Archives for Thoughtful Thursday category
3
Sep
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Well, it is now September, the time of year when students begin to dread the ever closing time when they will have to go back to school (if they haven’t already). I’m well past the joy and pain of school, myself, but I still have to be aware of the start of school because I’m dating a current college student. Between her starting school now and my new job, it’s going to be much be harder to find the time to go out to see her.
Of course, there’s plenty else to keep me busy: my new job, the impending Labor Day Holiday, and of course, trying my best to keep up to date with my blog. (It’s been kind of tough lately, with the new job and trips out to my fiancee every break from work that I’ve had, but I’m still here!) In the spirit of keeping the joy and wonderment of this blog flowing to your eager eyes, here are a few of the more interesting blog posts I’ve read from the past week, and my thoughts on them (in case you thought I was trying to avoid doing any real writing for this blog entry):
Review: A Million Bucks by 30 – I have to be honest, whenever I see a book that claims to show me a way to retire before the age of fifty, my internal warning system goes off. At best, they seem to rely on investment methods much riskier than I would be comfortable using myself, and at worst, they are little more than ways to enrich the authors at your expense. However, Stephanie makes a very good case for A Million Bucks by 30; it seems like a story of a pretty normal guy, peppered with money saving tips. As she notes, first looks can be deceiving.
5 Reasons to Take Another Look at DRIPs – A guest post on Consumerism Commentary looks into DRIPs, or Dividend ReInvestment Plans, a phrase purposely mis-capitalized to make the acronym work. The basic idea is to buy stock directly from a company, who will then use the dividends to purchase even more shares of stock for you. It’s a pretty decent article, and not a bad investment plan, assuming you are only interested in owning stock in a few very large, dividend paying companies. Otherwise, sticking with a brokerage will save you on time, if not investing costs.
Buying a Home Without the Money – WC Porter writes on Wisebread about considering a house purchase, even without having a twenty percent down payment, due to many of the compelling ‘incentives’ that currently exist. While the article itself is kind of interesting for mentioning things like the current tax credit and low mortgages, what’s more interesting is the comments. Yes, over the course of the comments, just about every argument both for and against such a purchase was raised, and eventually, WC decided against the purchase. (Which, as an aside, is what I would recommend, after reading that he would have no emergency after spending on his partial down payment.) I find it kind of interesting, just how talking it out and getting feedback can help the decision process.
5 Things Your Parents Didn’t Teach You About Money – I’m a sucker for lists, and having posted on how my mother influenced my current financial acumen, I could hardly resist this post from Green Panda Treehouse. There are quite a few things you’ll never learn from your parents (at least, not directly) when it comes to money, and her last point, on the trade offs of making a lot of money, is enough to make you reconsider your plans to forgo every indulgence in order to a millionaire by thirty.
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20
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Ah, it’s Thursday already. Time flies by when you’re spending hours each day in training at your new job. So far, things have been going pretty well; a lot of general information about the company (Sanofi Pasteur) and the practices it follows are being presented, and we’re just starting to go over the actual building and area where I will be working. I’ll working on vaccines for the H1N1 strain of flu (swine flu, don’t you know), so feel free to give me a passing thought when you’re lining up for your injections this flu season.
The only bad thing is that a combination of this job training and the fact that I’ve been feeling under the weather lately means that my blog has had to take a back seat for much of the week. Once I am officially on shift and can get a good rhythm going, I should be able to catch up, but for now, I’m having a little trouble in keeping up with everything. Don’t worry, though: short of coming down with the flu myself, there’s nothing that will keep me from updating my blog as often as life allows me the opportunity.
On that optimistic note, let’s see what some of the other personal finance bloggers out there are talking about:
Dairy Farms Rely on Illegal Immigrants – So often in debates about immigration, some basics of economics are lost in the shuffle. Namely, more immigrant workers mean lower labor costs which in turn mean lower prices in the store (particularly for agricultural products, a field where most Americans aren’t exactly jumping for jobs). On My Life ROI, these points and others are discussed in detail, a discussion that we as country seem to be endlessly trying to put off (but really can’t).
The Ultimate Financial Survivial Guide for New College Students – While the ‘ultimate’ in the blog title might be mostly good marketing on his part, Studenomics does an impressive job of covering many of the financial considerations of which incoming college students should be aware. In fact, I’d go even further and extend his first few points to everyone over the age of twenty: if you are old enough to drink, you should have an online bank account, a retirement account, and a credit card already. If you don’t, it’s time to get on the ball.
Deciding on Home Ownership – Given the recent decline in house prices as well as government incentives for new home buyers, it’s a good time to purchase a house. That’s the thinking over at Green Panda Treehouse, apparently, as they finally took the plunge and purchased a townhouse. Also covered is some of the logic behind the decision; while it’s a good time for those who want to be homebuyers, that doesn’t mean it’s the right time for all potential home buyers. You need to consider your own needs and resources.
Spend Time to Save Money – Mrs. Micah provides a few good ways to spend a little extra time in order to save money on your purchases. Using coupons (both online and off), creating a price book, negotiating lower insurance rates, and opening a higher yielding bank account are all good suggestions. If you put your mind to it, there are plenty of ways to add some value to your life with only a (relatively) small investment of time.
What Kind of Saver Are You? – A list of different savings personality types, covering a range of people, is up on the Weakonomist’s website. It’s kind of neat to read through his different descriptions and see which one fits you the best. I like to think of myself as a Sweeper, for the most part.
Don’t Chase High Rates for Savings Accounts – I’ll admit, I’ve tried to chase high interest rates in the past (and actually, would probably continue to do so if the chance to earn a much higher rate presented itself). Luckily, Stephanie of Poorer Than You provides a good idea of what to do with a wide number of online savings accounts, using each one for a different savings goal. Not bad advice if you have a number of different accounts you want to put to go use.
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13
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Yes, yes, tomorrow is the day that I go in to do some paperwork, listen to some information about my soon to be new job, and take a mandatory drug test. It’s not quite as fun as the first day of actual work (which comes next Tuesday, happily enough), but it’s still a pretty sweet day.
The only problem is, I seem to be having trouble getting to sleep; it’s nearly four in the morning as I write this, and I’m still not tired. I don’t know if it’s nerves or just inertia, but the Sandman has been eluding me tonight. I have gotten a chance to read up on some of the articles that, with spending the past few days with my girlfriend and then going home to get ready for this interview, I haven’t had a chance to read up to this point. So, here are a few of the articles that caught my eye in my late night ruminations:
Marriage and Money: Joint or Separate Accounts - An interesting view of the future, provided by Green Panda Treehouse. I haven’t had to worry too much about combining my expenses with my fiancee up to this point, as a result of the aforementioned living on opposite sides of the state, but at some point, we’ll have to combine our finances, and this is a pretty good template to follow.
To Prepay Your Mortgage or Not – In general, paying down your mortgage early is a good thing; you’ll save on interest payments and there’s the always fun ‘being free from debt’ aspect to consider. But, as My Life ROI points out, doing so at the expense of your other investments is generally not a good option. Basic money nerd rule: if the (after-tax, where applicable) return of the investment you’re considering doesn’t beat the return of your current investment, stay with what you have.
Moving: Maximizing Space When Packing Your Car – Some surprisingly time appropriate advice from Stephanie at Poorer Than You, just as I find myself needing to move my stuff across Pennsylvania again. Most of the advice should make sense; reduce what you take, remove extraneous packaging, and using clothing as cushioning. My favorite part of the article is that she refers to packing a car as ‘Tetrising’, which tickles my dork senses.
9 Small College Expenses That Add Up – On Mrs. Micah’s blog, there’s yet more advice for future (and current) college students: watch out and save up for situations where you spend small amounts that can add up. Sure, ten cents a page in the computer lab doesn’t sound like much, until you have to spend the money you were saving for the weekend on in order to print out the five research papers your teacher assigned you to read, each averaging about 30 pages. Yup, there goes your beer money. Moral: Small expenses add up quickly, a lesson we can apply both in college and out.
Carnivals and Round-Ups Featuring my Columns
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6
Aug
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
On Sunday and Monday this week, I helped my baby sister move into her first real apartment. She is going to be attending medical school in Philadelphia starting this fall, and I had to help her get her stuff down there. It makes me feel both proud that she is smart and talented enough to get into med school, and just a bit old that my baby sister has graduated college and is now going onto med school. Time does fly sometimes.
