I keep finding articles for these link roundups that are worthy of entire posts. The trouble is: they’re not the sort of thing I usually write about. For example, I recently discovered an essay from 1945 about the economics of a POW camp. It’s great stuff. But it doesn’t have anything to do with balancing your checkbook.
I’m going to take a chance that you’ll find this stuff interesting, too. I’ll share a couple of these articles in the next few weeks. As an example of the sort of thing I mean, Take a look at this piece:
I Hate Debt has an elaborate history of debt in America. This is far more interesting than it ought to be, especially the list of panics, crashes, and depressions. Though I’m posting this for you to read now, I’ll also probably write up a short summary to share in the next week.
In a more traditional vein, JLP at All Financial Matters recently had some fun trying to decide how cheaply can you brown-bag your lunch? He read a recent Wall Street Journal article that concluded lunch from a deli costs about $10 a day, but taking lunch from home only costs about $5 a day. Five bucks?!? JLP says he can do better than that!
Finally, Eric sent me an ESPN story about how professional athletes find their trust tested when they become business partners with teammates. Eric writes: “Although we many of us are far removed from the lifestyles of rich athletes, this article brings a lot of perspective to the notion of talking to friends about money, investing, and lessons learned trying to make a quick buck.” This is a great article.
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I love the article about Debt in America. I find this type of stuff totally fascinating because you never hear about these things when studying history (although it does make me want to go start fact-checking just to be sure it’s accurate). It’s a nice addition to your usual articles; just don’t lose the focus of the blog because it’s great.
$5 to take your lunch to work???? Yes, I can do better! Heavens, you can buy frozen meals and take your lunch to work for less than that. Maybe they’re buying at a high-end grocery story in Manhattan?
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I’ll bet I can be $5 a day; I might even beat $5 a month. I eat a bowl of oatmeal for lunch every day. It’s about $0.59/lb; I eat about 2.5 lbs a month. Then again, it’s pretty monotonous. (But cheap!)
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I haven’t quite gone to Klug’s ascetic degree, but I like to eat a consistently similar meal most days, and I stick with Old Reliable: a pair of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches on wheat grain bread, two cans of decaf diet pepsi, and a banana. From protein to potassium, few lunches that come in under a dollar can match both the nourishment AND the excellent taste. That meal passes the critical test: I don’t get hungry again until dinnertime.
Plus, that gives me my soda fix for the day. I try to drink only water at home now because I used to drink so much diet soda that I was having alkaline dehydration (or so said my doctor). Problem is, much like a smoker reaching for his pack and lighter, it becomes easy to develop a tic for popping a can of aspartame cola at the outset of a household chore, errand, or project session. The water is far, far cheaper, though, and it’s about the healthiest single substance a person can ingest. Converting from constant soda to constant water drinking is a habit I’m happy to continue to put effort into breaking, and other readers who try it will appreciate its effect on their wallet at the end of the week.
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I hope you can also link my site. It’s entitled Aspiring Entrepreneur. In this blog I share my personal experience on investments, personal finance, money management and financial freedom as an employee as I take the Journey towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.
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Please, please post the link to the economics of a POW camp it sounds absolutely fascinating. I think part of the good thing about link roundups is that it gives you the chance to mention topics that are tangentially related, or you wouldn’t actually write about yourself.
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If you brown bag leftovers, as I usually do, you could even say lunch is free, considering how much food is thrown out in American households, and the fact that lunching on last night’s supper may be the only thing that saves it from the trash (or hopefully compost.)
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$5 per day to bring a lunch? You can get an entire loaf of bread and a weeks worth of meat for that where I’m from! Even an orange or apple can’t cost more the $0.50 if you buy it in bulk at the store.
http://everymansmoney.blogspot.com
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I said it at the other site, but I think the reason the WSJ sandwich was five bucks is that they were literally constructing an NYC deli sandwich for an apples-to-apples comparison. And those things are huge.
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Thank you for posting all three articles! I used to be a sucker for get-rich-quick schemes, so my heart really goes out to the football players who have lost millions of dollars on scams.
The original list of lunch items in the Wall Street Journal was insane! For example who uses 1/4 lb. of lunch meat on one sandwich? LOL
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J.D., I hope posting this is cool: The POW-camp economy story (which is indeed fascinating, especially in the broader context of econ papers): http://www.albany.edu/~mirer/eco110/pow.html
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Schizohedron, I don’t mind that you posted the link. I wasn’t going to post it in the main body because it would “steal my own thunder”, so to speak.
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My take in meals are usually fairly cheap.
A main dish
-Beans, Beans w/Veggies, Veggies
-Tuna Sandwich
-Noodle dish
*on rare occasion a meaty dish
2 Fruits
Yogurt
My meals probably come out to 2-4 dollars.
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I love the idea of mixing up the normal advice/sucess/failure stories with other observations on economics and money management.
Personally, these types of things always throw the rest into perspective. Like melange.
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Cool! At least the article let me know that, as a nonsmoker, I would’ve been a rich man as a POW. That is, if I could resist the lure of chocolate.
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