Here are links to the carnivals I was in this week:

• Carnival of Personal Finance – How to Get Out of Debt: Step 10 – Don’t Get Trapped Again!

 

• Festival of Frugality – Raising a Cow for Beef: Month 12

       Here are some interesting articles I found this week that I’d like to share with you:

• Bad Money Advice – The Reality of Saving Energy, Money, and the Planet – [Frank points out some of the flaws with the green movement and the misguided efforts of many who are interested in either saving the environment or saving money.]

 

• Dollars & Doctrine – Does Christianity Support Communism? – [Rob shares his perspective on whether the Bible teaches communism. He comes to similar conclusions as Joe from Personal Finance by the Book but with a little different emphasis.]

 

• FiscalGeek – Why a House or Mortgage Payment Should NEVER Own You – [Kevin from Out of Your Rut offers some great tips on housing payments in his post at FiscalGeek.]

 

• Cash Money Life – When Companies Go Too Far – [Ryan talks about MonaVie's tactics against Lazy Man and Money (who I mentioned in my post on Monday) and why he'll never do business with MonaVie regardless of whether it's a scam or not.]

 

• Man vs. Debt – Belief, Without Action, is Dead – [Adam Baker shares some great wisdom about taking action from James 2:14-17.]

 

• The Oblivious Investor – Hedge Fund Expenses: They’re Not Cheap – [Mike does the math on a "cheap" hedge fund. Hint: it ain't cheap!]

 

• Faithful with a Few – Do You Really Need An Emergency Fund? – [Khaleef shares his thoughts on emergency funds. I mostly agree with him, except I don't think everyone needs a 12 month emergency fund. How much you need in an emergency fund depends on your situation.]

       Have a great weekend!

       Here are links to the carnivals I was in this week:

• Carnival of Financial Planning – How to Create a Balance Sheet, or How to Calculate Your Net Worth

 

• Carnival of Personal Finance – I Am More Than My Income

 

• Festival of Frugality – Personal Finance Bible Study: Contentment (Part 7 of 12) – Practical Applications

       Here are a couple interesting articles I found this week that I’d like to share with you:

• Personal Finance by the Book – Does the Bible Teach Communism? – [I thought Joe did a good job looking at whether or not the Bible teaches communism. Many people assume this based on the actions of the early church, but Joe points out why it's not necessarily the case. I think generous, selfless giving is clearly taught, but I have to agree with Joe that this is not the same as communism.]

 

• Early Retirement Extreme – Slaying the “enough” dragon – [Slaying the "enough" dragon, or finding contentment, is so essential to financial success. But as you know since I've said it so much before, finding contentment is key to your spiritual success as well. Namely finding contentment in Christ is the only true path to success.]

       Have a great weekend!

       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 12. Bambi just turned one year old on Saturday. Happy birthday, Bambi! As always, let’s first check Bambi’s growth. Here he is at eleven months old:





       And here he is at twelve months old:





       I’m not really sure how much Bambi weighs right now, and I probably won’t know again until he goes to the butcher. Now that he’s living with other cows and has little interaction with humans it would probably be difficult to check him with a weight tape. But I can definitely see an improvement between these two pictures. He’s a bit stockier and more filled out.

Costs & Time

       Thanks to moving Bambi to our friends’ pasture, I haven’t spent any time on raising him this past month. I will be paying our friends some amount per month, but they haven’t let me know what it will be yet. I’m thinking it should be somewhere between $20-40/month. I was spending about $40-60/month to feed Bambi, but it won’t cost our friends that much since they have a large pasture. He’s still being fed some grain, but he gets most of his fill from the pasture. So I don’t really have anything to report in terms of time or money spent this past month. But here are our total costs so far for your reference:

• Cost of Bambi – Free!
• Castration & Dehorning – $16.00
• Milk Replacer – $45.54
• Miscellaneous – $46.87
• Feed – $362.77
• Hay – $88.00
• Straw – $20.00
• Medicine – $5.00
• Total Spent – $584.18
• Time – 102 hours

       If you want a more accurate estimate after a year, let’s figure on about $620 so far.

       Moving Bambi to our friends’ farm was probably the best decision I’ve made. It’s nice not having to move him around our yard, feed him every day, and refill his water buckets several times a day. We couldn’t have simply paid our friends to keep him from the beginning because bottle feeding requires a good bit of time.

