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The past week has been beautiful, with warm weather, lots of sun, and allergies that have subsided a bit lately, actually letting me function outdoors! The downside is that our balcony and windows are full of more spiders and bugs than ever… a crow seems to have built a nest on the roof, and some bees have moved in next door. The upside is that I haven’t seen a single mosquito; I don’t think they fly this high. I don’t mind bugs so much as long as they don’t bite or get into my food.
My good friend Mich from Beating The Index let me know today that our sites have been boosted to a PageRank of 4! I know that this number is only one blogging statistic, but it still feels good to see the seeds of my own labour germinate and grow. For this, I really have you guys to thank. The greatest thing about blogging is being able to share stories with others and get feedback, as well as read what other bloggers are reading and gain a window into their minds and perspectives. This is what keeps me going, through thick and thin.
So, thank you, dear reader for all of your great comments and feedback, and a special shout out also goes out to my fellow Yakeziers as well as my good friend Mich at Beating The Index (speaking of the Yakezie, don’t forget to check out the writing contest!). Thanks for all of the support, guys!
I’ve been a little light on the posts lately, but I’ve actually been a little busy on the side. I’m a software developer by trade and I’ve been working on a hobby site called Learn OpenGL ES; it’s about learning how to do 3d graphics on mobile and on the web. The site is still in its infancy (I don’t even have a logo at the moment!), but I’m using it as a base to develop my own knowledge and share what I’ve learned with others. The mobile market is really booming right now, and it’s something I’m interested in learning more about. Please don’t hesitate to leave any feedback or comments about the site, even if the subject material is Greek to you. 🙂
Posts of the week
- Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School — this is a post about Andrew Hallam‘s new book. As the title hints at, this book teaches us that investing doesn’t have to be difficult, and that even a teacher can have a good retirement. It’s currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com (affiliate link).If you’d like to learn more about the author, Andrew Hallam, we also have an exclusive interview here at Invest It Wisely.
Without further ado, here are some great reads to kick off the week.
Weekend Reading
Investing
- 2011 Global Petroleum Survey: Top North American Jurisdictions for Oil and Gas Investment (Beating The Index)
- How To Start Dividend Investing With Little Money (The Passive Income Earner)
- How Your High School Let You Down (Andrew Hallam)
- Picking an Asset Allocation Model (DIY Investor)
- The Wisdom of John Templeton, He Got It Right (The Wise Buck)
- When to Sell a Stock (MomVesting)
- You can learn from the Canada Pension Plan (My Own Advisor)
Miscellaneous
- After an apocalypse, what’s left of digital stores of knowledge? (KurzweilAI)
- Are You Worth As Much as a Plumber? (101 Centavos)
- How Do They Compare: IPhone Vs Android – Part 1 (Personal Finance Firewall)
- ING Direct 2011 Financial Independence Days Sale on Friday, July 1st and Saturday, July 2nd (Maximizing Money)
- My Vacation Suggestion That Could Benefit All (Everyday Tips and Thoughts)
- The Young and the Restless and the Vancouver Riot: What Went Wrong (youngandthrifty.ca)
- Where I Stand on My Resolutions – 2nd Quarter (The Amateur Financier)
Personal Finance
- Frugal Fatigue Hits Home (retireby40.org)
- Making the Case for Owning Older Cars (The Biz of Life)
- Medical Bankruptcy: Are YOU At Risk? (The Millionaire Nurse Blog)
- Our Sustainable Personal Financial Plan: The Future (Sustainable Personal Finance)
- The Four Seasons of Personal Finance (Hope to Prosper)
- Things Totally Worth Splurging Money On (Financial Samurai)
Retirement
- 4 Reasons to Start Your Social Security Early (Personal Finance By The Book)
- Will Social Security be around when I retire? (Frugal Zeitgeist)
The economy
- What’s Next for the Markets? (Balance Junkie)
- WTF Finances: Oil Prices, the Fed and Mental Illness (The Online Investing AI Blog)
The government
- 20 reasons for ending Canada Post’s monopoly (Larry MacDonald)
- This Week in Money Management: Need a Bailout? Ask the Government. (Credit Sesame)
Carnivals
- Canadian Finance Carnival #41 (Canadian Finance Blog)
- Canadian Finance Carnival #42 (Canadian Finance Blog)
- Carnival of Wealth #43 – June 19 2011 Edition (Personal Dividends)
- Totally Money Blog Carnival #25 – Start of Summer Edition (Money in the 20s)
- Yakezie Carnival – Happy Father’s Day Edition (Not Made of Money)
- Yakezie Natsu (Financially Consumed)
Thanks for stopping by, and hope you have a great week!
It is freaking AWESOME that you and Mitch got bumped up to 4!!! I’m SO HAPPY for you guys! That’s a HUGE jump and it is well deserved by you two.
Go Yakezie Network! Seriously, my dream is that everybody in the Network just keeps on getting better and better, and you know what? I’m looking up and down the list, and we have!
I hope the Yakezie Network list updates the PageRank within the week to reflect the jump. Can you e-mail Chris Johnson and I at the end of the week if not?
Thanks!
Sam
Thanks, Sam! I’m definitely excited for the future and am happy to see the Yakezie come so far.
Yes, it seems like a lot of Members have improved. I just checked Yakezie.com too, and it looks like it’s a 5 from a 2, so that’s sweet. And it goes to show that linking out massively doesn’t hurt! There’s a gagillion do follow links from the Yakezie Network page, and the homepage.
Thanks for the mention, Kevin!
Congrats on all your hard work! I just checked my PR too and am happy with the results as well 🙂 (woo hoo to both of us! And Yakezie and Sam too, of course).
Your project sounds amazingly cool! I’ve been really busy lately too, I guess there are so many plans after work/ on weekends during the summer, that it can be hard to fit blogging in!
Unfortunately we all only have so much time! I’m really happy with the boost and it’s even better to see us all rise as well. The Yakezie is doing well!
Thanks for the mention! Great list of posts once again. I’m going to check a few out this week.
Also, congrats on the ranking, your hard work is certainly paying off. I know your posts are not only informing folks (including me) but helping them as well (including me)!
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the encouraging feedback! You really have a lot of great material on your own site and I’m glad I discovered it early on!
Thanks for the mention, Kevin. Hope your allergies get better, and good luck on the new site.
They seem to be doing a bit better as of late… actually you know the weather’s been kind of cold for “summer”. Most of the nights are in the teens and though we had some days in high 20s, it wasn’t that often. I don’t know if it was a burst of heat before or what but I’ll probably be good until late August, I hope. 🙂
Congrats! A well deserved bump and a tribute to all of your great writing and hard work. Keep it coming!
Thanks, Joe! Good to see the Yakezie continue to grow.
Congrats on the 4 Kevin. We went from a icky 0 to a 4. Astronomic leap.
Thanks for including our article in your mid-week weekend reading 😉
That’s a huge jump! I was stuck at 0 for quite a long time, too (I think it was nearly a year?) so it felt good when I finally got to 2 let alone 4.
Congratulations on the continued success!
Thanks, and thanks for the RTs too! 🙂
Congratulations on your pagerank boost and thanks for including my post here. 🙂
No problem, your site has been one of my top reads since the beginning!
Congrats on the boost. That is great. It is definitely deserved. Just goes to show the power of the Yakezie hey!
Definitely good to see us all rise for sure and for us to be recognized by Google!
Thanks for the mention and congratulation on making PR4! That’s huge!
Thanks! Definitely a good boost from a 2…
Thanks for the weekend reading list!
Thanks for stopping by!
Congrats on the 4. I never thought I could be a 3!
I was stuck at 0 for nearly a year as I started just after Google’s PR update and then they went on hiatus for a while… but this year they’ve been better with that. It feels good to see a boost for sure…
Congrats on getting the PR update to such a nice number! I went from nothing to 2 so I am doing a happy dance now 🙂
Also the new site looks really good! I’d like to develop an Android app so it will be good info for me. I’ll be sure to keep up with it.
You definitely deserve the 4 Kevin. Your articles are so informative and thought provoking.
Mosquitoes have been terrible here in Michigan. We were just in South Carolina and I was so happy to be able to keep the doorwall open. Then again, to your point, we were up pretty high too. However, I wasn’t bit on the beach either.
So glad you are enjoying your condo Just get rid of all those other pesky insects and you will be all set.
Thanks for including me in your roundup. I have a lot of reading to do!
Congratulations on the PR! Also, what a gorgeous photo above:)
Congrats on the PR4, maybe the lack of mozzies is related to the inflation of spiders?
Sounds like a fun app you are working on.
Thanks for the link.