This has little to do with personal finance, but this Wednesday the singer for the greatest rock and roll band of all time turns 64. Many happy returns, Brian.
We never get tired of hosting this. You should never get tired of reading it. Why? Because when the greatest personal finance bloggers in the world (and by extension, of all time) submit their stuff to one convenient location, it’s our duty to present it in an easily digestible fashion. So here it is. This week’s greatest. Digest away.
The tough thing about being chronically sarcastic is that some people can’t tell when you’re being sincere. When we say that Shawanda Greene at You Have More Than You Think is one of our new favorites, we mean it. (How can we prove it? For starters, read her. She can spell and punctuate.) This week she referees a dialogue between someone who thinks poor people have it too good in this country (which they do), and someone who thinks they don’t.
Dan at ETF Base is another solid contributor with the credentials to back up his claims. If you think an exchange-traded gold fund is the way to prosperity, he recommends you think again.
Should you file your taxes as a single person? As a married person? As a married person filing as a single person? As a widower who’s so overjoyed that he’s now single that he doesn’t care what his marginal rate is? Mark Roberts at TaxBrackets.org has your answer.
4 consecutive worthwhile contributions? Not to jinx it, but this can’t last. Neal Frankle at Wealth Pilgrim wants to know if you’re asking, “Should I pay off my mortgage?” Lots of folks are. Interest rates are so low that many wonder if it doesn’t make more sense to go the other way and borrow more instead.
(Your website disclaimer starts with “I am just a girl in debt” and your post is about your favorite Christmas movies? Yes, by all means, let’s put you on top of the pile. Good Lord.) Damn. Thanks for ruining the streak.
An investment that pays 9%? Monthly? Darwin’s Money found it, and says you can too.
Merchants need to maximize profit just like the rest of us, and if card issuers decide to take bigger chunks of each transaction, there’s little for a shopkeeper to do but set minima for card purchases. Amanda at My Dollar Plan has the details.
There’s no rule that says we can’t run a post specifically to debunk it. Daniela at Stretcher thinks that paying your mortgage with a credit card is a bad idea. She claims that doing so means you “may” get charged fees (you won’t, if you stay within your limit) and you’ll pay two sets of interest charges (one to the mortgagor, one to the card issuer) if you don’t pay your bill on time. To which our response is, pay your bill on time. Wasn’t that easy?
Journalistically trained Miranda Marquit is all over the personal finance blogs, and we can’t get enough of her curious advice. This week at Financial Highway she suggests some businesses you can start, businesses that she herself wouldn’t touch in a million years. Our favorite is
[Y]ou can purchase portable toilets that can be rented out. Instead of just renting them out, though, you can make them a little bit nicer. Clean them up. Add air fresheners, include nice soap and lotion, fluffy hand towels, and decorate the inside. These nicer portable toilets could be rented out for upscale outdoor events like weddings, company parties and special receptions.
Like most of our submitters, she’s serious (sigh). It’s going to be a long carnival…
The rest of you are playing checkers while Mike Piper at The Oblivious Investor is playing some kind of futuristic space chess. He wants to know why, if we can send probes outside of the solar system, brokerage houses can’t automatically balance our portfolios?
Boomer of Boomer & Echo argues, convincingly, that you should treat your marriage like a business. Which makes far more sense than treating your business like a marriage. (Offering to take your boss on a retreat where the two of you can “rekindle the fire” almost never works.)
Chris Tecmire at Christian Personal Finance claims that he and his wife spend $1.67 per person per day on food. Learn how you too can lead a life devoid of protein.
We’d love to see Tim at Nerd Wallet‘s wallet, because it must stretch from here to Alpha Centauri with all the credit cards he endorses. This week, we get his 10 (ten!) favorites.
Still, he can’t beat this week’s Infomercial Masquerading As A Blog Post, which comes from Jacob at My Personal Finance Journey. He likes Zecco and thinks you should too.
Short carnival this week. Even more dross than usual, or it would have been longer. Thanks again for joining us. Same time, next week.
