Happier and how to get it...

I saw a reference to Credit.com and their personal advice information. The site includes some credit blogs. First up... not what I was expecting but still good advice and made me smile.

A review of a review of the book Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar. Lots of really good suggestions here just in the reviews.

instead of asking, “Should I be happy now or in the future?” she should ask, “How can I be happy now and in the future?”

My personal favorite is

Simplify.. prioritizing, choosing activities that we really, really want to do, while letting go of others.” As Derek Sivers recently wrote on his blog, if an opportunity doesn’t make you say “hell yeah!”, you’re better off saying “no”.
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2009 april reading

• Generation Finance talks about lessons in a market bust including the importance of liquidity matching - nice term
  
  
• As an exit strategy in a volatile market, The Dividend Guy's advice "Sell only when you need the cash. My suggestion is to never sell, but if you have to then do so only when you actually need to." Same as "buy and hold" but answers "until when?" Also suggests that returns over the next few years will be around 4%, down from 9% in recent years.
  
  
• If we see inflation levels of 10% or 15% (the same as the 70's), the impact to daily lives will be noticeable.
  
  
• John Hussman observes "policy-makers ... attempt to address this problem by making lenders whole with public funds. This is an ethical abomination, putting the public in the position of absorbing the losses that should properly be borne by those who provided capital to these institutions"
  
  
• Since I'm looking for blogs to read, it is nice to come across a list like FIRE Finance's Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic
  
  
• In Deliberately Misplaced Blame, Sean W. Malone explains the general misunderstanding regarding corporatism "(what some in the media unfortunately like to call "crony capitalism"), where government colludes with businesses and provides special benefits and tax provisions, and looks the other way on accounting fraud and other crimes."
  
  
• If Marc Faber says We're In For A 5% to 10% Correction, then we likely are. Even if it doesn't happen quite like he predicts, Faber is a pretty interesting guy with a great track record and a caustic wit.
  
  
• I don't always agree with the guy at Free Money Finance, and some posts are better than others. This one on Investing Safeguards seems pretty reasonable.
  
  
• How much life insurance do you need? CashMoneyLife says Only buy term life insurance for income replacement and family protection. Think of life insurance in terms of income replacement. How much income will you need and for how long?
  
  
• Million Dollar Journey suggests Real Return Bonds as a hedge against inflation. Real return bonds pay their distributions adjusted for inflation. For example, iShares ETF, XRB.
  
  
• Another Top 10 financial books list - this one from Canadian Capitalist
  
  
• Why have only one in five opened up "no-brainer" TFSA accounts? asks Wealthy Boomer. Lots of reasons - lack of funds, lack of understanding of rules for distribution and benefits
  
  
• Consumerism Commentary provides Eight Tips for Living Through a Recession. These are pretty basic but sometimes that is enough to get you thinking and taking some action.

other people's blogs

I have been looking for additional blogs to read. Lots of people are searching for financial "friends" - others who are writing about their interest in personal finance. It doesn't cost much to set up a blog, and with Google ads, some folks are looking to make money. So there are lots of blogs out there.

Here are today's finds

Best of the Web (BOTW) Blog Directory: Home: Personal_Finance:
lists many quite good blogs on the topic of personal finance.

From the list, I selected this one, more or less at random.

Finandom Dot Com
Tips to Achieve Financial Freedom and Retire Wealthy

The article that caught my eye
You Cannot Afford to Watch TV!
The point is well taken. Just think about it. It makes me so crazy when acquaintances say they don't have time to manage their own money, yet they have plenty of time to watch every episode of Dancing with the Stars and see all the latest "chick flick" movies.
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Book List

In searching for best selling financial books, I came across this list linked to another financial blog. Maybe you will find something of interest to you.
gc

http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/05/16/102126_books-for-every-level-of-financial-acumen.html

Women bloggers

There are many places to look to find other bloggers. It would be nice to find some wonen bloggers who write about personal finance.

* Blogher - all the blogs in the searchable directory are written by women.

Have you accessed any of these? See any that you think are worth following?
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