Blog roundup #2: Carnivals, how retirement can save you $32k a year, and more “common cents” from the web

Blog roundup #2: Carnivals, how retirement can save you $32k a year, and more “common cents” from the web

In case you haven’t been introduced to a blog carnival, let this be your introduction: The Carnival of Personal Finance #155 – Time With Family, hosted over at Moolanomy. A carnival is a great way of seeing a network of interesting topics you might not otherwise stumble upon. My recent introduction to interviewing Gen X is posted under the finance subcategory.

Another worthwhile carnival is the money hacks carnival. My post on saving money by having an outside of the box wedding is featured here.

On to some of my favorite common “cents” over the past couple weeks:

Meg at All Financial Matters talks about the end of the world as we know it, aka the personal finance brain drain for our generation, a topic near and dear to Our Common Cents. One of the biggest reasons I started writing this blog was to educate Gen Xers about personal finance, something I saw that was drastically lacking in the world. This is an article/vent I highly recommend reading and posting a comment.

I can’t get enough of Tim Ferris. I spent several hours of a recent vacation reading his bestseller The Four Hour Workweek, and although I do not agree with all of his principles, I couldn’t turn away… while on vacation… in Florida. (I know, I know, what’s wrong with me?) At times, Tim’s writing can be a bit in-your-face and a tad egocentric, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that he is just a fascinating guy. Perhaps it’s my desire to have self-sufficient sources of income with very little effort, but I think it’s really more a desire to pursue my vagabond dreams.

Luckily, I’m not alone. JD over at Get Rich Slowly seems to have also latched onto my undying infatuation, and has been running several interviews and articles lately on Tim. The most recent story was how to take a mini retirement tips and tricks. The most important quote on this article was that Tim “saved $32k by living overseas instead of sitting on the couch in SF Bay watching cable.” It was enough to fulfill my Tim Ferriss obsession for the week (don’t worry, Mr. Cents, you’re still the object of my affection! Now about that vacation to Buenos Aires….)

Gen X Finance is one of my new favorite blogs in the PF world (can you guess why?) The best way to describe his no-nonsense approach to finance is a financial whack in the head. In a recent article about increasing sales of SPAM during the astronomic rise in food prices, he outlines why buying SPAM to save money doesn’t make sense. It’s just the kind of common cents we need to keep us grounded.

Happy cents-able reading! (Note to self – no more puns….at least until next week.)