• You've read countless stories about adult children needing financial help from their parents. But a new study indicates that maybe this is not really the norm. [Bucks]

• Insurance myths debunked: Contrary to what you've seen in the movies, suicide can be covered by life insurance. [Financial Highway via The Consumerist]

• Get your fix of 2009's best "recession porn" — weird stories about the odd ways the economic meltdown has had an impact on different people — the Queen of England, for instance. [It's Your Money]

• Ever wondered how much money football bowl games make for participating colleges? Surprise, surprise: Most of them are money pits. [The College Solution]

• Some people think a recent uptick in appliance sales signals a turnaround in the housing market. Not Barry Ritholtz. [The Big Picture]

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Personal finance from around the Web on Monday:

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? American Medical Association persuaded senate to add a 10 percent tanning tax in place of the 5 percent tax proposal on elective cosmetic surgery. [Washington Wire WSJ Blog]

• When you're hot, you're hot: Here's a list of the best-performing exchange-traded funds of 2009. [ETFdb]

• The real estate recovery is threatened by a "shadow inventory" of millions of foreclosed and delinquent-loan homes that aren't counted among houses up for sale. [The Los Angeles Times]

• A South Dakota bank is offering a card to high-risk consumers to help them rebuild their credit. But it comes with one little catch: a 79.9% interest rate, the highest on the market. [Argus Leader]

• More than 80% of high-net-worth investors plan to take some of their investments away from their financial advisers. That doesn't surprise one writer, who thinks the odds are stacked against those who invest in mutual funds. [The Motley Fool]

• Goldman Sachs releases its commodities outlook for 2010. The investment banking powerhouse expects oil to hit $90, and gold to climb to $1,350. [The Pragmatic Capitalist]

Additional reporting by Tania Chen.

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.

Personal finance from around the web:

• Do you toss all those missives from your credit card company, without even reading them? Now, as changes abound, it could really cost you. [The Wall Street Journal]

• Blippy, a new social networking service from someone who wrote a hilarious book about the turn-of-the-century Internet bubble, helps you tell other people, via Facebook and Twitter, what you're charging on your credit card. But why would you want to do so? People's opinion of the service ranges from "awesome" to "pathetic," according to one blogger; another finds the concept for the service intriguing. [My Bank Tracker, CNET]

• There are just two weeks left until the new year, but it's enough time to take advantage of some smart tax deduction strategies. Also: The five most bizarre tax deductions around the world. [MintLife]

• The new American thriftiness doesn't bode well for retailers. So they're profiling you –to figure out how to make more dough. [It's Your Money]

• Do you have a lot of holiday shopping left? You're not alone. The National Retail Federation's survey concludes that consumers are only halfway done — and when they finish they'll have spent less than in prior years. [Reuters]

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On Monday, I sat in on a value investing talk given by hedge fund manager Joel Greenblatt, best-selling author of The Little Book That Beats the Market. He's started a money-management firm based on the "Magic Formula" outlined in the book, and the talk was attended by a smattering of reporters, financial advisers, and academics.

If you haven't read the book, it's a good primer on value investing, though the conclusion it boils down to — that to beat the market, you just have to invest in stocks with low P/Es and high returns on capital — would raise the ire of plenty of his value manager peers. I'm oversimplifying, and there are other places where you can read more about Greenblatt's strategy, but what interested me at this talk were the questions fired at Greenblatt after he finished. More

It’s no news that earmarks are an entrenched part of Congressional politics. Each year billions go to legislators’ pet projects, ostensibly to spur economic growth, if not one’s popularity back home (see: Bridge to Nowhere). So far, disclosed earmarks tacked onto fiscal 2010 spending bills are nearly $6 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. And that’s even before the notoriously pork-laden defense spending bill has been accounted for.

Call me naïve — comments are open below — but I sort of thought (okay, hoped) that Congress would be more judicious in how it doled out money from the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed into law last February. After all, that’s not exactly business-as-usual funds; it's money to get us through a national crisis.

No such luck. More

From MONEY Senior Editor Walter Updegrave:

The late Paul Samuelson, America’s first Nobel Laureate in economics, will rightly be remembered for the mathematical rigor he brought to his field and for helping turn the dismal science into one that — occasionally at least — can brighten people’s lives by helping shape public policy.

But I can tell you from first-hand experience that Samuelson, who died this Sunday at the age of 94, also had some interesting insights into investing and the stock market. More

Personal finance from around the Web:

• 2009 was the year of cheap-chic-living. Here is a summary of frugal trends that took over the year. [It's Your Money]

• Three-year default rates for federal student loans were released yesterday and the numbers are not pretty. For loans that entered repayment in 2007 the three-year default rate is at 11.8%  up from the two-year default rate of 6.7%. For-profit schools had the largest percentage of defaults with a whopping 20%. [Student Lending Analytics Blog, WSJ.com]

• Ever thought of donating a goat in a relative's honor as a Christmas present? Well, research now shows these "ethical gifts" might actually offend some. So be careful, or risk Grandpa getting grumpy. On the bright side, it turns out that mothers will always love whatever their kids get them. [The Consumerist]

• About 40% percent of parents have paid off debt owed by an adult child. Highest on the bailout list: car loans. [WalletPop]

• A fear that haunts the unemployed: falling out of one's social class. [Economix]

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.

