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photo credit: Hamed Saber

It’s snowing. Again. I’m cold. Again. I really wonder on days like today why I don’t move to Florida. Must be because I’d have a tough time being a Marlins fan. Does anyone really enjoy cold weather? Not just in a “oh looky at the snowman let’s go skiing” way - but in a day to day, slog through the snow way. Give me 90 degrees and sweating any day of the week over the cold.

I’ve Left My Job! Tying Up The Loose Ends

• I probably haven’t said it enough recently but the Digerati Life is one of my favorite blogs. I love the subjects, the writings and I can almost always pick up something interesting from reading this blog. I am thrilled that SVB is jettisoning the corporate gig and moving on. I should point out that I don’t think there’s anything wrong, exactly, with having a corporate job. At the same time, I’m always happy to see someone start pursuing what they feel to be their purpose, and I think that’s what she’s doing - so, kudos!
  

Car depreciation: Eh, don’t worry so much | Sense to Save

• In reading about personal finance you’ll come across themes that are self-supporting - new cars depreciate 50% when you drive them off the lot is one of them. I don’t buy it. I buy new cars, and I save enough to pay cash for them. It’s a good feeling to pay cash for a new car - we just bought a 2008 minivan for cash, and even though I know theoretically it’s now worth 50% of what I paid for it I love owning a new car. I’m going to drive it for 200,000 miles so it’s a good investment. I like Kacie’s take on all of this.
  

A case study in staying resilient: My divorce » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

• One of the indicators of great writing - to me, at least - is the creation of a sense of connection. Penelope does that through a casual writing style but also through sharing some pretty intimate details of her life, and this article is no exception. For someone I’ve never met in person, I’ve never felt worse about hearing news like this. I tried to picture the moment at which “getting divorced” is first seriously presented in a conversation, and I couldn’t - my mind blanked out. After you’ve been married, it’s just not something your brain wants to allow; so I sympathize and hope for the best for her.
  

My Financial Epiphany - The storm of my life

• Glblguy has his financial epiphany - the moment he decided to make things right. I never really had this moment, myself, and I guess I can credit that to my parents - they inculcated the loathing of debt into me at a young age. I have been raised since an early age to hate debt, seek investments and work hard for money in order to make it work hard for me. I wish everyone could have had my financial upbringing - particularly the (at the time silly but in retrospect priceless) teaching that debt is shameful, horrible, etc. I was taught from the cradle that debt was a horrific expression of weakness, and that teaching has worked out well for me.
  

Prosper Lending Review: Prosper Days 2008 wrap up and a look back to 2007

• I didn’t attend Prosper Days, since I live a kajillion miles away, but I feel like I attended after reading through this rundown.
  

My Sources Of Alternative Income And How I Make Them Work For Me. | My Two Dollars

• Despite not being much of a “master of alternative income” myself - or perhaps because of that - I love reading other people’s success stories. Read this post - David’s got a very inspirational story if you are thinking of leaving “employee world.”
  

Do you save to invest or to spend? Early Retirement Extreme

• I save to spend. I never really thought about it this way, but I like ERE’s thinking about it in this way. I need to divert more of my investing dollars to cash-generating assets and less to “future appreciation” assets. Great blog and a particularly exceptional post on this subject.
  

punk cents: Free To Be

• I don’t do this much, but I really want to recommend this blog because clever, engaging writing always appeals to me. I liked this piece, which was a reaction to the freegan bit on Oprah recently, but check out a few more articles in the archives while you’re at it.
  

Free Money Finance: Great Allowance Idea

• Once in a while, on the web, you hit those “oh, yeah!” ideas that just make good sense. FMF has one of those, and I think it’s defely worth sharing. If you have kids and you want to combine money management and a love of reading I think this is a great idea - it set off a whole storm of ideas in my head even though my son’s still 4 or 5 weeks away from reading (he’s 2). Just kidding…
  

LendingClub Highlights and Giveaways | Moolanomy

• Over at Moolanomy there are a few more thoughts on Lending Club and a few free t-shirts. I don’t know if any are left but go try and get some!
  

implications of the beef recall « Paradigm Shifted

• When I read stuff like this, I’m shifted further and further in the direction of vegetarianism. I’m close - I don’t eat a huge amount of meat - but really, when you read about how meat’s produced in this country you certainly can’t be enthusiastic about eating it. At least it will make you much more likely to buy organic meat. Too bad there’s no “humanely slaughtered” tag on meat, too.

Odds and Ends

I’m planning on leaving an RSS feed on the sidebar to the Diigo service I use so that you can see links to the stuff I’m bookmarking as I make it. In addition, I’m planning on adding an RSS feed to blogs I like as a promotional thing once in a while. I’d be interested to hear if it’s a feature you like.

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