Spotlight: The Dough Roller put together a nice video post, which shares his mutual fund strategy  during sharp declines in the stock market. Read How to Invest in Mutual Funds You’ll Keep During a Falling Market.

Saving Money:
9 Ways to Save without Breaking a Sweat at brip blap
11 Fun and Frugal Summer Activities at My Dollar Plan
Sometimes it’s Just Better to Pay Someone at Gather Little by Little 

Other Great Articles:
Test Drive Your Homeownership Experience at Moolanomy
Study of the Wealthy Confirms Classic Joke at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
A Stock Market Reality Check: What Investment Risk Actually Looks Like  at the Digerati Life
State of the Economy at Lazy Man and Money
Poll: Is Limiting a CEO’s Pay Based on Net Worth Fair? at Generation X Finance

Money Carnivals:
Carnival of Financial Planning
Money Hacks Carnival
Festival of Frugality
Carnival of Personal Finance
Carnival of Debt Reduction

Millionaire Money Habit: To learn how to become a millionaire, you need to perpetually improve your financial literacy. Digest as much information as possible and stick to a plan that works for you. Be sure to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed or by email to be notified of new articles posted here.

So you want to become rich? You know that in order to become wealthy you need to put aside some of your income into something that will create more money and compound over time. When you break it down, that’s really how easy it is to become a millionaire. That’s all great, but you might be asking yourself, “How much should I save from each paycheck in order to become rich?”

The standard answer is to save 10% of your income. That’s easy enough, right? If you have a 401k at work, just have your employer put 10% of your money in a mutual fund so it is deducted before taxes and you’ll be on your way to making your first million. If you’re doing this, that is great, but is 10% really enough?

The 10% rule is just a very general rule of thumb, but you might want to strive to save more. For one, the more you save, the more money you’ll have and the faster you you’ll reach your financial goals. But there’s more to it than just the speed that you create your wealth. There are some very important issues that need to be considered as you map out your financial plan.

When figuring out how much I should save, I like to work backwards in time:

1. How old will I live to be?
2. What kind of lifestyle do I want to live during retirement?
3. What unexpected costs could I incur during retirement that I should be prepared for?
4. What age do I want to retire at?
5. How much money do I want and need to get through retirement when adjusted for inflation?
6. How many years of investing do I have before I retire?
7. What are my average returns on my investments?
8. How much capital do I have invested now?
9. What can I comfortably save each month now?
10. Is this enough money to reach my goals with my current timeframe and investment returns?
11. What can I do to produce more money to enhance my contributions or returns?

This allows me to clearly identify my goals and what I need to contribute on average in order to get there.

Although your income may increase as you get older, so do your expenses, so it’s important to not think you will just play “catch up” later in life. Secondly, time is the critical element in the wealth formula, as the longer your money is invested the more times it can compound and double in value. With that in mind, it is important not to put off your savings, as it can be costing you the luxurious early retirement you dream of.

Millionaire Money Habit: While the 10% rule for savings is a good starting point, it is more of a general guideline rather than a rule of thumb. Consider what your financial goals really are and outline a clear plan on how to get there. When you break it down into a simple monthly savings plan, achieving your goal becomes virtually effortless.

LifeLock is the identity theft insurance program with the popular commercial of the guy, Todd Wallace, who is so confident with his service that he gives out his own personal Social Security number. Apparently he drove through New York City with a big billboard truck displaying this personal information to advertise his identity theft prevention and credit fraud program.

When you sign up for LifeLock, they can do a couple of things for you that are very valuable:

1. They stop junk mail from pre-approved credit card companies, which means you instantly reduce your chances of a dumpster diver getting your personal information.
2. Before any loan or credit is extended, the lender must call you to verify that you are in fact authorizing the loan.
3. The WalletLock program will help you cancel and replace any lost or stolen credit card, and recover any lost funds.
4. The eRecon program scans the internet for any unauthorized or suspicious use of your personal information. This includes use of your Social Security number, credit card numbers, driver’s license number and even your email address. Since it watches the internet’s “black market,” they protect you from your personal information being sold or traded online.
5. LifeLock’s TrueAddress program watches for any change of address activity with the Post Office and immediately alerts you if any activity is discovered. This prevents thieves from hijacking and stealing your mail.

What happens if thieves beat the LifeLock system?

You are protected up to $1 million in loses by the company’s guarantee. If for some reason their system fails and someone successfully steals your identity, they will spend up to $1 million in resolving the issue and recovering your loses. Even in the event that your wallet or purse is stolen, you are protected by this guarantee.

Do I really have to pay for this service to be protected?

Not really. You can contact the three credit reporting bureaus yourself and request that they have all lenders contact you for any loan activity, but you have to renew every three months and there is no guarantee that this will prevent fraud from occurring.

It’s quite possible that the clerk issuing a merchant credit card, for example, disregards the note to call you before approving the line of credit. This is where LifeLock is a tremendously valuable program because no matter what, you are backed by their $1 million guarantee to restore your financial information and recover any loses.

What do others think?

I searched the message boards and other social network sites, and found these comments from LifeLock customers:

I’ve been a Lifelock member for about 3 months and the biggest benefit is seeing the amount of junk mail I receive shrink. I used to get about 10 credit card applications/week…now I receive 1, maybe 2 tops.

I signed up about 6 months ago when my credit account was compromised. They have been obtaining regular credit reports on my behalf and placing alerts on my credit. Also, nobody can open an account in my name, not even me, unless I personally approve on the phone number I have provided. Basically, when I apply for credit, it will not be instantly approved, unless I receive the call then and there to approve it. I have to add that I applied for credit and was declined because I was unavailable to approve the application.

I have used Lifelock for my family for the last 8 months. My husband’s laptop was stolen and it contained all our bank statements, logins to credit card sites, etc. So I signed us up and feel like we’re protected just in case. It’s hard to say if it’s worth it until you need it and I would hate to have someone steal my identity and then say I wish I had signed up. Hind sight is 20/20. It is true that you can perform many of the functions that Lifelock includes for yourself at no cost. But, I’m not that organized to remember to request a fraud alert from all 3 credit bureaus every 3 months like clock work and make sure I order my free credit report from all 3 agencies every year. They keep track of that for me and I’m willing to pay for it. I also like their million dollar guarantee.

When you get started with LifeLock, be sure to type “9″ in the promotional box. This will get you the membership for just $9 a month. Go sign up for LifeLock here.

Millionaire Money Habit: Identity theft is the largest white collar crime, and with the growing number of electronic transactions and the world wide availability of the internet makes it easier for scammers from anywhere in the world to rip you off. Spend a few dollars a month as an insurance policy to prevent big headaches that could potentially damage your credit rating. Sign up for LifeLock now.