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What to Keep in Your Fireproof Safe

Len Penzo lists 13 things to keep in your fireproof safe as follows:

1. Birth certificates
2. Property titles
3. Insurance policies
4. House photos
5. Safe deposit box keys
6. Social security cards
7. Passports
8. Financial account info
9. Spare car keys
10. Wills and living trusts
11. Health care proxies
12. Medical information
13. Emergency Cash

Yikes! I'm missing several of these!

Here's how we rate on keeping those in our home safe:

Zillow's Numbers Not What You Think

I was reading a local newspaper (one of those half-page jobs you get for free in the mail) the other night and an article about Zillow caught my attention.

In particular, here's a quote that got my attention:

When questioned about the reliability and accuracy of information available [on the site], the CEO of Zillow made a statement last year that "while Zestimates are a good starting point, nationwide Zestimates have a 'median error rate' of about 8 percent."

Uh, yeah.

First of all, I've noticed this as well. It always seems that any house I own is vastly under-priced on Zillow and when I want to buy and look up the home it's always vastly over-priced. Ugh!

Second, price updates are very sporadic. I remember living in my last house for a year before I saw my purchase reflected in Zillow.

Star Money Articles for Week of August 8

Welcome to this week's edition of Star Money Articles, posts from around the web that I've found interesting and hence have given a "star", just like your first grade teacher used to give you. :)

We'll start with Tips for Reducing College Debt which is something I need -- my daughter heads to college in a year. Yikes! (Don't worry, I have a ton of money saved already.) Whether or not you have anything saved, this articles has several tips that could save you some big bucks here and there.

Cost of Weddings

Anyone remember the days I used to rail against the cost of weddings? No? Well how about these as a reminder:

Well, my wrath was stirred up recently as Money magazine shared a page full of stats about wedding costs. Some highlights:

Money Magazine and Kiplinger: A Tale of Two Magazines

A few months back I subscribed to Money magazine. It had been years since I had a subscription to it but since I needed regular reading material for the sauna, I decided to take the plunge.

A month or so later I did the same with Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine.

It's been a decade since I used to rate the magazines against each other but there's such a stark contract to them now that I wanted to resurrect the old practice.

Money magazine is still as awesome as it's ever been. Full of good, useful content. In fact, I get several blog post ideas from every issue, making the magazine well worth the cost. They have tons of money-related stats which I especially like.

Kiplinger's was always #2 to Money back in the day, but boy has it taken a turn for the worse.

FMF Back Up and Running

As many of you have noticed, I have been posting more frequently here on FMF.

I plan to continue that trend and begin posting here three times a week. The posts will be more "commentary-like", just like I used to post back in the day.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.

Star Money Articles for Week of August 1

I'm posting a second time this week as I have some good articles I'd like to pass along.

The first two, in particular, are time sensitive. Here's one from Lifehacker with some back-to-school savings tips as well as one from Bankrate on the same topic.

Here's a GREAT article from my favorite retirement blog on 12 Dangerous Retirement Myths That Turn Your Golden Years Into Lead. A key warning: "Beware of formulaic rules of thumb masquerading as truth because it doesn’t matter how often they’re repeated… they can still be wrong."

Americans Have Low Net Worths

After posting Americans Have Way Too Much Credit Card Debt, here's another set of facts that show the average American isn't very good with money.

Time lists the average net worths of Americans by age as follows:

  • Less than 35 years old: $6,676
  • 35-44 years old: $35,000
  • 45-54 years old: $84,542
  • 55-64 years old: $143,964
  • 65-69 years old: $194,226
  • 70-74 years old: $181,078
  • 65 years old and older: $155,734

Not great numbers.

But wait, it gets worse.

Here are the net worth numbers excluding home equity:

Thoughts on Restaurant Bills

Money Magazine recently had a series of stats on restaurant bills.

Here are a few of the facts that caught my attention and my take on them:

Average monthly restaurant tab per household: $223

We are a bit lower than this ($200 a month) but we've really got it more under control the past few months -- more like 4125 per month.

It's an area we're focusing on and trying to get around $100 a month.

The average household spends 20% of disposable income on eating out.

We are nowhere close to this. For us it's one of our lower-level spending categories.

Rewards cards that offer the most cash back for eating out (then they list several with the highest being 2.5% cash back).

There's a new sheriff in town. The Costco credit card offers 3% cash back on restaurants.

Americans Have Way Too Much Credit Card Debt

I like to "collect" posts on various topics. Here are a few:

Posts about people who have a solid net worth despite having a low income. I like these posts because they show that you don't have to make a gazillion dollars to become wealthy. You simply need to spend less than you earn and invest that difference. Over time, your wealth will grow.

Some posts in this category include: