Personal Finance 101 Posts of the Day 3/22/07

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity posts about why budgeting to the penny isn't a great idea. I agree 1000%. I actually just taught a budgeting class tonight and covered several of the points that BFP made. The biggest one IMO is that the harder you make things the less likely you are to stick to them. That's why I'm such a fan of making things automatic.

• Broke Now, Rich Later has an interesting post about emergency funds. I'm not a huge fan of large emergency funds unless you're high risk. I think they're kind of a waste because there are other things you could do with your money that's more productive. I think that if you have decent credit lines that are empty you might be better served by putting your money into a balanced fund. They're more agressive than cash but not ultra volatile so odds are against you taking a huge loss at the wrong time. I particularly think that having an emergency fund while you are carrying credit card debt is a waste of money.

• No Credit Needed tells us 10 things they've learned about their finances.

• My Retirement Blog gives us 1-5 of 10 things your 401k provider won't tell you.