There was a new carnival of frugality today, so I figured in honor of super fat tuesday Id post some super phat links for the day to stuff that I use all the time.

First the blogs I read every day: I will teach you to be rich, Mrs Micah, Get rich slowly, John Chow, No Credit Needed

Next some useful links: Credit Card Ratings, MSN Money, EOpinions, Adult Facebook errr LinkedIn, Google Finance

And finally a bunch of financial links:

AUTO

CarBuyingTips.com, www.carbuyingtips.com

-Free information on buying new and used cars, leasing, and avoiding auto scams.

CarFax, www.carfax.com

-See the history of the car you are considering

Edmund’s Publications, www.edmunds.com

-Consumer information experts. Easily run comparisons on new and used vehicles.

Fighting Chance, www.fightingchance.com

-For $34.95, you receive complete pricing data on the vehicle you’re considering, plus its record in the market place, available cash incentives, negotiating tips, and access to a “live” purchasing coach.

J.D. Power & Associates, www.jdpower.com

-Automotive marketing research

Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com

-New and Used vehicle pricing reports

LeaseSource, www.leasesource.com

-Automotive research with calculator to lease or buy a car

EDUCATION

Finaid, www.finaid.com

-A comprehensive site that covers all aspects of financial aid.

National Center for Education Statistics, www.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/search.asp

-Information on past three years of college/university costs

Salliemae, www.salliemae.com

-Calculators for estimating college costs, savings needs, and student loan payments as well as a great deal of financial aid and scholarship information.

INCOME TAX

IRS Website, www.irs.ustreas.gov

-The IRS Website, information on forms, publications, and frequently asked questions.

INVESTMENTS – Discount Brokers

ShareBuilder, www.sharebuilder.com

-Discount broker with auto building plan. I really like this one.

TD Ameritrade, www.tdameritrade.com Updated!

-View account balances, market news, and other services offered by the discount broker.

INVESTMENTS – Financial News & Quotes

Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com

-Financial market news and stock/mutual fund quotes

CBS MarketWatch, www.cbs.marketwatch.com

-Financial market news and stock/mutual fund quotes

CNN Financial News, www.cnnfn.com

-Financial market news and stock/mutual fund quotes

Google Finance, finance.google.com/finance

-Everything you need

Money Central, www.moneycentral.msn.com

-Financial market news and stock/mutual fund quotes

Yahoo, finance.yahoo.com

-Keep track of your overall portfolio and get detailed charts on your individual stocks and funds

Welp, lunch break is over, back to real work. Enjoy.

…and by that I mean either obvious or just plain wrong. I have seen a lot of career advice on the internet and quite frankly a lot of it is BS. Here are some of the gems I found from various blogs, msn articles, and webzines:

“Be innovative” aka “Be creative” aka “Try new things” aka “..introduce new ideas”
-Written a thousand ways, and always I respond: ‘Ya think?’
“Volunteer for boards”
-Im not sure about you but there are no ‘boards’ at my work to volunteer for. Oh and the kind of companies that have boards generally SELECT people for them.

-”Don’t ruin your reputation”
-And here I thought getting super drunk and dancing around on the table at the company Christmas party was a good idea.

-”The best strategy is to just be the best in your area. That makes you indispensable”
-Wrong. In fact, I’ll give you a bunch of reasons why:
1) I worked at Hewlett Packard for six years. During the first threeish years I worked there, I did very little more than I was asked. Sometimes not even that. For the last three years I worked there I worked my ass off. During the last year I was there I was working on a large project and people around me were dropping like flies during the layoffs. I was originally supposed to be support for the project but because of the layoffs I turned out to be the only engineer on the project. Keep in mind I was in college, and so receiving college level pay, I was not a huge liability. Just as we finished the first phase of the project I was laid off. I was the ONLY engineering resource left on the project and the only one who knew fully how it worked. And I was let go before I could finish completely or do any documentation . There is no such thing as being indispensable. It doesn’t matter what you are doing or what you are getting paid or where you are on the ladder.
2) Now, its a good idea to be an expert in one area but you should also understand as much as possible in all aspects. Being rounded is a good thing. What if your area of expertise goes away, what then?
3) Getting pigeonholed into doing one thing all the time sucks. You know Bob in department B thats been doing the same thing for 30 years….do you really wanna be him?

“Do what you were good at in school”
When my dad was in college he was pushed hard by councilors to go into physics because he was REALLY good at it. As it turns out he hated working in a lab and went on to do other things. Just because you are really good at something doesn’t mean you should do it. This problem is particularly big when still in college. I switched majors somewhere in the range of four times before I finally settled on something. Just because a class is fun and you are good at the subject does not mean you should bank your life on it. Being good at something in college does not equate to real life success. Plus, there are very few jobs directly related to drinking beer.

Unfortunately in my line of work there are occaisons where I have to be on a customer site for extended periods of time.  Last month was one of those times and by the time I got back to the hotel at night I had no desire to open my laptop at all.  In any case during some of the time I was out there I did a lot of thinking and have a lot of pieces of articles.  There will be probably be a flurry of posts in the next few days as I “catch” up and get back to speed.