Here are links to the carnivals I’ve been in this week:

• Carnival of Personal Finance – Raising a Cow for Beef: Month 6 [Editor's Choice!!!]

 

• Festival of Frugality – Fresh-baked Yeast Bread with Only 10 Minutes of Work

       I hope you all find these weekend reading posts helpful. These are articles I hand-pick to share with you out of the hundreds I read every week. It takes a while to put these together, so if they’re not helpful please let me know. Some weeks I find many great articles, and some weeks I don’t. Just know that I’m not just picking these at random. They really are good! With that, here are some good articles from other websites over the past week:

• Bad Money Advice – Stockbrokers are not Fiduciaries [Frank brings up a good perspective on an issue I've written about before - fiduciary duty.]

 

• Oblivious Investor – I’m a microcap growth stock. What are you? [Mike helps us look at the asset class of our human capital (income producing ability) in this unique article.]

 

• Rich Christian, Poor Christian – Investing in God’s Kingdom begins with an eternal outlook [Larry focuses on a point I repeated often in my Personal Finance Bible Study. We need to view everything in light of eternity to be most effective for God.]

 

• Money Help for Christians – Short Term Mission Trips: Worth The Cost? [Craig, a long-term missionary in Papua New Guinea, shares his insights on the value of short-term mission trips. His conclusions are similar to mine after my short-term trip to Haiti.]

       Have a great weekend!

       Readers who know me personally may already be aware that I launched my financial planning firm in January but most of you probably aren’t. I didn’t announce it on here yet because I was busy with the trip to Haiti and a number of other things for a while. But I’ve finally launched a business website and I wanted to share it with you.

       The name of the business is Provident Planning, Inc. (just like this blog), and you can find out everything you might want to know about what I do and how I do it on Provident Planning’s business website (or you can click the green button at the top right of this page). Basically, I’m offering financial planning advice on a fee-only basis (hourly or flat fee). I also offer tax preparation at an hourly rate.

       I was trained as a financial planner and worked in wealth management before starting Provident Planning. But I was tired of only being able to serve the wealthy and not having the ability to fully incorporate my faith into my work. So I’ve set up Provident Planning so I can work with people from all backgrounds and can include faith discussions in my work.

       That’s the announcement to let you know I’ve officially launched my business. Now for the giveaway!

       In exchange for your feedback, I’m offering one hour of financial planning advice (a $100 value!!!) over the phone to one random winner. During the phone call, you’ll have the chance to ask me any questions you might have about personal finances. You won’t have to share any personal details (like SSN’s, account numbers, full name, etc.) if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. If you’re not sure what I can help with, then make sure you check out the “Services” page on Provident Planning’s business website. Here’s what you can do to enter:

1. Visit Provident Planning’s business website. Then leave a useful comment on this post with a suggestion for improvement or a question you have about my business (that wasn’t answered on the FAQ page). – worth 3 entries

 

2. Tweet about this giveaway. Your tweet should say “Win a Chance for Free Financial Planning Advice by Giving Your Feedback on Provident Planning – http://bit.ly/aB8yQZ @providentplan” (link points to this post) – worth 2 entries

       You can only do each of those things once, but you can do both of them to get a total of 5 entries in this giveaway. Duplicate entries will not be counted (e.g., you leave more than one useful comment).

       All entries must be made by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time on Monday, March 8, 2010. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing using the integer generator on random.org. I’ll update this post on Monday evening to announce the winner. The winner will also be contacted by e-mail to get their phone number and set up a time to talk, so be sure you use a valid e-mail address when you leave a comment. If the winner is via a Twitter entry, I’ll send a direct message to get your e-mail address. The winner must respond by 9:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 10th, or I’ll select another winner. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments!

       Here are links to the carnivals I’ve been in this week:

• Festival of Frugality – How to Find $50 a Month to Give to Charity with Minimal Effort

 

• Money Hacks Carnival – Deduct Haiti Earthquake Relief Donations on Your 2009 Tax Return

       And here are some good articles from other websites over the past week as well:

• Out of Your Rut – Are We Investing or Speculating in Growth Stocks? [Kevin picked up on my investing basics series and discusses the difference between investing and speculating.]

 

• Personal Finance by the Book – Should You Leave an Inheritance to Your Children? [Joe takes a good look at the issue of leaving an inheritance for your children.]

 

• Dollars & Doctrine – Living Simply Part 3 (Ten Steps to Living Simply) [Practical suggestions for living a simpler life]

 

• Free Money Finance – More on Retiring Inexpensively Abroad [Interesting info on retiring abroad to save money]

 

• Christian Personal Finance – A Lesson in Contentment… [Guest post by Rob Kuban of Dollars & Doctrine - vary good article!]

 

• Free Money Finance – Simple Steps to Biblical Finance Success [Another excerpt from Dollars & Doctrine...noticing a pattern? ]

 

• Five Cent Nickel – Using Your HSA as a Retirement Investment Vehicle [A powerful technique if it's an option for you!]

