Gather Little by Little

Congratulations to Alabama! I’m not really a fan of the Tide, but Ron is. Here are some articles that I found interesting this week and I hope you can find some useful tips:

Being Frugal found 101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year! I need to go through this list again.

Amateur Asset Allocator posted an article that might help me out: 401k Hardship Withdrawal Rules since I cashed out an IRA account this last year. I hope to qualify under the “money to pay your mortgage in an attempt to avoid foreclosure” exception.

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I thought I would share one of my favorite Christmas songs. Enjoy this day for the opportunity to be with family and take some time to reflect upon the implications of Christmas Day.

In the First Light

In the first light of a new day
No one knew He had arrived
Things continued as they had been
While a new born softly cried.

But the heavens wrapped in wonder
Knew the meaning of His birth
In the weakness of a baby
They knew God had come to earth.

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It is now time to name the 2 SmartyPig contest winners of a $50 gift card for their SmartyPig account!

#1 CM (comment #12)

#2 Rebecca (comment #27)

I’ll be contacting the winners to send them the money over next weekend. Congrats and thanks to everybody who participated!
I am also adding a chart at the bottom of this post that compares all the CD’s and savings bank account you can get. You will see that Smarty Pigs is by far the best deal around right now! (note: the table is too big right now, I am working on this ;-) ).

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How is that Global Warming treating you, Midwest and Northeast? Here are some articles that I found interesting this week:

Jill, one of the new writers at Moolanomy posted a list of items for your end-of-the-year financial checkup. Some good ideas here. Don’t procrastinate!

David at My Two Dollars listed some of the tax law changes. There are some tax increases that might affect you (see AMT and sales tax deductions). Charities will be quite disappointed that gifts from IRA accounts will no longer be tax deductible . . . that one makes me angry.

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Here are some articles from around the personal finance blogosphere that I think you might like.

Do not miss the big third anniversary give-away at The Financial Blogger! Entering the contest requires little effort and the prizes are outstanding. First prize is an iPod Touch, second prize is a $50 Amazon gift certificate and third prize is a $25 gift certificate. Click on over right away!

Being Frugal suggests an inexpensive way to celebrate the holidays: read to your kids! There are so many good Christmas books around and children know you love them when you read to them. I cannot recommend reading to your children highly enough.

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Here are some articles about the day that has come to be known as Black Friday. The name comes from the fact that many retailers stay in the “red” or operate at a deficit all year until the Christmas shopping season. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the first time of the year that they move over into profitability or “into the black”.

Trent at The Simple Dollar recommends restraint . . . makes sense.

PF Firewall lists a few tips, tricks and a caution or two for getting the best deal. He has a great list of Black Friday websites.

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Some of us are going to be seeing a lot of traffic lights over the next week or so . . . Here are some articles that I like:

A great article from Kevin at Moolanomy where he challenges us to help ourselves, not the economy. He is right. Our government needs us to spend money. They want us to spend money, even if it is not in our best interests. I say that they need to balance their own books.

Being Frugal recommends using Smarty Pig to save for Christmas next year. That particular type of account has some interesting applications.

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Here are some articles that Mrs. Stew liked this week:

Think Your Way to Wealth wrote about the challenges of living on one income. There are challenges, but also blessings to having a parent at home all day . . .

This article might be a hint from Mrs. Stew – Borrow from None wrote about lesson six in the Financial Peace University: Buyer Beware. I could probably do a better job in that area sometimes.

Mrs. Stew enjoyed the discussion about money itself from Aristotles perspective posted by Mrs. Micah over at Finance for a Freelance Life.

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I don’t know about you, but I think Daylight Savings is dumb. Why not just let the amount of sunlight wax and wane naturally? I miss driving home when the sun is still up at 5 pm . . . not a big deal, but I would love to get rid of it. Here are some articles that I found interesting this week:

Ron from the Wisdom Journal posted the top 10 consumer credit card events of 2009 – a good read. I am not sure that our current credit paradigm is going to last much longer. We’ll see . . .

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Here are some articles that I like this week. I hope you find something to think about!

Craig Ford at Moolanomy asked should parents have a financial double standard for sons and daughters? I have both.

Mighty Bargain Hunter is worried that the new credit card legislation will result in higher costs for responsible credit card users. He might be over reacting, but the history of government interference in private enterprise is not good. It almost always has unintended consequences.

Patrick at Cash Money Life helps us find the best rates on a Roth IRA.

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