Oct. 24, 2006 - The Best of Blogging

My friend JLP runs a top-notch blog over at AllFinancialMatters.  The focus is on personal finance but he also hits upon a number of "fringe" topics from time to time.

What I like most about JLP is that he fosters a sense of community among personal finance bloggers.  This is quite evident in how he takes time to read other blogs and call out the best of the best.  As a large, successful blogger he could just stick his head in the sand and keep to himself but he doesn't.

As a result, he has developed quite a following and gets excellent discussions going through comments.

You can benefit from one such discussion on the topic of prepaying your mortgage where JLP recently asked:

"Should people prepay their mortgage (pay it off early)?

Or, should they pay their regular payment and invest the amount they would have used to prepay?"

This is one of the all-time toughest questions to answer because there are so many variables and the answer depends on each person's circumstances.

The discussion generated by this question is excellent and represents what is best about blogging -- the ability to learn new things from others' perspectives.  I suggest you take a minute and click on over to read JLP's analysis of this question plus all of the comments left by others.  Maybe you'll add your insights to the discussion too!  Then roam around and check out the rest of JLP's blog.  It's a treasure of personal finance knowledge.

If nothing else, you'll at least experience what is best about blogging.

Aug. 16, 2006 - How NOT to Get Rich

Here is a humorous follow up to yesterday's question of the day which dealt with the relative importance of financial skills versus character in determining financial success.

The guys in this AP story clearly do not have financial skills or character.  They also don't appear to have any robbery skills and probably don't have much money.  But they have no shortage of bad luck.  My guess is that they'll all eventually wind up in jail.

Read, laugh, and enjoy!

Jul. 8, 2005 - Finance Chat Last Night

Wow!  I had a great time with the Faith, Family, and Finances chat last night.  You can read the transcript here.  It's broken up into 10 sections and you need to start at the bottom and work your way up to follow along in order.

I've never done a chat before but it was easy to catch on.  I can see why chats are addictive.  We went on for 2 hours and I hardly noticed.  3Chords did a great job moderating and keeping us all on track.  That's no small task!

We covered a host of issues such as paying allowances, children working around the home, renting properties, budgeting with a variable income, tithing and giving, motivations for giving, general budgeting techniques, keeping track of expenses, budgeting for homeschool expenses, and having goals and priorities.  We even worked in some chicken salad and egg salad -- organic of course!

Thanks to all the ladies for joining in and making the discussion lively.  Babs, your comment about seeing things differently really made my day.  I'm glad my words helped.

Thanks also to my lovely bride Spunky who graciously turned over the keyboard to me for most of the time (we're temporarily sharing a computer due to hers being in for repairs).

Let's do this again in the near future!

Jul. 5, 2005 - Financial Interview at Homeschool Talk Radio

Thanks to Lynda at Homeschool Talk Radio for the wonderful interview on teaching finances to children.  If you want to hear more about my philosophy on training children to handle money, then tune in for "Financial Discipleship - Training You to Train Your Children."  Enjoy!

Don't forget to join us for a chat on "Faith, Family, and Finances" this Thursday (7/7) at 9:00 EDT.

Jun. 28, 2005 - Online Chat, Questions Welcome

Join me and my wife, Spunky, for an online chat about Faith, Family, and Finances on Thursday, July 7 from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. EDT.  Here are some topics to get you thinking:

• What is money?
• What does money represent?
• What is your greatest asset?
• What is biblical financial stewardship?
• What should our attitude be toward money?
• Who is the real "Rich Dad"?
• What are the keys to teaching my children biblical financial stewardship?

Feel free to add comments with your favorite financial topics.  Then join us on July 7th for the discussion.