I hate weddings. Ok, so maybe hate is a strong word for such a special event, but when you have to spend 3 hours driving to go to a wedding for someone you don’t even really know, and it is already their second marriage, then hate is somewhat appropriate. So, while I’m busy wasting my money and weekend on this silly affair, hopefully you can gain something from these great articles from the past week.

Lease or Buy a Car? - A detailed look at the total cost between leasing and buying a car by Golbguru. I’ve never leased a car because we generally have to put too many miles on a car to even make it an option.

What’s Your International Asset Allocation - Lazy Man poses the question and readers answer. I personally have around 22% sitting overseas. I started out with a smaller holding, but the strong performance has increased the overall percentage. I probably need to consider rebalancing.

The Three Best 529 Plans - Nickel examines a bunch of plans and comes out with three excellent options. Keep in mind, these are for out-of-state investors, and you may have additional benefits by contributing to an in-state plan.

7 Surefire Ways to Survive a Market Fall - I’ve been putting people at ease all week as they come into my office very concerned over the market performance lately. I always find it amusing how when the market is doing well year after year putting up double-digit gains you don’t hear a peep, but the instant the market goes down sharply for a few days people think it is the end of the world.

10 Popular Reasons to Buy a New Car vs. Used - I’ll let others waste their money buying a brand new car. I’m happy with taking a used car with 10,000 miles on it and still under warranty. It might not have the new car smell, but I’ll take the thousands of dollars I saved and forget about that quickly.

Is Your Free Checking Account Really Free? - You better read all the fine print, because it may not be. Free Money Finance takes a look at what you should be aware of.

Why Do People Ignore Free Money? - This is like asking “how many licks does it take to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop.” The world may never know. I don’t use credit cards but even our debit card has rewards. I haven’t even paid much attention to it, but over the past year or so we’ve accumulated over 50,000 points. That is good for gift card to Home Depot for $200 and then some, not bad for just using the card to purchase things we would anyway.

One Sentence Summaries of 10 Personal Finance Books - If you don’t have time to read all of these books, you can at least start by reading Jim’s summaries.

Do I Need VISVX when I Own VTMSX? - The Sun covers the question for his own situation and it brings up an important piece regarding diversification vs. asset allocation.

The Trick to Finding Really Good Deals on Housing - Luckily, with the market the way it is, finding a good deal on a house is easier than ever. That being said, there are still some great tricks to help make sure you’re getting the best deal possible.

Put Your Savings on Autopilot - This is one of the single most important aspects of generating wealth. First, you need to save, but more importantly you need to make it automatic. Once you are in the habit of saving without having to do anything you are sure to find that it grows very quickly and you don’t even miss the money.

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