Loving all the good stuff on the internet this week! I spent way too much time reading articles, and leaving tabs open for later. I've cleared out all my extra tabs and put them together for your reading pleasure.
It is a new year, so I'm all about goal setting. You probably know that I believe that goals are possibly the most important key to making things happen. That's why I love this series of posts at Free From Broke on How to Create SMART Financial Goals. You can use this process for other goals, too. Fabulous stuff!
Dating can be expensive, but creativity can help save the wallet. Stumped for creative ideas? More Than 20 Date Ideas for Less Than $20 lists lots of ways to have fun together, on the cheap.
I know people have slammed TSP for its poor performance lately, but I am glad that it has such low administrative fees. I was even more glad after I read The Hidden 401K Fees That Can Crack Your Nest Egg. Those figures are scary!
Reservists and veterans are often looking for jobs with benefits, so they might find some useful information in Ten Best Part-time Jobs With Benefits. The author seems to be focusing on health care, which is great if you don't have coverage.
Buying a house isn't always a good idea when you are in the military. If you do buy, you need to make sure that you have a big enough down-payment so that you don't have to pay private mortgage insurance, and also to keep your payments low if you have to rent the house or it sits empty after you PCS. More info can be found in How Much Money Do I Need For A House Down Payment? The author isn't writing to military folks, who need to be even more conservative, but he is definitely on the right track.
I also stumbled across this really old but interesting conversation at Twenty Something Finance. Federal Income Tax Distribution makes the point that an awful lot of Americans (ed note: including the military, and my family in deployment years) pay no income tax at all. It also argues that if you are not paying income taxes, you don't have a lot of incentive to curb government spending. Your thoughts?
I hope everyone is having a good year so far. Happy reading!
