linklings, point it out edition

Without much ado I’ll launch into the weekly roundup of mentions, links, carnivals and even a lil ole festival. I may have to start doing this twice a week because I’m leaving a lot of the links I star unmentioned. There’s a lot to mention but I don’t want to assume anyone will make it past 10,000 words, either!

• Alternative Income is a Virus: I have a guest post up at one of my favorite blogs, Lazy Man and Money. While he’s away on his honeymoon I’ll take a stab at his favorite topic – alternative income. Check out the article and check out his blog while you’re there – you won’t be sorry to spend some time there. (@ Lazy Man and Money)
• Stumble Upon: 8 Steps to a Six-Figure Career: I haven’t been terribly active in social networking yet. However, last week Patrick from Cash Money Life ‘stumbled’ one of my articles, which subsequently led to the most massive increase in traffic for this blog since it started. Obviously I’m grateful, and at the same time part of me wonders how ‘sticky’ those visits will be. It’s interesting. Now that I think I’ve got Google Analytics working well, I’ll be able to do more analysis, and I’ll do more ‘stumbling’ myself. But at the end of the day I’m still pretty convinced that good writing and encouraging a community of commentators is the most important factor in growth. (@ Cash Money Life)
• The Votes Have Been Counted: Here Are Our Winners!: The terrific contest at MMND’s Carnival of Personal Finance inspired me to do something similar. I love stealing good ideas! I’ll also repeat that I’m very grateful to have received so many votes – there’s nothing like the approval of readers to set a writer’s heart aflutter. (@ Millionaire Mommy Next Door)

• Build a Professional Wardrobe on a Budget from Cash Money Life: With a quick second mention from me, here’s one of my two picks from the Festival. I see a lot of people at work waste a lot of money on professional clothes. I do, too. I have gotten better, but I still need to work on putting some thought into my wardrobe. I have too many shirt-pant combinations where neither of them really “go” with other clothes – I need to take a whole-wardrobe look at my clothes, and obviously starting over would be expensive. This post has some good tips to avoid breaking the bank.
• Saving Money But Losing Touch from A Penny Closer: It’s easy to forget in the effort to be frugal that it can (potentially) alienate some people. I’ve had this happen TO me – a couple I was friends with were so frugal they would split a single coke when we all went out for drinks, then sit there silently while the rest of us ate, drank, etc. It was, frankly, too much. Eventually nobody wanted to do ANYTHING with them that involved money. It’s OK, not everything has to involve money, but it’s not worth losing friends over. Though I never completely lost them as friends it got difficult. This is a great read about avoiding that.

Carnival of Personal Finance #125 at My Two Dollars: This is a monster carnival. I’ll be honest, this carnival has gotten so huge it gets a little intimidating, and I seldom make it through more than about 25% of the posts. It’s a good case study in writing catchy post titles, because that’s probably what gets submissions read when there are so many of them. But in any case, a great job of organization and worth browsing through. My post on 8 steps to a six figure career was included.

• working towards my dream life from plonkee money: Since I’ve been focused on goals a lot recently, plonkee’s article at the carnival is worth highlighting. In a sense, really identifying your goals is the tough first step. I think, in a way, it’s tougher than getting there. Plonkee’s goals are good ones.
• Adoption on the Cheap from Graceful Retirement: Well, I won’t be a spoiler and tell you how cheap or how many adoptions, but wow! And yikes! A great story – more than money getting saved, lives are being saved.

Carnival of Family Life – Bonfire Edition at Play Activities: My post rich mom, poor mom was included at this carnival. As of now, I haven’t had time to go through any of the other posts but if you have kids this is actually a great little carnival to keep up with! was included.

• Grandparents Getting Jipped: This really burns me. Grandparents are supposed to help out, to babysit, to take the kids to the movies. They are not free babysitters for working parents, or parents who are dumping their kids off with the grandparents at church while they sleep in. This article steamed me, because it’s all part of what I perceive as a slow breaking of the generational contract (more about that in the future). (@ Escape Adulthood)
• a tour through my blogroll: OK, I’ll just stick with my theme of mentioning sites twice in this roundup. Plonkee actually does a great service to the blogosphere with this post. The somewhat irrelevant seeming blogroll would be a lot more relevant if people did periodic tours like this – highlighting new additions, etc. It’s a terrific idea, I plan on stealing it, and I hope others will too. (@ plonkee money)
• My Thoughts on Robert Kiyosaki: The title actually tells you just what the article’s about. I have fairly strong feelings about Kiyosaki that I’ve discussed before, but the main thing to me is that the man keeps people talking – and that’s a good thing. (@ How I Will Be Rich)A lot more I could have mentioned, but honestly, that’s a huge post, isn’t it? I figured best to lay off for a while!