Gather Little by Little

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. Mark 12:17

I would like to start a discussion. I honestly do not know exactly where I stand when it comes to some of the ethical questions surrounding government controlled economies, confiscatory tax rates, the black market and necessity. Our American economy has traditionally been laisezz-faire. It called for very little government control. Our tax rates have been low relative to the rest of the world and most goods and services can be obtained at a reasonable price.

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On September, 15^th 2008, the financial world almost collapsed upon one of the biggest failures in Wall Street history: The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Upon this major news, the stocks markets started one of the most important and surely the fastest drop of its long history. A year later, nothing much has been done about banking laws and protecting consumers from the rise of another economic bubble. While the US government hasn’t shown us what they have learned much so far (the debate was rapidly redirected towards the healthcare system), it doesn’t mean you can’t apply a few lessons from the Lehman Brothers’ failure to your own personal finances!

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Last week, Mike wrote about some ways to use a day-to-day credit card. Most Gather Little by Little readers might have been a little surprised by the topic and the point of view because glblguy has always been completely averse to credit cards – and for good reason.

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Here are some articles that I found interesting this week:

The Silicon Valley Blogger asks what do you plan to do in retirement? As part of the article, she posted a fascinating video about a 93 year old stock broker. Watch it.

The Smarter Wallet wrote down some thoughts on health care. I pretty much operate under the assumption that if there are problems with something, handing it over to the government is a sure way to make it worse. Health care is a worry for all of us and there are problems with the system . . . I would just like to find the solution outside of government, but we’ll see . . .

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I’m sure it’s happened to you. A birthday, holiday, or special occasion is coming up for someone in your life, but you have no clue what to get them. For all but the closest of my family members this happens to be frequently. It’s even worse for my parents and in-laws as they generally have all of the things they need or want that are within the price range I can afford. I try to look for things they want and wouldn’t normally purchase for themselves, but that’s tough. So many times I resort to gift cards.

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I have been a customer of ING Direct for several years now and although there are other banks that are offering higher interest rates, I will always keep the majority of my savings money there.I know that many people like ING’s Electric Orange checking account, but I personally do not use it. I prefer to use a local, brick and mortar bank for checking.

Here is what I like most about ING Direct: sub accounts. I currently have seven different sub accounts as a part of my regular savings account at ING Direct. Here is how I use the sub account feature at ING Direct:

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Since I recently bought this blog, I keep going back in time through the GLBL history and read its previous articles. Larry has a great grasp on his personal finances yet we have a different perception of the very same topic. One article caught my attention: No Credit Cards; Here’s why. In this post, Larry was explaining why he wasn’t even carrying a credit card anymore. These pieces of plastic often have the strongest voice suggesting:

“You can buy it now, it’s on sale and you will save money!”

“Buy it now and you will have another 30 days to pay it back”

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I always think it is ironic that Labor Day is a day off of work.

Labor Day has been observed since the 1880′s. It was originally intended to be a nod toward organized labor by politicians, both in Canada and in the United States. I value the contributions of all people who work, not just union workers and I salute all who have used the freedom offered by our culture to work to earn their dream.

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Here are some articles that I found interesting or useful this week:

Pretty basic, but we can all use a reminder. Lynnae at Being Frugal lists five steps to pay off your credit cards.

I love to travel and I do a great deal – mostly within the States, but I fly or drive across state lines close to twenty-five times a year. Plonkee from Plonkee Money wrote an article listing seven travel items that a person should not bother buying and five things that might save you money while traveling. I might do a couple of my own lists on this topic sometime – interesting idea.

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Ever look at your bank account and ask “Where in the world did my money go?”  I do that often. As a matter of fact, my wife and i were looking at our checking account balance the other night and asking that very same question. Fortunately for us, we budget and I track all of our expenses, so the answer was only a double click away by opening up You Need a Budget. Ours had gone to medical payments, as we still haven’t met our deductibles for the year yet. Unfortunately there were all unplanned expenses (son cut his hand, sick child, and a sports physical we didn’t plan on needing so soon) so we had to tap the emergency fund, but that’s what it’s there for.

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