Weekend Reading - 3rd Edition

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It has been an eventful 3rd week for Sustainable Personal Finance. Our articles have been read with increasing frequency and we couldn’t be more excited about it! In addition, one of our posts, New Car Import DIY - Save Thousands has been highlighted as a Guest Post on CarNegotiationCoach which is very exciting as it means some of our content has value to fellow bloggers. The weather has gotten even colder, and lucky for me, the blogosphere provided me with some excellent reading this week! Here are some of the best articles we read this week.

It is always interesting to gain the perspective, wisdom and insight from an individual who has been around the block yet has not had their voice heard by the masses. This week at Balance Junkie we were all extremely lucky to be introduced to Thomas who has been an investing DIY for a long time (total time not announced but the impression given is a LONG time). Thomas shared his Investment Widsom: 5 Key Lessons via email which BJ followed up with the insightful thoughts Thomas has on Stock Selection from a Veteran DIY Investor.

Frugality, Minimalism and Sustainability are intricately linked as far as we are our concerned. Becoming Minimalist hosts a guest writer, Frugal Babe, in the article Minimalism and Frugality - A Perfect Combination. Frugality and minimalism are integral aspects of sustainable personal finance and we were ecstatic to be introduced to both of these writers this week.

Who better to learn from than our elders? Many of these folks lived through times far worse than we’ve seen for generations. BioFriendly discussed The Lessons We Can Learn from our Parents and Grandparents and these words could not be more true. Living through The Great Depression and World Wars taught our Grandparents many lessons which they passed on to their children. Unfortunately not all of these lessons have been passed on to the 20-40 somethings out there as North American society transitioned into a reality of want now, get now, pay later. Listen and understand the advice of thy elders.

Mrs. SPF has real world experience with renewable energy and she believes that wind power is a mostly untapped resource that will explode in the coming years. Clean Break presents ideas as to How Ontario has a Massive Opportunity to Tap the Power of the Wind Due to the Great Lakes. We are invested in Wind Power companies as an alternative energy resource and noted on this post that Kingston, Ontario already has wind farms on Wolfe Island and that the opportunity to further harness the wind for electric generation is vastly untapped.

Many people try to budget, yet budgets are far from perfect. Should we give up? No way. Free From Broke has a short but very useful take on L.I.F.E Screwing Up Budgets. How true. The key is to adapt and be flexible. Plan ahead for contingency, add a buffer to your budget.

As we’re new to blogging, we take every piece of good advice we can get. Invest it Wisely posted a fantastic article on How to Improve Your Alexa Ranking and Still Have Fun. I have yet to post as to why Alexa ranking is superior to ranking systems such as Google Rank (which has not been updated since April 2010! and appears to have been abandoned). IIW gives great ideas for bloggers on how to network, how to optimize plugins and build their Alexa Rank. If you like what we write, we have a link on the right side of this page where you can write us a review. You might be the first to do so!

We’ve added a few new categories this week: Lifestyle and Blogging. We constantly evolve here at SustainablePersonalFinance both in content and personally.

Next up, more great articles I read this week, by category.

Sustainability

Financial Highway takes a look at Collaborative Consumption which s a new model of ownership through which one individual doesn’t own one item but instead many individuals share ownership of this certain item (e.g. car sharing).

Clean Break reports that China is Leading the Way in Renewable Energy Capacity. While China is also becoming a world leader in fossil fuel consumption at least it is making a concerted effort.

Personal Finance

Canadian Finance Blog determines that Pet Insurance isn’t Insurance We Need and suggests a viable alternative to this product.

Canadian Capitalist provides a very interesting Way to Avoid TFSA transfer fees. For those of us looking for a new product but don’t want to pay the transfer fee, this idea is gold.

Investing

Canadian Financial DIY discusses Why Canadian Savings Bonds Need to Change. By offering a measly 0.65% this year, this is a product no one should be considering.

Intelligent Speculator provides 20 Things to Consider When Judging an ETF. As numerous ETFs proliferate the marketplace this list will be handy.

Seeking Alpha tells us about 3 Solar Stocks on Sale. A good sector to keep our eye on, but we’re still not ready to buy lest the news on the sector improves.

Frugality

SavingMentor guests posts at Young and Thrifty on How to Make Your PC a Home Theatre. A great way to save on ever increasing cable bills.

On their own site, SavingMentor discusses Numerous Ways to Save Money by Getting Free TV. We are re-considering our far-to-expensive phone/cable/internet services this month and we will use SavingMentor’s site religiously.

Lifestyle

Canadian Free at 45 suggests Areas to Invest for the End of The World. I comment that we should also invest in basic survival skills.

The Simple Dollar looks to Get Rid of Old Stuff by Cleaning Out Your Closets. Do we really need so much stuff?

Blogging

BuyLikeBuffet shares his 12 Biggest Blogging Mistake. I read number 1 and immediately knew I had to link to this post - and stop staring at my site stats!

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