Personal Finance Roundup

There's a lot going on in the world of personal finance. These are some of the interesting things I found today:

Careers

The Wall Street Journal Online has a nifty little feature called Go Figure (click on the link and scroll down to the Go Figure section). Today's Go Figure is about the hottest starting salaries for various college graduates. Chemical Engineering is tops at $53,813.

Housing Bubble

Kiplinger's has an interesting article on the 13 Riskiest Housing Markets. Boston's housing market has been deemed the riskiest. As a side, Kiplinger's is running a contest for the best idea of what to do with $1,000, which is based on their August issue cover story "What $1,000 Can Do" (link to follow later).

Fortune asks the question Is it Time to Cash Out of Your Home?

For more on the housing bubble, stop by Ben's Housing Bubble blog. Ben has been tracking the housing bubble for a while now and has gotten really good at finding links to news stories about the housing market.

Exchange-Traded Funds

Exchange-traded funds (ETF) are big right now. Once again, we stop by Kiplinger's for ETF Spells Opportunity. They also have a chart listing over 175 ETFs that is helpful. Smart Money has a whole section dedicated to ETFs. Be sure and check out their ETF Education Center - lots of excellent stuff there. I really like their Model Portfolios.

In the blog world, don't forget about David Jackson's ETFInvestor, which is loaded with lots of useful information and ETF-related links.

401(k)

Jeff Brown at Knight Ridder explains that the oldest Baby Boomers have turned 59 1/2, which means they can now tap their retirement savings without penalty. Question is: should they? Matthew Keenan at Bloomberg News reviews a study that says automatic 401(k)s may help workers save.

Martha's Rules

Finally, Martha Stewarat is writing a book about the rules of business. I wonder if it will include a rule about not lying?