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Daily Links: E-Book Edition Print
Thursday, 29th May 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Spare Change
Sometimes when it’s quiet around here, it’s only because I’m working on other projects behind the scenes. Recording and transcribing my interview with Timothy Ferriss, for example, took a lot of work. I’m also experimenting with short video segments.
I’m pleased to announce that one of my largest projects from the past few months is finally complete. I’ve collated some of my key posts about Roth IRAs and created an e-book called simply The Get Rich Slowly Guide to Roth IRAs. All of this content is already freely available here on this site (and will remain so), but now it’s available in print, as well.
This e-book is part of a new project from my colleagues Leo (of Zen Habits) and Glen (of LifeDev). They’ve banded together to create Web Warrior Tools, a site devoted to publishing beautiful and helpful guides that empower people without calling them “dummies”. Here’s the complete line of Web Warrior Tools titles at launch:
- Secrets to a Healthy Life from K. Stone at Life Learning Today
- The Get Rich Slowly Guide to Roth IRAs by J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly
- Getting Started with Podcasting by Doug Heacock
- Email Zen from Scott H. Young
Glen and Leo plan to bring you more great e-books in the future, including some original content from yours truly. Web Warriors Tools also offers an affiliate program through which bloggers can earn a little extra cash. Enough self-promotion! Here are some personal finance articles I’ve enjoyed over the past couple days:
Every summer, Nickel at Raising4Boys.com tracks down promotions from major American theater chains. He’s just published his 2008 guide to free summer movies for kids. If you have children who need entertainment this summer, you could find this useful.
I’ve been meaning to put together a list of investment tutorials, but Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has done the work for me! He’s posted a collection of resources to learn about stock market investing. I already have each of these sites bookmarked, and I use them often during my research.
“Are farmers markets frugal or a luxury?” asks Carrie Kirby at Wise Bread. As I found in my price comparison project last summer, Carrie discovered farmers market prices are roughly the same as at her local grocery store. From my experience, farmers market produce tends to be higher quality, and much of it is grown locally, but for the best prices, I head to the nearby produce stand.
Finally, Richard at Richer and Better takes a look at how much you really get from your paycheck, breaking out the various line items. From his $50,000 salary, he brings home just $30,000 per year. Though he doesn’t mention it, that’s one of the reasons it pays to focus on frugality and saving money. In general, every dollar you save at the grocery store is two dollars you don’t have to earn.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
In general, every dollar you save at the grocery store is two dollars you don’t have to earn.
I’m not sure food is the best example since states frequently exempt food from sales tax. Every dollar you don’t spend eating out?
Oh right, you’re in Oregon.
Here’s another: If your marginal income tax rate is 35%, every $65 you don’t spend on eating out is $100 you can put in your 401(k).
May 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Great job on the ebook, it looks great JD, and I really enjoy the “resources to learn about stock market investing.” I’m going to browse through that material and see what I can use for my blog.
-SFS
May 29th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
About 22% of my paycheck is eaten up:
- Federal tax: 8%
- Social Security: 6%
- Medicare: 1%
- State tax: 5%
- Insurance: 1% (yes, my employer offers excellent insurance benefits)
(The missing 1% is rounding error.)
I really wonder how many people pay attention to how much is taken out of their paychecks. I bet it isn’t very many people.
May 30th, 2008 at 12:30 am
With regards to your farmers market information, in the UK I tend to find that they tend to be more expensive. Although the vegetables and fruit taste better, they go off extremely quickly and so have to eaten within a few days, meaning the rest of the weeks supply has to come from the supermarket, which is a shame.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:06 am
The thing is that if you pay 35% in taxes, that doesn’t mean that every dollar has 35% taken out of it — that’s just the average. The initial thousands you earn have 0% taken out of them. Then tax cuts in. Above a certain point, every extra dollar you earn may have 50% taken out of it. So at that point if you want to earn enough extra for a $20 dinner, you need to earn $40 more.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Wow, two things I noticed from that guy’s pay stub:
1.) He pays A LOT for health care. Mine is something like $65 a month
2.) I understand now why Dave Ramsey advocates paying down debt first, when people have such BS as company match of 401K contributions up to 3% of salary. That is such a paltry amount, I can see why you would get a better return on your money by paying down your debt first, even if you are throwing money away.
Up until now, I think I was under the impression that everybody’s company was doubling what they put in up to almost 5% of salary. I can see now that my company’s plan is much better - as I contribute 5% they contribute something like 9.5%. So my numbers look opposite his, with the company putting in the bulk of the 401K payment.
I guess you really do learn something new every day.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hey there, to everyone who went to check out my paystub, thanks for visiting my site.
icup, thanks for your comment here. Your feedback is one of the reasons I wanted to post my paystub, to see if what I’m getting is reasonable. It seems that it’s taboo to discuss such matters openly, which makes it difficult to chat with co-workers and associates.
On to your points:
“1.) He pays A LOT for health care. Mine is something like $65 a month”
The insurance covers heath, optical and dental for a family of four (two kids under two years old) and life insurance for myself. The money put into the financial FSA is very high because one of the kids was born this year, and we knew it would be a c-section.
It’s still high, but we do get a fair number of benefits.,.at least I thought so
“2.) … Up until now, I think I was under the impression that everybody’s company was doubling what they put in up to almost 5% of salary. I can see now that my company’s plan is much better - as I contribute 5% they contribute something like 9.5%. So my numbers look opposite his, with the company putting in the bulk of the 401K payment.”
This is a pretty small company (>60 employees), which just barely started offering a 401k in December, and started offering matching in February.
The match percentage is higher for employees who have been with the company longer than a year, and will supposedly be increasing for everyone later this year.
–
Thanks again for your comments. I’ll keep them in mind as I search for a job with better benefits
May 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
For the record, I wasn’t trying to brag or say mine is better or worse, just that it opened my eyes a bit. It was nice to see someone else’s pay stub for the same comparison reasons though.
Also for the record, my company pays a lower salary than industry standard for my field because the benefits are so good. So I could be making more, but perhaps wouldn’t be getting as much for 401K match or as low health.
My healthcare is for a single person by the way because my wife and I work for the same company but because we don’t have kids, its cheaper to pay for 2 singles than the family plan.
Good post!