CNBC’s Squak Box ran a play investing game in which the winner won a Maserati, with a sticker price of over $100,000. MSN Money provides a small article on the winner and his stock pick.

Top 100 Products of the Year from PC World Interesting stuff on this list, I would suggest perusing it when you have a moment.

Jonathan Clements, who pens the “Getting Going” column for the WSJ, writes “Due Diligence: The Five Key Rules
To Heed Before Hiring a Financial Adviser” (subs. req.). Here’s a brief of his advice for hiring a financial adviser:

1) Use a fee-only adviser.
2) Work with someone who has credentials, such as a Certified Financial Planner and can also assist with your entire financial picture (debt, mortgages, etc.).
3) Avoid using an adviser who won’t committ to acting as a fiduciary.
4) Pay attention to your adviser’s fees, as well as the fees on the investment products that they recommend.

John Wagonner of the USA Today says “When It Comes To Your Portfolio, Rebalancing Act Takes Good Timing“.  This is a very good article on the reasons and benefits of rebalancing.  However, Mr. Wagonner elaborates, “A better question is whether you should rebalance your portfolio, particularly if the market has knocked it out of whack. The answer: probably not yet. But a good rebalancing strategy could boost your returns by helping you make a few timely moves.”

16 Step Beginner’s Guide to Project Management… If only it were this easy! I really need to focus on the excellent communication.

In “Get Stuff Out of Your House”, from lifehack.org, we are given some great tips on major items to go through and the best way to get rid of them. While the author seems to be on a minimalist kick, this is definitely something that I need to work on. Especially that extra expense for maintaining a storage unit. While it is a small unit, it would be good to ditch this $50 a month cost.

General Motors Hopes $1.99 Per Gallon Gas Offer Moves Its Fuel Guzzlers, reports the Los Angeles Times. That’s right, buy one of their SUVs and they’ll pay you the difference between the national average gas price per gallon and a $1.99 for each month up to a specified time. Interesting mathematics behind this marketing strategy. I wonder if it will help GM’s bottom line?

Build The Best Paper Airplane, just like the one I built in 6th grade to win the paper airplane contest in my Science class!

Steve Pavlina has written a review of The Secret, a very interesting movie that seems to be sweeping the web.

Richard Jenkins wrote a very basic (and somewhat old) finance article for MSN Money, titled “Turn $1 a day into $67,815“. It’s still a great reminder of how simple it is to amass wealth. Towards the end of the article Mr. Jenkins provides other tips to reduce monthly spending pointing out “if you can knock this $123 out of your monthly budget, at 10% it will grow to $278,040 in 30 years.” The only thing I disagree with is the rate of return at 10%. While historically, this is has been the return of the stock market, I think it is better to assume rates of return in the 6-8% range. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

On another note, I think lessons like this should be taught in high school, or yet maybe even earlier. Children should be able to learn the lessons of money very early, so they can take advantage of such things as compounding interest.