Black Coffee: My Favorite Blogs, Money News & Opinions #36

It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…

Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…

MSN Money Smart Spending – Today’s edition of Black Coffee starts off with an article from MSN’s Karen Datko, who featured all three of my blind taste-test experiments in her story on do-it-yourself frugal fun.  Thanks, Karen, for a really terrific write-up and the very nice comments!   If I wasn’t already married, I’d be proposing to you right now.  Ah heck, maybe I’ll just pack up the family and move to Utah so I can propose to you anyway – er, assuming you’d say yes that is.  Oops, never mind.  The Honeybee just pulled out the rolling pin and I don’t think she is planning on baking any cookies.

Money Crashers – Want a chance to win one of three Apple iPads?  Then hop on over to Money Crashers and follow the directions, which will require you to file your tax return online – I think most people do that anyways now, don’t they?  This may be one of the only times you’ll actually enjoy filling out your taxes.

Cheap Healthy Good – Okay, everybody knows I am a sucker for a great experiment.  If I gave you one chicken and $25.86, how many individual gourmet-quality meals could you squeeze out of that?  Five?  Ten?  Hint: The answer is a two-digit prime number that is greater than 10, where the sum of the individual numerals, after being cubed, represent the only even prime number.   (For those of you who are bad at math, quit torturing yourself and just skip directly to Kris’s article for the answer.)

Bible Money Matters – Hey, who couldn’t use an extra buck or two to help stretch their budget?  Well, Jason wrote a nice article highlighting five ways you can do exactly that without having to fill out another job application.  No, starting a blog wasn’t on the list.

The Digerati Life – With tax season in full-tilt mode, SVB reminds us why we should all beware of the refund anticipation loan.  And if I were you, I would also beware of Taylor Swift – I’ve heard better voices on crows.  (Video fun: Play the two links simultaneously – you’ll see they actually complement each other.)

Lazy Man and Money – If you’re traveling to Vegas anytime soon, you might want to review Lazy Man’s helpful tips on how to squeeze a little extra value from your trip there.  I’m not so sure about that Super 8 motel though.

Money Management - Are you shy about sharing your personal finance successes?  Kim argues that, sometimes, it is okay to brag a bit about them.  For example, Kim just paid off her second car this week.  (Show off.)

My Money Minute – Have you ever ended up saving something “accidentally” that, after twenty years or so, has suddenly become quite valuable?  What I mean by “saving something accidentally” is that, for example, you left something up in an attic that you were too lazy to clear out long ago and, as luck would have it, it’s now worth a relative fortune.  Check out this story by Jason about a lucky hoarder who found $40,000 in his basement in the form of a rare video game.

Four Pillars – Meanwhile, my friend Mike shares a story from the “buyer beware” files that got my blood boiling.  Mike bought an iPhone from Rogers, a Canadian communications company.  In the end, Rogers is going to get a goldmine from Mike – while he gets stuck with the shaft.

Money Crush – Over at “the Crush,” Jackie writes about how we can use “The Power of No” to get ahead and stay ahead.  As I told Jackie, unfortunately for me, ever since we got married 14 years ago the Honeybee has really mastered “The Power of No.”  Usually on Friday and Saturday nights after we turn out the lights.  (Yes, I’ll probably be sleeping on the couch tonight after that little joke.)

The Way-Back Machine: Past Posts You May Have Missed

From May 2009:

Inflation: How China May Be Forced to Use the Nuclear Option -  This was part three of last year’s popular inflation week series.  People who have built up wealth over long periods of time in savings and investment accounts aren’t the only folks vulnerable to high inflation.  This particular article focuses on our biggest creditor, China, and what they may ultimately be forced to do in order to protect their positions – the end result wouldn’t be pretty.

Credits and Debits

Credit: As the EuroZone turns… The crisis in Greece continues to get worse with each passing day, and the cries for Greece’s socialist government to do something, anything, to stave off an impending and devastating default on their debt obligations are growing louder and more interesting by the minute.  Once again, our German friends have been the most, um, open when it comes to giving their opinions on Greece’s debt debacle.  Two weeks after accusing the Greeks of being “lazy cheats” and vowing to never bail out the socialist government there, some Germans have reconsidered.  This week, parliament members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats party suggested Athens should provide some of Greece’s 6000 uninhabited islands as collateral for any money it receives from the European Union to help it out of its debt crisis.

