I don’t know about you, but I seem to have missed the whole season of Spring.  Winter seemed to last forever this year, with snow coming down even into April. (Punxsutawney Phil must be losing his edge; he predicted an early spring this year.)  Then, after a short, wet spring, we are already getting weather I’d normally associate with the hottest part of the summer.  (It was ninety-four Fahrenheit yesterday (thirty-four Celsius); this wouldn’t be so bad, if I didn’t have to drive across the state of Pennsylvania in an un-air conditioned car.)

Still, it’s not that bad, I suppose.  I have spent most of my time indoors, mostly doing research and working on this very blog, so I haven’t suffered too much from the hot weather.  I suppose I could even consider going out and doing something summer-like, such as going swimming (there’s a pool near my apartment building, which would allow me to swim and spend some time with my fellow residents at the same time).  Of course, that research isn’t going to finish itself, and try as I might, the blog refuses to update itself while I sleep.  (Blogs, unlike dogs, apparently can’t be easily trained.)

Still, there’s plenty that I like about summer: long, bright days; trees and grass vibrant and full of life; young women in scant clothes (hey, I’m still a guy at heart).  There’s a lot to like, and on the subject of things I like, let’s get into the heart of this article: the good blog posts from the past week!  (How’s that for a nice segue?)

Contests and Giveaways

Tim of Faith and Finances is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card, always good for those of us who enjoy our books

On the subject of $25 Amazon Gift Cards, another one is being given away by Money is the Root

Good Yakezie Posts

How to Manage Uncertainty – Don’t from Todd of Todd’s Wanderings – Always good advice on how to handle things outside of our control.

The ABC’s of Debt Reduction from Miss T of Prairie Eco Thrifter – Helpful advice for those of us who have more work to do to become debt free.

What Will Inflation Do to Your Retirement Income from Life and My Finances - A handy reminder of the risk that inflation can hold to your retirement plans, with a handy inflation chart.

Frugal Knives: Babci Loves Shivs from Sandy L. of First Gen American – I’m not sure what to make of this, but if you want to save money on sharp knives, I suppose this is one way…

Staycation Ideas from Crystal on Passive Family Income – Not being much of a traveler myself (for both financial and personal reasons), it’s nice to see some thoughts on how to have a good time close to home.

Don’t Fall for Money Mind Tricks (Part 2) from Barbara Friedberg – Unfortunately, sometimes our worst enemy to managing our money well is our own mind; here’s some advice on keeping your mind focused (the second in a rather interesting series, thus far).

What is the Real Cost of Materialism? from Joe Plemon of Personal Finance By The Book – It’s always good to put your desire to have everything into perspective; otherwise, it’s way too easy to overspend.

Why Do Women Go Out With Deadbeat Losers? from Financial Samurai – I can’t resist putting in an article with this title, but it also has a good point on not settling in life (whether it comes to men or to your job).

Weddings on a Budget from Little House in the Valley – As you are probably well aware, I’m engaged, and as I and my fiancee Sondra are on the hook for essentially all the costs of our wedding, I appreciate any advice on cutting down the costs I can find.

Road Trip Ideas and Tips from Elle of Couple Money – On the subject of Sondra, we’re planning a trip to Niagara Falls later this month (next week, in fact), so again, a rather pertinent post for any fellow travelers.  (As in, other travelers this summer, not Communist comrades, in case the FBI is watching my blog…)

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

My post Can You Make Money and a Difference with Social Impact Bonds? was an Editor’s pick in this week’s Totally Money Blog Carnival.  Whoo Hoo!  That post was also the best article in the Best of Money Carnival this week!  Double Whoo Hoo!

My Frugal Friday – Pet Care article was featured in the Best Money Tips: Frugal Pet Care article on Wisebread.

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As a blogger with a (reasonably) popular blog, I’ve gotten my share, perhaps more than my share, of spam comments.  A quick look at my Akismet statistics shows that I’ve received 40,496 spam comments since starting my blog over two years ago (probably an even 40,500 in the time it’s taken me to write this entry), and they are unlikely to stop.  Virtually all of them were caught by Akismet, and the few that slipped through, I noticed and eliminated rather quickly, to try to keep my blog as spam-free as a high-end dining establishment.

But even with all this effort, I’m all but certain that a few pieces of spam have managed to sneak through.  If you are a spammer hoping to get a comment up on my blog and not having me instantly delete it, though, here are a few pieces of advice on making your comments less likely to be instantly deleted:

• Don’t use a product or service as your username: Before we even get into the comments proper, here’s something I use as an instant test for spam: if your username is something like ‘Cheap waterbeds’ or ‘benaughtyfree’ (yes, I’ve actually gotten a comment using this username, and my spam filter didn’t red flag it), your comment is instant spam fodder.  Is it so hard to use a normal name like John or Kelly (or the name of your own blog) when writing a comment?
• Make it relevant to the article in question: If I had a dollar for every comment I’ve deleted that said something like ‘Yes, I completely agree’ (or its reciprocal, ‘No, I have to disagree’) without any reference to the content of the article (aka, why you agree or disagree), I would probably have tripled my income from this blog.  If your comment could be used on any blog article without any edits, I’m assuming the reason is because it IS used on dozens of different blogs, but it won’t stay up on mine.
• Make me think: If you really want to ensure that I keep your comment up on my blog, then make me think with your comment.  It doesn’t have to be exceptionally deep or profound, but if I pause for even a moment and wonder what to say in response, I’m that much more likely to leave it up and write that response.

So, there you have it; use a good name and write a relevant, thought-provoking comment (also known as a ‘legitimate comment’), and I’ll leave your comment up.  Now that that’s all straightened out, let’s get to the main event: the great articles from the last week!

Contests and Giveaways

There is a Shutterfly Photobook Giveaway on The ¢entsible Life until June 1st.  While we’re on the subject, there is a MASSIVE giveaway of baby supplies involving The ¢entsible Life and numerous other blogs that ends on May 31st.

Life and My Finances is giving away a $100 Amazon Gift Card (enter until May 31st) to celebrate the release of his new e-Book.

Eric of Narrow Bridge Finance is celebrating breaking 200,000 in his Alexa rankings by giving away two sets of business cards for sharing your favorite frugal tip.

The Wellheeled Blog is giving away a $25 gift card for the Emma Stine Jewelry Store to one lucky reader.

Good Yakezie Posts

One Angry Customer and One Brilliant Business Plan by Darwin (Posted on Yakezie.com)

Ethical Investing 101 from Prairie EcoThrifter

Wow…Debt Really Is a Motivator from First Gen American

Power Saving Technology That Helps You Save Money on Energy from Sustainable Personal Finance

The Importance of Meeting New People from The Financial Blogger

What is an IPO? from Faith and Finance

The Three Methods of Finance, When Enough is Enough from Early Retirement Extreme

14 “Dubious” Financial Moves It’s Ok to Do.  (Really!) from Len Penzo

An Unemployment Epidemic for College Grads from Financial Samurai

Should You Only Own a Single Target Retirement Fund? from Money Help For Christians

Where the Amateur Financier was Featured

The Rock and Roll Accountant (great blog name) included my post on Finding the Right Investment Firm in his latest round-up It was also included in the Integrated Finance Carnival for May 22.  (The Integrated Finance Carnival also included my post on What Happens Now That America’s Hit the Debt Ceiling; sorry for the double submission)

My post looking at the Money Aspects of (Media) Piracy was included in Invest It Wisely’s Weekend Reading: Power & Sex Edition

My Frugal Friday – Pet Care post was included in the 20th Totally Money Blog Carnival, which also poses a really interesting ethical question.

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Well, it’s finally here: my finals are over, my projects are turned in, my presentation on my research this year has been given (just in case you’re curious, my research is off to a pretty bumpy start, although the presentation went quite well); in short, my first academic year as a graduate student has now come to a close!  So, time to take a long awaited trip around the world, living a free and adventurous life, right?

Not exactly.  You see, summer is considered the ideal time for graduate students to get caught up on their research, with such petty distractions as ‘taking classes’ and ‘teaching undergrads’ out of the way.  As such, I’m almost going to be busier in the summer than I have been for much of the semester, when there was the tacit understanding that the ‘student’ part of my grad student responsibilities had to take the front seat when it came to my time management.

Still, it’s not a complete horror show; while I might have to put in ten hour days sometimes, I do have surprising flexibility in WHEN those hours fall.  I can sleep in until noon, or come in early and leave by mid afternoon.  When I get the work done is less of a concern than whether I get the work done.  It also means that I have quite a bit of flexibility; while I’m waiting for my bacteria to do their thing (or waiting for any number of tests or procedures that I’m running to finish), I can be writing blog articles, checking my email, or catching up on some of the other great blog articles out there.  While we’re on the subject (and as I research what I need to do next to keep my experiment rolling), feel free to check out some of these great blog entries from around the web:

Good Yakezie Posts

Don’t Quit Your Day Job by Buck Inspire (posted on Yakezie.com)

How to Get the Most Money Out of Your Old Textbooks from Life and My Finances (One of my favorite subjects as a student who just ended a semester)

Where Did My Tax Dollars Go? from Faith and Finance (Always a question that gets asked around this time of year)

A Wii is NOT an Investment from Retire By 40 (This misuse of the word ‘invest’ is a big pet peeve of mine)

Creating Extremely Valuable Connections in Life from The Financial Blogger

20 Money and Life Lessons From Mom from Barbara Friedberg (Happy (Belated) Mother’s Day to all the moms reading, while we’re at it)

If the Royals Don’t Need a Prenuptial Agreement, Do You? from Bucksome Boomer (Not a question I thought I would ever hear…but a good one to consider)

Developing an Income Stream with Affiliate Programs from Couple Money (Something I’ve been trying, with limited success; it’s always nice to get some fresh perspective)

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mutual Funds, Index Funds, and ETFs from Money Help For Christians (A decent example of truth in advertising, which is always a nice thing to see)

How to Get the Most From Your Savings Accounts from Mrs. Not Made of Money (always nice to get a refresher on the basics)

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

My post on Preparing for a Test At the Last Minute was included in a thought-provoking round-up from Kevin of Invest It Wisely and in the Totally Money Blog Carnival #19.

My post on Choosing the Right Investment Firm was included in the Integrated Finance Carnival.

Last, but not least: Apparently, there is at least one economics class where The Amateur Financier is an acceptable source, at least when the subject is marijuana legalization.  So…I’ve got that going for me.

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You might remember that nearly two months ago, I decided to try out only spending cash for my purchases for at least a month, just to see how well I could do (and how much money I could save).  Since the month long period will come to an end at the end of this week (how’s that for convenient?), I figured now would be as good a time as any to review how I’m doing on going cash-only.  So, here we go:

The Good: Well, I am spending less money.  I’ve cut back on the food I buy at the supermarket and any spending that I do online significantly.  (I’m nearly down to zero spending online, although the occasional magazine renewal or book purchase sneaks in.)  Combined with increased attempts to pay off my current credit bills, and my level of credit card debt has gone down significantly since I started trying to cut down my spending.

The Bad: I haven’t cut down my spending nearly as much as I would like.  There are still areas where I use credit cards rather than cash (when I pump gas, for one), and numerous times when I’ve been caught short on cash, I’ve whipped out the plastic rather doing the more financially frugal thing and going without until I had the money on hand and could afford to pay for it that way.

The Ugly: I’m still spending more each month than I am taking in (especially now that my boost in alternative income last month due to long-term advertising arrangements has concluded).  I’ve managed to pay off a substantial amount of the credit card debt with student loans, but (a) that’s only swapping one type of debt for another, (b) it doesn’t even do that if I end up simply adding on more credit card debt in its place, and (c) as the rappers say, ‘Mo’ Debt, Mo’ Problems’.  (Alright, they normally say, ‘Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems’, but if more of them had $9000+ in credit card debt they were trying to clear on an $1100 monthly income, you can bet there would be more songs denouncing Visa and American Express.)

All of this is to say, I’ve got my work cut out for me if I hope to really go cash only, to say nothing of paying off all this credit card debt.  I’m sure that, if I put my nose to the grindstone, I can get everything paid off, but it’s going to take some time and some effort to reach that point.

Luckily, there’s plenty of encouragement out there, if you know where to look.  May I suggest starting with some of the great post in the Yakezie Network?  Here’s just a small sampling:

Good Yakezie Posts

6 Ways to Change Your Spending Habits from Prairie Eco Thrifter

Teaching Your Kids About Managing Money from Passive Family Income

16 Driving Tips to Improve Gas Mileage from Sustainable Personal Finance

Review: A Random Walk Down Wall Street from The College Investor

How Much Money Do You Need to Start Your Own Business? from Life and My Finances

How to Figure Out How Much Life Insurance You Need from Free From Broke

How to Pay off $35,000 in Credit Card Debt In One Month from Financial Samurai

What’s My Wedding Budget?  I Have No Idea from Well-Heeled Blog

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

My Frugal Friday – Honeymoons post was featured in the Totally Money Carnival #18

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Wow, time flies so fast, it must be riding in a supersonic jet.  It’s amazing how quickly the time seems to go by.  Just four weeks from now, I will be taking my last final of the semester, and thus be officially one year away from graduating from graduate school and having my Master’s degree.  Then I shall be a master (of biochemistry, I suppose; hey, you can’t become the master of the universe overnight).

I will be doing my best to keep my blog fully updated and keep participating in all my social groups, in real life and online.  The Yakezie, for example are running their writing contest soon, and I’ve already pledged to donate (as you can too, in case you were wondering).

But as you might guess, it does tend to mean that I don’t get to spend as much time reading and commenting on other great blogs as I would like (although, with how many great blogs there are out there, I would need several copies of myself to keep up, it seems).  Still, I do get around to reading some blogs, which brings us to a few of the best posts of the past week:

Good Yakezie Posts

Are Credit Unions as Good as Banks? by The College Investor

Lost Wallet: What to Do Before It’s Gone by Live Real, Now

Today Babci Turns 78 by Sandy L (the First Gen American)  (Happy (Belated) Birthday, Babci!)

Passive Income: The Path to Extreme Wealth by Derek of Passive Family Income

What is Your Debt Costing You? by Joe Plemon of Personal Finance by the Book

Costs to Remember When Looking into a New House on My Journey to Millions

Claiming Canceled Debt as Income on Little House in the Valley

5 Tips on Selecting a Financial Planner on Couple Money

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

The Carnival of Wealth #33 on Personal Dividends featured my post on (Almost) Last Minute Tax Tips

The Totally Money Blog Carnival #13 on Thousandaire included that same post (what can I say, it was pretty popular)

Sandy L., who remains the First Gen American, included my post on The Future of Entertainment (and expressed an interest in fanfiction) in her weekly Favorites post

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Merry Groundhog Day, everyone!  Hopefully, you’re safe and warm at home, rather than forced to confront the massive, continent sized storm moving across the US.  Here’s also hoping that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, so we can get some warm weather here soon!

While groundhogs are surprisingly good at predicting the weather, when it comes to money, you’re best served by ignoring them.  In my home state of Pennsylvania, for example, the state lottery system uses Gus, the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, as their mascot.  While the commercials are cute and entertaining, you shouldn’t take money advice from small furry animals, particularly when they recommend gambling.  If you want to must gamble, do so responsibly, using only money you can afford to lose; regardless of what the groundhogs might tell you, there’s no such thing as a sure bet.

Now, onward with the good posts from this past week, as well as the upcoming contests:

Contests and Giveaways

The Canadian Finance Blog is celebrating its second anniversary by giving away several books, software packages, and CDs.  Fill out an entry form for the chance to win.

Sweating The Big Stuff provides an opportunity to win H&R Block at Home software, just in time for tax season.  I used H&R Block software last year, for both me and my fiancee, and it was pretty straightforward.

Melissa of Mom’s Plan provides the links to several giveaways for kids, as well as portable food products from GoPicnic.  She seems to run quite a few of these giveaways, so keeping an eye on her blog would be a good idea for those of you who like to enter for the chance to win.

Good Yakezie Posts

Work is a Curse and It’s Adam’s Fault…Or Is It? – An interesting Biblical take from Joe Plemon about whether part of  Adam’s punishment for tasting the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil was to be forced to work.  Hopefully, most of you consider your work as meaningful, rather than a punishment.

Are Women Naturally More Trustworthy Than Men? – Financial Samurai provides several advantages that women have in negotiations compared to us menfolk.  I’m not sure that ALL women are more trustworthy than ALL men (that Pope fellow seems pretty honest), but as general populations, I’d have to agree and give women the edge.

Calculating the Interest on a Payday Loan – As if you needed more reasons to avoid payday loans, Evan of My Journey to Millions calculates the interest rates charged by some of them at 3685%.  If you can possibly avoid it (and bank overdraft fees, which also have ludicrous repayment amounts), do so; your wallet will thank you.

Youngandthrifty’s Mint.com Review – Pretty much exactly what the title states, a review of Mint.com from Youngandthrifty (particularly, the recent expansions north, into Canadian personal finance institutions).  The grade is a bit mixed, but overall seems to jive with my Mint experiences.

7 Tips for Creating Wealth – Ryan of Planting Dollars shares seven simple tips to create wealth.  None should be very surprising if you’ve done much personal finance reading, but it’s always nice to hear good advice once again.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

Miss Thrifty breaks up the 91st Carnival of Money Stories by interlacing the entries (including my post on Keeping Your Emergency Fund Handy) with a story from Guy de Maupassant.  It’s a really good story, although a bit on the sad side.

The fourth Totally Money Blog Carnival was kind enough to include my post about Taco Bell’s ‘meat’.  The ‘motivational’ posters included always make me laugh.

That same post was also included in Mrs. Accountability’s post on 4 Ways to Use Up Vegetables So You Don’t Waste Food, which does have some pretty interesting suggestions (I would not have thought of pizza, but I’m generally a cheese and pepperoni guy, anyway).

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Well, it’s time to make good on my promise; you provided advice to help me improve my blog, and as promised, I’m going to be giving out a few magazine subscriptions.  *Starts a drumroll*  The winners (who were contacted by email, in addition to seeing themselves listed here) are:

• Kevin of Invest It Wisely,
• The Financial Samurai, and
• Kay Lynn of Bucksome Boomer

Thanks to everyone who entered (that is, left me comments on how to boost my blog’s popularity and money-earning potential); all the help was greatly appreciated, and I hope that you enjoy your magazine subscriptions!

With all the contest details out of the way, it’s time for the real fun: the round-up!  As always, let’s see what other contests are currently ongoing:

Contests and Giveaways

Jayson, of Realized Returns, is giving away a Kindle for his ‘Read My Drivel, Win a Kindle’ contest.  My Future-Mother-In-Law got one for Christmas and just loves it; I’d be afraid I’d end up spending even more on books (or in this case, book downloads) than I do right now.  Still, very, very generous.

Kevin of Invest It Wisely is still giving away a copy of We Have Met The Enemy, which has a nice self control theme.  Since self-control underlies most issues in personal finance (as well as health, education, relationships…), it definitely sounds like a good read.

Kay Lynn, the Bucksome Boomer, clued me in on a new site, Lucky RT , from J. Money of Budgets are Sexy that can help you find all the giveaways occurring on Twitter.

The Yakezie, a great group as always, are giving away a copy of The Millionaire Next Door, widely touted as one of the most influential books in the personal finance realm.  Subscribe to a few feeds, do a few tweets (by Saturday), and you could win a copy.  I could also mention the Yakezie Scholarship and its Saturday submission deadline here, but as they are already overwhelmed with entrants…

Young and Thrifty reviews and gives away the book Smarter Than the Street, an interesting (although, just to judge from her summary, likely infuriating to me) take on how to out invest Wall Street.

Credit Cards Canada is (still) hosting a guest blogging contest with a January 31st deadline; with time starting to wind down, I suppose I need to get a move on.

Good Yakezie Posts

3 Easy Financial Resolutions Every Gen Y Should Follow – I know, I know, you’re probably all resolution-ed out by now, but Young and Thrifty provides a few simple suggestions to members of Generation Y (that is, us children of the eighties and nineties) on how to improve our financial situation this year, quickly and easily.

Resolutionize Your Finances: Savings – While we’re pushing resolutions on you, check out the Bucksome Boomer’s guide to the several different types of accounts you should consider.  It’s always good to have layers of money to fall back on in a pinch.

Why I Pay Off ‘Good’ Debt – Red of the Girl with the Red Balloon blog shares her motivation for paying off her student loans, even if they are ‘good’ debt.  She raises some good points about how constricting even moderate, ‘good’ debt can be on your life and psyche.

Nature Vs. Nurture: How Important Are Parents In Determining Financial Success? – An interesting discussion, brought up by the Financial Samurai.  Personally, I think it’s hard to know what percent of your success to attribute to your genes, to your upbringing, to your own effort, and to sheer dumb luck; it’s likely a different mix for every one.

Clean Your Shoes With a Banana Skin – Some posts I feel the need to include just because of the title.  Luckily, this post from Miss Thrifty also includes some interesting (and creative) ways to put your used banana skins to good use.

How Laziness Helped My Finances – In this case, by not bothering to change her contribution levels, WellHeeled is on track to max out her 401(k) contributions by July.  When it prevents you from doing something detrimental, laziness can actually be a virtue.

Going Carless: Does It Make Sense? – Kevin of Invest It Wisely is considering various options as his lease nears its end.  It’s an interesting look at the many options available, transportation-wise.

Gen Y Comparison-Who Do You Look More Like? – An interesting comparison for people of my generation from Kevin of 20s Money.  I resemble A more, although I have a few B traits I’m still trying to work out of my system.

Paid What You Are WORTH? – The Millionaire Nure blog shares a few points on why salaries can vary so much between professions (that Superstar effect at work), and how you can maximize your worth.

Earn A Living Doing What You Love – Flexo shares some of his thoughts on how to make money doing what you love (in his case, blogging) and some of the psychological barriers that stopped him from trying to do so earlier.  As a would-be semi-pro blogger, it definitely provides some insight on the attitude I need to take.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured

The 21st Carnival of Wealth hosted on Personal Dividends included my post on 50 Cent, Penny Stocks, and Twitter.  That’s not the only place, though; it was also the best post (whoo-hoo!) on the Best of Money Carnival and included in the Totally Money Blog Carnival #2.   Something about celebrities always makes for a good story.

On the subject of the Totally Money Blog Carnival, I participated in the Inaugural Edition, as well, and think I forgot to mention it here.  It included my thoughts on keeping up with your resolutions.    This post also happened to be featured in 20th Carnival of Wealth; somehow, I’ve really managed to fall behind with listing these blog carnivals.

Mrs. Accountability enjoyed (well, appreciated is probably a better word) my tale of woe in Roger’s Bogus Journey.  At least something good came of it, I suppose.

