Free Money Finance March Madness, Round 1, Posts 1-16

Here we go with the first round of Free Money Finance March Madness (if you wonder what's going on in these posts, see my article announcing March Madness and/or click on my March Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.) I've listed each "game" (one post versus another) in segments along with the wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two as commenters have the chance to win a free book. Here we go:

GAME 1

• PODCAST: Dr. Glenn Mueller, Real Estate Investment Strategist - Dr. Glenn Miller is the Real Estate Investment Strategist for Dividend Capital Group. He is also currently Professor of Real Estate at the University of Denver and a visiting professor at Harvard University. In our interview Dr. Mueller discusses the different parts of the investment real estate market and the current state of that market and submarkets.

VERSUS

• Be Honest With Yourself - This blue-chip post is my real-life experience on the behavior and mindset that landed me in debt and the crucial step I needed to take to get out of debt.  For people struggling with debt, you will find that this simple step of being honest with yourself can lift the weight off of your shoulders and set you on the course to be the champion that you are.

GAME 2

• What to Expect from Adobe - While I wrote several pieces on the stock over the course of the year, timing the entry and exit very well, this post captured the whole story in one spot - why to buy, when to buy, and why/when to sell. Impact on net worth was great - call options at $30 ridden to $40!

VERSUS

• The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification - The popular saying goes "there's no free lunch" and in finance, it is true for the most part.  Normally, it is impossible to get something for nothing but diversification allows us to do that.  It is possible to keep your expected return the SAME while DECREASING your investment's volatility and such a thing is very rare.  This post highlights ways to diversify your portfolio that you may not have thought of before.  Are you diversified?

GAME 3

• Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor - This post builds a case against David Bach's concept of Latte Factor and suggests putting bigger problems higher on the list of priorities. To make things easy to understand, a hypothetical case of a person in debt is followed and the approaches are compared with respect to his debt reduction efforts.

VERSUS

• List of High Yield Dividend Stocks (Up to 18.6%) - Here is my tip to receiving $11,775.91 dividend dollars in 2005, and $11,646.15 in 2006.  You don't need a lot of money put away for these dividend stocks, when their dividend yields are decent.

GAME 4

• How to Eat on $20.00 a Month - If you find yourself in a huge financial mess, you still have to eat, even if you don't have any money. Learn how you can keep your stomach full on an extremely tight budget.

VERSUS

• Bye

GAME 5

• Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan - This article was one of the first posts I ever wrote that actually got any traction.  It was an Editor's choice in one of the Carnivals of Personal Finance and at the time I wrote it, I was fairly new in the blogosphere.  So imagine my surprise over the reception it got.  I believe it's a pretty good intro post into personal finance and good money management.

VERSUS

• The Case for (some) Active Investing - This post covers why, despite the strong case for placing the majority of your equity assets in passive investments, it makes sense to still pursue better than market returns with a portion of your portfolio.  I discuss the benefits of a core/satellite portfolio strategy, and give examples on how everyday investors can do better than the majority of professional money managers in active investments.

GAME 6

• Bye

VERSUS

• Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook - This is one of my favorite money stories about our kids. I'm not sure why, but I just about fell out of my chair laughing when it happened.

GAME 7

• Why I Pay Cash For My Car - It's easy to overspend on a car when borrowing the money.  I keep my car costs down by paying cash since it makes me realize the true cost of additional options.

VERSUS

• 31 Days To Fix Your Finances - 31 Days To Fix Your Finances is a series of activities that can enable anyone to improve their financial status by centering your financial life around your own core values. Instead of supplying a bunch of budgeting sheets and asking you to commit yourself to a program, these activities are about figuring out what you want out of life and reorganizing your finances so that you can have it.

GAME 8

• Tips for Having a Successful Budget - What is a best blog list if it does have at least one on tips for doing a budget?  Yet, instead of getting caught in the details of the numbers this takes a high level look what it takes to be successful by focusing the process rather than just the dollars.  It is in the process that we learn how we live our life and control our spending.  So, if you are going crazy with your current budget (or do not have one), this may offer you a path to a better budget.

VERSUS

• Target Retirement Mutual Funds: T. Rowe Price vs. Vanguard - Target-dated mutual funds are exploding in popularity these days. Here I discuss many of the options out there, with a detailed comparison of the features of the two highly acclaimed funds from Vanguard and T. Rowe Price.

Comments

[Nick]

Not sure if I can vote since I'm a player, but here goes anyway!

