Here is a list of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. To kick start your week, spend some time digging through the Millionaire Money Habits archives and the links below to improve your financial literacy.

Investing:

• Hot Tips for First Time Investors @ The Digerati Life
• Current Market Conditions Encourage Bad Decisions – Don’t Make The Same Mistakes @ Generation X Finance

Spending and Saving:

• 6 Easy Ways To Simplify Your Finance @ Moolanomy
• Spending plans for 2008 @ plonkee money
• Keeping Cash on Hand @ fivecentnickel.com
• Seven Things You Must Do to Prepare for An Emergency @ Lazy and Money
• How I Taught My Preschooler the Value of a Dollar @ beingfrugal.net
• Don’t Make the Fatal Flaw in Budgeting @ I’ve Paid For This Twice Already
• Book Review and Giveaway – You’re Broke Because You Want to Be @ My Two Dollars
• Did You Blow Your Budget this Christmas, Like I Did? @ Credit Withdrawal
• What Temperature Do You Set Your Thermostat? @ Cash Money Life
• The Stress of the Money Wars @ the simple dollar

Credit & Debt:

• What to do When Your Debit Card Gets Stolen @ Gather Little by Little
• Nothing Is Free – Including Debit Cards @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• Get Your Credit Card Interest Reduced @ DebtFREE-Revolution

Financial Psychology:

• Some Final Thoughts on Work, Education, and Fulfillment @ Get Rich Slowly
• Loving Your Job Is Overrated @ AllFinancialMatters
• Ah Ha! The Value Of An Asset Is Better Appreciated When You Lose It @ Money, Matter, and More Musings
• Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. Shhh… @ My Money Blog

Millionaire Money Habit: To build wealth, you need to perpetually improve your financial literacy. Digest as much information as possible and stick to a plan that works for you. In addition to the articles above, browse through the suggested readings listed at the very bottom of this website’s page, and be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed or by email.

Thank you to everyone that participated in the contest to win a free copy of The Rules of Money. The competition was fierce and participation was high with some close calls. So let’s get to the results . . .

The winner for the Most Traffic came from Laura Moran’s article at the TheStreet.com. Congrats Laura, and thank you for mentioning Millionaire Money Habits.

Runner-ups were:

2. Lynnae from beingfrugal.net
3. Pinyo from moolanomy.com
4. Paidtwice.com
5. Nickel from fivecentnickel.com

The winner of the Comment Counts contest is Randall from creditwithdrawal.com. Randall, be on the look out for an email from me requesting your shipping address.

Runner-ups in this category were:

2. Patrick from cashmoneylife.com
3. calgirlfinance from calgirlfinance.blogspot.com
4. Meg from hellwithfluorescentlights.blogspot.com
5. Linda (no website) who pointed out that www.annualcreditreport.com is the official site to request a copy of your free credit report.

Last, but not least, the Random Subscriber winner was an individual with the following email address: not******n @gmail.com. You will receive an email from me asking for your preferred shipping address.

Thank you to everyone that participated. Your comments and involvement are much appreciated and they benefit all Millionaire Money Habits a better place for all visitors and subscribers.

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or by email in order to participate in upcoming contests and receive updates on current articles posted here.

Compound interest is a concept that anyone who wants to understand investing and accumulating wealth must grasp. It is so important that Albert Einstein reportedly referred to compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world and the most powerful force in the universe.

What Makes Compound Interest so Important?

In simplest terms, compound interest means you will make more money the longer your investment is able to work for you. When you invest in an appreciating asset, your money earns interest. As you accumulate interest you continue to make money on your initial investment, plus earn interest on top of the earned interest, which compounds year after year.

How could that measly 10% interest make any real money? This table shows how much a $1,000 investment would be worth at age 65 if it were invested at age 45 versus 25.

Interest Rate	Age 45	Age 25
4%	$2,222	$4,801
5%	$2,712	$7,040
6%	$3,310	$10,286
7%	$4,038	$14,974
8%	$4,926	$21,725
9%	$6,009	$31,409
10%	$7,328	$45,259

Here’s another example from Kiplinger’s, Behold the Miracle of Compound Interest:

Consider this: Amy, a 22 year-old college graduate, saves $300 per month [and invests this] into an account earning 10% per year for six years. (That’s the average annual return of the stock market over time). Then at age 28, she starts a family and decides to stay home with the children full-time. By then, Amy had kicked in $21,600 of her own money. But even if she doesn’t contribute another cent ever, her money would grow to a million bucks by the time she turned 65.

How Can I Take Advantage of Compound Interest?

The formula for calculating compound interest is: A = P(1 + r)ⁿ

Where: P = principle
r = interest rate
n = time, or the number years

With this in mind, you will want to start investing now with whatever you can contribute in order to take advantage of “n“. Time is your best friend when it comes to investing and compound interest, and a little money will go a long way.

The longer time you have, the more aggressive you may want to be in order to receive the greatest rate of return. Just look at the difference in return between 8 – 10%.

Millionaire Money Habit: Wealth creators know that you can’t mess with compound interest. If a 20-year-old invests just $100 a month and gains 10% annually, they will be a millionaire by the time they become 65-years-old. Be sure to read 9 Ways to Make an Extra $100 a Month to for some easy ways to boost your income part-time. -RT