The most interesting part of the move, from my perspective, was shopping for furniture for her at IKEA. I’ve never really gotten anything from them before, and it was rather interesting to see their massive warehouse filled with unassembled furniture. Weird side note: we discovered that the covers for the couch she wanted to get came in several colors, with most colors selling for $159 and white covers selling for $11. Luckily for my credit card balance (as I was playing the good big brother and paying for the furniture until my mother could reimburse me), she opted for white, although she did end up getting a total of three covers. I’m proud of her frugal nature (although, I wish she had done more of the work assembling the furniture herself).
On the subject of going back to school, Studenomics offers up a few suggestions for Ways College Students Can Make Money Fast. A pretty decent selection of money making ideas for students, including reselling your old textbooks and increasing your hours at a summer job. My favorite suggestion is to get a job at your school during the year; it’s an excellent way to make money during the education process. (Although, it doesn’t strike me as very fast…) Some other interesting posts:
Library Fines Don’t Support Your Library – One of the more depressing things I’ve read this week (which might show how much of a geek I really am), Mrs. Micah shares the fact that paying late fees doesn’t directly support your library in many cases. Luckily, I perked up a bit when she listed some ways to help your library, like donating your time or old books.
When Will My Investment Double? – A short but sweet post from Stephanie of Poorer than You, reviewing the Rule of 72. Don’t know what the Rule of 72 is? Well, the short version is that, if you divide 72 by the rate of return you are getting, you can find out how many years it will take your investment to double, assuming a reasonable rate of return. (The rule breaks down at extremely high return rates, although that’s the sort of problem we all want to have.)
TED Spread-What is It? – On My Life ROI, there’s an interesting post explaining the TED Spread, the difference between three month Treasury bills and three month Eurodollar contracts. It’s used as a proxy to indicate how much banks trust each other; lower TED values indicate more trust. The chart he presents for the past two years is interesting: until late 2007, the spread is quite reasonable, then around October it increases and bounces up and down for most of last year, before spiking in October 2008, and then slowly settling down. The goodness: we seem to be back to normal, according to TED, which is a good start.
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30
Jul
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Well, once again I’ve made the trek across the great state of Pennsylvania, this time for family reasons rather than work. Yes, my godfather (the kindly, gift giving kind, not the running our family’s highly illegal crime syndicate kind) was born on August 1st, so I came back in order to more easily attend the party this Saturday. It’s always good to help celebrate with your family, although these cross state trips are really starting to wear on me.
Still, it promises to be a fun time, and I do like my family for the most part. Plus, it should be good practice for when I bring my fiancée out to visit; always good to get a refresher on the eccentricities of my family members before I subject her allow her to meet the crazies interesting people in my family.
Unfortunately, all the travel and time spent with my fiancée has left me with less time than usual for catching up on my blog reading. Thank goodness for RSS Owl; otherwise I’d completely lose track of all the blogs I try to follow. I’ve managed to catch some of the best posts each week using the feeds there. Some of what I’ve found useful this past week includes:
What If There Was No Tomorrow? – Sometimes, you forget that on the other side of the computer screen, there are actual people who have lives outside of this computer screen. It usually takes some big event to remind us that our fellow bloggers are mortal; earlier this week, Lazy Man of Lazy Man and Money had a near death experience. He nearly choked to death and thus had an epiphany about his life and how quickly it can end (as people tend to do in these situations. Thankfully, he seems alright, and will be imparting some of the lessons he learned soon.
Chart Early Retirement – A good post from Luke Grand, writer of the new blog Cash Out Life, which focuses on preparing for an early retirement. In this post, he suggests plotting your expenses, earned income, and passive income over the course of several months. That way, you can see whether you are earning more than you spend and gauge when your passive income will become high enough to exceed your expenses. It’s a pretty good exercise, one that can help you see where you finances currently stand.
What to Bring to College-College Survival Skills – Studenomics takes a new twist on the list of things to bring to college, collecting a list of four different skill sets you’ll need to survive college life. I agree with all of them (particularly cooking and cleaning, an area in which college students tend to skimp) and would add good study habits, as well.
