US Finance World

I run across a lot of articles that may not merit an entire blog post but are worthy of sharing. Let me know if you like this format with short summaries or if youd rather me just tweet links.

He still says that stocks are too risky regardless of time held and should not be bought unless you already have enough assets to cover the bare necessities. You wont like the alternative options: spend less, save more; plan on retiring later; work a second job. He and Taqqu have a new book called .

The building societys latest House Price Index says prices rose again in February, but this may only be temporary with the Stamp Duty exemption deadline looming.

UK house prices rose by 0.6% in February and by 0.9% annually, according to the latest House Prices Index from Nationwide.

However, the building society believes much of this could be attributed to first-time buyers buying homes to beat the Stamp Duty exemption deadline later this month.

Bank of England mortgage approval figures released yesterday seem to back up this view, with the number of approvals rising by 7% in January to reach a two-year high.

And the Council of Mortgage Lenders is forecasting an “unhelpful” jump in home sales before activity slows down again after the Stamp Duty deadline.

Nationwide says the average UK house price is now £162,712, up £484 on the January figure.

Overall, home ownership in the UK continues to decline, with the current economic uncertainty, affordability and a lack of supply major contributing factors. Lende

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The energy giant is offering 50 for referring people to its free insulation scheme for low-income households and 50 to the households themselves.

British Gas has announced that it is offering £50 to anyone who refers family, friends or neighbours that qualify for its free loft or cavity wall insulation.

The energy giant is way behind its Government target for installing free insulation in the homes of people on low incomes.

So it has introduced this incentive – which isn’t capped, so you can refer as many people as you want. You’

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Note: This is my family’s tax story, not to be confused with actual tax advice from a qualified professional.

I’ve mentioned before that we’re an adoptive family. We welcomed our “bundles of joy” to the family in 2005 (daughter age 7 from the USA, now 12.5) and in 2008 (daughter age 3 from Ethiopia, now 5.5).

There’s a cool little feature in the tax code that gives you a credit to help offset your adoption expenses.  When we adopted our first daughter, the credit amount was about $10,000 and with our second daughter, I think it was up to $12,000.  It doesn’t fully cover the cost of adoption, but offset 1/3-1/2 of costs in each case,and really made the process much easierespecially since wed used a lot of debt to make these adoptions happen.

The problem is that if you don’t pay that much in taxes, you spread your tax credit over several years—each year, getting back everything you paid in, until such time that that you’ve run out of credit to take.

Except for this year. This year, t

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Is the simple act of willpower, in and of itself, all that is required to become a better saver? In a recent book entitled Willpower, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney look at the concept of willpower in a world of indulgence and wonder if someone can indeed increase their willpower.

A full review of this book is up-coming. In looking at the concept of willpower and personal finance, the authors make at least three observations to help those who want to save more (or spend less):

1. Goal setting is important but so is monitoring your goal. Using a sample size of 2 billion transactions, the authors noted that users of the website slowed their upward trajectory of spending with such effects amplified if the users used the budgeting tool. It appears the act of monitoring spending slows it.
2. Look at the glass half full if you want to keep motivated.

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Two new surveys show that prices are staying still as concerns about the wider economy continue.

Two new surveys paint a picture of a stagnant housing market. The Land Registry’s figures for December show no change in the average house price in England and Wales between November and December.

And the Land Registry figures show that prices have decreased by 1.3% since December 2010.

Property analyst Hometrack goes even further and says there has been no increase nationally in house prices for 18 months.  Its latest monthly report shows no growth in prices between December and January. A small increase in prices in London offset falls elsewhere.

Hometrack also says that concerns over the economic outlook and the Eurozone crisis have led to a 23% drop in buyers registering with estate agents between August and January.

The average time a property is on the market, according to Hometrack, is highest in the north and midlands at 11.9 weeks. It

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For Nanette Vaughn, tutors have become like that proverbial bag of potato chips — she can’t stop at just one. When her son, Ryan, needed help prepping for a private-school admissions test, she reached out to a tutoring company called Club Z, which sent over Alan, a newly minted fifth-grade teacher Vaughn calls a “wonderful communicator.” Later, when Ryan needed a leg up in math, Club Z dispatched a succession of “delightful” and “helpful” graduate students who, unfortunately for Vaughn, kept graduating. And when Ryan’s sister, Olivia, needed intensive reading help, Vaughn drove her eight miles each way — twice a week — to a veteran special-ed teacher they learned about via word of mouth. “Loved that woman,” says the Atlanta-based stay-at-home mom.

Shouldering more of the work hasn’t reduced Vaughn’s tutoring tab: She says she has spent close to $8,000 over the past few years, on top of two hefty private-school tuitions.

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We often think of hobbies as expensive, and some are. If you want to raise horses, collect antique cars, take up drag racing, or own your own plane to indulge your passion for flying, you’re going to pay a lot of money. However, there are plenty of hobbies available that are free or inexpensive. With almost any hobby, there are ways to make it less expensive. You can shop the used market, borrow or rent supplies, or trade supplies with other hobbyists. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, just because you are on a tight budget (or don’t want to spend a lot of money), you can’t have any hobbies. Here are some ideas for inexpensive hobbies:

Reading

There are a lot of places that you can get reading material on the cheap if not for free. Use the library, shop used book stores and sales, hit thrift stores and yard sales, and read free eBooks.

Metal Detecting

Who doesn’t have the fantasy of stumbling across hidden treasure? You can b

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