My daughter’s basketball season has come to an end, and I’ll miss it. They didn’t win too many games, but they got better as the season went on and brought spirit to their game. Until next fall.
Let’s start this week’s roundup with Jim Wang’s (of Bargaineering fame) guest post titled Devil’s advocate: Being frugal is foolish. I’ll say, Jim offer this as a Devil’s Advocate post, thus the title, as a way of offering an alternate view. His premise, which one can dispute, is that one can always turn the next hour of their time into incremental dollars. This isn’t always the case. Indeed, some can put in more hours, work overtimes, etc, but I’d think that more people are not in that position. For them, frugality is the low hanging fruit, a way of saving money they can actually track and impact. As always, an interesting read from Jim.
At Get Rich Slowly, J.D. Roth asks How Much Stuff Does One Man Need? A look at how few things one might own in the pursuit of minimalist living. J.D. talks not just about possessions, but home size as well comparing the average new home in the US at 2349 sq ft to homes in South America at 600-700 sq ft.
Kyle at the Amateur Asset Allocator explains why you should Spend Your Coins To Help Stretch Your Dollars. On one hand, a simple concept, but one that can help save those dollars from getting spent.
I can’t turn away from a good list, and this week I read Ways To Make Extra Money Series: 20 More Income Generating Ideas From Our Readers, from Pete at Bible Money Matters. For those who are motivated to raise some cash, either as a one time effort or as a second job, there are many great ideas here to consider.
With the number of us having our first child, Kids and Money – It is Never too Early to Start is a great post from Kyle at Suburban Dollar. Kyle talk about setting expectations, avoiding instant gratification, and suggests that even 3 isn’t too young to have chores and start to earn one’s allowance. A good dad, I expect he’ll be raising a financially savvy child.
I wish you all a good week ahead.
Joe
I agree that most people can’t turn their next hour into incremental income but the risk of focusing too much on frugality, especially after the low hanging fruit, is that you start chasing savings that are mere pennies when you could be earning dollars (or at least trying to improve your skills so you can earn more dollars).