Father Sez

This week I did not participate in any Carnival. I really must get back into the groove.

Meanwhile these are the posts that piqued my mind this last week.  

Being Frugal wrote an inspiring post on the importance of tenacity and having a good coach when we work to achieve our dreams. She used her apparently not so athletic daughter’s participation in football as an example. Liz (against her mother’s expectations) is now in her 6^th season and seems to be thoroughly enjoying the game. 

Perhaps her mother’s encouragement also had a sizeable role to play in this? 

RocketC writes about his progress on a land contract for the house he has in Wisconsin. The deal fell through due to disagreements on purchase price. RocketC displays some numbers for us to suggest whether he was right in letting the potential buyer walk. I have no idea about the Wisconsin property market so I can’t be of much help.

However, we have just sold our house and the final tipping point was when we became a little more realistic about prices.  

I enjoyed Emily’s piece on achieving financial health being more of a journey rather than a series of targets to hit. I have been following this school of thought as far as my overall financial standing is concerned.  I admit there are tons of positives in making specific targets, like reducing debt by this amount by this time, spending within this limit etc.

Some of these kind of goals, I do make. But I have yet to make that specific all encompassing mother of all pf goals….”My passive income must be more than my expenses every month which is ……., by the — day of —-, 20??.” Maybe I should. 

Ron over at the Wisdom Journal has posted on how to live debt free. Reading the article, I would think that following Ron’s advice should ensure that we survive almost every contingency, including a financial tsunami.  

Rich at the Business Opportunities Weblog showcases a great business idea. BookMooch.com is a book exchange site which gives points to givers of books and allows the points to be used to get other books. Ideas like this forces one to think of parallel possibilities, perhaps with other products or maybe other countries. (BookMooch does allow for international transactions.) 

Rich is providing a sterling service by ferreting out all these kind of ideas and posting them for all of us. He also posts about marketing, service and other operational issues.  His blog should be a must read for all intending, budding and established entrepreneurs.  

Steve had taken the bold step of becoming a professional blogger.  I have been an avid follower of his blog for quite some time now and thoroughly enjoy his writing. Steve has always struck me as a man with independence right up there in his list of wants. He also appears to me as a meticulous planner and I have no doubt he will be a success. 

Rina over at Azrinaaznan.com, a fellow Malaysian blogger, is reviewing all her options now that she has completed Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. She appears to be doing a “zero base” plan and tells us that we should not be too shocked should she decide to eliminate blogging.   I have always found Rina’s chirpiness and enthusiasm infectious and hope that she works out her dream plan. And I certainly hope that she’ll continue blogging.

This is all for the week, guys. Have a great and very happy weekend!

It has been a nice easy week. Blogging took a back seat. Though I kept up with the “Reader”, I did not do any posts.  I could really get used to this!

Meanwhile here are some of the more interesting stuff I ran into this week. 

Get Rich Slowly had a post on an “el cheapo” way to exterminate ants. I must try this method. We, too, have an ant problem. Malaysians are peculiar in welcoming certain type of ants. My wife would say, “Hey, look at this row of black ants. We are in for a windfall”, or stuff like that. 

Lately we have been having an invasion of those tiny red ants. We have been told that the heavy rains are driving them out of their homes, and they are a real pain when they sting. (Judging by the comments, it looks like lots of people have ant problems.)

I am not sure of our hardware shops carry the product JD swears by, i.e. Terro, but his advice is worth checking out. Thanks, JD. 

FMF has a thought provoking question. “What is the best way to make more money?” FMF has also displayed for us his thought process in choosing the option he wanted.  This is a question I have asked myself late last year and have decided on an answer.

It may be useful for all of us to ask ourselves this question regularly as we work on crafting our goals. 

The Million Dollar Journey chronicled the story of his childhood friend who had a passion for restaurants and was just about to launch one. His friend had also started a blog on his journey into restauranting. (Is there such a word?) 

I have a good friend who talks about his dreams in the food business. Though he is clearly passionate about the business, he has yet to make any start. Maybe the Restaurant Blog will be just the thing the doctor ordered. 

Flexo at the Consumerism Commentary asks us whether we are missing out on life by being frugal. This dilemma has lately played out in my life a little and another is also looming ahead. When my mother passed away, I just used my credit card and charged the air tickets. No looking for cheaper fares etc. The handphone bills for last month have also hit the roof due to the almost every 15 minute calls I was getting from my brothers on my location during the longer than expected bus journey. All at international roaming rates.  

