Earn What You Spend

Gretchen Morgenson takes us through the importance of understanding the fine print of student loans.  (This is something I wrote about in my post about the burden of college debt.)

The importance of networking is magnified in a recession.  As an aside, the phrase ‘networking’ has always held a slightly negative connotation for me - I believe business is about real, sustained relationships and friendships.  Quickly swapping business cards can appear disingenuous.

Those of us in New York City (and those visiting, for that matter) are facing unprecedented service cuts in public transportation.  No matter what else you think of the outsized bonuses of bankers, they did make up an outsized proportion of the city’s finances.  Now we’re facing lots of unpleasant choices in the city budget. 

Helain Olen has an interesting article, The End of Personal Finance.  It seems to posit that personal finance is simply a poor substitute for a government that isn’t active enough in providing a social safety net and guaranteed rate of return.  It claims “the advice proffered by the vast majority of analysts, would-be gurus, and television pundits came down to one word: stocks.” I disagree.  That is conflating investment advice with the more generalized financial literacy.  The litany of personal finance books out there actually have a much simpler, common message: living within your means.  And if that advice had actually been followed, we’d all be better off now.