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Dismal Job Market Pushes Dow into 275-Point Plunge

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Dismal job market pushes Dow into 275-point plungeBy DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer

The stock market suffered its worst day of the year Friday after a surprisingly weak report about hiring and employment cast a pall of gloom over the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 275 points.

Traders stampeded into the safety of bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a record low. Fearful investors bought gold, causing the price to spike $50 an ounce, and concern about a global economic slowdown drove the price of oil to its lowest since October.

"The big worry now is that this economic slowdown is widening and accelerating," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, a market research firm.

It was the Dow's steepest one-day drop since November.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq composite index both fell more than 3 percent. The Nasdaq has dropped more than 10 percent since its peak - what traders call a market correction. The S&P 500 is just a point above correction territory.

American employers added just 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate increased to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent. Economists had forecast a gain of 158,000 jobs.

The report, considered the most important economic indicator each month, also said that hiring in March and April was considerably weaker than originally thought.

Earlier data showed weak economic conditions in Europe and Asia, too. Unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro currency stayed at a record-high 11 percent in April, and unemployment spiked to almost 25 percent in Spain.

There were signs that growth in China, which helped sustain the global economy through the recession, is slowing significantly. China's manufacturing weakened in May, according to surveys released Friday.

The Dow closed down 274.88 points, or 2.2 percent, at 12,118.57. The Dow is off 0.8 percent for the year; two months ago, it was up more than 8 percent for the year.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 32.29 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,278.04. The Nasdaq dropped 79.86, or 2.8 percent, to 2,747.48. Both indexes are still up for the year - 1.6 percent for the S&P 500 and 5.5 percent for the Nasdaq.

Traders sold all types of risky investments and rushed to the safety of U.S. government bonds and gold. Bond prices rose sharply, briefly pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note down to 1.44 percent, the lowest on record. The yield ended the day at 1.46 percent.

Gold for August delivery climbed $57.90, nearly 4 percent, to $1,622.10 per ounce.

"Everybody's looking for a safe haven," said Adam Patti, CEO of IndexIQ, an asset management firm. He's skeptical of that strategy, believing the swing was driven by short-term traders "looking to flip in and out of things," rather than long-term investors willing to ride out a few bumps in the market.

May was the worst month for the stock market in two years by some measures. Investors' worries about Europe's debt crisis intensified as the month wore on. Greece's political future is uncertain, and it appears increasingly likely to stop using the euro currency. That could rattle financial markets and make Greece's economy - already hobbled - even weaker.

Friday's jobs report drew traders' attention back to the weakening U.S. economy, said Todd Salamone, director of research for Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.

"The weaker jobs report translates into anticipation of slower growth ahead and weaker corporate earnings, and that ratchets stock prices lower," Salamone said.

The record-low yield on the 10-year Treasury note reflected rapid buying by traders with the biggest portfolios, including central banks, endowments and pension funds, said Ira Jersey, U.S. interest rate strategist at Credit Suisse. He said money managers were selling investments priced in euros and stashing their money in U.S. securities.

Several analysts raised the possibility that the weakening economy will prompt more action by governments and central banks seeking to juice global economic activity. Anticipation of some policy response prevented even deeper losses, Stovall said.

The Federal Reserve undertook programs in 2009 and 2010 to buy U.S. government bonds. Its goal was to lower interest rates and encourage people to buy riskier investments like stocks. At least in public, the central bank so far has resisted a third round of purchases, known as quantitative easing.

Anticipation of bond-buying by the Fed "might put in a little bit of a floor to the market, but the overall economic picture is still bad," said Bob Gelfond, CEO of MQS Asset Management, a New York hedge fund.

The dollar fell partly because traders expect more intervention by the Federal Reserve, Gelfond said.

The euro rose half a penny against the dollar to above $1.24. A day earlier, fears about Europe's finances had pushed the euro to a nearly two-year low against the dollar.

Only 17 of the 500 companies in the S&P index were higher for the day.

Homebuilder stocks fell the most, despite a report that construction spending rose for a second month in April. PulteGroup fell 11.8 percent, D.R. Horton 8.4 percent and Lennar 8.3 percent.

Boeing, the biggest U.S. exporter, fell 3.4 percent, one of the biggest declines among the 30 companies that make up the Dow. Traders fear that the economic slowdown will hurt global demand for its airplanes and defense technologies.

A slower global economy would reduce demand for energy. The price of a barrel of oil fell $3.49 to $83.04, extending a monthlong slide. The price of oil is at a 16-month low.

