Hmm. I had a long weekend, out of town attending a wedding. As I sat down to review the links I saved from my reading this week, the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death hit the news. It’s the end of an era, I’m sure, but not the end of the war on terror. Someone will always be there to take his place. In a post last night, Sam asked Osama Bin Laden Is Dead: Good Or Bad? Well, I say ‘good’ but I agree with Sam that we are not out of the woods.
On to the roundup – Tom Drake at Canadian Finance Blog offered 3 Ways for kids to Start Saving for Their College Fund. It’s never too early to start, 18 years from birth to college goes by all too fast.
My friend Jeff at Deliver Away Debt posted Financial Literacy Month – April 30 Featuring Steve Stewart to close out the month of April. Well, as my readers know, every day is financial literacy day for me, the learning never ends.
On a frugal note we have Cheap Cool Activities at Green Panda Treehouse. A nice list to help your wallet and your health.
At Out of Your Rut, Kevin tell us How Frugality Becomes Counterproductive.Kevin has written a number of articles over the past months focusing on how income is far more important and longer lasting than anything you can do to be frugal. His points are well taken, and I agree that so long as one spends less than they earn that pushing your income up will be far more rewarding than anything extreme frugality will produce.
Next, at Fiscal Fizzle we have Americans and Money: 3 Reasons Why We’re in Trouble. A simple but “to the point” article on what our issues are as a country.
To wrap up this week, Monevator offered Weekend reading: Free your mind and your future with Free Capital a review of a book that describes how 12 investors made their millions.
A great week of reading.
Hi Joe, thanks for including my post in the round up.
I need to get over to Sam’s site and read his post on Osama. As a Christian, I’m hesitant to “get excited” over the death of anyone, but bin Laden’s death, in combination with the civil wars in the Middle East may be an indication that some form of change is coming to that region. In that regard, bin Laden’s death is highly symbolic that perhaps an era is passing. But maybe that’s reading too much into the situation…
There are writings which are separate from the Old Testament, didn’t make final canon, but still important. The scene is where the Jews have gone past the Red Sea after God has done His special effects ala Cecil B. DeMille, and the waters have rushed back in, killing the Egyptians. The angels, singing songs of praise are reprimanded by God. “Shut up! My creatures are dying, and you would sing songs of praise before me?â€
So I think the Big Guy(tm) shares your sentiment at those expressing joy at anyone’s death.
I wonder whether the seemingly exaggerated, happy fuss over Bin Laden’s death tends to mean that he won and is still winning.
Kevin, you write well.
I just looked at an interview with Guy Thomas, the author of _Free Capital_ (book cover displayed above). It is about 12 successful stock market investors. The book sounds a little like _The Millionaire Next Door_ with attention to stocks exclusively. Of note:
— “The final chapter identifies some common qualities. One is the attitude that money is a source of quiet freedom, rather than ostentatious spending power. They aren’t high spenders: they tend to live very modest lifestyles relative to their accumulated wealth.”
— “Another common factor that they all work alone, with a very strong psychological self-reliance: they prefer to figure things out for themselves rather than seeking advice.”
— The author is donating all the proceeds from the book to a tuberculosis charity. He says he is doing this to reduce criticism that he is one of those investors incapable of replicating the focus of his book and instead wrote the book to make money.
See http://www.tradingdiary.co.uk/2011/04/25/guy-thomas-free-capital-interview/
The book’s mention here is good timing, given that this weekend was the Warren Buffett-Charlie Munger show in Omaha (also known as the annual meeting for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders).