Weekend Wisdom: Signs of Hope?

 

CC Credit - Atilla1000

What’s this?

Good economic news?

Come on. That can’t be right.

Well, the U.S. unemployment rate has taken some steps in the right direction and economic growth appears to be creeping back.

I wouldn’t say that the road to economic recovery is paved for us, but any signs of improvement are appreciated. It could be that irrational optimism that led to irrational pessimism is now on its inexorable pendulum swing back to the other side.

It may be that bloggers and writers are more hopeful in the new year, but hopeful writers have made it into my regular reading.

Here are a few of my faves for this week:

Forbes — MIT Gamechanger: Free Online Education for All

Investor Junkie — What Makes Debt Socially Acceptable

The Digerati Life — Three Affordable Ways to Beat Debt

Zero Hedge — Physical Silver Surges To Record 30% Premium Over Spot, In Backwardation

Free Money Finance — 14 Fun Staycations

Daily Money Shot – Updating Your Skills to Find Part-Time Income

Yes I Am Cheap — Starting an Emergency Fund with the Right Amount of Money

So Over Debt — 3 Finance Tips I Got From Watching Cartoons

Funancials — Should I Cancel My Credit Cards

Money Crush — Improve Your Future in 5 Minutes

Blonde on a Budget — January 2012 Jar and Goals

Art of Manliness — Willpower Part I

Related posts: Weekend Wisdom: The Rogue Blogger EditionWeekend Wisdom: 100 Percent Chance of WisdomWeekend Wisdom: Ho-Ho-Holiday EditionWeekend Wisdom: Everything is Boo-tifulWeekend Wisdom: Einstein and Turkey

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Weekend Wisdom–The Revolution Will Be Wikied

  Creative Commons: rui guerra

It only took Wikipedia one day to teach the world that it will take a lot more than government bureaucrats to stop information and knowledge from circulating on the web.

The act of protest–shutting down the site–chilled the forces who were trying to push the anti-piracy legislation. Several other sites joined in.

Is there a compromise position? I think everyone’s entitled to the rights of their works. But this didn’t appear to be the right legislation.

What I think this week taught us — or maybe just me, I can’t speak for everyone — is that the real government is truly outside of the bureaucracy now. If we can influence decisions this way, could we begin to grab other powers away from the government, back to ourselves? That’s a question mark for a reason. There’s a fine line between collective intelligence and mob mentality. And that fine line is called knowledge.

Anyway. The web survived intact. And I was still able to do some online reading.

Here’s what I found…

I Will Teach You to be Rich — What the Pros Know About Networking that Your Don’t

Free Money Finance — 7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Gift Cards

Money Crashers — What is Preferred Stock

Generation X Finance — 5 Reasons to Not Borrow From Your 401K

Marginal Revolution — Simulations and the Fermi Paradox

Investor Junkie — Want to be a Great Investor? Learn How to Shop

Over Your Head — Quite Everything. Go Everywhere. A Conversation with Chris Guillebeau

A Dash of Insight — Why the Average Investor is Bamboozled by Recession Forecasts

The Finance Buff — Experiment: Buying on the Dip

My Two Dollars — It’s Not What Your Earn, It’s What Your Spend

Four Hour Work Week Blog — How to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer

Related posts: Weekend Wisdom: Financial StrugglesWeekend Wisdom: The Rogue Blogger EditionWeekend Wisdom–Make Your Own Good LuckWeekend Wisdom — New News for a New YearThree Ways To Prepare For The Automated Trading Revolution

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Weekend Wisdom: Facebook IPO… Like? Or Not?

 

Creative Commons--Flickr

A few major financial bits of news hit this week.

Ben Bernanke announced the possibility of more quantitative easing, or as I like to refer to it, The Fed’s Multi-Billion Dollar Obama Reelection Campaign Fund.

That wasn’t exactly unpredictable.

The other bombshell — for me, at least — was the announcement about a Facebook initial public offering, or IPO. I knew it was in the works, but thought it was still being debated by the social network’s executives.

IPOs can be more than just a way to value a company, or to turn virtual billionaires into real billionaires. They can signal increased health in the market and even indicate a new investment climate. Is this the start of another Tech Boom driven by maturing Web 2.0 companies? Hard to say. But my eyes will be on this offering for clues.

Here are some of the other articles and posts I’ve been reading this week…

Budgets Are Sexy — Does America Hate Money?

Forbes — Is Warren Buffett’s Secretary a 1 Percenter?

