On to the links!

I Was Interviewed By Credit Card Assist!

First of all, I’d like to think Bill over at Credit Card Assist for interviewing me for their Best of the Blogger series. Go check it out if you’d like to hear some of my thoughts on blogging. Or if you want to know my last name.

Less Awesome But Still Pretty Awesome Links

Oh boy, was there a flame war on twitter last week between Suze Orman and some bloggers I know. Jeremy at Gen X Finance shares his unfavorable opinion of her new prepaid debit card. Kevin at Thousandaire.com shares his opinion, as well. Naturally, I have my own opinion on the matter which I’ll be writing about soon. My opinion is actually a bit more favorable than most others. I’ll explain why in the post.

Speaking of opinions on the internet, Mike at Money Smarts Blog gives his opinion on online opinions. And no, this one isn’t related to Suze Orman.

Ever wonder why everybody else always seems to have more money than you do?  The Finance Buff ruminates on a few reasons this may seem to be so when it isn’t really true.

Paula’s tenant got kidnapped in midtown Atlanta. It’s pretty funny how incompetent the kidnappers turned out to be. There’s also a follow-up post with more details.

JD at Get Rich Slowly reposted one from the archives I actually hadn’t read before called How to Fend Off Financial Trolls, or Haters Gonna Hate. You know those annoying people who have nothing positive to say about money, rich people, banks, or whatever else and constantly tell your goals and ideas are stupid and won’t work? Yeah, I don’t like hanging out with them either.

College can be the key to your future — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that future is going to be bright. If you play it smart, you will surely benefit and it will be one of the best investments you could possibly make. No doubt about it. But if you make the wrong decision about college, you could pay for that mistake for years to come.

Consider the astronomical cost of college. The average college grad ends up in debt to the tune of over $22,000 according to Consumer Reports http://news.consumerreports.org/money/2011/05/2011-college-grads-have-highest-average-debt-to-date.html) And that’s just the average which includes people who attend lower-cost community college. If you attend a four-year school, the cost could easily top $20,000 per year.

That means a student could easily graduate with over $80,000 in debt – just for undergraduate school. Don’t get me wrong, you can find plenty of great jobs without a college degree. But if you do decide to go to college, it’s going to be expensive. Given the huge investment, doesn’t it make sense to graduate with a degree that will help make your debt payment plan easier? Better yet, doesn’t it stand to reason you should study something that allows you to get a degree, get a job and not run up this kind of debt in the first place? This may seem like simple logic to you but most students are ignoring this reality. Let’s take a look at the facts.

Over the last 25 years, the number of students attending college have doubled. But what’s happened to the number of people studying the most sought after professions? That number has remained flat. In fact, more people graduated with degrees in computer science, chemical engineering and math 25 years ago than graduate with those degrees today. On the other hand, the number of people studying visual and performing arts has skyrocketed. More graduated from this department than from all the other disciplines mentioned above combined. And more people are studying psychology – twice as many as compared to 25 years ago – but there are fewer jobs.

Of course there is nothing wrong with studying anything you want –as long as you understand the consequences and are willing to accept them. People with degrees in hard sciences command higher wages. People with degrees in psychology, visual and performing arts etc receive lower compensation. And that’s if you can find work. Because of increased competition and lower demand, people who graduate with a degree in the humanities (half of them) work in jobs that don’t require a degree at all.

Let’s say you graduated in 2009 with a humanities degree and got a job that required a degree. In your first year out of school you earned, on average $21,000. If you found a job that didn’t require a degree (even though you had one) you earned $14,000. The $7,000 “bonus” is nice, but if you graduate with $80,000 in debt, it’s going to take you about 15 years to pay off that debt (with interest).

Bottom line? Study whatever you like. But if you have limited funds, make your investment count. It might be nice to get a degree in English, but you have to ask yourself if that’s the best long term decision for you. What kind of opportunities does such a degree provide you with? What path does it set you on? Can you afford it?

There have been any number of discussions that debate the importance of a high-cost college education. Many of those posts focus on whether or not it’s worthwhile to go to a fancy (expensive) college or not. I believe these arguments miss the boat entirely. The central issue when it comes to college and the value you may or may not derive from it, is a function of what you intend to study and why.

If you want to study Visual Arts or English and (given any debt you may or may not accumulate) can afford to take the jobs that will be available to you, go for it. But don’t complain if after 4 years in undergraduate school you end up working at Starbucks — with $80,000 in student loans.

