Later this month, I will be traveling to southern California to visit my family. I usually travel to the west coast for vacation twice a year, once in the spring and once around Thanksgiving. During this time, I’ll still be working, but I often use this as an opportunity to feature a select number of guest writers. This year, I’m particularly in readers who have stories about their own financial experiences to share. If you have an idea that you believe would be a good fit for Consumerism Commentary, please contact me.
Here are a few articles I’ve enjoyed reading this weekend.
Why It’s Called “Personal” Finance. Amber and her fiance seem to be a good match when it comes to their finances; their interests complement each other. While Amber has a good attitude towards the wise use of money, she’s understandably not a fan of budgeting. To fill this need, her fiance, who has a similar approach to financial goals, enjoys budgeting and making investment decisions. This seems like a good combination. When it comes to finances, a couple is like a team. They’re working on the same goals, but each has different skills to bring to the table. This doesn’t guarantee success, but working together will have a positive effect.
The Lottery: An “Investment” for Fools. Playing the lottery is a losing proposition, despite the media hype surrounding winners, all who seem to have stories of leaving their day jobs for wealth and fortune. Many lottery winners declare bankruptcy because they are unprepared to handle financial windfalls, but fr the vast, vast majority of players, playing the lottery is a waste of money. On Get Rich Slowly, J.D. has a neat interactive graphic that will visualize playing the lottery every week for ten years. In my simulation, I won $90 over ten years, for a loss of 91% of my money.
Consumerism Commentary participated in a few Carnivals this week, including the Carnival of Personal Finance and the Carnival of Wealth. Revanche and I have announced the hosting schedule of the Carnival of Personal Finance through the end of September 2011. Participating in and hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance is a great way for personal finance bloggers to support the community, and for readers, the Carnival is an excellent way to access the highlights of the past week.
Published or updated April 3, 2011. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I just might have to whip something up for you Flexo, look for an email from me!
Hi Flexo, just sent you an email. Would love to do a guest post. Not sure if I was supposed to mention here or an email…so doing both. thanks!
Kathryn
flexo, I liked the blog post about many lottery winners filing for bankruptcy. That is something that I didn’t know but it’s not too surprising.
i enjoyed the rather timely post about the lottery. i have never played the lottery, and i do not know if i ever will. that said, i think perhaps the only thing worse than playing the lottery is not playing the lottery if you always do. i feel for the individual who decided not play the week his co-workers won over 300 million dollars.