Save Money By Becoming An Organized Packer – Given how much I’ve had to carry from one side of Pennsylvania to the other in the past few weeks, any thoughts on how to be more efficient are welcome. Luckily, on My Life ROI there are a fewer thoughts on how to make your travel a bit easier. I’m especially fond of the reminder to Ziploc bag anything that might spill; after a bad situation with a left over milkshake on this last trip, I can definitely tell you it is no fun trying to clean up after a spill.
(Image taken from the Skate Ranch of Raleigh website)
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24
Jul
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Well, it’s time again to gather up some of the more interesting posts on the interwebs for a feature I like to call, Thoughtful Thursday Friday! If you recall from yesterday (oh please, it was only a day ago; you can’t have forgotten that soon), I’ve been doing a lot of traveling this week. I’m not a big fan of traveling, especially when it involves me driving a total of twenty-four hours in the course of this week, just going from my fiancee’s house to my mother’s house and back, twice. (Yes, you heard that right: I’m going to spend the equivalent of a full solar day in the car this week to complete two round trips from one end of the state to the other.)
To add to my aggravation, I had an appointment with my doctor this afternoon to see if my ribs or any of the underlying organs were seriously damaged during my fall. She didn’t think there was any problem (her comments amounted to, ‘if you’re still moving around alright and haven’t been vomiting blood all this past week, you probably aren’t seriously hurt), but she decided to send me in for a few tests anyway. I ended up getting lost on the way to the hospital, missing the appointment her nurse got for me, going to the emergency room to get my CAT scan, and waiting in the waiting room for over two hours because she wrote out the prescription wrong. (During the two hours, the emergency room staff were playing phone tag with my doctor’s office.) Eventually, because my doctor could not be reached, I was sent home without getting the CAT scan (although, the tech at the hospital concurred with my doctor: with no more serious symptom than a few bruised ribs, I was unlikely to be in any health danger.) All I can say is I can’t wait for digital health records to be commonplace; hopefully, being able to store and send my health information digitally could have prevented me losing so much time over a single missing word on a prescription.
But, I’m still trying to stay optimistic; the job interview I had today went pretty well (PeTA ended up causing my would-be employers to laugh), and I should be able to go back to stay with my loving girl (although, if I get this job, I’ll have to move out, yet again). Plus, it’s that time of the week to catch up on some of the good posts that have appeared on the personal finance blogs:
Carnival of Personal Finance #214: United States Presidents Edition – I normally don’t mention carnivals on my Thoughtful Thursday posts; they are typically just a collection of links (not enough of which lead back to me), frequently presented without much thought or flare. In this case, however, Stephanie of Poorer than You has gone to the trouble of matching each submission up to one of the past (or current) US Presidents, including putting up the official Presidential portrait of each one. In short, this is a carnival as carnivals should be; go and support Miss Stephanie, and hopefully we can more beautiful looking carnivals like this in the future.
How Do You Want to Pay Taxes? – An interesting question posted by the Weaknomist. Besides the obvious answers (Never, or if that’s not possible, as infrequently and as cheaply as possible), there’s a range of possibilities from a sales tax to an income tax to a hybrid system like we currently have. Personally, I’d prefer consumption taxes (like a sales tax) over income taxes if possible, with refunds or other mechanisms to keep the system as progressive as we can make it. But that’s just me.
Going Green: Costs Big Bucks, Returns Big Bucks – One of the biggest problems with going green (now that you are no longer automatically assumed to be a tree hugging ultra-vegetarian commune dweller for even bringing up the concept) is the sometimes large up-front costs you pay. On My Life ROI, such costs are considered with an eye towards the money you could save by, say, suppling part of your electricity with solar panels or meeting LEED standards for energy efficiency. Luckily for the would-be greenie, the large upfront costs can (usually) be made up with energy savings in the future, although you’ll have to consider your specific situation to see if this is right for you.
Checklist for College Freshmen: Dorm Room Essentials – A little bit of nostalgia for me, I suppose, thinking back to my college days. Studenomics provides a list of things that an incoming freshman should bring, from hangers to sandals. Take away the coffee maker, add in an alarm clock, clothing, bedding, and toiletries, and his list matches my supplies, and freshman year went pretty smoothly for me.