Debit: The tit-for-tat currently going on between Germany and Greece was sparked when Greece called for a bailout strategy from the European Union – just in case they needed it.   The problem, of course, is that Greece is asking those EuroZone nations who were fiscally responsible to pay the costs of those who were not.   Why, for example, should the German taxpayers have to pay for all of the services, benefits, and other socialist entitlements that the Greek government recklessly bestowed upon its pampered citizens over the years?

Debit: Socialism is a wonderful thing!  Well, at least until the chickens finally come home to roost.  There are no free rides in life, folks.  As just one example of how out of whack things are in Greece, CNN reports that “many government workers enjoy preferential tax rates, can retire at the age of 54 (in some cases earlier) and enjoy 14 months of pay for 12 months worked.”  Try keeping a private sector business afloat with idiotic policies like that.  Greece’s proposal to restructure the absurd benefits that their civil service workers currently enjoy was met, predictably, by strikes.

Debit: Government jobs in the US provide lavish benefits too – especially when compared to those who work in the private sector.  Remember, the government does not create wealth – only the private sector can do that.

Debit: The government is a parasite that sucks at the teat of private sector corporations and their employees.  The trick is to keep the parasite from getting so big that it eventually kills its host.  It’s no secret that while the private sector has managed to shed almost 7 million jobs during the Great Recession, the US government added 110,000 new jobs through the summer of 2009. Unfortunately, with every additional B.S. government job we add, we move one step closer as a nation to a fate similar to that of Greece.

Debit: I mean, really.  Who else but the federal government can offer a job for a “Climate Change Program Manager” that pays between $103,000 and $155,500 annually?  Hey, even I can do that.  If you are interested in applying, check out this link.  That’s your tax dollars at work, folks.

Credit: In other news, political cartoonist Michael Ramirez summed up the the latest push by Democrats to get an Obamacare bill made into law.

Debit: We wrap up this edition of Credits and Debits with a story about an unfortunate Washington man who was killed this week when he accidentally urinated on a downed power line after a car crash.  The coroner told Len Penzo dot Com that the poor victim probably didn’t know at the time if he was coming or going.  Hey, it’s just a joke – no need to get pissy about it.  What?

By the Numbers:

From the website Urine Colors and their post entitled Fun With Pee…

92 The percentage of water on the International Space Station recovered from sources such as the moisture in the air and urine from the astronauts – so it can be reused for drinking and other purposes.

8 The number of ounces in an average bladder before one feels the urge to pee.

16 Ounces of urine that the average human bladder can hold.

45 The percentage of people who admit to peeing in the ocean.

28 The percentage of people who admit to peeing in the pool.

Letters, I Get Letters

This week, Herzlichen Gluckwunsch wrote in to Len Penzo dot Com to say:

“Bitte kontaktieren sie unseren auslands sachbearbeiter Dr. Marshall Fernandez bei der sicherheitfirma...”

I’m sorry, Herzlichen, but I think you might want to spend a few bucks and invest in a new keyboard.

If you have a question you’d like to ask, or a comment you’d like to make regarding some of my irritating opinions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at: Len@LenPenzo.com

I’ll feature the most interesting question or comment I get each week here on Black Coffee – assuming I get one, that is.

If you’re lucky enough to be the only question in the mail bag I’ll highlight your letter, whether it’s interesting or not.

Other Useless News

• As a reminder, the Oscars for personal finance bloggers is still going on.  I am a finalist in the category of Most Humorous Personal Finance Blog.  Go figure.  I think the award coordinators simply got confused by all the people nominating this site as the “Most Laughable Personal Finance Blog” but, hey, that’ll be our little secret.  If you are so inclined, you can vote for your favorite bloggers in tons of categories over at the Plutus Awards voting page.
• Don’t forget to check back with me this Sunday for the Best of the Best in Money and Personal Finance Carnival – your wacky summary of the blogosphere’s best personal finance and money posts during the previous month.  If you can’t wait, you can check out the carnivals archive below the blog header for a sneak peak of what kind of fun you’ll be in for.

Here are the Top 10 Referring Blogs (excluding aggregators) to Len Penzo dot Com for the entire month of February…

1. Wisebread
2. Frugal Dad
3. Get Rich Slowly
4. Balance In Me
5. Budgets Are Sexy
6. CashMoneyLife
7. Monevator
8. Lifehacker
9. The Simple Dollar
10. Ask Mr. Credit Card

I really appreciate the links, folks!

As a reminder, if you happen to enjoy what you’re reading – or not – please feel free to follow me on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too!

Carnival News

This week I had articles featured at the following carnivals:

• The Carnival of Personal Finance at Credit Cards.com