Game 1: Be Honest With Yourself
Game 2: The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
Game 3: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Game 4: How to Eat on $20.00 a Month (bye)
Game 5: The Case for (some) Active Investing
Game 6: Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook (bye)
Game 7: Why I Pay Cash For My Car
Game 8: Target Retirement Mutual Funds: T. Rowe Price vs. Vanguard

[FMF]

Nick --

Certainly you can vote.

FYI -- you and I have all but two the same. Hmmm. You're making me re-think my "winners."

Anyone else have thoughts on these?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

1. Be honest with yourself
2. The only Free Lunch is Diversification
3. Getting rid of your debt without worrying about the latter factor
4. Bye - $20 month food
5. The case for (some) active investing
6. Bye - kids checkbook
7. 31 Days to fix your finances
8. Tips for successful budget

[Pete]

Game 1 - Be honest with yourself
Game 2 - The only free lunch
Game 3 - Getting rid of debt without latte factor
Game 5 - Money 101
Game 7 - 31 days
Game 8 - (bye) - I am a little bias for myself (Budgeting)

[Elizabeth]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
3. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
4. How to Eat on $20.00 a Month
5. Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
6. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
7. 31 Days To Fix Your Finances
8. Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[My New Choice]

Game 1: Be Honest With Yourself (shameless self-promotion)
Game 2: The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
Game 3: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Game 4: How to Eat on $20.00 a Month
Game 5: Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
Game 6: Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
Game 7: 31 Days To Fix Your Finances
Game 8: Target Retirement Mutual Funds: T. Rowe Price vs. Vanguard

[fivecentnickel.com]

GAME 1 Be Honest With Yourself

GAME 2 The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification

GAME 3 Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor

GAME 4 -bye-

GAME 5 Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan

GAME 6 -bye-

GAME 7 Why I Pay Cash For My Car

GAME 8 Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[ispf]

Game 1: Be Honest With Yourself
Game 2: The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
Game 3: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Game 5: Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
Game 7: 31 Days To Fix Your Finances
Game 8: Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[Jeremy]

Game 1: Be Honest With Yourself
Game 2: The Only Free Lunch in Finance
Game 3: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Game 4: How to Eat on $20.00 a Month (bye)
Game 5: Money 101
Game 6: Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook (bye)
Game 7: Why I Pay Cash For My Car
Game 8: Target Retirement Mutual Funds: T. Rowe Price vs. Vanguard

[Dan Melson]

Game 2: Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
Game 3: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Game 7: Why I pay cash for a car
Game 8 Tips for a successful budget

The rest are byes or no preference on my part.

[Investoid]

Game 3: Getting rid of your debt
Game 7: 31 days to fix your finances
Game 8: Tips for a successful budget

[The Digerati Life]

Game 1: Be Honest With Yourself
Game 2: Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
Game 3: Latte Factor
Game 4: How to Eat on $20.00 a month (bye)
Game 5: Money 101
Game 6: Don't Let your kids get a hold of your checkbook (bye)

Everything else a tie. :D

[Jo]

1) Be Honest with Yourself-Excellent
2) Only Free Lunch
3) Latte Factor
4) How to Eat on $20/month-Interesting!!
5) Money 101
6) Bye: That's hysterical!!
7) Why I pay Cash for a Car
8) Tips for a Successful Budget

[Getting Green]

I would totally vote for the bye over my post on on how to eat for less than $20 a month.

[Super Saver]

Here are my votes:

1. Be Honest
2. Diversification
3. Latte Factor
4. $20 Food Bill
5. Money 101 (the other post's site was down:-(
6. Kid Got Checkbook
7. Pay Cash for Car
8. Successful Budgeting

[Dan Melson]

You want a tie-breaker, and I've already voted for Why I pay cash for my car, so I'll tell you why I did. First off, it was a specific post on a specific topic. Second, it gave reasons and illustrated the thinking that goes into good financial decision making. It showed how to put natural human inclinations on your side, and how having made that one decision to constrain yourself saves you money in several ways.

[Chris Elam]

1) Be Honest With Yourself
2) The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
3) Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
4) How to Eat on $20.00 a Month
5) Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
6) Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
7) 31 Days To Fix Your Finances
8) Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[bluntmoney]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. The Only Free Lunch in Finance - Diversification
3. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
4. How to Eat on $20.00 a Month
5. Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
6. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
7. Why I pay cash for a car
8. Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[Tim]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. Free Lunch: Diversification
3. Latte Factor
5. The Case for (some) Active Investing
7. 31 Days to Fix Your Finances
8. Target Retirement Mutual Funds