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Short Takes: Preet’s New Book and Podcast, Hooking Kids on Investing, and more

I’m reconsidering the usefulness of my Friday short takes. When I have something substantive to say about someone else’s article, I’m thinking of just writing a full article on the subject instead of collecting together several links and a few thoughts. If you have any opinion on this, feel free to comment on this post. I’ll make a decision next week.

I had a full week of posts:

Stop Over-Thinking Your Money

It’s Time that Renting Got a Little Respect

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

A Chance to Mouth Off

Here’s some weekend reading:

Preet Banerjee’s new book Stop Over-Thinking Your Money is out, and he interviewed me for his podcast, all in one week!

Andrew Hallam has a very interesting hook for getting kids interested in investing.

 SquawkFox reviews Preet’s new book Stop Over-Thinking Your Money.

Potato has had it with Bell and is considering a jump to Primus for a home phone. I’m interested in feedback about customer experience with Primus home phones (regular land line as opposed to VOIP).

Canadian Couch Potato is tinkering with his model portfolios. A theme is a shift toward more Vanguard ETFs. All my ETFs are from Vanguard now. But I’m still holding on stubbornly to some shares in Berkshire Hathaway.

The Blunt Bean Counter says that the advantage of paying yourself dividends instead of salary from a private corporation has “been virtually eliminated.”

 My Own Advisor takes a look at how well he did with his 2013 financial predictions and humbly admits that “I am no better at predications than anyone else.”

 Million Dollar Journey lists its most popular articles of 2013.

Krystal Yee decided to shift her extra mortgage payments to higher retirement saving. This is a slightly higher risk and higher (expected) reward path. I hope it works out for her.

 Big Cajun Man suggests working out how much higher your mortgage payment would be if interest rates jumped up, and then try making extra principal payments to match this increase as a stress-test of your finances.

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Comments

  1. Big Cajun ManJanuary 10, 2014 at 5:34 AM

    The calculations I made are a little flawed, so I will be repairing them soon, and more likely than not doing a follow up post on what I did wrong. Thanks for including it this week, enjoy Waterworld this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Blunt Bean CounterJanuary 10, 2014 at 7:41 AM

    Michael, thx for the inclusions. You got your first groupies this week, Kerry and her hubby :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael JamesJanuary 10, 2014 at 8:00 AM

      @Mark: I used to have some groupies in the crypto world back during the tech boom, if you can believe it. At one conference, I had some young people from NSA follow me around, which wouldn't be too surprising except that they weren't spying on me :-)

      Delete
  3. FernandoJanuary 10, 2014 at 8:12 AM

    I for one like the Friday short takes: very effective way of getting a quick snapshot of your opinion on different blog posts without having to read several independent article.
    Looks like your short takes are too short for a blog post and too large for twitter. I say keep them...

    ReplyDelete
  4. kaunhaJanuary 10, 2014 at 10:26 AM

    Enjoy the Friday short takes, often points to interesting links, so this is one vote to keep it, if possible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BetCrooksJanuary 10, 2014 at 11:35 AM

    If you don't keep up the short takes, how will I learn things like about the Velveeta shortage?! I count on you to keep my up to date on what really matters in cyberspace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BetCrooksJanuary 10, 2014 at 11:36 AM

      Wait a minute. Wrong blog. Oops. Well I do still read all your posts whether they're short takes or long looks.....

      Delete
  6. Squawkfox (Kerry)January 10, 2014 at 12:19 PM

    @BluntBean More of a crush, really. I'll arrest myself once I start stalking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael JamesJanuary 10, 2014 at 12:28 PM

      @Kerry: I'm betting that being stalked is less fun than it sounds.

      Delete
  7. My Own AdvisorJanuary 10, 2014 at 6:45 PM

    I like your short takes but heck, if you want to take a week or two off, why not - it's your site. :) People that enjoy your site will always come back regardless how often you post. Content and quality always lives on.

    Thanks for the mention - enjoy your weekend!
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2014 at 9:41 AM

    I too like the short takes... I use your site as my link/filter to other interesting reading.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2014 at 3:13 PM

    I like the short takes. I use them as well to see if there are other bloggers artcles of interest to me. Thanks for doing them.

    ReplyDelete

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