11 November 2007 No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Last week I wrote a review on The Engine of America by Hector Barreto and I followed up by holding a contest for a free copy of this great book. I took all of the comments that were posted between then and now and basically did a drawing. The winner of the free book is Eric Ziarek! Congratulations Eric, I’ll will be sending you an email to get your shipping details. Thanks again to those who participated. I hope to bring you more contests soon. Also, thanks again to the publishers of the book for the complimentary advanced copies.

Now, on with this week’s hot topics from some great sites.

How to put your personal finances on auto-pilot. Jim gives some simple, easy to implement ways to put your finances on auto-pilot. By doing these things you free up your time and decrease your headaches and worries. If you’re a passive investor, choose a low cost index fund or ETF and set up automatic transfers so you can put your investing on auto-pilot. Of course if you’re a performance chaser, your investing will be far from auto-pilot.

Do mortgage bailouts encourage irresponsibility and punish prudent borrowers? Jeremy raises a very interesting question here. There is a fine line between those who knew what they were doing and did it anyway, and those who really got tricked into an ARM when their broker knew they couldn’t truly afford the home. I do think that the majority of sub-prime borrowers got misled and they do deserve some help. However, there are also a large amount of blame to be put on investor’s who over leveraged themselves as well as banks who got greedy. For these parties, they chased a high reward with high risk and they lost. You don’t see me complaining if I lost it all on the black jack table.

How to have a successful budget meeting with your spouse. The lazy man’s guest writer gives some good tips on getting on the same page with your spouse when it comes to budgeting. This is worth a read. It’s important to make sure you and your spouse communicate when it comes to finances, which is one of the major causes of divorce. Luckily, after years of being on completely different books, I am now on the same page with my girlfriend.

Who do you trust with your home, auto, family & health? Ben brings up a great question. There are so many people in these sales businesses, and yes its pure sales, who are just looking to get their commission. I would try to get referrals but nowadays there are a lot of websites and places to get reviews as well. Also, those of you who are in these professions, remember to think long term. Sales is a people business, be honest and treat them right and your business will prosper. One bad experience overshadows ten good experiences.