Housing Costs, Gas Price Hikes and Net Worth: My Weekend Roundup

Articles I Enjoyed In The Past Week

Money, Matter and More Musings asks What Percent Of Your Income Do You Spend on Housing Costs? It looks like he’s spending 11% on housing costs as compared to the average homeowner who spends 21% on costs. Not bad! As for us, we’re currently spending around 30% on housing costs thereabouts because of our one income at the moment. When we were a dual income family, our housing costs were 15% of our total costs. It goes to show you how big an impact our job loss has made on us.

Gen X Finance suggests 5 Easy Ways to Save Money On Gas. I think 3 out of the 5 tips are easy enough to attempt but altering one’s commute or buying a hybrid may be tougher to achieve, just out of practicality. More musings on the price hikes by Mighty Bargain Hunter in Would gas prices have to go up another buck?

Lazy Man and Money makes some interesting points with Are we Living Larger or Living Differently? If we’re living larger, it’s only because we’re going with the flow and embracing the huge shifts in lifestyle that have occurred in the last several decades due to necessity, productivity and technological and economic changes.

The Sun’s Financial Diary laments his Costly Repair. Ayayay! I had the same complaints as he does about a $2,000 bill care of a temperamental car. I sympathize with him as my credit card just suffered a similar blow very recently.

Binary Dollar brings up the topic of creative financing with Home Equity Loan Vs. Car Loan - Which Is Better? Heed his recommendations before buying that car on credit.

Money Smart Life advises us on How To Avoid Losing Your Paycheck. He actually almost once lost a paycheck by accident so he was quick to remedy the situation. The key is to automate!

Five Cent Nickel shares more insights on net worth with Net Worth vs. Net Investable Assets. While he asks this question, I’ve wondered how most people figure out their net worth. I tend to include all assets into the equation just by default, but this methodology has led to somewhat misleading results for many people as Free Money Finance points out in There are Almost 1 Million Accidental Millionaires in the US. According to the premises made here, if you’re house rich and cash poor, you’re not as well off as you may think.

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity points out some enlightening facts with Neighbors Selling Their Homes. Quick! If you want to know how much Jim’s house is worth, check this post out. In all seriousness though, he shares some interesting analysis of home appraisals and valuations in his neighborhood. Fascinating indeed!

Consumerism Commentary does some speculating with How to Make Money With John Adams Presidential Dollar Coins. Here he shares his perspectives on coin collecting, eBay and money making strategies in the collectibles market.

The Simple Dollar vents with Why I Can’t Stand Most Personal Finance Magazines. I used to subscribe to six financial periodicals and magazines in the past. Today, I have NONE. Though I agree with many of Trent’s reasons in his article, I stopped the subscriptions mainly to save money and to cut down on clutter. These days, I get most of my info from the net and one financial newsletter I’ve been reading for almost two decades now!

Fiscal Musings asks Are You an Investor or Speculator? I’ve asked the same question here many times and I’ve answered it for myself easily: I’m an investor though I don’t have a clean track record on this. Ages ago when I was young and naive, I’ve speculated to some degree and I learned my lesson the hard way that it just wasn’t for me. Despite our frequent debates on this, many of my colleagues continue to speculate and believe wholeheartedly in this as the way to reach financial independence.