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Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those works. Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!

Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:

Earlier this week, I sung the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.

Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, <

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Parents want children to be financially independent when they turn into adults. Children want it as well, associating adulthood with financial independence. “I [began to think of myself as an adult] maybe when I was like 20,” said one young woman. “And really, like, got out of my parents’ house and started, like, living, I mean working to pay the bills.” Another young woman said “ [I began to think of myself as an adult] Um, probably at 21 . . . I finished school. Finally working. Taking care of myself. And no longer dependent on my parents.”

Yet financial independence is not easy to reach. Large proportions of Americans middle-class and upper-class sons and daughters receive financial assistance from their parents well into their 30s. Financial contributions from parents to children between the ages of 18 and 34 average $2,200 per year and many young adults receive financial support even when they are employed. Alison Riccar

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More and more drivers are purchasing smartphones to help run their lives and with this comes the temptation to use the phone while driving. It’s no surprise that using your phone while driving is highly dangerous, but with so many drivers on the road trying to multitask, it’s getting very scary.

The article “Use Smartphones Smartly Can Help Avoid Car Accidents” by Richard Burton on AutoQuoteNow’s website says 72% of people using their phone while driving say work related items encourage them to check their phone while on the road. About 33% are tempted to use the phone while driving to check social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Many others check personal business items such as bank statements, auto insurance bills and to-do lists while operating a vehicle.

In the last few years, fatalities from accidents caused by multitaskers has increased dramatically despite numerous laws put into place to stop texting while driving. Read full post…

By now, you probably know that most sites offering you a free credit report are doing it in the hopes of persuading you to sign up for credit-monitoring services that are far from free. But did you know that the free credit report scams are steadily being replaced by the even more enticing free credit score con? This isn’t surprising: A free credit report can give you a lot of information about your open credit card balances, total amount of debt, and any missed or late payments in your past, but it doesn’t give you your actual three-digit credit score. This is the score that mortgage lenders rely on when determining whether you qualify for a mortgage loan and at what interest rates. This, in other words, is the number that you, and countless other consumers, want.

Free Credit Score?

Unfortunately, the companies that offer credit scores charge consumers for them, usually about $15. But

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Because I love The Cinnamon Bear so much, I post this same article every year. This year is no different, except that I’m posting it a couple of days early to give you time to download the files. If you have young children — and even if you don’t — I encourage you to listen to these old radio broadcasts with your family.

Holiday traditions don’t have to be expensive. Some of the best traditions don’t cost anything at all.

When I was a boy, Christmas meant The Cinnamon Bear. During the weeks before Christmas, a Portland radio station (KEX) would broadcast a fifteen minute episode of this story every night.

The Cinnamon Bear chronicles the adventures of Judy and Jimmy, and their fantastic trip through Maybeland as they search for the missing Silver Star that belongs atop their Christmas tree.

I loved the cast of characters and the exotic locales: the Root Beer Ocean and the Inkaboos, the Wintergreen Witch, the Looking Glass Valley, the Crazy Quilt Dragon. And, of cou

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Home foreclosures are numbering in the millions today, with more likely coming. Why don’t the banks who own the mortgage on the home simply reduce or forgive a certain amount of the loan? Would reducing the payments to a level the homeowner could afford be a simple way out for everybody involved? N.C. State University extension economist Mike Walden weighs in.

“I’ve done some investigation and there appears to be several problems with this: First of all, because the mortgage process has become so complicated there may not be one bank or one investor that owns the mortgage. So that is one sort of institutional issue.

“A second one is that financial institutions like banks may fear lawsuits from investors who claim that the borrowers are being treated too well and that is affecting their investments in the bank. So that’s a second problem.

“A

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If you’re like me, you absolutely hate dealing with the crowds on Black Friday. To get in on the best deals you usually have to wake up at some ungodly hour before the sun comes up, stand in long lines for hours out in the cold, and even then, the chances of getting in on the big doorbuster sale are slim unless you were one of the first few people in line. If that isn’t bad enough, once you’re in the store you’re now fighting with a rabid but sleepy mob of people who are also on a mission to save money and things can get ugly.

Even if you are lucky enough to get in and get the items you wanted for a big savings was it really worth it? You’ve deprived yourself of sleep, you’ve had to spend the day fighting for parking spots, dealing with angry mobs, and maybe even came away empty-handed because some of the stores ran out of the items you were looking for. So the way I see it, is the stress, hassle, and lack of sleep worth that savings? Even if I s

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A fee-only financial planner once said to me that the one strategy the financial industry rarely supports is paying down debt. No one makes money off of it.  In a semi-related observation, investing based on how economists, especially those who are employed by political masters, wants us to invest sometimes does not end well.

Before the credit crisis some economists told us to spend given that we had entered a golden age devoid of recessions. Now economists are urging economic policies that encourage spending when many households are trying to de-leverage; this strategy may give a short-term spike to the economy (and save some political jobs) but its like asking a poker player to go all in one more time with $100 left. Odds are this player will end up with nothing.

If we were all rational investors we would behave like well-run corporations- unemotional decision making based on the bottom line. While some economists are telling us to spend again, what are these same profit-making institutions doing?

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