Archive for the ‘5 Things You Should Read’ Category
5 Things You Should Read
Posted by: Todd Metheny in 5 Things You Should Read on September 4th, 2009
A few hours after this post goes live, I’ll be boarding a plane to Dallas for my cousin’s wedding. In honor of that, and the sound of my bed calling me to it, I’m going to keep this intro brief and launch right into the five things you should read:
1. The article Cash4Gold doesn’t want you to read @ The Consumerist – I know that title may not make you want to read this post. You might be thinking, I don’t have any gold I want to sell so who cares. Read this. You’ll be impressed by how awesome The Consumerist is.
2. Hey Congress Why Don’t You @ Taxgirl – This is a series by the readers of suggestions to Congress about ways to change the tax code. I linked to getting rid of taxes for dividends because that’s the one I most agree with;) This entire blog is phenomenal though. Taxgirl has a nice writing style. Head over and read some of her own posts. Good stuff.
3. US makes $4 billion from bailout of banks @ Yahoo Finance – What do you know? They’re turning a profit. While that’s not what the US government should be doing (lending money for profit). It’s not the worst outcome I can think of. Taxpayers aren’t getting raked over the coals the way that many pundits said we were.
4. 20 Free Stock Trades with Zecco @ The Digerati Life – I saw this posted several different places, and I almost wrote a blog post about it. In the end, I decided that I would just link to someone. If you’re thinking about opening an account somewhere, it’s tough to beat this deal from Zecco.
5. Hedging Against the Declining Dollar @ Tough Money Love – This isn’t a brand new post, but the advice doesn’t make any less sense than it did a couple months ago. TML is actually one of my favorite blogs, but I actually think Grumpy Money would be a better name for it. Optimism isn’t his thing. It’s a good (grumpy) read anyway. Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.
5 Things You Should Read
Posted by: Todd Metheny in 5 Things You Should Read on August 28th, 2009
As I’m sure you know, Senator Ted Kennedy died earlier this week. However you feel about his politics, it’s hard to dispute the impact the Kennedy’s have had on American politics. It’s a family history that is rife with tragedy. I have no desire to make this blog political. I will say that I do have a special affection for the speech Robert Kennedy gave in Indianapolis the night MLK was assassinated – it’s one of the best, if not the best speech I’ve ever heard. In any case, I wish all the best to the Kennedy’s and their family. All things have a beginning and ending. Perhaps the sun has set on their political dynasty. In honor of the former lawmaker, several of our must reads are law related. Without further ado, here are some things you should read:
1. Mexico legalizes drug possession @ The NY Times – This is an interesting approach. Amsterdam’s approach is a little bit different, allowing drugs only in controlled areas and environments. This is broader, and includes “harder drugs,” including small amounts of cocaine and heroin. Drugs are a major problem in Mexico. I wonder what affect this will have. I have often heard it theorized that legalizing marijuana would save us a lot of money in the legal system, as well as adding lots of tax revenue to the country. Amsterdam has extremely low incidents of violent crime, but lots of pick pockets and petty crimes. We’ll see if a “small amount” of heroin has the same affect on people in Mexico that marijuana has in Amsterdam.
2. CSI Fraud: Researchers Craft Fake DNA evidence @ Ars Technica – I don’t know if this scares you, but it scares me. Being wrongfully accused of a crime is scary. Being wrongfully accused of a crime where they have DNA evidence against you is downright terrifying. Also scary is the new difficulty prosecutors will have in getting convictions. DNA evidence won’t be the overwhelming, automatic conviction that it has been historically.
3. Man Executed for Arson Murders, Experts Say Fire Wasn’t Arson @ PoliGazette – Staying with the theme, check out this story about a man that was executed for arson…but now no one thinks it’s arson. Best argument against the death penalty I’ve heard is – what if you’re wrong? There’s not really a good comeback for that. I agree that there are bad people that can’t coexist with the good people, but you’d better be pretty careful if you’re going to execute those bad people.
4. How Much is Your Time Really Worth @ Weakonomics – This is a good post about how to decide whether to hire someone. I especially like that he suggests considering the cost of acquiring the skills to do the job. This is a great suggestion because once you know how to do something, you can do it again in the future at no additional cost. Plus, you could now potentially be hired to do whatever you were going to hire someone else for. The only thing I would add – it’s not just the absolute cost or value of your time that matters – it also matters how much you value the luxury of not doing something. I park my car instead of using valet because I don’t value someone parking my car enough to require the extra expenditure. If it were very painful for me to walk, or if I were wearing a tuxedo and it was raining really hard (no umbrella), or insert exigent circumstance here – I might value having someone park my car more highly.
