-PT throws out some Job interview tips for those who have a tough time with it

-Ramit, who is now on TV, talks about going from $25/hr to $75/hr which I actually know someone who did (close to)

-An article that I just found interesting, Should you invest in an Ivy league education? (Ive always thought not personally)

-Five Cent Nickel has an article called How to Negotiate like a pro that I liked, after all, I am all about negotiation

-Sun posted about the New Overdraft Law which I have gotten about 100 pieces of mail about recently from Wells Fargo.  If you haven’t read Sun’s financial diary, do so, hes one of the smarter guys that I like to read consistently.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-dream-home-2009-giveaway-enter/package/index.html

You can enter once per day and hey, who doesn’t want a free house!

First up My Money Blogs article on focusing on your financial sphere of influence.  This is a big thing to me because worrying about money is something that can absolutely wrack you with stress.  Its important to really focus on the things that you can change vs the things you cannot change.  This goes for all areas of your life, not just financial.

Lazy Man writes about putting a price on being healthy.  This is something I feel pretty strongly about.  I will spend what it takes for me to be successfully healthy.  For me that means buying protein powder, creatine and the like.

Next Flexo busts out some frugality with Can you save an extra $500 a month

PT Money raps.  Literally.  There is nothing to learn here, its just awesome.

I Will Teach you to be rich talks about buying stuff outside the country to save money.

For those of you who are interested in ETFs, Sun has a great article on setting up a virtual ETF portfolio 

Five Cent Nickel explains what happens to your CD if your bank fails.  I had no idea before reading the article.

Patrick from Cash Money Life wrote a series about a possible second economic stimulus check that started a debate that I, of course, had to jump right into.

No credit needed talks about how awesome it is to be debt free.  Pretty damn inspiring.

Free Money Finance talks about being a Money Manager This is huge to me because I just plain am naturally bad at organization.

The Simple Dollar takes on save for retirement or get rid of debt?  I think most Americans struggle with this at some point in their lives.

Jeremy at Gen X finance talks about something that hits home for me: how has the value of your house held up?  Ive had my house swing about 40k total in worth in the past few years.  First way up then way down, then back to the middle.

Mighty Bargain Hunter doesn’t care about how much exxon makes.  Any Neither do I but I like the article.

My Two Dollars has a nice gardening guide which is cool cause I have been ranting about my garden all summer.

There was a bunch more I liked this week, but maybe Ill save them for later.

Advantages to Driving an SUV

The first advantage is obviously room.  Even without a baby I have found myself constantly short of space driving my 350Z around.  Obviously some of that would be alleviated having a sedan instead of a coupe but even with a full size sedan there are a lot of things Ive been doing lately that need some major space (ex: lawn and garden equipment, full size crib, etc).  The extra luggage capacity and carrying space I had while my car was in the shop and I had the pathfinder rental was amazing.  A minivan would work, but quite frankly I am not going to drive a minivan.

Snow.  I really don’t need to say more because its sort of self explanatory, but I will say that Colorado is ridiculously unpredicible.  We’ve had days where I went out in shorts in the morning and it was snowing by noon.  An SUV is definitely a nice way to hedge my bets against the weather.  People loved telling me about my Z “hows the skates” in reference to sliding around on snow and ice.  I wont miss that.

Another advantage to purchasing and driving an SUV are the off-road components which I probably won’t use that much, but on the occaisonal camping trip could be useful.  I used to have a friend that I went backpacking and camping with and he’d always say “good thing I have a ranger” about his truck that barely cleared the dirt mounds on trails.  Mostly it was good tongue in cheek joke, but truth is if the small truck barely cleared, a car will not.

General handling capabilities are also good on a lot of SUVs. Although each make and model of SUV comes with its own degree of handling capabilities, it can arguably be said that the overall handling capability rivals most other vehicle types.

Lastly, its bigger probably safer (yes, dependent on model) than most cars, especially smaller cars.  Having a baby in a bigger car at least makes me feel better.

Disadvantages to Driving an SUV

I do not follow the trendiness of the “green” movement, and global warming.  But that being said, I know CO2 isn’t good so I would prefer better gas mileage or even a hybrid.  Unfortunately most are out of my price range and I have a bigger concern in the short term:

1) Fuel Cost

2) Current Fuel Cost

3) Future Fuel Cost

This is the part that makes me more nervous than anything else. I hate paying for gas as it is, the thought of buying even MORE gas per month does not sit well.  Add this to the fact that we are in very uncertain times right now.  Since Iran has decided to go full speed ahead with its nuclear missle development Israel is (rightfully) unnerved.  Its akin basically to if say, cuba said over and over their one goal is to wipe us off the map and they started developing nukes.  All it would take is one Israeli attack on Iran and gas prices could go to $5,$6 a gallon.  Assuming we would get involved in the conflict if other nations stepped in and we’re looking at $20/gallon if we were cut off from OPEC.  Assuming $20/gallon and 15 miles to the gallon with an SUV and thats $40 a day just to drive to work and back.

