Thursday, December 23, 2010

managing your personal finances




Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg





The saving-savvy folks at The Consumerist blog have put together a template Excel spreadsheet for managing personal finances. It's the kind of thing you always say you're going to do, but they went ahead and did it for you, and it's free.

It's not a new thing, but Consumerist's budget spreadsheet, crafted during the days the site was one of our blog network brethren, has come back, after being lost to the vagaries of server maintenance. The site has instructions on setting it up, including tips on thinking through your monthly expenses and advice on how much you should plan on socking away for a rainy day, retirement, and other expenses.


Maybe you use Mint or another automated spending/saving tracker instead—but then again, maybe those tools are so automatic that you don't get a good look at your real money situation.





Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts





Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.


As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.



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Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


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Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


bench craft company scam

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Your Social Media Update

How important is social media to your small business? Social media is no longer a little subject. It may be one of the most important forms of marketing and.

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.


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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

personal finance books





10 Riskiest Places to Give Your Social Security Number "Here's how to lower the chances of your number falling into the wrong hands — and what to do if it does."

Holiday Non-Shopping: 7 Items Worth Waiting For [Money Watch] "Here are the top 7 items that you may want to put on your post-holiday shopping list."

How to Pick Your Next Computer [Smart Money] "Here is my annual fall computer buyers' guide, a simplified road map to the key decisions shoppers must make."

10 Things Recruiters Won't Tell You [Wall Street Journal] "#1. There are better ways to find a job."

20 Places to Find Free Books Online [Northern Cheapskate] "The following sites provide free books that can be enjoyed online, downloaded to your computer, or transferred to an e-reader or MP3 player."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE









When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books





While many may prefer eBooks for the convenience they offer (or prefer paper books for the sentimentality), finding out which is cheaper isn't so black-and-white. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly shows us how to save the most money when buying books.

Photo by Pen Waggener.


All other preferences aside, it looks like eBooks are cheapest then the books are extremely new or extremely old:




  • E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. At a friend's house the other day, I noticed he'd paid $29 for the latest John Grisham book. $29!!! That's insane. That John Grisham book costs $16 at Amazon, and the Kindle version costs $10. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.

  • E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost. (Searching for free Kindle books? Here's Amazon's list of free eBook collections, and here's their best-sellers in the Kindle store, including free books on the right.) Of course, these books can usually be had for cheap (or free) in their dead tree versions, so there's not a huge savings here.

  • E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format. Plus, tons of popular books aren't evenvailable electronically. (A real-life, typical example: Cry, the Beloved Country costs $12 on the Kindle. A brand-new paperback copy from Amazon? $9. The mind boggles.)



It's a rather interesting pattern, though good to know if you don't particularly have a preference for one over the other. Of course, if you find eBooks are just too darn convenient and instantaneous (or you prefer to have the physical copy for sentimental, ease of lending, or other reasons), you can always stick to your preferred media and we won't yell at you.


Note that the above also doesn't take into account the cost of buying an e-reader, which only pays for itself if you read a lot of books, so unless you use it for other things anyway, you'll want to keep that in mind as well. Hit the link to read more, and if you've noticed a similar patter, share how you manage your book buying in the comments below.



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John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

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News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


bench craft company scam

John Lennon Remembered: 10/9/40 – 12/8/80 | Rolling Stone Music

Thirty years ago today — on December 8, 1980 — John Lennon was murdered outside of his New York apartment building by a deranged fan. Three days befor...

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Making Money on Internet

Last night, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons took a shot at corporate cousin Fox News. However, if you’re clicking over to Hulu or Fox’s websites to check out this week’s helicopter gag, you’re going to be disappointed. WebNewser has noticed that the joke, from the episode’s opening credits, has been removed. Did someone at Fox (other than Bill O’Reilly) complain?


Well, maybe. However, as much as we love a good conspiracy, our money is on WebNewser’s second hypothesis, that the gag was added at the very last minute and after the websites had received their copy. We can easily imagine the producers of the show getting so excited about the media coverage of the first joke (and thoroughly enjoying O’Reilly’s take down of it) that they rushed to their computers to add the new joke to the next episode, which was finished long in advance of airing. Besides, as much as some might like to picture shadowy Fox executives wringing their hands over the joke, we just can’t imagine any exec exclaiming, “What? People are writing about our two-decade-old series all over the internet because of one joke?! Well dont let them do it again!”


However, you’d think that the TV channels would get the shows before the websites so you never know…



UPDATE
Simpsons’ Executive Producer Al Jean revealed in an exclusive interview with the NY Times David Itzkoff that the motives behind the anti-Fox News gag were light in spirit:


Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)


The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.


“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”


Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.


Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:




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Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!


Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:


Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.


Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”


Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:



  • Spend less than you earn.

  • Make the money you have work for you.

  • Prepare for the unexpected.


I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!


Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”


Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.


There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.








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Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

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Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

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Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

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Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Last night, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons took a shot at corporate cousin Fox News. However, if you’re clicking over to Hulu or Fox’s websites to check out this week’s helicopter gag, you’re going to be disappointed. WebNewser has noticed that the joke, from the episode’s opening credits, has been removed. Did someone at Fox (other than Bill O’Reilly) complain?


