Inspired by Neville’s exceedingly entertaining Lottery Experiment, I went out and bought a lottery ticket of my own while pumping my barely sub-$3 gas. Notice I said a lottery ticket, ’cause I am a cheap bastard and dislike playing games of chance where the odds are stacked against me. Ok, I’m ready to scratch… (I had no access to a Canadian quarter so it was up to my trusty non-flawed American one…)
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If there anything to be learned from the headlines today, it’s that now is the time to decide what kind of medical treatment you want, as there may be a time when you won’t be able to decide for yourself. And that’s exactly what it is. Your decision. Not your spouse’s, not your parents’, not W’s. Wills and estate planning are something that everyone know that they should do, but an Advance Directive can be even more important.
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If there anything to be learned from the headlines today, it’s that now is the time to decide what kind of medical treatment you want, as there may be a time when you won’t be able to decide for yourself. And that’s exactly what it is. Your decision. Not your spouse’s, not your parents’, not W’s. Wills and estate planning are something that everyone know that they should do, but an Advance Directive can be even more important.
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Ugh. What a long Monday. Worked on Saturday too. And it’s not just me. the average middle income family now works four months more in total hours than they did in 1979. Some 80% of men and 62% of women work more than 40 hours a week, and almost 40% of Americans now work more than 50 hours a week.*

According to this website, the French have an average of 25 paid vacation days a year, while the Germans get 30 days. Even the Japanese get 18 days. The U.S.? An average of 12 days. Me? 10 days. Bummer. I love how they call it “two weeks”. To me, two weeks = 14 days!
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It seems that MyMoneyBlog as been named one of the “Ten Money Blogs Everyone Should Read” by Yahoo!’s Tech Insider, with MyMoneyBlog topping the list! No idea why they picked me, and I don’t think the rankings actually mean anything, but it’s still cool.

For those that are new – Here is my most recent financial snapshot, which lists all of my assets and liabilities. Here is some information about me. And here is my mid-term goal. My long-term goal is to retire early with $1.5 mil by age 55. Enjoy and take a look around!

(Update: The video is no longer on the front page. To see it, visit here, and scroll down to the article titled “Blogs Expose Personal Finances”. For some reason, I also notice that she’s the only woman pictured. Weird.)

Wow. I just got a chance to check my personal e-mail and I am flabbergasted to find out that MyMoneyBlog and PFBlog has been mentioned by name on CBS Marketwatch! Sweet! To see the clip, go to Marketwatch.com and click on the video on the right. I had to turn up the sound really low, as to not give away that this is my blog (to protect my privacy as is mentioned in the video). Interviewed was Terri Cullen, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, who also wrote the article “Blogs Expose Personal Finance: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, which is available temporarily for free to read at http://wsj.com/free.
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I wanted to extend a warm welcome this beautiful Sunday morning to all my visitors. I’ve gotten a noticeable increase in comments and visitors recently, most likely due to recent mentions at BusinessWeek.com, WallStreet Journal Online (link good until Thursday for non-subscribers), and Russ Beattie’s Notebook. I hope everyone can get something from my ramblings, and I encourage people to share their comments!

Here is an interesting little quiz from Checkfree, a popular provider of online bill-paying software. It’s basically about how you handle money. My results: 63.6% Controller, 18.2% Traditionalist, Trend Setter 9.1%, Adventurer 9.1%. I think I’m actually even more controlling, but I rent and I hate doing my taxes so I put it off.

There is a little form at the end (I put in junk) and then they give you some “strategies” to help your finances, which look a lot like company-sponsored links to me. I suupose it’s worth a read. There were a couple of sites I’ve never heard of before, however, such as ThinkGlink.
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I spent absolutely no time today thinking about personal finance or investing, and it was great. (Well, maybe a bit now.) Just a great day out walking and having a bar-b-que with friends. Therefore, I thought I’d put out a couple links to some new sites I’ve bookmark’ed recently.

WellSpent – Personal Finance blogs have gone mainstream, and BusinessWeek has their own. The topics covered are very varied, which is a nice change of pace. MyMoneyBlog even got a brief mention a few days ago, neat! 🙂
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This post has been updated and moved here – 0% apr balance transfers with no fees.

This post should be posted remotely…

A few days ago, a visitor VJ posted a some good questions and points in a comment in this thread. Here is his post again:

Great blog, and very impressive and logical thoughts given your relative newness to the topic!

I work in finance, but in institutional research, so my knowledge of personal finance issues is slightly limited, but my grounding is pretty good. A couple of ideas/thoughts:

1) My company has its 401ks with Fidelity. Fidelity has “asset allocation” funds which are indexed blends of stock and bond which have various “maturities.” That is, if you plan to retire in 2010, you have mostly a bond mix, and if you plan to retire in 2050, you have mostly a stock mix, and by 2045 the 2050-fund will look kind of like the 2010-fund looks today; they become more conservative over time. Sounds like an intriguing product and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

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