linklings, the leap year conspiracy edition

2008 promises great drama and suspense. The Patriot nation shudders in ecstasy awaiting the next victory by the chosen, while my Jets unpack their golfing gear. America throws up in its mouth a little bit every time it considers the upcoming presidential election and the available choices. But best of all, thousands of babies will be born on February 29th who age only 1/4th as quickly as the rest of us, meaning they will live to be hundreds of our years old.

All joking aside, I’ve had a big couple of weeks here at Brip Blap. My first post went up at the Prosper Blog, where I am a regular contributor. I was really excited about that, particularly now that I’m actively lending at Prosper. I am very excited to be part of that community, particularly given the high quality of my fellow Prosper bloggers.

Prosper Blog: Why Not Be the Bank? (by Brip Blap)

If you want to join Prosper, you can click on this ad:

Reading

I am reading a book which will hopefully pay off big dividends to readers of this blog: “On Writing Well.” I have heard of this book in the past, and recently I stumbled across The Simple Dollar’s review of it and decided to get it for myself for Christmas. It is one of those wonderful books that tells you absolutely nothing you didn’t know, but does it in a way that makes you hear the gears clanking into place in your mind. “So THAT’S how you do it!” I highly recommend it. (Note: that link – and almost every link to a book that ever appears on this site – is an affiliate link).

I participated in several carnivals this week and last week:

Carnival of Financial Goals #2 – A Walk With Sam | beingfrugal.net

• The Carnival of Financial Goals’ second edition was hosted at beingfrugal.net this time around. It’s a good time of year for setting goals – isn’t it traditional to use New Year’s for that? Resolutions or something like that? In addition to the usual good list of articles there’s a nice twist – the commentary was written by Lynnae’s 5-year old son Sam…

Festival of Frugality #106 – Happy New Year Edition | Moolanomy

• I am very grateful to Pinyo at Moolanomy for picking me as an editor’s pick at the Festival of Frugality! I know there was no particular ranking of the editor’s picks, but mine was the first one listed so I actually was the first article in the whole festival! I appreciate that – it’s a nice way to start the new year.

The January 2008 Carnival of Career and Job Advice

• My article on extraordinary jobs was included at the latest Carnival of Career and Job Advice at ask the Career Counselor. Again, it’s a carnival worth visiting if most of what you read is personal finance, because it has some overlap but it’s not the same blogs that you’re used to reading.

Carnival of Personal Finance #133 – Last of 2007 Edition

• The final 2007 edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by We’re In Debt. One of my gripes about the Carnival of Personal Finance has been the size of it – they did a great job, however, at weeding out some of the (presumably) non-relevant submissions and got it down to a much-more-readable 50 submissions or so. A great job of hosting – but if that wasn’t enough, they very kindly picked my redneck article as an editor’s pick.

One carnival I didn’t participate in (not really having anything ready yet to contribute):

Carnival of Peer-To-Peer Lending #1

A new carnival (that I’ll be hosting next month) is the Carnival of Peer-To-Peer Lending. Lazy Man hosted the inaugural version. It’s a niche carnival – obviously it’s not as broad as “personal finance” – but because of that it offers much more specific information on a single topic rather than ranging all over the place.

And as always I found some good reading on Skynet:

Financial Freedom « Remodeling This Life

• I wanted to highlight this post because it’s interesting and well-written, but in particular I loved one phrase in it: “it’s only financial freedom if you aren’t constrained.” That is an elegant way to bring the definition of financial freedom to a simple sentence. That is what I’m seeking – a lack of constraint. No constraints on my time, ability to travel, ability to choose work, and so on. That’s a wonderful way of putting it.

Your Greatest Asset is The Ability to Create Income | Cash Money Life

• I’m highlighting Patrick’s post because it challenges conventional definitions. My greatest asset is my mind, because I sell that to clients as a product. That mind produces income. Until I have passive income from investments or the Next Great American Self-Help Book or something like that, I need to protect my single greatest asset, the one all my other assets depend on. Posts like this, that take a concept we all know but have never put into so many words, are well worth reading more than once!

Is Baby Insurance a Good Buy? | Moolanomy

• Moolanomy has a disturbing look at a horrible product by a company that should be ashamed to offer it, but doubly ashamed of the way they market it: Gerber Baby Life Insurance.

Hanging my head in shame, so to speak

I also have to make an admission. Despite my frenzied arguments against the news and the TV I spent hours watching Iowa caucus coverage. There is something about American presidential politics that just compels my attention. It’s fascinating – sports and entertainment and celebrity and power all rolled into a frenzy of activity. Sometimes I wish I lived in New Hampshire or Iowa so I could see this first-hand. New Jersey and New York don’t get much attention other than for fundraising. But the news is fascinating, so I’m eating my words a bit!

I will say that if you ever want to read a heartbreaking story about a candidate that has nothing to do with politics, read this piece on Joe Biden, who suffered an unimaginable loss – I had no idea. He’s dropped out of the race but I have a lot more respect for him after reading this piece – and it has nothing to do with his politics.

(photo credits: survivor 08 by EAWB)

Tags: career, frugality, income, jobs, life, linklings, money, passive income