PF Bloggers’ Weekly Roundup

There are times I sit back and am awestruck at how much there is to say about personal finance. I follow a few dozen PF bloggers, and week after week, they offer, as I try to, a new spin on every aspect of finance.

I’m also reminded I need to keep updating my popular List of Lists, as the new ones are pretty list-worthy. This week’s Ten Myths About Money That You Cannot Afford to Ignore offers a nice myth list including “You Can Time The Market” (uh, not really) and “Gold Is The Best Hedge Against Inflation” (not so, it barely kept up with inflation since 1933.) Two myths I question are “Living Costs Will Fall In Retirement” (I think it depends on the individual. Half my income goes to Mortgage/Retirement saving/College savings so I expect our expenses will drop on retiring as these expenses go away) and “The Reward Points On Your Credit Card Are Worth It” (I agree it’s a myth if you are paying interest and fees. Me, I’ve not paid a cent for either.) A great list by Hank at Own The Dollar.

Wise Breads post 9 Money Saving Reasons to Buy a Food Dehydrator may not make the List, but it does make me want to get my dehydrator out and dry some things. When I first bought it, a decade ago, I remember buying grapes on sale at the height of the season and making huge raisins that were delicious. I also turned cans of sliced pineapple slices into the best dried fruit ever. No sulphur, which gives some people a headache, and no preservatives.

As the father of a soon to be 11 year old, the concept of wants vs needs is a recurring theme, so Budgets are Sexy’s Wants vs. Needs: What’s the difference? was pretty timely for me. I need to have Jane 2.0 read it and perhaps prompt her to guest post her take on this.

Debt Hawk helps us plan ahead with 10 Ways To Prepare For A Layoff. You say your job is secure? Really? Is anyone’s? Read this post and heed the advice. Better that you should get a head start on this, getting re-employed even a week sooner and banking that severance. And if the layoff doesn’t come, you may still find the advice you pick up to land you a better position.

Next, Baker from Man vs Debt is now a staff writer at Get Rich Slowly. This week he offers 11 Ways to Spice Up Your Emergency Fund, in which he once again takes an old (even boring) topic and gives it a new spin, getting you thinking about how you can approach this from a different angle. As always, a pleasure reading my friend, Baker.

Mrs Micah asks (and answers) What Can and Can’t Your Credit Card (Company) Do? discussing the new laws the CARD act introduces, and how the credit card companies can’t gouge you quite so much as they used to. She also provides a further link to a slideshow which offers more detail on this new law.

Last, Kay Bell, author of Don’t Mess with Taxes alerted her readers that congress may implement a sugar tax in her post Soda tax support from doctors. I commented that I find such a tax, in fact any tax on food or necessary staples, to be regressive as the poor spend a higher portion of their income on these items.

My thanks to all my fellow bloggers for such an interesting week.
Joe