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What an amazingly productive week I’ve had — and it’s only Tuesday! After two weeks off to care for personal matters, it feels great to be back in the swing of things. I’ve written a lot, and read even more. It seems to me there’s always more to learn and share about personal finance. I have the best job in the world! (Well, aside from this perhaps.)
Here are some recent financial articles from around the web, for example:
First up, Mrs. Micah is holding Where’s My Money Going? Month. She writes: “I’m challenging readers (and myself) to track spending manually for 28 days.” Her goal is to encourage participants to take a closer look at their spending patterns. If you’ve been meaning to begin tracking your spending, now’s the time!
At the ever-popular Boing Boing (a perennial internet favorite), guest-poster Charles Platt writes about Life at Wal-Mart. After reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, something about her story didn’t ring true. He decided to get a job at Wal-Mart, too, and though the job was tedious, it wasn’t the hell that Ehrereich made it out to be. Interesting stuff, as are the hundreds of comments that follow his story.
Amy Jo sent me a story from The New York Times, which claims that our love affair with malls is on the rocks. David Segal writes: “There are roughly 1,500 malls in the United States, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, many of them ailing, some of them being converted into office buildings, and others closing their doors for good.” One cannot help but believe that we’re experiencing a seismic shift in American values. I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing.
Jesse pointed me to a piece from Reader’s Digest that offers 29 ways to save money during the recession. This article provides advice on taxes, checking and savings, debt, insurance, and retirement. It’s a solid round-up of smart financial advice.
Finally, and on a sadder note, the best salesman in the world, Joe Ades, died on Sunday. Rest in peace, Joe.
This article is about Spare Change Tuesday, 3rd February 2009 (by J.D. Roth)
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Good luck updating Wordpress.
Its awesome you’re getting such great productivity. I’m getting the opposite =(
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Good luck with the upgrade. Mine was quite smooth but it’s a big change. I also see that you’re coming from bit behind in releases (understandable when you’ve got such a big blog, wouldn’t want to break it).
And thanks for mentioning my money challenge. Reader response has been quite exciting so far.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I can only assume your upgrade succeeded. So congrats. I hope some of that productivity can rub off on me.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
No, I have the best job in the world! But yours is good, too.
I’m glad you’re back in the swing of things.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I still have not upgraded but it seems that yours has been successful. The Walmart piece is really something to read about. The debate whether you could survive off a Walmart salary is intriguing but I must admit that I do not see it as a possibility. Making an entry level salary in a city is difficult enough. I could not imagine working for minimum wage.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Thanks for the update reminder. I’ll be curious to see how that goes…
And, great links! I’ve been doing my own money tracking. It’s great to have a partner - now I can follow Mrs Micah.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Okay, I’ve upgraded WordPress. The admin interface is completely different! There are some cool options available by default…but my template doesn’t support them. Ah well. Maybe in the redesign…
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Well if everyone is wishing you congrats for the upgrade i will do the same.
Even if this is the second time when i’m visiting your blog i can tell you that is a great job and I will definitely come periodically to watch your updates.
February 4th, 2009 at 12:24 am
J.D., did you read most of the comments following Platt’s piece? Whatever one’s feelings about unions, WalMart or the free market, he wrote an astonishingly bad op-ed diguised as journalism, and his responses in the comments carefully dodged that point until he finally slunk away.
One of the things I like about this blog is that it avoids secular Calvinism. I hope that isn’t changing.
February 4th, 2009 at 1:32 am
J.D.
It’s great to hear you are enjoying your work experience. Can’t wait to see what happens to this place for the new year.
@ mythago
What in the world is “secular Calvinism”? o_o
February 4th, 2009 at 4:05 am
I heard a saying recently, “Do what you love, and you will never work another day in your life.”
February 4th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Heh, that “best job in the world”? Totally 30km from me
Well done on the upgrade, it’s different but nice!
February 4th, 2009 at 5:54 am
@mythago
No secular Calvinism for me!
(I’ve been reading The Wordy Shipmates, so feel well-versed in religious Calvinism, and it’s Not My Thing.)
I didn’t read all (or even most) of the comments on that piece, but I did read a sampling throughout. I thought the entire discussion was interesting…
February 4th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Now I will never get that vegetable peeler! Argh!
