Category: Announcements

Weight today was 183 pounds – bad, bad and bad! Although I have been doing some running, my diet has been slipping quite a bit over the last two weeks so I need to buckle down on that. Tonight we are going out for our Valentine’s Day dinner so I’ll ease up for that but otherwise I’m going to really concentrate on the diet.

I did my first guest post ever over at a new blog about blogging called Blogthority. I did a post on how to grow a new blog efficiently. If you are a new blogger or wanna-be blogger (or just can’t believe that I did a guest post) then check it out.

Gather Little By Little did an excellent three part series on buying a new car. This mostly has to do with the negotiation portion which is the key component. I’ve never been much of a negotiator so posts like this will definitely help me out next time I buy a car.

Part I deals with researching a car and test drives.
Part II involves preparing for the negotiation.
Part III details how to conduct the actual negotiation with the car salesman.

Carnival of Personal Finance was held at The Financial Blogger – a good friend of this site so go check it out!

Festival of Frugality was held at The Might Bargain Hunter.

I got tagged by Pinyo over at Moolanomy for the book meme that has been infecting the blogosphere lately.

Here are the Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people to repeat this pointless exercise.

Ok the book is “Barbarians at the Gate” – a rather excellent 1990 account of the takeover of RJR Nabisco. I’m thinking of doing a full review of this book.

Here are the three sentences:

Johnson told Sage to call Shearson and light a fire under Project Stretch. Hill’s team had already begun the arduous task of cataloging the values of RJR Nabisco’s businesses; Johnson wanted the homework done by mid-September so they could quickly begin looking at the possibility of an LBO. Sage called Benevento and directed him to pull out the old LBO studies again.

As for tagging more people? Forget it – I don’t mind the occasional meme but this one is just a complete waste of time. Did you get anything from those three sentences? I didn’t either! 🙂

This week the weight was 181.0 – up two pounds from last week.  The diet wasn’t so great this week, especially Valentine’s day. Went running three times which is quite good.

Woolly Woman is encouraging other bloggers to donate to the SOS Children’s Village charity so Cheap & I took back all our empties and managed a $20 donation on behalf of the blog. I don’t really have any particular charity that I give to on a regular basis so when someone comes along and suggests a charity then I’m usually pretty happy to donate (unless you are at my front door).

Wisdom Journal had a great post about a frugal Valentine which really could describe any day of the week. Dog lovers are required to check it out.

The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by My Dollar Plan and she was kind enough to give our post Why ETFs Are Better Than Mutual Funds a special mention.

I was recently over at Mike’s house for dinner and, after I’d discovered and drank the beer he tried to hide from me, we got talking about the blog. One idea I’d had was a VERY infrequent 4P podcast (once or twice a year). For those of you living in 2007, podcasts are basically just audio files that you play on your computer or you can download to your iPod. You’d play it whenever you want (it wouldn’t be a “live” show) and it’d be like a radio show starring those wacky Four Pillars characters.

In terms of a general show format, Mike and I would convert our advertising revenue into beer, setup a microphone, then talk about finances while we drank. The show would end when we are intoxicated enough that I’m ranting about gender-specific, single-user washrooms (they make NO sense!) and Mike is talking about how much he loves cheese. Maybe we’d throw in a prank phone call to another Canadian PF blog while we’re sober enough to dial.

Mike wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about the idea and was worried that beyond the novelty of what we sound like there wouldn’t be much interest. If this *IS* something you’d be interested in, please leave a comment below to try to convince Mike. Say something about what you’d want to hear in the show (if you just want to hear what we sound like, make something up). Format or topic ideas would both be good or even just a “sounds good, you should do it” comment. Hopefully if there’s enough interest Mike may change his mind (or I’ll just wear a hidden microphone next time we hang out).

Just wanted to welcome Price Canada on board as a new sponsor. They are an online site with lots of deals so feel free to check them out at PriceCanada.com or you can click on the rather large banner to your right.

Weight today was 179.0 pounds – no change from last week.

Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Paid Twice – an upbeat debt reduction blog. She featured Mr. Cheap’s post “Saying no is hard to do” in her Superbowl edition.

Festival of Frugality was hosted by Being Frugal – a frugal type of blog. My book review on the Two Income Trap was included in her competing Superbowl edition.

Gather Little by Little wrote a great article on how to buy a new car. I’ve always been the kind of person who is a pretty easy mark for a good salesperson. I’ve been working on not being that mark, but the result is that now I don’t trust a single thing anybody who I don’t know says to me. 🙂

In keeping with the shady practices theme – Thicken My Wallet wrote a great piece on deceptive sales practices which of course also really hit close to home for me. I need to tape this to my front door (both sides).

