Weekend Blog Roundup: Pennies, Budgets, and Social Security

Here are some articles I’ve enjoyed reading this past week.

How Much Could You Have if Social Security Was Your Money? AllFinancialMatters shows what could possibly be the result if instead of paying into Social Security with each paycheck, employees were allowed to invest that money. It’s important to remember that Social Security is not a retirement plan. It is a way to assist current retirees using funds from current workers.

Increase Your Salary Without Increasing Your Work. Here are ten tips for general approaches which should help you earn more money over time.

A Good Budget is Not an Iron Clad Contract. I’ve said before that a budget for someone with a solid control of their finances should be a rough guideline rather than rules set in stone. The flexibility of your budget should relate to your financial condition; if your spending approaches or is beyond the soft limit of your income, a budget should be as fixed as possible. But once you have some wiggle room, budgets should consist of rough guidelines so as not to create restrictions or psychologically impair the benefits of maintaining your finances.

Finding Affordable Health Insurance When You’re On Your Own. Would-be entrepreneurs may be discouraged from working full-time on their own projects due to the difficulty and expense of finding and paying for medical insurance in an individual health care plan. The industry just doesn’t make this option affordable, favoring group plans. In fact, this is one of the aspects that has held me back from quitting my day job and blogging full-time. (An other aspect is the unpredictability of the income.)

Your Take: Drop the Penny and Nickel? Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing elimination of the cent and five cent pieces as well as a drop of the hundredth place on prices.

Published or updated May 18, 2008. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.

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About the author

Luke Landes, also known as Flexo, is the founder of Consumerism Commentary. He has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow Luke Landes on Twitter. View all articles by Luke Landes.