Money, Money, Money....

Hi All,

I've got a riddle for you.  What is green, everybody wants more of it, some people have a lot of it, and some people don't have a lot of it?   Take a guess...

It's money.  Yep - we all need it to get by in this life and world.  And even though I've shied away from blogging about websites that discuss or cover money over the first few years of this blog...I've recently been writing about it a bit more. 

Today's entry is a poorly named site - Rockstar Finance - but it has lots of good, quality, useful and interesting money/finance/saving related articles.  Rockstar Finance bills itself as 'a collection of awesome money articles'. Basically it finds money and investing and budgeting articles from other blogs and sites from around the web and publishes them...interesting.  And its a good place to find lots of useful and timely money related articles.

There really isn't any index or summary on the site - just a long page of interesting, timely money related articles arranged chronologically. 

There is a category section beneath the top mast of the page though. It has 17 or so categories.  Highlights of these categories include budgeting, building wealth, debt, early retirement, frugality, home ownership, minimalism and retirement.

Examples of the types of articles on the site under the 'budgeting' category include:
Why Car Payments Suck
Everything We Know About Money on Index Cards
The Power of Not Budgeting
20 Things I'd Tell My 20-Year-Old-Self
How MacArthur Geniuses Handle Their Windfalls
3 Tricks I Use to Spend Less....
My 12 Year Old's Secrets to Saving Money

Enjoy the sites and hopefully the advice and ideas will pay off - or at least you'll find the articles interesting and useful.

Regards,
Stu

Financial Calculators

Hi All,

Today's blog entry is all about numbers. Specifically it is about financial numbers. More specifically it is an entry about how to find financial calculators to help you make better financial decisions.

For example, a common number on many credit card statements indicates how long it will take you to  payoff your credit cards if you only make minimum payments.  Click on this link to actually see how the calculation is made.

Another common calculation that folks need to make is to find how much interest you can save by increasing your monthly auto loan payment.   Click on this link to dig into the particulars of how this calculation is made.

Astute readers will realize that the two links above come from a website called DinkyTown.  Sure it might have a silly name, but the financial calculators on the site are current, easy-to-use and well organized.  

With categories like Mortgages, Loans, Credit Cards, Auto, Investments, Retirement, Insurance, Taxes, Savings, Finance and Business, DinkyTown.net is a veritable one-stop shopping site for financial calculators.  Of course users can click on any of the blue links above to go directly to that part of DinkyTown that you are interested in visiting.

Now, one of my personal favorite parts of the site is the Finance section.  In this section users can find a basic calculator, a basic financial calculator (can calculate present value, future value, payments or periods), a checkbook balancer, credit assessment calculator, net worth calculator, 'Should my spouse work? calculator' and a student budget calculator.  Interesting stuff, eh?

And just remember, these are just some of the available calculators in just the Finance section.  Remember that there are the other categories available - which all have multiple calculators under their own respective headings.  Very cool stuff!

So...with the tax season just getting underway, hopefully this site might just make completing your taxes just a bit easier!

Regards - hope the site saves you time and money!
Stu