Stocks closed way down in Europe. Greece's benchmark stock index fell 4.4 percent, Germany's 3.4 percent and France's 2.2 percent.

___

AP business writers Matthew Craft, Joseph Pisani and Christina Rexrode in New York contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/01/dismal-job-market-pushes-dow-into-275-point-plunge/

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Financial Planning Strategies: Millionaires and Family

Author(s): 
Adriana Reyneri
The well-being of children and grandchildren now ranks as the top personal financial concern of Millionaire investors, according to Millionaire Corner research. How does this growing worry shape the financial planning strategies of these wealthy investors?
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of Millionaires surveyed over the first quarter of 2012 said they were worried about the financial situations of their children and grandchildren, up from 57 percent a year earlier. Nearly two-in-five identify the educational costs of their grandchildren as a concern, up from 30 percent last year.  (Millionaire Corner research shows that one of every five affluent retirees is helping a grandchild through college.)
Wedding costs are also likely to affect the financial planning strategies of Millionaires investors, who have a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, not including primary residence. Nearly 48 percent of Millionaires have helped pay for a child’s or grandchild’s wedding in the past, and more than 40 percent plan to do so in the future, according to a survey conducted by Millionaire Corner in May.  (Millionaires help pay for weddings, even though the vast majority believes they’ve become too lavish, according to our research.)
These college and wedding costs – as well as other expenses – are hitting later in life for most Millionaires and, as a result, complicate their financial planning strategies and cash flow in retirement. More than 80 percent of these affluent investors are older than 55, and the vast majority is retired or semi-retired.
Given their age, retirement status and family concerns, the financial planning strategies of millionaires are most heavily influenced by the desire to minimize investment risk. Millionaires rank risk as the most important investment selection criteria (92 percent), followed by the closely related factor of diversification (91 percent), according to our first quarter study. Nearly half (49 percent) says it’s more important to preserve wealth than grow assets in the current economic environment.
Millionaires also express growing concerns over the prolonged economic downturn, and rank the economy as their top national concern. Our research indicates issues such as the federal deficit and European debt crisis also influences Millionaires to adopt more conservative financial planning strategies. 
Related Content: 
Financial Planning Strategies: Should I Buy LTC Insurance?
Financial Planning Strategies for Women and Retirement

Source: http://www.millionairecorner.com/article/financial-planning-strategies-millionaires-and-family-1

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Are You Seriously Considering Buying Bonds?

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For many investors, the imperative to own a certain percentage of your portfolio in bonds trumps every other consideration. But the same investors who wouldn't hesitate to pull back on stock allocations when stocks were overpriced don't seem to recognize the same conditions in the bond market.

Bond investors have had to make huge sacrifices in recent years. With rock-bottom interest rates, Treasuries pay so little that they're hardly worth investing in. Banks aren't paying their CD customers any better. When you look at the absolute reward and risk involved, buying corporate bonds makes less sense than ever. In comparison, corporate offerings look attractive -- at least in a relative sense.

Giving up every bit of upside potential for a yield that barely covers inflation doesn't make sense for most investors. Bonds are useful tools, but only when they give you returns worth buying them for.

A Snapshot of Bond Land
As some people fear a return of the conditions that brought on the 2008 financial crisis, bond yields have tumbled. That's good news for those who already own bonds, as bond prices move up when yields fall.

But if you're looking put new money to work now, low rates aren't your friend. The iShares Investment Grade Corporate (LQD) ETF has a current SEC yield of just 4% despite having a quarter of its holdings rated BBB, just above junk status.

Of course, it's possible that bond prices could continue to climb from here. Even now that the Fed has stopped making additional bond purchases through QE2, a new economic slowdown could keep interest rates low for some time. Bond buyers could end up looking smart, especially if the stock market responds to economic woes by falling sharply.

News like yesterday's favorable jobs reports put a more positive spin on the future, but then this morning's jobs number brought all that euphoria back into question.

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Still Not Convinced?
It's a fundamental truth of investing that any time you make an investment thinking that it will climb through the roof, the person selling that investment to you thinks it won't.

When the folks on the other side of the trade are financially savvy companies taking advantage of historically unprecedented favorable market conditions, investors should think twice before taking the opposing position.

Amid such uncertainty, there's one group that isn't taking any chances: Corporations have once again stepped up in issuing new bonds, locking in attractive low interest rates before the fallout from the end of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program -- along with a more solid economic recovery -- finally take away the low-rate punch bowl.

