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If you spend any amount of time reading about personal finance on the internet, you will eventually find a common thread about what to do.

• First, stop the bleeding. This means stop using your credit cards.
• The second thing is to establish an emergency fund. Most places advocate an emergency fund of $500-$2000 dollars, with $1000 dollars being the most commonly recommended.

Book Review (#2)

All The Money in the World, How the Forbes 400 Make And Spend Their Fortunes.

Written by Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan, this book examines members of the Forbes 400 list. The Forbes 400 list has been compiled every year since 1982 as a list of the 400 richest Americans. The list is published by the Forbes Magazine, and was the idea of Malcom Forbes, who was a firm believer in Wealth building. The list is based on the personal fortune of its members. The list has attracted attention since its inception, and some of those who have been named in the list have even sued Forbes, wanting to keep the extent of their wealth private. In 1982 you needed around 75 million dollars to make the list, in 2007 you will need to be a billionaire. The book is pretty well written and flows nicely. At times it can be a little dry, but all in all it was a pleasant read.

One Nation, Under God, with liberty and Debt for all….

Before we start, I am not an economist, and I have never taken an economics class, this is just my opinion, so take it or leave it.

It has been hard to miss all the news about how the economy is not doing well, and that we are looking at a recession. The story of our floundering economy has become big enough that it has even topped the list of voter concerns for the 2008 Election (we are more concerned about the economy that the war in Iraq). With all that said, how did we get to where we are? Lots of people blame it on the housing slump, and while I am sure that has something to do with it, I do not think that is the real cause.

This is going to be a long post, so brace yourself. I have been doing a lot of reading about personal finances in the last year or so, and since one of my goals this year has to do with Money I figured that I would share with you, an article that I found interesting. I found the Original article at the online version of the Smithsonian Magazine. The article highlights a Memo / Contract between a father and his son. The memo was written on the first of May, 1920 :

Earth Day is coming, in fact it is this Sunday, April 22nd. In honor of that fact, Home depot is GIVING AWAY 1 million Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. This Sunday, all you have to do is show up at the Home Depot and the will give you a CFL bulb. While you are there you might as well pick up a few more. The free bulbs will be N:Vision soft whites, which were the best in a recent Popular Mechanic’s lab Test. In giving away 1 million bulbs Home Depot accomplishes the following :