The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Comment Bug Edition

Earlier this week, I found an issue with the software I was using to manage comments for The Simple Dollar. I deleted a single character in a single line of code, breathed in deep, refreshed the page…

… and 7,000 (!) comments appeared in the moderation queue.

The bug was a simple one. Ordinarily, comments that need to be moderated are assigned a particular number in the database – let’s say it’s a 1. If I approve the comment, the number becomes 0. If I don’t approve it, the comment gets the number 99 and effectively vanishes.

The bug essentially revolved around the fact that some comments for moderation were being assigned the number -1 instead of the number 1. In a code edit, a – sign had been stuck into the code in front of a 1, effectively turning it into a -1. Thus, when I would view the comments that need moderated, I would only see the ones with a 1 and not see the ones with a -1. I’m not sure what percentage of comments this was affecting, but I’d estimate around 25% of them.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of comments to deal with. I’m going to go through these in batches because it would take several days of nothing but comment moderation to deal with that many comments.

Here are some personal finance articles of interest. This past week, I spent a lot of time reading some lesser-known personal finance blogs and I’ve chose to highlight some of them this week.

Recipe for Survival: 23 Ways Restaurants Save Money This article summarizes very clearly why I don’t like eating out unless we’re eating out someplace quite nice. I simply have much more confidence in the food I cook at home. (@ coupon sherpa)

I don’t want to retire I think the biggest problem for many of us when it comes to talking about retirement savings is that we simply don’t want to “retire,” because often the word “retire” comes with a sense of being old and idle and incapable, whether that’s actually true or not. We don’t want to think about being the generic definition of a retiree. (@ a gai shan life)

When Pigs Fly: How I Fought My Parking Ticket and Beat City Hall A very humorous story about fighting a parking ticket with some good advice to boot, this article mostly made me wonder whether or not it was really worth the time. I think it’s more about the principle of the thing. (@ len penzo)

10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter My frugal way of staying fit during the winter has been EA Active. (@ squawk fox)

Also, I’ve had several articles of mine appear on OPEN Forum, and I’ll be linking to them over the next few weeks. These articles usually focus on small business issues. Here are three recent ones.

Efficient Billing: A Big Key to Solving Cash Flow Problems Being organized when you’re running a small business is key, particularly when it comes to efficiently billing your customers. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Six Steps to Audit-Proofing Your Small Business The most effective way to audit-proof yourself? Keep a paper trail of every dime going in and out of your business. Here are some effective ways to do just that.

Two Key Numbers You Need to Know to Manage Your Small Business These two key numbers come back to two key elements of a successful small business: cash in hand and effective billing. It’s all about the cash flow, after all.

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The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Next Project Edition

Now that my book is finished, I’ve decided to embark on another big time-consuming project, but this one is a little different.

I’m a big fan of online banks. I think they’re an incredibly powerful tool for helping you with your personal savings. For a long time, I’ve wanted to talk about a slew of online banks, just to review all of the different options out there.

There’s been a problem with this, though. I don’t like to talk about products that I don’t actually use myself. I won’t review a book unless I’ve read it and thought about it. I won’t review a financial tool unless I’ve used it extensively myself. And I won’t talk about a bank unless I’ve used it myself.

I use ING Direct as my primary bank. I talk about it often. But I don’t mention other banks for the reason above, and I want that to change. There is a huge diversity in online banks, offering different features, different interest rates, different offerings, and different tools for managing your money.

Here’s my solution. Over the next several months, I’m going to open accounts at a bevy of online banks. I’m going to try them out, see in detail what services they offer, transfer some money in out, test their customer service, and close the accounts (if I don’t intend to replace an account I’m already using).

Then, once a week, I’m going to post a detailed review of that bank in an effort to outline clearly what distinguishes it from other banks. What do they do differently? Who is this bank most appropriate for?

So I’m going to open this up to you a little bit. What would you like to see in a review of an online bank? What features really matter to you and would cause you to make the move to switch to a new bank?

While you chew on that, here are some interesting personal finance articles that might interest you.

“Natural Inclinations…Are Hardly Ever Altered or Overcome.” Over the last few days, I’ve been enormously inspired by this little quote. (@ the happiness project)

Do you do your most important work first? I used to have a very organized morning routine, where I would do most of my “routine” tasks before starting the day. What I found is that I got my “routine” tasks done, but most of the real meat of my work – the creative tasks – didn’t go nearly as well. (@ unclutterer)

How to Change Your Motor Oil Changing one’s own motor oil is a tremendous way to save money – when you pay someone else to do it, you’re essentially paying someone $20 so you can sit in a waiting room while some guy unscrews a nut, collects some oil in a bucket, screws the nut back in place, then dumps some clean oil in the top. Why not do that at home where you can do something worthwhile while the oil drains and save yourself $20? (@ art of manliness)

What To Do With A Financial Windfall This is a great step-by-step guide to handling a windfall. If you don’t have a plan, windfalls can actually be a large negative disruption in your life, as we talked about a bit last week. (@ moolanomy)

Results of a Week Without Spending Can you go an entire week without spending any money? As an experiment, this family attempted to have a week without any spending and managed to get by only spending $3. Fairly insightful stuff. (@ pt money)

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The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Third Child Edition

I’m pleased to announce that we’re expecting our third child. The baby is due in late April. And, of course, when the child is born, you can expect pictures.

This is the “news” I alluded to on Monday that was affecting my wife’s health – she’s had a big case of the first trimester “tiredness” which has made our home even more hectic lately.

