Investing Basics, Buying Life Insurance, PopTop Ranks @ The Roundup

by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 29, 2008

I’d like to highlight a great new tool introduced to us by one of my fellow Money Writers called PopTop Ranks! The folks behind My Dollar Plan, Madison and Scott, have put together this great web tool that allows you to see dynamic rankings for blogs and web sites based on their subscriber numbers. This gives you a quick listing of active financial blogs, where you can see their popularity in a glance. And it’s automatically updated daily, based on the daily changes in subscriber numbers in the blog feeds.

PopTop Ranks

I also like the fact that Madison and Scott extended the rankings to all types of blogs. :) Now it’s easy to find those established blogs in various niches, along with their latest posts. It reminds me of this other tool by Guy Kawasaki, though I appreciate the design layout and extra dynamic ranking capability provided by PopTop Ranks.

More on the history behind PopTop Ranks here.

Now how about a few links for some weekend reading?

Personal Finance Reads

  • The Simple Dollar: You may think that by being frugal, you’ll be trading off time in lieu of money, but in reality, there are many ways to be frugal with both money AND time.

  • Blueprint For Financial Prosperity: Is the joke on the wealthy? Jim’s article will want you to take a step back and reassess your life, and maybe ask the question: how much money will it take to make you happy?

  • Consumerism Commentary: Is it the chicken or the egg? More on wealthy people: are they wealthy because of their stressful ways? Or are they stressed because of their wealth? I’m guessing it’s both!

  • Free Money Finance: Here’s a nice summary of what it takes to be successful at investing.

  • Lazy Man and Money: Lazy Man’s post on buying and selling computers is classic Lazy Man. I learned something new about him, which is that he gives his computers female names.

  • Money Smart Life: If you’ve wondered about how to make money with stocks, here are some of the basics of investing to help you out.

  • Gen X Finance: One financial task that often slips our mind is to update our beneficiary designations, especially when we go through life changes. Don’t forget to keep your financial records up to date!

  • The Sun’s Financial Diary: Sun covers the downward stock market activity last week. Uhm… time to buy more stocks?

  • Mighty Bargain Hunter: MBHunter wonders why people seem to be more interested in debt reduction stories vs stories of folks with no debt.

  • No Credit Needed: Talk about having amazing prophetic powers! NCN was able to figure out to the month and year, when he would run out of dryer sheets, after he bought a huge bulk of it many moons ago, on discount.

  • Million Dollar Journey: Interesting… This is the first time I’ve heard of someone referencing an “insurance portfolio”. This is a great article telling us what factors affect how much life insurance we should get.

  • Brip Blap: Being “location independent” even as a family with young kids seems very alluring in theory. But is it doable? Steve explores the possibility of handling his toddler and young baby while moving around the world.

Additional Readings

Acknowledgments

Again, my chance here to thank those who linked to me from other parts of the internet :) :

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Frugal Dad June 29, 2008 at 8:28 am

Thanks for the mention – great roundup! I especially liked Jim’s piece on money and happiness. I’m finding out more and more that money does not necessarily bring happiness, rather it is the memories created with loved ones that count most for me personally.

2 Ed Harris June 30, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Somewhat on-topic…the notion of Health Savings Accounts(HSAs) was once merely scoffed at. No longer.

As you plan your retirement an life insurance needs, consider an HSA…especially if you are self-employed.

Oh…and who am I? An Ohio broker with 27 years of experience that loves tennis, bowls once every 10 years, and believes that some day…Cincinnati will get a professional football team!

3 Jimmy @ MoneyRemix July 1, 2008 at 11:53 am

Thanks so much for the mention :)

4 CoolGairy December 1, 2008 at 12:14 am

great links…a little bit late but found your article for these cool tools.

5 JGVFinance December 6, 2008 at 11:06 pm

Its good to know that i am not alone in thought that money is not the ultimate matter that makes evry one happy.
But moeny will always factor into our lives and when planning your financial road map, life insurance should be considered.
Life insurance can really make the difference in whether you can have the chance of living financially stable.
Thanks,
JGVFinance

6 JGV December 11, 2008 at 7:09 pm

On Generation X about keeping the beneficiaries updated.
I have always make a point for myself to designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries.
I have read a lot of stories where couples die almost at the same time or within six months to a year and for most of these people they do not update or simply forget to change their beneficiaries and it does cost a lot of money that goes to uncle Sam or the government by paying too much taxes. Letting your estate dicided by someelse is not really beneficial to your siblings if they are designated to received the procceds of your detah benefit.

It is sad occurance or sight but sometimes it just got sideline if no one reminds them-the policy owner.

Thanks

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