Monthly Links ? Less Love Edition | Sustainable Personal Finance

By Sustainable PF

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Better late than never, right? ?The SPF recommended reading from the past month is back on schedule. ?Writing one week ago today simply was not going to happen. ?As always I believe I found some gems written by our blogging peers over the last 35 days or so. ?10 great reads, 3 Editors picks and the always fantastic Editors Choice. ? Enjoy!

• Enjoy well written, thorough, extremely useful articles? ?I love ?em. ?Suba, the writer behind Wealth Informatics, provides ridiculously great content on a consistent basis. ?Her step by step guide on how to negotiate salary even in a tough economy is yet another example why Suba is included in this round up so often. ?Employees who know they deserve higher compensation than they are earning can learn a lot from this 10 step guide.
• Canadian Couch Potato pointed our a new way for Canadians to side step currency conversion costs. ?A very interesting method to purchase ETFs sold in U.S. currency by utilizing the appropriate accounts to hold U.S. dollars and the ETFs.
• My Journey to Millions uses Google Docs spreadsheets to manage his investing. ?Aside from having Google know more about me than I already allow these tips really do integrate some tools that can help out investors.

• Never an easy question: remodel a kitchen to increase value vs paying down the mortgage. ?Life and My Finances is faced with such a decision. ?I wish him the best of luck. ?We try to balance both goals by doubling up our payments every 2 weeks while also saving to improve our home.
• So Teacherman, who writes here @ SPF, has an article up @ Invest It Wisely where he discusses why he wishes he controlled his pension. ?TM, a teacher in Canada, receives a defined benefit pension. ?Simply put, he is one of the lucky ones who get some sort of pension. ?He has his reasons, I just don?t agree with him on the topic. And I wonder if a common law spouse is entitled to DBPs?
• Switching to the sustainability front, PT Money writes about living off the grid in a practical way. ?Depends on your priorities I suppose. ?We have thought about the investment and it is daunting ? but also so enticing.
• Big fan of compost here. ?One of my first articles was about compost. ?If you garden and buy dirt (the good stuff or the cheap) you are much better off composting. ?Reduce waste, stop buying dirt! ?Financially Consumed is loving his compost too.

Editor Picks! EP3: ?Aloysa has a new blog folks! ?She found it odd I linked to her old blog in my SPF Best Reads of 2011, but quality is quality and?her article about tipping. ?This time Aloysa summed up quite succintly?20 things bloggers should stop doing. ?Dead on. ?Check out the old article too ? then read more of her current site. ?You?ll like it ? including her recent series:?My Mother Was a Mail Order Bride. ?I still mean to get over there to comment. ?The last 2 weeks have been brutal for us so my blogging commenting on great articles has been poor. ?I hope highlighting some of your great articles now makes up for it a bit! EP2: ?Matt and Betsy Jabs have site I really enjoy. ?Why? ?Because we don?t want to live a life where we waste and consume because it is convenient. These folks explain what is and what are the benefits of Community Supported Agriculture.

Members (you) pay in advance for a growing season so farmers have operating capital. During the growing season, members receive a box of produce from the CSA on a regular schedule (usually once per week)

We joined one this year. ?While we want to make a healthy veg garden as well. But we also know we can?t realistically get all of the great vegetables we want to eat during the summer from our local market. ?As such, this DIY Natural is equally as useful helping us with?how to find a CSA. EP1: Looking at safer (IMO) investment vehicles? ?Dividends and bonds are the staple of lower risk investing. ?Dividend Ninja explains how he is building his portfolio with dividends and bonds. ?I think if we had similar circumstances as DN has we?d follow this approach in an instant. ?We already do, largely. EDITOR CHOICE: A lot of debate recently here in Ontario and in Canada about the Public Service. ?Specifically about total compensation. ?Don?t Quit Your Day Job takes a close look at the gap between public and private sector jobs. ?From where I sit the private option would be much more lucrative given my profession (IT). ?Check it out for yourself ? please! Hope you enjoyed the round up. If you find articles you think Mrs. SPF and/or I would like to read please send us an email and include the URL! Thanks!

Source: http://sustainablepersonalfinance.com/monthly-links-less-love-edition/

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