For the near future, I’m going to be posting at Frugal Hacks on Sundays instead of on Saturdays as I had previously thought. Emily of Remodeling This Life and I were both going to be posting that day, so we decided that since no one had taken Sundays, I would give it a shot. This week, I’ve written about the faux frugality sold by women’s magazines. Take a look and let me know what you think!

In other news this week, Wells Fargo appears to have won the fight for Wachovia. I think it really was best for all parties. I also read a good article on CNN Money which explained why Citi is right to walk away from Wachovia. Not because Wachovia is bad, but the Well Fargo/Wachovia deal is better for everyone.

Kelly of Almost Frugal is giving away French food. This isn’t just your ordinary food, there’s some cool stuff here. So whether you have a curious palate or you just like food in general, check it out!

Back in September, I missed reading this great post by Catherine Lawson on Social Media Leprosy and other problems. If you use e-mail, twitter, blog, comment…basically if you’re reading this post you should read her post too (and the posts it references).

Flexo directed readers to this report on how money professionals are adjusting their own portfolios.

When I read Randall’s article about metal theft soaring, I didn’t think that kind of thing would be affecting me this week. More on that another day. (Not related to my story, I heard from our building/groundskeeper at the library that some valuable platinum parts were stolen off our library’s truck.)

And I can’t not reference another gem from Randall this week: Hiding Bills and Other Stupid “Considerate” Things to Do. If you’ve ever thought that hiding bills so you can take care of them might spare your loved ones pain, read this!

As for the Dreamhost incident, they finally did get back to me with a backup. I’ll write more about that later.

I wanted to remind my readers that today is the first day of the 10 Day Give challenge. Earlier this week, I wrote about 10 simple ways to give. Most of these fit even the tightest budget, some cost only a few dollars or cents and others cost nothing but time and love.

The challenge is not a contest, or another item to guilt you if you don’t follow through. It’s simply a challenge to do your best. The goal is to:

1. Change the lives of those around you.
2. Change your own life by better understanding the joy of giving.
3. Make the world a better place one gift at a time.

Whether you believe in God, karma, or just helping out your fellow humans, I encourage you to take part in this and make some small changes for the better in the world. Consider visiting the 10 Day Give forums to share your experiences and ideas.

Btw, one gift I didn’t mention in the earlier post is the gift of commenting. Maybe that sounds weird, but most bloggers feel that (almost) every comment is a gift. It’s an encouragement, another reason to continue. So for if you’re looking for ideas, why not start by leaving a few thoughtful comments around the blogosphere?

Related Posts

• 10 Ideas for the 10 Day Give Challenge
• 3 Ways to Give to Charity Without Spending (extra) Money
• Combining Kiva Lending and Birthday Presents

Right now, there’s a temptation to feel that we’re throwing good money after bad when we invest. And are we? Well, some people are (mis?)taking Jim Cramer’s advice and pulling out of the market. But here are a few things to consider before pulling your money out:

1. What Cramer actually said was that money for the next 5 years shouldn’t be in stocks. That has always been true. I don’t like Cramer and I think that he has a bad effect on investors (and perhaps the market) overall, though some of his non-investing stuff is ok. But what he said was simple conventional wisdom. This is why you have an emergency fund and short-term savings or why you should build them. Many of us will not need our retirement money (especially not all of it) in the next 5 years, so that should stay put.
2. The market has already gone down significantly. You’ll have less money to buy in and be able to buy fewer stocks when the price goes up. By taking your money out, you’re losing the chance to get it back. Yes, that sounds like gambling, but stocks have always been a gamble of sorts, which is why most stock experts recommend asset allocation which includes bonds and perhaps cash.
3. This is probably not the end of the financial world. Yes, it’s bad. It may take a while for the market to recover. But that does not mean that the market will not eventually recover.
4. It’s always been better to buy when the market is down. Unless the stock disappears entirely (which is why it’s better to buy the market by indexing), then the best way to make money on it is to buy low and sell high. That has always been a key tenet of investing, whether in a bull market or a bear one.

Now, you might be throwing good money after bad if:

1. You don’t practice proper asset allocation. If you haven’t been allocating properly already, this is as good a time as any to start. It does have to be hard. A good start might simply be a good S&P 500-based index fund and a solid bond fund (e.g. VFINX and VBMFX). Allocate percentages based on how close you are to retirement (less in bonds for the young, more in bonds for the old). If asset allocation feels to complicated, consider using a target retirement fund from a firm like Fidelity or Vanguard.
2. You try to time the market. Market timing is fine as a hobby. If that’s what you want to do with your disposable income, go for it. But if your income isn’t disposable, then you can’t afford to take that kind of chance.
3. You try to get rich quick. Some days I wonder if I’m cut out to work at a library. I see a lot of people checking out books which make my heart sink. Maybe they’re checking out day-trading books from 1999 or books on how to make a quick profit in real estate with no money down (from 2002). I wonder when it would be wise to speak up and when it would be butting in out of turn. They don’t come to the library to get my opinion on personal finance. And I’m not an expert. But I know enough to know that these books are not a safe course of action, especially now that they’re so out of date. It’s hard to argue for purging them, however, because they’re so popular. In the end, the library is about making the books people want available, it’s up to them to mark smart decisions with the information.

These are bad practices at all times and in all markets. Like many bad practices, they sometimes yield good results in the short term. You may run red lights for years before you get into a traffic accident or have a speeding ticket. That does not make it safe or a wise choice on your part.

I can’t say I’m not scared at times. But the best thing we can do is not to let fear paralyze us or influence decisions that are against our better judgment. If we do so, we’ll have all of the pain and gain little or nothing by the experience. Instead, this is a time to learn more about general theories of asset allocation and how they work with our personal investing goals and risk tolerance.

