Invest In Gold As A Hedge Against Inflation, Recession, and The Weakening Dollar

By MoneyBlueBook

Most ordinary investors know about the general wisdom of investing in the stock market and the importance of portfolio diversification, but have you ever considered investing in gold? Admittedly, the very concept of investing in gold is strange to begin with. After all you're paying money to buy a shiny piece of metal dug from the ground that is more commonly associated with jewelry meant to adorn the body. With all the technological advancements and investment vehicles out there today like stocks, bonds, currency exchanges, and options, why would any sophisticated investor choose to include this physical asset as part of his or her investment portfolio?

The answer lies in how gold has been regarded and used throughout history. Since the beginning of time, gold has been prized as a measurement of wealth due to its rarity and unique functional qualities. From ancient China to the ancient Egyptians, to pre- modern day United States, gold has been used to stabilize and back currencies. Even our United States currency remained on the gold pegged standard until 1971 when President Nixon suspended the convertibility of U.S. dollars into gold. Since then, world currencies including the dollar have operated on a float fiat money system where currency value comes not from the underlying intrinsic value of the paper itself, but from supply and demand driven by exchange traders.

Gold Performance Vs. Stocks

Because they are from two completely different asset classes, investors value gold and stocks quite differently. As a precious material, gold has always had the ability to

By MoneyBlueBook

This post is for people like me who used to live life without even the most basic of health insurance coverage. Did you know one of the major and perhaps number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is unanticipated medical bills caused by inadequate or even complete lack of health insurance coverage? Currently, unpaid medical bills due to unforeseen and catastrophic medical related ailments compete with debt mismanagement and credit card bills as the number one contributor to personal bankruptcy.

We all make many important financial investments in our lives, but believe it or not, health insurance might be one of the most important. It's a silent safety net that will catch you in the event the worst happens and will prevent you from completely falling into the financial abyss. Without at least basic coverage, having to fully pay all of the medical costs out of pocket can be very expensive and difficult. Just a single night's stay at a hospital for emergency care can cost upwards of thousands of dollars. Without at least basic coverage, you are one appendix or broken leg away from a pile of insurmountable medical bills.

While today's basic entry level premiums do not offer full financial protection from serious illnesses, having basic coverage will at least cushion the burden to a more manageable degree. It's important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating your fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly, but sickness and physical accidents are inevitable in life. You might get lucky for a long time but

By MoneyBlueBook

Comparing financial networth can be tricky since you aren't always comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Married individuals that combine the incomes and assets of both spouses will clearly have much higher networths and much lower expenses than single individuals.

With that in mind, here is some background information to help you know where I stand. I am currently in my late 20's, not married, currently renting, and working a contract job that pays reasonably well. I graduated from law school a few years ago and am still trying to figure out exactly what is it that I want to do professionally. I took things easy after graduate school, choosing to enjoy life and neglected the importance of saving early. I did not start tracking my finances and focus on saving until the start of 2007 last year. All of my savings and investments were initiated one year ago on January 2007. Here is the summary of my 2007 financial progression and where I stand now.

Tracking My Financial Progress Using Networth IQ

I've held off from using Networth IQ to track my financial net worth and progress due to my original dislike of the program's overly simplistic graphical chart displays. For such a popular widget among financial bloggers, you'd think the company would have come out with a nicer and more sophisticated looking display. But I've finally caved and have decided to enter in my stats and will be tracking my monthly progress from here on, starting January 2008. It'll be interesting to

By MoneyBlueBook

Happy New Year everybody! So long 2007 - it was an interesting year but I'm glad it's behind us. Let's pray the world can see more peace in 2008 and hope the financial markets will resume its bull run again. Markets are incredibly difficult if not impossible to time, but here are a few of my predictions and projections for 2008. They may or may not come to fruition, but I'd just like to put them out there to see if I am correct or not. I'm not advocating or pushing for them to necessarily happen, but I think they are likely to occur.

Here Is How I Think The Economy and Financial Markets Will Respond In 2008:

By MoneyBlueBook

The end of the year is here, but don't just take it easy and forget about important end of the year financial moves you may need to make. For those who have one through their employer, make sure you've fully maxed out your Flexible Spending Account (FSA). For the remaining unused funds, my usual end of the year routine is to get creative and spend the rest on qualified health care items like Tylenol, Advil, and over the counter cough medication like Delsym and Robitussin. Covered FSA medical expenses also include items like contact lens solution and eye care drops. If you have no immediate health needs, it's always a good idea to stock up on emergency, medical kit type supplies like Band-Aids, gauze, and Betadine for common scratches and scrapes, particularly if you have kids.

What Is A Flexible Spending Account And How Does It Work?

Flexible Spending Accounts are tax advantaged arrangements set up by some employers to allow employees to set aside a pretax portion of their regular paycheck to pay for qualified expenses, usually for medical care, but frequently also for child care costs. The smart use of pre-tax savings through FSA's can help you save up to 30% of the cost of out-of-pocket medical related expenditures. Most people contribute about $1,000 towards their FSA, but it varies depending on individual need.

Benefits of the Flexible Spending Account Include:

By MoneyBlueBook

Is your stock portfolio making you sad? Are you bummed out about your disappointing returns and contemplating selling your positions to stem the losses? If so, fear not, Uncle Sam has a tax system in place to help lessen the financial pain and make your situation more bearable.

If you've lost confidence in your stock positions, maybe it's time you cut your losses to take advantage of tax breaks that can help you avoid having to pay taxes on other realized gains for the year. Perhaps you owned stocks that were hit particularly hard, like Countrywide Financial or even ETrade, both with grim and uneasy future prospects. Holders of such dubious positions might want to contemplate selling their shares now to lock in their losses by the impending January 1 deadline for tax purposes.

It's Best To Push Tax Bills Into The Future And Accelerate Deductions Into The Current Year

Generally, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows you to deduct capital losses from capital gains and other income. Since we are so close to the end of 2007, it's best to postpone any further gains that could be treated as taxable income a few days more, at least until January 1. If you have loser stocks that you can sell without any regret, now is the time to do so before the start of the new year. If you can unload enough of these losing positions, you might be able to completely wipe out all of your other realized capital gains for the year. Even if