CashMoneyLife — When Will I Get My Tax Refund

The Finance Buff — How to Buy I Bonds on a Future Date From Treasury Direct

Financial Samurai — What Income Level is Rich?

Arbor Investment Planner Blog — Six Top Global Investment Trends for Your Portfolio in 2012

The College Investor — Your College Major Doesn’t Matter… Unless…

Wealth Informatics — Stay at Home, or Go to Work. What is the Financial and Professional Price?

Dumb Little Man — 7 Habits of Highly Excellent People

The Psy-Fi Blog — The Wisdom of Internet Crowds

Econometrics Beat (Dave Giles) — Hot Topics in Econometrics

Related posts: Weekend Wisdom: 100 Percent Chance of WisdomWeekend Wisdom–The Revolution Will Be WikiedWeekend Wisdom–Make Your Own Good LuckWeekend Wisdom: The Rogue Blogger EditionWeekend Wisdom: May You Live in Interesting Times

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Weekend Wisdom — New News for a New Year

Well, financially speaking, 2011 was a hum-dinger.

Hum-dinger is a technical term, of course, which means bat sh*t crazy.

We’ve had more economic news in 2011 than we typically endure in a decade–crashes, recovery, more crashes and more recovery.

Can we expect more of the same in 2012?

I think I’ll leave this to the dozens of other bloggers who are offering their predictions for the coming year.

I’ll just provide some good reading material that will help you make up your own mind.

Here’s to a great 2012 for all of you!

MSNBC Cosmic Log — Weird News for 2011 Recap

Darwin’s Money — Social Security 2012 Deal Explained

Budgets Are Sexy — It’s New Year’s Resolution Time. Whattya Got?

Wisebread — 5 Things What Angry Birds Taught Me

Five Cent Nickle — Tips for Returning Unwanted Gifts

My Journey to Millions — Analyzing the Perception of the One Percent

First Generation White Collar — The Effects of Being Cheap

Invest it Wisely — Making $30,000 from Blogging in 2012

Investor Junkie — Rich Dad, Poor Dad Review–10 Years Later

Psychology Today — Ideas Having Sex

PBS Newshour — Labs Aim for Spare Parts for Humans

Related posts: Weekend Wisdom: 100 Percent Chance of WisdomWeekend Wisdom: Signs of Hope?Weekend Wisdom: We Are Awash in InformationWeekend Wisdom–The Revolution Will Be WikiedWeekend Wisdom–Make Your Own Good Luck

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Weekend Wisdom–Make Your Own Good Luck

 

CC -- Visual Paradox

Well, my brothers and sisters, if you made it through Friday the 13th, 2012, you can weather any apocalypse or tribulation, if you ask me.

And if you weathered the past few years of investment hell and churn, I think you’re ready to prosper in the upcoming months and years.

(I never say… “it can’t get worse, right?” Because that’s been somewhat of a jinx.)

Here are two secrets to preparing yourself for any investment condition:

1)  Maintain discipline. It’s easy to let emotions carry you away–either to euphoria or to despair. But, over the long term, what this does is make you bail when you should be joining, and make you join when you should bail.

2) The next secret I call my ABE theory: Always Be Educated. Keep learning no matter what. Read. Think. Write.

Here are some posts and articles that might help you on your ABE quest:

In Over Your Head — The Complete Guide to Snapping the F*ck Out of It

Brain Pickings — Einstein, Anne Lamott, and Steve Jobs on Intuition and Creativity. Here’s another cool one from Brain Pickings… Decoding the Heavens… about a computer built around a 1,000 years to early. Weird stuff.

Money Ning — How I Supplement My Income to Keep My Dreams Alive

Mint.com Blog — 5 Signs a Company is Cheating You

PT Money — What We Need From Suze Orman Instead of Another Celebrity-Endorsed Prepaid Debit Card

AllFinancialMatters — Public’s View of Capitalism (And Other Political Terms)

Len Penzo — 100 Words on Why Competition is Good for Everyone

My Two Dollars — It’s Not What Your Earn, It’s What You Spend

The Finance Buff — Why Others Seem to Have More Money Than You

Financial Samurai — How to Save More for Retirement if You Don’t Make Much Money

Investor Junkie — What Are Drips?

The Digerati Life — 12 Month Calendar and Task List for a Secure Retirement

Related posts: Weekend Wisdom: Is Santa Claus Bipolar?Weekend Wisdom: Moo-la-la-la la… la la… la laWeekend Wisdom: May You Live in Interesting TimesWeekend Wisdom–Another Week, Another Panic EditionWeekend Wisdom: Finance and More

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