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Well, it’s been an interesting week, automotively speaking.  Let’s start with the bad news: after my less than fun journey to my fiancée’s house last Friday, I took my car in to get fixed and ended up spending over $300 in order to get my headlights fixed.  This has most definitely put a bit of a crimp on my already tight finances, and when you’re only making about $1100 a month, spending nearly a third of your earnings just to allow you to use your car at night (or during another snow storm) again is a bit rough.

The good news, though, is that the car is fixed, running fine, and while $300 is pretty expensive, compared to the cost of buying a whole new car (or even doing major repairs), it’s still a pretty good bargain.  Plus, besides inspiring my post on Monday, this whole incident also led to a few readers contacting me and expressing their sympathies, and in one case, sharing a list of the 20 best blogs for amateur mechanics (an area where I could definitely use some more skills, I don’t mind telling you).

All in all, not nearly as bad as it might have been.  I do hope this is the last trouble I have with my car for a while, though; the costs of keeping it running do add up pretty quickly.  Now, onto the good posts from this past week:

Contests and Giveaways

Credit Cards Canada is hosting a guest blogging contest (of all things), where the winner has the opportunity to win $1000 (among other prizes).  I’m a brave enough blogger to say that such a windfall would be the most impressive payout I’d have gotten from blogging up to this point, and so I’m definitely going to enter myself by the January 31st deadline.

The Silicon Valley Blogger shares some Online Contests Galore; a set of three individual contests I won’t bother to link to individually.  (Why repeat work that’s already been done?)  For two of them, you have until the end of the month, although one ends on Monday…

Melissa of Mom’s Plans provides a review and giveaway opportunity for the Pear Budget budgeting system.  While I personally don’t share her skepticism of Mint.com and other ‘automated’ budgeting systems, I understand why people do, and Pear Budget sounds like a pretty handy alternative.

Life and My Finances is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card by the end of this month.  If you, like me, seem to spend more on books or other media than almost anything else, this would definitely be a nice little bonus.

The College Investor is giving away a copy of TurboTax 2011 Deluxe Edition, but you’re going to need to move fast; the contest ends at 11:59 pm on Friday!

Kevin of Invest It Wisely talks about falling prey to our temptations (as we sometimes do) and offers a copy of We Have Met The Enemy, a book about self control, to one lucky reader.  On that subject, I won one of his recent giveaways, and received a copy of ‘How to Profit in Gold’ yesterday; just a note that yes, people do actually win these contests!

Don’t forget that I’m running my own contest, and you still have time to win (although, not too much time, so don’t dawdle!)

Good Yakezie Posts

The Golden Voice Homeless Man Who Never Lost Hope – One of the first major news stories of the year, and easily one of the most inspiring, is the story of Ted Williams.  As the Financial Samurai relays on Yakezie.com, it is an inspiring and hopeful story (and hopefully Ted manages to make it through rehab with his optimism intact.)

Can Rich People Get Into Heaven? – Joe Plemon asks one of the eternal questions, about the link between wealth and rewards in the afterlife.  Personally, I agree with him (and Jesus, for that matter), that the wealthy, who are given much, have much that is expected of them to be considered worthy.

Helping One Person at a Time with Micro-Giving Network Love Drop – Evan, of My Journey to Millions writes about a truly amazing idea, and encourages others to participate.  I’m certainly going to do my part, to the best of my ability, and I hope others follow suit.

Why I’m Happy with a $5000 Car Repair Bill – Especially pertinent to me given my current situation, it does help to put the expenses of keeping my car running into perspective.  Thanks for the reminder of why I prefer (relatively) small repair bills to buying a new car, Barbara Friedberg!

10 Free Ways to Improve Your Mood – It’s always nice to get a healthy boost of positive energy in your life, and if you can do it without eating into your financial reserves, all the better.  Kay Lynn (the Bucksome Boomer, an excellent name, by the way) shares some of the ways she boost her own mood, most of which should help you, as well.

P.S. Happy birthday, Mom, if you happen read this (I know you’re not that big a computer person).  And for those who think this round up was too short (owing in part to me getting ready to see said mother), don’t worry, I’ll do an extra long round-up as soon as I am able to make up for it!

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Well, it’s official: I’m sick.  I probably shouldn’t be too surprised; Sondra was sick most of the week after Christmas (with me serving as designated caretaker/tea maker) and when she was feeling better, I went out to see my mother and sisters, who were just getting over their own illness from visiting Germany.  The fact that I’ve managed to go this long without feeling very ill myself is a testament to either my strong constitution or my refusal to admit when I’m ill (I am a guy after all, and can be quite stubborn at times).

Unfortunately, coming as it does, it’s going to be a serious problem.  Not only am I trying to make a highly productive new start on this very blog, but I’m also resuming my research at grad school.  Hopefully, my illness doesn’t spread to any of the bacteria.  (Side note: I’m attempting to get some E. coli bacteria to produce a mutated protein, incidentally giving them immunity to a particular antibiotic.  Sondra thinks this is somehow ‘weird’; crazy, I know, but what are you going to do?)

With any luck, I should be able to shake the last vestiges of this illness by the weekend (when I will venture out of my lab room, visit my fiancée, and be *Gasp* social).  Until then, I’m trying my best to keep up with everyone’s great posts and what have you, and hope that you can all bear with me.  Here’s hoping the rest of 2011 turns out to be better for me (and that I stop writing ’2010′ when dating my petri dishes, but that’s another story).

Contests and Giveaways

Penny Saver over at The Saved Quarter is giving away quite a collection of books, gift cards, and money to celebrate the first anniversary of The Saved Quarter (and quite a good year it had, at that).  It looks like quite a few people from the Yakezie network contributed swag, so you better get while the getting is good before the contest expires on the eighth.

Kevin of Invest It Wisely reviews the book Early Retirement Extreme (by Jacob Lund Fisker of, yes, Early Retirement Extreme) and offers a copy of the book to readers who share their early retirement dreams by the end of next week.

On the subject of Kevin and Invest It Wisely, I won a copy of “How to Profit in Gold” via his review and giveaway shortly before Christmas.  Just a note of thanks to Kevin for his generosity, and to remind everyone that yes, there are people who win these contests and get all kinds of free swag.

The BlogHer family of blogs is working together with the Kroger family of stores to give away TWENTY FIVE $25 gift cards.  Alas, I don’t have any Kroger stores near me, but hopefully some of readers are more conveniently located.  (Thanks to Mrs. Accountability for cluing me in.)

Melissa of Mom’s Plan is still giving away a $25 Chili’s Gift card until the tenth, so if you want to enter, you definitely need to hurry.  (And be very lucky; as of this writing, there are nearly 500 entries, and I still need to enter, myself, so you’ll definitely need some luck.)

Because we all like money, Len Penzo is offering $100 of it to a randomly selected reader; you can bump up your chances to win by subscribing to his feed, following him on Twitter, and ‘Liking’ him on Facebook.  (Is it just me, is the ‘Like’ Function on Facebook now more about sucking up to people in hopes that they give you stuff than about, crazy thought, actually enjoying them and what they have to say?)

Then there’s this crazy guy, trying to get people to help him improve his blog, and offering (of all odd things) personal finance magazine subscriptions to the winners.  If you want to take five, ten minutes to drop him a few suggestions, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.  (Hint: the ‘he’ is me. )

As always, if I’ve missed any other contests or giveaways that people are currently holding, drop a line and let me know

Good Yakezie Posts

Top Four Things to Buy After Christmas and New Year’s – Now that the holiday rush is over and the new year has started, there are some goods that stores want off their shelves, and are pricing them to move.  Over on Young and Thrifty, you can see a few possibilities; personally, I want to load up on Christmas cards and wrapping paper while the getting is good.

2011 Goals and Plans – Being the week that started the New Year, it’s not surprising that many of the blog posts last week dealt with resolutions (Hey, I did so myself.)  Kay Lynn of the Bucksome Boomer has an especially impressive set of resolutions, and here’s hoping she accomplishes them!

Financial Samurai Goals and Resolutions for 2011 – Another good example, here the Financial Samurai has set out some truly impressive goals for this coming year.  ($100,000 a month for Yakezie members?  If I get 1% of that, I’ll have met my goal.)  Good luck meeting your goals, Sam, and I’ll do my best to keep up with you for the ride!

Foolproof System for New Year’s Resolutions – Sounds too perfect to be true, right?  Well, it kind of is; as Barbara Friedberg shares, she doesn’t make resolutions, but sets goals throughout the year.  Not a bad plan for keeping yourself motivated.

What is a W-4?  Updating My W-4 – Evan of My Journey to Millions provides some advice on filling out one of the (seemingly endless) forms required by the IRS.  If anything major has changed in your life in the past year, it’s probably time to see if you need to update this form to keep the government from keeping too much of your money until you get next year’s tax refund.

Rethinking Our Family Gift Exchange – Joe Plemon (Personal Finance By The Book) raises some interesting thoughts about eliminating gift exchanges between adults in his family for Christmas, and ways to show appreciation for each other throughout the year.  Given that my family’s gift giving has been reduced to a Secret Santa based gift card exchange, I might have to mention something like this at the next family picnic.

We May Have a New Tradition: Opening Gifts After Christmas – I’ll admit, when I first read the title, I assumed that the plan was to buy gifts during the after-Christmas sales and give them out at a later time (say, on New Year’s Eve, before the kids go to bed and Mom and Dad stay up to midnight).  But Melissa of Mom’s Plan actually ended up stretching the Christmas gift giving over several days, and she and her husband seem to like the idea of stretching gift giving for a week afterwards.  Not a bad plan.

How A Tape Measure Saved Us $1000 – A very interesting story from Mysti of Digging Out From Our Mess.  A little restraint can be a wonderful boost to your money situation.  Kudos for resisting the siren call of a remade kitchen!

How I Will Earn $1000 By Losing Weight – I’ll admit, I honestly don’t know what to make of this, but if there is a website that will quintuple your money for losing weight, I’d be very tempted.  I’m not quite ready to make the leap with Jesse of PF Firewall, but if I can keep up my own resolution to make it to the gym twice a week, it raises some interesting possibilities…

Personal Finance Things to Do Before Age 50 – While I’ve got a ways to go before I hit the big five-oh, many of the suggestions made on Consumer Boomer aren’t bad to take a look at, even for us whippersnappers.  With the start of a new year, you’re likely in a ‘seeing where I stand’ mind frame anyway, so you may as well double-check your finances to make sure you’re on your way to meet your goals.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Mentioned

Kevin of Invest It Wisely included my post Should I Start Another Blog (or More)? in his Happy New Year round up.  Glad to keep thinking as you welcomed in 2011.

Here’s hoping everyone’s had a better start to the New Year than me, and that if you have taken ill, that you recover soon!

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Ah, it’s that magical time after Christmas, when most people are still basking in the joy and fellowship of the Christmas holiday, as well as making resolutions and other plans to ring in a new year full of promise and hope.  I enjoy this time of year, even more than the run up to Christmas (which tends to get a little…hectic, to say the least).  I hope everyone else is enjoying this time, and not getting themselves too overworked planning for the New Year!

This week, given that Christmas has just passed us by, I thought I would gather up all the links I could related to Christmas that were posted by my fellow Yakezie members.  But first…just in case you didn’t get enough Christmas presents this past week, here are a few contests that are still ongoing:

Contests and Giveaways

While not technically a contest, Free From Broke provides links to a few discounts if you try a new service called eBillme

And Garbage Filter is still offering to give away the book Fire Sale, with entries closing at the end of the month (that is, tomorrow); there aren’t too many entrants, so you have a good chance to win (if I don’t, that is).

