Here is a list of some of the best articles from my favorite personal finance websites. Spend some time digging through the Millionaire Money Habits archives and the links below to improve your financial literacy and learn how to become a millionaire. 

Spotlight: Are you frugal, or just a cheapskate? Find out by taking Moolanomy’s Frugal Or Cheap test.

Other Great Personal Finance Articles:

• Ten Quick Easy Ways To Reduce Your Debt at My Two Dollars
• What Would You do With A Million Dollars Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• The Real Cost of Withdrawing Retirement Funds Early at Cash Money Life
• How to Turn Mistakes into Opportunities at The Dough Roller
• Why You Need an Emergency Fund – A Real World Example at Credit Withdrawal
• Personal Finance is About Freedom – What Will You Do With Yours? at Mrs. Michah
• Want Some Extra Income? Try Odd Jobs! at The Digerati Life

Personal Finance Carnivals:

• Carnival of Personal Finance
• 58th Carnival of Money Stories
• Money Hacks Carnival

Millionaire Money Habit: To help you 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 the RSS feed or by email to be notified of new articles posted here.

I remember the first time I heard somebody use the word “frugal.” I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but by the way it was used I was certain it was a derogatory term and that frugal living was a bad thing.

Eventually I figured out what frugal living meant, but for many years I still felt if somebody was labeled as being frugal, it was a negative connotation. Basically, my thoughts were if someone said, “He is frugal,” you could easily replace “frugal” with “cheap.”

This interpretation of the word is incorrect. Being frugal and being cheap are not in the same category. Let’s look at the literal definitions according to thefreedictionairy.com:

Frugal: Practicing or marked by economy, as in the expenditure of money or the use of material resources. See Synonym: sparing.

Cheap: Stingy; miserly.

Frugality is the act of being resourceful and mindful about your spending, where being cheap is clearly an undesirable personality.

I realized several years later when I started to make personal finance an interest of mine that frugal living is actually a desirable characteristic.

• It means you have the sense not to waste money and be an over-consumer.
• It means you have a grasp on your finances and know how much you can spend with the income you have to work with.
• It means you have the discipline and the smarts to proactively manage your money, create budgets and stick to them.

As a result, this means it is very likely you have the ability to create wealth.

Don’t let others who get frugal living and cheap mixed up bother you, but rather take it as an opportunity to educate them and recommend that they spend some time digging through the great resources at beingfrugal.net. Chances are if someone is using the term with a negative tone, they are not someone who should be criticizing how other people manage their money.

Millionaire Money Habit: If you want to become a part of the ultra wealthy and reach your financial goals, it is necessary to spend your money in the most efficient way. That is, by practicing frugal living. -RT
photo by timparkinson

Mutual funds are a great way to invest in the market. Pick a couple mutual funds appropriately, and you have instant diversification and no investing skills or regular maintenance that is needed from your end.

About No Load Mutual Funds

Mutual funds don’t come without some expenses, and the ones you currently invest in can be eating all of your profits. As you review your portfolio and select new funds to stash your cash, it is important to consider the fees associated owning that mutual fund. And many times it is not so obvious.

The biggest expense to look out for is a load fee. These are fees you either pay on the front-end or the back-end of purchasing your fund. In other words, your broker automatically takes 5% out of your $10,000 capital before investing the money, or they take 5% when you go to sell your investment.

A load fee is simply an additional sales charge that is tacked on to the mutual fund expenses in order to pay your broker a commission. These charges can range from 2% to as much as 8% of your investment. Often though, a broker didn’t have to do any work to find you this great mutual fund. There’s a good chance you discovered and initiated the transaction, so why are you paying a broker fee?

Chances are that a fund with a load fee has a similar or identical fund without the load fee. So as you are searching for the ideal diversified mutual fund that meets your goals, double check that there is no load fee associated with the fund.

The other fee that you cannot escape is the expense ratio. This is simply a maintenance fee associated with every mutual fund, which is the cost to run the mutual fund. This goes to pay for advertising, general trading costs, etc. The average domestic mutual fund expense ratio is about 1.5%, so make sure you’re not overpaying for this fee.

In fact, studies show that over the long run, low-expense funds are more likely to outperform high-expense funds, so you may be better off shopping for the cheaper alternative.

If you are a real bargain hunter, index funds that mimic a stock index (such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500) are the lowest-cost mutual funds. This is because these funds require very little active management. Because of their low cost nature, and the unlikelihood that the market can be beat, many professional advisers recommend having a no load mutual fund that mimics the S&P 500 included in your core portfolio.

To further reduce your no load mutual fund fees, open an online brokerage account that has no trading fees or expenses.

Millionaire Money Habit: While mutual funds are a great way to diversify your portfolio and have a passive investment approach, it is important to know how your money is being spent. Don’t overlook the fee structure and details or you will be wondering where your profits went. -RT