Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

Kids and Growing Old: Musings Of A Newly Thirty Year Old Woman

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 The following is a guest post by a regular reader who just turned 30.  Hope you guys enjoy and help her share in her thoughts!

So often we let society overly influence how we feel and act. I could go on for hours about topics like body image, nutrition, and politics but for now let’s just touch on age and children.

Maybe I’m on my own in this, but it annoys me that society teaches us that couples should raise a family once they’re married. While I have no ill feelings towards you wonderful parents out there, it frustrates me that I still find myself doubting my lack of interest in having kids because it’s abnormal, against the grain.

TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE

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How to Become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM (CFP®)

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This is a guest post by Paul Williams from Provident Planning. He’s a fee-only financial planner in Lancaster County, PA, and regularly writes about personal finance from a Christian perspective. If you want to become a CFP®, he’d be happy to talk with you.

I was excited when Sam invited me to write a guest post for Financial Samurai on how to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM (CFP®). I’ll finally finish the requirements in Novemeber 2010 and be eligible to call myself a CFP® after I fill out the last bit of paperwork.

Sam mentioned he’d like to become a CFP® after he retires from his job, so he’s curious about what he’d have to do. I’m sure some of you might also be interested in becoming a financial planner if you’ve got a strong interest in personal finance.

This post is going to be about the process of becoming a CFP® rather than deciding if you should even become a CFP®. That’s a very different question and one you should have an answer to before you start the process of becoming a CFP®. It’s certainly not a cheap certification to get (in money or time).

Fulfill three requirements to become a CFP®:

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The Best Football Conference Also Educates Better

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. Big Ten

F/+ Top 25 teams: 5 (35.7 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 3 (East division), No. 6 (West division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 23.3
New Year’s Six teams: 3
Playoff teams: 1

The Big Ten had 10 bowl-eligible teams out of 14, but what separated it from other Power Five conferences was how good it was at the top. Four of the five teams ranked in the F/+ Top 25 were ranked in the top 12. Additionally, each division was rated highly. Entering the final week of the season, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin were all in the playoff hunt. Each of those teams either made a New Year’s Six or College Football Playoff game. The bottom of the Big Ten was bad, but overall this was the strongest league from a strength-of-schedule perspective.

2. Pac-12

F/+ Top 25 teams: 3 (25 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 2 (North division), No. 4 (South division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 32.3
New Year’s Six teams: 1
Playoff teams: 1

The Big Ten may have had the highest number of top-end teams, but the gap between the best team and the worst team in the Pac-12 was smaller. (In fact, the conference’s best team, Washington, needed overtime to beat its worst team, Arizona.) The Pac-12 also had an even split between its top six teams and its bottom six. Overall, this was a strong, and deep, conference.

3. ACC

F/+ Top 25 teams: 7 (50 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 5 (Coastal division), No. 7 (Atlantic division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 41.3
New Year’s Six teams: 1
Playoff teams: 1

The most impressive thing about the ACC was the number of top-25 teams in the F/+ rankings. Seven was the highest number of any conference. However, the ACC’s overall strength of schedule was lower, as were the divisional rankings. This was a league with one elite team (Clemson) and several good to very good teams.

4. SEC

F/+ Top 25 teams: 4 (28.6 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 1 (West division), No. 10 (East division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 28.9
New Year’s Six teams: 1
Playoff teams: 1

It’s shocking to see the SEC, long considered the best conference in college football, plunge to No. 4, but there’s a simple reason for it. Alabama was unquestionably the best team in college football, but the rest of the conference simply didn’t match up. The SEC East was particularly bad and ranked the 10th-best division, lowest among any Power Five division. The West division was strong and the schedules were tough, but the conference was really dragged down by that East division.

5. Big 12

F/+ Top 25 teams: 1 (10 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 8 (conference)
Average strength of schedule rank: 69.6
New Year’s Six teams: 1
Playoff teams: 0

The Big 12 was the weakest Power Five conference. It had one top-tier team (Oklahoma), two decent teams (Oklahoma State and West Virginia) and a handful of average to below average teams. Having only 10 members hurts the Big 12’s chances to have multiple elite teams, but there have been recent years in which the conference was able to flex its depth. This was not one of them.

6. AAC

F/+ Top 25 teams: 2 (16.7 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 9 (West division), No. 12 (East division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 75.4
New Year’s Six teams: 0
Playoff teams: 0

There wasn’t much separation between the Big 12 and the AAC. The top of the American, in fact, was a bit stronger. However, the strength of schedule was lower — albeit only slightly — and power programs like Houston and Navy weren’t able to crack the New Year’s Six spot. Otherwise, these spots probably would have been flipped.

