By Sheryl Smolkin

After two weeks of vacation in lovely (except for the mosquitoes) Muskoka, I’m back. And so are all of our favourite personal finance bloggers with lots of interesting material. In particular, we welcome back Kerry K. Taylor (aka Squawkfox) who has been on sick leave.

In her classic comeback post Kerry questions whether Dollarama’s $3 HDTV antenna is worth it.  The bottom line is that she was able to receive as many channels on the $3 antenna as on the $67 model she bought at Future Shop. Her readers also have made interesting comments about what worked and what didn’t in their part of the country when they ditched cable or satellite TV.

Alan Whitton (The Big Cajun Man) gives us three financial rules of thumb to live by: Spend less than you make; don’t confuse spending less with saving money if you are buying an item you don’t really need; and lifestyle creep is dangerous and an excuse to build up debt.

Sean Cooper wrote about how he reached $500,000 in net worth by age 29 in this post on Million Dollar Journey. He worked at multiple jobs, lived with his parents until he had a significant down payment on a house and rented out the top floor of his home while living in the basement apartment.

Mark Seed at My Own Advisor joins the legion of Canadians who are opting for VOIP telephone services instead of Bell or Rogers. For $4.95/month he got to keep his home phone number using Fongo Home Phone and after several months he states categorically that it was the right decision.

And last but not least, a free e:book Understanding Unretirement written by Today’s Economy blogger and Sun Life Financial Assistant Vice-President, Market Insights Kevin Press draws on six years of company research to explore why retirement in today’s economy is different and harder to achieve but could be better than ever before.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

Whether you are saving for retirement or for other long-term goals, the key is that you have to spend less than you earn.

In What is “Saving?” Gail Vaz-Oxlade says it’s also important to distinguish between saving to buy a car or go on a vacation which is planned spending and saving for another chapter in your life like retirement.

Big Cajun Man says in I did my RRSP and TFSA Now What? that opening accounts and depositing money are just the beginning. Unless you develop an investment strategy and make sure you aren’t paying exorbitant fees, your money won’t grow the way it should.

The Toronto Star’s Ellen Roseman recently wrote a great column about How to plan for retirement on a low income. She says people who expect to receive the guaranteed income supplement (GIS) to top up their old age security (OAS) pension after age 65 should save in a TFSA and not an RRSP because TFSA withdrawals will not impact GIS eligibility.

First Foundation is an Alberta and Saskatchewan based financial services company. In their owngrowprotect blog they have started a 52 week money challenge. The author of Go To Disney Land or Pay Bank Fees, Your Choice! calculates that his family can save over $500 per year by shifting to no-fee banking which in ten years will add up to a family visit to Disneyland.

And Mark Seed from My Own Advisor asks the million-dollar question how much money do you need to retire well? He says that the magic number is indeed $1m or more. Even if some costs disappear in retirement like saving for retirement itself and mortgage payments there are costs in your future like property taxes, utilities, gas and food that are going to grow over time.

For those of you who think saving $1m before you retire is an unattainable goal, frugal lawyer Dave explains how he reached $1M net-worth by the age of 34 in this post on the Million Dollar Journey blog. It helped that he rode his bike to work instead of buying an expensive car like many other young lawyers in his firm.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere. Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.