Financial Advice

When I first started figuring out my finances I found the msn money boards which were great for beginners and support. The MSN board is now gone, however there is a private board that many from that group have moved to (http://notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi).  However, it is hard to find, if you do not already know it is there.  Also, many people really are not as interested as I am in personal finance.  I know my husband prefers me to figure out the financial picture and then give him options.  I looked into financial advisers but they are either fee only and cost about $500 to set up or just salesmen.  Neither really help beginners or young people.  I think it would be great to have someone who helps make you a budget, helps you set up a retirement account (leads people to the right ones, such as Vanguard, Fidelity and T Rowe Price), help people understand credit and basically set young people's financial affairs in order.  This would not be a long process, if there was a list of information for the person to collect before the meeting.  It could be done with a half hour phone call, an hour of prep work by the person and an hour meeting at the end.  Even if you expect the person to get paid $25/hour that would only be $62.50, no where near $500.  I wonder what it would take to set up a program for young people, maybe have it at colleges?  It seems like a program that would be great for college students either freshman year (if they are putting themselves through school on their own) or Senior year before they go off to the "real world".  Does anything else think this is a good idea? Do you think young people would go for it?

Life Gets in the Way of Blogging, in a Good Way

I am now a married woman, my DH and I went back to California for our wedding and then on to Hawaii for a cruise. It was lovely and a big thanks to my mom for all her help but it is now time to get to real life. Time to change beneficiaries on our investments, finish my DH's disability insurance paperwork, and get back to the frugal lifestyle. I admit we splurged a lot in Hawaii but it is a memory I will have forever. Also, part of the reason for being frugal is so that we can splurge on things/events important to use and our wedding and honeymoon were very important to us.

We are planting the garden this weekend, and getting back to work tomorrow. We have a list of chores to do around the house, just like normal. I do wonder if I will feel different as a wife but at least now it just seems like life.

Off Topic: Hi visitors from Get Rich Slowly

I commented on an article on Get Rich Slowly (one of my favorite blogs) written by Donna Freedman (one of my favorite authors) and posted a link to an article I wrote about something similar for college students. Wow, the amount of people from Get Rich Slowly was amazing for a small time blogger like me.

This is the post from Donna on Get Rich Slowly http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/04/11/use-a-financial-fire-drill-to-prepare-for-the-worst-before-it-happens/
and my post here
http://frugalstudents.blogspot.com/2010/05/emergency-funds.html.
I would love to hear from those who traveled over here (and my small but loyal readership) about what they think of the two articles. What do you see as similar, and what do you see as different, between the two articles? Do you agree with the points or not AND why?