Another week has passed, and the temperatures have dipped a little lower (and so has the US Dollar, for that matter). A few Chilean miners saw daylight for the first time in a long time, and were reunited with their families. It’s fall, it’s a little chilly, and it’s beautiful.
Here is what was posted over the week:
- Happy Thanksgiving – Invest it Wisely was on Vacation on Monday.
- 5 Reasons to Have an Emergency Fund – This guest post by Alban covered five different reasons to have an emergency fund.
- A 20 Minute Guide to Investing – I did a mini review of Barbara Friedberg’s 20 minute guide to investing. Her free ebook is definitely worth checking out.
Top Personal Finance Blogs
Money Crashers has launched a new top personal finance blogs list that includes many ranking factors, such as RSS subscribers, Alexa ranking, and Google PageRank. Yours truly is on the list, though a little ways back in the rankings… 🙂
While checking out that list, don’t forget to check out the Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network, too.
Invest It Wisely’s Giveaway
It’s time to announce the winners of the giveaway!
First Place: Mary G
Second Place: Jenn S.
Third Place: Anne
Bonus Prize #1: Anonymous
Bonus Prize #2: Kay Lynn
Congratulations to all of the winners! As an unusual twist of fate, the third place winner happens to be my girlfriend! We joked about her winning it when she entered and how I should give her a prize, but that’s how the random numbers ended up! Too bad she’s not an avid reader. Winning 3rd place prize gave me an excuse to buy myself some books from Amazon, and I’m looking forward to reading these books.
A special thank you goes to my generous sponsors who supported my giveaway with prizes:
- Out Of Debt Again: $20 Amazon gift certificate.
- Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance: $25 Amazon gift certificate.
- PFFirewall:I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
- Maximizing Money: $25 via PayPal.
- Frugal Zeitgeist: $25 Amazon gift certificate.
- Beating the Index: The Investor’s Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between.
- Spruce Up Your Finances: $30 via PayPal.
An additional mention also goes to those that helped me out with book recommendations:
- The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (The Wise Buck)
- Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (The Wise Buck)
- The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth (My Own Advisor)
- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Book, Big Profits) (My Own Advisor)
- The Elements of Investing (Andrew Hallam)
Thanks again for all of the support, guys.
Weekend Reading
- How Much do you Trust Stock Market Analysts? (Beating The Index)
- Is there such a thing as a prescient stock analyst, or is their ability to forecast the future no more special and likely than the odds of getting a runner-runner straight in poker? Even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.
- Do You Think That We Need A Minimum Wage? (Buy Like Buffett)
- Do you think that we need a minimum wage? While a minimum wage has visible beneficiaries, have you ever considered the unseen effects, such as the jobs that are never created or are lost? What is your take on the minimum wage?
- Is Saving Money Difficult For You? (Wealth Artisan)
- If you have trouble saving money, you might want to give this one a read.
- TEN STEPS YOU MUST TAKE BEFORE BEGINNING AN INVESTING PROGRAM (Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance)
- Barbara gives us ten steps to consider doing before beginning an investment program.
- another rant… (Grumpy rumblings of the untenured)
- This is a rant about people that, whether knowingly or not, do not show respect for the time & space of others, and believe that others exist to serve them. Either that, or… they happen to be infatuated. 😉
- How Can I Change My Name Legally For Free? (Wealth Pilgrim)
- With the advent of Google and Facebook, if you were a certain K.O., then changing your name might be more important than ever.
- I Thought Duke Graduates Were Smart (Squirrelers)
- Squirrelers thought that Duke graduates were smart. After hearing the story of K.O., perhaps some of them are only academically smart (if even that).
- Judging A Generation Of Home Buyers Based On TV Shows like ‘House Hunters’ (Everyday Tips and Thoughts)
- Kris gives her thoughts on shows like House Hunters. This one created a lot of discussion!
- If you’re a dividend investor, you should know who Grace Groner is (My Own Advisor)
- This is a quite interesting post about a woman who turned $180 into $7,000,000 — with the help of a little compounding along the way.
- Money, Myth and Machiavelli (The Wise Buck)
- Are we due for a major change in our monetary system? Be sure to read the comments as well.
- Imagine losing $76 million U.S. at a casino! (Andrew Hallam)
- Singapore has recently legalized gambling, and it appears that some people are not quite ready to handle it, yet! How would you feel about losing $76 million?
Economics
- We Don’t Export Enough! (Watson Inc)
- The Hail Mary (Peter Schiff)
Investing
- Do As I Say – Not As I Do (Warren Buffett and index investing) (DIY Investor)
- 7 Dividend Companies with Huge Moats (Dividend Monk)
Miscellaneous
- Move Over Obamacare Here Comes Disruptive Innovation (The Biz of Life)
- Brett Favre May Lose $100 Million! Does Anybody Else See Something Wrong With This Picture? (Faithful With A Few)
- Time To Be The Hardnosed Landlord? (Yes I Am Cheap)
- What to Do When Going Back to School Isn’t an Option (Personal Dividends)
- Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town (Time Photos)
Personal Finance
- Imagine a Life without Debt (Hope to Prosper)
- How to Share Financial Responsibility with Your Spouse (Personal Finance By The Book)
- Top 15 Credit Card Blunders (Canadian Finance Blog)
- Expiry dates for financial documents – How long should I keep my financial documents? (Wealth Informatics)
- Do you have a Emergency Financial File to simplify your personal finances? (Simple Financial Lifestyle)
Politics
- Why Is Everybody Leaving Obama? (Financial Samurai)
- Economic shocks and collective rage (Larry MacDonald)
Technology
- Are Cyborgs Now Real: The Rat-Brain Robot (The Biz of Life)
- Father and Son Film Outer Space, DIY Style (The Biz of Life)
- Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic (Kurzweil News)
- Brain imaging reveals how we learn from our competitors (Kurzweil News)
- New Super Microphone Can Hear You in a Crowded Stadium (video) (Singularity Hub)
My roundup includes sites that mentioned Invest It Wisely over the past week; thanks for including me, and please let me know if I forgot to mention you!
