Welcome to the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Carnival: we highlight interesting recent personal finance, investing and economics blog posts.
- The 4% rule and other fallacies of retirement planning – “I might try a 5% withdrawal rate, which according to the Trinity study, would give me an 80% chance of not outliving my money. As time goes on, I’ll adjust up or down depending on what life and the market throws at me.”
- The lesson of the Greek crisis: Every government cheats and no one wants to know by James Jubak – “The IMF projects that U.S. net debt as a percentage of GDP will be 66.8% in 2010, more than twice that for Canada, and gross debt will be 93.6% of GDP, still almost 14 percentage points above Canada’s.”
- Renting 101: What You Should Know Before You Sign by Austin Morgan – “Renter’s insurance helps protect the items in your apartment in case of theft or damage. The renter’s insurance will also cover you in case a visitor in your apartment gets injured or their items get damaged.”
- In the USA 43% Have Less Than $10,000 in Retirement Savings by John Hunter – “if you plan ahead you have a long time for compounding to work in your favor. Unfortunately most people continue to fail to make even the most minimal efforts to save for retirement”
- The US Has A Spending Problem, China Has A Savings Problem – “Back in 2005 the savings rate in the US dropped to below 1%. That’s sad considering up until the mid 80s we were always above 5% and crested 10% a few times… Our savings rate is currently just under 5%… The savings rate in China is something like 30%; and this number has grown in recent years, “
- When will the Fed raise interest rates? by Olivier Coibion and Yuriy Gorodnichenko – “given current information and barring political or populist pressures, one can reasonably expect the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates toward the end of this year in its attempt to balance the risks of higher inflation against prolonging the current economic downturn.”
- Tried And Tested: Pay Yourself First by Daniel – “So do yourself a favor: start saving TODAY by making your “pay yourself first” bill more important than than the rest, and you’ll be doing yourself a half a million dollar favor.”
- Means-Testing Really Is Relatively Awesome by Bryan Caplan – “.I’d rather just abolish the welfare state. I suspect David agrees. But as long as the welfare state is around, means-testing is a common-sense way to keep it under control.
- 10 Ways To Save 10 Bucks Each Month – “Take your lunch to work just once (or twice, or three times) per week. What’s the difference between $10 for lunch at a restaurant and a $2 lunch prepared at home? $8 a week, or $32 a month.”
- USA Spends Record $2.3 trillion ($7,681 Per Person) on Health Care in 2008 by John Hunter – “The average spending by OECD countries (Europe/USA/Japan…) was $2,966 per person in 2007. In 2007 Canada spent $3,895; France $3,601; UK $2,992; Japan $2,581”
Related: Curious Cat investing articles – Curious Cat Investment Dictionary – Curious Cat Management Management Improvement Blog Carnival