       But it would have been better for us to raise him on the bottle, get him used to eating grain and grass, and then send him back to our friends. Then, we could have paid them a set amount to cover his boarding costs. This would have saved us some money (maybe about $160?) and a ton of time (probably well over 60 hours). The nice thing is that it doesn’t take any extra time for our friends to feed Bambi since they already have other cows to care for.

       We’ve found another friend from church who can send Bambi up to be butchered when he sends his cow in November. All that’s left now is to get it scheduled with the butcher and decide how we’d like things cut, packed, and processed (jerky, sweet bologna, etc.). I’ll be learning about that process in the next month or so because we need to get it scheduled soon.

       Make sure you sign up for free updates to Provident Planning if you don’t want to miss out on the final steps in the process of raising a cow for beef!

 
       Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance #271 – The Secret to a Successful Budget eBook Edition! My friend Craig Ford at Money Help for Christians is launching a new eBook today. It’s designed to help you discover the secrets to successful budgeting.

       I think it’s a great resource for anyone who’s ever struggled with budgeting, so I’ve included some quotes from his eBook throughout this carnival. You can get the book for 30% off if you buy before midnight (EDT) August 31st, 2010. Be sure to read through to the end of this carnival because I’ll be giving away two FREE copies to two lucky winners!

Editor’s Choice

       Here are my top picks from the submissions this week:

• Mike Piper from Oblivious Investor presents Dealing with Investment Confusion, and says, “What’s the best approach to dealing with the confusion that comes from being a new investor?” – [Mike shares some good advice for people who are confused about investing. It won't immediately cure your confusion, but applying this strategy over and over will help you make informed decisions you can stick to.]
• Briana Ford from Go Banking Rates presents Why Americans Can’t Afford to Die [Infographic], and says, “If you never thought about this problem before, take a look at how expensive funerals really are. You may discover you, like many Americans, simply can’t afford to die.” – [What can I say? I'm a sucker for infographics.]
• Len from Len Penzo dot Com presents A Simple Trick to Get Your Credit Card Interest Charges Waived. – [I wish more people realized the power of Len's simple trick!]
• Lauren from Richly Reasonable presents 4 Bad Deals, and says, “The term “Bad Deal” is relative. Not only is Necessity the mother of Invention, she is also the mother of many a Bad Deal. Necessity has a TON of children.” – [Funny, smart, and witty - and likely to open a few eyes at least!]
• Jacob A. Irwin from My Personal Finance Journey presents Adjusting My Monthly Budget to Account for Home Ownership, and says, “A look at the steps I have recently taken to adjust my personal budget to account for the various elements of home ownership.” – [At our current rent rate owning a home just doesn't make sense. Just look at all the costs involved!]

       Congratulations to the editor’s choice picks! Here are the rest of the articles from this week’s submissions.

Money Management

• MD from Studenomics presents Quick College Students Guide To Personal Finance.
• Jason from One Money Design presents How Do You Live Well on Less Pay?, and says, “There are plenty of people that don’t make a lot of money and have trouble covering basic expenses each month. There are 5 essential tips to follow to live well on less pay.”
• Revanche from A Gai Shan Life presents Shopping for the single life .
• ispf from Grad Money Matters presents The American Dream of Home Ownership: 10 Things You Can Do as a Student.
• Jim from Wanderlust Journey presents Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Shareholder Benefits.
• Jason from Live Real, Now presents Check Your Bills, and says, “Can you automate your finances too far?”
• Elle from Couple Money presents Financial Tips for College Success, and says, “Many college students are surprised to see how easy it is to build a financial foundation for themselves. Learn how to set up bank accounts, pay your bills, and start a graduation fund.”
• DE(a)BTh from Murder Your Debt presents Your Wasted Life, and says, “You thought financing a house and a fast car meant freedom. That an expensive education would lead you to a rewarding career where you could earn lots of money. You were wrong, weren’t you? You hate your career but you’re stuck. You’re stuck because you swallowed the lies you were sold. The lies that material possessions bring success. The lies that more money means more happiness. And now what? You’ve got it all; the cars, the house with the huge yard, the sexy outfits and shiny shoes. But you’re STILL not happy!”
• vh from Funny about Money presents Social Security’s Bizarre Rules, and says, “Social Security’s restrictive rules make it impossible to get out of poverty when unemployment forces one into early retirement and stock-market losses militate against retirement fund drawdowns.”
• J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents What would you do with an extra $1,000?, and says, “Montel Williams wants to know ”
• Bob from Christian Finances presents How to spend unexpected income: 3 questions to ask, and says, “It can be tough to know what to do when you receive a large sum of cash – this article will give you some questions to help you figure out what to do with it…”
• Mr. GoTo from Go To Retirement presents How Much Long Term Care Insurance Should You Have?, and says, “Insuring against a long term care event is part of personal risk management. Estimating the amount of long term care coverage to obtain requires careful consideration of several factors.”

