Friday Finance Findings for November 23rd

Hopefully everyone has had time to fully digest their turkey, potatoes, and pumpkin pie by now, but if not, that’s fine too. Leftovers are one of the best things about Thanksgiving. So go ahead, eat up. And while you’re doing that, take a break and explore the wonderful articles from the past week.

Where to Keep Your Savings – We all know that we should keep some savings around for emergencies and other short-term needs, but where should you keep that money? I explore a few of the options available.

Save Money in Aruba (or Anywhere) – This advice is useful when taking a vacation in Aruba, but it can be applied to almost any destination. These would have been especially handy for me as I was scheduled to go to Aruba in February, but a scheduling conflict at work has killed those plans. I haven’t had a vacation in years.

The Sandwiched Generation – This is a very real (and scary) trend. I know a lot of people who are beginning to find themselves in a position where they need to care for aging family members. This can have serious implications on one’s own financial priorities. This is a sobering reminder that it can never hurt to save money and insure your health in anticipation of getting older.

You Can’t Pay for Parenting – Not only that, but there are many things in life you can’t pay for. With so many families requiring dual incomes and spending less time with children, there are some things that money just can’t buy.

History of the Indicies – Jim provides a nice history lesson on the history of the various stock market indicies. Don’t worry, this is much better than anything you learned in your 10th grade history class.

Exactly How NCN Pays off Debt Early – All of the theory is good, but how do you actually put it into action? NCN takes a moment to answer a reader’s question that wants to know just how to do it.

Bank Dividend Yields Rise After Sharp Decline in Prices – If there is anything positive about the financial sector taking a beating in the market, it is that the declining prices result in higher yields–in some cases, over 7%. Of course if you owned the stock during the decline, you lost more than that 7%, but your dividend as a percentage of the price is much higher now

How Do You Plan to Get Ahead? Ways to Increase Your Income – Financial gurus and bloggers alike spend a lot of time focusing on ways to cut spending, saving money, and finding better returns, but this is one topic that is often overlooked. You are in control of your income, which means if you can earn more money, you can pay off those debts or build that nest egg with even less effort.

Do You Account for Your Home’s Value in Quicken? – Nickel asks whether or not people take into account the value of their home when keeping tabs on their finances in software like Quicken. Personally, I do, but I don’t really adjust it regularly for increases in value on paper. Basically I’ve kept the value of our home the same since we bought it, so the only real appreciation we’ve seen is the equity that has slowly been going into it via mortgage payments. Better to be conservative than inflate expectations.

Did You Participate in Buy Nothing Day (Today)? – I’m happy to say that I did, even if I wasn’t aware of this at the time. I have absolutely no desire to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning just to stand in line and save a few bucks. I can easily find a similar deal elsewhere without subjecting myself to a lack of sleep and added stress. This whole Black Friday nonsense has gone too far in my opinion.

Can You Do Without the Holiday Expenses? – I know I can, but for others (namely my wife), this is is unavoidable. We don’t have kids, yet for some reason we still need a tree. We still need to buy a ton of presents. We still need to spend hundreds of dollars traveling to visit people for a few hours… Oh well. I could do without all of the added expense, but that isn’t always possible.

Steps to Find a Freelance Job in Your Free Time – Earlier in this list I mentioned a post that talked about increasing your income. Freelance work is an excellent way to do this. If you have a skill, you can probably freelance some of the work. Here is a great list to get you started.

10 Low-Cost Home-Based Business Ideas – To round out the ways to increase your income, here are ten ideas to get you thinking about how you can make money in your spare time. If one of the ideas seem too broad, use them as a springboard to help you brainstorm other ways you can begin to make money from home.

How Medicare Works – Medicare isn’t something most younger adults think about, but it is important to know how it works. Unfortunately, Medicare is in trouble, so it is hard to say how long this system will really remain intact.

Related posts:

1. Friday Finance Findings for November 16th
2. Friday Finance Findings for November 9th
3. Friday Finance Findings For November 2nd
4. Friday Finance Findings For October 5th
5. Friday Finance Findings for October 19th