Home sick - catching up on reading

There are few benefits to getting a cold, but one is catching up on reading. I subscribe to a few publications, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Money, Architect, Truth, and Healthcare Design. I also receive several by default from groups I'm a member of: Architectural Record, Construction Specifier, Design-Build Dateline, GreenSource, Red & Black, and The Sinfonian. I also recently jumped on the RSS bandwagon and subscribed to several news feeds from local business, world architecture, and interesting blogs I’ve came across. Throw in the sometimes daily newsletters, e-blasts and online news, I don't keep up... But I do find a lot of good content and I wanted to pass along a few gold nuggets I've read this past couple days laying around the condo.

College tuition has gone up 439% since 1982. I don't know why we would even try to save for Jack and Norman's college in 16-18 years at that rate of increase. [Money, 9.2008]

While I've not talked to anyone who hasn't been shocked for the past 10-12 months by the steady decrease in our investment and retirement accounts, I did find one good suggestion to turn those lemons into lemonade. Consider selling your big losers and buying a comparable (but not identical) fund. Money magazine has been encouraging everyone to stay in the market (I personally feel now is the time to BUY, if only I had some extra cash). Before the market does rocket back up, by selling your tankers you'll be able to take a loss and you can write off up to $3,000 against ordinary income. But be sure to buy something that makes sense for your portfolio to ride the next wave up. Also, now may be the time to convert an IRA to a Roth IRA and pay the tax to allow it to continue to grow the rest of your career (hopefully a long time for the not quite 30 me). [Money, 9.2008]

Nice article on “The Truth About Green Homes.” Great advice, best quote: “…the sustainable homes of the future look a lot like those of the past.” Truth is, from my perspective, the “modern” movement and the newer trend of “everyone is a designer” has thrown out common sense design including ample overhangs, maximize natural ventilation, building orientation, and consideration of overall design as opposed to kit of parts (i.e. tall ceilings everywhere, no matter what they space may be used for). [Money, 9.2008]

It’s better to set saving goals for the short term then long term. In a study of 600 savers, those with a one month goal saved more then they had hoped while those with a four month goal only amassed a fraction of their goal. (I’m not surprised, it’s easier to put off the future than the present) [Money, 11.2008]

Health insurance premiums will cost on average 8% more in 2009 (that’s better than the 20% I’ve heard my premiums may go up). [Money, 11.2008]

Now I’m not an economist, but I’m confident the market will begin the upward climb again, and now I’ve read it may happen in the first quarter of 2009 (better late than never). [Money, 11.2008]

This comment was what I had thought, but now I can give a quote: “Think of this election as a choice between the Party of the Pie and the Party of the Slices. Most of McCain’s policies are focused on making the overall pie bigger, the traditional Republican approach… By contrast, Obama and the Democrats are far more interested in whether the pie is sliced up fairly.” I’ll let you make your own decisions in a week, mine is pretty much decided (and I’ll vote on Election Day, I’ve never had to wait in a line at my polling station). [Money, 11.2008]