Some of the companies issuing new debt included the following:

  • Early in the holiday-shortened week, Devon Energy (DVN) and General Dynamics (GD) were among investment-grade corporate issuers that combined for $10 billion in new bonds Tuesday and Wednesday.
  • Yesterday, Bank of America (BAC) and Deere's (DE) John Deere Capital division successfully sold debt carrying rates of less than 4%, with maturities extending from 2016 to 2021.
  • In addition, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) each raised more than $1 billion through a combination of fixed-rate and floating-rate bonds. All of the bonds offered came in with spreads of less than 1 percentage point over Treasuries with the same maturity date.
Applying that fundamental axiom of investing, which side of this trade do you think made the better move: companies or bond investors? My money's on the corporations that issued that debt.

Don't Allocate Your Assets Blindly
Before you jump out and buy bonds that companies are issuing now, take a step back and consider: Who's getting the better end of the trade? Your better bet may well be to buy shares of the companies who are cashing in on low rates.

Motley Fool contributor Dan Caplinger likes investments that pay you back. He doesn't own shares of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Dynamics and Devon Energy and Bank of America.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/07/08/are-you-seriously-considering-buying-bonds/

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Top Summer Vacation Spots in Canada - Montreal in the Summer

summer in montrealMontreal in the Summer

It can get very hot and humid in Montreal each summer but that doesn’t stop millions of people from visiting Montreal and attending all of the great festivals that happen every summer.  Along with all of the festivals you’ll find delicious restaurants, active nightlife, museums, art galleries, fun shopping, amazing firework displays, thrilling amusement parks and more. Although I can’t cover everything Montreal has to offer in today’s post, let’s take a look at a few of the special attractions that you will find when you visit Montreal this summer.

montreal fireworks competition

Montreal Fireworks Competition

I love fireworks anytime, anywhere. Since 1985 Montreal has hosted one of the world’s largest fireworks competitions.  One of the special parts of these firework displays is that they are synchronized to music. The firework competitions begin at the end of June. In the past they took place every Saturday and Wednesday night until the end of July.

The Montreal Fireworks schedule has been changed for 2012 to include Friday nights and Tuesday nights, as well as some Saturday nights. The first night will be Saturday, June 30th and the featured country will be Japan.  The following dates are July 7, 14, 17, 21, 24, 27, 31 and August 3rd.

Viewing the Montreal Fireworks

If you want to watch the fireworks competition for free you can go to the Old Port or the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, which closes off the car traffic as of 8 p.m.

If you would like to get a closer and better view, and listen to the synchronized music while you watch the fireworks, then you want to head to La Ronde, just in front of the Lac des Dauphins. La Ronde is a Six Flags Theme Park.

Montreal Theme Park

Take the family for a fun filled day at La Ronde, Montreal’s Six Flags Theme Park. With over 40 rides stretched across 146 acres you will find rides for the whole family to enjoy including the kiddie rides, panoramic rides that offer a beautiful view and thriller rides that make you scream. La Ronde is open from May until October.

la ronde montreal

Montreal Shopping

Head underground for some of the best shopping in the world. Under downtown Montreal you will find what is known as the indoor city. You will feel quite comfortable and safe as you walk through the well lit, air conditioned tunnels that are lined with shops on both sides. The tunnels connect to shopping malls, apartment buildings, banks, offices, hotels, museums and condos. You will definitely not feel trapped as there are over 120 exits.

The Underground City of Montreal was designed to help people get around in the brutally cold winters and the very hot summers. Many visitors to Montreal have said that once they discovered the underground they never left as they were able to easily get from their hotel to all of the restaurants and shopping that they needed.

underground city of montreal

Beer Festival

If you enjoy a good cold beer you won’t want to miss the Montreal Beer Festival that takes place in early June. This festival is a taste testing beer festival and this year it will include approximately 637 different beers from 191 breweries. This festival runs for 5 days and offers four-ounce samples of each beer for you to try throughout those 5 days. As you venture through the festival and taste the beer you will also find live brewing demonstrations held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. As well the beer festival in Montreal includes food such as alligator soup and kangaroo burgers and fun events such as mini disk golf tournaments, beach volleyball and silent dancing.

Admission to the festival is free but each tasting glass is $9.

Montreal Jazz Festival

For those who love a wide variety of music, the Montreal Jazz Festival is the place to be this summer.

The Montreal Jazz Festival attracts over two million people each year to both the indoor shows and as well as the free outdoor shows.

