Let’s call this the ‘Election Edition’? It’s November 3rd, so it’s the last chance you’ve got to read my snark before 40 counties in 9 states choose the most powerful man in the world. Aren’t you excited?
Regardless, I hope you tune into our live-blog Tuesday. We’ll bring our irreverent A-game to the 2012 election live-blog, featuring, at a minimum, Cameron and me.
Links We Liked!
- Nelson at Financial Uproar had a piece on small cap stocks and why to invest in them (peppered with his trademark sexual innuendos!). Go read it… I’ll wait.
- We at DQYDJ have made no secret of our problems with the PPACA. That’s why we read the series at 101 Centavos about accepting the new health care law with great interest. Remember: acceptance is the fifth stage of grief in the Kübler-Ross model!
- A title that speaks for itself, from Control Your Cash: “Price Gouging Doesn’t Exist, And You’re An Idiot.“
- Len Penzo had an interesting 100 word post on early risers. Guess what? Rising early correlates with success – beat your competition y waking up before them! (No comment on living on the West Coast when you have East Coast friends).
- The Financial Samurai’s neighbor bought an expensive new car… but don’t worry, he doesn’t feel the need to match him dollar for dollar in spending. Great usage of the phrase “bank of mom and dad” in this one!
- Our pal Paula at Afford Anything had a multiple-photo entry on renovating a triplex, which we loved. We’d also love to do a post with more than a stock photo – maybe I’ll do one soon (remember I promised home renovation photos? Yeah, I’ll get to them eventually).
- Our friend Dave at 6400 Personal Finance started a series (a concept that he looks down upon, hilariously) about how to invest successfully. Stay tuned!
Links To Us
Apologies folks, we’re writing a ton of politics article lately (want to guess why?). No carnival submissions – unless you know a place we can submit these things?
Closing Thoughts
Eric at DollarVersity posted a long piece about blogger responsibility after reading some dubious (read: incorrect) advice about charitable deductions. His conclusion? You shouldn’t comment on anything you aren’t an expert on.
To the example that triggered the piece (click through, it’s about a deduction): yeah, it’s dumb. There is no deduction which ‘saves’ you money; you always spend more in total than the deduction saves you (we don’t have greater than 100% tax rates, yet). And yes, we have disclaimers when we discuss certain topics – and disclosures when we talk about stocks. The bigger question is: should “non-experts” continue to post on a wide range of topics?
Let me play the contrarian here… People wouldn’t read this site if I only talked about programming languages all day (or if Cameron talked only about credit quality and Bryan talked about 3D printing). Truth is, we’re not ‘qualified’, in either a government sanctioned or degree holding sense, to talk to you about 98.8% of what we talk to you about. What we do have is a keen sense of the absurd, mildly elevated IQs, and slick math skills – which qualifies us to talk about how we personally have optimized our own spending, earning, and taxing decisions. Oh, and offbeat articles, politics, and real estate.
But why do we need qualifications to comment on something? If you think that what someone says is stupid, vote with your feet (fingers) and stop listening (reading). If you’re so inclined, comment and correct the mistake. However, I don’t have an issue if someone tells me their strategy to do something, even if they don’t have a University or Government blessing to do so. People don’t check if I have a real estate license before they ask me about my house buying strategy, or ask to see my contractor’s license before borrowing my tools. California doesn’t even ask me if I majored in Political Science before I vote.
Truth is, there are plenty of people who have incredible things to say about topics that they weren’t formally trained to talk about. Engineers become CEOs or go into consulting, Business Majors sell houses, English Majors program microcontrollers. In some more well known examples, PhD Chemists (and practicing MDs) write some of the most influential financial books of all time, Psychologists win Economics Nobel Prizes, and dyslexic High School drop-outs become billionaire owners of companies in hundreds of fields.
In fact, I’m going to do some plumbing today, despite my lack of training. And we at DQYDJ will continue to comment on topics where we are not technically experts (as we promised you).
No promises I won’t start posting articles on C++ though…
