As always, thanks to everyone who linked to our posts this week. It’s much appreciated.

So this week has been fairly interesting. On a personal note, I was interviewed by Money Magazine about my client who wanted to pull his money out and bury it in the backyard. I don’t know when it will run, but that was exciting for me! As it relates to the news, I was severely disappointed that Joe the Plummer turned out to be a fraud! You’d think before he made himself available for the press he would have checked to ensure he didn’t, in fact, need the license to work. Good grief!

Anyway, moving on to this week’s good reads.

- Tricia at Blogging Away Debt had a great post about her bank. She got a suspicious feeling after a solicitation call and decided to investigate her bank. As it turns out, it’s taken some losses this year and is rated pretty poorly on Bankrate.com. She’s thinking about diversifying her accounts, not because she’s panicking, but because she wants to be prepared and have cash available if her bank does fail. Since the FDIC can generally take a few days to get your money to you, Tricia and family want to ensure life will continue like normal IF something happens. This is what it means to be responsible and prepared! Nicely done!

- J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly reminds us how the library is like a free bookstore. It’s funny how I seem to gravitate to articles that apply to me on some personal level, but then, I suppose we’re all like that. Anyway, I’m getting ready to move in a month and a half and I have too many books. There are those who say there is no such thing as too many books, but I say there is when I’m not reading them. Books like Harry Potter, Twilight, and anything by James Patterson I read over and over again. But others have just been collecting dust on the shelves for years. I’ve decided I’m getting rid of a lot of these books, and from now on, I’m going to try and use the library more. We’ll see how that goes. I’m addicted to Barnes and Noble.

- Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds asks what color your parachute is. Great article that really makes you think about your career and where you’re headed, even in a recession. Some good information, and it all starts with deciding if you want a job or if you want to pursue your life’s work…there is a marked difference. Make sure you check out the article!

- Living Almost Large had an interesting post on staying with friends when you travel. LAL discusses the fact that it’s not always cost effective to stay with friends, that sometimes it’s better to stay at a hotel. I agree. When you’re staying with friends, there are certain expectations in return for their hospitality. If I’m on vacation, I don’t want to have to worry about cleaning up after myself, spending additional money to include the friends, treating everyone to dinner, all the things that come with staying at a friend’s place while traveling. The only exception I would make to this would be my best friend and that’s because she gets mad when I don’t treat her house like I do at home.  But, I’ve known her a long time, so it’s a little different.

- No Debt Plan had a bit of action on his blog from the Blog Action Day topic – though I don’t think that’s what they had in mind. It seems NDP doesn’t really think blogging about a topic like poverty is worthwhile UNTIL some action has been performed. I agree. I think it’s fine and dandy to sit around and type out some pointers and facts, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we get out there and do something. Yes, there was some money raised by everyone’s efforts, but as NDP points it, there was only a trackable $3000 raised. That’s not really the kind of numbers that will inspire people to get up and help fight poverty. I whole-heartedly see NDPs point. Great post, and love the controversy.

- Trees Full of Money asks if our determination for alternative energy will fall as the gas prices continue to fall. I sincerely hope not. It’s bad enough that we have enough reserves of our own that we refuse to use, not to mention the thousands of miles of untapped resources for oil, but to become complacent in our research for alternative energy is reckless and destructive. I think we’ve been through enough the last couple of years and the road ahead isn’t paved in gold, either. Let’s hope our government won’t drop the ball on this one.

- Ashley at Wide Open Wallet has a wonderful post on breaking complicated goals down into more manageable tasks. I loved it! Again, it’s all about me in that I totally related to it, so it’s going in my round-up. I tend to be a big picture kind of person. I see everything I want and I see how to get there. The trouble is, I want a lot and there’s a lot involved in getting there. I have a hard time breaking things into more manageable pieces. I become overwhelmed, then stressed out, and then it gets harder for me to reach my goals. Anyone else like that? As Ashley points out, small steps will take you great distances.

Ok, I’ve got packing to do, a car to fix, and grocery shopping on my to-do list. I’m off to finish some of that, though I doubt I’ll get half of what I need to do finished. *sigh* I really need an extra two to three hours in a day! Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoy the articles!

Related posts:

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3. Weekly Round Up
4. Kristy’s Weekly Roundup
5. Kristy’s Weekly Roundup