The best advice from TMW’s column was “A GOOD CON HAPPENS QUICKLY- ASK A CON TO BE PATIENT AND THEY WILL USUALLY DISAPPEAR”.

Pinyo from Moolanomy had his monthly “Ask The Expert with Larry Swedroe” column – I have to say that Larry Swedroe really knows what the heck he is talking about. I’ve been asking him questions over the last couple of months and I think he is worthy of my questions 🙂 If anyone out there has any investment style questions that they want answered by someone who actually know what they are talking about (vs the yahoos that write on this blog) then feel free to submit any questions you want.

Weight today is 179.0 pounds down another half pound from last week. I did great on exercise this week as I went jogging three times but also enjoyed too many late night snacks!

I was fortunate this week to win THREE books by Richard Ferri from an excellent investing site called The Dough Roller – authored by Rob whom you might know as one half of that wacky couple known as the Two Wise Acres (just for the record they are not an actual couple). I was planning to read his asset allocation book anyways since I have read rave reviews so I was pretty excited with this win.

Home Finance Series: Mortgages and the Real Cost of Ownership

Rocket Finance did the roundup for the excellent series on home ownership.

Two Wise Acres wrote about avoiding foreclosure by thinking like investors.

My Two Dollars posted My Thoughts On This Whole Mortgage Crisis And Why I Don’t Feel That Bad. This excellent post explains why David is a bit annoyed that people who overbought are getting helped by the government while fiscally responsible people (like him) don’t get anything.

Finance Freelance Life explains how renting a home and buying a home are not as different as they seem in Why renting is right for us right now.

Rocket Finance has a great post about his own real estate mistakes.

My Dollar Plan (yes, the one with 181 financial accounts) tells us a very unusual story of how she has an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) and not only is she happy with it – she doesn’t blame her mortgage broker, the government or space aliens for the fact that she has one.

Moolanomy explains Debt-To-Income Ratio and Why It Matters. This post covers why you shouldn’t spend too much of your net income on your house.

Millionaire Money Habits tries to decide between investing in stocks or real estate in Catch a Falling Knife – Buying the Housing Slump.

PaidTwice wrote an interesting post on the “Can we afford it” mentality which gets into the problem of people deciding if they can afford something (such as a house) based entirely on the monthly payments.

Debt Free Revolution talks about how maybe it’s not such a good idea to take advantage of increased equity in your house by paying off credits cards with a HELOC. (Home equity line of credit).

Remodeling This Life wrote a post about how she and her husband bought a house and totally gutted it. This post brought bad some unpleasant memories for me because of our own fixer-upper experience. She has a fair bit of advice and warnings for anyone who wants to buy a fixer upper.

Being Frugal wrote Frugal Hacks For Your Home. Looks like a “hack” is a tip.

Plonkee Money asks why anyone outside the US should care about the subprime mortgage crisis.

Cash Money Life explains how mortgage escrow accounts work. These are more common in the US although I have heard of house insurance payments being combined with mortgage payments. In a related article he discusses how his mortgage payment dropped recently because of changes in the escrow liability amounts.

Single Guy Money talks about the real cost of home ownership.

That Damned Rent vs. Buy Question @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

Predatory Mortgage Lending and the Subprime Market @ Chance Favors

After Foreclosure Guide to Housing: It Ain’t Easy @ DebtKid

Credit Withdrawal talks about how to avoid foreclosure.

Carnivals This Week

Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by The Dividend Guy and we made the editor’s pick with our 4% Retirement Rule post.

Festival of Frugality was hosted by Finance Freelance Life and we also made the editor’s pick with our For Sale By Owner – The Wrong Way post.

Subscribe to Comments

You might have noticed that we have added a “Subscribe to Comments” box under the comments box. This feature is so that you can get email updates of any subsequent comments. Keep in mind that you don’t have to leave a comment to subscribe – simply enter the email and check the box. It’s also very easy to unsubscribe in case you don’t want to get any more email comments – just click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of the email.

Money Matters for All Ages Group Project

If you haven’t check out this series then either click on the links below or check out My Dollar Plan’s excellent series outline. The series covers money management for different age groups from birth to retirement.

The Complete Guide My Dollar Plan

Introduction at My Dollar Plan
Preschoolers at I’ve Paid for This Twice Already
Personal Finance for Children and Pre-Teens at Being Frugal
Teenagers at Gather Little by Little AND Money Advice to My Teenage Son at DebtFREE-Revolution
College Age at Finance Freelance Life
The Twenties at Remodeling This Life and more Twenties at Cash Money Life
The Thirties at Moolanomy and more Thirties at My Two Dollars
The Forties at Credit Withdrawal
The Fifties at Millionaire Money Habits and more Fifties at Credit Withdrawal
The Sixties and beyond at Chance Favors
Retirement at Plonkee Money and right here!