I was doing some research on net worth percentiles and found this related post on the Wall Street Journal blogs. I thought the term Rich-O-Meter was somewhat humorous because depending on which end of the scale you fall, maybe it is better to name it the Poor-O-Meter!
WHERE DO YOU RANK IN WEALTH
In my previous post discussing CCH’s CompleteTax service, I discovered they e-file form 1040EZ for free. I have since learned that H&R Block will e-file a basic 1040 for free also. However, stay tuned….there are some additional details we need to understand.
As a followup to my initial post, Coal Heat Is The New Alternative Energy – Say No To Oil And Propane, I created a spreadsheet to record statistics for the remainder of this heating season. I just finished formatting it and uploading it. Here is a description of the columns:
Sorry for the dramatic title, but we slashed our mortgage interest 26% by refinancing! We bought a house early 2008 at 6.25% (30 year with intention of paying off sooner) and refinanced about a year later in June 2009. Our new rate is 4.625% (30 year with intention of paying off sooner).
UPDATE 2/2/10:
I received this official email notification regarding the change:
As of January 30, 2010, HSBC Direct has been renamed HSBC Advance.
This change does not affect your banking activities. Your online deposit accounts will remain exactly the same, with the same features, benefits, and competitive rates… all without monthly fees.
Made in U.S.A!
Many of us are fed up with sending all of our American dollars overseas to China for product manufacturing, India for office workers, and the Middle East for oil. Well, we can definitely take steps to bring our dollars back to America if we make the proper choices. This post is about one of those choices – stop sending your hard-earned dollars to middle east oil sheiks.
No – by “green” I am not referring to dollar bills. Well, not entirely. Using fluorescent light bulbs will save money in the long run, although they do cost more upfront. Basic home fluorescent light bulbs have come a long way down in price. For example, on Bulb Americayou can buy ten 20 watt compact fluorescent light bulbs for $21.95 (see end of post for coupon code to save even more) which is only slightly over $2.20 per bulb and they only use a third of the electricity!
Overpaying for phone calls is a Net Worth Buster! Do you make national or international long distance calls where you need to pay for each call? Where the calls are not included in your standard home or cell phone plan? Here are some cheap national and international long distance calling plans.
We previously discussed Median Net Worth.
Now we will review the sharp contrast between Median Net Worth and Average Net Worth. First we will define Average Net Worth:
Average net worth. The average net worth is the average obtained by dividing the total net worth of a group by the number of households in that group.
Looking for a FREE Federal tax e-filing option? I found it - the old and reputable firm CCH has a website called CompleteTax and is offering a free online service to prepare and file your 1040EZ return this year. However, there are some rules, you must meet the following criteria.
When I created this website, I was determined to write about topics that would enhance our Personal Net Worth in non-financial ways. There are numerous financial topics to discuss, but real value can also be added to our ‘bottom line’ from paying appropriate attention to non-financial aspects.
Nowadays many of us manage our own stock portfolios. The ability to buy and sell stocks cheaply in any quantity we desire is a major improvement over the days of being required to use a broker, buy in rounds lots, and paying huge commissions. However, I am not a believer in day trading and place it in my category of Net Worth Buster. I think most people who attempt to day trade will not do well, but I am definitely interested to hear about your personal experiences.
My personal opinion is that the average person should stay away from day trading, as I believe it is essentially a form of gambling. Here is a brief excerpt from the Day Trading wiki page defining day trading, and a link to the full post is at the bottom.
As a followup to my previous post How to Calculate Net Worth, here is a ready-made calculator you can use to enter in all of your Asset and Liability values. I included additional rows for personalized items that are not included in the pre-defined categories. After you download the spreadsheet you can rename those rows if you want.
Hope you had a safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and wishing you a higher Personal Net Worth at the end of 2010!
The basic definition of Net Worth is:
NET WORTH equals ASSETS minus LIABILITIES
To calculate my Personal Net Worth, I use the following approach.
I was browsing Amazon for some books on the subject of Net Worth. The title and description of this one really caught my eye because it is similar to my philosophy.
Make a Life, Not Just a Living: 10 Timeless Life Skills to Maximize Your Real Net Worth
UPDATE January 21, 2010: HSBC Direct Renamed – HSBC Advance is the New Name
************************
I have used the HSBC Direct High Yield Online Savings Account for several years now. They have always been in the top tier of interest rates, without offering unnaturally high initial rates that are unsustainable. I have signed up for other online savings accounts over the years; however, I selected HSBC due to the following reasons:
I now realize there are many popular, reliable, and affordable choices for hosting Wordpress blogs in addition to GoDaddy. Here is a summary list of some big name, popular, and cheap Wordpress blog web hosts. Some are offering incredibly cheap deals to get started.
A2 Hosting
Household net worth is the concept that the U.S. Census Bureau describes in their report of Household Net Worth and Assets. The most recent version of this report was issued in April 2008 and is located here:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p70-115.pdf
From page 1:
Another post about blogging, not exactly my primary mission, but this is what I’ve been spending numerous hours on, staying up later than usual, and getting up earlier. I suppose if this helps someone else get started, then it was worth it.
I realized that the Wordpress theme I chose had a default Links section loaded with helpful links. However, I do not want an entire section on my blog devoted to this topic so I am moving these links to this post for future reference as it is quite the extensive list.
Well HELLO and welcome to my brand new blog. This was surprisingly easy to create, so for my first post I want to share the steps to obtain a register a domain name, sign up for website hosting, install Wordpress, install a new Wordpress theme, then make my first post!