There’s a Chili’s Gift Card Review and Giveaway over at Mom’s Plans, which already has nearly three hundred comments, so good luck on that one, although you do have until January 10th to enter.

Invest It Wisely is giving away the book How to Profit in Gold, assuming you enter the giveaway before 2011 (that is, by tomorrow).  I do love my books, so I’ll be sure to enter for the chance to win.

Kelly of The Centsible Life is promoting an app called SWAGG, and downloading it could give you a chance to win a $100 shopping credit.  The deadline for entry is, yup, the 31st, so you need to be quick.

A Very Yakezie Christmas

There are just so many Yakezie members with so many different takes on the holidays that I can’t do my normal summations of each without making this round up 10,000 words long.  So, I’m going to try to cut things down substantially.  Some of the more unique articles included  One Money Design sharing a modern take on the Christmas story, the Financial Samurai suggesting that you stay awake longer to add more time to your day (great for time management, not so great for your mental and physical health), and Joe Plemon explaining Why the Magi were Wise Gift Givers AND maintaining that Jesus is statistically the only man who could ever be the Messiah (definitely not your normal Christmas post, but perfect for us numbers wonks).  Dr. Dean of the Millionaire Nurse Blog writes a very touching and poignant post about the power of those who heal us to touch our lives, wishing them all a Merry Christmas, while Barbara Friedberg shares some free government resources that look pretty interesting.  Little House in the Valley shares a ‘Night Before Christmas’ Parody (a pretty witty one, too), Punch Debt in the Face gives a pretty funny cartoon to celebrate the season as does Joe Taxpayer, and Jesse Michelson of PF Firewall provides Three Ways to Bring the Magic of Christmas Back (including getting Norad involved).  Faithful with a Few shares the Christmas story in two parts, first the preparation for Jesus and then His arrival, while Money Reasons shares a cute story of his daughter’s desire to visit Santa’s Workshop.

Looking closer at some people’s Christmas traditions, Kay Lynn, the Bucksome Boomer, shares some of her favorite ornaments on the Christmas tree, and why they have sentimental value (and did a short and sweet post on Christmas itself), Early Retirement Extreme shares a Christmas tradition in his house of saving wrapping paper and bows, and Forest of the Frugal Zeitgeist shares some unusual Christmas traditions from around the world (always fun to see how different cultures approach the holidays) and shares some unique family Christmas traditions.

Plenty of Yakezie members (such as myself) opted for a simple ‘Merry Christmas post, including The Wealth Artisan (who also shared part of the Biblical Christmas Story), Craig of Money Help For Christians, Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff (on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), Kris of Everyday Tips and Thoughts (another Christmas Eve post, with a following Christmas Post), a ‘Merry Christmas to One and All from Mr. Money of Smart on Money, and Nicole of Rainy Day Saver wishes us a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to boot.  But that’s not all; B.B. of Beating Broke, Tom Drake of the Canadian Finance Blog, Ryan of Planting Dollars, and WellHeeled of the Well Heeled Blog all wished their readers a Happy Holiday season.

Some bloggers mixed business and pleasure, wishing a Merry Christmas to their readers while also doing a round-up (you have to admire their ability to multitask), including Mrs. Not Made of Money, Kelly of the Centsible Life, Beating the Index, Kevin of Invest It Wisely (who also shares a few videos to help us get into a Christmasy mood), and Young and Thrifty.  Kevin of 20s Money mixes holiday well wishing with hints of changes to come next year, while the Investor at Monevator shares his reading list from this past year and some good recent links.

Whew, that’s quite a lot, especially given how tightly I packed some of those links.  If I missed any Christmas themed Yakezie posts, please let me know; I went through every Yakezie post for Christmas Eve and Christmas on my RSS feed reader, so if I missed you, it means I didn’t know you were part of the Yakezie, and I’d like to add you so I can promote you in the future.

Here’s hoping everyone had a Merry Christmas (or Happy Solstice, or Reflective Ramadan, or Exceptionally Early Hanukkah, or a Festive Festivus, or whatever you did special (if anything) this past month), and will have a great New Year!

(P.S. If you want to get me a (belated) Christmas present, I’d appreciate the name of a good, inexpensive blog tech support person.  I need to fix my trackback system, and could use some other help that being technically disinclined, I can’t do myself without many hours of reading and studying.  Thanks in advance, and once again, Happy Holidays!)

• Best of the Rest: Thank You Edition
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Argh!  (I figured that was an appropriate display of frustration, as it’s nearly time for all the Christmas specials to start airing…or did they air already?  I’m so far behind.)  In the spirit of trying to get back into a more solid blogging habit, now that I’ve got schoolwork out of the way (for now, anyway).

So, although there’s a ‘weekly’ up there in the title to this blog post, it’s going to be more of a ‘the last three weeks or so’ type of roundup.   I missed quite a lot in my time spent studying, and it’s going to take me a little while to get caught back up.  Trust me when I say that there are dozens of blogs I’m trying to get caught up on, all of which are all but overflowing with great content.  Keep up the good work, everyone!  (But if you feel like slowing down for a bit, maybe posting one or two less entries each week, I promise I won’t mind.)

Contests and Giveaways

There is a Skinny Christmas Giveaway being hosted over on Invest It Wisely.  You have a chance to win either physical or digital copies of three ‘Skinny On’ books, covering real estate, credit cards, and creativity.  All three look pretty interesting, and if you’re like me, you’ll find it hard to look a gift book in the mouth.

Also courtesy of Invest It Wisely, there’s the opportunity to win Seth Ramit’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich.  With all the books that are being given away, I might not have to buy books again for a whole, oh, three or four weeks!

Kay Lynn, the Bucksome Boomer, has been on a giveaway spree this whole month it seems.  She wrapped up several concurrent giveaways earlier this week (which, sadly, I was unable to enter or promote the heck out of), and has already begun a new giveaway for CSN stores.  The woman is a machine, a machine I tell you!  (Just kidding, my dear; I am impressed at everything you’ve been able to accomplish, though)

A rare double whammy: Both Enemy of Debt and Budgets are Sexy are working together to give away a total of $400 in prize money.  Definitely a pretty sweet deal right there.

On Garbage Filter (a blog I’ll admit I hadn’t heard about until now), there’s yet another book giveaway.  (We bloggers do like our books…)  You have a chance to win Fire Sale, a book on how to buy foreclosures.  (You definitely have plenty of opportunities in this market.)

Good Yakezie Posts

The Skinny on Creativity: A Book Review – Don’t know if it’s worth entering Invest It Wisely’s rather massive book giveaway up there?  Then check out his review of the latest book in the series he’s giving away, and see if it’s worth a look.  (Hint: It definitely is.)

Sustainable Everything-Remodel Your Life – Sustainability is a word you probably have heard tossed around quite a bit lately.  If you’d like a better idea of what it is, and more importantly, how you can make your life more sustainable, be sure to check out this article on Christian Common Cents to get a better handle on it.

7 Great Qualities Shared by the Rich and Successful – Ever wonder what makes the rich, successful, widely admired people different from those who aren’t?  This guest post on Smarter Spend gives you a pretty good overview, from creativity to perseverance.  Master all these traits, and you have a good chance of becoming rich, yourself.

Unemployment Checks are the Best Form of Economic Stimulus – Never one to back down from a fight, Financial Samurai wades right into the waters of unemployment compensation, a rather touchy subject (to say the least) right now.  I think he makes some good points about how quickly unemployment money goes back into the economy, though.

Dealing With Poor Performance: Lessons from Simon Cowell and Jesus Christ – What do the King of Kings and the mean judge from American Idol have in common?  According to Joe Plemon, more than you would guess, at least when it comes to dealing with people who don’t meet their expectations.  An interest comparison, to say the least.

Welcome Baby Boy – To end on a high note, Evan of My Journey to Millions has recently welcomed a brand new bundle of joy into his household.  Congrats to you and ‘The Wife’ on the wonderful news, my friend!

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As I write this, it’s nearly, almost, soon to be the official holiday season.  With Thanksgiving later this week followed by Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cower in the Corner Wondering How You’ll Get All Your Shopping Done Tuesday (although, that last one might just be me), holiday shopping is sure to get off to a jump start pretty soon.   It’s going to be a rather busy holiday season.

Of course, perhaps with the economy still being less than robust, people will keep from spending TOO much this holiday season.  Although, all indications are that things will pick up (at least a little) this year.  Good for retailers, if not necessarily for individuals.  Still, tis the season, I suppose.

Giveaways and Contests

There is a MASSIVE giveaway going on at Young and Thrifty’s, giving away several hundred dollars in prizes from her as well as other Yakezie members.  I’m sorry that I didn’t hear about this in time to contribute (I’m trying to catch up with everything, I promise, my friends), but it looks like the rest of the Yakezie has pulled together to create a really impressive gift list.

Bucksome Boomer is giving away $25 to a randomly selected subscriber to her blog feed.  You’ll need to subscribe, get a code from the feed/email, and then enter it on her site.  Good luck to anyone who attempts to enter.

Good Yakezie Posts

Investing In Tangible Assets (Ending The Rat Race) – I’ll admit, I haven’t given too much thought to investing in land, real estate, or gold, but perhaps I should.  If nothing else, given the way that gold has been soaring while most everything else has plummeted lately, it would probably be good diversification.

Living Vicariously Through You (The Financial Samurai) – An interesting letter from the Financial Samurai to the risk takers of the world, letting them know how he lives through them and the risks they take.  Being rather conservative myself, I do admit that I find it gratifying to read stories about risk takers who end up doing well.  Congrats to all of you.

Accomplish More By Doing Less (Personal Finance By The Book) – It sounds, as Joe Plemon even admits, like a cheap infomercial, but it’s true.  You CAN accomplish more if allow yourself time to be less busy.  I’m trying to do that myself, with somewhat mixed results (mostly on the ‘allow yourself time to be less busy’ end of things).

What Happens When You Make An Extra Payment On a Loan (My Journey to Millions) – An interesting view on what happens *under the hood* when you make an extra payment on an auto loan (Sorry for the bad joke, I couldn’t resist).  Nice to see the actual math behind the common recommendation to prepay your loans.

Weakon 241: International Trade (Weakonomics) – While not technically a member of the Yakezie (although, he would make a pretty good one; just saying), the Weakonomist does usually make me thing.  Here he provides a crash course in the economics of international trade, and how the economic benefits sometimes run into problems in the real world.

Where the Amateur Financier Was Featured

The Financial Samurai included my post on What to Do If You Lose Your Job.  Good to see my advice from my own experiences resonated with people.

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Well, well, well, it seems that for the first time in many months, I have the opportunity to review some of my favorite blogs, see what other people are writing about, and link to some of my favorites.  Since that was always one of my favorite parts of blogging, I’m glad I have the chance to do so again.  There’s a good chance that my more on the ball readers have already encountered most of these great articles already, but just in case you missed them:

Contests and Giveaways

I could hardly start with something other than the Yakezie Scholarship, the attempt by our Yakezie network to help out those who would like a boost in college funds in order and can show their spirit with a nice essay.  If you’re looking to sponsor future scholarship awards or otherwise contribute, check out the Framework page.  (I’m a silver level sponsor now, myself.)

Kay Lynn (the Bucksome Boomer) is giving away a rather odd book for a personal financier blogger: The Cigarette Book, about, well, smoking.  Not really PF related, but it looks to be an interesting read.

Squirrelers (which, I’ll admit, I’ve only learned about recently) is having a massive Thanksgiving giveaway, with more than $400 in prizes including gift cards and personal finance books.  It looks like one very impressive haul.

