Friday Finance Findings for September 10th

Can you say football? I sure can, and it’s probably the best time of year right now. The weather is perfect, the kids are back to school, and lazy weekends of nothing but football are on tap (along with some of my home brewed beer of course). Although, being a Detroit Lions fan can take its toll, you start to get used to losing after more than a decade of failure. There’s always a glimmer of hope they can put together another .500 season, so that’s what I’m rooting for this year.

In other news, we’re still on track for the birth of our second child near the end of this month so that’s exciting, but it also means I’ll be unavailable for the last week in September. So, I will be looking for a couple guest posts to fill some of the slots while I’m away. If this is something that you might be interested in just contact me and let me know what kind of topic you had in mind and I’ll see about getting you scheduled.

On with the links.

Do You Buy in Bulk? It’s Not Always The Cheapest Option – Conventional wisdom teaches us to buy necessities in bulk to save money. In most cases this is true, but there are plenty of situations and products that break this rule. Learn how to spot real bulk deals and when it’s better to just move on.

My First Place On HGTV: How to Spend Your Next Thirty Years House Poor – There are a number of ways to screw up the next thirty years of your life, and buying the wrong house or a house at all for the wrong reasons is the easiest way. Here’s what you should and shouldn’t do.

8 Ways to Save Money on Home Insurance – Don’t you just love paying homeowners insurance? Yeah, me either. It’s a policy we often forget about after the initial purchase, but it’s certainly worth checking out ways to save even if you’ve had a good policy for a long time.

Are Municipal Bonds the Next Bubble? – There are a lot of potential bubbles out there from student loans to bonds. Part of the potential bond bubble is the municipal bond market. Do you know what those are and how it could affect you?

A Primer on Corporate Bonds ‒ I (Credit Ratings) – Speaking of bonds, they are an important aspect of most portfolios. Most of us don’t have 100% stock holdings so bonds usually make up a portion as well. But most people know little about bonds other than they are “safer” than stocks and pay interest. Well, it is a good idea to make sure you understand what you’re investing in, so here’s a primer.

how kids (can) make you poor – Without even reading this article I can quickly name a few things. Kids are a joy, but they also demand a lot of financial resources. Here are a few ways kids can make you poor, and once you’re armed with knowledge you can do a better job of making sure that doesn’t happen.

Ignore Your Personal Finance Guru – There are a lot of finance gurus out there. You know the big names because they are on TV, have books, and everybody quotes them. But should you really follow them so closely? Lazy Man takes a look at a few of the more popular gurus and illustrates why you always want to take your information with a grain of salt and form your own opinions. You can ignore the gurus he writes about, but don’t ignore me, please.

Techniques for Thrifty Home Transformation – Got the new house bug? It’s hard not to with real estate prices where they are today. That being said, it’s still not the best time to buy for everyone, and even worse, most people with homes can’t sell right now. So, here are some techniques for sprucing up your existing home to make it feel new without breaking the bank.

Social Group Savings with SmartyPig – Everything is going social these days, so why would banking be any different? Well, here comes Smarty Pig’s social group savings.

What are Closed End Funds? – Have you ever heard of a closed end mutual fund? It’s not something you hear about often, but these funds are out there and could even be lurking in your investment account somewhere. Here’s what you need to know about these funds, both the good and bad.

High Cost Hobbies vs. Low Cost Hobbies – Everybody has a hobby, right? If not, or if you’re looking for something new to try then you’ve probably considered how much that new hobby will cost you. Well, here’s a breakdown of some of the higher and lower cost hobbies. This might help you find one that fits your budget.

How to Make Homemade Baby Food – I could have used this article about a year ago. Our daughter is well off of baby food now and our new baby will be on a bottle for a while, but I need to stash this article away for about six months down the road when we need to start using baby food again.

Related posts:

1. Friday Finance Findings for June 10th
2. Friday Finance Findings for September 3rd
3. Friday Finance Findings for May 28th
4. Friday Finance Findings for June 4th
5. Friday Finance Findings for December 3rd