Dec 20th, 2008
December 20, 2008 Link Payday
Welcome to the it’s almost the holiday edition of the Link Payday for December 20, 2008–your last link payday of the year! I just finished my holiday shopping and I’m in the midst of considering helping mom refinance her house (for the second time). While I attend to that, here’s some of the best posts in the personal finance blogosphere over the last couple of weeks:
Larry Swedroe shared his Thoughts on the Madoff Scandal over at All Financial Matters. He gives a nicely detailed account of what appears to be a gigantic–if not the most gigantic–Ponzi scheme. While I appreciate the detail and the points made, I think it can be summed up pretty simply: if it seems to good to be true, it is.
Mrs. Micah, who recently started a new job, writes that Building Discipline Sucks. She is correct in the sense that it takes dedication and hard work to get to your goals. I am currently working my way through a book on just this type of topic…
Frugal Dad breaks down some pretty simple actions that you can do when he tells you how to Improve Your Financial Life with Five Daily Actions. I’m proud to say I’m doing four of the five and am working on doing all five very soon.
Moolanomy considers When is the Best Time to Buy Bonds? This is an important question, although if you, like me, believe that market timing of any kind is a loser’s game, then it’s always a good time to buy bonds. The author does cover asset allocation a bit in his discussion; to me, I would say that it’s important to consider the quality of your bonds (especially after this subprime mess) as much as anything, which leads me to Ginnie Mae bond funds.
Finally, I have to say that I love this picture in my buddy Kyle’s post over at Rather Be Shopping–his “Un”Frugalist Picture of the Day. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve owned that many shoes in the last five years, let alone at one time. I do, however, admit to buying a bunch of Reeboks that was on sale for $10 at Sears a bunch of years ago–eleven pairs, all in my size. I didn’t need to buy any more work shoes for almost a decade!
And that’s your December 20, 2008 Link Payday!