The Rat of Ending The Rat Race is giving away a neat sounding book and CD, Smoke and Mirrors, which seeks, as most good personal finance books do, to make you rethink your financial priorities.  Good luck winning, when I’m set to do so myself.

Free From Broke discusses some situations when renting furniture (normally a huge no-no according to personal finance bloggers) makes sense, and offers a $50 Visa Card, which always makes your argument more persuasive.

One particularly excellent personal finance blogger (and I’m not just saying that because she’s commented here multiple times) Barbara Friedberg is also giving away a personal finance book, Psych Yourself Rich.  Quite a few books being given away this week; I might have update my wish list…

Good Yakezie Articles

The Financial Samurai provides some good advice on How to Overcome Poor Grades and Get a Job.  Especially given the rough hiring environment lately, it’s especially important to do things like being honest about your shortcomings and focusing on other activities; even the straight A students are having a rough time of it right now.

It’s a fact of nature: monopolies aren’t good for anyone but those who profit from them.  Of course, you can find monopolies in the most unexpected of places, such as your corner lemonade stand, as Len Penzo’s daughter discovered to her chagrin.  How a Lemonade Stand Taught My Daughter to Love Monopolies is a good view at several different monopolies, and how they benefit those who run them.

Evan of My Journey To Millions provides a few Basic Financial Terms and Keyword for Children and Teens.  It’s never to early to give young people a head start on understanding how to manage their money.  (Well, alright, toddlers might be a bit too young, but after that…)

Lastly, Digging Out From Our Mess asks if You Have An Anthem? I don’t know that I have an anthem, per se, but I do have more than a few songs with which I like to sing along.  (Including Katy Perry’s songs…)

There we go, a selection of good articles from this past week.  Hopefully, I can stay in the habit and keep reading, commenting on, and passing on great articles to my readers.

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a round-up; real life has made it hard to get online enough to update my own blog, let alone spend the time needed to read through, comment on, and link back to some of the other great blogs I try to follow.  But, now that I’m getting back into the swing of things, blog-wise, I figured one of my first actions should be to re-start the whole blog round-up habit.

Now, I’ll probably try to go back and check out all the posts I didn’t have a chance to publish in earlier round-ups, possibly even going as far as making some post-dated weekly round-ups just to include all the goodness I see.  For now, though, let’s take a look at some of the quality posts from this past week:

Contests

Joe Plemon mentions the GRABBBR contest being run by several Christian-flavored personal finance bloggers.  There looks to be $200 in cash and numerous other prizes up for grabs, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

There’s a book giveaway being held by Young and Thrifty for a copy of Your Money Ratios, a book I’ve seen recommended in quite a few places.  If I don’t win it (which I intend to do), perhaps one of my readers can.

I wasn’t fast enough to get to Austin (Foreigner’s Finances) contest giving away a copy of Investing Made Simple, but I suppose I’ll mention it at least; apparently you need to really be on top of his blog entries to win his contests.

If you’ve got kids in your life (or just like reading what we, as a society, are trying to teach our kids about money), you can enter to win a copy of Three Cups, currently be put up by J. Money of Budgets are Sexy.

Good Yakezie Posts

Staying Calm Under Pressure – Financial Samurai, always an interesting and entertaining writer, shares a story about his father, and how his father’s calmness and independence handling life has helped to influence his behavior.

The Millionaire Calculator – I love financial calculators and other devices to help you discover your current financial state.  Monevator has a good one, letting you know when you’ll become an (inflation-adjusted) millionaire, always something cool to know.

Are Chiropractors Quacks? – I’ll admit, I’m a bit negatively biased toward chiropractors; my uncle was (is) one, and he didn’t treat my aunt (my mother’s little sister) very well.  But Mrs. Money provides a pretty fair and honest view of the profession overall.

I heart Warren Buffett – Buffett is the classic example of both buy-and-hold investing AND living well below your means.  If that’s not enough reason to heart him, Young and Thrifty provides more Buffett Factoids to inspire your love.

Does Income Change Who You Are As A Person?  Or Your Tastes? – A good question for all of those who are upwardly mobile to ask.  Evan of My Journey To Millions asks due to his own feeling that his lifestyle is inflating around him.

How to Control Emotional Spending – Mixing money and emotions frequently results in decreasing the amount of said money.  Money Funk provides a pretty good list of ways to help decrease the effect your emotions will have on your spending.

Take Action Tuesday: Automatic Investments - It’s something we know we all should do, but precious few of us end up following through.  Daniel of Sweating the Big Stuff provides a quick and easy guide to setting up your automatic investments so you can ‘pay yourself first’.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Featured Last Week

My post about my Deep Thoughts on Tipping was included in the Yakezie Carnival Round Up by Young and Thrifty.  I do so enjoy hearing good things from my fellow Yakezie.

Speaking of Yakezie, and my post on tipping, Joe Plemon mentions it in his very sweet Father’s Day Round-Up post.  That card from his children is just adorable.

My post on Building Up Your Bull**** Detector was considered one of the Best On The Web by Cheapskate Sandy.   Pretty good, considering her BS detector is already running at full throttle (being a native New Yorker and all).

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So, I am apparently quite an idiot when it comes to blogging, after all.  I was looking at my Feedburner information, and made an edit to my feed address.  Low and behold, when I finally returned to Feedburner, I discovered that the number of people following my feeds had dropped to about one fifth the previous total.  Non-techie that I am, I didn’t think that changing the feed address would automatically cut off the feeds of everyone who had been watching me.  (Being a man, and a fan of multi-tasking, I didn’t read the warnings listed on Feedburner until AFTER I made these changes.)

Well, what’s done is done, and I lack both the knowledge and ability to reverse the feed address now that I’ve changed it.  I’m going to have chalk this up to a valuable learning experience, and do my best not to repeat it any time soon.  In the mean time, I need to just spread the word on my change of feed address (although, I’ve already regained nine of my original sixty some odd readers, so apparently word is getting around somehow.  I’ll have to do my best to alert the rest of my former followers to my mistake and ask them to start following the new feed.

Now that all the important announcement type stuff is out of the way, it’s time to get to the real fun of this post: the great articles from around the web that I’ve come across.  Because I’ve been so sluggish about getting back to reading my feeds following my trip with Sondra, I’ve got several weeks backed up that I’m to go through.

Contests

Let’s start with a contest that I won: The Find the Kraken contest held by Money Funk!  (It was also announced here.)  I managed to find the Kraken, followed the instructions, and won a $25 dollar Fandango gift certificate.  I’m absolutely ecstatic about it; now I just need to find a good movie or two I can take Sondra to.

Reader Input Needed: Let’s Solve Our Problems – A contest from 20s Money, with prizes yet to be announced, that asks readers to help solve some of the most pressing problems in the world today.  Here’s hoping some good solutions come up, and that some politicians happen to be listening in!

Good Yakezie Posts

Doing Anything You Can to Survive-Silence and Surprise in the Night – A chance encounter with a ‘lady of the night’ leaves Financial Samurai wondering about prostitution and what you would be willing to do in order to survive.

Combat the Closing Techniques: The Consultative Closing – Finally, a closing technique that you don’t have to fight with every fiber of your being.  Here’s hoping more corporations start putting an emphasis on cooperation with the consumer as a method of selling, so that Eliminate the Muda doesn’t have to keep doing these posts.

Debt Free News from a Debt Free Reader – I love to hear stories about people getting out of debt, and Enemy of Debt rarely disappoints.  Learn about Don of MoneyReasons and his journey out of debt.

Greenwash: Clorox Green Works – With environmentalism being one of the latest big things, businesses are looking to cash in, making their products ‘greener’ with natural ingredients and less harmful preparation methods.  Of course, as Mrs. Money notes, some companies find it better to make their products appear green without actually making them more environmentally friendly (that is, ‘greenwashing’).

14 FREE Ways to Spend a Friday Night (Fun Included) – A guest post on the Canadian Personal Finance Blog, a whole list of good ways to spend an evening that won’t cost you a cent.  I especially like the movie critic night and book club; it’s good to be social as well as frugal.

The Fair Tax: Is It Too Good to Be True? – In a word, yes.  Joe Plemon makes an excellent case for the Fair Tax (one which I’ve made in the past) and I ended up playing Devil’s Advocate and pointing out some of the flaws (or at least, unanswered questions that remain).  If you’re looking for a good view of the tax, pros and cons, it’s worth reading.  (I’ll have to post my own ‘problems with the Fair Tax’ entry later this week.)

What’s An Emergency? – A good question, especially since so many of us have ‘emergency funds’ devoted to paying for just such situations.  Ninja of Punch Debt in the Face discusses his pending need to buy furniture for a new place, but wondering how to pay for it.  Definitely food for thought (as I’ve nearly exhausted my own emergency funds…)

Maximize Your Retirement Account – A good examination of the advantages of investing in a retirement account, as well as ways to find money to invest.  Christine of Money Funk fame provides some excellent advice, as well as sharing her own situation.

The Scarlet “D” – If you’re eager to get a clean financial record, “Debt” can be as much of a mark of shame as a big red A sewn on your clothing.  Stay At Home Mom CFO talks about the shame that her persistent debt still causes her.

Why 99.7% of Investors Should Avoid Actively Trading Stocks – From the cost of trading that adds up when regularly trading to the competition with corporations armed with supercomputers and dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees, there are many reasons why active stock trading doesn’t work for most small investors.  Luckily, Austin is here to remind us of all these factors.

Fixed or Variable Mortgage? – A question posed by Young and Thrifty, though dealt with by anyone who needs a mortgage to purchase a home (which is most of us).  High risk tolerance and healthy finances seem to be the key if you are looking at a variable mortgage.

Never Lend Money to Friends and Family! – Excellent advice; there are few things that strain relationships more than money issues (politics and love being the few that pop in my mind).  As Elle of Couple Money notes, if you must give money to a friend or family member, it’s probably best to make it a gift, not a loan.

Recurring Expenses Can Kill Your Budget-Choose Wisely – Recurring expenses, those you have to pay on a regular (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc) can quickly add up, costing you much more than you expects.  As Free From Broke reminds us, we have to choose which of these expenses we consider truly worthy and limit ourselves to those if we hope to grow our wealth.

Financial Freedom…Now What? – Reaching that point where you have enough money to do whatever you want is a goal many of us have, bu what then.  Ryan of Planting Dollars asks what you would do if you had health and wealth enough to indulge your deepest desires.

9 Overlooked Tax Tips for Self-employed Folks like Me – Seeing as I’m slowly moving towards self-employment, it seems (if I can turn this blog into an even better source of income, I’d stop looking for another job in a heartbeat).  This guest post on Wealth Pilgrim provides a nice list of possible tax deductions for the self-employed out there.

5 Ways You are Wrecking Your Finances – A nice list of ways people get into trouble in the first place, as noted by SingleGuyMoney.  Avoid making these mistakes, and you’ll never need to use advice on how to fix your finances.

What is Your Credit Card Payoff? – A nice article on Redeeming Riches about a tool to figure out how long it will take you to pay off your credit card balance.  I’ve been able to pay off my card every month, but if I wasn’t, I’d definitely want to know when’s the soonest I could get the debt monkey off my back.

Where The Amateur Financier Was Mentioned

Free From Broke mentioned the last in my series covering different schools of thought on money, Moneyisms: The Austrian School

Monevator made some excellent points about the nature of markets (and human reactions), as well as explaining why pessimism of the ‘the market is down, it will never rise again’ type is never a good thing.  Oh, he also mentioned my review of On the Wealth of Nations.

