Friday, Jan 16 LinkStuff

Weight

182 pounds – down 1 pound from last week which is good.  Didn’t run this week because of knee problems which are hopefully temporary.

The Links

Jordan’s post this week on investing part of a house down payment in stocks reminded me of a Rob Carrick article on investing lessons learned over the past year.  One of the people mentioned was an investment advisor who advised a client to invest the proceeds of their recent house sale into equities even though they were planning to buy another house in a year.  I thought this was pretty bad advice and if I were that client, I’d be looking for a lawyer!  The most amazing thing is that the advisor used his name in the article – perhaps he should sign up for my other blog and learn something about investment time horizons?

Another article I read recently which quite amazed me was about student loans and unethical private loan companies.  While the premise of the article was interesting (students being taken advantage of by loan companies) the thing that blew me away was the student profiled.  She obtained a degree in photography in Santa Barbara and managed to rack up $140,000 in student loans!  Just to show that wasn’t a typo – $140,000 in student loans!!!!!

Who in their right mind would ever agree to graduate from a program with a ridiculous debt load like that?  I can see if you are in medicine or some guaranteed high-paying career path it might make sense, but for most people, it just doesn’t make any sense.

The blogs

Big Cajun Man had an interesting story about his recent layoff from Nortel and the fact that he was lucky to get out when he did.  Unfortunately employees who were more recently laid off (or are about to be laid off) might not get much of a severance package.

Jason from Frugal Dad has started blog about blogging called SideHustleBlogging.com – if you are interesting in blogging or the business behind it then check out this blog.

Million Dollar Journey had an interesting case study – a young couple provided their finances and wondered if they can afford a house.

Preet has some total return indices’ calendar returns for the last 15 years.  This is in Canadian dollars.

Financial Blogger explains why the markets are so volatile.

PFN and stuff

Money Ning is looking for advice on where he should live in 2009.

Blunt Money says that sometimes repairs are worthwhile in it’s going to cost more to fix it than it’s worth.

Squawkfox created a free printable workout log.

Canadian Capitalist reports that currency neutral funds are no bargain.

The Intelligent Speculator tells us about the flip side to leveraged ETFs.

Investing School explains the spread between the bid and ask prices for stocks.

ABCs of Investing wrote about setting financial goals and variable and fixed annuities and stock splits.

Carnivals

Carnival of Financial Planning was held at the Skilled Investor.