Money Magazine July 2008 Highlights |
2 Comments |
When I was going through my mail last week, I noticed something interesting. It seemed like I got a flier that was thicker than usual. Wait, it was this month’s Money Magazine. It feels like the slimmest edition of Money Magazine I’ve seen… yet, I happen to have the July 2007 copy handy and they are both the same 128-pages. So much for my conspiracy theory that advertisements were down and Money Magazine might be undergoing some financial issues of their own. Either July is just a light month in general or I’m just crazy thinking this copy was thin.
Anyway, here are some of the highlights from this months issue. If you have a copy, you can follow along with me. If you don’t, here are some of the things you might be missing.
- Save money on drug prescriptions with the advice on p. 19. The hint: go shopping at Wal-Mart.
- Women want to talk more about money (p. 20). True.com survey says that 33% of women want to talk more about money while only 21% of men do. This goes against almost every female I know who would rather have a root canal than talk about money. My wife fits in that group. What do men wish the talked more about… big suprise, but it’s sex.
- Frank Boucher, certified financial planner learned he could save money on baseball games by bringing his own food (p. 20). He could have learned this months earlier if he read my article on Saving Money at Baseball Games
- It’s only a good idea for a select minority to get the $100 unlimited cell phone plans that some providers are making available. (p. 26)
- Jean Chatzky says driving a little greener can save you money on gas (p. 28). Five Cent Nickel found out the same thing first hand.
- Interesting article about taking care of your finances for couples always on the run (p. 33). Maybe it’s just me because I’m experienced, but much of my finances take care of themselves most of the time. Online banking shifts money into almost all the right places. I pay credit card bills online, but I have a back-up set up with Chase so that they would get paid in full if I forget. About the only thing that I remember is to write the rent check.
- The Right Way to Take a Pension (p. 40). What’s a pension ;-).
- Are you paying your financial adviser 3% (p.44)? It seems that many are. This is one reason why I spent time to learn to invest myself. By limiting expense ratios and diversifying with exchange traded funds, I often pay closer to 0.5% in expenses. That adds up to a lot of money compounded over the years.
- Walter Updegrave says that your retirement number is a moving target. I came to this conclusion with my My Ever Expanding Retirement Goal.
- Inspiring entreprunal highlight (p. 53). I love reading about people starting their businesses and the troubles they have with them.
- How do you protect your idea from being stolen by a big company (p. 53). I’m surprised to see that it doesn’t mention anything about writing out your idea and sending it to yourself via certified mail. You’ll get a date stamp on the sealed envelope. If it has to go to court, handing the judge the envelope should be great evidence.
- Learn how artificial materials can be better than the real thing in your home (p. 62-64). If I was to redo my home, I would definitely heed all these suggestions. It looks like they’ll last longer and in some ways cost less to begin with.
- Invest globally with one fund (p. 69-70)? I say no, but I like reading about investments. You might not be like me.
- Invest in networking companies (p. 78)? Is it 1999 again?
- Six pages on Inflation (83-89), this is a major article in the issue. This is one my biggest financials fears. If I had to guess it’s probably yours as well.
- Pages 91-95 - Feature on People Living Without Plastic… This was the article that featured two personal finance bloggers I previously mentioned.
- Do you know your spouses finances? This a 5-page feature.
- College Loan article that I won’t read from pages 102-105
- Page 106 - OMG, full size, close-up picture of Suze Orman… If I had a mustache like the one she’s showing, I wouldn’t allow a close-up like that to be published.
- Page 107 - This Suze Orman article is the first one I’ve read of hers that was good. Check it out.
- A family looking for a simpler life quits their high paying jobs and moves out to the farm. What about their finances? Page 109-113
- Looking for a Home Security system? See the review on page 115-117.
- Getting a lightweight PC? Look for the round up on 118-119. They left out my Asus EEE.
- The last page is an article on carbon offsets. I didn’t find it that interesting.
baseball games, cell phone plans, certified financial planner, credit card bills, drug prescriptions, money magazine, saving money
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July 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
Has your wife had a root canal? I’d rather work in a sweatshop than go through that again!
I love talking money. I don’t know why. I also have no problems talking sex either!
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
That close up of Suze is brilliant! i was on the train when i came across that gem and almost died with laughter…which is bad because i was sitting in the quiet car. it was a good read though.