Weekend Reading - Twas the Night Before Christmas Edition

... and all through the house not a blogger was stirring, safe and warm in their beds. Welcome to our Weekend Reading, the 5th edition of our weekly round up. Our ability to schedule our posts has been quirky, and we are busy travelling on Christmas Eve, so we are publishing our Weekend Reading a day early this week.

Is it just me or did the blogging community really step up to provide some awesome writing this week? No complaints here, but this weeks round up will be longer than those of the past. We start with Becoming Minimalist this week where they discuss 35 Gifts Your Kids Will Never Forget. Joshua lists fundamental lessons, traits and qualities that are invaluable for every child to understand and learn. Some of our favourites from the list include contentment, faithfulness to your spouse, finding beauty, imagination, meals together, pride and uniqueness. Joshua discusses all of these in more depth and many other great gifts your kids will benefit throughout their lives if they learn them young.

The Financial Blogger has gone and done with the post on how to Run Multiple Blogs, Earn a 6 Figure Income While Working 40 Hours a Week. In this to extremely thorough article TFB details what a blogger needs to do in order to become a successful blogger. Even those of us with no aspiration of a blogging empire will find many valuable tidbits, lessons and tips on how to improve our blogs.

Bigcajunman at The Canadian Personal Finance Blog discusses Why Santa Loves His Points and details how he has saved ,000,000 PC points using his PC Financial card. A remarkable accomplishment to say the least. I commented that he should seriously check out an article on another site that compares and contrasts the best rewards cards as he could earn some awesome air miles or even have mastercard send him $50 cheques!

On the green investing front, Larry Spears writes at Seeking Alpha Why Investors Will Start to Profit from Alternative Energy in 2011. We are keenly interested by alternative energy investments and hold a number of "green" holdings. Larry points out that mandates and incentives at all levels of government in the United States are kicking into full swing for 2011. Now if only the Canadian government would do likewise ...

Once again our friend Miss T at Prarie Eco Thrifter posted an article About Things We Use That May Be Killing Us. In a very odd twist of fate Miss T published her article the same day Mrs. SPF published her article The Beauty of Saving Your Skin and the Water Supply. Great minds think a like and it is great to know of a fellow blogger who is truly concerned about many of the things we are here at Sustainable Personal Finance.

We discovered a site today, Saving Money Today that posted an article that is a central premise of our site. The article When Going Green Can Save You Money highlights many of our beliefs in having an energy efficient home, a fuel efficient vehicle and buying organic all help the environment and your bank balance.

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

Sustainability

Greentech Media lists 14 Tectonic Shifts for Green in 2011 by detailing fourteen ways different sectors will become more green and see increasing profits and an ever growing green movement.

Even the Teachers Pension Plan recognizes the growth potential in green initiatives. SRI Monitor describes their new $75 million investment in BluEarth Renewables Inc. which is a Calgary-based private company develops, constructs and operates hydro, wind and solar power projects in North America.

Personal Finance

Invest it Wisely brings up great points about Not Getting Suckered by the Banks on How Much House You Can Afford. Truer words couldn't be written as far too many Canadians are borrowing the maximum they are offered and those who are on variable mortgages will suffer immensely when interest rates rise.

There is a great contest advertised at Free From Broke. The challenge? Shred Your Credit Cards. Up to $2000 in prizes being given away!

Tom at Canadian Finance Blog provides great ideas on a New Years Resolution Mrs. SPF and I will be undertaking this year: Sell Your Crap. Reduce and recycle are things we're interested in doing, things we should have done when we moved this past fall.

Trent at The Simple Dollar reinforces the point that we all have to Prepare for the Inevitable and this means writing a will and preparing your master information document. Another New Years Resolution for us in 2011.

Investing

Beating the Index explores REITs - Ours to Discover which is a handy guide to the world of REITs.

Buy Like Buffet provides a relatively simply methodology in a One Step Stock Analysis. Useful advice!

The Dividend Guy appears to have a busy 2011 lined up as he will Restructure His ENTIRE Portfolio and I assume he will use his analysis of 2011 Dividend Stock sectors to do so!

The Dividend Growth Investor has compiled his list of 2011 Dividend Aristocrats which is a handy reference for those looking at U.S. dividend payers.

Frugality

Frugal Babe's family Celebrates Christmas Their Way. Way to break the mould FB!

Saving Mentor as produced yet another comprehensive guide on how to get Free Internet TV. As we re-evaluate our telecom needs and usage early in January we will reference this guide.

Lifestyle

Frugal Zeitgeist suggests Multiple Ways we can Give to Charity besides simply writing a cheque. Given we did just that (cheques to charities) we really liked his ideas and even suggested one of our own: donating old bikes to 3rd world nations where transportation can mean a child can get to school or an adult can travel to work to provide for their family. Mrs. SPF used to run an annual bike drive.

The Simple Dollar sure had a lot of great content this week. They also wrote about How to get more Involved in Your Community. This always pays off.

Bio-Friendly Blog discusses Bio-Friendly Tips for Vacation Travel which includes ideas on how reduce your carbon footprint by opting for eco-friendly destinations and practical tips on how to travel lightly.

Blogging

Blog Authority is one of our favourite sites to learn about our new interest in blogging. This week we read about The Danger of Having Date Time Stamps in our posts and URLS (looks like we have some work to do!).

Buy Like Buffet explores the Top 3 reasons Excuses Your Blog Isn't Making Money. We haven't been making excuses but our focus hasn't been to make money, yet. We will revisit this post in a few months and take the advice to heart.

Thanks to all who included us in their Carnivals and round ups:

• Miss Thrifty
• PTMoney
• Aloysa's Kitchen Sink
• BigCajunMan
• Invest With Passion
• Invest It Wisely
• Young and Thrifty

Weekend Reading Roundup

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