The Sunday Review #10: Movies And Magic Edition

Over the last 2 days we watched 4 movies: The Illusionist, The Prestige, An Inconvenient Truth, and Stranger than Fiction. All four movies were worth the money and the time. The Prestige and The Illusionist were especially good with the magicians and the suspenses. An Inconvenient Truth is technically a documentary, and I would recommend watching it from an educational point of view rather than from a polictical, or entertainment point of view. Stranger than Fiction was a bit flat but still not at all bad. All movies were borrowed from a place that charges us $1.08 (including tax) for each movie (I will write more about this method of renting movies very soon). That’s about $0.54 per hour of entertainment for the weekend…pretty good.

Now, let’s get back to some interesting articles published over the week on some interesting personal finance blogs.

Successful Investing 101 - Value and Momentum Systems by Super Saver @ My Wealth Builder. Super Saver compares two, somewhat contrasting, investment strategies in this post. I am not yet a big player in the stock market, but I have started looking at stock prices carefully, and have realized that my natural tendency is towards value investing. However, I have also realized that this tendency is putting me in a sort of procrastinating mode about when to put my money in.

Why I Disagree with Dave Ramsey by GCS @ Gaming the Credit System. Here is an interesting rant about some of Dave Ramsey’s ideologies. I connect with the author on his personal view about cash…I have had similar experiences in the past. Here is an excerpt from post with respect to a popular point-of-view “people spend more when using credit cards“:

So you have to turn the question around: what if, instead of credit cards “making” people have larger transactions, having larger transactions “makes” people use credit cards?

Why You Shouldn’t Trade In Your Stuff by Amy L. Fontinelle @ Personal Finance Advice. Amy gives some examples about cars, cell phones, CDs, books, etc. in order to explain why trading your stuff might not be such a good idea at times.

How To Throw A Kid’s Birthday Party Without Spending A Fortune by SVB @ The Digerati Life. Some practical tips by SVB on how to celebrate frugal birthdays. On a related note, I have often wondered…parties for very little kids are more about the parents than the kids. Probably, some of them have genuine sentimental reasons, but most of the times I have felt that it is just a show-off…may be something like “how my party was better than your party” type of stuff.

Top 5 Ways Companies use Psychology to Trick You by Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money. Lazy Man points out to some commonly used advertisement strategies that companies employ to attract attention from customers. May be, it’s more like companies use psychology to advertise, and we trick ourselves into buying that stuff.

Check your change! by John @ Mighty Bargain Hunter. John draws our attention to some possible treasures that may cross your hand in the form of seemingly ordinary change. Watch out for those cents carefully, some of them might be much more worth than you think they are. Not very exciting for credit card users (like me).

Ten Reasons Why it’s Tough to be an Entrepreneur by Ben @ Money Smart Life. Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of guts and Ben explains why. Seems to me like it might be easier for people with a strong financial background to jump into being an entrepreneur….at least half of those problems, that Ben mentions, will be eliminated with a good financial backing.

Before I conclude, here are some carnivals that featured my posts this week:

Festival of Frugality #63 by SS @ Stingy Students.

Carnival Of Personal Finance Number 89: The Celebrity Edition by Henry @ Binary Dollar.

Carnival of Debt Reduction #76 - Free Debt Reduction Seminar by Ben @ Money Smart Life.