Company stock in 401(K), Stocks and Real Estates, and More

Henry at Binary Dollar says you should at least invest the amount to get your company’s match in your 401(K) account if not more. After all , that’s some free money you can get even without lifting a finger. Why refuse to take it?

SVB at The Digerati Life enters the debate of which would offer a better return between stocks and real estates, after Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money takes on the issue. Without getting into details of the arguments made in the original, my feeling is over the long-term, stocks should be a winner.

Jeremy at Generation X Finance offers his take on liftcycle funds and his conclusion is “Look, but don’t touch!” While I generally agree that using a lifecycle fund could save investors lots of time and effort, there are many factors to consider when choosing a lifecycle fund, not just the target date.

Golbguru at Money, Matter and More Musings shares his experience on how to save money when buying airline tickets. His observation that “Don’t rely too much on price comparison and/or price forecast websites” is quite unique.

Looking for some tips to save on shipping cost when shopping online? Ben at Money Smart Life discusses how to reduce shipping costs at popular shopping sites such as eBay and Amazon.com. Join the discussion and share your money-saving tips with us.

This week’s Carnivals that I participated are: Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted at AllFinancialMatters (my entry: How to triple your money) and Carnival of Tax, held at Don’t Mess With Taxes (my submission: Where to live with less taxes). Here are a couple of interesting articles from the carnivals:

• 10 reasons you shouldn’t complain about paying taxes by Clever Dude
• The IRS rules on HSAs are not finished for 2007 by Colorado Health Insurance Insider
• Save o taxes through income splitting by Wealth Building Lessons