If you are working 40 or more hours a week to earn your money, don’t you think it is worth an hour or two to set up a budget?

Isn’t it worth spending about an hour every week to manage the money you work so hard to earn? It is always better to manage what you have than to work yourself crazy trying to get more money.

- from page 21 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Finance

• eemusings from Musings of an Abstract Aucklander presents Does $60k constitute a high income?, and says, “Just what is a “high” household income? The stats are surprising.”
• Miss T from Prairie Eco-Thrifter presents 10 Important Steps You can Take to Better Plan For Retirement.
• RJ Weiss from Gen Y Wealth presents The Mike Tyson Guide to Financial Planning, and says, “You might be wondering, what in the world can Mike Tyson teach me about financial planning. I promise you, will be surprised.”

Investing

• Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents 33 Dividend Champions to Consider, and says, “Dividend investor David Fish has created a list of dividend stocks which have raised distributions for 25 consecutive years and has named it the dividend champions list. His list includes 100 companies, which is more than twice the size of the Dividend Aristocrats. I ran a screen on the list in order to identify stocks for further research.”
• Mike from The Financial Blogger presents Use the Loonie’s Strength to Invest in the Eagle Market, and says, “Canadian dollar is strong compared to the US dollar at this time. Use this as an opportunity to invest in US stocks.”
• Div Guy from The Dividend Guy Blog presents Dividend Investing with Less Than $1,000 Part 3: How to Pick Your ETFs and/or Dividend Funds, and says, “Starting to invest is quite motivating but as a young investor, you must put greed and hype aside and start by looking for sound investments.”
• Squirrelers presents Small Stocks = High Return and High Volatility, and says, “Small stocks, particularly those in the lowest deciles, have performed very well over the long-term. They can be an important part of your asset allocation, provided you can stomach the associated risks.”
• D4L from Dividends Value presents My Top 6 Performing Dividend Stocks Just Might Surprise You, and says, “As I have stated many times, my goal is to create an ever growing income stream from dividend stocks. Secondarily, it is my desire to beat the S&P 500 over time. With that said, I rarely look at the capital performance of individual stocks. However, I recently sorted my portfolio by Total Gain % (total gain/basis) and was mildly surprised at the top performers.”
• ElizabethG (Modern Gal) from Modern Gal presents Investing for Inflation in 2010.
• DSO from High Dividend Stocks presents Big GE and it’s big dividend, and says, “One of America’s oldest and most prestigious companies has become an accidental high yielder.”

Budgeting in and of itself is useless.

Budgeting is part of a larger financial plan.

- from page 9 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Budgeting

• Money Beagle from Money Beagle presents Why The Kindle Price Wars Mean Absolutely Nothing To Me.
• Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians presents You Might Need a Budget if …, and says, “31 signs that it is time to start a budget.”
• Michael from The Dough Roller presents 7 Tips To Help Manage Your Finances When Out of Work, and says, “Being out of work can be pretty awful but if you manage your finances properly, the blow can be lessened.”
• Betty from Control Your Cash presents Health Care. Cheaper than you Imagined., and says, “While a visit to the vet will probably never be enjoyable for the patient, a pet wellness plan can make that visit a lot more palatable for the patient’s chauffeur.”

Saving

• Jim from Bargaineering presents How to Deal with Losing Your Wallet While Traveling.
• Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents 7 Ways to Further Your Education Without Paying Full Price, and says, “This is a GREAT article for anyone looking to further their education at a low cost.”
• Laura @ Move To Portugal from Move To Portugal presents Could you increase the amount you’re saving?
• Adam from Magical Penny presents Financial Lessons from Toy Story 3, and says, “Amidst the humour and tension there are some powerful life lessons in Toy Story 3 so here’s a few I picked up and how they relate to growing and saving your pennies!”

Frugality

• ElizabethG from Modern Gal presents Are You Tired of the Smug Frugals?.
• Hedy from Penny for my Thoughts presents How to: Save money on College Textbooks.
• Matt from Debt Vigilante presents Extravagant Frugality.

You need to focus your finances on accomplishing one major task at a time.

If you don’t, the danger is that every dollar will be diluted to a point that it makes little impact helping you reach your goals.

- from page 9 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Debt

• Kris Bickell from Debt Tips presents Who should you turn to for honest advice about debt settlement?
• Ramsay from Moneyedup presents Debt Goal, and says, “Paying off a large sum of debt can be overwhelming. Setting debt goals can make the process much easier.”
• mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents 15-year fixed mortgage rates are below 4%, and says, “You may have seen ads for cheap mortgages in the past, but I’ll explain why these rates are different.”

Credit

• Tim Chen from NerdWallet Credit Card Watch presents Amex is Hiking Fees on the Starwood Preferred Guest Nearly 50%, and it’s Still a Good Deal , and says, “American Express has started sending out letters to its cardholders, informing them that it plans to raise the annual fee from $45 to $65 starting October 14th, and it’s modifying the rewards program a bit. If you’re a cardholder, you may be considering canceling the card in anger at the prospect of a higher fee, but we don’t think you should.”
• Ramsay from Moneyedup presents Credit Report Vs Credit Score, and says, “Credit scores and credit reports are two very different things. Know the difference before you sign up for a free credit report.”
• Cecil Dellison from Clear Choice Credit Card Blog presents NFL Credit Card Owners Lose Points in Bank Change.
• Michael from The Dough Roller presents Get Your Free Credit Score with Identity Guard, and says, “The best source to view your three credit scores for free.”
• Jesse from The Penny Saved presents Fixing bad credit, building new credit, and how to be the tail that wags the dog.
• Adam from Rabbit Funds presents 3 Reasons Dave Ramsey is wrong about Credit Cards, and says, “I have been asked if and when using credit cards makes sense. As a general rule, I tell people to never use a credit card. However, if you can exhibit self-control, then there are three reasons I would use a credit card.”
• Clint from Accumulating Money presents Is Visa Signature Better Than Platinum?
• Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim presents 5 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score Fast, and says, “You probably don’t need me to convince you that you should always be looking for ways to improve your credit score. A good credit score will help you get lower rates when you need to borrow money and much more. It can help you get a good job too.”
• Craig from Free From Broke presents What IS A Secured Credit Card?, and says, “Sometimes a person is unable to get credit either because they haven’t had credit or they had credit problems in the past. Enter the secured credit card! Here is what it is and why it can be useful.”
• Big Cajun Man from Canadian Personal Finance presents Large Wallet Syndrome, and says, “Just how many credit cards do I need to carry around these days?”
• Junior Boomer from Consumer Boomer presents What is Peer to Peer Lending and is it Risky?, and says, “Peer to Peer lending (sometimes called social lending or person-to-person lending) allows people to borrow money from other people, or lend money to others, without traditional bank participation.”
• David from Credit Card Offers IQ presents 5 Rules for Co-Signing, and says, “Don’t take co-signing lightly!”
• Julie Sherrier from Taking Charge presents What’s driving more women to seek debt help?.
• John from Passive Family Income presents 18 Tips on Using a Credit Card Rewards Program, and says, “If you are going to open up a credit card, my suggestion is to find one that offers a cash back or rebate program. While most financial experts tell you to stay clear of these type of accounts, I believe a credit card rewards program can be used to your advantage.”
• The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents Cash Back or Airline Credit Cards? What’s Best For Travel, and says, “Comparing cash back cards to airline cards. When should you choose one or the other?”
• Mr. Credit Card from Ask Mr. Credit Card presents New Card Act Provisions.
• Cecil Dellison from Clear Choice Credit Card Blog presents Bowlers Benefit from the New USBC Platinum Visa Credit Card.

The goal of the budget is to help you spend less than you earn.