I am just grateful that I could afford not having to worry about the expenses too much at this unfortunate time.  

Now we are facing my eldest girl’s graduation. Though this will be in an UK University, it is a once in a lifetime event for her and no way am I going to let this pass, frugal or no frugal. At the very least, her mother will attend this event.  

This is all for this week.

Cheers and have a great weekend, folks     

Finally, I gave up and just clicked the outstanding pile of posts in my reader as “read”. The wonders of technology! I felt as if a major burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I don’t know how to explain this. I owed no one any obligation to read the posts. Yet, just because they were THERE, I felt as if I would be doing something wrong by not reading them.  

I must have missed a number of great articles, and that would be my loss. At least, I am back to start again. Still, I managed to catch some interesting reads.   

Steve at Brip Blap ponders over the religious influences his 2 year old son is getting whilst attending preschool. Whilst listing several plus points for the school, this seems to be the one negative weighing on his mind. Almost all the comments were for him to take it easy. Let the little fella enjoy himself and his mother (who is expecting) have a well deserved rest whilst he is in school. I also take the view that perhaps Steve is taking it a little too seriously. 

When I first read this post, I looked for the date…nope, it was not April 1^st.  Lily has declared that she is done with blogging. As a former investment banker, she is well qualified to write about finance, and she has a really neat and cool looking blog. I became an avid follower of her blog after reading her thundering piece in defense of personal finance bloggers. I wish her all the best and hope that she will reconsider her decision and perhaps blog as and when she feels like it. 

Mrs. M wrote a piece on preparing an alien abduction manual for Mr. M to follow in case she was suddenly beamed away by some aliens. Madison at the Dollar Plan has also earlier voiced out her thoughts on a “similar matter” in the form of a letter to her dear husband. This is a very interesting thought, and I’ll have to follow up on Mrs. M progress reports on her manual as it takes shape.  

This story by David on survival after leaving his high paying but incredibly stifling corporate job without another gig in hand is reassuring. I have my plans to do the same. I believe I have planned for it reasonably well and so far the plan is on track. I can almost taste the freedom now. 

Gather Little by Little wrote a very timely and useful post on 10 things not to do during an interview. As a regular interviewer he is well placed to make these statements. My second girl is now at home sending out resume after resume. She has an interview scheduled for this Saturday, and I am sure she’ll appreciate these words of advice.  

Many of the personal finance bloggers are now writing about the tough times ahead. Newspaper headlines about downsizings, food lines and even food shortages are also getting more common. Against this backdrop, Lynnae’s post on a busload of frugal tips to stretch the dollar is most timely and should be recommended reading for all. 

Many of us wonder if it would be worth paying a professional to do our taxes for us. Well, the Iowahippiechick should be voting for “Yes! You must!”, as her “rockstar” CPA unearths deductions she otherwise might have missed. Good for her. At this rate ole Uncle Sam will have a lot less to waste away in the national budget. 

This is it for this week, folks. Have a great and happy weekend. 

The week that ended the 20^th March 2008 will be forever etched in my heart and mind.  

My mother passed away at 7.40 pm on the 19^th. My brothers, sister and I are still coming to terms with this.  My enthusiasm for a number of things seems to have waned, including blogging.

I hope that eventually everything will settle down, God Willing.  

On a brighter note, Free Money Finance kindly gave me an opportunity to guest post on his well regarded site. I wrote a piece on how I intend to quit the rat race. So far, my plan seems to be on track.  Thanks again, FMF.  

And these are the posts, I found interesting, useful or different, from the blogosphere. They are listed in no particular order.

Agentsully interviews Barry Moltz, the writer of a business book, “Bounce”. She believes this book should be a must for anyone wanting to start a business, whether or not one is afraid of failure.

I particularly liked the statement, “How Process Trumps Outcome”. The more we keep doing the right thing, the eventual outcome will be as desired, irrespective of the occasional hiccups. This is exactly what I am bent on doing now to battling the listlessness that seems to have crept into me. 

Dumb Little Man talks about what to do when we make a mistake at work. In his case, it was a BIG mistake. He outlines the steps he took, starting with the most important…accepting responsibility and taking immediate steps to remedy the mistake. This is sound advice, as too many of us look immediately towards blaming someone. (This step is, thankfully, NOT in the wise DLM’s list!)  

