I’ve previously created a spreadsheet for calculating compound annual growth rates (CAGR) as well as an online CAGR calculator, but these aren’t always the tools you need when trying to calculate your returns.

In fact, the two CAGR tools I created really only work when you have one initial amount and one final amount, and if that’s your situation, then they work wonderfully. But how can you calculate annualized returns if you put in money to invest in an account more than once, or if you make withdrawals more than once over a period of time? (This was actually exactly the situation I faced when I calculated my stock portfolio performance recently.)

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I have to admit that the more I find out about what Schwab offers, the more I like being their client. Sound strange? A few months ago, I started looking at managing my cash more intelligently rather than just having it sit passively in a money market fund that wasn’t earning nearly as much interest as some other options available out there.

When I discovered that Schwab offered an easy way to purchase CDs online, I bought a few 3-month CDs through Schwab yielding 5.3-5.4%. Unfortunately, I soon realized that CDs were probably not the best investment out there for us. Why? Because as California residents, the interest earned from CDs would be subject to our state income tax rate of 9.3%, and there were other instruments out there with comparable returns that were exempt from state income tax: treasuries.

Last week, I started looking at buying treasuries again. T-bill yields had dipped in September but rebounded strongly and were certainly well worth the consideration of anyone who lived in a state with state income tax. (I’ve previously written about how to calculate tax-equivalent yields and provided an online calculator to do so, as well as about using Treasury Direct to buy treasuries, if you’re looking for some background information.)

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This weekend, I finished reading The Money Coach’s Guide to Your First Million by Lynnette Khalfani, a copy of which I received from Khalfani’s publisher. Since I have readers who have asked basic personal finance questions in the past, I thought it might be a good book to review.

Khalfani covers quite a few topics in her book and provides a good introduction to each section. While anyone who’s willing to learn could benefit from reading the book, because Khalfani writes very often about her personal experiences — from going from poor to perfect credit, having gone through a divorce, how her childhood impacted her financial management skills later on, for example — and because she takes the time to address relationship issues, I would especially recommend this book to any women out there who might be daunted by the idea of plunging into learning about personal finance and who prefer a more personal and conversational point of view rather than one that takes a more generalized approach. If you’re interested in learning more about her, she has a website at The Money Coach.

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As a response to Flexo’s post on 10 Examples of How You Can Be Penny Wise, Pound Foolish, I spent $56 yesterday on a nice Harmony yoga mat. I’ve been taking a few yoga and pilates classes at our fitness center and finally decided I enjoyed both enough that I was going to do them on a regular basis and invest some money in proper equipment.

The mats provided at the gym are really thin Aeromats, meaning they’re not so comfy and also probably not washed on a regular basis (yuck!). I decided to buy the Harmony mat because $56 on a mat of higher quality and thickness now (that’s about $30-$35 more than a generic mat from Target) is better than spending hundreds or more later to solve a back problem or risking getting some sort of gross fungal infection.

Plus, I like that it’s environmentally friendly (it’s made entirely of natural rubber). I was a bit surprised to find out that $50 was a midpoint price for a yoga mat. Apparently Manduka makes a great one that’s closer to $80, but it’s a little bit of overkill for my needs.

I’ve certainly erred on the side of spending too much on camping equipment in the past that didn’t get used, so it takes a conscious effort on my part to watch my spending in these areas by buying a quality product that meets my needs rather than buying the most expensive, over-engineered one that will probably outlast my lifetime!

Businessweek just released their annual “Best B-schools” list, as did the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago. US News & World Report also has a top list of bschools for 2007, though its rankings tend to be more traditional and aligned with schools’ general reputations.

What tends to happen on all these lists is that the top schools almost always appear on each one in some random mix of order. Remember that each list uses a different methodology (WSJ’s emphasizes recruiters’ opinions, for example), and methodologies sometimes change from year to year.

Below are the most recent top 10 lists from Businessweek, WSJ, and US News & World Report:

By the way, I’m a Michigan grad from before they changed the school name to “Ross”. Hey, old habits die hard.

If you’re looking for a full-time MBA program, my advice is still the same: aim for the top schools if you can, but don’t forget to find a good fit. Remember that some programs are bigger, some programs are well-known for strengths in a particular area, some emphasize a core and some are more tailored, and some programs might fit your budget better or offer part-time options that might be worth considering. For example, I’m not knocking Chicago in any way, but for me, it wasn’t the right place when I was applying a few years ago. My undergrad education was already highly mathematical/technical, and I was looking for something that would round out my education and resume a bit more.

Believe it or not, for some people, applying to bschools is like applying to college all over again: aim for the top schools only, and if I don’t get in there, I’m somehow less worthy than someone who got in. Remember that by the time you’re applying to bschool, you’re supposed to have grown up a bit and hopefully realized that finding the right school for you is important. :)