It's Just Money

Personal Finance Blog Roundup, and College Football Schedule

Is it just me or did this seem like a slow week in the PF blogosphere?

We haven't heard from Frank the FSA in a while. And Financial Freedumb was feeling glum. Go leave him some comments to cheer him up. While you're at it, he'll enter you into his comment contest for an Amazon gift card.

Some news and reading across the Personal Finance blogosphere.

2Million moved to a new home. You can now find him at www.2millionblog.com. He shared some of the new steps that he and his fiancee are taking towards merging their finances.

The Boglehead's October Project continues at All Financial Matters. Be sure to catch Kay Bell's review of Chapters 10 and 11, Boglehead on Taxes.

James and Miel have been in the market to refinance their Adjustable Rate Mortgage. They have some great advice for anyone in the same situation.

On to my college football picks of the weekend. I have decided to make this against the spread to see if I am actually any good at this. I had a good record on my picks for the last two weeks, but that's because the favorite usually wins. That's why they are the favorite.

LAMoneyGuy's College Football Computer Ranking Week 6

Here is my roundup of last week's predictions and commentary, and my ranking for this week:

Florida State at NC State, "I don't know what the spread is, but take the Wolfpack and the points."  Could not have been more correct.  FSU and Miami are both out of the top 25.  When was the last time that was the case?

Arkansas at Auburn, "Auburn will win, and not by nearly as much as USC beat the Hawgs, further proving that football is not transitive."  Upset of the weekend!  At least, if I had bet on the game, I would have taken Arkansas +17.  But Auburn didn't win, so I won't take credit for this one.  Mabye I should do this against the spread in the future.

Clemson at Wake Forest, "They'll (WF) lose this weekend.  Clemson, despite their loss to BC is good."  I almost ate my words once again on this game.  Wake Forest blew a 17-3 lead going into the 4th quarter.

Personal Finance Blog Roundup, and College Football Schedule

This is a shortened week for me.  I'm heading out of town Wednesday night, so this will probably be the last you will hear from me until Sunday.  Probably.

Here are my PF Blog reads of the week:

The Bogleheads' October Project has begun at All Financial Matters.  The first three chapter reviews are already up.  Don't get behind on your reading.

Attending weddings has put a dent in Mapgirl's budget this year.  But she found some potential business value at the last wedding.

Even the most die-hard buy and holders engage in a little market timing here and there.  Financial Freedumb is up front about his market timing in his 401k. 

And here are my college football picks:

LAMoneyGuy's College Football Computer Ranking Week 5

Well, well.  This weekend saw a couple of upsets, although not in the top 10.  It did, however see a few highly ranked teams struggle to beat seemingly lesser foes.  Let's take a look at my picks from Friday.

Tennessee vs Memphis, "Memphis no longer has D'Angelo Williams, thus they no longer have a shot at keeping this close."  Result:  Tennessee 41, Memphis 7.  I would say I nailed that one.

Wisconsin at Indiana, "Wisconsin will win by at least two TDs."  Result:  Wisconsin 52, Indiana 17.

Notre Dame vs Purdue, "The Irish win at home."  Result:  Notre Dame 35, Purdue 21.  Yes, I didn't go out on a limb.  ND was favored, but Purdue was coming in undefeated.  3 for 3 so far.

Alabama at Florida, "Alabama isn't so good.  Florida is."  Result:  Florida 28, Alabama 13.  I'll take credit for this one because Florida beat the spread, but this game was much closer than the score indicates.

LAMoneyGuy's College Football Computer Ranking Week 4

What is this all about?  Read about my college football rankings and last week's results.  Tying this to personal finance (because it really isn't related at all), my fiancee and I went out with a few friends to a bar in Santa Monica to watch the games.  Between parking, food and drinks I spent close to a hundred bucks Saturday.  That's too much.  I'm looking at four hundred bucks a month for football season.  Time to buy a six pack, order some pizza and watch games at home.

Back to football.  There were no huge upsets last weekend, but there were a few surprises.

UCLA losing to Washington shows that Ty Willingham has the Dawgs much further along than most believed.

The other Dawgs, of Georgia, were shut out into the fourth quarter by a terrible Colorado team and needed two late touchdowns to pull off the victory.

Boston College lost on a last second touchdown to NC State.  Did you see Chuck Amato's post game interview?  He was very emotional.  I'm telling you, college football is not just a game.

I called Cal's win over ASU, but I did not expect a blowout.

There are no clearly dominating teams.  The Ohio State University struggled against a Penn State team that Notre Dame dismantled.  USC's offense clawed it's way to 20 points against the Wildcats.  Auburn has probably been the most convincing of the top ranked unbeatens so far.

Here are this weeks results:

Game Day!

As usual, I will give you my rundown on the day that is College Football Saturday below the fold.  But first, here are the personal finance blog posts that you should have read this week.

Oh man there's a lot of stuff that you need to read.  Remember, College Football shall not be interrupted by your selfish personal finance blog reading.  Read these posts during halftimes and while Lou Holtz is talking.