Therefore, this becomes the single criteria for an effective budget – does it help you spend less than you earn?

- from page 12 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Reviews

• PT from PT Money presents Free Prepaid Credit Cards, and says, “A thorough, original review of the best free prepaid credit cards, including those that are free of activation and monthly fees. These cards are great for those who need to avoid debt, or those that can’t get a traditional bank account.”
• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard Review, and says, “Here’s a review of a credit card I actually like.”

Real Estate

• FMF from Free Money Finance presents How to Hire a Home Inspector, and says, “When you buy a home, you need to be sure you hire a good home inspector to identify any potential problems. This post gives tips on how to do this.”
• Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Should You Upgrade to a Larger Home”, and says, ”
  In many markets, home owners are looking at homes in the next price range up as good buys, since foreclosures and a slow market are resulting in good deals. But, as tempting as it is to upgrade to a larger home, is it really a good idea? Here are some things to consider before upgrading to a larger home.”
• Rob from Two Wise Acres presents 3 Things to Avoid When Buying a Home, and says, “When buying a home, it’s critical that you avoid these three credit mistakes.”
• ctreit from Money Obedience presents Do renters really save money in the end?.

Taxes

• pkamp3 from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents Tax Incidence, and says, “Who really pays for a tax when it is enacted? If the government enacts a new tax on washing machines, is the entire tax on Maytag? The consumer? Cameron Daniels breaks down the details.”

A budget lets your spouse see your values and priorities in a tangible way.

A budget forces you to communicate not just about your life goals, but also about your daily financial preferences.

- from page 16 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Career

• Kristina from Dinks Finance presents A DINK in The Office, and says, “As a married or unmarried employee with no children, are you treated differently than your colleagues with kids?”
• Nicole from Nicole and Maggie: Grumpy Rumblings presents Why did you go to graduate school?, and says, “Nicole and Maggie discuss reasons for graduate school and how sometimes we’re directed into a career for the right reasons and sometimes we fall into it for the wrong reasons. But it turns out OK anyway (or maybe it doesn’t, but you can always change your mind).”

Economy

• Bret from Hope to Prosper presents Trillion Dollar Public Pension Shortfall, and says, “An article in the New York Times stated that there is a $1 Trillion dollar public pension shortfall. Despite repeated denials from PERS and public employee unions, public pensions are in big trouble.”
• JLP from AllFinancialMatters.com presents Democrats, Republicans, and the Federal Debt Since 1979, and says, “Though the title may suggest it, this is not a “political” post.”

Budgeting is a process, not an event.

You won’t wake up tomorrow with an effective budget. Instead, you will start with a decent budget that later becomes a good budget. Eventually, it is a great budget.

- from page 16 of The Secret to a Successful Budget by Craig Ford

Other

• Donna Freedman from Bargaineering presents Sick happens: How to prepare for an illness or injury, and says, “Sick happens. And sometimes it happens to YOU. Get your finances, your work life and your support network in order.”
• Ken from Spruce Up Your Finances presents Why Start A Home Based Business.
• Paul Williams (that’s me!) from Provident Planning presents I Am More Than My Income, and says, “Do you value your self-worth based on your income? Do you beat yourself up because you’re not making enough, or do you gloat because you earn so much? I did that to myself, but now I’m realizing that my worth has nothing to do with money.”
• Kevin from Financially Poor presents Grow Up And Stop Acting Like A Child.
• Suba from Wealth Informatics presents Credit cards take from the poor and give to the rich, and says, “Credit card users (rich) are taking money from the the cash users (poor)? Is the reverse Robin Hood theory true?”
• Sean Smarty from Grow Money presents Why You Need Life Insurance.
• Myke from In Search of Salt presents Spending Can Be Good

The Secret to a Successful Budget eBook Giveaway!

       As promised, I’m giving away two free copies of The Secret to a Successful Budget courtesy of Craig. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me how budgeting has helped you OR your biggest struggle with budgeting. I’ll use random.org to select two winners tomorrow evening (August 24, 2010) at 5:00 PM EDT so be sure to enter by then!!! I’ll update this post to announce the winners, but use a valid email address when you comment so I can reach you if you win. Good luck!

[Update: Laura has won a free copy of The Secret to a Successful Budget! Congratulations!!!]