The jazz festival features many well known entertainers such as Diana Krall, Prince, Pat Metheny, Ray Charles, Sade, Dave Brubeck, The Roots, Smokey Robinson, Esperanza Spalding and Robert Plant.

This year’s festival runs from June 28 to July 7, 2012. If you enjoy listening to Reggae, African, Cuban, Brazilian, Latin Jazz and the blues you will not want to miss this festival.

And speaking of the Montreal Jazz Festival, in 2009 Stevie Wonder performed at the jazz festival and paid tribute to his friend Michael Jackson several times during the festival. Here is one of his live performances at the festival in Montreal.

 

Source: http://tacklingourdebt.com/2012/05/28/top-summer-vacation-spots-canada-montreal-summer/

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Did Warren Buffett Just Save the Newspaper Industry?

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Warren BuffettMost Americans know Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett as "the greatest investor in history." But history itself may remember Buffett as the man who saved the newspaper industry -- the man who, in the darkest hour when newspapers were dying off to be replaced by the Internet, opened up his incredibly large wallet and made sure newspapers would survive.

Last week, Buffett moved to save a failing Media General (MEG), paying $142 million to buy 63 struggling newspapers from the media conglomerate. The deal, expected to close one month from now, will expand Buffett's media empire (which currently consists primarily of minority stakes in The Washington Post (WPO) and Lee Enterprises (LEE)) and give him outright control over such storied names as the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Winston-Salem Journal.

Buffett also bought his hometown paper, The Omaha World-Herald, last year, and he owns a few Iowa and Nebraska papers, as well as The Buffalo News in New York.

He's also positioned to profit from Media General -- or, if necessary, take over what's left of it -- having agreed to extend a $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving credit line to keep the rump-company afloat. In addition to collecting on the loans, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) received warrants to acquire 19.9% of Media General's shares at an unspecified strike price.

Meet the Next Rupert Murdoch

So what is Buffett up to? Is Media General a prelude to Buffett's building a media empire that will counterbalance News Corp (NWS)? Are we -- not to put too fine a point on it -- witnessing the birth of the next Rupert Murdoch?

Yes and no. Yes, because it's pretty clear that Buffett and Berkshire are embarking on a concerted effort to build a media business. They've even established a subsidiary to keep track of all the new holdings: "BH Media Group."

But no, it's not likely that Mr. Buffett has designs of supplanting Mr. Murdoch as the No. 1 media figure, or even of playing a liberal yin to Murdoch's conservative yang.

Addressing the suspicion head-on in a recent memo to his new papers' editors and publishers, Buffett assured them that they will retain full editorial independence under his ownership:

I have some strong political views, but Berkshire owns the paper -- I don't. And Berkshire will always be non-political. We have more than 600,000 shareholders of all stripes and I do not use Berkshire's resources, directly or indirectly, to speak for them.


Buying Time for the Newspaper Industry

But if Buffett's not buying a megaphone for his political views, what is he up to? The answer is scattered throughout his memo to the publishers in several key statements:

Times are certainly far tougher today than they used to be for newspapers. Circulation nationally will continue to slip and in some cases plunge.

That's hardly a news flash.

We must rethink the industry's initial response to the Internet. The original instinct of newspapers ... was to offer free in digital form what they were charging for in print. This is an unsustainable model ... We want your best thinking as we work out the blend of digital and print that will attract both the audience and the revenue we need.

And this is key. Beset upon from one side by cheap, virtual "news" operations like Yahoo!, Google, and Huffington Post, which stole away their readers, and on the other side by Cragislist, Cars.com, and LinkedIn, which siphoned off their ad revenues, newspapers have been scrambling to find a sustainable business model -- and failing. Buffett's entrance into the industry however, will change all that. Under Berkshire's ownership:

Your paper will operate from a position of financial strength. Berkshire will always maintain capital and liquidity second to none. We shun levels of debt that could ever impose problems.
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In other words, Buffett is taking his $200 billion company, its $37.8 billion bank account, and the nearly $13 billion in annual free cash flow it generates, and using them to backstop the newspaper industry -- to buy them enough breathing room so that they have time to think and figure out a way to conduct business in the Internet age. In so doing, he has given them a fighting chance at survival.

Let's wish him well in that. Let's hope that years from now -- many years, hopefully -- when history finally gets around to writing an obituary for Warren Buffett, it won't begin with praise for "the world's best investor." Let's hope it reads: "Warren Buffett, the newspaper boy who grew up to save the newspaper industry ..."

