My Favorite Articles of the Week

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a favorite articles post. I’ve been super busy with all of the usual, but the bulls and blackhawks playoffs have added an extra time commitment. Additionally, I’ve been forgetting to submit my articles to carnivals. Even though I’ve been shirking my responsibilities with carnivals, I’ve been starting to workout a lot more. Additionally, I’ve completed another goal by fully funding my Roth IRA for 2008. Now I have to begin investing for 2009 and knocking off some of my other goals.

Links

Jim at Bargaineering writes about the making home affordable mortgage refinance program. I have some interesting information about my hopeful refinance, which is not as hopeful anymore due to an increasingly shady lender. If I do refinance, I will most likely have to take advantage of this home affordable mortgage refinance program.

Patrick at CashMoneyLife explains why an MBA is no longer one of his goals. An MBA is something that I’ve thought about recently. I haven’t decided one way or another. I think I would really enjoy getting a graduate degree. I enjoy learning. I do not, however, want to pay for the whole thing. Patrick has done what everybody should do, which is re-evaluate your goals. Just because it was a goal at one point, doesn’t mean that it will continue to be a goal.

Five Cent Nickel discusses the downside of target date mutual funds. I invest all of my retirement funds in Vanguard’s Target Date Mutual Fund, so I have to respectfully disagree with his article. Now I can agree that the downside of target date mutual funds is that they aren’t one size fits all, the asset allocation may not be for you. The problem with this line of thinking is that if you don’t want the asset allocation of the mutual fund, you shouldn’t be investing in it. If you want to set it and forget it, you can’t gain all of the benefits of a smart self-selected asset allocation. You can’t have it both ways.

Madison at My Dollar Plan thinks that you must try Redbox. Redbox is a DVD rental kiosk that can be found outside most Walgreens, Jewels, etc. I will definitely try Redbox as soon as I stop tutoring on Mondays since Monday is the free Redbox rental day. Even without the free rental, $1 a rental seems like a good deal.

Pat at the Smart Passive Income Blog finished his series about how to write an ebook. This series has been very helpful to me. I will definitely be using it as a reference when I begin writing my ebooks. If you ever plan on writing an ebook, check out this series.

Carnivals

• The Personal Finance Playbook hosted the Money Hacks Carnival.

I’ve begun my asset allocation series, which I’m super excited about. By the end of the series, I will have gone through my entire portfolio selection process. Stay tuned.