Speaking of Monevator, he also mentioned my post reminding everyone that Correlation is Not Causation while discussing immigration.

My review of Unautomate Your Finances was mentioned (and quoted) by Baker, the author himself, in a round-up featuring commentary on the book.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Coffeecents, a blog on WordPress, wrote an article on sunk costs, and linked back to my own piece on that same concept.

My article on the new health care bill here in America was referenced as background information for Joe Plemon’s article about said bill; before too long, the Amateur Financier will standard classroom study material!

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One of the advantages of being a blogger is that information has a tendency to come to you.  If you write interesting posts and develop enough of a following, people start to share interesting posts related to what you write about.   It’s kind of neat to see the economics related stuff that I’d never have found on my own that’s been brought to my attention through comments on this blog.

As you might guess, I bring all this up because I want to share something that was mentioned in a comment.  Since I spent all last week discussing various types of economic theories, I suppose it might have been inevitable that someone (in this case, Chris from the Martial Development blog) would send me a link to a rap battle between Keynes and Hayek.  It’s hilarious and illustrates some of the differences between Keynesism (as exemplified by Keynes, obviously) and the Austrian School (that’d be Hayek) in their approach the economy.  Also, did I mention that it’s hilarious?  Check it out; and while you do, be sure to check on some of these snazzy posts that went up while I was down in Philadelphia:

Good Yakezie Posts

Retirement Alphabet Soup – A good, if short introduction to sorting out the number of retirement account types available.  I’d add a recommendation to keep at least some of your retirement money in a traditional account rather than all Roth style accounts, but you’ll hear a variety of opinions on that point.

Make Extra Money – An interesting list of potential sources of money.  A few are only for women (selling Avon products, for example), but most are pretty good for us guys, as well, and it’s always nice to have a plan B to keep the income flowing.

365 Days of World Domination – I don’t often include anniversary posts in my round-up, but Punch Debt in the Face did such a good job (and managed to go through the usual information on display during an anniversary post with such humor) that I just couldn’t resist.  Good job, and here’s to many more years to come!

The Best Debt Everyone Should Have and Never Pay Off – No, not mortgages, student loans or that debt to Vinnie “The Knee Breaker”; rather, it’s the ‘continuing debt to love one another.’  A very sweet (and Bible based) notion.

What Is a Power of Attorney? – A good explanation of a concept I’ve only heard tossed around on various Law & Order episodes, as well as some reasons why it’s important.  Good advice for anyone with family they wish to protect upon their passing.

Investing Young Isn’t Best – An interesting counterpoint to one of the most commonly cited pieces of investment advice (to start as young as possible).  Too often, we focus on the time value of money argument and forget that investing is not in every young person’s interest, all of the time.

Verify Your Checks Before You Deposit – An excellent guide to what to look for on checks you’re going to deposit to ensure that they don’t get returned to you. The DDAMP method sounds like a pretty good way to remember everything you need to check.

The Ripples of Giving – A great guest post on giving to others, how it can affect you, and the way in which giving can ripple outward.  An excellent, inspiring post.

Combat the Closing Techniques-The Fear Close – Another week, another closing technique conquered.  Here, learn how to fight those who prey on your fears to sell their products.

Where The Amateur Financier Has Been Featured

Not too many places last week (too much time preparing for or taking a trip, I suppose), but as usual, I was included in the Yakezie Weekly Carnival, this time hosted by Cool to Be Frugal.  Go, Yakezie!

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Ah, the end of March.  Spring is officially here, the snow is (mostly) melted, the birds are coming back, and life is generally coming back all around you.  It’s also the time of year when the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) has their annual conference, apparently.  This year, it’s in Philadelphia, which happens to be just a hop, skip, and a jump away from me and my fiancee (well, relatively speaking; we’re on the opposite side of the state, but Pennsylvania is a fairly smallish state, so it’s still reasonably close).

You may ask why I, a biochemist who couldn’t tell one type of ceramic pottery from another, brings all this up.  (I don’t even know enough about ceramics to do a bad joke about how little I know, a la, “I know so little about chemistry, I can’t tell Bohr from Boron.”  It’s not any funnier if you’re a chemist, I promise you.)  Well, my fiancee Sondra is a Ceramics major (yes, before we started dating, I didn’t know there was such a thing), and so, for the past half year or so, we’ve been making plans to go together.  Of course, losing my job put a bit of dark pallor on the trip, but we’d already committed to going, so, off we go!  (At least, off we go come Tuesday.)

All of which is my very long-winded way of saying that my access to the Internet (and thus, this blog) might be a little more hit and miss than normal this coming week, so if you email or comment or otherwise try to get in touch with me and don’t get an immediate response, consider this an advanced apology.  Anyway, onto the posts from this past week:

Contests and Giveaways

One Up on Wall Street-Book Review and Giveaway – A review of the mini-book version of one of the investing classics, complete with the chance to win the book, all courtesy of YoungandThrifty.

Top 20 Biggest Money Wasters (w/Fun Giveaway) – One of the most interesting contests I’ve seen in a while, you have to find a hiding Kraken (no, really) on Money Funk’s website, and follow the instructions to win.  No more help from me; you’ll have to find him on your own

Win $100 Cash at the Ultimate Money Blog – Nothing like a nice, healthy money prize to motivate people to check out your blog.  Just head on over to the Ultimate Money Blog, start commenting, tweeting, and linking back (as I am here, I might note), and you’ll have a chance to win.  Good luck!

Other Great Yakezie Posts

Yakezie News Letter #1 – What better way to kick off the good Yakezie posts than with the official Yakezie Newsletter?  Bytta of 151 Days Off chronicles some of the accomplishments the group has achieved this far, from the number of members who made the top 100 on the Wisebread list to some of the side ventures from other members (that’s right, some members are so gung ho that they are running blogs, working full time, and STILL have time for other ventures.  I’m simply amazed.)  It’s one truly dynamic group we have, indeed.

Announcing Our Very First Love Drop – All too often, we forget that as bad as we may have it, there are always people who have it worse off.  Luckily, there are ways we can do our best to help them, such as passing along whatever money we can; one way to do that is through the Love Drop, as detailed by J. Money.

A Frugal Middle Class Assessment – It seems just about everyone considers themselves middle class (nobody wants to be considered poor, and if you were rich, shouldn’t you have butlers and stuff), but Money Reasons goes through his finances and proves his middle class cred.

You May Be Invited to a ‘Block Party’ – Now, this is disturbing; apparently, some debt collection agencies have taken to calling family members and neighbors of those in debt, in hopes (I’m guessing) of putting pressure on the debtors.  As Stay at Home Mom CFO notes, though, it’s more enraging than effective.

700 Pennies-How to Stay Motivated and Reach Your Goals – An interesting take on the penny jar: Mike, the Personal Finance Ninja, keeps a jar filled with 700 pennies, one for every month until he reaches 80 years old, and uses them as a visible reminder of his own mortality.  It’s a good way to keep motivated, I suppose.  (Although, if your kids or significant other every find themselves short on cash, you might find your ‘mortality jar’ was emptied for candy money.)

Dear Ninja – An interesting question; what would you say if you were to write a letter to yourself in the future?  Punch Debt in the Face proposed that very thing, and this entry was what he came up with.  Not a bad set of suggestions for his future self at all, although the threats if he got fat seemed a bit much.

Personal Time Management – Monevator provides a very substantial post about managing your time and keeping yourself motivated when you don’t have a boss breathing over your shoulder and deadlines.  Good advice, particularly for those of us who aren’t in a typical job situation.

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Well, it’s good news, bad news time again.  The good news is that my blog is steadily growing, my health is still good, and my fiancee still loves me.  (At least, the diabolical laughter as she tries to tickle me silly seems to indicate love…)  In short, life isn’t half bad for ol’ Roger.

The bad news, I’m still unemployed.  I heard back last week that I didn’t get the job I interviewed for a few weeks ago (which I thought was fairly certain, but apparently misread).  I’m trying to stay optimistic and to keep looking for something even better, but it is a bit disheartening.

Luckily, I still have many sources of joy in my private life, not the least of which is reading through great personal finance blog entries.  Speaking of which, here are some of the ones I likes from this past week:

Good Yakezie Posts

Couple Money Netbook Giveaway – I have a bad habit of not sharing these contests before it’s too late (and sometimes, not entering them myself) so let’s get this out of the way first: Couple Money is giving away a net book to celebrate six months of blogging.  Comment, tweet, and post links by Friday for a chance to win one of the best prizes I’ve seen for these types of giveaways.

TurboTax Promotion and Giveaway for 2009 Taxes – Crikey, another one, this time from Evan of My Journey to Millions (which, if I haven’t mentioned it already, is a pretty cool blog name), who’s giving away some tax preparation software.  If you’ve been slacking a bit on your taxes, consider this your opportunity to make up some time.

Capitalism: A Love Story DVD Review and Giveaway – Yes, one more giveaway that’s still going strong; this time Financial Samurai is giving away some copies of Michael Moore’s latest movie.  An interesting sounding movie, if more likely to enrage than enlighten most of you reading this.

Garbage City – Now That’s Entrepreneurism – Showing that one man’s trash is indeed another man’s treasure, the Garbage City in Cairo sounds simply amazing (as do the people working hard to make a life in its midst).

Why It’s Frugal to Live in Arkansas – Part of a series highlighting some of the hidden frugality to be found in each state of the union.  Arkansas looks like a surprisingly attractive place to retire, with no taxes on Social Security benefits.

Spend & Save: Where Do You Use Your Money? – As always, it’s nice to see where others prioritize their spending, saving, and other money uses.  Personally, I’ve been trying to put a higher priority on savings, but with no job at the moment and household expenses not holding still, that’s a bit tough right now.

The Dark Side of Frugality-Losing Your Integrity – It’s sometimes a fine line between thrifty practices and outright theft; buying clothing, wearing it for a month and then returning them falls in the latter category (not to mention it being a very disturbing habit).

Is Traveling Worth Your Money? – An interesting question; many personal finance bloggers seem to rail against buying material goods while giving travel expenses a free pass.  Is the (hopefully unique) experience really worth our time and money?

Cash And Your Portfolio – A nice reminder that cash, while frequently a ‘holding place’ for money you’re going to invest (or money you have socked away in an emergency fund), does actually have a very important and salient purpose in your portfolio.

7 Stupidest Tax Mistakes to Avoid – Nobody finds a visit from the IRS relaxing (well, maybe a masochist…), so making sure to avoid these mistakes is a good start to getting your taxes done correctly.

Yakezie Carnival Round-Up

It occurred to me this weekend that I haven’t been listing any of the great Yakezie Carnivals in my lists of where my blog has been featured.  To make up for that oversight, here’s the first four Yakezie Carnivals (all of which include one article from yours truly):

Yakezie Carnival 1, from Jeff of Deliver Away Debt

Yakezie Carnival 2, from CJ Bowker

Yakezie Carnival 3, from Daniel of Sweating the Big Stuff

And most recently, Yakezie Carnival 4, hosted by Greg (The Lean Life Coach) on Eliminate the Muda

Thanks to all those who have hosted, and good luck to all my fellow Yakezie Members!

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As a personal finance blogger, it always make me happy to see other bloggers doing well.  Last week, Baker of Man vs. Debt fame did so, in a big way: he published an e-book,  Unautomate Your Finances, with the kind of sophisticated media blitz you usually only see with New York Times bestsellers.

