Weekly Roundup – Dow 14,000 Edition (and the Mommy Wars)

In case you haven’t heard, the Dow Jones Industrial average closed over 14,000 for the first time yesterday. It actually flirted with 14,000 earlier this week, but retreated before closing. That is, until yesterday… On a related note, did you know that it took just over six months for the Dow to go from 12,000 to 13,000 but it took under three months go from 13,000 to 14,000? Sure, that last 1,000 represents a smaller total, but that still pretty darn fast.

In other news, I wrote a guest article on “How to Start a Family Without Breaking the Bank” over at Get Rich Slowly. This article was entirely based on our personal experiences starting a family that now consists of four young boys (plus my wife and I) on a shoestring budget. As innocuous as I thought this was, my writings seem to have touched off a bit of a mommy war in the comments section. Regardless, I want to thank JD for the invitation.

With that said, her are some articles that caught my eye over the past week…

JLP took a look back at their bills from 2006. This is something I really need to do, especially with regard to our electric bill. For those of you that don’t know, when we moved into our house I decided that I was going to try and beat the previous owner’s electrical usage by as much as possible. As far as I can tell, we’ve done pretty well. However, I haven’t had a chance to tally up the 12 month average yet.

Jim put together a really nice, comprehensive article on IRS phaseout rules. Did you know that your itemized deductions are reduced out by 2% of your MAGI over $156,400? I didn’t, but I do now.

MBH talked about removing the smoke odor from things you’ve bought (or want to sell) used.

Flexo talked about the first step to taking charge of your finances — keeping track of your financial data.

FMF suggested that it’s possible to ‘earn’ $1 million (or more) by not watching TV.

The Good Human listed some inexpensive alternatives to buying a hybrid car.

On a related not, Lazy Man talked about reason why we should complain more about gas prices.

Henry shared the lessons he’s learned while searching for a mortgage.

Ben lamented that jury duty is costing him money.

SVB asked: How are you building your net worth? Coincidentally, I just posted out historical net worth performance.

4M asked whether or not it’s smart to buy a car with cash. I say yes.

Jeremy tackled the question of how much money one needs to retire.

Sun talked about investing with ETNs (no, that’s not a typo – ETNs are different from ETFs).

Clever Dude put together a list of 50 tips for new personal finance bloggers. Of course, many of these tips apply to any flavor of blogging.

Finally, Nick put together a nice article on credit card ‘bumpage’ and your credit score. Combine this article with a list of 0% balance transfer credit cards, and you’re good to go.