Nine Thoughts (and Personal Finance Links)

1. Happy Holidays! – With everyone wishing happy holidays around Christman, I figured wait until the New Year.
2. …And Happy New Year! – I’d like to say that I have a lot of revolutionary stuff planned for the next year, but I don’t. I’ve got a lot of small things going on – many of which should be transparent to you, the reader. On a more public front, I intend to start the year off just like many other blogs, looking over the year that was and setting goals for the next year.
3. A Faster Lazy Man – One of things that I’m working on is creating a website that works even faster and is even more forgiving of errors. I’m becoming a little obsessed with the powerful cloud computers from Amazon Web Services. I’m already running a pretty powerful server, but Amazon is taunting me with an option that is roughly 30 times faster for 7.5 times more money. It’s almost the classic “super-size your drink an extra quarter?” question. I don’t know what I’d do with all that computer, except try to take over the world.
4. … But Maybe Not that Much Faster After All – When I started making this list, I was fine-tuning things on my server making sure that I could put up new servers, install WordPress blogs, get the databases copied, and a bunch of other stuff as quickly as possible. In that process, I ended up accidentally taking my site off-line. However, the work I had been doing paid off in getting me on a fresh server in under an hour. That fresh server seems to be running twice as well as my previous one, so perhaps I don’t need to put out any more money for quite some time.
5. Elfa Shelving Sale – I’m a big fan of the Elfa line at The Container Store. Currently there is a 30% off sale. If you are into organizing, it is certainly worth a look.
6. A Frugal-ish Vacation in Maui – This past week the wife and I booked a week in Maui. We are renting someone else’s timeshare from RedWeek.com. When we looked into hotels, they were around $300 a night. We were able to get a place in Marriott for around $175. There was an opportunity to save more money, but we couldn’t be as flexible as we wanted on the days we were going.
7. Lack of Television and News – Did everyone get as bored as I did towards the end of the year? It seemed like there were no television shows or news. In the past, I hadn’t noticed it as much. Perhaps I was feeling productive back then, but I didn’t have that productivity with me the last couple of weeks.
8. NFL Thought 1 – It might not be the best team that my favorite NFL franchise the Patriots have fielded in recent memory (last year’s looked better to me). However, the rest of the AFC is poor or injured enough that the Patriots probably have the best odds of any playoff team of getting to the Super Bowl. I would include all the NFC teams. The competition is high in the NFC so only the Packers stand out.
9. NFL Thought 2 – I imagine there are a lot of people in New England who have taken interest in the New York Jets collapse. Of course they may be a little consumed with the Indianapolis collapse. However, there won’t be joy in Mudville, New England without that Super Bowl appearance. Patriots fans have heard a lot about not winning a playoff game since 2007.

Personal Finance Links

• Digerati Life talks about health insurance open enrollment: tips for choosing plans.
• My Dollar Plan presents brand names that kicked the bucket during the recession.
• Money Smart Life blogs on claiming investment losses on your taxes.
• Free Money Finance shares the (often understated) cost of inflation during retirement.
• The Smarter Wallet posts a new driver’s guide for getting car insurance.
• Darwin’s Finance asks should teacher salaries be published for all to see?
• Cash Money Life wonders paying off your good debt early—savvy strategy or money mistake?
• One Frugal Girl and $100 worth of bottles my baby refuses to use.
• Len Penzo dot Com presents The Penner Awards: the 10 craziest money blunders of 2011.
• Bill Eater says yes, you can afford to send your children to private school .