D at Divorce to Financial Freedom recognizes that dating is hard on the man.  On behalf of men, thank you.  We appreciate the recognition.  The post is probably nothing like what you would expect based on the title.  It's a really terrific post about her son learning about dating in high school, and taking his first big steps.  It's also an unintended commentary on how much D loves her son.  Great post D!

Theres some discussion about Robert Kiyosaki going on, which kind of surprises me.  I had sort of forgotten about him.  Tim of My Money Forest gave us 5 reasons why Robert Kiyosaki is wrong.  Be sure to read the comments, he received some dissenting opinions, which always makes for good discussion.  Kira at Penny Foolish disagrees (sort of) in the one issue I don't have with Robert Kiyosaki.  Like the guy or not, posts about Kiyosaki sure seem to elicit a large number of comments.

Him and Her wonder if they could put 20% down for a house.  Not yet, but after they get married and spend a couple of years saving money.  It's an interesting post, but again don't miss the comments.  The comments that they receive are all over the board, from don't buy in a bubble, to stocks are better than real estate, to "you don't need 20%, you can get in with 3%."  I thought a couple of posts were pretty out there, so you'll see my comments as well.

Can a budget scream?  I dunno, does a lobster scream when dropped in a big silver pot?  I dunno that either, but Medicated Money's budget let out at least a yelp, if not a scream.  But I think it understands.  There are times when people close to us and occasions warrant a few lashes on the ol' budget.

On to the good stuff.  Here is your schedule for this Saturday's games with my commentary...

LAMoneyGuy's College Football Computer Ranking

You know how the BCS uses computer ranking formulas to determine the National Championship matchup?  Well, for the non-college football fans out there, let me explain.  By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with personal finance.  Okay then.

In the not so distant past the #1 and #2 teams in college football likely did not play at the end of the year.  Instead, prearranged bowl affiliations determined where everyone played and human polls (the Associated Press and the USA Today Coaches' Polls) determined by vote who the college football national champion was.

Well, some fellas thought this was crazy talk.  So, they created an alliance.  The alliance went through a few modifications before arriving at the current system, the Bowl Championship Series, or the BCS.  Ironically, it's not a series by any definition of the word.  Essentially, they take two human polls (the AP and the newly created Harris Poll) and combine the results with a handful of computer generated ranking systems.

Who are the guys who created these computer polls?  Nobody particularly important.  Computer geeks.  So, I decided that I would go ahead and create my own computer poll.

I won't give away any of the formulas, but I'll give you the input criteria.

Cause We're Coming... To Your Ci-Tay!"

Oh yea, Big and Rich.  How did they become the official soundtrack of College Football?  Weird, isn't it?

I guess I should give the PFblogs round up first, and the college football schedule below the fold.  There were some terrific PF posts for you to read this weekend.  But as always, confine your internet time to halftimes and when Lou Holtz is speaking.

Here they are:

Amanda at Young and Broke tell us that people who drink alcohol make 10-14% higher incomes than those who abstain from imbibing!  I love this story.  I actually heard it on the radio yesterday morning, and wanted to post about it.  I won't bother, her's is brilliant.  Just for this I'm going to get trashed while I watch some glorious college football this Saturday (great games and my notes below).

Bluntmoney has some great tips on cutting down your grocery bill.  The first tip is the best of all, "only buy what you need."  I can't tell you how many times I got home, opened my cupboard and said, "ah man, I already have four cans of this stuff!"

Her at Make Love not Debt has simple but very good advice: save receipts, save money.  My Fiancee will tell you how terrible I am about things like this.  I'll plan to return something that I purchased or received as a gift (with gift receipt), and by not hanging onto the receipt or reading the return policy on the backside, miss the return period.

Financial Freedumb makes a career decision.  Well, not really.  But he tells us why he could never be a realtor.  I don't blame him, me neither.  However, what he misses is that you don't have to convince everyone that prices will continue to escalate in order to sell houses.  You can also convince homeowners that prices are going to crash to get their listing before it's "too late."

Okay, so now for some football!

Charles Barkley: "When I gamble I should be playing $1,000 a hand instead of $20,000 a hand"

We all have bad habits.  I bite my finger nails, I snack on unhealthy foods.  How about you, do you smoke?  Crack your knuckles?  Shop too much?  I dunno, we all have something, right?

Well, Charles Barkley does too.  He gambles.  "It's not a problem," he explains in a recent Fox Sports article, "If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."

Well then.  Excuse me.

He goes on to say that he has lost about $10 million gambling.  I figure I have lost about $20,000.

Matt Leinart: No Deal costs $14 million

About 15 months ago a college junior approached a podium where the entire sports viewing public expected an announcement of, "I have decided to forgo my senior year and make myself eligible for the NFL draft."  After all, in the prior month, this particular junior had won the Heisman trophy, and thrown five touchdown passes in the National Championship game.  He was widely regarded as the shoe in for the #1 pick.