Cultural Richness and Weekend Reading

The picture above was taken at the Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This temple complex is a testament to the richness of the cultures and history of the world. I highly recommend visiting the region at least once in your life. Why mention it? Because I have been hearing and talking a lot about southeast Asia, lately, and I recently took a vacation there; I had a really good time. It helped to broaden my horizons a bit and to see just how diverse our globe really is.

Here are some interesting articles and posts for your weekend reading:

Beating the Index: Stock Trades Update: Bought TSXV:REL (Light Oil)

Mich over at Beating the Index is on a roll and is absolutely crushing the index so far this year. I like hearing about his thoughts when he talks about what he invests in and why, because you can tell he puts a lot of time into researching and knowing what he buys and what he sells. I look forward to seeing his updated portfolio numbers at the end of the month.

Andrew Hallam: Retirement: Paradise made affordable

Don’t have enough money to retire comfortably? Why don’t you look at Southeast Asia? In this article, Andrew talks about how it is possible to live in paradise, and on a very affordable budget.

The Wise Buck: Welcome To The Next Phase of The Real Estate Crash

The Wise Buck has a good post up on how we are simply moving on to the next phase of the housing crisis. Although there wasn’t a crash in housing prices in Canada, I can’t help but feel a bit nervous about purchasing property in this market given that incomes haven’t moved in accordance with the housing prices.

Young and Thrifty: The Financial Cleanse- Write Down What you Spend your Money On

Young and Thrifty has an interesting series on how to perform a “detox” on your spending habits. While I don’t personally go to the lengths suggested in the series, I do try and keep track of my major cash flows on at least a monthly basis.

Wealth Pilgrim: How To Protect Your Investments Against Fraud

Wealth Pilgrim discusses simple tips to help protect yourself against investment fraud.

Blog Income Life: Wonder Wheel – Great Tool for Cluster Blog Posting

Valentina shows us a Google tool that I never knew existed, and it is actually quite useful!

YouTube: Obama Budget Cuts Visualization

This YouTube video helps to visualize just how “impressive” $100 million of budget cuts really is in the context of the US federal budget.

See you next week!