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Have you ever bought the "cheap" version of something you needed, only to find out a day, month, or even year later that if you'd just paid the premium for the high-quality version it would have saved you money in the end? While we all know that paying attention to costs is important, saving now can easily lead to paying more in the future. Here are a couple of examples from my own experience:

Last week we took a look at compound interest and how that affects how quickly your money grows. But comparing potential banks, savings accounts, and CDs based on compound interest rates can be much easier by checking out the Annual Percentage Yield (APY).

The third part in our series on The Right Questions to Ask About Stocks takes a look at a company's growth. We've learned about the earnings of a company and how to relate it to the price of the stock via the price to earnings ratio. Once we've compared the stock's price to its earnings, the next thing we want to know is whether those earnings will increase or lessen.

If you're anything like me, running a Google search and trying to get basic info on a topic can end up driving you bonkers. Take stocks, for example.  Google "stocks," or even "simple stock explanation," and you get over six million matches when all you really wanted were some solid facts in plain English.  Like Denzel Washington in Philadephia, I say: "Explain it to me like I'm a six year old." 

I can count on one hand all of the times in my life when I found money:  I found $20 in front of a bakery once, $10 in the street, $20 in front of a restaurant, and $5 I forgot about in one of my spring coats.  Each time, though, I felt like the luckiest person in the world, as I’m sure anyone would feel.  So, if you had a surefire way to find hidden money and harness that lucky feeling, you would be a participant, right?  Surprisingly, simply visiting with your banker can put hidden money in the form of bank fees back into your pocket.

Bank Fees

Welcome to the Halloween edition of the MomVesting links round-up. Here are some of our favorite finance stories of the last week as well as a recap of the subjects we discussed and some blog carnivals in which we participated. We also wanted to take this time to thank all the bloggers in the personal finance blog-o-sphere for the warm welcome.

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I have a very vivid memory of my twin girls' last birthday party.  You gotta picture it: our modest ranch home packed with close friends and family, balloons galore, pizza, wings, a Caillou cake (which is a story in and of itself!), and about a gazillion presents.  When it came time to open all of those glorious, glittery, girly packages, my gals could hardly contain their joy.  Gleefully, they tore into the presents, tissue and ribbons flying.

In fourth grade, a banker came to my classroom to teach my class about compound interest. I was fascinated. First, I was shocked that a bank would pay me money to keep it safe, and second, I loved learning how I could make more money if my interest was compounded.  I memorized every single thing that would be on our compound interest test, and I did really well.  My mom even hung my A+ test on the refrigerator for a few days. 

The second part in our series on The Right Questions to Ask About Stocks takes a look at the price to earnings ratio, or P/E ratio. As you might expect the P/E ratio helps us determine the relationship between a company's price and its earnings. In a very real sense it tells us how much we're paying per dollar of earnings the company makes. This can help give us a base line to start researching a stock.

When it comes to investing, we're all a little like Adam Sandler's character in "The Wedding Singer," who said, "I'm a big fan of money. ...I have a little. I keep it in a jar on top of my refrigerator. I'd like to put more in that jar."

If you're ready to put a bit more in that "jar," here are four things for you to think about that will help you to plan how to take the plunge into investing. (Believe it or not, it's easier than you think!)