This guest post by Bob Roth in Vanessa’s blog has a strong message for me to pass on to my daughters. Bob reminds us that we need to excel in 3 areas to find success after college life.  Thanks, Bob for sharing.   

If a contest is ever held to summarize this extraordinary story of Mike and Mr. Cheap into one line, I think “Mike and Mr. Cheap meet up with their old buddy, Bill Gates”, may have a chance. 

Why don’t you read the story yourself and see if what I say makes sense. (Only then should you read its sequel.) 

My Two Dollars wrote about the IMF planning to use taxpayers’ money to shore up the financial system. It looks like the IMF is taking a different stand from their policies during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998. Then, their stand was that market forces should have their way. 

I have some bones to pick with some of the policies of my former Prime Minister. However, on his handling of the Malaysian part of the AFC, (when he went head on against the wishes of the IMF), I salute him.  

And MTD’s grandmother has sounded a dire warning. She is saying that current events seem similar to those leading to the Great Depression. 

I’ll have to revisit a post I wrote not too long ago. I hope that I am dead wrong in my predictions. 

I participated in the Carnival of Family Life and the Carnival of Personal Finance, both of which have been themed as St. Patrick’s Day Editions.  As usual, both the Carnivals have a busload of great articles. I must admit that I have yet to do proper justice to the articles presented at either of these Carnivals.  

The respective hosts, Ms. JHS at Colloquium and Ms. Lynnae at Being Frugal have been their usual superlative best as hosts. 

My mind shut down on blogging sometime on the 17^th or so, hence I must have missed many other great articles. And my Google Reader is overflowing. Hopefully by this time next week, I should be back to my normal schedule.  

Take care, and tell your loved ones that you love them. Do it now! The opportunity may be taken away from us more suddenly than we think!

Two memorable blogging events happened for me this week. 

One has been my effort to seek help from the pf online world on answering a dilemma a good friend of mine has. I am truly amazed at the help, support and encouragement I have received over this matter. 

Lynnae did a full post to help me. A number of very constructive comments were made on my post. I also searched FMF’s archives and found a number of posts that should be relevant.    

My friend (who is away in the Middle East now) will be digesting all the replies and strategizing on how best to resolve his dilemma.  My friend BC and I thank all of you for your efforts. 

Secondly my first ever guest post.

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary graciously gave me an opportunity to showcase one of my works on his well respected blog.

Thanks again, Flexo.  

On a personal level, our country saw off our 12^th General Elections the result of which is something we have never seen in the 50 years since independence. 

My second girl is now back home, having finished her final exams. It’s   time to formally kick off the father-daughter talks on how to help her find a job that she would like. 

And these are the posts, I found interesting, useful or different, from the blogosphere this past week. They are listed in no particular order. 

Lynnae’s How to budget with an irregular income, came at the right time for me. I am a trained finance professional and yet I did our household /family budget for the first time not too long ago. I am preparing myself to “quit” the rat race and concentrate on seeking my own dreams. Lynnae’s post will be very useful in guiding me and for me to evaluate my readiness.   

Trent laid down his timetable for a typical day. Man! The weekdays are stuffed full, leaving his weekends open for his discretion. With his decision to quit his job, there may be more time. I am looking forward to the day when he tells about how he would be slotting in time for the other interests he said he wanted to do.   

Saif writes about the 7 Rules of Life he wished he knew. Perhaps we may all know the Rules unconsciously. It’s more like we never acknowledge and appreciate them. By listing out these 7 Rules, Saif has clarified our thoughts and rekindled our appreciation.

Thanks, Saif.  

Madison at My Dollar Plan writes about planning ahead for scholarships and financial aid for tertiary education.  Flexo at Consumerism Commentary has also a post on this.

This is first class advice for me. I have 3 children waiting in line, whose college education would probably be our family’s biggest expense in the horizon. Luckily I now have time to plan and plot. We missed out for the elder girls and in April 08, we shall finish payment for their studies…Phew! This has been an expensive oversight. 

JD at Get Rich Slowly shared some excerpts of personal finance advice from a 1943 literature classic. I found myself immediately transported mentally to the setting and could feel the words of wisdom etching a permanent place in my mind. 

It’s truly priceless and timeless advice. Excellent post! 

A very informative and healthy exchange of views took place on Moolanomy and Gather Little by Little on P2P lending. This P2P thing is a tool, much like credit cards and fire. We can use them carefully for good or get burnt if we use them unwisely. On the other hand, some tools may do more good by just not being easily available.  

