What I’m Reading: Honest, I Actually Read Blogs This Week

Would you believe it? I actually had time to read blogs this last week. And I even left a comment or two. Shocking, isn’t it? I don’t know if this will continue into next week, as we have a ton of stuff planned, and I have no idea what my schedule will be like starting July 1 with my new job. But this last week, at least, I read blogs. And here are some of my favorite posts.

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Lance from Money Life and More gives us the breakdown on his fiancé’s student debt and their current plant to get it all paid off, which is currently based solely on interest rates. This is not a bad way to do things, but I did suggest in the comments that they consider all the terms of the loans- because honestly, federal student loans and private student loans are not created equal.

Over at A Young Pro, Nick talks about 3 Things You Should Do When Starting a New Career. It’s a great list, but can I tell you a secret? You can’t stop doing these things. This is good advice no matter where in your career you are.

Speaking of lists of 3, at This That and the MBA, Christine shares 3 Money Mistakes [She’] Made and How to Avoid Them. I love it when people are honest. Because none of us are perfect. We have all made mistakes, and the main reason for writing a personal finance blog is to help others avoid those same mistakes. (Or at least be able to not feel alone when they find out others have made the same mistakes they have.)

And speaking of money mistakes, I’d say gambling can certainly be one of them. At the same time, I lived in Nevada for over 1o years, and still have friends and family there, so I benefit from people who go there to gamble. (I love that casinos advertise exactly how much – on average – money they take from people – highest in the state 97% payback rate.) But believe it or not, it is possible to gamble responsibly, and Bobby, brother of Sandy from Yes, I am Cheap, gives us some tips to do so.

If you are on Facebook, you’ve probably seen those “Awesome women have…” memes. The latest one I saw was “curves and tattoos”. And while I don’t want to argue with these things, because some awesome women have both those things. And some awesome women have one or neither. One of the things that I think makes an awesome woman (or really, person) is the ability to own the choices she’s made in her life. One of the women I would list as awesome, Kim at Eyes on the Dollar, writes this week about Excuses or Choices?

This week’s “new to me” personal finance blog is a bit of a cheat, because the blogger is already a good friend of mine. You know him as Average Joe, from Average Joe’s Financial Blog. But now he has a new blog, too- Stacking Benjamins –where we get even more of his great stories. This week he gives us speech tips learned in public speaking hell.

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This year, we proved we could take June and Larry on a road trip. But most of their travel is much more like this trip the 2 Punk Dogs Maggie & Duke, Traveling Watchdogs, took. Only our dogs go to dog parks instead of getting to visit cool backyards.

Recently, June has developed a talent for escaping through the front door. With Moree, we constantly had to be on guard against escapes, but with the current two, it’s never been a huge issue, until recently. (I swear, I’ve had to go after her 3 or 4 times in the last month alone.) Jodi of Heart Like a Dog has long had an issue like this with her Lab, Delilah (who really seems very much like my Moree in personality). She taught her the command “go check” in the hopes it would help. How is that going? You should Go Check it out.

Remember how in the personal finance blogs I talked about the fact that we all make mistakes? It’s not just money mistakes. We make mistakes with our dogs, too. Over at My Brown Newfies, Jen shares a mistake she recently made- she let the dogs out and then forgot. I know she feels awful about it, so in an attempt to make her feel better, let me share- we don’t even have a fenced yard, so the dogs have to go out on leashes, but there is a spot right next to the back door where we can hook the leashes. More than once, we let Howie out and then forgot- I think maybe for longer than an hour one time. It happens to all of us, especially when they don’t signal.

And now on to something that makes me feel better about the world in general. Jan at The Poodle (and dog) blog, always keeps me up to date on my animal news. She shared this story of how the people of one of my favorite cities, Victoria, BC, donated over $16,000 to help pay for an abandoned poodle’s leg surgery. It was enough money that it helped pay for surgeries for other pets in the SPCA’s care, too.

Dachshund Nola hosts the Black & White Sunday Blog Hop that I try to participate in weekly. She is overall one of the cutest little things you will come across on the internet. Like my dogs, she get a little stressed when guests are over. And currently, she has relatives visiting. Luckily, there’s a beach nearby for her to de-stress at. (Which results in adorable pictures that help us de-stress.)

And speaking of cute, you have to go check out Totally Tongues Tuesday at new to me blog Darby’s & Pumpkin’s Daily. I promise you’ll smile.

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