I am not saying that a humanities degree has no value. I am saying that if you have limited time and money, and you want to build a bright financial future for yourself, think long and hard about the degree you pursue in college. It’s a financial investment. You have the power to make a very good one or a very poor one.

On to the links! If you haven’t read all of these posts, you should.

6 Reasons to Buy Dividend Stocks in a Volatile Market by RothIRA.com.

The New American Family: Flexibility and Unconventional Lifestyles to Make Ends Meet by Free From Broke.

Can I Retire? – A Review by Couple Money. This is the latest book from Mike Piper, author of several other books as well as the Oblivious Investor website. I received a free copy of this book at FINCON11 and will be writing my own review when I’m done. Oh yeah, and check out the Tablet Giveaway at Couple Money as well.

How My Friend Landed a Dream Job on Facebook & How You Can Do it by Studenomics.

What Is The True Cost Of Debt? by Stupid Cents.

The Kindle Fire: A Frugal Ipad And Tablet Alternative? by Bible Money Matters. I admit I’m pretty intrigued by the Kindle Fire, personally. I doubt I’ll buy one anytime soon, though.

Oh, and go Falcons!

How to Save on Your Cell Phone Bill by Couple Money. I will be purchasing my first big-boy phone in the near future, meaning I will have a large monthly cell phone bill to cover. Stupid greedy phone companies!

Stop Crying That There Are No Jobs! by Afford Anything. Actually, I admit not really understanding this complaint to begin with. After all, there are plenty of jobs. They may be in areas you aren’t qualified to work, but there is no shortage of actual jobs. The solution? Get qualified to do those jobs! Either that or create your own, which is what Paula recommends. With the internet, there has never been as many economic opportunities as there are right now. Step up and make something of it.

How to be a Conservative Investor by Gen X Finance. Note that “conservative investor” doesn’t mean avoiding stocks. It just means taking a level of risk you’re comfortable with while still owning enough equities to meet your goals.

Evaluating Vanguard’s New Life Strategy Funds by Oblivious Investor. Finally! Vanguard has done what we all wanted them to do and gotten rid of that horrible Asset Allocation fund and by extension dramatically increased the usefulness of its Life Strategy line of funds. Going forward, these will be a one-stop shop of simple three-fund portfolios with varying degrees of risk. Sweet.

No More Car Loan: 7 Steps to Stop the Cycle of Car Payments by Boomer and Echo. Do you own a car? Tired of making endless car payments? Do you never have any money or wish you could find a way to free up literally hundreds of dollars each month? Well now you can! Follow these simple steps and you’ll never have a car payment again! Imagine the savings!

Are financial advisors profiting during bear markets? by Retire Happy Blog. Yes Virginia, your financial advisor gets paid whether or not you make or lose money.

The Hidden Cost of Credit Cards by Free From Broke. Using a credit card  may be costing you move than you think!

Friday

I should’ve flown in Thursday night. Apparently there were several of bloggers already there and  dealing with an early Friday morning flight was a pain, primarily because I stayed up way too late on Thursday night and didn’t get much sleep (this would become a pattern). I got to the hotel around noon or so, took a short nap, and headed down to register around one. Once there, I met a few blogging friends I recognized and we ended up going to lunch together. Somebody correct me if I’m leaving somebody out, but I think the complete list is Pete, Ben,  Ryan,  Jeremy, and some of the guys from Wisebread and Money Crashers. It was a pretty small group, which was good, because helped ease me into the the all-out hyper networking nature of the rest of the weekend.

After lunch, we did some charity work through The Love Drop, which was organized by J Money. The target organization was Phil’s Friends,  which provides support for cancer patients in the form of care packages, hand-written letters, and just flat out caring for the sick. It’s a really good cause and I’d love to see the organization grow to become nationwide so please, if you or somebody you know has ever been effected by cancer (and who hasn’t?), please donate. Every little bit counts. Anyway, being the lazy bastard I am, I forgot to RSVP for the event but decided to tag along anyway. After all, who ever complained about too many people showing up to do charity work? Unfortunately, I was told later that the bus was too full and some people ended up having to take separate vehicles. Sorry guys, that was my bad. Hit me up on Twitter (@KyleAAA) or via email and I’ll send you some gas money.

After some hard labor, it was time to party. The evening started off with MD and I making a trip to the local grocery store to pick up a 12 pack of Latrobe’s finest. I subsequently began passing them out to random people which, as you can imagine, made me very popular the rest of the evening. That leads us to the conference happy hour (read: free social lubricant) followed by a speed networking event. This is where things get a bit hazy. I made it a point to try to meet every single person in the room. Naturally, I didn’t quite get there but still, I probably met well over 100 people in the span of a few hours. Obviously, I couldn’t possibly mention everybody here but among the highlights for me was meeting Flexo, Rick Ferri (every investor should read his books, seriously), MD, Pat Flynn, Paula and Smart Money Chick (since we live in the same town, which is awesome), and about a billion others I can’t bring to mind. I also met a lot of really fun people representing various vendors. I would list  you all but a bit too much wine had been consumed at that point so to avoid leaving anyone out, I just won’t try.

Festivities continued long into the evening. Not much sleeping was done.

Saturday

I woke up with a bit of a headache on Saturday. Oops. But I ended up bumming some tylenol off somebody and was good to go before long.

This was the meat of the conference and honestly, every single one of the presentations I attended was excellent. Most conferences have a few stellar presentations surrounded by a bunch of fluff, but not this one. And I really mean that. All the presenters did a great job. Of the presentations I was particularly excited to see were JD’s and Ramit’s. Honestly, I thought I had a pretty good handle on most of this stuff, but I was shocked at how much I learned. The presentations I feel brought the most value to me personally were the one’s about email marketing and landing page optimization, as those are two things I am really, really not very good at.

After the day’s sessions was dinner, the Plutus Awards (congratulations to all the winners!), and an after party hosted by Ramit. It’s probably unwise to give too many details about what went down at the party, but suffice it to say that a.) yes, PF Bloggers know how to party and b.) I was sore all over the next day. Draw your own conclusions.

I proceeded to stay out past 4am. Again, no sleep.

Sunday

Sunday brought more excellent sessions and opportunities to socialize but, to be honest, I was still not feeling so hot from the night before and so wasn’t in much of a socializing mood. I think I had popcorn and coffee or something ridiculous like that for breakfast. After the last session (by Pat Flynn, which was excellent), I had one last parting lunch with some of the guys from the conference. Since I had eaten way too much crap and generally been as unhealthy as possible all weekend long, I decided to limit myself to soup and salad for lunch. Naturally, that didn’t really fill me up so I gorged myself on McDonalds at the airport.

An Invitation To Everybody I Met This Weekend

It was great meeting you all. Really. Every. Single. One. Of. You. The hard part, though, is going to be maintaining contact over the next year. I believe we can all help each other enormously if we just work together. After all, we all have different skillz, experiences, and perspectives to bring to the table. There is no doubt something valuable I can learn from you and hopefully there’s something valuable you can learn from me. So consider this an open invitation:

To everybody I met this weekend, I want to help you achieve your goals, both personal and professional. Do you need a link to that awesome post you wrote last week? Need advice on optimal Adsense placement or maybe have a technical question? Need help promoting an ebook you wrote or product you created? I want to help you succeed. Please, please, please get in touch with me if you have any questions, comments, requests, or hell, just want to connect socially. I don’t want to wait until FINCON12 to reconnect with you guys again! Let me do something nice for you. Anything. Hit me up on Twitter (@KyleAAA) or via Email (Kyle at [this domain] dot com). I look forward to hearing from you guys!

In conclusion, I’ve been to plenty of conferences and this is, no joke, by far the best-run and most fun of any I’ve ever attended. I was inspired, excited, and energized by all the great presentations and truly fund and interesting people I met this weekend. Phil from PTMoney did an absolutely phenomenal job. Hey Phil, if there’s anything I can do to help out with next year’s conference, let me know.

I’m not the only one who had a great time. Here are some other (mostly better) accounts of the conference from a few others.

• How To Handle Meeting Hundreds Of Colleagues by Flexo of Consumerism Commentary (and who I stole this list from).
• A Gathering Of Financial Minds – FINCON11 A Smashing Success by Ryan of Cash Money Life.
• A Meeting Of The Minds: FINCON11 by JD at Get Rich Slowly.
• Moving Beyond Blogging At The Financial Bloggers’ Conference by Kelly at The Centsible Life (I loved your presentation, by the way).
• How Can One Personal Finance Blogger Make So Many Bad Money Decisions? by Miranda Marquit, one of the best freelance writers in the personal finance space and an absolute pleasure to interact with.
• Share Your Favorite FINCON Moments And Win $100 by Will at Wisebread. Would it help me with the $100 if I said it was meeting you?
• The Financial Bloggers Conference Saved This Blog by Jenny at The Jenny Pincher. I’ve been there. More than once. Blogging is a lot harder than most people think, but if you stick with it good things will happen eventually.
• What I Learned About Personal Finance Bloggers From FINCON11 by the Mighty Bargain Hunter.