Hop over and read them to help you make up your own mind, if you are thinking of particpating in what seems to be growing phenomenon.

Ms. SVB wrote an interesting story on some serious savers who died wealthy. It is really heartening that many of them lived so frugally but were magnanimous enough to leave their fortunes to charity.

I liked this piece by Ron at the Wisdom Journal. He has proclaimed that most successful people are FAT!. As I hope to be successful and probably would not be classified as fat, I had to read the post to find out more. And ended up a convert.   

The 143^rd Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance was most ably hosted by Quest for Four Pillars. As the blog is based in Canada, QFP has used a Canadian theme.  The Carnival has attracted lots of great posts, and QFP must have had a really tough time picking his 7 favorites.

The undisputed star of this Carnival is Tivo, a cute dog, who besides being her owner’s best friend, is also giving her financial lessons.  Hop over and go through the posts. You won’t regret the visit! 

Meanwhile, Liz, the housekeeper of This Full House was the gracious and elegant host of the Carnival of Family Life.  She has a good number of great posts on family issues from Education, Relationships and Self-Improvement, Family Finance, Parenting Tips and Advice and even Family Humor. This Carnival should be a “must read” for all parents and also for kids who want to manage and understand their parents.  

Well, this is all for this week. Best regards and have a great and enjoyable weekend.

These are the posts, I found interesting, useful or different, from the blogosphere this past week. They are listed in no particular order. 

The Dough Roller wrote about the 7 habits of wealth, where he lists the 7 things if done by us repeatedly should make us wealthy. I   strongly suggest that we should all take a look and rate ourselves. (I am very low on some of DR’s rules. I really should buck up.) 

My Money Blog, in turn speaks about the 9 traits of the middle class millionaire. These 9 traits summarized from a book “The Middle Class Millionaire” make interesting reading. As a working stiff, I may identify more with this list than the DR’s list above.

 Sometime back, a number of selfless bloggers (here’s the full list of the bloggers and their respective articles) worked on a group project laying down suggested ground rules for managing money for people at various age bands. These series of posts have now been condensed into an E-Book which is being distributed free.  

As a not too financially competent father of 5 children from ages 9 – 22, this book will be a great help and guide for me personally as well as my children. 

I downloaded mine from Ana’s blog (yep, she’s the one from the “I’ll climb mountains and swim oceans, but credit cards and debts never!!!” school).   Thanks again, guys! 

Steward at My Family’s Money makes an astute comparison between NINJAS and Ninjas. Most of us would immediately think of the invisible at will Japanese fighting machines armed with an array of odd weapons. Pop over and find out what the other NINJA means. I am sure you would agree with Steward’s observations.  

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary made an observation that his net worth was increasing, and at the same time the US$ was falling. I have no idea what the economists would say or do about this. However, when working in Ghana, I was told that 9,500 Ghanaian Cedis could have bought a house around 1980 – 85. In 1998/9, it could not even buy a bag of cement. 

A falling currency, if not managed, can extract some serious financial pain. 

Is there a bug going around?  Hot on the heels of the Simple Dollar and The Digerati Life, One Snarky Chica with Issues also seems to decided to do away with her full time job. In her case, it may have been a little involuntary, so she is addressing being a problogger with caution. Her academic qualifications seem so right for being a problogger. I have every belief that she may decide to remain pro.

The Mighty Bargain Hunter suggests we approach high priced seminars with caution and instead invest time. I do agree with him. No amount of seminars and books will be of any help if we do not invest time and energy putting into practice what we have learnt. However seminars do have the added advantage of meeting like minded people, and perhaps joining a network or peer group. I took the calculated risk of sending my daughter for a property investment seminar to learn as well as to meet people. (And this was after reading some of the presenter’s books and deciding that this guy was all right.)

Jeff of Wise Money Decisions talked about how his dad paid him and his siblings allowances. I liked the way that his dad had a family meeting when the allowance was distributed. It also seems that Jeff’s father had a secret formula for calculating the allowances….rounded to the nearest cent. 

Jeff also mentions another family that used an open bid system to determine amounts to be paid for chores.  

Compared to Jeff when he was younger, my children seem to be having a gala time. Since we started the allowance system, only one child has ever done any extra work for additional money. Hope my kids change their thinking. 

The 4^th of March is going to be special for Mrs. Micah.  On this day in 2008, she became a member of the M-Network. On this same day, she launched her Finwikian, a wiki on all things dedicated to personal finance on the Internet. This is a great undertaking, and I am sure, all of you will join me in offering our heartiest congratulations to Mrs. M.  

