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Roundup: Financial Reform & Financial Tips

Posted By Jim On 05/22/2010 @ 9:17 am In Personal Finance | 6 Comments

The big financial news of this week, besides the correction in the markets, has to be the Senate passing [3] the financial reform bill – Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S. 3217) [4]. As they work to reconcile this bill with the one passed by the House in December, we’ll discuss some of the more significant amendments that affect us directly. There are a lot of new banking regulations, new regulatory bodies, and the like but we’ll start taking a look at things that affect people directly (banking regulations affect us indirectly).

  • The United States was founded by some ridiculously wealthy gentlemen, The Atlantic estimated the net worths of every President of the United States [5] and extrapolated it to 2010 dollars. It’s not surprising that the first ten presidents were pretty loaded… revolution ain’t cheap folks!
  • If you know a new graduate who hasn’t gotten enough advice after this week’s Graduate Guide [6], Jeremy at GenXFinance has 9 financial tips for new graduates [7]. One crucial tip – borrow only what you need using student loans.
  • With the heavy lifting for the financial reform bill behind them, Congress now has to take a crack at spending and tax measures [8]. Unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies, and tax breaks are set to expire and need to be addressed.
  • The value of your time [9] is an idea I’m always keeping in the back of my mind, but have you done the reverse? Calculated the cost of an item in terms of your time? Calculating minutes per dollar [10], an idea I saw on Worth Wild, is a natural corollary.
  • Traveling abroad? Don’t get stuck overtipping, or worse insulting someone, so check out this guide on how much to tip at a restaurant [11]?
  • Jason at Frugal Dad shares some fun free summer activities for kids [12], many of which anyone can do – with or without kids.

Finally, Flexo asks whether we should discourage some students from attending college [13]. It’s an interesting question and after watching the Frontline story about for-profit education, I’ve been wondering that myself.

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[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share

[2] Email: mailto:?subject=http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/roundup-financial-reform-financial-tips.html

[3] passing: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/21/news/economy/Wall_street_reform_senate_bill/

[4] Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S. 3217): http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3217/show

[5] net worths of every President of the United States: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/05/the-net-worth-of-the-us-presidents-washington-to-obama/57020/1/

[6] Graduate Guide: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/bargaineering-2010-new-graduate-guide.html

[7] 9 financial tips for new graduates: http://genxfinance.com/2010/05/20/9-financial-tips-for-new-graduates/

[8] spending and tax measures: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/20/news/economy/tax_extenders_job_bill/index.htm

[9] value of your time: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/how-to-quickly-calculate-the-value-of-your-time.html

[10] Calculating minutes per dollar: http://worthwild.net/blog/?p=131

[11] guide on how much to tip at a restaurant: http://wanderlustjourney.com/international-restaurant-tipping-guide/

[12] fun free summer activities for kids: http://frugaldad.com/2010/05/19/free-summer-activities-for-kids/

[13] discourage some students from attending college: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2010/05/20/should-we-discourage-some-students-from-attending-college/

Thank you for reading!