Oakland Almost Stumbles on California’s Budget Fix – Taxing medicinal marijuana. As reported on Lazy Man and Money, Oakland has recently decided to start taxing medical marijuana to bring in increased revenue. This led to a discussion of whether legalizing pot would be a good thing, economically and societally. I generally think it would be; legalization, monitoring, and taxing just makes more sense to me than the government spending money to prevent people from purchasing a good they want to acquire. Of course, without having any independent research at my disposal to prove that in one way or the other, this is more a statement of my general feelings than a legitimate political platform.
Carnivals/Round Ups where I am featured:
The 99th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by The Skilled Investor, featured my column Risk Management Strategies
Weakonomics Links: Management or Egoeconomics, a round up by the Weakonomist, featured my column The Tragedy of the Commons
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16
Jul
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Well, it’s official: I’m now living with my fiancée, and it’s certainly quite interesting. It’s the first time I’ve really had to share my space and my things with another person. Back in college, I lucked out and usually had room mates who stayed to themselves and when I was back at my childhood home, my mother and sisters generally gave me plenty of space. My dear Sondra, on the other hand, likes to spend her free time with me, which is making it harder to find time to get online to update my blog (to say nothing of searching for a new and better job.)
To make things worse, as far as getting blogging done is concerned, I made the mistake of bringing my graphics tablet along with my computer when I came to live with her, which combined with the Adobe Photoshop (c) program on my computer, means that she is almost as interested in using my computer as I am. (Of course, what really bothers me is she is much more talented at drawing on it than I am….) I had to all but wrestle it out of her hands in order to write this post.
But I’m sure we’ll find a way to share; after all, we intend to live together for the rest of our lives. I’ll have to try to get more of my blogging and job hunting done while she is at work. And speaking of blogging, here are some of the good blog entries that made me think this week (when I could steal my laptop back, at least):
How to be a Horrible Credit Card Customer – One of my favorite subjects, using credit cards in a way that benefits you and not the credit card companies, being covered by Broke Grad Student. As long as you don’t charge more than you can afford and pay off the total each month, using a credit card (particularly a reward card) can be a good financial decision. As one of the commenters noted, though, credit card companies charge the retailers a fee when you use your credit cards; some will pass the costs onto you, so you have to watch if the price is higher for credit card purchases (and use cash at those locations).
Credit Card Rules for College Students – Or anyone else, for that matter; Studenomics shares some good advice for using your credits and not letting them use you. His comments are mostly right on, especially always paying off the balance and not spending more than you have available. That said, unless you always spend up to your limit, I would not apply his advice to have a lower credit card limit; you’ll hurt your credit score, both by having less credit available and by using a larger portion of available credit when you do spend money. My advice: keep a higher credit limit, and find some way to limit your spending to a small portion of that limit.
8 Tips to Avoid Scams on Craigslist – Over on Poorer Than You, Stephanie shares some tips to avoid scams on Craigslist. I’ll be the first to admit, sites like Craigslist make me nervous, and articles don’t help. Still, given how popular and useful Craigslist can be, I will likely use it at some time in the future. When I do, I’ll keep her tips in mind (the one on not accepting strange forms of payment especially sticks with me).
What Do You do If You Need a Payday Loan? – An interesting question, one I’ve never had to consider (luckily). On Green Panda Treehouse, you can learn some of the alternatives to taking on payday loans (which are one of the worst things you can do financially, by the way). In general, if you find yourself regularly taking payday loans to meet ends meet, you need to find a way to rearrange your financial life so you don’t need to rely on incredibly high interest, short term loans. One of the suggestions I liked (and probably would not have considered for my own needs) would be to take out a loan via Lending Club; just make sure that you don’t get yourself into more debt, as you’ll defeat the purpose and have to both pay back the Lending Club loan and the new debt.
Use Twitter to Find a Job – Every so often, I read an article that just seems to come out of left field; this one from My Life ROI falls into that category. I’ll be honest, I never would have considered trying to find a job using Twitter as a resource. (In case you haven’t picked up on it from my comments about Stephanie’s post, I’m not the most internet savvy twenty-six year old.) However, now I’m highly intrigued to try it out, and hopefully find something good near my new location. Thanks, MLR, for the heads up!
That’s it for this week; I’ll share more fun links that make me think next week. Enjoy my normal blog entries until then!
