It’s Friday! That Must Mean It’s Time To Stack

It’s FRIDAY! I’m skipping all the way through this post like it’s springtime in Germany.

The Producers….what a brilliant broadway play. I never saw the movie. Gotta add that to my Netflix queue…….

What a week! Detroit just filed for bankruptcy, the bond market may have finally bottomed out and I’m back in full-swing marathon training mode. This marks the first week of what will be increasingly difficult workouts as I look toward pacing my sister in her first marathon (the Marine Corps in Washington DC) in late October. Isn’t it strange to be planning for October already? BUT that’s the route to success, isn’t it? Retirement is a long, long way off for many, but if you don’t start saving money incredibly early, long before you can see the finish line (hell, even the starting line!) you’ll never recognize a successful retirement.

Mentorship

I have to say…while I don’t fly the Bloggers Helping Bloggers badge on the site, I still participate in the program. “What is this program,” I’ll pretend you’re asking. Great question! Bloggers Helping Bloggers is a program that allows new bloggers to get help from some more seasoned bloggers. There have been some incredible success stories from BHB since it was founded.

This term, I’m playing the role of mentor, and I just have to report that I’m loving it! My mentee is fun to work with and has experienced some nice success on her site. It’s cool to watch a good writer begin to develop some traffic using tools that experienced bloggers know about but usually don’t have time to share.

The Stack

It was a race for the top of the stack this week, but I have to give it to Money Beagle. He has a tribute to a long-time friend who is going to pass away soon….his cat. It’s always sad to lose a pet and Money Beagle chronicles some of the great times in his piece Preparing For The End? Tribute To My Cat.

Giving Money Beagle the run was Katarina from SaveUp who has an excellent guest post at The College Investor. She interviews three recent college grads about what they wished they’d learned while in school. I immediately shared this piece with my kids who will be entering college in the fall. What a valuable read! Check out Confessions from Recent College Grads: The Reality of the Real World.

Why the hell am I so fired up about linoleum? Easy. I read this piece at Planting Our Pennies that details how they fixed an old flooring problem called: DIY – Strip Wax Off Linoleum (that title alone is enough to click RIGHT NOW, isn’t it?).Hey, don’t fall asleep yet. The reason it made my list? Check out the pic of the finished product. Wow!

Heading out on a late-summer trip to an amusement park? John at Frugal Rules has some handy tips in the aptly titled Saving Money at Amusement Parks.

….or if you’re hoping to instead relax at home with some reading, Alexa at Single Moms Income has you covered. This woman reads a ton! Her favorite books are listed in the blog post: My Borderline Addiction: How Many Books Have I Read This Year?

Grayson at Debt Roundup asks for help in his quest to buy life insurance. Like many people out there, he isn’t a perfect risk so insurance companies jack up the rate on him. Read the comments for some good advice from readers.

Speaking of titles, how about Krantcents clickable post: How to Think Rich and Be Rich? Names shouldn’t be that juicy….

Speaking of poignant, Kathleen at Frugal Portland just returned from the World Domination Summit and has a fantastic recap of the event. I’m fired up after reading it because Gretchen Rubin (one of the WDS speakers) will be on our Stacking Benjamins podcast Monday! Be sure and listen in….it was a great interview and will be worth your time, I promise). Kathleen’s recap is called (appropriately): Speakers at the World Domination Summit.

Here’s a point: Pretired Nick can flat-out write. I love the way he works through issues “in his head” and writes it all out so we can follow along. This creates fascinating, fairly long posts that I enjoy digging into. Here’s the most recent: a piece on a strategy he decided NOT to pursue, in detail: Dividend Mapping: The Craziest Thing I Never Did.

Jake at Common Cents Wealth will round out this week’s stack with some fun pictures of a recent canoe trip. Here’s Photo Thursday: Canoeing Dow the St. Croix River.

Thank You Berry Much

Thanks to everyone who mentioned Stacking Benjamins this week. You’ve been very kind with your links to this little site and I really appreciate it. We’ve already grown to nearly half the readership of my old blog, which is just absolutely thrilling. Between the success of the podcast and the blog, I feel like a lucky dude.

First, I have to thank Mr. CBB for featuring Stacking Benjamins in his Saturday Making a Difference piece at Canadian Budget Binder. It was kind of him to think of me and I’m happy that people find villians, accidentally shopping at J Crew and Martha Stewart references helpful…..

A big shout out to Cat Alford at BudgetBlonde for mentioning my Martha Stewart post in her Writing Wrap Up. Cat and I share Roxette references on Twitter…..

Stepping It Down was kind enough to link to my Freedom: Bad Choices and Bad Food post in her Favorite Posts.

See you next week! More fun in store!