80 May Be the New 65 for Retirement Age (CNN Money).  Lots of people are finally waking up to just how unprepared they are for retirement.  One simple yet incredibly helpful step to do a better job of preparing is to calculate our needs.

Your Grocery Bill is Getting Higher, and Higher (MSNBC).  What are you doing to fight food inflation?  Are you cherry picking?  Becoming a super couponer?

What Hiring Managers See When They Look at Your Resume (Main Street).  A good section-by-section review of what to include and what to leave off (MSNBC).

7 Biggest Holiday Money Wasters (MSN).  Tis the season for overspending, but not for you if you heed some of these warnings.

Social Experiment Tests How Far You’ll Go to Find $20 (US News).  Quirky experiment raises some interesting questions about how we think about money and the lengths we’ll go to get a little more.

And from the blogosphere…

The Blessing Box (Matt About Money).  With Thanksgiving approaching, I couldn’t resist including this post from my archives.  It contains one of the best holiday-related ideas I’ve ever heard – an idea shared with me by a very special couple.

Create Memories With 6 Inexpensive Experience Gifts (My Dollar Plan).  Great ideas for giving gifts that can’t be broken, won’t need to be exchanged, and are likely to be treasured long after they’re unwrapped.

The Best Free Apps For Black Friday (LearnVest).  I hate to participate in all the spending hype associated with the holidays, but some of these apps, like RedLaser, are helpful all year.

Four Ways to Include Your Spouse in Financial Planning (Five Cent Nickel).  Good reminders about how to do the whole money thing as a team.

The Three Best Financial Moves You Can Make For Your Child (Free From Broke).  I’m not sure I’d call these ideas the three best, but they’re good, and in the case of the credit score idea, creative.

Who else would benefit from this post?  Why not forward a link to my site? And if you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here.  Two or three times a week, you’ll receive ideas and encouragement for using money well.

No Joke: Walmart Coffee Tastes As Good As Starbucks (via TIME Moneyland).  Hard to believe, but true: you’ll enjoy your scone every bit as much with Wal-Mart coffee as with Starbucks coffee.

Overdraft Fees Remain Steep at Largest Banks (via MainStreet.com).  Have you gotten caught in the overdraft fee trap?  Read this MainStreet article and then read my advice.

The New Freshman 15: Financial Tips for College Students (via Dailyfinance.com).  Are you headed back to campus this fall, or do you know someone who is?  Read this advice first.

Pet Insurance: Rarely Worth the Price, In Our Analysis (via ConsumerReports.org).  Why you should pass on the insurance, but build an emergency “kitty.”

And from the blogosphere…

25 Gifts You Can Make Today (via Wisebread.com).  How to save money and give more personal gifts at the same time.

Spotify: The Future of Music is Here – And You’ll Pay Less For It (via GetRichSlowly.org).  A good review of this new online music service.

5 Frugal Green Cleaning Products That Work (via OneMoneyDesign.com).  How to clean while minimizing cost and environmental impact.

Extreme Couponing 101: How to Extreme Coupon and Save 84%+ on Groceries (via MoneyCrashers.com).  Learn how a couponing superhero cleans up at the grocery store.

Netflix Prices Have Gone Up: 5 Netflix Alternatives For You To Try (via BibleMoneyMatters.com).  Netflix’s new pricing plan got you down?  You have options.

Know someone else who would benefit from this article?  Please forward a link to my site.  And if you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here.  Two or three times a week, you’ll receive ideas and encouragement for using money well.

A couple of other points to keep in mind.  Store-specific cards usually do not come with up-front fees as long as you buy them directly from the store.  Network cards, like those issued by Visa and American Express, typically do come with up-front fees.  However, check with your bank.  Depending on the type of account you have, your bank may sell gift cards without fees.  For example, at Chase, if you have a Premier checking account or better and purchase your card in person, there is no fee.  Some mass merchandise stores and e-tailers, like Target and Amazon, have especially user-friendly policies, such as no fees and no expiration dates.

If you receive a gift card this year, be sure to use it quickly and use up the full value.  Every year, lots of gift card value goes unused.  Plus, if the issuer goes bankrupt, you’re probably out of luck.

Are you planning to buy any gift cards this year?  Where do you like to buy them and why?

@TweetCheap is a Twitter deal aggregator, searching Twitter to find and tell you about the best coupon codes and other deals it finds.

@HeyItsFree finds, you guessed it, stuff that’s free – from free meals to free music downloads.