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9
Jul
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with one of my old high school friends and having dinner together. It was really enjoyable. We’re both rather quiet people (or at least, we were back in high school), but when we have the chance to get together and let our hair down, we are great fun.
It’s amazing how much has changed for both of us in the eight years since we graduated from high school (it’s also amazing that it’s been eight years already, but that’s for another day). He’s been married for over a year now, is currently a teacher at our old school, and is planning to go to England next year. (I was debating whether to bring up whether he’s planning to have kids, and if so, when, but there was only so much time to discuss everything.)
Sometimes, all it takes is the chance to talk and remember with an old buddy to make you laugh endlessly. (If you’re a very, very good blog audience, I might just share the Berlin story one day; remembering it made us both crack up for at least a solid minute.) And so, quite happily, let’s look at some of the good articles out this week:
What Factors Matter for Your FICO Score? – I’m guessing that this information is unlikely to be new to anyone reading this, but if by chance this is the first you’re hearing of it, there are a total of five factors that determine your Fair Issac Corporation (or FICO) score (more commonly referred to as your credit score). Over on Green Panda Treehouse, you can get much more detail on exactly what factors are involved, and how to improve each one. With luck, you won’t need to do much improving, but just in case…
Erasing Negative Credit History – Now that you know just what your credit history is like, you might see some things you don’t like; so, how can you go about rectifying the situation? In a guest post over on Poorer Than You, Kelly Oakin covers some of the ways you can erase negative marks on your credit report. It’s pretty good advice for anyone with less than ideal credit.
The Three Most Influential Lessons From My Childhood – My friend My Life ROI shares some of the good lessons he learned from his father during his childhood, including the difference between want and need, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and that the best time to start saving, if you haven’t already, is now. Good stuff, good stuff; it kind of reminds me of an old post of mine, in a way 
Also, a happy birthday to Her Life ROI!
How to Guess A Social Security Number and Get Famous on the Internet – If you’re an American citizen, you’re probably (a) aware that your Social Security number has become a personal identifier nearly everywhere you go, (b) identity theft and similar crimes worry many people in our modern age and (c) anything that can panic a crowd will automatically grabs lots of headlines. So, if a group of researchers showed that, at least for a select group of Americans, it was fairly easy to guess their Social Security numbers, you’d expect there to be a cavalcade of media coverage, right? And you’d be correct: as Frank Curmudgeon of Bad Money Advice notes, there’s been a recently released study that shows just that.
But don’t panic yet. As Frank points out, the news isn’t really THAT bad. First, the odds of guessing a number, even in the best case scenario, are less than one in one thousand; not as hard as I would like, but more than enough to slow down the average punk with a Blackberry. Second, even that number only works for small states and people born in recent years; if you were born in a populous state, the odds are much lower, and ditto if you were born before 1989. Third, and least comfortingly, there are plenty of easier ways for no-good-niks to get your person information without relying on a brute force guessing techniques, so this new study will likely have little real world impact. See, no reason to worry!
Honest People Still Do Exist – Finally, a nice reminder from Studenomics: even in the dog-eat-dog, cut-throat, vicious world in which we live, there are still good, honest people. One of them returned Studenomic’s wallet over the weekend, using his address to get directions and personally returning the wallet to his house, before leaving without any kind of reward. I like to believe there’s a very special place in Heaven for people like that.
And on that note, goodbye to you all, my friends! Feel free to invite me to a pizza joint anytime; I’m a hoot!
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2
Jul
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
Greetings, Amateur Financier readers. As I write this, I’m waiting for my sweet adorable fiancee to return from her job. I’m also searching for a job of my own, preferrably one that allows me to continue to stay with my sweet girl and not have to commute too far in order to reach my job.
Unfortunately, the current job environment does not make me very optimistic on that point. I’m expecting to search for quite a while longer before I get anything in my field. Even getting something just to tide me over is likely to be hard; according to my fiancee, even Wal-Mart isn’t hiring, and is actively cutting down the hours of its current employees. This does not bode well for my future prospects job hunting.
