Happy December

I know I’ve mentioned on these pages before about how I enjoy all of the different seasons for different reasons – and December is no exception. During this month, aside from the obvious holiday celebration, my traditions include going to the Nutcracker with my wife and daughter at UIS, getting into the swing of high school basketball (just watched three more games last night!), getting together with family and friends, and of course, finishing out the business year and prepping for the coming tax season.

This month’s article has several ideas that you might incorporate into your financial world, using the internet. The internet has brought us many conveniences that we never could have dreamed of just a few short years ago, and I recommend taking advantage of them. Oh yeah, also, I’ve begun using Twitter for several things, including automatic schedule entry, todo lists, and posting the minutiae of life. You can follow me at twitter.com/BlankenshipFP if you like! If you don’t know what Twitter is, you should check it out – it’s a really neat technology that promises to be a big part of our lives in years to come.

Lastly, I wanted to clarify something about my last newsletter: You need to know that the recommendations I made about fiscal responsibility and the like are long-term recommendations for resolving economic troubles. I realize that in the short term, we’re all tightening our belts and such, but I think we need to make long-term commitments to live on less than what we make, work hard, and just be more responsible in a fiscal sense. Without making these sorts of moves, we’re doomed to continue this cycle of boom/bust and continue to experience this pain we’ve had over the past few months. I know we can do it – we’re all capable of applying our own brand of ingenuity and “elbow grease” to the broad economy. Let’s do this ourselves, and not expect the government to do it for us.

I can learn from you, you can learn from me - please leave your comments and links!

Jim Blankenship, CFP®, EA, is an expert in personal retirement, IRAs, and tax issues, with more than 20 years of experience in the industry.  . Read more from this author