Link Round-up – Thanks In Advance edition

  Hello everyone, today I want to take pause and share with you some good stuff from other sites I’ve been keeping an eye on.  I hope you’ll check out the efforts from these talented and insightful folks. I also want to call your attention to a 2 part series I am launching next week on the issue of Healthcare Reform.  The timing of last weekend’s vote and my article is ironic...

Crap On A Bun Is Still A Bad Sandwich

  A couple months ago I wrote an article asking if your money likes you.  In a transitive way, I was really asking if you like your money.  Of course you may think that you like your money, but your actions are often the final arbiter. I’ll let you have the morsel for free, because today I want to spend some time talking about a group that I know who does love your money – Retailers. Of course...

Too Smart For Their Own Good

  I was listening to a Dave Ramsey show podcast and just had to offer up a brief rant about one of the callers.  It seems that this couple was calling under the guise of wanting to buy a larger home and did not know if they were ready.  That is not such an unusual question and Ramsey certainly has a sound theory on the characteristics that indicate when someone is ‘ready’. However, as he started...

Happy Recession Anniversary

  A couple weeks ago I read an interesting article in Smart Money entitled Lessons from the Crash.  While the specifics of the story were geared towards those given to single stock investing, it was more the premise that caught my imagination. The set up was the top 5 lessons investors have learned over the past 12 months, the spiritual if not literal anniversary of the downturn. So that got me to...

Consumptive Footprint

  I remember a day in the late 90′s.  More precisely, I remember a particular episode of self talk back in the summer of 1998.  At the time I was living in St. Louis and was only a couple short years out of grad school.  I don’t know exactly what prompted this specific contemplation but it was about money.  It was often about money in those days.  I was learning about money but in...

$8,000 First-time Homebuyer Refundable Tax Credit

  If you’ve been reading here long, you might guess that I am no fan of social programs.  However, I am a fan of taking advantage of opportunities as they are provided… provided your use of such  offerings is moving you in a positive direction.  A personal example I’ll share related to Obama’s spending plan or stimulus attempt back in the first of the year.  Part of this...