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       Well, I don’t have any articles to share with you from my reading this past week. But I do have a question for you, so I decided to put it at the top today.

       What do you think about memorizing Scripture? I’m not talking a verse here and a verse there. I’m talking about entire chapters and books – even the entire Bible!

       Back in June, I decided to start memorizing the entire Bible. As of now, I’ve memorized 2 John, 3 John, Philemon, and Luke 1:1-2:15 – a total of 147 verses or 1.85% of the New Testament. If I continue to memorize 5 verses a day, 6 days a week with an allowance for a few days off here and there, then I should have the entire Bible memorized in approximately 20 years (5 years for the New Testament and 15 years for the Old).

       However, I’ve had a couple concerns about this endeavor lately. First, I don’t want this to become a potential area of pride for me. Second, I’m not sure it’s the best use of my time. Let me be clear. I think memorizing Scripture is very valuable, but there’s always the danger of memorizing and lacking understanding or action. Consider the Pharisees and the scribes. They would have known the Scriptures well and have memorized a good chunk of it. Yet Jesus had no kind words for most of them.

       So what do you think? Should I keep going with this? How can I protect against pride? Are there better ways I could use my time to grow closer to God and study His Word? This isn’t my only form of Bible study, but I’m spending about 15 minutes a day on memorization efforts. Let me know what you think in the comments!


       Here are links to the carnivals I was in this week:

• Carnival of Financial Planning – Where to Keep Your Money While Saving Up a Down Payment for a Home

 

• Best of Money Carnival – The Three Methods of Making Money

 

• Carnival of Personal Finance – 2 Reasons Why Christians Should Think About Earning More Money

 

• Festival of Frugality – 3 Reasons Why Christians Should Not Think About Earning More Money

 

• Christian Finance Carnival – Wake Up from the American Dream

       Have a great weekend!


       P.S. I just joined the Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge this week. Basically, this doesn’t mean much for you. You’ll notice the Yakezie badge on the left side bar just under the Google Ads and the Alexa rank widget at the very bottom of the page.

       Other than that, things will stay the same except I will be focused on raising my Alexa ranking for the next six months and promoting others in the Yakezie group. This has some major benefits for the site, so if you’d like to help just install the Alexa toolbar or you can install the Search Status extension if you use Firefox.

       Here are links to the carnivals I was in this week:

• Carnival of Personal Finance – Personal Finance in the Bible: Proverbs 21:20

 

• Festival of Frugality – Personal Finance Bible Study: Contentment (Part 5 of 12) – Getting God’s View

       I only found one article I’d like to share with you from my reading this week. Hopefully, I find more stuff for next week!

• My Personal Finance Journey – Vanguard vs. Fidelity – Which Funds Are Better? – [Jacob looks at some of the differences between Vanguard and Fidelity in an effort to find out which one is better for consumers. It's no surprise to me that Vanguard came out on top. Check out his comparison for more information.]

       Today is my mom’s birthday, so I want to say: Happy Birthday, Mom!!! Have a great weekend!

       Here are links to the carnivals I was in this week:

• Carnival of Financial Planning – Investing Basics: What Are Options and Futures?

 

• Carnival of Personal Finance – How to Get Out of Debt: Step 9 – Top Off Your Emergency Fund

 

• Festival of Frugality – Should Everyone Go to College?

       Once again, I only have two articles I read this week that I wanted to share with you. I try to choose high quality articles that I find interesting and think you will find helpful. Here they are:

• The Oblivious Investor – Guaranteed Annuity Income: Is it Really Safe? – [Mike discusses the safety of annuities and how you can protect your investment. Mike's been discussing annuities several times lately. I generally steer people away from them, but that's because insurance salesmen and brokers tend to put people in high-fee products that give them a high commission. There are, however, some times when an annuity can be a good option if you choose the right one and know exactly what you're getting into.]

 

• Get Rich Slowly – Unusual Abodes: The Grain Bin Home – [Staff writer April Dykman shares an interesting article from Mother Earth News about a grain bin home. April herself is looking at building a straw bale home, and this is something I've considered myself. I find alternative homes fascinating, though I don't think the grain bin style is a very frugal option. Cob and straw bale are much more affordable and offer better insulation/thermal mass characteristics.]

       Have a great weekend!