Sustainable Personal Finance

As we close out our 4th week “live” we continue to read and learn about personal finance. We were blessed by Seeking Alpha ran a number of articles about renewable energy and investing. Right up our alley! We’ll start with their argument that the Washington tax deal may signal that the time is right to buy wind and solar. The argument here is that in order to get his tax bill through, Obama will need to appease both sides of the House which could include the inclusion of an extension to the Treasury grant program for renewables may well be part of the final deal. In a second article, Tom Konrad evaluates the best clean and renewable energy ETFs providing an extremely thorough analysis. Jared Cummans adds further detail to this series in his article Gust of Activity Puts Wind ETFs into Focus. Mrs. SPF has a good understanding of renewable energy and she thinks wind power is the future. Lastly, Andy Li takes a closer look at China’s Ming Yang Wind Power has had recent struggles on the market and could be a great buy opportunity. We bought Ming Yang Wind Power for our RRSP portfolio and it has not . . . → Read More: Weekend Reading - The Renewable Energy Edition

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 . . . → Read More: Weekend Reading - 3rd Edition

This week in Ontario we had our first snowfall. The temperature hovered around the freezing mark as the white stuff flew from the sky in heavy wet clumps. Instead of throwing out my back moving the 2 inches of white slush shovelling, I fired up the snow blower to clear our driveway. The temperatures are falling and the beautiful late autumn weather we experienced appears to be gone. As the weather cools I tend to spend more time inside, and lucky for me, the blogosphere provided me with some excellent reading this week! As such, our Weekend Reading has been revamped this week to include the numerous articles I found intriguing over the past seven days.

Ashley Hamilton at SocialFinance.ca examines sustainability indices in her post The Sustainability Index—Friend or Foe? bringing to light issues such as the “best in industry” evaluations, the dangers of using such indices as “the holy grail of sustainability” and points out that these indices describe prior behaviour and not future behaviour. Here at SPF we have also questioned the indices, funds, etfs and companies included in Social Responsible Investing and I personally found Ashley’s article concise and intriguing.

As a frequent guest poster at Million Dollar Journey, . . . → Read More: Weekend Reading - December and Snow are Here Edition

It has been a fun first week blogging. Thursday was our busiest day and the trend is looking positive. We got a lot of great feedback from the Yakezie network and we look forward to taking the Yakezie challenge when we are eligible.

The following set of articles are some of the most interesting I read this week. We like to share valuable pieces with our readers weekly. Enjoy!

Don’t Let the Winter Blues Affect Your Goals @ Prairie Eco Thrifter. As someone who deals with SAD each winter I found this piece uplifting!
Invest in Your Health, Invest in Your Wealth @ Prairie Eco Thrifter. We have been working hard at a number of the suggestions made in this article.
Ways to Save Money @ Canadian Finance Blog. The kitchen sink of articles on ways to save your money.
If You Don’t Have A Will, You WILL Have Problems @ Do Not Wait. As we posted this week, this is the last item on our financial health list we need to get done.
10 Surprising Ways a Small Home Saves You Money @ Financial Highway. Living in a smaller residence can make a lot of cents.
The Location Independent Lifestyle: 3 Low-Cost, (But Amazing) Places in the . . . → Read More: Weekend Reading - American Thanksgiving Edition