Investor Junkie
My Business and Financial Freedom Journey

Weekend Reading for February 6, 2010

What I’m reading this weekend:

• “Lending Club Drop Borrower Interest Rates” : Debt Free Adventure – This is great for borrowers, but not so great for lenders like me.  I suspect Lending Club wants to attract more borrowers to better compete against the banks.
• “Exchange-trade funds get even cheaper” : Money Magazine – Great way to help cut down on the transaction fees of purchasing small amounts from ETFs.  Now if they can only decrease bid/ask pricing spread.
• “Retirement Planning: How do you stack up?” : Money Magazine – Nice quick comparison calculator.  We are doing very well, but I think it better said the general public does not save enough.
• “What Happens If Congress Doesn’t Raise The Debt Ceiling?” : Weakonomics – Great graph showing the debt increase and decreases (believe it or not) over the past 50 years.
• “How To Quadruple Your Money With NO Appreciation” : BawldGuy Talking – Good analysis of investing in real estate and why people make money with it despite many who poo-poo RE barely increases above inflation (which is true).  Also why appreciation is not the only thing to look for when investing in RE.
• “Protecting Yourself from the Giant New Deficit” : WSJ – Some ideas to protect yourself if you feel the government deficits are going to affect your investments.
• “Bookonomics (or, why writers barely make min. wage)” : The Big Picture – You think it’s bad to make a profit as a blogger?? Financial book writing isn’t that great either, unless of course you are Steven King.  You write a book for brand building.