The 142^nd Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by the Baglady. A gifted writer, she has interspersed a number of little known facts about the homeless amongst the many great posts that are being exhibited at this Carnival.  

Even if you are too busy to read blogs daily, I would strongly recommend that you read the Carnivals, at least.        

This is all for this week. I am looking forward to the weekend when my wife and I will be casting our votes as part of the process of choosing our next Gomen.

To all of you, have a great and enjoyable weekend.

I used to do my round up posts on Saturday evenings. This is now being changed to Thursday evenings.  

The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Broke Grad Student. A certainly gracious and stylish host, BGS included my post which questioned whether windfalls could change people’s lives. 

From elsewhere in the blogosphere, the following posts caught my fancy. 

Mrs. Micah reminds us that though our journey to debt reduction may have stoplights, detours, slow drivers and even construction blockades, we should stay the course. We should keep on reminding ourselves that we are on the road that gets us to where we want to go. 

I completely agree with her. I motivate myself by reminding myself of an aircraft carrier making an “U” turn.  

Trent at the Simple Dollar announced his decision to quit his full time job. He has outlined his reasons why he wants to quit and how he has prepared himself for this paradigm shift. 

I am truly inspired by posts like this. Though I do not feel that I am in a position yet to make this really significant move, the pull factor is strong. I am grateful that Trent, who is clearly a polished wordsmith, has eloquently written about the preparatory work he has put in, before making the big decision.  

Almost as if on cue, another favorite blogger of mine, Ms. SVB of Digerati Life has announced that she, too, is leaving her job to pursue her dreams. She has previously written about her plans for her future plans as well as the steps she has and is taking to prepare herself for this move.  

To both Trent and Ms. SVB, I offer my heartiest congratulations and best wishes. This is the stuff we read about in books, except that this time it’s from real life people that I feel I almost know.   

The Glbl guy puts a 15 month period of pain to rest. He tells us about the sad times of November 06, when he had to pawn off some of his wife’s jewelry and by mistake, an item of tremendous sentimental value had been pawned off….the engagement ring he bought for his wife with his entire savings as a college student. Happily he has now bought for his wife a new ring. 

And the Glbl guy has also managed to weave a useful section on buying from Amazon.com into this touching story.

I am so happy for him. Pop over and read the full story here. 

Moolanomy writes about the systematic process he went through in assessing how much insurance he needed. This post will help a lot of us who are not sure if we are adequately insured and are, for any number of reasons, reluctant to seek an insurance agent or company to find out. 

Free Money Finance wrote about the merits of paying children an allowance for them to read a book and then explaining it to their parents.  I have to respectfully disagree with this idea. We have a system in place for the kids to improve their command of the English language, where the kids write a couple of pages a week from an English book and then read it out to me.  

I have on occasion had to cajole them into writing, especially the youngest girl, but I never considered offering any rewards. Instead, I would like to instill the idea of the children doing additional work / chores at home for money. 

This is all for the week. Have a great weekend, folks!   

This week has been a hectic one. The design of the blog has been changed and now shifted to our new site. Hope you like the new design.

For news from elsewhere in the blogosphere:- 

The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by the Financial Blogger.  Tastefully interspersing cool pictures of Prison Break, the FB did a great job hosting. Pop over and see for yourself. The Carnival offers a great opportunity to get a great variety of useful articles all at one place. 

Two particular posts that struck a chord with me were : -        

The Digerati Life’s thought provoking “What price are we paying to have it all”. SVB makes the statement that she does not believe that we can have a life that just constantly expands to accommodate anything that we bring into it. 

I agree with her completely. There are only 24 hours in a day.As more and more responsibilities are piled into these 24 hours, something has to give. And when we explore this honestly, we’ll find that we end up giving up the really important things…like exercise, time with the kids, time alone etc. What we take on and what we give up have to carefully balanced.  

The Honest Dollar’s equally thought provoking post, the Parent Trap on the saga of adult children still expecting and getting financial assistance from their parents.  She has laid down in plain words a really telling statement 

“What About Paying Yourself First?

I don’t have kids, so I suppose I can’t yet fully understand the lengths to which parents will go to help their children succeed.  But I buy the conventional logic that a child can get loans for school, for a car, for a house - a parent cannot get a loan for retirement.”

Sound advice indeed for both the parents and the adult children. I hope this situation does not arise in our family.

