Below Your Means: Living well by living within and growing your means

Below Your Means Favorites of the Week (Grease Fire Edition) – June 17

While the world of personal finance is interesting, I think what is going on in Greece and the rest of the Eurozone will have a far bigger impact on everyday American’s lives than they may realize.  This weekend, along with Monday and Tuesday are going to be extremely telling for how bad things could get and how quickly.  It will also tell us if the powers that be are able to “kick the can” a little further.  Please note, of all events going on in Greece right now… NONE of this is about fixing anything or evening attempting to fix things.  It is only about delaying the inevitable, which is a Greece default.

With so many great posts in the world of Personal Financial Blogs, it is hard to keep up with them all. Here are a few of our favorites from the week:

Personal Finance / Etc.

• Cut your budget (Amanda) – Another good “real world” budget article at The Saved Quarter.
• Personal Finance 101: What is an asset? – If you don’t know, you need to find out.  A major pet peeve of mine is when I hear commercials or worse regular people things like “I am going to invest in a new DVD player”, or “I am going to invest in some new clothes”.  While both clothing and DVDs are indeed “assets” they are anything but “performing assets” and they are certainly not “investments”.  In fact they are “depreciating assets”, which means they go down in value over time.
• To donate or not to donate?  Financial, Ethical and Physical Concerns of Egg Donations – I found this interesting.
• We are not saving enough for retirement – Put this in the “duh” category, but to anyone paying attention this should be obvious.  Unfortunately, our government and central bank is making it damn hard to do so.  With 15% of all Americans on Food Stamps and 50% of Americans not able to come up with $2000 in 30 days, is it any wonder our collective financial futures are in question?

  This week we are running a series on saving and building your net worth, please do check it out.  Also, consider our feature last week on Tracking Your Spending and Budgeting.  Remember, one way to get ahead of the savings curve is to live Below Your Means!

Economics / Investing

• IMF “Ready and Willing” to Throw Away More Money; 10 Point Summary of Sorry State of Affairs; Market Repeatedly Calls Foolish Bluffs by IMF, ECB – Mish provides a good breakdown of the flawed thinking at the IMF.
• “Greece On The Verge Of A Precipice” As A “Lehman-Like” Avalanche Could Be Set In Motion As Soon As Sunday – Zero Hedge provides a short summary of what’s going on in Greece.
• Guest Post: Why The Wheels Are Falling Off China’s Boom – A fascinating read on the coming bust in China.

Other

• Congrats go out to the Bucksome Boomer on their 500th post.