It always amazes me the number of great financial blogs that I stumble across every week. When there are a million new blog posts every day, it’s hard for one guy to keep up. This week I’m honing my recommended reading in on blogs that also focus on money in your twenties. If you enjoy this site, you’ll want to make these blogs part of your regular reading, too! [...]

Do you talk to your partner about finances? If not, have “the talk”. It may very well save you frustration, save you money, and save your relationship.

I recently read an article on The New York Times, four money talks to have before marriage, and a response at Get Rich Slowly. I agree that this is critical (talking money before you marry could someday save your marriage). But this is not just important for couples considering marriage. A lot of us youngins shack up long before we marry, if we marry at all. So I think these articles need to be re-framed as money talks to have before living together. [...]

Whether you’re just starting your first “real job” or have been in the workplace for a few years but haven’t gotten around to saving for retirement yet, listen up: it’s never too early to start building a nest egg. Statistically, young workers are the least likely to contribute to a 401(k) or IRA. But the sooner you start saving for retirement, the more compounding interest will help you grow wealthy with time. [...]

When it comes time to buy a new home, you need to know whom you can trust. Real estate is a cutthroat business, and as a prospective home buyer, you should recognize that the real estate agents who list properties are working for sellers—they’re salespeople, and they’ll push hard to sell their clients’ homes. Not to say there aren’t agents out there that tell it like is, even while working for a seller. But you’ll want to be prepared for the ones that don’t.

That’s where enlisting a buyer’s agent can be a wise move. [...]

Buying your first home is a huge financial milestone. Whether you’re just starting to consider home ownership or are already entrenched in the search for your first home, there’s an important step I recommend you take before making an offer or even starting to shop around: Get a pre-qualification or pre-approval letter from a mortgage lender.

Having this letter from a mortgage lender in advance can save you from major disappointment if you find your perfect home, make an offer, and then find you the bank has denied your mortgage application.

Pre-qualification and pre-approval is simply when a lender takes a fast look at your credit and decides, preliminarily, that you’re eligible for a mortgage. Although this does not guarantee your ability to get any mortgage, it does give you an upper hand when negotiating with sellers.

So, what’s the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval? [...]

Ah, debt. Either you’re trying to get out of it or you’re working fastidiously to make sure you’ll never be in it. Whichever camp you’re in, debt is a constant focus of personal finance blogs. Although I like to focus on other topics from time to time, providing solid advice on dealing with and avoiding debt has its place. So this week, I give you a few stellar recent articles on debt. [...]

I received an e-mail from a 28-year old budget-conscious reader with a common conundrum. She’s watching her wallet. Her friends? Not so much. How do you deal with friends that perennially spend, splurge, and squander?

Unfortunately, “keeping up with the Jones’” plays a big role in the psychology of spending. We spend to keep up because we envy things other people have. We spend more with friends to win and maintain their acceptance. And when we do it, we usually spend more than we have.

When we assert our frugality before our desire to fit in, however, a new problem emerges: We risk offending our friends, standing out as a cheapskate, or—worse—becoming alienated from them. [...]

Yesterday, I recommended a new way to pare down your credit cards. I don’t want you to cancel them all or use them like crazy to earn rewards. I just recommend keeping two credit cards—the card you’ve had the longest and the card with the highest credit limit. For simplicity (and to protect yourself from going on a spending binge and landing in debt), cancel the rest.

But as one person already commented—banks will cancel your credit cards if you don’t use them. Because you want to keep at least two credit cards open to continue building credit, you want to make sure the two cards you keep stay open. So you should use them from time to time. [...]

The majority of financial advice on credit cards falls into one of two categories:

• Credit cards are evil and you should cancel them and never, ever use them again.
• Credit cards are fantastically convenient when used responsibly and can actually make you hundreds a year in rewards.

Both are wrong.

Been burned by credit cards? It’s tempting to do what Matt did: Close ‘em, shred ‘em, and forget ‘em. If you’re either so mad at the card racket or think you can’t trust yourself with credit, then cancel ‘em. But before you do, consider this: Canceling credit cards makes it harder to maintain good credit. Hope to apply for a mortgage? (Or even an apartment?) You’ll want good credit.

Some money wizards recommend shredding your cards; others say “credit cards are greeeat!” After all, card rewards earn you a couple hundred extra bucks a year. Unfortunately, most rewards-seeking spenders will actually spend more money than they’ll earn in rewards using a rewards credit card. Let’s take a closer look at both of these fallacies. [...]

All worked up about identify theft? Don’t be. This post concludes my four-part series on identity theft in recognition of “Identity Theft Protection Awareness Week” which is coming up. It’s a revision of a post I did a while back originally titled “Identity Theft: How to Prevent it and Stop Worrying.” Some comments on the original post raised a good point—you can’t ever totally “prevent” identity. There’s always a chance your identity will be compromised. You can, however, take steps to protect your identity every day.

Have you ever heard the old advice: “If you can’t do something about it, don’t worry about? If you can do something about it, then do it.” This holds true for identity theft. There’s always a chance criminals can get their hands on your credit card numbers or, worse, your Social Security number, and run up fraudulent charges or debts in your name. It’s not worth losing sleep over as long as you’re taking a few simple steps to make scam artists’ jobs harder. [...]