Ahh, another week, another Weekender! How many of you are getting sick of turkey leftovers already (our spread, with half of the turkey carved is show above!)? Fight through it, read some articles, and react to my stupid musings.
Who's Reacting To DQYDJ? Carnivals and Featured Links...
- Our (slightly controversial) article about a good credit card strategy was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Compounding Returns. Check it out!
- DollarVersity liked The Frugal Toad's Guest post, "From Wall Street to Main Street – A Crisis of Responsibility".
- Len Penzo liked that we asked if certain majors should pay more tuition... especially those Engineers!. Note that Len was an Engineer, and in a band. Please read his comments on the article - as he's 100% right, and I should have mentioned that walking through the non-engineering campuses at a school like USC might increase the chances of a major switch. YMMV.
- Jackie at MoneyCrush reworded our question about whether certain majors should pay more - because how you ask a question definitely affects the answer you get!
- Harri at Totally Money liked our article on whether we should give benefits to the less attractive. She also likes the fact that we will occasionally attempt to use the word 'snogs' for our American readers! Here is an attempt: Should the more attractive do less snogging? Online Investing AI also liked the post! Did you?
- Nelson at Financial Uproar likes the fact that we're on the "Anti-Break up on Facebook" team. No, we haven't yet taken a position on asking people out on Facebook - let's allow it!
- The Tight Fisted Miser enjoyed that we discussed the value of college. If you haven't checked out his site - you're missing out. Read his article on how he makes money playing poker - and it doesn't involve years of study!
Must Read Links
- Okay, this is hilarious: There was an online plague in the game World of Warcraft that I randomly read about. If you have any interest in economics, epidemiology, medicine, gaming, or are just bored definitely read it.
- The Thousandaire talked about the hidden costs of home-buying. Refreshing to see someone actually running the numbers before buying...
- My Journey to Millions is curious: what's the most you should spend on a hobby? Help them out in the comments over there!
- Interested in channeling your inner Hemingway and writing blog posts drunk (or "writing drunken blog posts"?)? Wise Bread has got you covered: 13 cheap beers for you to review!
- Save money on gas with Lisa from Thriftability!
- Darwin at Darwin's Money loves slaughtering the bad ideas people hold about economics. Income disparity can be a good thing, and he explains why!
- My name PKamp3 gets me in trouble. My comments on these articles at The Frugal Toad and Burbed are caught in spam limbo! Let me lay this out here: if you see a 'PK' show up at your site, that's still me, I promise. Burbed also has a must read article on FICO scores predicting mortgage walkaway likelihood - and it's good!
- Add your opinion on what are the best passive income streams at My Multiple Incomes!
- We're proud to say we now read 101 Centavos daily - read comments from him on some of our more recent articles and you'll see why. He even related pepper plants to personal finance. 101 Centavos is playing Chess while a lot of other sites are learning to play Checkers...
- Don't keep buying bigger hard drives, actually go unclutter your digital life. Seriously, go! (hat tip to Untemplater)
- "Drawings, Charts, And Videos That Explain The Recession
Rant for The Week
Jackie at MoneyCrush makes the point of the week... how you ask questions matter. It is better to phrase a question positively than negatively in many situations. For example, if a doctor is encouraging someone to get a treatment (say they would die 80% of the time otherwise for the sake of this discussion) they can ask about it in two ways:
- There is a 36% chance this treatment will fail and you will die.
- This treatment has a 64% chance of success and you will survive.
By accentuating the positive, a patient is more likely to opt for the treatment - even though their odds do not change.
Remember, words matter. In a situation where you are trying to build consensus, accentuate the positive.
