Speaking of money market funds, Marketplace Money Economic Editor Chris Farrell declared in Fall of the Money Market

"[M]oney market funds are no longer a safe enough parking place for cash."

I still don’t understand why safety must be measured in nominal dollars. My arguments are in my previous post Breaking The Buck Is Not a Big Deal. Both bank accounts and money market funds can and do lose money after-tax, after-inflation. You can only spend after-tax, after-inflation dollars.

Right now reward checking and online savings accounts happen to pay higher interest than money money funds, with FDIC or NCUA insurance to boot. But that’s a separate issue.

There is a allegation floating around saying the financial service industry misleads Americans into saving too much, just so the industry can have more assets to manage and charge fees on. I was going to write something about it, but Penelope Wang from CNNMoney said all what I wanted to say in Can you live on less in retirement?

The bottom line is that it’s a lot easier to deal with money issues when you are working than when you are not. It’s also a lot easier to deal with too much money than not enough money.

Professor Kotlikoff of the Saving Too Much fame sells a financial planning software called ESPlanner. I may have to shell out $199 someday to see if it’s really revolutionary. I’m skeptical because there is simply too much unknown for the future. Garbage In Garbage Out is a serious problem for any software that involves projecting into the future.

Too bad ESPlanner doesn’t offer a free trial. Otherwise I’d be happy to do a thorough review. I know there is a free ESPlannerBasic, but it’s not the same.

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Software picked, likely related articles at The Finance Buff:

• Breaking The Buck Is Not a Big Deal
• Combatting Survival Instincts
• More Risk, More Reward?