More power to Baker, of course; it’s good to see anyone who’s worked so hard succeed at doing what they want.  It’s inspiring to see everything that Baker’s managed to do, and how much success he’s had.  Here’s hoping that I can find the same level of success with this blog, and that all my friends can as well.  On the subject of my friends, here’s some of the good articles they’ve put forth last week:

Good Yakezie Blog Entries

How Much of Your Mortgage Payment Goes Toward Loan Principle? – An interesting question, with interesting facts to back it up.

When Stock Prices Crash, Where Does the Money Go? – A great question with a simple answer: it disappears.

Combat the Closing Techniques-Fulfill Your Dreams Close – I really like this series, and the second method to fighting this technique sounds like fun, if you enjoy tormenting salespeople.

The Art of the Interview – Good interview techniques can be the key to getting the job you want, and here’s a list of some of the best.

Someone, Please Take My Money – Do national companies really have so little foresight to not keep seasonal items in stock until the season is completely over?

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are Awesome-7 Reasons – They do sound pretty awesome, indeed.

Invest Like Warren Buffet – Some strategies pulled from the comments of the ultimate investor himself.

Comparatively Speaking, One Million Dollars is Still a Lot of Money – It’s easy to forget in this time of billionaires and multi-billionaires, but for most people, one million is a pretty hefty sum.

How to P*ss Off Your Banker – Ways to annoy the bank teller next time you go in; hopefully, nobody actually tries to bring in $1000 in unwrapped coins…

Where Do You Draw Inspiration? – A good question, one that will influence how you approach personal finance (and indeed, life).

What It’s Like to Live in 1 of America’s 25 Richest Counties – It has its pros and cons, but if you don’t spend too much trying to ‘Keep Up with the Jones’, they’re apparently pretty good, overall.

5 Mind Hacks to Make Yourself Learn to Invest – An interesting list of tips if you want to learn more about money, but can’t seem to find the motivation.  (Here’s one of mine: start a blog about money; it worked for me!)

The “Other” Investments… – A cautionary tale about the risk of letting advisers or other money managers control your money when you don’t know what’s going on.

The Amateur Financier Milestones

My post on the Financial Lessons from Aesop’s Fables was in the Best of Money Carnival hosted by Cash Money Life, and was chosen as the best in the carnival!

My progress toward breaking 200,000 in the Alexa rankings continues unabated; I’m under 300,000 as of this writing, and should, with any luck, be able to reach my (first) goal of 200,000 well before the July 4th deadline.  The only real question is whether I can make 100,000 or even 50,000 by then.  (If not, I’m sure it won’t be long after that I get there.  Thanks for watching and all the support, everyone!

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Have you ever found yourself winning a prize you hadn’t even entered to win?  Like, at a drawing at the local fair, you find out that your friends put your name into the raffle, and suddenly you’ve won a big prize, like a car, without any effort or real work on your part?  You’d probably have a huge grin on your face, getting something so great completely out of the blue.

I had a taste of that feeling today.  No, I didn’t win a car or anything like that; but I did have one of my posts featured in an MSN blog post.  Yup, they made a reference to my post on Unemployment and Motivation when discussing the effects of unemployment benefits on motivation to find another job.  Not an off-hand reference at the end of the article or on the fourth page, either; I’m mentioned by name (as Roger, the Amateur Financier) in the third paragraph, and they paraphrase my article over the next three paragraphs.  All in all, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve had happen to me lately (possibly the coolest blogging thing that I’ve ever had happen to me).

Here’s the kicker, though: while my article about unemployment is being highlighted, I’m actually getting pretty close to having a job.  I had an orientation meeting on Monday, and I have an interview on Wednesday.  By this time next week, I could actually be employed again, in a job in my field that pays nearly as much as my last job (which does help support my argument in the article about holding out for a ‘good’ job while collecting unemployment).  If this week keeps going the way it has, I might have to go out to a casino; I never have this kind of luck.

Successful Yakezie Members

I’m not the only one who’s had a run of luck, it seems; when I was looking over latest Yakezie Challenge standings, I noticed that were more than a few of my compatriots who have met their goals.  At least the initial goals; there’s always more than you can do, and higher ranks to be obtained, especially as nobody’s broken 50,000 yet.  Although, our fearless leader, Financial Samurai, is getting there pretty quickly.

With a combination of hard work, luck, and of course, some powerful friends, it looks like Money Funk and Punch Debt In The Face (great blog name, by the way) both beat the 200,000 ranking this past week.  They have a lot of company; Planting Dollars, Sweating the Big Stuff, Monevator, Fiscal Fizzle, MBA Briefs, Early Retirement Extreme, Enemy of Debt, *takes a deep breath*, My Journey to Millions, Deliver Away Debt, and the Ultimate Money Blog, have all cleared the 200,000 Alexa hurdle already and are bearing down on 100,000.  (Hopefully, I’ll join them soon.)  Of those blogs shooting for 50,000, Budgets are Sexy and Free From Broke both cleared 100,000 first (although they were pretty close to that amount at the start), and Eliminate the Muda cleared both 200,000 and 100,000 in its ascent to the top.

It looks like many of my fellow Yakezie members are well on their way to dominating the personal finance blogosphere (and then the world…but perhaps I’ve said too much).  In hopes of boosting up some of the members who haven’t gotten that far yet, here’s a round-up of some of the other Yakezie who are still shooting for 200,000 along with me:

Good Yakezie Posts

Pros and Cons of Being Cash Only – While I’m more a fan of credit card use myself, Red does make some good points about why you might opt for a cash only life.

Day 21: A Dull Monday Morning in Australia… – Not really personal finance related, but how can I resist a post mentioning a photographer who gathered up a bunch of nude people and got them to pose for a picture?

Avoiding Reactive Personal Finance – It’s hard for most of us, but planning ahead for emergencies is much better than trying to react once something happens.

Fix-It Friday: Know Your IRS Forms – Good advice as get (even deeper) into tax season, knowing your tax forms (or getting help from someone who does) can save plenty of time and money on your part.

The 5 Books that Changed My Money Life – As you’ve probably noticed from my weekly (or so) book reviews, I like to read, particularly about personal finance, and so these five ‘mini-reviews’ on books I’ve either read or have on my ‘to read’ list is quite helpful.

“Making Work Pay Credit” and the SAHM – An interesting look at the new tax credit available this year.

What’s Your Latte Factor? – An interesting discussion of the little money vices that end up costing us lots of money over time, using David Bach’s concept of the Latte Factor.

Where the Amateur Financier Has Been Featured

My post on unemployment and motivation was very popular this past week; in addition to MSN, it has been featured in round-ups from Well-Heeled Blog,151 Days Off, Planting Dollars, and Wealth Pilgrim

The latest Yakezie Carnival included my post on the challenges of holding physical gold, as did Monevator

That’s it for this week’s round-up; if you’ll excuse, I’m off to bask in my new-found celebrity a bit more.  (Kidding; I’m just the same Roger, if a bit more shocked.)

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As you’re probably more than aware by now, I’m participating in Financial Samurai’s Alexa Challenge in an attempt to boost my blog’s visibility and influence.  I’m proud, if a bit surprised, to say that in the course of less than a week, my ranking has gone from roughly 515,000 to a little more than 393,000, a jump of nearly 118,000 ranks.  If I keep up this pace, I’ll meet my original goal of breaking 200,000 by the end of the month!

Admittedly, the higher I climb in the ranks, the more intense the competition becomes; it’s like going from the minor leagues into the majors, you just find yourself facing tougher and tougher opponents the higher you go.  Additionally, as Financial Samurai notes, the challenge increases as time goes on.  The goal of 200,000, once a ranking that put you amongst the top one hundred personal finance bloggers in the world, is no longer enough.  (FS also made mention of these very round-up posts, which was certainly a nice gesture.)

All the more reason to work even harder, to do whatever I can to improve my image amongst other bloggers, and to promote the heck out of them in hopes that they will do the same.  On that note, let’s get to the real fun of these round-ups; great posts from other bloggers:

Good Yakezie Posts

CARD Act: Credit Card Reform Act of 2009 – A great list of all the changes to credit card law brought about by the CARD act that recently put into place, one that puts even mine to shame.

Why Does Joe Public Love Sweatshops? – Not just getting the products from them, but the idea of working in them.  I think it’s nostalgia for an older, simpler (although also dirtier, more exhausting, and more painful) time.

Why Does Everyone Hate on Financial Planners? – My guess: a combination of anger at the corrupt ones (who are a small percentage of the whole, I might add) and feelings that they (the public, not the planners) should be able to handle their own money without help.

Combat the Closing Techniques – The Power of Suggestion – Another in a series I really like, showing you how to fight back against various sales techniques.

No More ‘I Can’t Afford That’ - When you have the money, but choose not to spend it, you should be proud to say as much.

‘The Snark Handbook’ Review and Giveaway – Be sure to enter for the chance to win what seems like a hilarious book!

Should Wannabe Entrepreneurs Eliminate Debt Before Opening Their Doors? – It’s probably a good idea, but probably not necessary.

You Can’t Afford Kids – A conversation stopper right there, although it raises some interesting points about when in your financial journey you should add kids to your household.

The Reason for the Dearth of Investment Posts on ERE – A cogent reason for not posting more on investing from a fellow blogger; if I didn’t love writing about investing so much, I might just take his advice.

It’s Your Money, YOU Spend It! – How to handle being ‘volunteered’ to spend money (for special events like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)

Other Good Posts

Unconventional Personal Finance Advice – Some advice that might go against the grain of commonly cited personal finance rules.

5 Situations Where You Should Leave Your Credit Card in Your Pocket – A good list of times to use cash rather than plastic (paying taxes is one I wouldn’t have guessed)

6 New Credit Card Rules – Another article about the CARD act; a very succinct one, as well.

Can America Learn to Save From My Dog? – Dogs put aside biscuits or bones for a rainy day, why can’t we?

$3,000 Cash for Caulkers Revealed - The details of the new plan revealed, for better or worse.  (Also, who do I have to write to in order to get people to stop giving these programs alliterative nicknames?)

The Amateur Financier Around the Web

The Carnival of Money Stories hosted my last Wacky Wednesday post

Monevator’s latest Round Up featured my post on Taxing Financial Transactions, as did the Weekly Round Up on Money Funk

A Weekly Wisdom round-up (great name, by the way) featured my post on Hyperbolic Discounting

If I missed any round-ups or other posts that featured my blog entries, just let me know; I want to promote the heck out of you (and not just because it’s a roundabout way of promoting myself)  Good day, everyone!

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Have you ever had a good idea, a wonderful idea you couldn’t wait to put into practice.  Then, before you had the chance to actually carry it out, you discovered that someone not only had the same idea, but managed to put it into practice before you even got the first step off the ground.  That’s pretty much the way I felt when I read this post on Evolution of Wealth.

The article itself is pretty reasonable, a round up of all the latest Yakezie posts, which is the sort of thing done by any number of blogs (including mine).  It’s what’s down in the comments that’s irking me; apparently, I’m not the first person to have the idea of using a carnival to promote the Yakezie challenge, and not being fast enough to get it up and running before anyone else, all I can do is wait on the sidelines.

Oh, well; running a carnival is a sometimes tough job, and I’m just glad that there are other people willing to shoulder that sort of responsibility.  I’ve already offered to host the carnival, so perhaps one week soon, you’ll see my weekly thoughts entry being replaced (or augmented) with a Yakezie carnival entry.  Either way would be pretty fun…

Enough about future round-ups, though; now it’s time to share some of the good articles from this past week:

Good Yakezie Posts

Debt Free News From a Debt Free Reader #6: Some good news to kick off our list; it’s always good when someone is able to get out of debt.  Go, Dustin!

