consumerist

In the past few weeks, I’ve been reading some articles, along with their comments, about people cutting up their credit cards. There are multiple rationales behind this decision. One such rationale is that the credit card companies act immorally by preying on the “weak” who fall into the trap of credit. Another rationale is that [...]

Another school year is quickly approaching and this is a great time to start planning and preparing for the new school year. With the current economic condition, it’s also a good time to discuss practical finances with your children. Here is a great collection of articles and video that you can peruse.

6 Ways To Build [...]

I came across “Chase Hiked My Minimum Payment To 5 Percent!” on The Consumerist today. This is bad news for Greg and his wife, because this hike increase their minimum payment $558 to $930 — which causes them significant financial stress. Although I sympathized with the dilemma that Greg and his wife are facing, I [...]

Thank you everyone for participating in the Favorite Financial Websites giveaway. If you haven’t add your favorite websites to the list, please feel free to leave a comment with your favorite sites here. Otherwise, I’d like to announce the two winners of the giveway. The prize is $25 each.

First winner, from comment #31… Jim, who [...]

Net Worth Review
The S&P500 basically traded sideway in July going from 1280.00 to 1267.38, or a -1% decline in value. According to NetworthIQ, my net worth dropped another -2.04% — mostly due to the value of my house. Fortunately, my net investable assets actually went up +1.61%, or from 22.59% to 22.94% of $1 million [...]

It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging about personal finance for one full year. Overall, I have to say that it’s a success in many ways. Specifically, I was able to meet the three goals I had set for myself at the beginning:

To learn more about financial concepts and improve my finances
To supplement [...]

Net Worth Review
Wow, June was a terrible month for stock investors. Bad economy, Midwest flood, inflation, high oil price, among other factors added up to an -8.6% drop for the S&P500 — from 1400.38 to 1280.00! According to NetworthIQ, my net worth went down -3.04% — mostly due to my retirement and stock investments, and [...]

Great Articles
If you haven’t seen Personal Finance Buzz, please visit, sign up, and give it a try. Some of the most popular articles of the week include:

Alas, problogger, we hardly knew ye at Brip Blap — Steve who became pro-blogger not long ago shares his thought on pro-blogging and the reason why he went back [...]

I would like to think that I started the movement with Top 10 money wasters, are you guilty?, but I doubt it. So, here are other posts about money wasters, money leaks, unnecessary expenses, or whatever you want to call it.

Gather Little By Little, 7 Things I’ve Given Up to Prune My Expenses
Money, Matter, and [...]

I was going to do a saving money for college roundup this week in preparation for my first baby. But, with so many cool credit related posts around, the saving money for college will have to wait another week. This should not be a problem since my baby is not due until mid-December (I still [...]