@FreeStuffRocks is another good source of freebie info.

@DealNews specializes in technology – from computer gear, gadgets, and more.

@AmazonDeals highlights the many deals available from Amazon.

Remember, though, a deal isn’t really a deal unless it’s a discount on something you were going to buy anyway.  And of course, while we’re talking about Twitter, don’t forget to follow @MattAboutMoney!

Who do you follow on Twitter to keep up with the best deals?

In this last installment of a four-part series of posts on money and marriage, I want to emphasize the importance of setting up your finances so that there is complete financial transparency. As you go through life and go toward the accomplishment of your financial goals, it’s so important to go together, with financial openness and teamwork.

One in Money, One in Marriage

In the Bible’s classic teaching on love, where we’re taught that love is patient and love is kind, it also says, “love rejoices in the truth.”  However, according to one survey, nearly half of all married people believe it’s okay to keep financial secrets from their spouse.  Not exactly a good idea for building a strong marriage.

A far better approach is to do things that foster transparency, like combining checking and savings accounts.

And one of the most important ways to live with financial openness is to make sure all of your household’s income and expenses are recorded in a place where both people can see all of that information.  That’s the second part of the budgeting process.  The first part is developing a plan.  The second part is tracking how much money is coming into your household and where it’s all going.

Whether you track your finances on a sheet of paper, with an Excel spreadsheet, via budget software like Quicken, or through an online tool like Mint.com, make sure both of you have access to the information and that you review the information together each month.

What About Buying Gifts?

Whenever I teach a marriage workshop and encourage couples to combine accounts, someone usually asks, “If we combine all our finances, how do we surprise each other with gifts?”

My recommendation is to use three different gift budgets.  One is for what you will spend on gifts for your spouse throughout the year, another is what he or she will spend on gifts for you, and the third is for what you as a couple will spend on gifts for others.  When you want to buy your spouse a gift, you could withdraw the budgeted amount from an ATM and buy the gift with cash.  You can then wait until after you give the gift to categorize the use of the cash as a gift expense.

You could also use the budgeted amount to buy a gift card and then make your purchase with that card.  The gift card expense gets posted to your budget as a gift expense, but your spouse won’t know where you bought their gift.  While many gift cards come with purchase fees, your bank may offer gift cards with no fee depending on the type of account you have with the bank.

What about you?  What do you do in your marriage to foster financial transparency?  And if you combine your checking and savings accounts, how do you surprise each other with gifts?

If you missed the other articles in this Money & Marriage series, in August I wrote about the importance of knowing where each other is coming from, financially speaking.  In September, the focus was on knowing where you’re going through the use of a cash flow plan.  Last month, we looked at how to deal with a financial issue that, like no other, causes financial discomfort among couples and raises the chances for financial fights: debt.

The article’s author summed up the research this way: “Knowing that friends, neighbors and loved ones don’t peg their appreciation of a gift to its price tag is like having a Get Out of Nordstrom Free card.”

I have to believe there are exceptions to this rule – that a bow-topped car in the driveway will be received a bit differently than a box of chocolates.  However, if you find yourself stuck debating whether to buy your sweetheart the reasonably priced sedan or the high-priced sports car – or, for that matter, Fannie Mae vs. Godiva – you’re probably going to be just fine either way.

And here is my completely unbiased, absolute favorite gift idea: give a copy of “Money, Purpose, Joy” or “Money Strategies for Tough Times.” For a limited time, if you order through NavPress, these are especially frugal ideas.  Use the discount code K82E1D8E6 and you will get a 35 percent discount during December and January.

On the positive side, CBSNews.com recommended using gift cards for your own shopping.  Some stores are offering bonus cards with the purchase of a certain number of cards.  Pair them with other store discounts and you can save big.  Looking for discounted cards?  The CBSNews.com story said to look on Plastic Jungle, GiftCards.com, and eBay.

Of course, you could also just give cash.  Somehow, marketers have convinced us that doing so is tacky.  However, cash is accepted everywhere and comes with no added fees or restrictions.

Using cash instead of credit is a proven method of staying within your budget. And it’s a strategy that more than 13 million people probably wish they had employed last year. According to Consumer Reports, that’s how many people are still paying off debt from last year’s holiday shopping trips.

Speaking of holiday shopping, if there are any kids on your list, this toy-buying guide from Consumer Reports may help.  And remember that some toys come with ongoing costs.  If you’re buying for someone else’s kids, their parents will probably appreciate it if you opt for toys that don’t require batteries.