Weekly Thoughts:

All of a sudden, it’s like both of my kids can walk on water!  I’m not sure when this happened, but they both raised their game to levels I haven’t seen before! 

My daughter who has been creating books from stapling together printer paper can now draw almost as well as I can.  Her stories are great too, I’m amazed!  Talking to this 6-year-old is quite literally like talking to an adult (very unnerving, but it’s always been that way with her).  She’s constantly amazing me!

And my son…  He made a goal today in soccer without even trying, or so it seemed.  All of a sudden, his wit and cleverness has emerged!  He now has much better focus.  A great example of this focus, was when he tried to sign up for an online game account.  It wouldn’t work, and after 5 minutes I said the site must be down and to try later (effectively giving up for the day).  He kept hammering away at it though, and eventually he got his account created correctly.

Kudos to both of them, they are growing up so fast!  Yeah, I’m proud!

My Favorite Reads of the Week:

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Sneaky Pay Cut - BIFS gets a raise from her employer, but her other business expenses (insurance) increase so that she’s actually bringing home less!  I think we all know where she is coming from!  Read her article, tell her if you sympathise!

Buy Like Buffett:  How To Make Money While In College - Sounds like some pretty good ideas!  Other than temp agency jobs and student assistant jobs, I didn’t do much innovating while in college.  If you are in college, check this out!

Cash Flow Sherpa:  Personal Finance, Meet Online Gaming - I usually don’t have a new product release as one of my favorite reads, but this is exciting.  The new GreenSherpa product combines financing and gaming (how cool is that!).  I always thought their product look great, but now it’s free!  Very cool!  It sounds like a win-win to me!**

Everyday Tips And Thoughts:  My Dream Retirement… - Kris always writes great articles, but this post really show you her abilities as a great writer.  I came away from this one wanting to read much, much more.  Check out this great post to see if you agree!!!

Free From Broke:  Does it Make Sense to Rent Appliances or Furniture? - I usually don’t include giveaway in my lineup, but FFB has what I consider to be a pretty original giveaway!  It’s a $50 dollar visa gift certificate sponsered by Rent-A-Center! 

Get Rich Slowly:  Make More Money: How to Supercharge Your Income - A great collection of how to make more money.  A great resource that I’ve personally bookmarked in my browser!

Yakezie:  Yakezie Member Post – Financial Samurai - Sam tells his story.  In a short period of time, Sam was able to create a popular and growing blog, a world class financial network, and still have a high-caliber job to boot.  Sam is the man.  See if you agree with me!

Watson Inc.:  What Are Your Financial Regrets? - Shawn writes yet another extremely well written article!  Please do yourself a favor and go read this revealing article on his financial regrets, I’m sure you’ll find that it’s worth while read!

My most Popular Post from the Week:

This week it was Me Me Me, It’s All About Me, After My Family First!  This was a “Who I am” response to the blogger at 7Million7Years.com (who has a pretty cool site overall)…  

Closing Thoughts:

**First let me say that I’m not being compensated for the link above to the Greensherpa product.  I really do think that it sounds like an exciting  product!  I actually signed up to try it out!  I hope it rocks!

I know that there was some great blogs that I forgot in my lineup, but it’s 2:42am, and I’m tired.

It seems like everything going on around me is starting to pick up momentum.  I need to start running faster too!

-MR

Weekly Thoughts:

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been claiming that the DOW will hit 12,000 by the end of this year. We’ve made some good progress, but to save face at work, I really hope we start to have that Santa Claus Rally soon!

Oh, of course I’ll say, “but the market hit this high point (some number here), and I was so close”.  But it would be much sweeter if it really did end at least 12,000 by Dec 31!

We’ll see…

My Favorite Reads of the Week:

Watson Inc:  Do You Save Instead of Paying Debt?  Shawn provides another excellent article (actually I haven’t been disappointed yet by anything tht Shawn does)!  I feel like Shawn and I are travelling down the same or at least a very similar path.  Check out his post to see if you are too!

TightFistedMiser:  October Investment Income – $96.04 - I like that fact that TightFistedMiser is laying it all out for the world to track, follow, and grow along with him!

TheSavedQuarter:  Yakezie Carnival - I usually don’t list a carnival here, but TheSavedQuarter single-handedly rescued the Yakezie Carnival this week, and I think that deserves to by under her listing rather than a carnival listing.  Still, thanks for the include!

Redeeming Riches: What Sam Walton Teaches Us About Money, Success, and Family post is a great example of why I posted this article: Reasons To Spend Money – I Don’t Want A Coffin Full Of Dollars.  The Sam Walton story is a perfect example of a person who’s biggest regret was not enjoying life with family more fully.  Check it out at Redeeming Riches, it’s a great read!

Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured:  Totally Random Bullets of Crap - Thoughts on random things, but mostly I like the title!  Not to mention the Pee poem (lol).

