Links to check out, updates
Our recruiting book is due Monday, so Friday Entrepreneurs is on a break today and I am hating life. (To see a full list of all the Friday Entrepreneurs, click here.)
Here are some links that I stumbled across this week. Check them out:
Compulsive Buying Not Just For Women. A lot of interesting findings in here. For example, about 5.8% of respondents suffer from a shopping addiction (see the article for their description). That means there are roughly equal numbers of men and women suffer from the symptoms (5.5% of men, 6% of women), yet women seek help overwhelmingly more often than men--leading us to casually infer that women are the ones who have all the shopping problems. Still, I want to scream at one of the girls I know who buys $450 shoes like they're Tootsie Rolls.
Skip the Coffee? What's Money For, Anyway? The author, NYT reporter John Schwartz, points out that he actually enjoys his coffee every day--even though every personal-finance columnist seems to disagree with him. "Buy the damned coffee, if it makes you happy," he says. I agree with spending on things you love, and I also agree that you won't get rich from simply saving a few bucks here and there. But if you do spend on something, you should know exactly how much it's costing you over the long-term. We've all heard how saving on lattes can end up being worth $300,000 later on, etc. If it's worth it to you, okay. Most people never take the step of figuring it out, and end up in the same place as everyone else. Ordinary actions = ordinary results.
JLP's blog, AllFinancialMatters, turns 2 years old today. I'm trying to do a better job of linking to other things I read, and JLP's blog is one of them. Congratulations on 2 years.
A perpetual scholarship to Northwestern for $100. Richard Rounsavell bought the scholarship--in 1866. "With it, he was granted free tuition for himself, his sons -- and all of his descendants accepted to Northwestern."
Beware of the "Growth Trap". "...investors still must be cautious because the fastest growing countries are often the worst investments. Case in point: China. For most of the past decade its stocks have delivered horrible returns although the country's economic growth is second to none. Why does this happen? Because the fastest growers often carry the steepest price tags. Investors' impulse to ignore price and "go for growth" turns out to be a costly mistake." I did not know this.
WSJ columnist Jonathan Clements pans Richard Kiyosaki's and Donald Trump's new book, "Why We Want You to Be Rich." Ohh, man. Update: See my review of Kiyosaki's earlier book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Ok, more to come next week. If you have any interesting articles you've seen lately, let me know by posting a comment.