Motley Fool contributor Rich Smith holds no position in any company mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of LinkedIn, Google, and Berkshire Hathaway. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Google, and LinkedIn.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/05/25/did-warren-buffett-just-save-the-newspaper-industry/

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IRS Will Stop Mailing Out Tax Return Forms, Instructions

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tax formThe IRS will stop mailing out paper forms and instructions for annual income tax returns as more people file their taxes online.

About 11.5 million people who filed paper tax returns in 2009 got the tax information in the mail, The Washington Post reported. The mailing included 44 pages of instruction last year.

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This year, more than 96 million individuals filed their tax returns online, with a further 20 million paper returns filed by paid tax preparers.

Taxpayers who want to file paper returns can still obtain the forms online, at local IRS offices or at participating libraries and post offices.

The move will save the IRS about $10 million a year in printing and postage costs.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/28/irs-will-stop-mailing-out-tax-return-forms-instructions/

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Larry Light's Tips on Taming the Wall Street Beast

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Wall StreetWith the U.S. and European debt crises, concern about a double-dip recession and some lingering numbness from the market woes of a few short years ago, these are uncertain times. And investors are looking for investment strategies that will lead to wealth amid all the uncertainty.

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But to be successful, you should forget the notion of getting rich quick. Fast and furious doesn't work on Wall Street, and neither does putting all your investing chips in one pot. If you want to be a successful investor, think long term and be ambidextrous. At least according to Larry Light, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek and author of the new book, Taming the Beast: Wall Street's Imperfect Answers to Making Money.

To "tame the beast" that is Wall Street, savvy investors must be nimble, understand a myriad of investment strategies and know when and how to use them, he writes. His book includes a primer of sorts on the power and pitfalls of value- and growth-investing strategies, as well as of investing in real estate, hedge funds, bonds, currencies, commodities and oversees investments.

It's All About Diversity

Taming the beast is about diversity, Light suggests, which isn't as easy to achieve as you might think. Many strategies must be explored to get to that blessed state where you can say, "I've got plenty of money to sustain me, thank God," he writes. The trick is to be sufficiently flexible to dip into any or all of them, but, by the same token, to know each strategy's limitations.

Light contends that successful investing doesn't require a fancy MBA from an expensive university, "It's not quantum physics," he says. But it does require intelligence and diligence. You have to put in some study time, read everything and watch for trends and opportunities. Figure out what investments appeal to you and under what conditions they thrive, he advises. Ask questions, talk to people and ponder, he says.

What could be the worst move for investors right now? Letting emotions rule. "Don't follow the herd," he says. "If everybody is doing something, it must be right? Wrong."

Check out this video to get more of Light's wisdom on taming the beast:

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/08/04/larry-lights-tips-on-taming-the-wall-street-beast/

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Friday's Circle of Friends - May 25

circle of friendsWelcome to the afternoon edition of Friday's Circle of Friends.

It is hard to believe that May is almost over and soon it will officially be summer in our neck of the woods.

There were a lot of blog posts this week about summer vacations, fun things to do in the summer, things that are free to do in the summer, and so on.

Many people make lists of things that they plan to accomplish during the summer months. I don't recall ever doing that, but I plan to do that this summer.

So many times September arrives and I find myself thinking "man, summer went by way too quickly and what did I do?".

So do you make a list of what you plan to do each summer? Maybe your plan includes spending more time outdoors in the sun, or going golfing each weekend, or reading that interesting book that you have put off reading...whatever it is, don't let this summer slip past you.

Speaking of reading, here are some very interesting blog posts for your reading pleasure this weekend. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

A Boss's Guide for Productive Young Employees by Erika from shopping to saving.

Self Manager – Success Habits You Should’ve Mastered Before Finishing High School by Anthony from Joyful Self-Manager – Guide Yourself.

Christmas is Seven Months Away – Have You Started Saving? by Money Life and More.

The Correlation Between Clothing and Confidence by Katie from Along for the Journey.

6 Ways to Simplify Your Life (Without Becoming a Minimalist) by Daisy from When life gives you lemons Add Vodka.

5 Travel Hacks to Get the Most Out of Your Summer Trip by Carrie from carefulcents.

And two new friends that you will definitely want to check out this weekend!

Should You Stay In A Controlling Relationship? by Mindy from Creative Money.

You may need to grab a tissue before you read this post. It is very personal. I Am You by Giselle from PositivelyPositive.

Wishing Everyone a fun and safe weekend!

 

Source: http://tacklingourdebt.com/2012/05/25/fridays-circle-friends-may-25/

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