Don't Quit Your Day Job…

Tying to an article earlier that my colleague PKamp3 wrote, personal finance seems to have taken a dive in popularity in more recent years. As a writer for a confessedly self-aware personal finance crowd, this assertion may seem irrelevant, surprising, or, at worst, alarming. As a young college graduate, many of my fellow coworkers (as well as I) have student loans as one of their more significant financial obligations on top of car loans and (soon) mortgages. Some plan on paying down their student loans as fast as possible to deleverage themselves and then start saving for a home. I am of a different and not necessarily correct opinion: to hold onto the student loans for as long as possible due to their incredibly low interest rate and tax-deductibility for incomes up to $60,000 (partial deductions up to $75,000).

In a recent article here at DQYDJ I posted a chart which graphed worldwide interest in ‘Frugality’ and ‘Personal Finance’ based upon the amount of interest registered by Google. There’s actually another interesting takeaway from that picture – interest in the term ‘Personal Finance’ is losing steam in the United States. Interest understandably grew during the recession, and it spikes in the beginning of every year, but interest is definitely trending downward. It opens up an important discussion: Are Americans losing interest in personal finance?

Check out our carnival entries and featured links for the week!

When you think of budgeting, money isn’t the only resource that should come to mind. In personal finance, time is every bit as important as money, but only you can place an accurate value on it. The financial equivalent of an hour of your time is determined by how wisely you spend it – the more
you plan your time and allocate it to productive activities, the more it’s worth. So if you’re looking to squeeze more value out of each hour in your day, try some of these tips to keep you aware of the way you spend your time.

DQYDJ was featured in a carnival for an unprecedented 3rd straight week!  Please go check out the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week at Saving to Invest… and look for “Hedge Your Gas Prices!” in the Budgeting and Money Management section!

I read an interesting article the other day hosted on Yahoo! Finance. Entitled “Four Radical Strategies to Retire Sooner”, it breaks down three radical strategies, and one not so radical idea for saving enough money to retire earlier. Of course, if any of these strategies could be implemented during retirement, you could also use them to save some money once you’re actively drawing down your funds. So, here’s a summary and some comments on the article!

Haven’t done one of these in a long time, but we here at DQYDJ should probably get back into the swing of things on the carnival front!

Carnivals and article links for the week!

Carnivals (2) and links (5) for the week!

Not: new articles when I get my new video card and monitor. Let’s go FedEx!

Carnivals and Links for the Week!