Understanding the Federal Budget @ Get Rich Slowly – Very nice, simple post on how the Federal Budget works. Check it out and be educated. Thanks for reading.
5 Things You Should Read
Posted by: Todd Metheny in 5 Things You Should Read on August 17th, 2009
I hope you're reading this a few yards from her.
I haven’t been doing a weekly link post for a while now. I’m not really sure why. In some ways, I really like doing them, and I usually posted them on Friday, when traffic is a little lower than throughout the week. I’m bringing them back, and I’m changing the name from This Week in Review to 5 Things You Should Read. This week is the exception, as obviously this is going up on a Monday. In the future, I plan on slotting it in on Fridays. I’ll use the intro as an opportunity to talk about whatever I want, then give you the links and a few words about each one. I quit doing this for a while simply because a lot of the time I had things that I felt were more pressing.
Just as a quick note on why most bloggers have one of these posts each week (often called a Roundup or Review). Bloggers do this for a couple of reason. One is sort of a courtesy to one another. If you have traffic, and find a blog that you like, it makes sense to share it with your readers. We aren’t competing against each other, because, after all, you can read a lot more than one blog. The other part of that courtesy is that links into your site helps your Google Page Rank, which in turn helps your search traffic within Google. Page Rank is essentially based on the premise that the most important sites on the web are the sites that have been linked to the most. They keep track of inbound links on a site and also consider how important the linking sites are. This site, for instance, has a Google PR of 3 (It goes up to 10). As site like Wikipedia or something would be a 10 (I didn’t look it up, I’m assuming).
By linking to these other bloggers, I’m theoretically helping their page rank. In turn, if I write something they find useful, they might link to me. I won’t ever link to something just because I think there’s a chance another blogger will link to me. I only link to article that I think are legitimately useful or interesting, or that will be of particular interest to my readers (for instance, some of my readers with a value investing slant might like Old School Value). I often link to bloggers that specifically don’t do link roundups frequently (some bloggers don’t – like Penelope Trunk – who I’ve linked to many times). Anyway, if you don’t blog, I hope that gives insight into why you see so many link based post on people’s blogs. I honestly think it can be valuable, and I like the idea of Friday being a day where you catch up and have the opportunity to read all the best stuff I came across over the course of the week. Without further ado…
Your Home Never Was an Investment @ Free Money Finance – The best piece of advice I saw in this article was not to buy more home than you need. You don’t need a huge house for 2-4 people. You can only be in so many rooms at once. I would also like to point out that my home is an investment. I bought a two-family home in a thriving rental market and live in the top unit. The bottom unit produces $730 (more than $100 below market, as a favor) per month in income each month. Our unit, if we chose to leave at some point, could produce about $950 per month in rental income. In my opinion, that’s an investment. Otherwise, I agree with the premise that the home you live in isn’t an investment.
Top 7 Recession Indicators @ The Huffington Post – If you’ve never read The Huffington Post, where have you been? It’s one of the biggest political blogs on the web, and thousands of household names have written guest posts there. It was also one of Time’s Best Blogs of 2009. It has a liberal slant on the issues. If that bothers you, it may not be for you. Check out their readers’ cleverly compiled recession ending indicators either way.
How Outlet Malls Fool Shoppers @ The Consumerist – One of my favorite publications is Consumer Reports. I rarely make a purchase without consulting with the online version of their magazine. The Consumerist is a free resource owned by Consumer Reports that serves as sort of a consumer watchdog. If a company is ripping someone off, The Consumerist makes sure that people know about it. This is just a random sample – but did you know that companies intentionally make poorer products to sell at their outlet malls (which are also strategically placed in order to maximize your spending). Check out this article.
Thinking of Starting Your Own Thing? Here’s Why I failed @ Brazen Careerist – Caitlin McCabe tells us why she feels her initial attempt at starting her own business failed. It’s an excellent article. This is part of the reason I’ve started doing the entrepreneur interviews here – you can’t replace the experience of doing something.
In Defense of the Oracle of Omaha @ Seeking Alpha – For whatever reason, people certain people in the media like to go after Buffett. I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read saying his investing style is dead, or that he’s washed up, that he’s lost his touch, etc. etc. etc. I can’t really understand why – he’s a real sweetheart. I read Roger Lowenstein’s biography (one of my favorite books I have ever read) – and this didn’t just start. This has been going on his entire career. There’s a certain segment of the population that wants to seem him fail. Now that he’s back on the way up, people are rushing to his defense. Some of us never left.
Next week’s 5 Things You should Read will be posted on a Friday. Have a great week and thanks for reading.