Well, maybe. However, as much as we love a good conspiracy, our money is on WebNewser’s second hypothesis, that the gag was added at the very last minute and after the websites had received their copy. We can easily imagine the producers of the show getting so excited about the media coverage of the first joke (and thoroughly enjoying O’Reilly’s take down of it) that they rushed to their computers to add the new joke to the next episode, which was finished long in advance of airing. Besides, as much as some might like to picture shadowy Fox executives wringing their hands over the joke, we just can’t imagine any exec exclaiming, “What? People are writing about our two-decade-old series all over the internet because of one joke?! Well dont let them do it again!”


However, you’d think that the TV channels would get the shows before the websites so you never know…



UPDATE
Simpsons’ Executive Producer Al Jean revealed in an exclusive interview with the NY Times David Itzkoff that the motives behind the anti-Fox News gag were light in spirit:


Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)


The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.


“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”


Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.


Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:




Follow us on Twitter.


Sign up for Mediaite’s daily newsletter.


Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!


Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:


Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.


Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”


Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:



  • Spend less than you earn.

  • Make the money you have work for you.

  • Prepare for the unexpected.


I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!


Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”


Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.


There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.








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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Last night, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons took a shot at corporate cousin Fox News. However, if you’re clicking over to Hulu or Fox’s websites to check out this week’s helicopter gag, you’re going to be disappointed. WebNewser has noticed that the joke, from the episode’s opening credits, has been removed. Did someone at Fox (other than Bill O’Reilly) complain?


Well, maybe. However, as much as we love a good conspiracy, our money is on WebNewser’s second hypothesis, that the gag was added at the very last minute and after the websites had received their copy. We can easily imagine the producers of the show getting so excited about the media coverage of the first joke (and thoroughly enjoying O’Reilly’s take down of it) that they rushed to their computers to add the new joke to the next episode, which was finished long in advance of airing. Besides, as much as some might like to picture shadowy Fox executives wringing their hands over the joke, we just can’t imagine any exec exclaiming, “What? People are writing about our two-decade-old series all over the internet because of one joke?! Well dont let them do it again!”


However, you’d think that the TV channels would get the shows before the websites so you never know…



UPDATE
Simpsons’ Executive Producer Al Jean revealed in an exclusive interview with the NY Times David Itzkoff that the motives behind the anti-Fox News gag were light in spirit:


Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)


The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.


“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”


Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.


Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:




Follow us on Twitter.


Sign up for Mediaite’s daily newsletter.


Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!


Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:


Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.


Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”


Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:



  • Spend less than you earn.

  • Make the money you have work for you.

  • Prepare for the unexpected.


I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!


Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”


Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.


There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.








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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 12/7/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup Of Orange and Blue Coffee - Horse Tracks!



no gravatar

Monday, December 6, 2010

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Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts





Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.


As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.



Hapa is fast becoming the norm, the days of backlash are long over, at least in Cali, and certainly in the LBC where i am from. Though from our embarrassment of a museum, LBMofA, you would never know. The Paramount/Artesia/Long Beach area is known as the most integrated in the country, and swirl kids like mine and many others are very common from many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Mine is white and black, he dates a blonde Columbian. My adopted is black with an Irish grandpa and mexican/white girlfriend in medical school, though you would never know except by his last name. Know kids who are Samoan/black, Philipino/Mexican. Black/Mexican, Mexican/PuertoRican, Cambodian/Indian, white and everyone else, Philipino/white like my cousins daughter. And of course we have that mutt Obama guy.



Sports have done the most to integrate our country, from Korean/Black like a SuperBowl MVP, to more mixed kids at our Poly HS, the most NFL players of any in history at going on 60, like Marcedes Lewis at Jacksonville Jaguars little brother and sister when mom married a white guy, she used to babysit for me. Landry Fields, Pac Ten scholar athlete of the year at Stanford now a starter for the Knicks grew up with us and also a swirl like my boy. Lots of swirl kids like Jason Kidd, Tony Parker, Jordan Farmar, the Lopex twins are never given a second glance.



The arts are way behind in this, as few have kids from being too selfish , and not very open to true world culture anyway, it is completely white again. With a few token Asian girls thrown in. only the rich and foolish can afford the useless art degrees, other ethnicities have better sense. Also, if not for the number of head NFL coaches in rustbelt cities a few years ago, Obama never would ahve won. It took white racists to see hardworking, responsible, intelligent black men to get over their prejudices. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and more have help slowly open the land to diversity, far more than the arts.



Its time to get back to early modernism, where all cultures had something to add, instead of the academic white bread nutritionless lily whiteness of today. Where did it go wrong? The Academies were resurrected from their deserved grave, time to storm the Bastilles of art, and free it for us all.



art collegia delenda est



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Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


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Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


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Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


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Congo Siasa: <b> Noticias </ b> que nos perdimos weekNews último que no blog la semana pasada: El recién ordenado cardenal de Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, llegó a Kinshasa desde Roma el miércoles con gran éxito enorme. Monsengwo es generalmente considerado como oposición a Kabila, pero rara vez se toma pública ...

