Weekend Personal Finance Review

Here are a few articles that I thought were interesting reads this week:

• Henry from Binary Dollar reminds us to wait 30 days before making any big purchases. I couldn’t agree with this more. My friend and I often joke about things we are going to buy 4 years in advance. For instance, I have a 2001 car now. In about 3 years, I’ll mention that it may be time for me to start to look for a new car, and then purchase it about 4 years later. I never said it was a funny joke between my friend and I.
• The Sun’s Financial Diary asks if you have a will. Sadly, I do not. The paperwork is sitting on the dinning room table though. It looks like I’m not alone as over 80% of people in the poll don’t have one either. Do I get points if my fiancee does?
• Money Smart Life has a question about Deal or No Deal. He presents a few situations and then asks if you’d go or not go. I spent a few minutes thinking of what I’d do mathematically, and I realized that I’m probably better off with a coin flip. I didn’t see a big enough statistical advantage to lead me one way or the other.
• Consumerism Commentary reviews a New York Times article about renting vs. buying. There’s a really nice calculator with the article. A lot of people believe that renting is just “throwing your money away”, but I don’t buy it. There’s obviously a price (pretend $1 for sake of argument) where it would allow you invest more money in other places getting a big gain.
• Generation X Finance found a cartoon titled The Stock Market is the Engine of America’s Prosperity. Since it’s from the 1950’s, it’s hilariously out-dated in some cases, but the main principles still hold true.
• The Digerati Life shows why buying a home in some markets is not realistic. Interestingly she says that median home prices of 850K are not that far away. Yet by this account it’s already upon the two of us in Silicon Valley.
• Golbguru of Money, Matter, and More Musings had a couple of eye-opening conversations with some friends. I could probably be the 2nd friend. I know I have a vision plan, but the red tape around finding doctors, getting check-ups, understanding the 100 pages of what is covered and what isn’t is beyond me. I think I’d have to make a choice – devote my life to reading documents such as these or live my life. I don’t see a lot of middle ground.
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity says the Chase Freedom $250 deal is no good. I had applied in hopes of getting that $250. I never activated the card and now I’m not sure if I should. I hate to cancel credit cards as doing so could hurt your credit score a tiny bit, but I’d never use it. I wonder how it counts against my credit score in this “pending activation” state.