Before I begin, I’d like to say that this is a special edition of the net worth review, because following my review, I will be sharing what my friends are all saying about their net worth or the subject of net worth. Net Worth Review December was another weak month for the stock market, and the S&P 500 index dropped -0.86% from 1481.14 to 1468.36. According to NetworthIQ, my net worth went up +0.72% and net investable assets went up +1.25%, or from 23.64% to 23.93% of $1 million goal — that’s $10,615 short of the 25% goal. Highlights My wife gave birth ... (more)

Happy New Year! and welcome to the New Year Edition of the Festival of Frugality: “A blog carnival focused on the frugal life and getting that little extra edge out of the products you buy and the services you use.” Considering the holidays, there were quite a bit of submissions over the past two weeks. Without further delay, here is the Festival of Frugality #106. Image by xymonau, conveniently stolen from Cash Money Life Top 7 Editor’s Pick Below are some of my favorite articles. At the top of each sub-section, I also highlighted my favorite post in that group. Spend ... (more)

December 2007 1/2 - Would You Like to Pay My Taxes? was featured in the Carnival of the Capitalists New Year’s Edition 2008 hosted by SEO ROI Consulting. You may like these related posts:2008 News ArchiveWelcoming the Carnival of Financial GoalsMy 2008 Financial Resolution and a Chance to Win an iPod!December 2007 Site and Net Worth Review (+0.72%)Saving $250,000 for my son’s college e ... (more)

Early in my wife’s pregnancy she registered on a couple of web sites to get free samples and discount coupons. One thing we get in the mail a lot was information about The GROW-UP Plan® from Gerber Life. Basically, it’s a whole life insurance plan that offers: Whole Life Insurance up to $35,000 Automatically doubles at age 21 Low payments that never increase According to Gerber Life: “The GROW-UP Plan® is a whole life insurance policy designed for healthy children ages 14 days through 12 years. As a parent or grandparent, you can ensure the little ones who mean so much to you ... (more)

I got a strange call yesterday — yes, a cold call. Wait a minute…did my do not call status expired?!? Anyway, the guy claimed he works for Ambit Energy, and he wanted to put me on a savings plan that will shave 7% off my Con Edison electricity charges and eliminate the 4% sales tax. At first I was tempted to hang up like I normally do when I get this type of calls. But he was persuasive enough that I continued to listen. I did a quick search on the web, and didn’t see anything bad from ... (more)

This question came to me when I was reading The Dough Roller’s post about why do mutual funds close to new investors. Part of the post read: “…taxes for existing investors went up after a fund closed. Why? Because there was no longer an influx of new investors to share the tax burden.” Photo via Wikipedia, text added by Pinyo Is it really possible for new investors to pay taxes for existing investor? Unfortunately, yes. I am sure none of us want to pay taxes for other people, but that’s exactly what we do when we invest in mutual funds ... (more)