<b> Noticias </ b> - Justin Bieber Cancela televisión alemana concierto tras Stunt sale mal <b> ...</ b> La cantante adolescente restos de su actuación después de que un hombre está gravemente herido en la popular serie Wetten Dass.

Rompiendo <b> Noticias </ b>: un gigantesco reloj solar Lazo ProminenceThe Observatorio de Dinámica Solar nunca deja de ofrecer imágenes absolutamente impresionante desde el Sol: de 18:49 UT hoy en día, la imagen de arriba es lo que el Sol parecía en el espectro ultravioleta. La importancia que está viendo en bucle ...


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Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


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Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts





Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.


As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.



Hapa is fast becoming the norm, the days of backlash are long over, at least in Cali, and certainly in the LBC where i am from. Though from our embarrassment of a museum, LBMofA, you would never know. The Paramount/Artesia/Long Beach area is known as the most integrated in the country, and swirl kids like mine and many others are very common from many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Mine is white and black, he dates a blonde Columbian. My adopted is black with an Irish grandpa and mexican/white girlfriend in medical school, though you would never know except by his last name. Know kids who are Samoan/black, Philipino/Mexican. Black/Mexican, Mexican/PuertoRican, Cambodian/Indian, white and everyone else, Philipino/white like my cousins daughter. And of course we have that mutt Obama guy.



Sports have done the most to integrate our country, from Korean/Black like a SuperBowl MVP, to more mixed kids at our Poly HS, the most NFL players of any in history at going on 60, like Marcedes Lewis at Jacksonville Jaguars little brother and sister when mom married a white guy, she used to babysit for me. Landry Fields, Pac Ten scholar athlete of the year at Stanford now a starter for the Knicks grew up with us and also a swirl like my boy. Lots of swirl kids like Jason Kidd, Tony Parker, Jordan Farmar, the Lopex twins are never given a second glance.



The arts are way behind in this, as few have kids from being too selfish , and not very open to true world culture anyway, it is completely white again. With a few token Asian girls thrown in. only the rich and foolish can afford the useless art degrees, other ethnicities have better sense. Also, if not for the number of head NFL coaches in rustbelt cities a few years ago, Obama never would ahve won. It took white racists to see hardworking, responsible, intelligent black men to get over their prejudices. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and more have help slowly open the land to diversity, far more than the arts.



Its time to get back to early modernism, where all cultures had something to add, instead of the academic white bread nutritionless lily whiteness of today. Where did it go wrong? The Academies were resurrected from their deserved grave, time to storm the Bastilles of art, and free it for us all.



art collegia delenda est



bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off



Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts





Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.


As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.



Hapa is fast becoming the norm, the days of backlash are long over, at least in Cali, and certainly in the LBC where i am from. Though from our embarrassment of a museum, LBMofA, you would never know. The Paramount/Artesia/Long Beach area is known as the most integrated in the country, and swirl kids like mine and many others are very common from many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Mine is white and black, he dates a blonde Columbian. My adopted is black with an Irish grandpa and mexican/white girlfriend in medical school, though you would never know except by his last name. Know kids who are Samoan/black, Philipino/Mexican. Black/Mexican, Mexican/PuertoRican, Cambodian/Indian, white and everyone else, Philipino/white like my cousins daughter. And of course we have that mutt Obama guy.



Sports have done the most to integrate our country, from Korean/Black like a SuperBowl MVP, to more mixed kids at our Poly HS, the most NFL players of any in history at going on 60, like Marcedes Lewis at Jacksonville Jaguars little brother and sister when mom married a white guy, she used to babysit for me. Landry Fields, Pac Ten scholar athlete of the year at Stanford now a starter for the Knicks grew up with us and also a swirl like my boy. Lots of swirl kids like Jason Kidd, Tony Parker, Jordan Farmar, the Lopex twins are never given a second glance.



The arts are way behind in this, as few have kids from being too selfish , and not very open to true world culture anyway, it is completely white again. With a few token Asian girls thrown in. only the rich and foolish can afford the useless art degrees, other ethnicities have better sense. Also, if not for the number of head NFL coaches in rustbelt cities a few years ago, Obama never would ahve won. It took white racists to see hardworking, responsible, intelligent black men to get over their prejudices. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and more have help slowly open the land to diversity, far more than the arts.



Its time to get back to early modernism, where all cultures had something to add, instead of the academic white bread nutritionless lily whiteness of today. Where did it go wrong? The Academies were resurrected from their deserved grave, time to storm the Bastilles of art, and free it for us all.



art collegia delenda est



bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...


bench craft company rip off

Congo Siasa: <b>News</b> we missed last week

News I failed to blog on last week: The newly ordained cardinal of Kinshasa, Laurent Monsegwo, arrived in Kinshasa from Rome on Wednesday to huge acclaim. Monsengwo is usually considered to be opposed to Kabila, but rarely takes public ...

<b>News</b> - Justin Bieber Cancels German TV Gig After Stunt Goes Awry <b>...</b>

The teen singer scraps his performance after a man is severely injured on the popular series Wetten Dass.

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...