Weekly Personal Finance Review – Away on a Mini-Moon Edition

This weekend, me and Energi Gal, are off on a little vacation near the Hearst Castle. Since we got married earlier this summer, we haven’t had a chance to get away and relax. The honeymoon is scheduled for November, but that’s too far away. So she came up with the idea of this trip as a “mini-moon.” I don’t know if that’s the recognized name for such a thing, but I’m not going to argue. With any luck I’ll be back with pictures of the Hearst Castle which should serve to augment a nice post on excess. In the meantime, check out these links that I liked this week.

The Digerati Life gives 17 cheap ways to keep cool during a heat wave. There are a lot of great ideas here. We haven’t really needed the tips since we moved to Silicon Valley, the weather is one of the reason pay spend a million dollars on a home in need of fixing.

The Sun’s Financial Diary discusses how he does his credit card arbitrage. I gave it a shot once, but figured it wasn’t worth my time, effort, and the confusion involved.

Generation X Finance found an interesting, but really behind-the-times investing newsletter. As always, think things through before investing.

Ben at Money Smart Life asks if credit repair companies are worth the fees they charge. I can’t help him, because I’ve never used one. My gut reaction is no, but again, I’m uninformed here.

Money, Matters, and More Musings has found a truly horrible credit card. It’s designed for people with the very worst credit and charges fee after fee. On one side of things, I can see the card might be considered evil. However, perhaps the people who apply to cards like these just up stuff with no intention of every paying back. They wouldn’t get too far though, because a $300 credit limit (and $247 of fees) is not going to get you far.

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity gives 5 ways a paperless office saves you money. I’ve been meaning to make the switch to all paperless, but I like the paper reminders of when to pay bills. If it’s in my e-mail in box, there’s a chance it will get buried when new e-mail comes.

Free Money Finance says that now is a great time to find a really good deal on a home. I can’t argue. I found myself looking at some homes where I used to live in MA and found what appeared to a huge bargain going for around $350K. A year ago, it would have likely listed for $500K. If it wasn’t under agreement there’s a chance that Energi Gal and I would be seriously looking into it.

Five Cent Nickel asks if we need longevity insurance. From the title, I thought this was just a fancy term for an annuity. It turns out that I wasn’t far off, but there are some differences. Click through and read on to find out what they are.

Mighty Bargain Hunter writes about nervousness and the markets. I wrote on the same discussion just a couple of days ago. It’s always best to keep a level head in a down market.