Yesterday, I overheard a co-worker talk about her coin jar. She and her husband throw all their change at the end of the day into a job. Once a year, before taking a vacation, they open the coin jar and find about $500. The small change certainly adds up. My girlfriend and I throw our excess change into jars as well. I don’t use cash very often, so it’s rare for me to come home with change. We visit our banks more frequently, so we’re not finding such large sums.
Before the roundup, pfblogs.org is now indexing 1,000 blogs. Now, here are some recent personal finance articles.
Social Security Taxes in 2008. FiveCentNickel presents some interesting information about the phase-out of Social Security tax due if your income is over certain amounts. Also, self-employed individuals have to pay twice as much as employees of someone else’s company (unless their earnings are over the limit).
How Vanguard Avoided the Subprime Mess. Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has some ideas why Vanguard has not been harmed in the recent credit meltdown. They avoided risky investments, looking deeper than credit rating agencies. I’m happy to be a customer.
Asking for a Better Financial Future. Guest author Daiko on Get Rich Slowly presents ten suggestions for pinching some extra cash. Sometimes simply asking will do the trick. For example, ask for fee reductions and discounts. You may receive.
You Only Need $40,000 to Be Happy. Free Money Finance quotes an excerpt from Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. Research evidently shows that levels of happiness increase as one earns up to $40,000, then happiness levels off as one earns more.
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Yeah, I’m glad I’m a Vanguard customer too; they have sharp people there.
Actually, on SS, an employee and the self-employed are paying the same. The difference is that half is hidden from the employee as the “employer’s share”.