Refreshing to see sound advice from a large investment management company during troubled times.

It’s a week or so old, but sound financial advices are timeless (woo super cliché).

From [Vanguard views on recent market events]

With one of the largest investment bank declaring bankruptcy; the largest insurer needing a federal bail out; and the largest thrift in the country putting itself on the auction block — if this isn’t an appropriate time to reference a relatively obscure sci-fi work, then I don’t know what is.

More crappy jokes on a crappy blog aside, seeing hundreds of billions of capital wiped out within a day or two is definitely no fun.

As it is now, it’s easy for the rest of us to make irrational decisions from fear and anxiety. But for most of us average Joe, now’s certainly not the time to make panic driven decisions. Yes, it would have been nice to reallocate your retirement and investment accounts a week ago — or hell, earlier this year — but we can’t always make investing decisions after the fact.

The list of current to-do’s can vary depending on your situation, but if you’re concern, it doesn’t hurt to double check your FDIC and SIPC coverage limits on your various types of financial accounts.

Since I’m too much of a wuss (and a moron) to give out further advice, for more resources, check out links to other personal finance bloggers on these matters:

• What you can do about today’s economy – Ramit from I Will Teach You To Be Rich gives a quick 3 minute video on what you can do, with some cliff notes for those busy bees.
• Want To Bail On Your Stocks? Answer 2 Questions First – Jonathan from MyMoneyBlog gives us a timely reminder on selling during troubled times.
• Worried About Your Saving Accounts in Problem Banks? – SVB from The Digerati Life shows some food for thoughts if you have accounts at problem banks.
• FDIC Insurance Coverage Limits – Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity goes over FDIC coverage limits.

Just wanted to be hip and cool and use “f’ing” for once in the headline.

• Six Things More Expensive Because of Marketing -  From Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Headline is pretty self explanatory, from black pearls, bottled water to diamonds, marketing has been injecting pseudo-value into various products since the dawn of the consumer era.
• Amazon Prime Review: 5 Reasons to Try it Out if you Shop Online – SVB from The Digerati Life takes a look at Amazon Prime and list some reasons why it may be worthwhile.  Personally, like SVB, I’m willing to wait. I don’t think I’ve ever spent the extra beyond standard shipping for anything I’ve bought online.
• Avoiding shopping temptation – Plonkee writes about the slippery slope of heading to the store for a particular item, only to spend more than intended. My solution? Never leave the house.
• Money Matters for All Ages (PDF eBook, 581 KB) – Can’t recall if I’ve ever linked to this eBook, but a very complete guide on personal finance from 16 personal finance bloggers.

P.S. My mom says I’m totally cool.

Well that title couldn’t possibly get any longer.

Here’s a few informative read that I’ve found while cleaning out my bookmarks. Since I hardly give out link-love (because I’m a selfish jerk like that), you know these are interesting reads.

With an endorsement like that, how can you not click-through?

• An Intro to Ethical Consumerism – Sasha talks about being conscious with your spending dollars. Two concepts were mentioned: positive buying in which you support business or organization you believe in, and moral boycott, in which you avoid those that you don’t.
• Know Thy Enemy – Understand the Salespersons Tools – Jim goes over some of the tactics a salesman use to potentially get you to buy things you don’t need or at prices that are hardly favorable. A good read if you’re stepping into a car dealership soon.
• The Case Against Roth 401k – The Finance Buff makes a case against the Roth 401k. Some factors include avoiding high state income tax and not having the option to convert from Roth to traditional. If you’re making a decision on your 401k choices, read this post and the discussion at the Bogleheads forum so you can be better informed.

Lastly, Jim has a timely free eBook for recent graduates: College Grad Money Guide. A very simple five chapter guide on how to get a solid foundation with your money for our recent sheepskin holding peeps.

1. You have too much to do today.
2. You think you can always make more money later.
3. You didn’t know it was important.
4. You think it’s too complicated.
5. You can always pay someone else to worry about it.
6. You’re filthy rich.
7. Your parents are filthy rich.
8. Your significant other is filthy rich.
9. Your parents didn’t seem to care, so why should you?
10. You think you’ll hit the jackpot eventually one day.
11. You just received a large windfall and you’re sure it’ll last forever without problems.
12. You don’t believe money is important (it’s not, but life isn’t free).
13. You didn’t realize retirement is just a few years away.
14. You didn’t think about the fact that you’ll retire one day.
15. Your retirement is decades away, you can always worry about it later.
16. You were brought up to not talk about money openly.
17. You were never taught to care about it.
18. You’re in high school, why should you care?
19. You’re in college, you’re too drunk to care.
20. You just finished college, you’re too busy working (or finding a job) to care.
21. You’re about to propose, there’s too much going on to care.
22. You just got married, now it’s even more complicated to care.
23. You have kids. You’re seriously too busy working and raising your kids to care.
24. You don’t know how to talk about it with your significant other.
25. You’re positive you will always be in good health and always have job prospects.
26. You believe in your income source and job security.
27. You believe that social security will be enough.
28. You believe that your children will take care of you when you retire.
29. You believe that your significant other will always take care of you.
30. You’re just too damn tired to care.

Are there may more reasons? You betcha.

Been putting off starting that retirement account because it seems too complicated?

Call your company’s human resource department and have someone walk you through setting up a 401k. Next, have your personal information ready, visit Fidelity or Vanguard’s website, and open up an IRA today (doesn’t matter which one, just open one). It seriously only takes about 15 minutes to open and fund an account. You can figure out what to invest in later — the important part is taking the first step.

Been putting off talking to your loved ones about your financial worries?

Sit them down and talk. The difficult conversations are always the most important ones. Sure, it may not be easy, but the alternatives can sometimes be much worse. Your parents may lose their house. Complications may lead to divorce. You might have to bail your kids out later. You might have to ask your parents to bail you out. You might have to start all over again — at age 57.

For every reason to not care and to not do anything, there are hundreds more reasons to care and to do something about your personal finance.

After about eight months of paying an additional $20 to T-Mobile for my Blackberry data service, I have decided to remove the plan in an attempt to cut various unneeded expenses.

Paying more than $65 per month for a mobile phone plan was just ridiculous, considering how little friends I have to talk to. As my sister often said to me when I misplace my phone: “Why do you even need to look for it? Everyone that’ll call you is already here with you.”

This decision was made much easier as I had already temporarily removed the data plan during my month abroad earlier this year. By cutting my “Crackberry” addiction of checking emails (I needed my fix of daily joke emails and Viagra spam)… I have found extra time to update my blog, evident by the one post I made in January, the six I wrote in February… etc.

Removing the data service was simple enough, thanks to the rampant days of account services manageable via the web. Easily removing options like these always made me wonder how the company stay in business if they provide a crappy service, but I suppose easily adding on crap can also be a selling point. (On a side note, My T-Mobile needs some seriously fixing. The site is down or non-functional half the time).

One important thing I realized from this episode was that had I not gone without the service while abroad, I would have never noticed the presences of the extra monthly charges. Was it nice to have the Internet at my fingertips, even though it brings me back to the dial-up days? Sure.  But this was one of those “nice to have but not needed” service — something I’ve kept just because it’s there and it was convenient to have.

If I can live without it for a month, I can live without it for years. Until I’ve reached the point where I need constant Internet access (seriously hoping never), I’ll be keeping the data service off my mobile phone plan.

Some Questions to Ask Yourself When Cutting Monthly Expenses:

• Why did I got this in the first place?
• Can I go a month without using it?
• How many times per month do I use it?
• Is there a cheaper (or free) alternative?
• Is this a “nice to have” or a “much needed” service?

There are three things I can do with my tax rebate check:

1. Spend it.
2. Save it.
3. Invest it.

America’s retailer and the U.S. government wants me to spend it. My parents would probably want me to save it. My future children who’d no doubt be spoil brats like me, will want me to invest it. Being the conformist that I am, I will follow my readers’ advice and buy myself a Wii.

CNN’s current unscientific poll shows that 48% of respondents will pay off their debt, 32% will save it, and only about 20% will immediately stimulate the economy by spending it.

With retailers pulling out all the tricks to get you to spend, including allowing you to cash your tax rebate check at their location, a quick reminder on the sensible things to do shouldn’t hurt.

Three Sensible Ways to Utilize Your Tax Rebate Check:

1. If you have outstanding credit card debt, the sound thing to do will be to pay off whatever amount you can with your tax rebate check.
2. If you haven’t set up an emergency fund yet, now would be an incredibly good time to do so.
3. If you don’t have large interest debt and you have the emergency fund covered, the next logical step would be making the money work for you. Invest the $300, $600, $1,200, or whatever amount Uncle Sam will give you. Throw it into your IRA, give a boost to your target retirement fund; heck, if you really want to be crazy, put it towards your children’s college fund.

P.S. Be alert for advance payment scams and other rebate scams. Avoid the hassles and troubles, deal with the IRS only and you should have little issues.

Related Resources:

• Basic Information on the Stimulus Payments – from the lovely IRS
• Stimulus Rebate Payment Schedule – from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

I am not a cash person.

If I have cash in my wallet, they disappear within days.

Which is awfully strange because having no life, I hardly step out of my dungeon… so perhaps my family steals from me (kidding).

It seems there are two types of people in this situation. Those that spend easily when they use cash, and those that spend easily when they use credit. I am the unfortunate former.

You would think that having cold hard cash will deter the unplanned Cap n’ Crunch buying, but alas… I am but a weak man. For whatever reason, cash-on-hand feels like spare change for me (I suppose it would be different if I carry hundred dollar bills).

On the other hand, having my credit cards with ludicrous credit limit in my wallet does not make me spend recklessly. I have friends that swipe away without a second thought — only to do the usual moaning and groaning at the end of the month — but when it comes to cash, they spend much more carefully.

My cash and credit mentality is most likely due to the fact that I got into debt via credit. Hopefully one day I can kick the habit and spend with much more discretion, regardless if the instrument is cash or whatever else.

Having said that, I suppose there’s really three types of people, the last one being those that can spend carefully regardless if it’s cash or credit.

I hate you people.

Tips on Spending Wisely with Credit Cards:

• Carry only one card unless you are a master rewards card juggler.
• Apply for online access and make a habit of checking balances regularly. This way you can see the full effect of your spending clearly.
• If you have issues with spending, make yourself a credit card slip cover that can act as a reminder. Write the questions below for added emphasis.
• Ask yourself these questions before using your credit card:
  • Do I really need this?
  • Can I afford this at the end of the month?
  • Will I be glad I bought this a year from now?

Tips on Spending Wisely with Cash:

• Carry a bill amount that’s harder to break, such as $50. A helpful barrier to prevent you from spending on little things.
• Set and carry only fixed dollar amount weekly and deposit any weekly excess in jar. When you need more, withdrawal only from cash jar. Deposit cash jar back into banking account after few months. Rinse and repeat.

Tips on cash above are comment suggestions in an old post from readers, Jack and Independent George (thanks guys).