Black Coffee: My Favorite Blogs, Money News & Opinions #37

It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…

Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…

Personal Finance Ninja – Did I miss the announcement that it was National Lifestyle Inflation Week?  I ran across six articles this week on the subject!  One of the best was from Mike over at PFN, where he does a great job explaining why you’re still struggling to make ends meet despite your steady rise in income over the years.  I’m a little disturbed, though, by Mike’s blog banner: A terrified piggy bank (complete with a tear rolling down its eye) is completely surrounded by four fearsome Ninja’s from South Park, Japan, armed with nunchucks, daggers and staffs – and it’s perfectly clear they intend on having mushu pork for dinner.  Or maybe its tonkatsu?  Either way, it doesn’t really matter.  As Mike’s blog gets more popular I’m sure he’ll eventually get a visit at his front door by a couple of goons hired by PETA.  Or Wisebread.

Darwin’s Finance – The conventional wisdom out there is that it is always better to get as small a tax refund as possible.  Why give the government an interest-free loan is how the thinking goes, but I’ve never subscribed to that bromide.  The interest lost is minimal for most people.  Furthermore, if you aren’t fiscally disciplined, the odds are you would end up spending that small amount of interest anyway during the course of the year.  I’ve always preferred the forced-savings “windfall” I get every February or March instead.   That’s why I was glad to see Darwin’s reassuring words in his article that explains six reasons why I won’t go to Finance Hell if I’m getting a refund this year.

Out of Your Rut – Speaking of taxes, Kevin suggests why we’d all be better off if we considered owing on our state income taxes for next year.  He’s absolutely right – especially if you live in some of the more, um, free-spending states like California, Illinois, New York and Virgina.

Fiscal Fizzle – While I’m on the topic of blog headers, where oh where did Fiscal Fizzle’s pepper go?  Did you eat it, Wojo?  Why did you get rid of that cute little thing anyway?  I haven’t been this devastated since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to ditch their creamsicle jerseys.   Oh well, as George Harrison said, all things must pass.   While I’m mourning the missing habanero – or was it a serrano? – check out this article from Wojo on why it’s okay to pay for value.

Financial Samurai – With a return of almost 30% my stock, Lennar, continues to lead the honorable Samurai fund.  For the life of me, I just can’t figure out what is driving the price of the housing stock up.  The fundamentals are crap and there is still an oversupply of houses out there.

The Smarter Wallet – Over at the Smarter Wallet, an article on versatile food shopping turned into a stream of consciousness piece that ended up discussing some yummy potato recipes.  In fact, I’m gonna experiment and make some potato chips right after I’m done here!  Then I’m going to go over to the Smarter Wallet’s house for dinner.

Debt Kid – From the “Do As I Say, Not as I Do” files:  Debt Kid, God love him, tells us in this article on how to prevent lifestyle inflation that he is moving into a new home that has a “significantly higher lifestyle” than his current neighborhood.   To be fair, if the kid’s old digs were in, say, a 1963 Rambler station wagon on skid row – or Cleveland, Ohio – I can’t say that I blame him for movin’ on up.

Redeeming Riches – Speaking of ways to prevent lifestyle inflation Jason showed us another way to get a bigger house without buying a new one.  I can only assume he doesn’t live in Cleveland.

Saving Advice - For the record, David lives in Florida and the new year has made him pine for one item in particular he got rid of long ago but wishes he had kept.

Fabulously Broke in the City – For some reason, my audience tends to skew younger – and I think that is terrific.  I want my readers to still be here asking “where’s Uncle Len today?” when I finally kick the bucket.  So for all my twenty- and thirty-something readers especially, check out one of your peers who really has her act together with respect to saving for retirement.   The fabulous “Me” shares how she set her priorities for retirement.   Keep on walkin’ the walk, Me!  (BTW, Me lives in Canada – the proud home of poutine.)

The Consumerist – My last attempt to curry favor with the boys over at the Consumerist didn’t work – I’m still waiting for a link from them that will send my website visitor statistics through the roof.  Mwhahahahaha, cough, ha!  Oh well, when you fall off the horse you have to get back up and try again.  Let’s see, what looks good over there this week… Hmmmm.  Ah yes, here’s another of their nifty 75-word posts with 61 comments!  How do they do it?  It’s about the CEO from Prada Japan wanting to fire all of their “old, fat, ugly, and disgusting employees.”   As I only qualify for three out of the four criteria, I really don’t see what all of the uproar is about.  (No, I don’t know where “the Consumerist” lives.)

The Way-Back Machine: Past Posts You May Have Missed

From May 2009:

How To Avoid Neighbor Conflicts When It’s Time for a New Fence -  Being a homeowner has a lot of responsibilities that renters never have to deal with.  Many of the responsibilities are no big deal; others can be extremely unpleasant.  One of the most painful homeowner tasks is dealing with the neighbors when a boundary fence needs to be built or replaced.  Here’s how I handled the situation when it was time for me to replace mine.

Credits and Debits

Credit: As the EuroZone turns… On Thursday, in order to deal with its ballooning deficit and still desperately trying to stave off default, the previously free-spending – but now cash-strapped – socialist government of Greece announced an additional $6.56 billion in savings through public sector salary cuts, hiring and pension freezes, and consumer tax hikes.

Debit: Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reported that the measures have led to a new wave of labor discontent as the new plan sparked a wave of strikes and protests from labor unions.  In Athens, somewhere between twenty- and sixty-thousand disgruntled Greeks demonstrated on Thursday during the nationwide strikes as street clashes broke out.  State hospitals were left with only emergency staff and all news broadcasts were suspended as workers walked off the job for 24 hours to protest the spending cuts and tax hikes.