How I went from No Blog to 122,661 on Alexa in Two Months: Not really personal finance, but another inspiring story nonetheless (particularly if, like me, you’re trying to make a go of this whole blogging thing.

Lease or Buy?  What to Know Before Your First Car Purchase: I’ve always bought used cars (and drove them until they couldn’t be driven anymore), but this is a good overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each car acquisition method.

Russian Women and Their Money: An intriguing view of how Russians traditionally handle money.  (It’s always amazing to me how many cultures have women controlling the purse strings.)

How Financial Planners SHOULD Behave and Act as a Fiduciary: A great list of things that a good financial planner should be doing for their clients.

Pros and Cons of Being Wealthy: Even with the cons listed, I’d still be willing to give being wealthy a try.

How to Get More Money Back on Your Tax Return: Apparently, it’s tax season in the great white north as well; here’s a list of tips aimed at Canadians (though there’s good advice for the US, as well).

Is Passive Income Real?: This guest post argues no (pretty persuasively), but I think that getting close to passive would satisfy me (and most people, for that matter).

Conventional Wisdom Leaves Much to Luck: Another guest post (they’re getting pretty popular, lately) about the flaws in conventional wisdom when it comes to retirement withdraws, and ways to protect yourself.

Combat the Closing Techniques-The Puppy Dog Close: One of the more diabolical marketing techniques (‘Just take the puppy home for the weekend, you can return him if you don’t want to keep him’) and how to combat it.

BOND is Back!: Besides a great title line, this entry is filled with helpful information about a variety of different government bond types, from savings bonds to TIPS.

That’s pretty much it for this week; be sure to check the link in the first paragraph for an excellent collection of great articles (including mine).  Enjoy all the great personal finance reading!

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Today is going to be a shorter than normal collection of my thoughts, because most of my thoughts have been about things other than blogging this last week.  I am going to be taking the Graduate Record Examination (R), better known as the GRE, on Wednesday.  I’ve spent a lot of the past week studying various test prep materials, unfortunately spending less time than I would like on other things in my life, like blogging, spending time with my fiancee, and sleep.  (Just kidding on those last few, although not nearly as much much as I would like.)

Anyway, by this time tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to take the test.  I plan to do very well on it, then after spending the night attending my fiancee’s gallery opening, I’ll come home, relax, recover, and start tomorrow on blog posts for the coming week.  It’ll be nice to be able to search for jobs and work on my blog without worrying about how this test will turn out.

With all of that out of the way, I hope you’ll excuse the smaller than usual selection of quality articles from this past week; when I no longer have an upcoming test (and flashbacks to standardized tests from high school), I should have longer lists, filled with all the good articles I’ll catch up on in my spare time.

Good Yakezie Articles This Past Week

Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage or Your Credit Card? – At one time, this might have been an easy question, but changes in ethics (foreclosure is no longer a red mark) and the broader financial picture (many houses are underwater; why put more money in when you’ll never get any out?) have changed the answer for many people.

What Are The Definitions of Liberal and Conservative? – While not directly related to personal finance, it’s good to know these terms, which get tossed around rather loosely (particularly in an election year) really mean.  There’s also a link to a short quiz to find out where you stand.

Would You Sell Yourself for One Million (British Pounds)? – An interesting question, inspired by a British entrepreneur’s offer to sell 10% of his income from this point on in exchange for 1 million pounds up front.  (I would do so in a heart beat, although I doubt I could fetch anywhere near that amount; although, from what I gathered, neither could he…)

The Best Superbowl Commercials for 2010 – It’s probably already been well hashed out around the water cooler, but here’s a bit more fuel for the ‘Best Super Bowl Commercial’ Discussion.  (Although, I defy anyone to tell me that the beaver commercial for Monster.com was not absolutely hilarious.)

The 5 Worst Superbowl Commercials of 2010 – On the other, more horrifying side of the coin, we have th five worst commercials during this year’s Superbowl.  Sadly, there were many more that could be up for this reward…

Alright, that’s about it from me; it’s back to hitting the books (and the practice test screen).  Have a great day, and wish me luck!

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More than one year ago (on February 6, 2009, just in case it ever comes up on Jeopardy), I started the Amateur Financier.  367 days, 335 posts, over four hundred comments (with probably one third of those being mine), and I’m still going strong!   Now that the Financial Samurai has caused me to start thinking about things like Alexa rankings and improving the visibility of my blog, I’m also glad to see that I’m the 582,563th most popular website there is (and look forward to reaching the number one spot soon! )  Thanks for watching, and here’s to many, many more years of great personal finance writing!

This being a Weekly Thoughts column, though, it’s probably time to get to some of the good posts from the past week.  Starting this week, though, I’m going to be making a few changes to the general format and method of doing these entries.  First, rather than picking five to ten good articles and writing a paragraph or so about what I thought while reading them, I’m going to choose more and write less.  I’m not going to go into a full list format, providing only the names of some of the articles that I liked with accompanying links as some bloggers do (I like to talk, or rather write, about my opinions too much for that), but a sentence or less with each article will probably be the extent of it.

I’m also going to be shifting my focus to my fellow Yakezie wannabes (at least the ones who are shooting for a 200,000 Alexa ranking; I’m not sure how much help the ones with significantly higher Alexa rankings already will benefit from my support), though I’ll still read, comment on, and share other bloggers’ achievements.  Anyway, onto the real fun: other peoples’ quality blogs:

Quality Yakezie Posts:

Sunday Morning Musing: On Money, Elitism, and Olympics – Just when did being elite get to be such a bad thing, anyway?

Job Hunting: Finding that Thirty Point Buck – A guide to job hunting that’s easier than finding that mythical monster buck.

Do “C” Students Deserve “A” Lifestyles? -  If they put other skills (sports ability, acting, or simply leadership) to work, sure.

Tried and Tested: Pay Yourself First – Compound Interest Rocks!

Rich Dad, Poor Dad Seminars a Scam? – Apparently so; Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)

Money Saving Tips that Happen to Be Green – Save the Earth AND your money!

Don ‘t Hire Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes – Leading and Lagging Indicators, and why I’m still unemployed when the market is rising.

The Millionaire’s Club – Always good to see another future member!

Why You Probably Shouldn’t Hire Outside Help – A good counter-argument to an often stated axiom: that we should hire out tasks when we could make more money in the time needed to complete the task.

Other Worth While Blog Entries:

How to Smell a Money Scam from a Mile Away – Just sniff for the stink!

The REAL Reason the US Should Wait Generations Before Oil Drilling – More Proof that Darwin is a Criminal Mastermind

Make Your Own Toothpaste – Exactly like it sounds, a recipe for making your own toothpaste, complete with pictures.

A US Debt That’s Unlimited? – How much of a problem is the US’s ever rising debt ceiling?

Public Storage: Problem Ignored – If the problem is too much stuff (or stuff that one half of a couple wants to get rid of) the answer is a yard sale (or compromise), not public storage, in spite of what the commercials would have you believe.

Where the Amateur Financier has been Featured:

A blog known as Ingathered (which seems rather new, from its Alexa rating) wrote an article about Teaching Game Theory to Children that referenced my blog entry on Irrational Escalation of Commitment.  That’s right, I’m starting to train a new generation!

That’s all for now; if I referenced your blog and you got a trackback, please drop a comment and let me know.  I’m try to tweak my trackback system, and the only way I can do so is if I know that it works.  Have a great Monday, everyone!

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Happy Grundsow Day, everyone!  For those of you who aren’t Pennsylvania Dutch, that’s Happy Groundhog Day!  Apparently Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, which in theory means six more weeks of winter.  Since it’s been snowing today, I’m willing to give the little fellow the benefit of the doubt; it does seem like plenty more winter is still to come this year.

I have a theory about Groundhog Day I’d like my readers to help me test.  I am a big Groundhog Day fan, and every February, I’ve heard quite a bit about the groundhog from friends, family, and the media.  My fiancée Sondra, who is a transplant from California, has absolutely no interest in the whole holiday, and has said that only Pennsylvanians care about Groundhog Day.  There seems to be some truth to this; the Pennsylvania lottery, for example, has Gus, the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, as its spokes-mammal (with the implication being understood by everyone in state that the most famous one is Phil).  So my question is, did anyone from other parts of the country even realize that today is Groundhog’s Day, and actually care?

Alright, enough of my crazed existential quandaries; it’s time to cover the good posts from last week!

My Favorite Posts From this Past Week:

Getting Mad About Getting Paid – This is a completely foreign concept to me; getting mad because you got your paycheck early just seems silly.  However, as Lulu points out, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck and spending money as soon as it comes in, Getting your money that far in advance could be a problem, since it’ll be gone when your rent and other bills become due.  My advice: create a checking account to use as a buffer, so that you don’t have to cut things so close; living paycheck to paycheck is no way to live.

Someone Always Farts in a Crowd – I knew that I had to include this article from the Financial Samurai when I read the title in my feed reader; luckily for me (and also for you), it’s also a good, insightful piece.  FS discusses the concept of moral hazard, giving examples of how our financial (and health) systems are set up so that nobody is punished for their own bad decisions.  It’s kind of sobering to think about just how much passing of the buck there is nowadays.

Why 20-Somethings Hate Personal Finance – An interesting question, one that I (being a twenty-seven year old who (a) cares about personal finance and (b) writes about it for fun and profit) have a vested interest in figuring out.  MD of Studenomics raises several good reasons, but I think that he misses a big one: many of the traditional sources of financial advice, such as books and magazines, are aimed at people middle aged and over.  I can’t tell you how often I’ve read an article in Money or Kiplinger’s that gave advice for people at different ages, and the lowest age they start at is 35 or 40.  Maybe young people would care more if we didn’t keep acting like everyone under 30 can’t be trusted to properly manage their own funds.

How to Apply for a Peer To Peer Loan – I’ve had some experience with peer to peer lending through my Lending Club Account, but that’s been entirely as a lender.  The Silicon Valley Blogger shows how to approach things from the other side of the table, that is, how to get a loan.  It’s an interesting process, and while I hope that I’ll never need to get such a loan, it’s good to know how to get one.

Is Being Frugal Always Being Different? – I’m not that aggressively frugal (actually, Sondra and I were discussing earlier this week how we need to curtail our spending more), so when I read about fellow personal finance bloggers like Mrs. Money and the lengths they go to save money, I definitely sense a gap between us.  Apparently, she feels the same way, that she is different from the rest of the crowd; perhaps this gap will close eventually, though it could be a long time, I fear.

6 Questions to Financially Get to Know Each Other – An interesting little list of question designed to share some of the basics of your financial views, courtesy of J. Money.  It’s a pretty good introduction to you view and manage money; I’ll have to fill it out and share it with you all soon.  (And perhaps get Sondra to fill one out as well; it’s not a bad idea to know as much as you can about your future spouse’s spending/savings habits)

Real Hourly Wage, Visualization, and Your Finances – Finally, Mrs. Micah discusses how to calculate your real hourly wage (your take home pay divided by the number of hours that you worked) in order to put your spending into perspective.  It’s one thing to spend $20 on something, but a whole different situation when you stop and consider that the $20 represents two hours of work at the job you hate.  It helps to get a handle on what spending is and is not worth the effort you need to expend in order get the needed money.

That’s all for today; I hope everyone had a very merry and happy Groundhog Day (hopefully the little bugger is wrong and it’ll warm up soon, though).

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