From the other blogs that I follow: 

Millionaire Mommy in the Making is mulling over making her first investment property purchase. The +’s of property investment are many, and so are the –‘s. It will be good to get ourselves well and truly educated before we launch. At least we should be able to mitigate the mistakes.   

Money Myths reminds us that we should be in control of our money, not the other way around. I agree completely with this statement, as money just like fire can be a great servant, but a terrible master.  

The Simple Dollar reminds us that we should invest in ourselves and one of his best ever investment in time and money was to exercise. He also gives some tips to those of us who have yet to start. 

The Frugal Duchess had once of those “work” or “family” decisions to make. And she planned well to make the right decision, without compromising her work commitments. All of us working parents go through this dilemma frequently. Let’s hope that all of us make the right choices all the time.  

I got introduced to a great Malaysian blog, Saif Improvement, through a link from my friend Azrina.

Thanks a lot, Rina. 

Saiful has a really vibrant and cool blog with very useful and motivational articles. Do check him out.  

In line with her moniker Dollar Frugal, Brooke’s frugality clearly covers only the Dollars. In terms of sharing of knowledge and helping others, she overflows with generosity. I asked and she freely emailed me a copy of her insanely massive blogroll, which I am using to add further to my blogroll. Am still working on it. 

Thanks again, Brooke.  

That’s it for this week. Have a great and productive week ahead.  

The week started off in a great fashion.  

The Art of Manliness, a really interesting blog “dedicated to uncovering the lost art of being a man”, highlighted my post on what should I tell my children on choosing a spouse, and this drove in a nice stream of traffic.  

Thanks again, Brett.  

Some of the posts from the blogs that made me sit up are listed below. 

Get Rich Slowly’s conversation with one of his readers which gave birth to the question on what motivates people to pursue smart personal finance. For people who are already shouldering heavy debt loads and become slaves to servicing these debts, maybe the source is clear. It would be pain. 

What are the identifying factors that give equal or stronger doses of continual motivation to those starting off in life now?  This is what I am searching for, as my daughters approach the day they would start their own financial and life footings. 

The Simple Dollar listed 9 simple ways to stand out in our careers. Well, I am guilty of not having managed my career well, but this advice will stand in good stead for my children.  

I could not help smiling as I was reading this. I Have Paid for this Twice Already had an accounting dilemma on her hands. She was sure she owed somebody $800 for her car repairs and everyone seemed to say, “Nope! You don’t.” Luckily it did not escalate into an ethical dilemma, and it has now been finally resolved. 

My Dollar Plan has neatly analyzed her time to see if her work/life balance is what she would like it to be. Her pie charts gave me quite a jolt.  She has (whilst juggling 89 credit cards et al) managed to devote an astounding 33% of her time for the children. This is truly incredible. Even when she starts going back to work, it would still be a remarkable 22%. Well done, Madison.  

I have to look harder at some of my time wasters and see how I can squeeze more time for the children and the family.

The Carnival of Personal Finance – the Valentine Edition was hosted by My Dollar Plan. Though I did not participate in this Carnival, there are lots of useful and interesting articles listed.    

This week has been a little hectic with considerable travelling. I have also not participated in Carnivals for some time. I really should get my act back together.

I must thank FMF for making mention of my blog in his weekly roundup.  

On the positive note, I have finally managed to “google reader - ize” most of the blogs that I follow. Using my previous bookmark and read, which was “upgraded” to email was quite time consuming. Now it is a lot more manageable.

Some of the posts that I found interesting this past week are listed below.

- The Digerati Life’s take on teaching our children how to handle debt and credit.  This guest post by Tisha Kulak will come in real handy for the compilation I am doing for pf lessons that my children should grasp and understand.

- The outstanding “How to manual” for pf management applicable all ages, bringing together the knowledge and experience of 17 pf bloggers whose work I enjoy and respect. 

- RocketC talks about heading in the right direction in reducing his deficits after starting his budget. I know exactly what and how he feels. My wife and I have also just started on this journey after a long, long time of ignorant bliss.

- Wise Bread wrote about getting free lectures from renowned Universities, like MIT and Yale, even though it does not come with any credits. My eldest daughter who is doing psychology may find this tidbit of information very useful.

- Lynnae’s declaration on behalf of all ladies to those of us clueless husbands (self included) on the 7 things that women want us to understand about money. Man, this makes a lot of sense - after seeing it in writing.

Here’s to a great and productive week ahead!