For those of us who aren’t yet at retirement age, this is particularly important. If we learn now, then we can protect ourselves in the future. We must not forget the bubbles and bursts, because they happen in big and small doses. We must not get so intoxicated when the market goes back up that we forget it could happen again.

Related Posts

• Should You Sell Your Stocks?
• When to Offer Financial Advice/Opinions
• Risk Tolerance: Giants vs. Patriots

Good morning, all. I apologize for how slow my site has been in the last couple weeks. I’ve been having some problems with Dreamhost, which served me well for the last year or so but has been problematic in the last few weeks.

This morning, I discovered that a site I built last week has completely disappeared. I had noticed that, other than posts, any changes I’d made to mrsmicah.com and hire.mrsmicah.com in the last week had disappeared. It wasn’t big stuff, mostly little theme tweaks. However having an entire site disappear is much more serious.

I’m talking with Dreamhost about what we’re going to do about all this. I have some backups, but not the most recent changes.

I think I’m going to migrate to LunarPages. No shared hosting site is perfect, but I know that LunarPages works well for some of my friends.

The site may be up and down a bit over the next few days. I’m going to try to make the migration as smooth as possible, but I’m also feeling a bit of a time crunch because I don’t want anything worse to happen. I’m also very grateful for all the backups I’ve run, though it seems like the actual posts and pages aren’t being affected by whatever this is.

It’ll be more of a challenge to move the Finwikian, so I’m going to work on that after I’ve moved my other sites.

Thank you for sticking with me through the slowdown in the last few weeks and for the rest. I hope to have everything fixed within a week.

This month, Bob at ChristianPF.com is hosting a 10 day give challenge. He challenges us to find ways to give for 10 days in a row, starting on October 10th (10/10). Perhaps coincidentally, this will overlap nicely with Blog Action Day, which falls on the 15th.

It doesn’t matter what the gift is: whether it’s monetary or not, whether it can be quantified, whether it’s easy for us to do or a real challenge. What matters is that it’s a gift.

Bob describes his reason for the challenge:

…most people really want to make other people’s lives better, but with everything going on all around us all hours of the day, we just don’t get a chance. This is an opportunity to choose, on purpose, to give of ourselves. There really are hundreds of opportunities that we overlook each day. My goal is to just grab hold of one of them each day.

He encourages people to sign up, but you certainly don’t have to do so or commit to anything to participate. You don’t even have to give every day.

This challenge both scares and excites me. On the one hand, I hear all these little voices in my head saying things like “You don’t have anything to offer” or “You’ll just screw it up by forgetting” or “You can’t afford it.” But the other set of voices is telling me all sorts of exciting things I could do and encouraging me that I would like to be the sort of person who does little acts of kindness all the time, whether they’re financial or something else.

Here are 10 ideas the excited voice has come up with for giving:

1. Pay the toll for the car behind you. This one probably won’t work for me as I won’t be on a toll road, but it’s a fun idea nonetheless. I remember doing it once and telling the toll lady to tell the car “Merry Christmas.” I found this hilarious because it was March. Downside: Doesn’t work at tolls which don’t have a fixed fee. Toll person might keep your money. But it’s still fun and a kind act.
2. Pay someone’s library fine. This is something I can totally do. More importantly, I can do it in a very sneaky way so that the person never knows. Reduces risk of rejection. You could also do it, but you’d have to talk to the person and volunteer. That probably makes you braver.
3. Drop pennies. I love finding pennies and I really love dropping pennies because I know other people like finding them. For even more of a kick, drop nickles. Downside: Sometimes I worry that the penny will cause a freak accident. That’s probably me being neurotic.
4. Write a letter or e-mail to a family member. Maybe someone you haven’t talked to in a while. The gift of relationships is as important as monetary gifts, even more so to people who can meet their basic financial needs. And strengthening your relationship is a gift to you as well.
5. Invite a friend to dinner. Gift of relationships again. If you cook the dinner yourself, this costs almost nothing. But it’s a great way to brighten your friend’s week and your own. Micah and I have been inviting people over more often and it really makes us happier.
6. Bring cookies to work. You will be my favorite coworker for at least a week.
7. Write a thank-you note to someone who’s helped you out. This is something we let slip by a lot. I know I often think of people to whom I’m grateful for something. But I get nervous and embarrassed about writing thank-you notes or I feel so busy that I don’t think to write at all. Try it just this once, it might stick.
8. Give your significant other a back rub. Most of us know something that would make our spouse/partner happy today. So whether it’s giving a back rub, making breakfast, fixing their favorite meal, try doing a little something to make their day brighter.
9. Be kind and friendly to a stressed clerk/cashier/librarian/etc. Here’s a spur of the moment chance to give someone a break. Normally when a person is stressed, the situation makes you feel stressed as well. Try breathing, relaxing, remembering this isn’t the end of the world, and realizing that this probably isn’t even their fault. When I’m having a rough day at the library, I always appreciate friendly patrons.
10. Support the less fortunate. Most of the people reading this blog have it better than a great deal of the world. You can read, you have access to the internet. Those are good starts. Whether lending through Kiva (and giving someone else the gift of giving is another great gift…) or giving to fund a school (stay tuned), there are a lot of ways you can help people around the world. For a start, try OxFam, World Vision, the Heifer Project, or even clicking for free on The Hunger Site and its related projects.

What do you think? Could you handle 10 days of mindful giving and kindness? What is the excited voice in your head suggesting you try doing?

Related Posts

• 10 Day Give Challenge Kicks Off
• 3 Ways to Give to Charity Without Spending (extra) Money
• Getting out of debt and world hunger…