JoeTaxpayer

First, the Patriots were out. Ok, I’m from New York, I can cheer for the Jets, I’d gone to a few games as a kid, my uncle had season tickets. Nope, out as well. So I’ll be watching today for the commercials, and partying with friends. But, still, it’s Sunday, and time to look back at the week for the best reading my fellow PF (uh, personal finance) Bloggers had to offer.

Let’s start the game, er, reading with How To Get Excited at Financially Poor. With the economy the way it is (and for me, looking out my window at 8 foot high snow piles), it’s easy to get depressed. Kevin offers a great strategy  on how to get out of that funk, and get excited.

At Faithful With A Few, we get Valentine’s Day Ideas: 8 Frugal Ways To Declare Your Love. Reminding us that romance and money are not synonymous, KC offers a great list of ideas for this coming Valentines Day. With 8 to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find one or two that help you say “I love you” this year.

At Canadian Finance Blog, my friend Tom Drake (his guest writer, actually) asks Would You Invest In The O’Leary Funds? You can take a read of this, and decide. Me, I’m more of an ETF/Index investor, not big on managed funds.

A silly take on some of ‘what’s in your wallet’ from a friend to the north at Credit, Eh, 7 Cool Credit Card Designs You Want in Your Wallet. Hello Kitty on your credit card? Maybe that’s making a statement. I’d love to see one with skull and crossbones to remind of of how bad that debt can become if we’re not careful.

At Canadian Personal Finance Blog, a personal story, Better to Be Right, in a Service Industry? A tough situation dealing with a child in a babysitting are inside a store, makes you think about many aspects of dealing with people, and customer service, in general.

For many, that’s what the American dream has turned into, a white picket prison. Jobs are not coming back yet, the recent drop in unemployment points toward a higher number of people who have given up. And housing prices have yet to stabilize.

The family (My wife, daughter and I) are considering a vacation. We would split a house near a beach with my sister-in-law (single) and a friend who is a single mom, bringing three kids. But, interesting enough, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to split the bill. Assuming the house is $4000 to keep the math easy, these are the choices:

So, the first line shows that if simply count people, it’s $500 per person and this is the split. But if we count bedrooms (there are 5), the sister-in-law uses one, we use 1-1/2 as our daughter would share a room with the friend’s daughter, and the friend uses 2-1/2, one for her, one for the two boys she has and one half split with her daughter and ours. In this choice we pay $300 less at the expense of my sister-in-law. The third proposal, that we each pay one third just seems crazy, why should my sister-in-law pay the same as the friend bringing three kids or the three of us? Last choice, the 40/40/20 split. This costs us the most, but seemed fair in comparison to the other choices.

I know this isn’t rocket science, how would you split the bill? Any other way I’ve missed?

Joe

Another interesting week in the blogosphere. Let’s get right to it –

At Canadian Finance Blog – Tom Drake answers the age old question, How Much Do I Need To Retire? Actually, he offers more than that, a series of rules that will help lead the reader to his magic Number.

Andrew Gordon tells us Why US Middle Class Could Disappear.  He quotes Bloomberg “The rich are getting richer and the middle-class and below are living paycheck to paycheck” and feels that the spending being done by upper-income households and is not going to lead to a sustainable recovery.  Some sobering thoughts in this article.

Miranda guest posted at Personal Dividends Inflation: Silent Wealth Killer. Here we are reminded that our money buys far less today than it did 30 years ago, about 1/3 or so, and we should take inflation into account when we plan out our retirement 20-40 years hence.

At Personal Finance By The Book, Should You Borrow From Your 401(k)? Tim walks us through the rules, the pros and the cons. I like that author offered both sides and didn’t push one over the order. Just a bit of a warning on not borrowing what you can’t pay back. Ok by me.

At Moolanomy, I was honored, along with fellow Money Maven, Len Penzo, to be included in the 11 Lesser Known Finance Blogs to Read in 2011. An excellent group of up and coming bloggers.

And to wrap up another great week, at The Military Wallet Hank suggests ways to Use A Grocery Price Book To Save Money At The Grocery Store. I wondered if anyone else did this, as I think it’s a great idea. Hank offers an example how Splenda in his local commissary is $8.99 for 400 but $21 for the 1000 box at the warehouse store. A glance at the notebook made the decision easy. And he’s also a fan of Evernote which is where I keep all my price data as well.

Have a great week,

Joe