Anyway, here as some links that have absolutely nothing to do with basketball.

Happily Ever After: Money Matters You MUST Discuss Before Marriage by Clariity – Not that I’m planning on getting married soon or anything.

Picking Mutual Funds: Don’t Just Look at the Winners by Oblivious Investor – Mutual fund expenses are the only fund metric that has any consistent predictive power regarding future performance. The rest is just noise.

The Mortgage Tax Deduction Myth by Generation X Finance – I wrote a similar article about calculating your true after-tax mortgage interest rate. Depending on your tax situation, it’s probably not as low as you might think.

Recession Lessons Are Fading Fast – Unless You’re Young (like under 29) by The Wisdom Journal – It’s true: Americans have short memories.

How to Unlock Your Ontario LIRA Or Locked-in Retirement Account by Money Smarts Blog – Because yes, I DO have some Canadian readers and judging from what I read, Canada has an even more complicated financial system than we do.

Commonly Missed Tax Deductions by Debt Free Adventure – It’s all in the title.

How To Teach Kids About Money And Get Results by Wealth Pilgrim – Again, not that I’m planning on having kids anytime soon.

Make Money with an Online Store by PT Money – Podcast describing a general approach to setting up an online store. But I warn you, it’s not easy to make money online!

Education Tax Credits Can Help Pay For College Costs by Smart On Money – I really wish we’d go to a more European system where $10 and a bottle of Vodka would get you into college.

Spousal Benefits and Social Security Strategies for Married Couples by Moolanomy – When it comes to Social Security benefits for a married couple, choosing the right strategy matters.

IRS Tax Credits and Deductions to Save on Your Taxes if You Have Kids by Free From Broke – Rugrats do have one redeeming quality: they are walking tax deductions.

Why Chasing Bank Interest Rates is a Waste by Studenomics – Amen. Unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved up, chasing rates just isn’t that rewarding.

Don’t Chase High Dividend Stocks by Cash Money Life – I think it was Warren Buffett who said more fortunes have been lost chasing yield than spent in strip clubs in Vegas. Or something like that.

There’s More to Risk Than Meets the Eye by Generation X Finance – There are many different kinds of risk besides just “the price done gone down!”

The perfect retirement myth by Money Smarts Blog – This post hits on a topic near and dear to my heart: it’s all just one big guess. Nobody knows what the markets will do both before and after you retire. Nobody know what emergencies may come up along the way. So just set a reasonable savings goal, a reasonable asset allocation, and live your life.

Asset Allocation is a Sloppy Science by Oblivious Investor – Along those same lines…

9 Tips to Owning A Successful Small Business by Wealth Pilgrim – Wise advice.

When A Roth IRA Will Cost You by Smart On Money – Avoid these common Roth gotchas.

My Wife Spends Too Much Money by PT Money – Us single folk don’t need to worry about that sort of thing.

Ethical Dilemma – Choosing Foreclosure to be a SAHM by Cash Money Life – Personally, I don’t see anything ethically wrong with making a business decision to walk away from your mortgage.

Where is My IRS Form 1040 Tax Package (or Where Can I File Free)? by Free From Broke – In order to save money, the federal government isn’t mailing out 1040 forms this year. Yeah, cause that’ll put a dent in the deficit.

IRS Payment Plan: Help for Those Who Can’t Pay Their Taxes by Moolanomy – If you can’t pay your taxes, there’s help available. Here are some options.

Estate Tax Changes in 2011 by My Dollar Plan – Seems like Congress changes the estate tax laws every year. Here are this year’s rules.

What Will Happen to My Scottrade Account When I Die? by The Wisdom Journal – Hopefully you have your beneficiaries set up!

20 Financial Moves In Your 20s by Studenomics – Number 4: quit a job. Better yet, quit two! It’s fun.

Here are some non-football-related links.

Professional LLC FAQs In Plain English by Wealth Pilgrim – Considering opening up or reforming your business? An LLC is probably the simplest business entity around.

Protecting Your Private Files by Oblivious Investor – Are you worried your personal files could fall into the wrong hands?

TFSA vs RRSP for retirement by Money Smarts Blog – RRSP seems like it would be fun to pronounce in Spanish.

Filing For Bankruptcy at 23 by Debt Kid – Debt Kid reflects back on filing for bankruptcy 3 years ago.

TurboTax vs H&R Block Online: Which Is Better? – by The Wisdom Journal – I’m a TurboTax® man, myself.

5 Helpful Android and iPhone Tax Apps by My Dollar Plan – Being able to take a picture of your receipts and import to your tax software is pretty cool.

A Federal Income Tax Increase In 2011? by Bible Money Matters – Are your taxes going up this year? Mine sure are, but mostly because I made a lot more money last year.

Are You Afraid to Use Debt For Your Business? by Passive Income Now – Borrowing money can be risky, but starving your business of cash is even more dangerous.

Do I Have to Pay Tax on Unemployment Compensation? by PT Money – Sadly, I did. Seems pretty stupid to me, but I don’t make the rules.

Best Retirement Plans For The Self Employed or Small Business Owner by Free From Broke – I am in the process of opening a solo 401k myself.

Bootstrapping Your Start-Up Business With Little or No Money by Generation X Finance – Seems to have worked out for me so far. Of course, now that my business is profitable I outsource as much as possible.

11 Survival Tips for the Dad’s 9 Months of Pregnancy by the guys at Clariity- Just to clarify, I will not need to utilize any of these tips anytime soon, mom.

Mint.com Canadian Review by Money Smarts Blog – Review of Mint.com from a canadian perspective.

How Much Income Will You Need in Retirement? by Oblivious Investor – I estimate I’ll only need $1 million per year or so.

Tips For Self-Preparing And Filing Your Income Taxes by Bible Money Matters – On top of the advice given in this post, I use TurboTax every year and can strongly recommend it. If you’ve got a simple return, there is a free Federal e-File edition you can take advantage of. I use the Home & Business edition.

5 Lessons Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Healthy Living by Frugal Dad – I’m not a huge Ramsey fan, generally speaking. Still, the kernal of his message rings true.

A Resolution Worth Keeping: Set Up An Investment Account With An Online Brokerage by The Wisdom Journal – Have extra money to invest outside of your retirement accounts? Then set up a taxable account and invest in tax-efficient index funds and ETF’s.

Scottrade Review: $7 Trades and Local Offices by Generation X Finance – While I preferred Tradeking back when I actually bought individual stocks, Scottrade does have the advantage of having local branches if you need personal attention. Zecco also gets good reviews.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) Changes for 2011 by Good Financial Cents – The new rules don’t change what’s eligible with a FSA, but they do change whether or not you will actually be able to pay for it. Here’s a recap of the FSA changes for 2011

Creating a Financial Plan for Free by Wealth Pilgrim – Wealth Pilgrim explains how you can create your own financial plan easily and for free.

The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards by Free From Broke – Find a travel rewards card that best fits your spending habits.

Reverse Mortgage Disadvantages by PT Money – How to talk Grandma out of one of the potentially worst financial decisions she could make.

15 Ways to Make Money by Moolanomy – 15 ideas to help you make more money in 2011.

Why You Should Start With Freelancing Right Now by Passive Income Now – Freelancing is a great way to earn money while building your skills.

Does This Count As Market Timing? by Oblivious Investor – Sometimes “market timing” isn’t such a bad idea.

Brace Yourself for $5-per-Gallon Gas by Frugal Dad – Personally, I wish gas would go a little higher. Last time gas went through the roof, the traffic on my commute got much lighter

How To Decide If A 0% Intro Interest Rate Credit Card Is Worth It … For You by The Wisdom Journaly – Credit has become incredibly tight but there are still some good options for 0% balance transfers. Here’s how to decide if you should take the plunge.

My 2010 Couch Potato Investment Return by Money Smarts Blog – Those 5 year numbers don’t look so bad.

Can You Retire Now? by Wealth Pilgrim – Stop asking yourself this question and get your answer by checking out what Wealth Pilgrim has to say.

400,000 Miles? No Problem. How Driving a Tank Can Make You a Millionaire by Soldier of Finance – Intriguing title…

Vagabonding 101: Everything You Need to Know to Travel the World by Studenomics – I’d like to give Vagabonding a try. Now if I could just sell this site for a few million dollars…

10 Best Part Time Jobs with Benefits by PT Money – Might be worth a read for you freelancers.

2011 Home Improvement Tax Credits For Energy Efficient Products (Insulation, Windows, Heaters, Etc) by Bible Money Matters – Self explanatory.

How to Create SMART Financial Goals Part I – Be Specific by Free From Broke – “Eat healthier this year” isn’t a good goal. If you can’t quantify it, you’re not going to accomplish it.

How to Recharacterize Your Roth IRA Conversion…and Why by Moolanomy – 2010 was a big year for IRA conversion to Roth. However, some people might want to reverse the action – here are the why’s and how to recharacterize your Roth IRA conversion.