Happy 4th July. There is a two week backlog here. But here are some carnivals that I have got involved in. And also some of my thoughts on posts that caught my attention.

Carnivals

107th Carnival of Personal Finance. Amid the various ways us bloggers try to outdo each other when we host a carnival, Tricia decided to just list her favorites and the rest in order of word count! in descending order. How novel!

29th Festival of Under 30’s Finance

81st Festival of Frugality. It’s my turn to host next week’s festival of frugality!

Carnival of Personal Finance – Epic Edition. Well, what can I say about SVB – lots of pictures as usual.

18th Carnival of Credit Card

Posts that caught my attention

Lessons on variable universal life by the finance buff was an interesting on investing in variable universal life for the wrong reasons. His post was lengthy and really well written and you should definitely head over and read it yourself. But before anyone has the idea that you should never buy a variable universal life (VUL as they call it), I have taken an old John Hancock brochure that my friend left at my place. They had this big cheatsheet on the uses of VUL. This is what they said :

For accumulating VUL – ie VUL in the accumulation phase, not for protection..

For individuals, the brochure said VUL is an instrument for

Note that is says a VUL may be appropriate for a supplemental retirement income, not as a main source of retirement savings. This is where most people go wrong with this!

Financial goal of having his own basketball court by my financial journey is a great piece on enjoying your life while you can and are still young. This post resonates with me because I firmly believe that to really be wealthy, you have to either build a business or really successful at your career and work towards either one depending on the path you have chosen. Trying to be too frugal and nickel and diming over mutual fund fees and what have you is simply a waste of time. Let’s put it this way, if I made $10 million right now from selling a business I have built, I’ll happily pay an ‘high net worth advisor’ to manage my money! I wouldn’t even look at morningstar ever again! For my, having a soccer field is what I want!

Is buying a house a sound investment? by Smart Money Daily is a provocative question. My answer is that it may not be. Buying a house is like buying zero coupon bonds on leverage (like what hedge funds do). The only difference is that there is no ‘mark-to-market’. If there was, we would never look at house as an investment the same way!

Post that made me laugh!

Does the size of your house matter?, ask SVB. All I can say is that if I were single, have no kids, I would live in tiny house (like one of those in the photos). I’ll make sure there is internet access, blog all day, sell my blogs after a few years and then buy a bigger house paying cash!

Guess who cuts the Frugal Law Student’s Hair? Well, I’ll let the cat out of the bag here. But it’s Brett’s mom. I guess you will only be this frugal when you are student! Judging by the photo on his blog, I would say Brett’s mom is OK with the scissors! Ten years from now when he too busy with his law practice to continue this blog, the now frugal law student will look back and just crack up! But while we are at it, a suggestion for you Brett. Why don’t go with the shiny bald look? You’ll save on the shampoo too!

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