Debit: Back here in the States, the continued intrusion of big government into every nook and cranny of our everyday lives continues.  A bill introduced in the New York Legislature by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) would actually ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.   Salt.  Has it really come to this?  I am fed up with our politicians trying to micromanage every minute detail of our lives, as if we aren’t smart enough to make decisions for ourselves.   Unfortunately, America, you have no one to blame but yourself.   For the love of God, wake up!

Credit: It is imperative that we vote for representatives in the 2010 midterm elections that believe in personal responsibility and understand that less government means more liberty for all of us.  If America fails this November, the day won’t be far off when we’ll all be smuggling salt into our favorite restaurants.

Credit: Our founding fathers clearly understood that too much government intrusion into our everyday lives was a dangerous thing and threatened our individual liberties.  That’s why they severely limited the government’s powers through one of the most magnificent documents ever written – the U.S. Constitution.

Debit: Unfortunately, our Constitution has been badly misconstrued over the last 80 years by progressive jurists (i.e., liberals) who maintain that it is actually a “living breathing document” open to interpretation.  What poppycock.  If the Constitution can be construed to mean anything, then it really says nothing.   When changes do need to be made to adjust for “changing times” then there is a mechanism in place to make amendments.

Debit: Meanwhile, with 53 percent of the American people clearly against the current version of Obamacare, and the Senate bill politically dead and standing no chance of being ratified on its own by the House, Newsweek reports that House Rules committee chair Louise Slaughter (D-New York) decided that the House can momentarily change its rules to say that it doesn’t need to pass the Senate bill.  According to Newsweek: “That way, Democratic members reticent about voting for the Senate bill technically wouldn’t have to be on record voting for it. They would just have to vote not to stop it from passing. It’s effectively a shift from active passage of the bill to passive. Then, after this rule passed, the Senate bill would go straight to the president, he would sign it, and then both chambers would start working on a few fixes through reconciliation.”

Debit: What???  This is clearly unconstitutional – at least to those who believe our Founding Fathers meant what they said when they wrote the Presentment Clause of the US Constitution (Article I, Section 7, Clause 2), which requires that “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States.”  How much clearer can that statement be, people?  Before a bill can be forwarded to the US President for his signature that makes the bill a law, it must be passed by BOTH houses of Congress.  Why isn’t the mainstream media up in arms about this assault on our Constitution?

Debit: Back to the Newsweek piece: “As for Slaughter, she seemed downright giddy this afternoon that such a maneuver wasn’t just possible, but might actually be what it comes down to.” What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a government that has now run completely amok.  In fact, if Slaughter gets her way, we will have a real constitutional crisis on our hands.  The government, despite all the polls, despite all the protests and angry town hall meetings, despite the lack of votes to pass this bill within the framework of the US Constitution, despite all the other evidence that the public does not want this version of Obamacare foisted upon them, has decided that they will do whatever they have to impose their will on the American people.

Credit: Speaking of healthcare, Jay Leno had this to say on the Tonight Show last week: “President Obama had his annual physical last week.  And while his colonoscopy revealed no polyps, they did find 3 MSNBC reporters and a New York Times columnist.”

Credit: Finally, a union representing Dutch nurses launched a national campaign yesterday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard government-provided health care.  The union said in a statement Thursday that the campaign follows a complaint it had received in the last week from a 24-year-old woman who said a 42-year-old disabled man asked her to provide sexual services as part of his care at home.  In an interview with Len Penzo dot Com the embarrassed man admitted he made a mistake, saying he simply forgot to ask for the head nurse.  (Sorry.  Ah, heck – no I’m not!)

By the Numbers:

Some facts about nurses from the website WorldWideLearn…

30 The average age of registered nurses who graduated in 2004.

40 The average age of a registered nurse in 1980, according to the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

47 The average age of a registered nurse in 1994, a sign that aging nurses will soon face retirement and require replacements.

56 The percentage of registered nurses that work in hospitals.  The rest are employed in private practices, public clinics, public health organizations, home healthcare services, and numerous other health-related organizations.

47,784 The average annual salary, in US dollars, of a registered nurse in 2004.

Letters, I Get Letters

No letters this week, but if you have a question you’d like to ask, or a comment you’d like to make regarding some of my irritating opinions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at: Len@LenPenzo.com

I’ll feature the most interesting question or comment I get each week here on Black Coffee – assuming I get one, that is.

If you’re lucky enough to be the only question in the mail bag I’ll highlight your letter, whether it’s interesting or not.

Other Useless News

• As a reminder, the Oscars for personal finance bloggers is still going on.  I am a finalist in the category of Most Humorous Personal Finance Blog.  Go figure.  I think the award coordinators simply got confused by all the people nominating this site as the “Most Laughable Personal Finance Blog” but, hey, that’ll be our little secret.  If you are so inclined, you can vote for your favorite bloggers in tons of categories over at the Plutus Awards voting page.
• This Monday I’m hosting the Carnival of Money Stories 2, so be sure to check back and read all the money stories that were boldly submitted by some of your favorite bloggers.  A good time is guaranteed for all.

Hey!  Here are the Top 5 Referring Blogs (excluding aggregators) to Len Penzo dot Com so far for the month of March…

1. MSN Money Smart Spending
2. Wisebread
3. Balance In Me
4. Get Rich Slowly
5. Budgets Are Sexy

I really appreciate the links, folks!

As a reminder, if you happen to enjoy what you’re reading – or not – please feel free to follow me on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too!

Carnival News

This week I had articles featured at the following carnivals:

• The Money Hacks Carnival at Mighty Bargain Hunter