As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and more!

February 2006

Financial Responsibility More Important Than Hot Sex

by Luke Landes

According to a survey of more than 1,000 adults, financial responsibility is more important to a lasting relationship than sexual compatibility. For both men and women, sex ranked last when compared to faithfulness (#1), honesty (#2), financial responsibility (#3), and sense of humor (#4). Financial troubles ranked even higher when people were asked what situations ... Continue reading this article…

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Good News If You’re Lance Armstrong

by Luke Landes

On the other hand, if you’re an investor in American Century mutual funds, you now have a good idea where your management fees and expense ratios go. Lance Armstrong has become the company’s celebrity spokesperson, and American Century’s bright marketing team will link the athlete’s struggle with cancer to “investing discipline.” American Century’s Equity Index ... Continue reading this article…

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What’s The Buzz in Personal Finance

by Luke Landes

Over the weekend, pfblogs.org added a new search feature. So if you wanted to find out, for example, who has been talking about prosper.com (prosper.com is a new person-to-person lending program with no banks involved), you can easily just search the personal finance blogosphere. Here are some other interesting and timely searches: * Roth 401(k) ... Continue reading this article…

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Where Should Teens Stash Their Cash?

by Luke Landes

Andrea Coombs at Marketwatch doles out the advice for teenagers in a new article, answering the question of where teens should keep the money they earn. Not surprisingly, the advice is eerily similar to the advice an older person might receive: Create an emergency fund in a high-yield savings account first, then fund a Roth ... Continue reading this article…

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The Carnival is Up!

by Luke Landes

Thanks to pfblogs.org, I realized the Dividend Guy compiled all the submissions and posted the latest Carnival of Personal Finance today! Here are some interesting articles from the Carnival. * Sound Money Tips offers suggestions for online file back-up. I need to rethink (well… develop) a back-up strategy for my documents. * Financial Revolution has ... Continue reading this article…

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My Money Mistake #1: Not Knowing My Net Worth

by Luke Landes

I share my personal experiences here to create a formal record of what I do. I can always come back to the website in the future and to some degree understand the choices I made. Consumerism Commentary allows me to remain honest with myself — and with thousands of readers. I’m not a finance expert, ... Continue reading this article…

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Top Earning Musicians in 2005

by Luke Landes

Which muscal acts raked in the most money last year? If you’re an incredibly popular band or act and you tour, revenues are high. The band may not see all of that money — it goes to a number of different people like managers, promoters, agents, etc. — but the numbers are staggering to those ... Continue reading this article…

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Stupid Investment of the Week: Teach Me To Trade

by Luke Landes

The snow keeps piling up on the ground, and I’m going to have to face the music and dig my car out at some point. In the mean time, Chuck Jaffe presents his stupid investment of the week: The Teach Me To Trade seminar. I like when Chuck takes on these seminars in the “Stupid ... Continue reading this article…

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Holiday Spending, February Edition, Part 2

by Luke Landes

Now that we’ve looked at increasing Valentine’s Day expenses, we can determine if it’s all worth it. Allen Wastler tackles the marriage rate of return in his latest opinion column. Marriage is the end result of the courting that involves singles gushing and spending for Valentine’s Day. If marriage pays off financially, then the average ... Continue reading this article…

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Holiday Spending, February Edition

by Luke Landes

Men, get ready to open your wallet (if you haven’t already) for Valentine’s Day. The National Retail Federation conducted a survey about the Hallmark™ Holiday and found good news for their industry. 60.9 percent of consumerism will celebrate Valentine’s Day, with the average man spending $135.67, about double of the average woman. The big gift ... Continue reading this article…

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First Look: Ev’reward

by Luke Landes

If you like shopping and love saving while you shop, you might find useful ev’reward. I tried it out quickly — no results for Express Men (that store’s too expensive anyway), 4 percent rebate for JC Penney, 2.7 percent for Circuit City and “0 stores matching Amazon.” A search for Holiday Inn resulted in a 5 percent cash ... Continue reading this article…

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Around The Horn

by Luke Landes

Here’s what we had going on in the MoneyBlogNetwork (and more) this week. It was a light posting week for me as I’ve been quite busy with life, but everyone else has been blogging like mad: * JLP snagged an interview with Jonathan Clements from the Wall Street Journal (Part 1 and Part 2). * ... Continue reading this article…

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Last Chance To Win

by Luke Landes

Reminder: Today is your last chance to enter MoneyBlogNetwork’s first giveaway. If you sign up for the newsletter or leave a comment there you’re automatically entered in the contest to win the audiobook version of Don’t Worry, Make Money by Richard Carlson.

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Snowy Weekend Ahead

by Luke Landes

There is a major snowstorm headed its way to my area this weekend. I have enough food in my apartment to last me through the weekend, but I need to pick up some groceries for the week before the storm hits. That means I might have to go out tonight. Usually I’m so exhausted at ... Continue reading this article…

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Tax Credits for Better Energy Efficiency

by Luke Landes

While energy is more expensive this year, I’ve done a good job so far of keeping the cost of heating my apartment comparable to my expenses last year. Today, I noticed an article describing little-known tax credits available for those who upgrade their homes for better energy conservation. Some of the upgrades are expensive, and ... Continue reading this article…

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Next Moday’s Carnival

by Luke Landes

Next week’s Carnival of Personal Finance will be hosted by The Dividend Guy. Please get your submissions in early and often (or perhaps just early)! The Carnival has been great lately. Perhaps we can reach 50 submissions this week.

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The Latest Buzz, Part 2: Zillow

by Luke Landes

Here’s another item that’s been making the rounds lately. There’s a new tool on the internet called Zillow. It’s still in “beta,” but I definitely like the looks of it. This tools allows you to get the tax-assessed value — or if more information is available, a “Zestimate” — for a house at any address. ... Continue reading this article…

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The Latest Buzz, Part 1: pfblogs.org

by Luke Landes

It’s been a crazy week and I still haven’t finished everything I need to do for the day. Since I’ve been running around, I haven’t been on top of personal finance stories as much as usual, but the personal finance blogosphere is getting deeper, so I’m sure there has been more than enough to keep ... Continue reading this article…

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New Free $25 ShareBuilder Bonus

by Luke Landes

Updated June 24, 2010. ShareBuilder is offering a $25 bonus to new customers by using the promotional code “25WO10.” You get $25 to use to purchase whatever stock or ETF you like. I’ve had good experiences with a $50 bonus from ShareBuilder earlier, here and updated here. Here’s the deal on ShareBuilder for those who ... Continue reading this article…

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What’s In My Wallet

by Luke Landes

I haven’t had much to write about lately. I’ve been quite busy at work and with school work. The good news is I should be finished with my master’s degree in September. There have been some good and some bad aspects of my program, and I plan on giving it a lot of attention on ... Continue reading this article…

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