-
Blogroll
- AllFinancialMatters
- Alpha Consumer
- Blueprint for Prosperity
- Boston Gal's Open Wallet
- Brian Preston (Money Guy)
- Chief Financial Officer
- Consumerism Commentary
- fivecentnickel.com
- Free Money Finance
- Frugal Dad
- Generation X Finance
- Get Rich Slick
- Get Rich Slowly
- Lazy Man and Money
- Milk Your Money
- MoneyNing
- Moolanomy
- My Dollar Plan
- My Money Blog
- One Caveman's Journey
- Prime Time Money
- Single Guy Money
- Smart Spending
- The Digerati Life
- The Finance Buff
- The Happy Rock
- The Wisdom Journal
- Think Your Way To Wealth
- Trees Full of Money
- Wise Bread
- more...
-
Favorites
The End of Free Web Services (Some of Them)
Mighty Bargain Hunter raises a good point re: Losing Free Web Services in a Recession. We lost a lot of web services during the last bust, maybe the majority of them. Although many of the ones that disappeared were not serving critical needs. We certainly did not lose Google. Yet undoubtedly there were people who lost a ton of their user-generated content. Either in non-essential services, or non-essential providers of essential services. Are any of your favorite web services in danger of disappearing?
Thinking of my own usage patterns, the upside of Google launching so many best-in-class services is they are relatively financial stable. Yahoo and MSN provide security in the short term, although I wonder about them long term with their constantly shifting priorities. But collectively, people think of these sites as an “FDIC of web services.” If a site is too useful to fail, it will find a home somewhere. Hmmm… probably true for many core services, but I wonder about the smaller websites.
Carnival of Personal Finance #165
I recently participated in the 165th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.
Towards the end of the carnival, Budgeting Basics: An Expense Tracker That Works does a good job of illustrating my concerns about burying details inside formulas, re: the personal budgeting spreadsheet comparison.
4 Gas Stations, 4 Fireworks Stores
Saw an economic bizarro scenario on the border of Missouri and Iowa.
First, we spotted an old-looking gas station, connected to a fireworks store. Then another. And another. And, I think, another. I’m a little sketchy on the particulars as my mind was in the process of exploding. This was not exactly the population center of the universe, but at some point there was a demand for such things, and little else. With such a significant percentage of a local economy, I wonder if it is high time to recognize a new asset class: intentionally flammable assets.
Mrs. Ramblings and I can’t say too much, because we have nearby fireworks stands pop up around July 4th. Although we are comforted that they have not morphed into permanent structures… 
…yet?
Accepting Volunteers for Personal Finance Blog Search Engine
In May, I created a custom search engine of personal finance blog using Google CSE.
http://www.financialramblings.com/search/
It is not the biggest or even the best, at this time, but I wanted something I could keep current if necessary. Niche search engines are useful when researching a big post or creating a new tool. Sometimes, you find that the wheel has already been created, and you can move on to other things. They also come in handy when you are trying to remember who said what.
The problem with custom search engines is they go stale quickly, almost immediately. As a new blogger, I can see that my blog will never be added to any of the existing search engines. They are set in stone. Since I might need to search my archives in conjunction with the rest of the pfblogs, none of these search engines are ideal for me. If you started blogging in 2008, they might not work for you, either.
So I’m going to try and mix things up, tinker with the formula, create a fresher engine. The first way to break with tradition is by accepting volunteers. If you go to the page for "PF Blogosphere" at Google, you will see that it is enabled for volunteers. If you are a pfblogger (and easily distinguishable from a splogger) you are welcome to apply.
Why volunteer?
If your site is not in the search engine already, it is the most surefire route to inclusion. All I ask is you contribute a handful of other sites at the same time. That way the index becomes more useful for everyone. It really helps because no matter how hard I try, I’m bound to have blind spots, places I would not think to look. With more eyes and more expertise it could get interesting.
Besides inclusion, contributors will get link love, either in follow-up posts about the project’s progress, or maybe in other posts, just by me being more aware of your site.
If you are interested, let me know in the comments, or via the contact form.
(You can also apply at Google, although I’m not sure that will always be enabled.)
Going to Iowa
Going out-of-town for a three day weekend in Iowa City. A college friend is taking the plunge and getting married. Should be fun. Probably no posts over the weekend, but a major series of posts will be ready in the next week or so.
Official Warren Buffet Biography: “The Snowball” (Due: Sept 29th)
breaking news:
Official Warren Buffet biography due in Sept.
The 976-page book is being written by former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst Alice Schroeder, and is titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders.
Whew……
I thought Roger Lowenstein reached the pinnacle of Buffetology with his 1995 book, Buffet: The Making of an American Capitalist. It was so good, so gripping, I didn’t think I’d need to read another book on Buffet. But this one will be hard to ignore.
Why Do Boom/Bust Cycles Get Too Big?
Answer: The Blame Game
At least that is the conclusion of JK Galbraith in his book on the big crash:
"The real choice was between an immediate and deliberately engineered collapse and a more serious disaster later on. Someone would certainly be blamed for the ultimate collapse when it came. There was no question whatever as to who would be blamed should the boom be deliberately deflated."
The Great Crash 1929
That sounds as applicable today as it was back then. And I suspect this will be applicable to several more boom/bust cycles during my lifetime. But back to the present situation. Does the fact that we even have to ask, "Who Killed The Economy?" mean that we are in deeper trouble than if we did not? And if that is the case, what does a 16-player tournament say as an economic indicator?
Cast your vote in the "tournament" to see the results.
How Much Do You Save With CFL or LED Light Bulbs (Two Tools)
Would you rather save 10-15 cents for every $5 you spend, or 20-30 cents for every $4?
CFO’s observation of gas-lines at CostCo suggests we might prefer the smaller savings, if it applies to a higher (read: more painful) unit price. Even though the discount is twice as big in absolute terms and more than twice as big percentage-wise: 2%-3% vs. 5%-7.5%.
It sounds silly, but it is probably covered by a book like Predictably Irrational.
Anyway…
Tools @ MilkYourMoney includes a "Light Bulb Comparisons" spreadsheet
This is a neat little spreadsheet that calculates your monthly savings from CFLs and LEDs vs. Incandescent Light Bulbs. The amount of savings are interesting: noticeable monthly, more noticeable yearly, semi-substantial over the long haul.
But the thing that caught my eye was the assumption of $.10 per KWh. Was it reasonable? For better or worse, I pay more attention to the overall electric bill than how it is calculated. Not wanting to get up, I Googled the Average Retail Price of Electricity, by State (doe.gov)
It turns out my state is among the cheapest. Hooray, low expenses!
Hey, wait a minute… I’m saving less per CFL than everyone else…
Oh well, the savings can add up quickly no matter where you live.
Personal Finance Weekly Roundup #7
Favorites from my pages at StumbleUpon, delicious, PFbuzz, plus the carnivals.
Ramblings
150+ Personal Finance Blogs - the last "busiest bloggers" post… going out in style!
19 FREE Budgeting Spreadsheets - underrated post, relative to the one above it. 
Reading
- The Challenge The Fed And Our Economy Has
- Use Time Multipliers To Get Things Done
- The Financial Impact of a New Baby
- Frugal Things To Do In… (Your City)
- Stay Informed, Read Constantly
- Gold and Oil for Soros
Listening
A World of Personal Finance Bloggers - Marketplace Money interviews the bloggers behind pfBlueprint, BeingFrugal.net and Brip Blap. "The Vigland" is a pfblog junkie? How cool is that? You can catch this segment here.
Watching
On The Money with Carmen Wong Ulrich - I caught part of it, but not enough to review. In the meantime, MoneyMusings has the first look, "On The Money" Holds Promise.
Carnivals
Carnival of Personal Finance
featured: Personal Finance Bloggers Credit Card Survey
Ask Mr. Credit Card turns the tables and asks bloggers about their credt cards.
Festival of Frugality #137
featured: Watch For The MPG Illusion w/ Fuel Efficiency
This is very important to understand. Many people do not.
150+ Personal Finance Blogs: who are the busiest bloggers, the longest lasting, and the most popular?
Here is the new and improved version of last month’s "PF Blog Roundup" post.
It includes all personal finance blogs in my RSS reader with 10+ posts in July.
Why go to all this work? Well, it was fun, and some other people thought it was fun, so who am I to get in the way of fun? But practically, I discovered a ton of great blogs! Plus, I re-discovered a few that were not in my feed reader and should have been. Maybe you can find some new blogs, too.
Most Posts | Longest Lasting | Most Subscribers | A to Z
Who Had The Most Posts In July ‘08?
Who Has Been Blogging The Longest?
| Blog | Posts | Subscribers | Started | |
 |
Consumerism Commentary | 43 | Jul ‘03 | |
 |
I Will Teach You To Be Rich | 11 | Aug ‘04 | |
 |
Canadian Capitalist | 24 | Nov ‘04 | |
 |
Budgeting Babe | 13 | Nov ‘04 | |
 |
My Money Blog | 32 | Dec ‘04 | |
 |
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity | 72 | Jan ‘05 | |
|
My Open Wallet |