I saw you clicking all those links from last month’s Link-O-Rama. Don’t lie, I’ve got the stats to prove it!
Back by popular demand, is the April Edition of the Monthly Link-O-Rama!
Every month, I’ll share my favorite reads from around the web. These articles will be perfect for fellow millennials seeking financial independence. Most will revolve around investing, saving money, and early retirement, however, I do reserve the right to occasionally throw in a completely random but entertaining read.
This month, I found 9 gems to share with you (1 more than last month!). To the links!
A Real Life Story of Student Loan Refinancing
I’m a big fan of using LendEdu to shop around for student loan refinancing rates, and I encourage most people to refinance with SoFi if they can. So I found it pretty cool to see The Financial Panther share his entire student loan refinancing experience, complete with free food!
The Handy “Too Much House” Equation
One of my favorite bloggers, Nelson from FinancialUproar.com, published an equation (which isn’t actually an equation) for determining if you have too much house.
What’s Uncle Sam Doing with Our Money, Anyway?
Ever wonder how $100 of your taxes are spent? The Wall Street Journal released an interesting breakdown showing just where all our tax money goes.
Update: Here’s a free copy of the info, for those without a WSJ subscription.
An Alien’s Perspective on TV
Not sure how they did it, but AVowOfPracticality.com scored an interview with an alien. Our ET shared some interesting opinions on our TV watching habit, although he was also sort of a dick.
Good News! Financial Advisors Can Earn You an Extra 3% Per Year.
Or can they? ESI Money takes a level headed look at the facts.
The Weirdest College Scholarships
Jim from WalletHacks found the 10 weirdest and most obscure college scholarships around. Advice to any aspiring grocery store managers: don’t forget about the $8,000 Asparagus Club Scholarship.
Here’s a Yahoo Feature About Me, 10 Years into The Future
Not really, but this guy saved $1 million and retired at age 37. As expected, the Yahoo commenters say this is impossible.
11 Celebrities on How They Spend Their Money
Bloomberg interviewed eleven celebrities, nine of which I’ve never heard of, about how they spend their money. Most are much more reasonable than you expect. Then again, they’re only “celebrities.”
…Meanwhile, Johnny Depp Shows the “Celebrities” How It’s Done
By spending $2 million a month. Stay tuned for the April 2027 Link-O-Rama, where we’ll feature Johnny Depp’s bankruptcy.
Bonus Link: The Money Wizard Around the Web
April is Financial Literary month, and I celebrated by answering some questions for Brian over at DebtDiscipline.com.
Happy Reading! See you in a few days for April’s Net Worth Update!
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Really liked the 3% article about financial advisers. I struggle with the role of advisers. One the one hand, I don’t feel I would get much benefit, because I enjoy researching investing and buy low fee index funds, etc. But what about my parents, my aunt and uncle, my parents in law, etc? Advisers may eat into their profits by charging around 1% fee each year, but they may also encourage them to save more and that may be worth the fee.
Insurance is another thing that really depends on who you’re asking about. For someone saving for early FI, I don’t think they need much for (non-medical) insurance. On average, insurance payouts are less than premiums, so they’re an awful “investment”. $1000 here or there won’t make a big difference and who needs life insurance if they have $1M saved for retirement anyway? But for people living paycheck to paycheck (most people), insurance actually is important.
Anyway – good articles! Thanks for passing them along.
I agree Austin. The person reading this site is unlikely to get much value from a financial adviser, but that doesn’t mean advisers don’t provide value to a specific type of client. There is a value to motivation, accountability, and peace of mind. For the uncle who doesn’t even know where to start and would otherwise invest all his money into the slot machines, that could be a pretty large value. For the reader of this blog, not so much.
The bigger issue I have with advisers is when they knowingly don’t provide the best advice, in order to inflate their commissions. I’m guessing they justify it by assuming the person wouldn’t be investing in anything at all without their help, but still… that becomes a moral gray area very quickly.
Really enjoy your list of articles you read the previous month. It seems like a great way to keep track and share some awesome knowledge with everyone. Looking forward to more of your awesome content in the near future!
Glad you’re liking them, I’m definitely enjoying putting them together!
Thanks for the shoutout man! The free food is seriously awesome. SoFi had a Twins game event in April but I couldn’t go due to wedding conflicts. I decided to choose getting married to free food and baseball. Oh well. My sister-in-law, who graduated with no loans, has been bummed out she keeps missing out on all this stuff.
Note to self… bring the wedding party to the free food SoFi events.