Free Money Finance:  The Net Worths of US Presidents - This was an interesting read, especially noting that Thomas Jefferson started out pretty rich, but I remember reading that when he died he ended up owing money instead of owning money!  This just goes to show that every being a genius doesn’t guarantee everlasting financial success.

Everyday Tips and Thoughts:  Thoughts For Thursday: What People Divulge In Public - This one was my favorite from Everyday’s site, I believe others would pick one of the other well qualified post, but this one reminds me how like-minded Everyday and I are!  I would have found it delightful to be in the spot she was in on that day. 

Enemy of Debt:  No Restaurants in November Challenge - This is an awesome idea!  Not only will it save you the money for the month of November!  It also have the potential of breaking your habit of eating out in a set schedule!  This is awesome, and I would highly encourage anyone interested in joining!  Great idea EOD!

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff:  October 2010 Blog Statistics and Income Update  – Crystal takes everything off and reveals her measurements!  It will be fun watching Crystal grow like wildfire!  So if your like me and love to watch stats and growth… Check Crystal out!

My Favorite Post from the Week:

My most popular post of the week on my site was: Pros and Cons of Blogging  I liked it because I able to hash over a year’s worth of blogging!

Closing Thoughts:

Thanksgiving for the U.S. folks is just around the corner!  This year has flown by in a blink!

Weekly Thoughts:

The “Here you have” email worm was everywhere!  A lot of well established businesses got zapped by it.  My hosting site experience a problem too.  I’m not sure if it was related, but it was the same day, so I’m inclined to think that is was.

If you get an email in your mailbox that has the subject line “Here you have“, don’t open it!  Delete it right away!  Even if it comes from your mom, friend, spouse or someone from Nigeria trying to give you a millions of dollars.

Invest It Wisely:  The Rising Chinese  – Kevin talks about China, and how incredible fast their countries is evolving into a big player! 

Move To Portugal:  Frugal habits I’ve gained so far - Laura has some great, original frugal habits listed at her site!  Check them out, perhaps you find some new ones like I did!

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff:  10 Steps To Sell Your Car on Craigslist - I’ve never used Craigslist, let alone tried to sell my car on it.  But BITFS, brings up some great point in her article that has inspired me to 1st, use Craigslist more, and 2nd to consider using it to sell my car!  A truly sweet article!

Well Heeled Blog:  Life Without a Budget: 4 Questions to Ask  – Why make life harder than it has to be, especially if you don’t have a spending problem!  well Heeled ask some pretty smart questions about the need of a budget if you don’t have any problems.

Everyday Tips and Thoughts:  Colleges Worth the Investment????  I confess, I had a hard time picking which story I should pick from Kris!  She had another stellar week!  But this one hits at home with me because I worry about the crazy cost a college education is today for kids.  It’s getting to be like it was back in the 1800, where only the very rich could afford to go…

Squirreler:  Frugal Baseball Player – Version 2.0 - Incredible story of frugality taken to the extreme!  While I’m not a baseball fan, this was still an incredible read worth checking out!

Consumerism Commentary:   Qualifying for a Mortgage as a Self-Employed Individual - Sounds like Flexo is at a financial crossroad of his own!  I can see where banks would be afraid of lending to a self employed individual…  But Flexo has a great track record, hopefully them give him the loan!

Financial Samurai:  The Secret To Early Retirement - I think Sam is onto something!  Check out this humor alternative idea to retiring early!

First Gen American.com:  Dream Homes and Gut Reactions - Wow, to me I see a disaster, but Sandy has skills!  If you read her previous post before this Dreams one, you’ll learn that both Sandy and her husband are great at fixing up homes.  I don’t know if I could do it, but I believe in them and their choice!  The property does have a remarkable view!  I wish them luck!!!

Saving Money Today:  Web Scams Are On The Rise – Very scary statistics about honest, trusting people being scammed on the web via phishing and other bad techniques!  If you are a blogger (and tech savvy) please go out of your way to education other about these horrible scams!

Couple Money:  1st Anniversary Giveaway - Wow, what a great 1 year giveway…  I’m very impressed!

Grumblings of the untenured:  Searches that find our blog amuse us  -  Although I mainly read pf blogs, I find my self checking out this blog centered around 2 friends that are teachers that live in different states.  I think just their about story is fascinating.  Check them out for a different spin on life!!!  Rarely, do you get such opportunities.

My own favorite post of the week:

My favorite post was Things To Do In The Fall, because I was able to include the activities that other commenters mentioned about what they do in the fall!

Recent Carnivals:

• Carnival of Wealth 2

Closing Thoughts:

Whew, this is almost a mini-carnival!  I find that there are so many great blogs out there, that I find it difficult to limit them to 3 or 4 as I initially planned for this weekly link love post!