7. Mountain West

F/+ Top 25 teams: 1 (8.3 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 11 (Mountain division), No. 18 (West division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 93.6
New Year’s Six teams: 0
Playoff teams: 0

This is where the statistical drop-off happens. The Mountain West didn’t have a New Year’s Six and its most well-known program, Boise State, didn’t even win its division. However, half of the conference did have winning records — five in the Mountain division alone — and two 10-win teams. The overall depth was the tiebreaker here over the MAC.

8. MAC

F/+ Top 25 teams: 1 (8.3 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 14 (West division), No. 20 (East division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 86.6
New Year’s Six teams: 1
Playoff teams: 0

There wasn’t much to distinguish between the MAC and the Mountain West. Both conferences had a bell cow team, but neither had particularly strong divisions — both, in fact, had an especially weak one — or strength of schedule ratings. The MAC did have undefeated Western Michigan, but the rest of the conference was weak.

9. Conference USA

F/+ Top 25 teams: 1 (7.7 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: No. 17 (East division), No. 19 (West division)
Average strength of schedule rank: 107.2
New Year’s Six teams: 0
Playoff teams: 0

Similar to the MAC and Mountain West, Conference USA had a top-25 caliber team in Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers actually played a fairly tough schedule, too, and still won 10 games. Outside of that, there isn’t much. The likes of Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech gave the conference some good teams at the top, but the gap between them and the rest of the group was sizable.

10. Sun Belt

F/+ Top 25 teams: 0 (0 percent)
Sagarin divisional ranks: 16 (conference)
Average strength of schedule rank: 94
New Year’s Six teams: 0
Playoff teams: 0

Someone has to bring up the rear. The Sun Belt had some good teams (Appalachian State, Troy) and some terrible ones (New Mexico State, Texas State) with some bad strength of schedules to boot. The lack of a Western Kentucky-caliber team hurt the Sun Belt here.

A 6-6 Washington team beat Nebraska 19-7 in the Holiday Bowl.  Stanford demolishes ACC Champion Virginia Tech 40-12 in the 2011 Orange Bowl and now we have Oregon playing Auburn in the BCS National Championship game.  Clearly, the PAC 10 is the most dominant athletic/football conference in the country.  In 2010, Stanford also pounded Notre Dame 37 to 14 and UCLA crushed Texas 34 to 12.  Statistics don’t lie, no matter how biased you are living in middle America or on the East Coast.

If you compare academic match ups, the Pac 10 wins as well.  Not only are Stanford, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon academically superior to Notre Dame, Virginia Tech,  Texas, and Auburn based on polls by every single college ranking system available, they also have superior athletic programs to boot.  Furthermore, the campuses of Stanford, UCLA and Oregon are like country clubs, with phenomenal facilities and fantastic weather all year around.

Notre Dame, Texas, Auburn and Virginia Tech are fine schools in their own right.  However, if you compare the four against their Pac 10 match ups, there simply is no comparison.  Hence, why is it that athletic recruits would ever go to a school other than one in the PAC 10 if they had a choice?  Let’s find out.

DISCOVERING WHY THEY DON’T GO TO THE BEST

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Understanding Happiness, Taxes, and Net Worth

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Good day brilliant minds!  I thought it would be helpful to do a recap of the conclusions from this past week’s posts given we had over 200 comments.  We talked about three important subjects: Happiness, Taxes, and Net Worth.

The purpose of these articles is to get people thinking about issues so we can be more open minded.  If anybody has ever participated in the case study method of learning in graduate school or elsewhere, you’ll know that there isn’t a right answer so much as a right direction.  It’s so easy to get caught up in your belief that your way is the right way.  That’s a dangerous, dangerous path to take!

The Ideal Income For Maximum Happiness

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The Ideal Income For Maximum Happiness

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HappinessIt hit me the other day that maybe the government is benevolent and not a bunch of self serving, two-faced, power hungry crooks. For the longest time, I thought the government was sexist because they don’t provide an equal amount of deductions or leeway once a couple gets married.

If I make $250,000 and my wife makes $250,000, why is the government penalizing couples making more than $250,000? $250,000 plus $250,000 is $500,000 in household income numb nuts! Do you expect one spouse to make nothing or a fraction of the other spouse’s income once they get together? That’s kinda silly and totally presumptuous you sexist pigs.

And another thing. What about if one spouse has a $1 million mortgage and the other spouse has a $1million mortgage. $1 million + $1 million is $2 million, so why is the mortgage interest deduction on income capped at $1 million for couples?  Isn’t it logical to conclude that two people living in $1 million mortgaged houses might seek to live in an even more expensive house when they marry? Heck, the couple might even want kids too which warrants a bigger house. Guess not.

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