On the plus side, being between jobs and looking for other employment does have its advantages. I have more time to read up on what other bloggers are currently writing, as well as having more time to blog myself (well, when I’m not spending time celebrating the completion of my last position with my loving fiancee). Some of the more interesting posts of the last week:
Why Should You Take Personal Finance Advice From Me? – A question I’ve asked more than once, myself, but this time posed by Studenomics. He lists many good reasons for taking personal finance advice from him, but the one that strikes me the most is getting different perspectives. That’s one reason I try to read numerous PF glogs, and always focus on less established bloggers for these Weekly Update posts.
What to Carry in Your Car for Emergencies – Something I’ve been neglecting, making sure that I have proper supplies in my car for unexpected events. Luckily, there’s a discussion of just this circumstance on Green Panda Treehouse, including some suggestions of what to include in your car. There are some pretty good suggestions, both in the main post and the comments.
Negotiation Tips for Beginners – A huge, HUGE number of suggestions on negotiation techniques listed by Baker of Man vs. Debt. I’ll be honest, I tend to have a rather shy personality, so I tend not to be very good in negotiations. Hopefully, learning some of these techniques will make me more effective in sale situations.
Credit Card Rates and Usury: Where is the Line? – My Life ROI provides an interesting history of credit rates and usury (excessive interest charged on borrowed money). It’s kind of interesting to know that at some points in history, like 14th century Europe, any interest rates above 1% were considered usurious. I wonder what the medieval Catholic church would think about the current interest rates offered by credit cards…
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11
Jun
Posted in Thoughtful Thursday by Roger |
If you’re a long time reader of The Amateur Financier, you probably recall that a few weeks ago, I began a new job working at night. While the job itself isn’t too bad (the work is somewhat easy, if rather repetitive, the people are nice, and the pay is good), I’m having a hard time getting back onto a night schedule. It’s been rough trying to get to sleep during the day, especially this past week. Even on the weekend, I am still really off, and haven’t been doing as much with my blog or other work around the house as I probably should.
As a result, I’m feeling a little sleep deprived these past few weeks, but I’m slowly getting into the swing of things. Unfortunately, this temp position is currently slated to end on the 26th, two weeks from now, so just as I’m getting used to being nocturnal, things might change up on me again. Ah, well, at least I will have more time to work on my blog. (Although, I won’t complain if I get another job before too long.)
Luckily, there are bloggers who’ve had more time this week to write than I’ve had. Some of the blog posts that have made me think this week:
Financial Guru Review: David Bach – Proof that personal finance writers DO read their comments, there’s a review of David Bach’s writing over at Green Panda Treehouse that I suggested. The review is pretty much par for the course; Bach has some good suggestions, including focusing on your little daily expenses and automating your financial transactions as much as possible, but he tends to push home ownership regardless of your financial conditions. As long as you remember to consider your own situation and make your own decisions, he gives good advice.
Government Spending out of Control, or is it Something Else? – The Weakonomist makes a very good point regarding government spending and oversight. He noted that in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where much of the the work is being done by contractors, the system of awarding contracts without taking the lowest bids and little oversight leads to less efficient outcomes. Proper auctions and supervision would lead to much more efficient outcomes.
Suze Orman: Not Equipped to Educate Us? – Suze Orman takes a great deal of heat, as a result of being a famous money advisor with a sometimes grating personality. (One of my first posts actually covered another controversy involving her.) Over on My Life ROI, MLR reviews a recent interview she did for the NY Times Magazine, where she said some rather questionable things. My opinion of her advice is still quite high, but she is becoming a little sullied in my mind as a result of many of her off-topic comments.
PF Bloggers Weight Loss Challenge Week 1 Results - In one of those fun, not quite PF related but interesting events that occasionally pops up, Baker at Man vs. Debt has gotten a group of personal finance bloggers together and convinced them to break into teams and try to lose weight. It’s a cool idea, and if my night-time temp job weren’t messing with my schedule and my metabolism, I’d be eager to join. As it stands, I’ll just have to watch, and see if he does this again when I might actually be able to compete.
The Black Box Theory of Stock Market Returns – There is a tendency, when talking about the return you will get from the stock market, to only think of the average return and not consider everything that goes into getting that return. Luckily, Frank Curmudgeon of Bad Money Advice is there to help, providing some insight into the ‘black box’ of the stock market, and talks about some of the factors that influence stock movement. As with much of what he writes, it’s an insightful view most people never consider.
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