Gather Little by Little

I thought I would share this article coming from our Europeans cousins ;-) I don’t think that women are that different in North America; they are definitely best saver than men ;-)

Research in Ireland has found that women tend to be better than men at saving money. Of course, such “˜data’ will likely fuel the old “˜it’s official, women are better than men at something else – add that to the list above driving, multi-tasking and smelling nice,’ argument that has been muttered, countered, and accepted since the dawn of time. Yet, it also shows something more positive, i.e. that a nation also looks to be battling its way out of recession quite successfully – and that more people may now be aware of the importance of savings.

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I often struggle with my weight, eating properly, getting exercise and all that goes with it. I have learned the one way to motivate myself is to visualize the goal. To think about how it feels to bend over and tie my shoes without losing breath, to imagine being able to button one’s pants without holding my breath and to imagine not having the extra weight on my knees.

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Being a Financial Planner, I am always discussing different investment strategies with clients and colleagues. I would say that we are all tempted to think that the most profitable and easiest strategies are for rich people. We may think that we could be making much more money with $100,000 to invest rather than $5,000. However, there are methods for small investors that can almost replicate the best investment strategies of the rich.

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I changed jobs a couple of years ago. For the most part, I am happy with the change. The new job is better for my family and I like our new location better. However, it has become clear to me that “Corporation B” is not as good at strategic planning and cost benefit analysis among other things as “Corporation A”. I am a little nervous about how this will affect my job in the long term, and I thought I would share one small example of this kind of thinking.

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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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As I previously mentioned, most of the growth present in the US economy is coming from the money injected into our capitalist system by the Government. The housing market hasn’t seemed to pick up that much and the real unemployment rate is closer to 17% than 10% (unemployment rate doesn’t count people that are on welfare or those who gave up and quit looking for a job).

This is why so many people are asking if we will get another stimulus check in 2010?

So here’s what we know so far:

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On my personal finance journey, I have come to understand that knowledge is power. Nothing demonstrated to me the wastefulness of our spending habits until I started keeping track of our finances and could read it in plain black and white. I cannot say that I have continued this habit to this day – Mrs. Stew and I have a different approach to budgeting nowadays and it works for us. However, I thought I would share two anecdotes that could help you to reinforce this principle in your children.

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I read a very interesting post over at Bible Money Matters about setting your course for next year now. This article was about setting your financial goals for 2010 before it happens ;-). Too often, we tend to wait until the next year begins to start new financial projects. Then, we forget about fixing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) objectives in January and we wake up in spring without accomplishing much to date.

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If our financial situation ever worsened to the point where had to cut every single unnecessary expense, coffee would be the last thing to go. There is something about that black, bitter brew that just keeps me coming back for more. And I am not picky about my java, if I listed all of the places and formats and temperatures at which I had consumed the beverage, this post would start to sound like a Dr. Seuss poem. I drink gas station coffee, truck stop coffee, bank lobby coffee . . . I would drink it in a box, I would drink it with a fox, I would drink it in a house, I would drink it with a mouse . . . As a result, I am always on the lookout for a cheaper way to get coffee for less.

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My wife and kids and I live a fourteen hour drive from my family and a twelve hour drive in the exact opposite direction from my wife’s family, so sometimes it is difficult to make a decision about where to spend the holidays. This  year we drove east to be with my family. Here are the numbers:

Gasoline: The trip is a thousand miles one way and our minivan gets approximately 21 miles per gallon. We will drive another 200 miles during the four day visit and then another 1,000 miles to get home. Total fuel cost: $280.

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