I Drink at Home, YEEEEAAAAH, With Somebody Else

Alcohol sales are historically recession resistant, but not at bars anymore. It's way cheaper to buy some booze at the store, invite a few buddies over, and have a little party. If you live somewhere awesome like Miami, you can enjoy views of palm trees and water. If you live somewhere on the boring side, at least you can hang out outside during the summertime. Maybe play some bean bag toss and listen to music with a few beers. Good times.

From Time - 

"Sales of alcoholic beverages at bars and restaurants fell 4.6% in 2009, while sales at liquor stores, supermarkets and other retailers for "at home" drinking rose 1.2%, the report said. Americans are gulping 10 drinks on average each month at home, compared with only 5.7 drinks in bars and restaurants, the report notes."

The article goes on to discuss a proposal by New York's governor, David Patterson, to allow wine sales at grocery stores. I don't know why that guy gets such a bad rap. I think he's great.

25 Smackers

Dollars, bucks, greenbacks, clams, dead presidents, big ones. 25 of 'em.

If you would like this amount of moolah in your pocket (and by "pocket," I mean "a number designated to an account that you open"), go to ING's Sharebuilder and open an account by May 25th, using the promotion code MAY25. Open the account with a minimum of $25, and they will match that amount.

Now you've got half a C note that you can start trading and become the next Warren Buffett. Then you can move to Omaha and drink all the cherry Coke you want, and maybe update your glasses once every 20 years. Looking sharp.

It's Retirement Tips from Britney, Bitch

Sorry. That's like the line from her new song. I couldn't help myself.

The Yahoo Finance page has a great article about how important it is to save for retirement. Well, it turns out Britney Spears spends over $700,000 a month, yet she doesn't save a portion of her income.

The article points out that "the overwhelming majority of American 20-somethings aren't saving anything for retirement, either. Research from Vanguard shows that two-thirds of all 25-year-olds who have access to a 401(k) plan aren't contributing." That is really bad.

Consider this -

"Assuming she could scrape by on 70% to 80% of her pre-retirement income in retirement - or about $590,000 a month in today's dollars - Ms. Spears would have to accumulate a nest egg of just over $300 million by age 65."

"Sound daunting? Nah. All she has to do is keep working and put away 8% or so of her monthly $737,000 income until she retires and she'll hit that goal."

Now, translate into normal recent college graduates' incomes -

"A 25-yr old making $30,000 a year, for instance, and putting away the same 8% of his pay into a 401(k) plan annually for the rest of his career is virtually guaranteed a comfortable retirement by time he hits his 60s."

Read the entire article here.

The Taxman Returneth (Your Money)

CNNMoney.com has a simple, but good list of constructive uses for you income tax refund. It would probably be better to save the money than to go on vacation to Las Vegas.

The Latte Factor

David Bach, author of "The Automatic Millionaire", discusses his "latte factor" in an article on Nightingale-Conant's website. A woman named Kim who attended the Bach's personal finance seminar complained that she didn't earn enough to save, and was not participating in the 401(k) available to her through work.

"If Kim took her $5.00-a-day latte allowance and put it into her 401(k) plan instead, by the time she turned 65 she would have approximately $1,742,767 saved for retirement."

You can read the complete article here.