 

• Bargaineering – Being Frugal is Foolish [Jim's "Devil's Advocate" posts are always interesting. I encourage frugality, but I also support this perspective as well. Being frugal makes good sense to a point, but going to an extreme is just as bad as completely ignoring your spending.]

 

• Bad Money Advice – Is a Fake College Degree Worth Anything?

 

• Free Money Finance – The Mortgage Tax Deduction is a Consolation Prize at Best [Glad to see I'm not the only one who understands this]

 

• Amateur Asset Allocator – Reduce College Costs By Going for 3 Years Instead of 4 Years [Great tip for college students]

 

• Bargaineering – Mortgage Interest Deduction Myth [And another person who gets it...]

 

• Green Panda Treehouse – Can You Trust Your Life Insurance Agent? [Get the inside scoop from a former life insurance salesman]

 

• Money Help for Christians – Could The Money Lover Please Stand Up [Excellent, excellent article! Highly recommended!!!]

 

• Scordo.com – On The Myth of Equating Poor Eating Habits with Economic Class or Spending Power [Vince proves that you don't have to spend a ton to eat a tasty and healthy meal.]

 

• Bad Money Advice – Roths for Teenagers? [A good look at why Roth IRAs can be a bad idea for teenagers]

 

• The Simple Dollar – The Case for Saving for Retirement Over Saving for a Child’s College Education [If you have to make a choice, I say retirement first. Trent explains why.]

       Have a great weekend!

       After 9 months and over 200 posts, Provident Planning has had 20,000 visitors! To celebrate, I’m giving away $20 in cash to you, my readers. Without you, I wouldn’t have gotten this far. Thank you so much!

       Since this isn’t a huge giveaway, I’m not going to make it difficult for you to enter. But I’d also like to get some feedback from you. So here’s what you can do to enter:

1. Fill out the form at the end of this post. – 3 entries

 

2. Tweet about this giveaway. Your tweet should say “$20 Giveaway at Provident Planning – http://bit.ly/bZP14s @providentplan”. (The link points to this post.) – 2 entries

 

3. Include a link to this giveaway in a blog post. If your blog doesn’t send pings or trackbacks, make sure you email me (paul@providentplan.com) with a link to your post so it will get counted. – 3 entries

       You can only do each of those things once, but you can do all three of them to get a total of 8 entries in this giveaway. Duplicate entries will not be counted (e.g., you fill out the feedback form below more than once).

       All entries must be made by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time on Monday, March 1, 2010. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing using the integer generator on random.org. I’ll update this post on Monday evening to announce the winner. The winner will also be contacted by e-mail to receive the $20 cash via PayPal, so be sure you use a valid e-mail address in the form below. If the winner is via a Twitter entry, I’ll send a direct message to get your e-mail address. The winner must respond by 9:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 3rd, or I’ll select another winner. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments!

And the Winner Is…

       With only three entries, everyone’s odds of winning were quite good. But congratulations are due to Donna! She won the random drawing, so I’ll be emailing her to confirm. If she doesn’t reply by 9:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 3rd, then I’ll select another winner through a random drawing. Thanks to everyone who participated (all three of you!), and make sure you enter the next giveaway. If I keep getting so few entries, you have great chances to win!!!

       Last month, I posted an update about how my wife and I are raising a cow for beef. This is a summary of our activity and costs for month 6. As always, let’s first check Bambi’s growth. Here he is at five months old:





       And here he is today at 6 months old:





       It might be hard to tell, but Bambi is still growing steadily. He should be somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds. (I can’t weigh him to know for sure.)

Costs & Time

       Again, there haven’t been any huge changes in the amount of time it takes to care for him. It’s pretty easy right now.

       We didn’t spend much money this month because I had stocked up before we left for Haiti in mid-January. We only needed to buy a little medicine. (You’ll find out why in a minute.) We’ll have to spend a bit next month to buy more feed and hay. Here are our costs for this past month:

• Medicine – $5.00

       

• Total Spent this Month – $5.00

       

• Time – 7 hours

       And here are our total costs over the past six months:

• Cost of Bambi – Free!

       

• Castration & Dehorning – $16.00

       

• Milk Replacer – $45.54

       

• Miscellaneous – $46.87

       

• Calf Feed – $160.35

       

• Hay – $52.00

       

• Straw – $15.00

       

• Medicine – $5.00

       

• Total Spent – $340.76

       

• Time – 56 hours

       So after six months we’ve spent a total of $340.76 and 56 hours raising a cow for beef. We’ll need to buy feed and hay next month, but that won’t cost too much.

       We had a small scare with Bambi this month. He didn’t eat or drink anything for 3 days. I called our friend, Konrad, who gave us Bambi back in August. We checked Bambi to see if he was sick, but he seemed as healthy as ever. Konrad had some medicine for gastrointestinal problems, so we gave that to Bambi for two days in a row. He finally started eating again after the second day on the medicine. This just highlights the risk you have when you are raising an animal. It could get sick and die on you at any time. Yes, medicine or a vet could fix some things, but there’s always the chance that the animal can’t be saved and you’ll lose it. Lucky for us, the medicine we gave Bambi only cost about $2 total (but I gave Konrad $5 though he didn’t want anything for it).

       Also, we’ve had a lot of snow this month. It’s not especially fun to go out to the barn in 15 MPH winds and blowing snow to feed Bambi. But it has to be done. This relates to what I wrote last month about finding someone to care for the animal when you are gone. Unless you can automate the feeding and watering, someone has to be there every single day. Even when that can be automated, someone should be checking in on the animal to make sure it’s still healthy. These are factors that aren’t easily figured in to time and costs.

       That’s it for this month. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. And make sure you sign up for free updates to Provident Planning if you’re interested in knowing what it takes to raise a cow for beef!

       Well, I forgot to write up a weekend reading post last week so I’ll have to make up for it this week. Here are links to the carnivals I’ve been in over the last two weeks:

• Carnival of Personal Finance – Review: Prudential’s Retirement Red Zone

 

• Festival of Frugality – Thrift Store Bargains

 

• Money Hacks Carnival – Frugal Tips from The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Track Your Spending for 3 Months

 

• Carnival of Personal Finance – Investing Basics: What Is an Investment?

 

• Best of Money Carnival – Reflections on My Short-term Mission Trip to Haiti (#1 for the Week!)

 

• Money Hacks Carnival – What Is a Fiduciary and Why Does It Matter? (Editor’s Choice!)

       And here are some good articles from other websites over the past couple of weeks as well:

• Credit Card Finder – Personal Finance Comic featuring J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly [A funny comic about J.D. working on his book]

 

• Personal Finance by the Book – The Money Quiz: Do You Serve God or Money? [This is an excellent test to see where your true motives lie when it comes to money.]

 

• Money Help for Christians – 7 Retirement Planning Factors You Cannot Predict [A good look at the unknowns in retirement planning]

 

• Get Rich Slowly – Dinosaur Comics on the Rent vs. Buy Debate [A funny comic that brings up some good points about the decision to buy or rent]

 

• The Art of Manliness – The World Belongs to Those Who Hustle [Highly recommended]

 

• Free Money Finance – The Relationship between Riches and Wisdom [I've really enjoyed these excerpts from Dollars & Doctrine!]

 

• The Oblivious Investor – Index Funds vs. Active Mutual Funds [Mike is always coming up with great examples and ideas about investing. Yet another great point on the merits of index funds.]

 

• Money Help for Christians – Christian Giving: Seeking A Healthy View of Giving and Tithing [If it seems like I'm always linking to Craig's articles at Money Help for Christians, it's because they're good! I find at least two or three of his articles every week that are just great.]

 

• Dollars & Doctrine – Randy Alcorn on the Benefits of Giving and Money [Short, but very insightful]

 

• Out of Your Rut – Blue Collar Jobs Can’t be Moved Offshore [Kevin makes some great points about blue collar jobs, which are usually overlooked. Definitely a good read!]

 

• Dollars & Doctrine – ANSWERS: Why Do Some People Get Offended By Generosity? [Very interesting discussion about the troubles that can accompany generous gifts]

 

• Bad Money Advice – Of Course It’s a Good Time to Buy a Toyota [Frank can be a cranky, grumpy, and just plain rude guy, but he often makes some excellent points. (No offense, Frank.)]

 

• Debt Free Adventure – Renting vs. Mortgage and A Solution for Mortgage Free Home Ownership [Matt brings us a great post on the rent vs. buy debate with an awesome solution for buying a home without a mortgage.]

 

• Free Money Finance – Principles of Biblical Finance [Another excerpt from the book Dollars & Doctrine which includes a great summary of the financial principles we find in the Bible]

 

• Amateur Asset Allocator – Index Fund Investment FAQ [Kyle asks and answers some popular questions about index funds.]

 

• Dollars & Doctrine – Living Simply Part 1 (of 3) [Rob provides a great exercise for focusing on God's Kingdom. This is something I've been working on lately, as I'm getting pulled in many directions.]

 

• The Oblivious Investor – How Much Income Will You Need in Retirement? [Mike brings up a great point about figuring out how much income you'll need in retirement.]

 

• Free Money Finance – What Your Boss Wants You to Do [These are the things you must be doing if you want to get ahead at work. They're also essential if you're self-employed.]

 

• Money Help for Christians – January Christian Personal Finance Blog Report [Your one-stop source for the best Christian personal finance articles from January]

       Have a great weekend!

       I’m not posting today because I had a guest post published yesterday on Free Money Finance titled “Is It Possible to Beat the Market?“. Check it out if you want something to read!