The most wonderful time of the year will soon be upon us.  With snow falling, children giggling, horns honking, and roads icing, it’s time to take stock of where we’re at and where we want to be.  From vacations to disasters, this last week in the blogosphere proved to be quite entertaining for this reader. 

My mortgage and I didn’t always get along.  We had fights, and my mortgage often made me want to cry.  Recently, however, we came to a truce and decided to play nice with each other.  The following is our love story.

The mortgage – let’s call him Bob – and I met over a three-bedroom ranch in small-town Iowa.  We instantly fell in love.  Bob offered me the ability to own a home with the ease of an affordable down payment and low monthly payments, and I offered Bob hefty interest feedings…I mean payments. 

Just as with any investment, where there is potential gain, there is also potential risk.  So, while working from home may be a great investment in yourself, be sure to stay alert for potential scams.  With internet fraud lurking around every corner, here are some steps you can take to protect yourself:

Be vigilant in researching the job and the company.
You wouldn’t hand in a resume if you had to meet a guy on the corner to do so.  Internet jobs are the same way. 

Check out their storefront, a.k.a. -- the website:

As 2010 winds down (where did the year go?!), there is still time to complete your 2010 finance resolutions and take care of other money-business before 2011 rolls in.  Wouldn’t it be nice to start 2011 with a clean, organized financial slate?  Let’s look at some ways you can begin the new year without adding 2010’s unfinished financial goals to your 2011 resolutions.

Clean Up Old Goals

So you've made the decision to start investing in stocks, money is burning a hole in your wallet, and you're itching to get started.  In your mind's eye, you see a version of you dressed in a power suit elbowing your way through a room filled with financial types waving your fists in the air and shouting to "sell, sell, sell!"

Before you dash off to Wall Street, take a few more minutes here in front of your computer (dressed in your pjs and bunny slippers), and consider the types of stock brokers out there who can assist you with your leap into the world of investing in stocks.

When I was growing up, my mom managed to make the holidays the most magical time  of the year.  We always decorated the Christmas tree as a family.  "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" charmed us on family movie night, and cookie decorating was another holiday tradition.  Christmas dinner was always special (our holiday staples were green bean casserole and turkey).  Christmas Eve gifts never failed to please, and Santa's gifts were always over-the-top.  I knew that Christmas was the most wonderful family gathering of the year; but what I didn't know -- that we were terri

Here at MomVesting, we would like to help you take control of your finances and build your investments from the ground up.  So, without further ado, here’s how to accomplish that through other people’s blogs.  Thanks for doing the work for us! 

First, you need to get into the proper mindset of personal finances.  To do that, check out Dividend Monk’s reflection regarding a frugal mindset in Use it or Lose It.

If you are just entering the stock market, the many details involved in stock trade can be confusing and overwhelming.  Fortunately, just a little knowledge can help you invest wisely.  However, before investing, you should brush up on some stock market terms, including “stock market indices.”  Let’s look at the definition of stock market indices, the indices available, and what indices can do for your investments.

What are Stock Market Indices?

My husband and I have many blessings to be thankful for. We are both healthy, have a new home, no debt, and basically a blank sheet to begin writing our lives upon.

Unfortunately, this blank sheet has been given to us by a passing of a loved one--my husband's father. He was killed in an automobile accident in April. It felt as though I was reading a great novel, turned the next page, and realized the rest never got printed. Where the future pages of his life were left unwritten, those blank pages are now sadly available to us.

Ah, the wonderful world of Individual Retirement Accounts (or IRAs in money-speak).  So riveting. So in demand.  Why, I'll bet that you were just saying to yourself: "I simply have to have more info on these IRAs!" Well, my friend, today is your lucky day.  We are going to plunder the depths of not only a traditional IRA, but also its cousin, the Roth IRA, and will bring to light all the differences they thought they could keep buried. Here we go!

"Aren't you being a tad melodramatic," you might say. "I mean, we are talking about just accounts, here."