Personal finance from around the Web on Monday:

• Charity begins at…eBay? As Christmas approaches, the auction site contains a growing number of listings that aren't selling anything, but instead are asking people to donate money to families in need. It's unclear how many of these requests are authentic and how many are simply scams. [The Red Tape Chronicles]

• A loophole in the Senate health care bill would permit insurers to put annual limits on the money they pay for costly illnesses. Patient advocates say this provision will gut a major consumer protection the bill is supposed to put in place. [Associated Press]

• The House of Representatives has passed a bill tightening regulation of the financial services industry. But it's very possible that some of its major features will be loosened up as the bill makes its way through Congress. [Economist's View]

• A star portfolio manager's departure from TCW Group highlights some major pitfalls of mutual fund investing. Chief among them: A fund company's interests can diverge markedly from those of the investors in the company's funds. [Mutual Fund Insider]

• Not sure whom to tip this holiday season, or how much? Consult these guidelines from Emily Post. [fivecentnickel.com]

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.

Personal finance from around the web:

• Is a $6,500 tax credit enough of an incentive for homeowners to buy and sell during real estate's off season? Doubtful, according to some industry experts. [Inman News]

• Getting the best deal used to mean scanning circulars and making multiple trips to retailers. These days Internet sites will do the legwork and get you organized before you head out to buy your holiday gifts. The sites will also organize your shopping.  [Cash Money Life, Moolanomy]

• Not everyone uses banks. One in four American households bypasses banks in favor of Wal-Marts and pawnshops. [TheStreet.com]

• It's never too early to learn the ABCs of personal finance. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority sends volunteers to elementary schools to teach kids that money doesn't grow on trees. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

• It's 2010 prediction time. One analyst expects oil to crash and bonds to bomb. [Minyanville]

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.

When I was working on MONEY's annual Best Jobs in America project a few months back, I was frustrated by a major shortcoming of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' long-term employment forecasts: They didn't take into account the nation's economic meltdown, which will no doubt have a huge impact on the nation's job market for years to come.

The problem was that the BLS’s Employment Projections Summary comes out every two years, and the last time the BLS reported stats on which occupations and industries have the best long-term prospects was December 2007 — well before the traumatic downturn. For our Best Jobs project, we had to rely on other data to adjust the projections for the recession.

But on Thursday, the Labor Department released its updated forecast, Employment Projections for 2008 through 2018. There are lots of fascinating trends and findings in the data. Here are three that stand out: More

Personal finance from around the web:

• Financial "innovation"? Yeah, right. Former Fed chair Paul Volcker told some of the world's top bankers this week that the only innovation in the last 20 years has been the ATM machine. He also blasted other complex products like credit default swaps. [Seeking Alpha, Times Online]

• NPR looks at the world of exclusive, secret frequent flier programs: The "Skull and Bones" societies of the sky. [Morning Edition]

• They've entertained (and perhaps horrified) us all year long, but we can also learn a thing or two about personal finance from this year's "rich and (in)famous." [Thicken My Wallet]

• Our progressive income tax system may not be so progressive: The richest pay fewer taxes than the rich. [Tax.com]

• This summer one frustrated airlines customer took to YouTube to get his complaint addressed. Now, another example of customer service vigilantism via YouTube, this time aimed at Best Buy. See the videos below. [The Consumerist]

The stunt:

The resolution:

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I recently did some some reporting on the debate over buy-and-hold investing vs. market timing. I'm mostly in the buy-and-hold camp. But here's my biggest takeaway…

There are two basic sales pitches on Wall Street:

1. Stocks are always a good buy. So pay me 1.4% of your assets per year to put you in stocks.

2. Stocks are sometimes a good buy, sometimes not. Pay me 1.4% to tell you the time.

Which is right? More

Personal finance from around the Web:

• Think twice before you buy all-natural and green products: A University of Toronto study finds that “virtuous shopping can actually lead to immoral behavior.” [Slate]

• Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner extends the $700 billion bailout through next October, in hopes that much of the money can still be used to rescue homeowners and small companies. [Bloomberg]

• Lawmakers want to extend $31 billion in tax breaks, including deductions for sales tax and property taxes. Too bad they haven’t figured out how to get the money to do so. [The Associated Press]

• A University of Illinois professor says that legalizing online gambling, an effort spearheaded by Congressman Barney Frank, would do nothing short of tanking the world’s economy. Go figure. [R&D Magazine]

• The frequency with which you argue with your spouse over money predicts the likelihood that you’ll get divorced, according to Utah State University research. [Economix]

• Apple computer owners: Looking for an easy-to-use personal finance management program? Lots of fellow Mac users are raving about Moneydance 2010. [The Unofficial Apple Weblog via AOL Tech]

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.

Personal finance from around the Web:

• It's good to be rich: Since the mid-1990s, millionaires have been taxed at lower and lower rates. But when latest data become available the trend will likely be reversed. [Tax.com]

• People that buy knockoff designer products may think they're saving money, but they're just delaying the inevitable. An MIT professor has found that buying a fake makes you more likely to spend the big bucks on the real thing in a couple of years. [MIT News]

• The good old days when travel insiders could fight for the best seats without paying extra are ending. The airlines are now creatively charging for the best and most popular seats. [The New York Times]

• The number of temporary workers has increased sharply. As this graph demonstrates, we might be nearing a recovery (and the resurgence of full-time employees). [Calculated Risk]

• Mortgage delinquencies in the U.S will fall next year (but not till after delinquencies reach their peak in the next couple of months). [FT.com]

Follow More Money on Twitter at http://twitter.com/moremoneyblog.