Money Tips Network

As of today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has erased all of its gains this year. We’re not quite in “market correction” territory, though. The S&P 500 is still up year-to-date, but it isn’t presenting as fantastic a return as was evident earlier in the year. We could be getting to the point where the market finds itself in the midst of a market correction.

I wouldn’t pretend to be able to predict the daily, weekly, monthly, or annual swings of the stock market, but there’s no reason to rule a correction out as a possibility. Investing professionals typically define a market correction as the point at which an index that measures broad market performance is down 20 percent from a high. The Dow would have to be below 14,000 for there to be a market correction (and that would be down 20 percent from high of 17,279.74). The Dow could theoretically get there.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Money discipline with baby exhaustion
2. Never enough
3. Piles of old paperbacks
4. Books for high earners
5. Investing small amounts
6. The $2,000 iPad
7. Buy it for life: Goodwill
8. Comparing quality of life
9. “Costco-sized portions”

So you’re thinking about starting a business. Congrats! Now what? Odds are good that if you’re starting a business, you’re a “solopreneur” — meaning it’s just you, and you’ve got some questions about what to do next.

Whether it’s your first startup or you’ve been down this path before, identifying and accessing key resources — both online and offline — will save you money when you launch your business. Today’s post will explore money-saving tools, software, and practices to help you launch your startup in a cost-efficient manner. Ultimately you will have to assess your own business and financial resources to decide what is best for your situation.

So how do you set up a business correctly and get the wheels turning with limited capital and resources?

Organization is all about time management and making sure your belongings have a designated home for easy access and cleanup.

Having a child is an exciting and exhausting experience. The feeling of holding your newborn in your arms cannot be described in words. Along with this exhilarating feeling, though, comes sleep deprivation, hectic schedules and the determination to provide nothing but the best for your precious little one. Even with the best intentions, it is very easy to lose track of finances or make unwise decisions with money. Here are some of the top money mistakes new parents make:

Jen A. Miller

Your co-worker, your neighbor, the corner market owner. They all joined the modern world long ago. For awhile I was reluctant, but I too have gotten hip to the new age. Yes, I’ve started cashing checks through my smartphone I resisted the convenience for two big reasons. First, when the technology debuted, the time from [...]

Why I’m no longer afraid to deposit checks by mobile phone from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This blog was posted by Jen A. Miller

Insurance isn’t a product you can see or touch, so insurers sell memorable characters — such as Allstate’s ‘Mayhem.’

Remember that ad…? Of course you do, because even when you think advertising isn’t having an effect on you, it is. The fact that you remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua or the Old Spice guy is proof that television ads, at the very least, take up some space in your memory. Making a brand or product memorable by associating it with a character such as The Most Interesting Man in the World is only one of a commercial’s goals, but it doesn’t end with brand awareness.

As I’ve stated many times, Sarah and I have a central goal of financial independence at the earliest possible age. Financial independence, to us, means that the requirement of money in exchange for our work becomes entirely optional, leaving us to choose options for our work based entirely on our own skills and personal joy. Considering our twenties were disastrous from a financial standpoint, we’re aiming to be able to achieve this goal in our mid-forties or so – a decade down the road, if all goes well.

The biggest challenge of adopting such an enormous goal is that the only way to actually achieve it is to change your mindset. That enormous goal needs to underline how you look at the world and the decisions you make.

Credit is a very important part of your adult life, yet it’s often neglected by any school curriculum while you’re learning the ins and outs of life.

Every U.S. citizen who needs to be extended a line of credit, obtain a job, have a cell phone, and/or rent a dwelling needs to stay on top of their credit. Luckily, there are a lot of different tools out there to obtain free credit reports. You can either sign up for a free trial from a more comprehensive site or sign up with one of the free credit-report sites that don’t always offer full reports but do typically provide many helpful credit tools.

The Simple Dollar’s Top Picks

Here are the top two free-trial credit report sites: