 percent.
A key goal of the conference will be to draw in a skeptical United States, now the sole industrial power that has refused to rafity the Kyoto Protocol, citing fears it would hurt the U.S. economy because cuts aren't required of rising economies like those in China and India.
The US repeatedly defended their refusal to embrace emission caps after Australia's new prime minister signed papers Monday to ratify the 1997 Kyoto agreement - reversing the decision of his nation's previous, conservative government. We for one side with the US (a bit). Actually no, we side with Canada. The impact Kyoto will have on the overall environment will be nil (from a Canadian contribution standpoint) because the major producers like India, China, and US won't participate.
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Why Bonds Trade at par, Discount, or at a Premium
Here is a quick reference chart to help you determine market price and coupon rate of bond trades.
- When a bond trades at par value:
- Market Price = face value
- Coupon Rate = market interest rate
- When a bond trades at a discount:
- Market Price < face value
- Coupon Rate < market interest rate
- When a bond trades at a premium:
- Market Price > face value
- Coupon Rate > market interest rate
Bond Pricing Principles
- Interest rates and bond prices are inversely related.
- The longer the time a bond matures, the more volatile the market value of bond in response to changes in interest rules.
- Lower coupon bonds are more volatile in price than higher coupon bonds when interest rate changes.
- Lower coupon --> greater % in future = volatility
Technorati Tags: bonds, market price, coupon rate, bond rate, bond trades
What is Money? The Functions of Bills and Change
Money. Can't live without it. Can't buy everything with it, but if you're living in any developed economy chances are you have it. You want more of it, wish it could buy happiness, and sometimes despise it, (or at least those who want yours).
But underneath the surface of it all what is money? From a macroeconomical standpoint what does money represent? This article will provide a brief summary on the 3 functions or purposes of money.