Here are some personal finance articles of interest to keep you busy.

Even Good Debt Can Be Bad All debt can be bad. I don’t necessarily believe in the “good debt versus bad debt” dichotomy, which is basically the argument of this article. (@ moolanomy)

Be Your Own Part-Time Boss: The Pros & Cons This is one of the best guides I’ve read on starting your own small side business. My favorite point: start now and work out the kinks along the way. (@ man vs. debt)

Paradox Of Financial Choices: Maximizing vs. Satisficing Some people seek to maximize – to squeeze every nickel out of a situation that they can. Other people seek satisfaction – a level of completeness that balances their time and happiness. I think I’m more of the latter. (@ my money blog)

What is Simple Living and Why Should I Care? I think the real value of living simple is that it gives you the time to explore the things you’re interested in and passionate about. (@ wise bread)

Which Comes First: The House or the Nest Egg? The nest egg, in my opinion. Given that renting is often the better financial position as compared to home ownership, I think many people over-fetishize owning a home (myself included) and push themselves into a financially sub-optimal situation. (@ get rich slowly)

Dunbar’s Number isn’t just a number, it’s the law Dunbar’s Number – 150 – is the number of meaningful friendships/relationships that a person can actually sustain. Although some argue that that number is growing due to internet technologies, I argue that it’s just allowing us to keep tabs on a larger group of people more easily, not to build meaningful relationships with them. (@ seth godin)

Separation This is a fascinating story of a divorce. It does seem like a better outcome than the typical “I’m calling a lawyer” breakdown in marriage, though. (@ steve pavlina)

Continue reading The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Third Child Edition …

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The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: 400 By 40 Edition

Over the last week, I’ve been working on a “400 by 40″ list – a list of fairly simple things I’d like to do before my fortieth birthday (big thanks to Vicky for suggesting the idea). It’s been fun making the list, actually – I started it in a composition notebook and just jot down ideas as they come to me. They’re not big goals at all, just little things.

What I’ve realized while making the list is that so many of the things involve other people. “Do X with Y” is an extremely common entry. “Play Agricola with Joe.” “Read ‘Where the Red Fern Grows’ to my kids.” And so on.

In the end, it reveals how important the people around me really are in my life. At most, 10% of the items on the list are solitary ones, and even some of those could easily become social.

Here are my ten favorite personal finance articles I read in the past week.

Brand Loyalty and the Financial Crisis – Will We Return When Things Get Better? I think that trusted brands have actually increased in value, but the loyalty of a customer is much shorter than it once was. People have been bitten by so many brands that have produced a poor product or given poor customer support that they’re much less likely to trust a new brand. Instead, they tend to lean even more on the “old reliables” – ones that consistently treat them well. A few brands are gold – but there’s little loyalty to the rest. (@ wsj wallet)

Are You a Success Junkie? Is success addictive? If you achieve one thing and feel that rush of success, I do think it pushes you even harder to repeat it and feel that rush again. When people say that success breeds success, that may be what they’re talking about, at least in part. (@ brip blap)

What Is Your Curiosity Quotient? If I had to name one essential personality trait that I would want for a new worker in the information economy, I would point towards curiosity. The more curiosity a person has, the more likely they are to dig in deep on a particular subject or problem and perhaps come up with a really exciting solution. (@ pick the brain)

The Art of Changing Easily and Gracefully Changing an ingrained part of your nature (like shyness or a propensity to spend without thinking) is very difficult. While I don’t believe that anything can make ground-breaking change easy, these ideas certainly help people move in the right direction. (@ dumb little man)

Labor Day and the American Dream It’s an absolute falsehood that you need a college education to get a good paying job. There are LOTS of good jobs out there that pay well without a college degree, but those programs aren’t funded by marketing budgets fueled with $10,000 tuition bills. Electricians and plumbers of the world unite! (@ wsj)

12 Critical Things Your Family Needs to Know If your family can’t easily find this information about you, then you’re not doing your duty for them. They’ll HAVE to be able to find this when you pass on. If not, they’re going to be put in a bad situation. (@ free money finance)

The Paradox of Empty Storefronts Whenever I’m in a dying small town and I see lots of empty store fronts, I often wonder why the owners of those stores don’t just drop the rent through the floor to get businesses in there, make the town appear to be thriving, and at least make a LITTLE money. This is a great discussion of the pros and cons of that idea. (@ megan mcardle)

Who Gets to Decide What You Want? “Once again, it seems to come down to a personal decision. If you decide what you want (instead of letting someone else decide for you) perhaps you could choose the things that would actually bring you and your loved ones the satisfaction you can live with.” Indeed. (@ seth godin)

How to Set Priorities Do FIRST what you want to do LEAST. This is why I usually start my days by doing email and approving comments, which are the two regular tasks I have to do that I enjoy the least. Once they’re done, I feel good, like I’ve already been productive, and it helps me to get started on my other, more enjoyable, and more intellectually challenging tasks with a more fulfilled nature. (@ soul shelter)

Working Vacations Rule? I sometimes work on vacation in much the same way Jonathan does. If I have an idea, even if I’m on vacation, I’ll pull out that notepad and write it down. Why? If I DON’T, it sticks in my head and distracts my thoughts. My mind gets entangled in the idea. If I just stop, pull out that pad for ten minutes, and get a framework of my thoughts down on paper, it’s easier for me to just let it go. (@ jonathan fields)

Continue reading The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: 400 By 40 Edition …

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