Posts tagged Stew
Friday Gathering: BCS National Championship Edition
Jan 8th
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.
Frugal Dad warns us that Delaying Roth IRA Contributions One Year Could Cost You $74,000. Yikes!
Another warning (I’m starting to sound like Mom) comes from Mighty Bargain Hunter: not tracking your spending can have repercussions. Yep.
Did you know that life insurance benefits are not taxed? (:whisper: Don’t tell the Democrats) I assumed they were taxable at least under the estate tax. Jim at Bargaineering compares life insurance benefits to car insurance benefits – not taxable. Life Insurance dividends might be taxable. Check out his post for more details.
Christian PF commends the giving spirit that is still alive and well in the United States. I think that Americans would give even more if taxed less . . .
Hope your first week of the new year was a good one! Have a great weekend and do not just spend money, spend time with family. The Stew household went sledding today. It was a blast!
Article by Stew
Photo by
- The Friday Gathering for 11/2/2007 To be honest, I’m glad this week is almost behind me. Between trying to get…
- The Friday gathering – House updates edition Failure number 2 occurred last week in our house hunting adventure. I sure hope this…
- The Friday Gathering – Looking at a house edition Photo by: trekkyandy For a few years now, my wife and I have desired to…
- The Friday Gathering For 4/25/2008 Photo by: Mimi Tang For the first time in quit a few weeks I really…
- 10 things worth spending more on Photo by: basictheory This is a guest post by Bob who blogs about personal finance…
Related Blogs
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Success and Failure from 2009
Jan 7th
What went well:
0% APR Balance Transfers: Believe it or not, I did several 0% APR balance transfers throughout the year to help us over the rough patches. So far, with no problems. This is really a risky strategy, I do not recommend it, but it has worked for us in a pinch. Unfortunately, these credit card balance transfers do not come free anymore. I had to pay a 3% balance transfer fee for all three that I took out.
Blogging: I have been a blogger in one sense or another since 2006 and 2009 was the first year that I earned regular income from this “hobby”. I hope to continue this trend.
Health: Poor health may have been the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for the Stew household in 2009, but fortunately, we had very few expenses in this area.
Child care: This was a lot of work for Mrs. Stew, but we would not have made it through the year without her hard work taking in children during the week.
Selling our house: The house was on the market for 16 months and the realtor only showed it three times in that time and it sold on the third showing. I am glad that we continued to stay current with our payments even though it was extremely difficult.
What didn’t go so well:
Budgeting: Spending did not go out of control for us in 2009, but we fell out of the habit of keeping track of our financial picture through the use of a written budget. To a certain extent, this was because just before we sold our house, the picture had become so bleak that I avoided looking at it.
Cashing out my SIMPLE IRA: I wish I had not done it, but faced with the same scenario, I probably would have been forced to make the same choice. Tough call, but we needed the money . . . still waiting to find out the exact tax ramifications of this decision. Of course, the market rebounded significantly since I shut down the account. Figures.
Ya’ win some and ya’ lose some.
Article by Stew
Photo by gluemoon
- Should I do a balance transfer? This article is part of the Ask the M-Network series. Christina sent in a question…
- Zero percent balance transfers at 3.99%. Huh? Last month I applied for another Discover More card. I had to end up getting…
- Worst financial mistake? I often read The Wallet at the Wall Street Journal. A recent article asked the…
- Earned Income Tax Credit mistake In one of my first posts here at Gather Little by Little, I revealed that…
- Frugal, healthy lunches from now on I changed jobs over a year and a half ago and I still have not…
