Okay folks, let's hit the links under the watchful eye of the squirrel...

Ahh, New Year, new resolutions, and new stocks for stock-picking competitions. We are a web site ostensibly about Personal Finance and investing, so I'd be remiss if I didn't enter a few contest this year. I already discussed my picks for the Money Pros Stock Picking Competition, but this time I'm entering a 4-stock contest run by Nelson at Financial Uproar. As always, just because I picked stocks here doesn't mean I'm telling you to buy them - so do your own due diligence!

I know it says the 26th, but this thing will be posted on the last day of the year. You know what that means? Just like all the other web sites you read, we're going to recap our best articles from the year (in addition to our normal roundup)! Lucky you!

Welcome to the Christmas/Holidays/Winter Solstice version of the DQYDJ weekender!  The three writers on the web site are Catholic (we're from Boston, remember?) so this is being sent out on Christmas Eve for us.  Happy Holidays to you and your families, and enjoy this wrap up.

We'll be back next week with more controversial stuff, but for now we leave you with the cream of the crop for the week!

Time may only move in one direction - but just like a faster than light neutrino, let's ignore physics for a bit! Inspired by this comment from an anonymous author, we will take you to the years 1976 and 1989 and look at life through the eyes of a recent college graduate.

Why would a rational person purchase insurance yet also play the lottery?

It's a question that has puzzled Economists (and fake Economists, like 2/3 of the staff at DQYDJ) for a long time. Think about it, a lottery is the exact opposite of insurance. When it comes to insurance, a person purchases coverage to hedge against risks. In a lottery, sums are spent for a long-shot chance at the 'risk' of a payoff. People are risk-seeking when it comes to playing the lottery yet risk-averse when it comes to purchasing insurance. What gives?

Check it out - a year from now will be 12/12/12! That's got to be lucky in a year.

First off, we cracked 200,000 in our Alexa rank. Much thanks goes to the ladies and gents in the Yakezie Network who have been with us on this journey. It would have taken a while without you folks! Here's to 5 digits!

Welcome back friends, readers, and haters to your favorite Personal Finance web site! I hope we pleasantly annoyed you with our balanced take on the unemployment report this week. Nothing was too hard hitting - you know that men are finding themselves unemployed more than women and the 8.6% top-line unemployment rate begs the question, is the unemployment rate an improvement? How much mileage can you get out of a single unemployment report? Plenty, it turns out. We'll stop now until it strikes our fancy again (or I can get Cameron and Bryan to write something!).

One interesting side effect of recessions since the 1980s has been the demographic breakdown in unemployment rates. Yes - recently, unemployment discriminates against men. While recessions in the 60s and 70s saw female unemployment rates increase faster than male rates, the current recession saw age 20+ male unemployment peak at 10.7% (in October 2009, SA) while the female 20+ rate peaked at 8.3% (in November 2009, SA).

One more Weekender!

Back for more? We don't blame you. We enjoy writing it, so please keep reading it!

Click through to see our social stats, a nice review we got, carnivals and links for the week and all of the featured links you've come to love and enjoy!