Welcome to the Globe and Mail Personal Finance Reader. I’m Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist at The Globe, and each week I compile a list of articles, blog postings, videos and websites that represent the best of what the online world has to offer on money-related subjects.
One of the things we look at in this edition of the Reader is the trendiness of frugality. It’s all about celebrating an extreme level of thrift that in better economic times would be called cheapness. You may already know the drill – clip coupons, buy groceries on sale and go only to restaurants where the kids eat free. This is not a trend, I must point out, that we follow much at our house. The furthest we go is buying the kind of steak that’s on sale. I will also drive an extra couple of minutes to fill up on cheap gas, but my wife won’t. That’s more a function of personality than personal finance. I never let the gas get down to the E; she never looks at the gas gauge.
I’ve always thought that one of the biggest no-brainer ways to save money is to get the lowest possible interest rate on a mortgage and thereby minimize the interest you pay. To that end, I have included the latest intelligence on mortgages rates and strategies. You’ll also find investing commentary on bonds and emerging markets, and a review of a credit card for people who like the idea of earning cash as opposed to travel rewards. Sounds like a natural for the frugalocracy.
Found something on the Internet that your fellow investors might enjoy? Talk to me at rcarrick@globeandmail.com
From The Globe and Mail and Globe Investor
Building Blocks
A special series geared towards educating young couples about personal finance launched this week. Check out this story and this video for tips on how to negotiate your first mortgage
Tax Matters
Tim Cestnick explains how joint ownership can lead to costly litigation, unless you document your intention
Home Cents
Chaya Cooperberg blogs about Canada's anemic first-time home buyers' credit This week she also weighed in on how to be house rich, not house poor.
Let's Talk Investing
In this video, find out how to shave your car insurance bill
Online Discussion
A tax expert answered your questions on the harmonized sales tax and consumers, small businesses, and investments
Must Reads From Around the Web
Save Us
Meet what could be American’s cheapest family, the Economides (I kind you not). Annette, Steve and their five children spend $350 (U.S.) on food and cleaning products per month, which is close to $150 more than my family of four spends per week. How do they do it? The Four Pillars blog checks out the Economides and other exemplars of a recession-born frugality movement.
Frugality is an obvious response when you’ve lost your job or you’re worried about being laid off. But there’s more to this trend. Profligate spending in the pre-recession years seems to have fed a Newtonian equal-and-opposite reaction for some people. Debt guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade looks at reasons why people spend in a blog post titled “Lifestyle inflation.”
Further musings on lifestyle inflation from the MoneyNing blog.
Somewhere on the continuum between the Economides and the people who spent themselves into a corner are regular folks trying to do the best they can. One of them is the woman who writes the Give Me Back My Five Bucks blog, which is a diary about setting financial and personal goals and then trying to meet them on a daily basis. Check it out for some of the most unaffected, real-life content in the personal finance blogosphere.