Id write more but I think I better go pump my bike tires up just in case.

1) Five Cent Nickel

2) My Money Blog

3) Blogging Away Debt

4) Consumerism Commentary

5) Mrs Micah

6) Prime Time Money

7) Suns Financial Diary

Being Frugal

9) Lazy Man and Money

10) Cash Money Life

I have gotten quite a few of these searches coming through on google lately so I decided to sit down and figure out exactly how much a million dollars is just for fun.

Lets start with one dollar, which looks like this:

Now lets represent a dollar with a dollar sign ‘$’.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Thats to make a hundred dollars.  I would have to make one hundred thousand lines like that to even represent one million dollars.   In order to represent a million dollars it would take up approximately 200 pages of this blog (at my resolution) of just dollar signs.

One million dollars in ones would weigh approximately the same as a mazda miata…but would be considerably larger.

-To count your ones, if you were counting 24/7 it would take you about three weeks
-If you lit your pile of ones on fire (eek)
-At current gas prices, you could buy enough gas to drive my 350Z  5 million miles, or if were possible you could drive around the world 200 times
-Assuming $2.00 for a liter of bottled water, you could buy 7 humans enough bottled water to drink for their entire lives.

If I get motivated maybe Ill find more sometime.

Lazy Man – Money DOES buy happiness?

Consumerism Commentary – Most Wealthy people are self made.

PT Money – Budget Busters (and I agree)

15. Sell Out, Reel Big Fish

“Sell out, with me oh yea, sell out, with me tonight
record company’s gonna give me lots of money and
everything’s gonna be. (all right)”

14. Ride with me, Nelly

“if you wanna go and take a ride wit me
we’re 3-wheelin in the 4 with the gold d’s
oh why do i live this way
(hey) (must be the money)”

13. For the Love of Money, The Ojays

“Money money money money, money (x6)
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me y’all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You wanna do things, do things, do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money- dollar bills, yall”

12. The Sweetest Girl, Wyclef Jean

“Cos’ I’ma tell you like Wu told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin’ dollar dollar bill y’all (dollar, dollar bill y’all)
Singin’ dollar dollar bill y’all (dollar, dollar bill y’all)”

11. All about the Benjamins, P Diddy

“Now… what y’all wanna do?
Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers?
Brawlers — who be dippin in the Benz wit the spoilers
On the low from the Jake in the Taurus
Tryin to get my hands on some Grants like Horace
Yeah livin the raw deal, three course meals
Spaghetti, fettucini, and veal”

10. She works hard for the money, Donna Summer

“She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right”

9. Puttin on the Ritz

“Have you seen the well-to-do up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare with their noses in the air
High hats and Arrow collars white spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime for a wonderful time”

8. Money Talks, AC/DC

“Come on, come on, love me for the money
Come on, come on, listen to the moneytalk
Come on, come on, love me for the money
Come on, come on, listen to the moneytalk”

7. Money, Beatles

“The best things in life are free
But you can keep it for the birds and bees.
Now gimme money (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want, ye-ye-yeh,
That’s what I want.”

6. If I had a million dollars, Bare Naked Ladies

“If I had a million dollars
I’d buy you a house
If I had a million dollars
I’d buy you furniture for your house
(Maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)
And if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you a K-Car
(A nice Reliant automobile)
If I had a million dollars I’d buy your love”

5. Take the Money and Run, Steve Miller Band

“They got the money, hey
You know they got away
They headed down south and theyre still running today
Singin go on take the money and run”

4. Why Dont You Get a Job, Offspring

“I guess all his money, well it isn’t enough
To keep her bill collectors at bay
I guess all his money, well it isn’t enough
Cause that girl’s got expensive taste”

3. Cant tell me nothing, Kanye West

“I had a dream I can buy my way to heaven
When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace.
I told God I’d be back in a second,
Man It’s so hard not to act reckless.
To whom much is given much is tested.”

2. Money for Nothing, Dire Straits

“Now look at them yo-yos thats the way you do it
You play the guitar on the mtv
That aint workin thats the way you do it
Money for nothin”

1. Money, Pink Floyd

“Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
Money, it’s a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team.”

What can I say, Money, its a gas! So what are YOUR favorite songs about money? Or at least what did I miss?

Bushnell Digital Binoculars Canon PowerShot SD1000 Blackberry Pearl Unlocked Nokia N95 Cell Phone Unlocked Motorola H700 Bluetooth Headset Motorola RAZR2 V8 Unlocked Apple iMac Garmin nuvi 660 TomTom One Sling Media Slingbox Sony Bravia 46″ LCD HDTV

Apple iPod touch 4GB Garmin Forerunner 305 iPod Shuffle Kicker Amplifier JL Subwoofer Classic Movie DVD Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Video Game Nintendo Wii Remote Controller Guitar Hero III Rock Band Video Game Bundle Sony PSP 2000

Got some of that stuff you need to get rid of? Might be time to give it a go