Community In Action - Pursue Your Dreams Edition

Posted on May 1, 2008

First was an article on Life Hack called Personal Development, Canine-Style. It is a long read, but well worth the time. It is written from the perspective of a man’s dog while the owner’s life and finances grow over the years. It shares some of the potential dangers that come with chasing our dreams and getting on top of our finances. Great life perspective with an funny amusing edge.

Second, I wanted to highlight one of the best Personal Finance blogs on the net, The Simple Dollar. This story is quite inspirational. Just about two years ago he hit financial rock bottom, and now he has quite his steady job to pursue his dream of making a living as a writer. I suspect that he we will make judging from his motivation and body of work. Here is one of his recent pieces that provides a wonderful framework for making your dreams look possible. If you haven’t ever checked out his blog, I highly recommend it.

» Filed Under Bloggers, Chasing Dreams, Links

Community In Action: Book Winner and Link Catchup

Posted on November 3, 2007

First order of business is to congratulate TheCpa, a regular Happy Rock reader, who won the contest for my copy of The Quiet Millionaire.

Next is to catch up on some of my favorite links from the last few weeks :

Pinyo @ Moolanomy offers a wonderful story about balancing our work/money and our lives.
Seth Godin, my favorite marketing writer, presents a marketing perspective on choosing a college that is very relevant to our personal finance. I went to an 8k a year state school, and got a great education in Computer Science.
Trent @ The Simple Dollar offers some great advice on seeking our dreams.
The Dough Roller @ The Tao of Making Money shares his insight as he looks back at his painful childhood money lessons.
mandy @ Frugal Dollar reailzed that people who have all the right stuff may not be making it! A great lesson.
J @ Home Finance Freedom posts some nice analysis of why tax deductions for a mortgage is not all it is cracked up to be. I not sure I totally followed his math, but I never understood justifying a mortgage by paying money to a bank just to get a write off that could be received by donating the money to a worthy cause.

» Filed Under Links

Learning From Others - Romance, Giving, and Leadership

Posted on September 22, 2007

Here are couple links that I thought were worth some attention over the last week or two :

Giving changes us! Millionaire Mommy Next Door writes a nice article about the addictive nature of giving.

How we dress often portrays how we feel about ourself, and can shape others opinion of us. Clever Dude walks us through some clothing choices that make us look unprofessional.

Two nice tips for adding some romance. 5 outdoor dates(with some local New Jersey flair) and some free ways to increase romance.

jeanjeanie discusses the cost of overcoming her fears. I like the open discussion, and I still have similar struggles to this day!

And finally a slightly off topic post for those of us whose jobs and pursuits require us to be leaders that explores influence as true leadership.

Enjoy!

» Filed Under Links

Learning From Others : Finance Community Round Up

Posted on August 11, 2007

There was some great stuff out there this week. Here are my favorites :

Saving Advice offers a beautifully pictographed list of 25 personal money confessions.

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity gives as a quick description of 10 top personal finance books. The description on Your Money Your Life makes me want to read it even more.

One Frugal Girl starts a discussion on whether or not debt is an integrity problem. Bankruptcy usually is in my opinion, and I can see consumer debt bordering on an integrity issue. Even if we don’t come to conclusions, I think the discussion is useful. Integrity needs to be talked about more

Consumerism Commentary takes a through a misleading statistics example revolving around consumer debt. Again I love the discussion. Being critical about statistics is utterly important in our age of media bombardment. Like the 50% of marriages that end in divorce statistic that gets tossed around so much. I haven’t found the basis for that one yet.

Philip at Wise Bread challenges us on what to do when you aren’t happy with our current job. I though the interview questions were brilliant, I hadn’t done that thinking yet!

Finally, two more contests one for a copy of Quicken and one for $300 or more in cash.

» Filed Under Links

Community In Action - Contest Edition

Posted on August 4, 2007

I don’t normally do a lot of link posts, but I think that is going to change. First, I totally appreciate whenever someone publicly appreciates my work. Second, it builds community which is a key part of growth. Third, I think it will provide value to The Happy Rock community. Hopefully the links will be helpful and informative. If you don’t feel like these type of posts are providing value, please let me know. If you appreciate them, again let me know.

There were a few contests that I came across in the last few weeks that I thought I would bring some attention to.

Mark @ Financing Your Family is offering a 500 word review for the comment with the best use for $100 a month.

Christine @ Create Business Growth is starting a weekly comment contest for a randomly drawn relevant comment. This week’s prize is $50!

INVESP Consulting is hosting another random drawing for people who subscribe to their feed and are there long enough to read the secret post sometime in August. The prize will be $300, $400, or $800 depending on some conditions.

And now a couple a great posts from the finance community.

No Credit Needed had the best article of the week with 7 questions to assess whether you are really want to beat your debt.

Digerati Life has a well done article on sub-prime lending. The list of how people become victims is applicable to everyone seeking a mortgage.

If I kind find some Brasso, this article about fixing scratches on CDs will come in handy.

Finally, Trent @ The Simple Dollar has a nice article on how he helps his 20 month old cope with wanting to buy toys. It is very nice to see other thoughtful parents in action.

» Filed Under Links

What bloggers are saying about canceling cable and TV.

Posted on July 18, 2007

Yesterday I posted some eye opening statistics about TV viewing. Today I wanted to wrap up the canceling cable experiment by searching the blogosphere for some bloggers that had already tried giving up cable or had relevant posts. Here is what I found :

Gary Lee just recently canceled cable and is still adjusting.

Boomie @ The Wastrel Show downgraded to basic cable just a week ago.

Lazy Man tried to hack a cable free solution.

Clever Dude talks about not upgraging his viewing experience.

FMF @ Free Money Finance admits he doesn’t have cable.

And finally Trent @ The Simple Dollar discusses 10 reasons to cut out TV in one of his most popular articles. He then talks about dropping cable in a later post.

Enjoy

» Filed Under Bloggers, Experiments, Links