Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 5, Posts 11-14

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Without further a due, let's continue on with the 5th?Stage?of the 2011 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the?Tour de Personal Finance category link?and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).

Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I've listed each competition within each stage as an "intermediate sprint" (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.

Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as the competition.

How to Vote

You can vote for the?two articles (one from each intermediate sprint)?you'd like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.

I've listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.)?Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.

Here are today's competitions:

Voting will continue until July 9th for this Stage!

• How to Spend Money Wisely?(Spend):?Learning how to spend money wisely comes in 3 parts: understanding your spending goals (because spending wisely equals spending according to YOUR values), reviewing your current spending for ways to save, and implementing strategies to spend more wisely.?

• Gratitude: The Key to Happiness?(Key):?There was a quote I heard as a young girl that I have never forgotten. "If the only prayer you say in your life is 'thank you', that would suffice."- Meister Eckhart. It?s amazing how one simple, easy, positive action can change so much in a person?s life. One of the things that has had the biggest effect on my life is the realization of the power of gratitude. Simply giving thanks. It has affected everything. It has made me a more positive person; A more productive person; A better achiever; A better wife, daughter, and sister; A happier person. I?m still not perfect, but gratitude has made me better for everything and everyone. Can it change your life as well? I can guarantee it!

• Will You Be Able to Retire on $1 Million??(Retire) Inflation is eroding the value of that $1 million nest egg; as the years march forward, there is a very real possibility that you will need much more than a $1 million nest egg to live the lifestyle you want. Here's what you can do to stretch your nest egg further -- even if you don't have $1 million to retire on.
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• Alternative Investments: Dirt?(Dirt):?I wrote this post to highlight a different class of investment - farm land, not in the sense of agribusiness, but more from a personal perspective.? I'm finding out that a number of personal finance bloggers keep vegetable gardens, in the same way that earlier generations raised Victory gardens.? Keeping a garden is a good way to save on grocery bills, to name just one reason, and "making dirt" is a good way to invest sustainably.

Tour de France Daily Recap

The race is going on right now! I'll share a recap in the post later today.

Source: http://www.mypersonalfinancejourney.com/2011/07/tour-de-personal-finance-stage-5-posts.html

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