Links: Rental Nightmares, Housing Cares, Buffett Shares, and More

March 10, 2008 By Jonathan Ping 14 Comments
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Here are some posts I found useful while reading my fellow financial bloggers and more:

SingleGuyMoney shares some of his rental property issues. Apparently even buying a home warranty from American Home Shield won’t ease all repair headaches, as it doesn’t cover pre-existing problems (even if they were unknown).

PaidTwice shares why she doesn’t care what her house is worth. I agree in that my housing payment is pretty much set for the foreseeable future. If anything, I want prices to go down. Because that means that my friends might be able to afford a house, and then I can perhaps get a good deal on a second property.

Canadian Capitalist shares his notes from the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report. It’s actually pretty fun to read, although I do admit I usually get bored after a few pages and have to read it in parts.

The Honest Dollar advises us to avoid the recency bias. Seriously. Can we finally admit that we can’t see 3 years ahead? Just a few years ago the “experts” were saying how the economy is so resilient and earnings are solid and blah blah blah. Now it’s all “recession-proof your portfolio!”. Tune out all this noise!! Nowhere in my asset allocation decision process is there a factor of “does the market look gloomy?”

Jim at Blueprint For Financial Prosperity talks about the Airborne class action lawsuit. High school teacher who “got sick a lot” doesn’t make wonder drug? Shocker!

JD of GetRichSlowly points out another reason to be wary of gift cards. If you have some Sharper Image gift cards – congratulations! They’re useless.

A co-worker sent me this Couch-to-5K Running Plan. Seems like a good guide to get off your tush and finish a 5K if you’ve never done one before. If I was clever I’d find some parallels with personal finance.

Filed Under: General
Last updated: April 8, 2017
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Comments

  1. Peter Wang says
    March 10, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    Hi There:

    There are lots of stories about the tax foreclosure sale to buy a house for less than 1K.

    Can we believe what John Beck and his lady’s ADVERTISEMENT?

    If so, I wonder why we not buy all the available tax foreclosure properties, and resell or rent them?????!!!!!

    Any comments are welcome.

    If you do not know what I am saying, please http://www.johnbeck.net.

    Reply
  2. SJean says
    March 10, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    The couch to 5k thing also has free downloadable podcasts available. Free is pf related!
    I am in the midst of week 5. The nice thing is if you want to speed up the program, you can (I went a little faster as I was in ok but not good shape), or if you want to slow it down you can repeat a week. It starts off really easy so it isn’t like you go out and try to run 5 miles then give up after a week or so. That could be related to personal finance.

    Reply
  3. SingleGuyMoney says
    March 11, 2008 at 3:18 am

    Thanks for the mention!

    Reply
  4. paidtwice says
    March 11, 2008 at 3:58 am

    Thanks for including me in your roundup!

    Reply
  5. Kathy says
    March 11, 2008 at 5:22 am

    I did the couch-to-5k plan a couple years ago – it works! Actually it worked so well that I started working myself up in milage… and ran the NYC Marathon last November. 🙂

    The most important thing to remember is that if one week is harder than before, you can repeat that week as many times are you need to until you move forward. Most beginner runners start out to fast, get frustrated because it hurts, and give up. Remember, you’re on nobody’s timeline but your own… baby steps.

    Reply
  6. DB says
    March 11, 2008 at 6:21 am

    I have been incredibly empowered by two things in the past few years – learning about personal finance and becoming a runner. These two items have helped me understand, at least to a degree, how to be savvy in this complicated world and how much physical strength I actually had. I went from thinking (in high school) that because I had asthma I would never even be able to run a mile to completing my second marathon (under 4 hours!) this past November.

    Quick running tip – when you’re starting out, in addition to taking it easy and building up a few miles at a time, it’s also really helpful if you can find a running community. Just like this personal finance community helps us stay on track and share new ideas & inspirations, a running community helps participants achieve their goals.

    Reply
  7. Joe says
    March 11, 2008 at 6:24 am

    Actually, Sharper Image has started accepting its gift cards again. However, you are making a good point that you are giving an interest-free loan to the retailer when gift cards are purchased. It’s smart to use them as quickly as possible.

    Reply
  8. MMJ says
    March 11, 2008 at 7:07 am

    I used the Cool Running plan to help train for a relay marathon. Having never run for more than a few hundred yards in my life, I was able to complete 6 miles rather well, within 5 months of starting the program. It is a great and FREE resource. Once thing to splurge on is good sneakers. Don’t skimp there.

    Reply
  9. Canadian Capitalist says
    March 11, 2008 at 8:15 am

    Long time no talk but thanks for the mention. Cheers!

    Reply
  10. Dan Isaacs says
    March 11, 2008 at 10:48 am

    If you are going to start running, and never have before, talk to your doc/chiropractor. It’ll help if you understand how your feet are working. Knowing what “pronation” is, and which shoes make it better/worse will save you a LOT of pain.

    Reply
  11. Aditya says
    March 11, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    btw, Sharper Image GCs are not worthless anymore. But, you have to buy double the amount of stuff to use the card. e.g. if you have a $25 card, you have to buy at least $50 worth of stuff.

    Also, they are liquidating starting this Friday

    Reply
  12. Lily says
    March 11, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    I hear Brookstone is accepting Sharper Image gift cards as 25% off coupons. Way to kick the competition while it’s down. 😉 Good for the consumers though.

    Thanks for the mention!

    Reply
  13. jim says
    March 11, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Thanks for the love man, I wasn’t surprised to hear about the lawsuit or the settlement…

    Reply
  14. Bob says
    March 12, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    I used the Cool Running plan last year while I was training for a 1/2 marathon. When I ran my first 5K, I met some folks who use the Galloway method for training. I started doing it and found it to be better than the cool running plan

    http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/5k.html

    Great site by the way

    Reply

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