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Entries from October 2008

Should I Blog Full-time?

October 31st, 2008 · 13 Comments

My recent lay-off has forced me to think about the future and how I want to live my life down the road.  While the money plays an important part in that, it’s not everything.  I’ve been asking myself:  do I really want to be a corporate slave?  Do I want to rely on the largesse [...]

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Tags: Business · Career and Jobs

I Was Laid Off Yesterday

October 30th, 2008 · 24 Comments

Well, the financial crisis has finally hit close to home.  Yesterday, I was laid off along with half the rest of my group.  It happened just after lunch and came as a bit of a shock since there had been no indication of any trouble. 
This Is What Emergency Funds Are For
It’s times like this I’m glad [...]

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Tags: Career and Jobs · Economy

Surprise: Americans Actually Begin Saving Money

October 29th, 2008 · 5 Comments

During the height of the real estate bubble back in 2005, the US personal savings rate dipped into negative territory for the first time since the Great Depression (which is a flawed statistic in the modern era, but that’s another article).  What that means is consumers simply spent more money than they earned, relying on debt [...]

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Tags: Economy · News

Test Your Gold IQ

October 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment

During a turbulent economy, it’s not uncommon to be told to buy gold, but how much do you really know about that shiny yellow metal everybody goes crazy over?  Well, Kiplinger Personal Finance has created a little quiz entitled test your gold IQ (via Free Money Finance) to help you find out.
It’s not a very [...]

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Tags: Asset Classes · Investing

Online Click-Fraud A Whopping 16%

October 27th, 2008 · 7 Comments

Here’s an interesting figure bloggers and webmasters will find interesting:  16%.  That’s the percentage of all clicks on online advertisements in Q3 2008 that turn out to be fraudulent according to the ClickForensics Click Fraud Index (via Seeking Alpha).  Even more striking, fully 27.1% of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) clicks on popular search-engine content networks like Google Adsense [...]

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Tags: Business · Economy · News

Need Extra Cash? Try Craigslist

October 24th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Ah Craigslist.  Is there anything you can’t buy, sell, beg, borrow, or give away on there?  Probably not, and that’s a good thing for those of you needing to pick up some extra cash in a tough economy.  There are practically unlimited temporary job opportunities posted daily in almost every city from spending a few [...]

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Tags: Career and Jobs

Should Young Investors Use A Financial Planner?

October 23rd, 2008 · 7 Comments

Despite the increasing democratization of financial markets in recent years, in my personal experience there seems to be a sort of counter-movement away from do-it-yourself investing (which I advocate) towards for-profit financial advisors among the young.  Don’t get me wrong, I think financial advisors definitely have their place, but for the most part, are best [...]

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Tags: General · Investing · Personal finance

Are Stocks Cheap?

October 21st, 2008 · 3 Comments

As of Friday, October 17th 2008 the S&P 500 has dropped roughly 35% since the beginning of a year, one of the largest one-year drops on record.  But does that mean stocks are cheap?  Not in and of itself, but stocks are finally beginning to look under-valued relative to certain historic metrics. 
Currently, the market is [...]

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Tags: Investing · Personal finance

The Democratization Of Financial Markets

October 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Over the past few decades, capital markets in the developed world have become increasingly accessible to the middle class.  Formerly, one had to be wealthy and connected to benefit from the world’s financial markets due to the expense of making trades and conducting research.  Legendary investors like Benjamin Graham were able to uncover screaming bargains [...]

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Tags: Commentary · Economy

Weekend Link Love And Carnival Roundup

October 18th, 2008 · 3 Comments

The Finance Blog Network
Andy from Saving To Invest wrote a good introduction to options for beginners.
Curt from Penny Jobs reports that new home starts have fallen to their lowest levels in 17 1/2 years.  It looks like hopes for a near-term recovery in the housing market are slipping away.
I would also like to take this opportunity [...]

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Tags: General