Video of the week
Is this creepy or what?
Have a great weekend guys, and see you next week.
He’s not infatuated! If he were infatuated he’d show up for office hours TOO, and he doesn’t.
Thanks for including us!
Totally infatuated…
😉
Great roundup. Thanks for including my link.
Np!
Kevin,
Thanks for the mention. The video was indeed a bit creepy, but the eerie music added to the creepyness. Halloween IS approaching isn’t it?
btw…my Akismet spam problem seems to have slowly dissolved. No issues for a while now. How about you?
It seems to be about half-half. Sometimes I end up in spam, sometimes I don’t. With the sites I visit more often things seem to be ok!
Thanks for letting us know about the Money Crashers site – I was not aware of it. Also, thanks for including my post!
Have a great weekend.
Np… gotta improve my rank! Still waiting for a Google PR. 😉
Kevin
You have one of the best roundups going
Thanks for that feedback, Larry! I’m also honored to make it onto your roundups every now and then! 🙂
Thanks for the link in your round up. I’m going over to Money Crasher’s site right now. Also, I think it’s funny that your GF won, but if that’s how it works out, go with it!
Cheers!
Haha, yeah, it was pretty funny. Got a bunch of books to read, now!
Thanks for the mention, and you’re right, the rat brain robot is both creepy and cool.
Thanks for sharing the vid (at least I think it was from you I originally saw it). You’ve been sharing quite an interesting bit of tech news lately!
Thanks for including my article! Great work on the roundup.
Np! K.O. wasn’t even that pretty! What was she thinking? Hope I never have a daughter like that…
Wow, great list…where on earth do you find the time???
Thanks for the mention and have a great weekend Kevin!
I don’t know. 😉 I think the next few weeks will be more subdued in posts though since I am quite busy lately…
Thanks for the mention Kevin!
Hope you enjoyed the weekend, Mich!
Your weekend reading lists are pretty epic. Thanks for the mention.
Np. Thanks for that really awesome intro into dividend investing the other day. It really gave me something to think about.
That’s so cute that your girlfriend won a prize =)
I bet this Money Crashers page will beat out Wisebread’s page. Now instead of just trying to improve alexa rank, we’ll be trying to improve everything simultaneously lol =)
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Still waiting for my Google PR! 😉
Hope you enjoyed the weekend as well. How’s the weather out west these days?
Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the mentions. I am working on a post based on our comments last week. From what I can see and based on what I was told, I like the logic behind the Money Crashers ranking.
Have a great weekend – oh and glad to see the give away was a success. I’d recommend anyone following Gary V. on Facebook – just to see how he runs his business – as he is very transparent…Mike
Thanks for the great comments, Mike, and I am looking forward to the post…
Thanks for including my article about Brett Favre! Also, the music in that video was probably more creepy than the fact that a dead rat’s brain was controlling it!
Haha, yep, the music is great. Like Joe Plemon said, Halloween is near 😉
WHAT THE F**K!!!!! Wow, just wow! Just watched the rat brain video, I sincerely hope that isn’t a hoax! So they kept the rats brain running in a jar and it think’s it’s the robot? Or something else?…. Going to make time to read more about that right now, poor rats but wow!
Great contest by the way. Glad your GF won :).
I’m not sure exactly how it is working but it’s very, very strange… I wonder how the brain adapted to the sensory input. Then again, we know that with human brains a higher degree of plasticity is possible than we originally thought (i.e. we have taught blind people to see by using a special sensor attached to their tongue, and stuff like that).
It’s very voodoo…
I looked into it a bit more…. It’s using the neurones only. These fire the electrical impulses to electrodes…. Pretty simple but the weirdness comes from the fact that each robot behaves differently…. Crazy! I’m not completely sure how the neaurons know if they have done something wrong or right so i think the computerised element of this robot is far higher than it first sounds like it it. However the neurones are making connections and effectively learning….. Shame they only live for 3 months, would be amazing to see what this brain could grow into after a few years.
I think it’s fair to say they have now created something that is on par with a basic insect in intelligence. Be cool when it’s 100% organic.
Thanks for the inclusion Kevin!
Np! P.S., Nice intro on the Yakezie this week!
Thanks a lot for the mention, Kevin.
Great round up, too many great bloggers, I have difficulty keeping up. Thanks for the help. I like the MC crashers ranking better, eventhough I am way down at the bottom 😉 as it takes into account a lot of other stuff and not just one metric.
Hopefully we’ll get that Google PR soon which should help our rankings out. 🙂
Keep up the great work here Kevin and thanks for mentioning the new list…You have a ton of potential with this blog and no reason you can’t shoot up the list! 🙂
@Suba, @Everyday Tips, @Roshawn, @youngandthrifty, @Mike, really excited to hear that you like the list. We put a ton of work into it and love that you see a lot of value in it! Let me know if you have any other suggestions or ideas that you’d like us to implement!
Thanks for creating the list, Andrew!
No prob Kevin!