February 4th, 2009 at 7:13 am
No joke. That Platt piece is a joke. Scratch Beginnings, while also a joke, at least had a bit of follow-through…
February 4th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Okay, how you guys have me intrigued. I have real work to do, but I’m going to go back and be more thorough in my reading of those Wal-Mart comments instead.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:31 am
No — I stand by what I said. I think Platt’s piece and the responses to it are all interesting. I don’t entirely agree with him, and I don’t entirely agree with the commenters, but I think the discussion is fascinating.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:50 am
FINALLY: Someone else who had a problem with Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed”!!
I had to read this for one of my Sociology classes, and i was the _ONLY_ person who pointed out some of the flaws in the ENTIRE class! I almost got a bad grade in there, becuase i disagreed with the Proffesor (but then again, i did go to the “left coast” of wisconsin, in Madison).
One of my main problems was that she didn’t get roommates, no one to split costs with. Guess what: If you’re working retail wages, especially LOW ones (with no work history, since she had to lie to get these jobs [which makes sense: given her real background, they would never hire her, but it stilled made her look like she had no work history]) you can not afford to live on your own. it’s too expensive. you need someone to split heat, food, &c. with.
Grrr… i’m STILL bitter about that book. haha. Mind you, I do belive that most of those jobs are horrible, and that being stuck in those cycles are horrible, I just don’t think she needed to distort the facts. She definitly felt like she had an ax to grind for that book.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am
He didn’t mention if Walmart provided health insurance for his minimum wage job. I’m willing to bet not.
The digs at mom and pop shops really turned me off. Mom and pop shops actually have to compete. Walmart just has to bulldoze. I’ve negotiated on price in mom and pop shops because they actually want my business. I haven’t given a dollar to Walmart in over 10 years because I don’t like them or their business practices.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:20 am
February 4th, 2009 at 10:26 am
allen @18 - I think the book makes more sense if you don’t treat it as a personal attack on all things capitalist. Roommates were not the only thing separating a successful, financially comfortable minimum-wage employee from a struggling one. (And if you’ve ever had roommates who stuck you with their share of the rent, failed to pay part of communal bills like electricity, or stole money or property from you, then you’d know that shared living space isn’t a panacea either.)
Platt’s piece was interesting, but not at all in the way he intended. I think his evasiveness in, and eventual disappearance from, the follow-up discussion makes that pretty clear.
Austin @10: Secular Calvinism substituting the Market in place of God. People who are moral and virtuous can be discerned by their financial success; those who are not financially successful, are poor or struggling because they are immoral and undeserving. Because good deeds and virtue lead to opportunity and wealth, clearly those who do not have wealth lack virtue and fail to do good deeds.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I haven’t read the book or the article JD linked, but it sounds like the argument is about surviving as a person living on the wage of an entry level type position.
They are called entry level because that is where you start. Living with a roommate ISN’T fun, but if you abide by some basic rules of work (show up, be on time, etc) it usually isn’t long until entry level becomes something else, and I see nothing wrong with expecting a big of super frugality (via roommates, ramen, etc) for a bit.
In my experience people who work at low level retail and service jobs are either 1) not supporting a household, 2) promoted or have a better job within six months, or 3) are sabotaging advancement via irresponsibility and/or sloppy work behavior.
I know there are exceptions and sob stories (though I haven’t personally met any), but I am uncomfortable with a lot of proposals to throw a wide net to pick up that handful of people.
February 4th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Thanks Mythago for clarifying… sounds like a “health and wealth” gospel. This made me wonder: Can a person become overly obsessed with or place too much value on money? If yes, when does this happen? How can it be avoided?
February 5th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I’m totally convinced that the downfall of the mall is related to builders refusing to spend the extra money on indoor malls anymore. We get fifty inches of snow a year in my area, and the idiots building new strip malls wonder why we’d rather shop online than slog through a foot of freezing slop to do our Christmas shopping.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
…then why comment on it? The post was not about how lucrative entry-level work is. It’s about a book discussing how hard it is to really make a living at those kinds of jobs and Platt’s attempt to respond to what he saw as a pinko-commie attack on the Free Market.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:12 am
Dude i totally applied to the island reef job. Wanna blog about it?? I’ll do some sort of favour for you. Not sure what, but I’m sure I could help. I’m blogger and web designer and great at SEO here’s the link http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/wG0maqJdg80