Sorry guys, nothing really much to update you guys on this week in my personal life.  I biked around a lot this week, and got my bike tuned up (the brakes feel even nicer now).  I promised myself that if I were to go somewhere less then say… four kilometres, then I would take my bike vs the car.  It’s been quite muggy lately and sitting in the car is like… akin to sitting in a sauna on full blast, so it has been quite refreshing to use the bicycle instead of the car.  Good for the environment, good for me.  I think that bike was the best $350 I spent, ever.  I was hesitant at first to spend so much on a bicycle, but little did I know when we were bicycle shopping that they usually go for $500+, and even $1000+ if you get a road bike (those sexy bikes with curved handles and really thin wheels).  Krystalatwork, who writes a fun PF blog, recently got a bike and got $300 back from the Scrap-It program (if you send in your beat-up old car, they give you $300 for a bike!).  It’s worth looking into in your city or town.

I thought I would include some select Yakezie links this week because a) I haven’t done so for a long time b) I love my Yakezies and c) we’re going to take over the PF blogging world (insert sinister laughter).

Yakezie

• Financial Samurai tells you whether its better to rent to females or males (I say females! but alas, I am biased)
• Early Retirement Extreme shares what cycling has taught him about personal finance (hey great minds think alike, we both have cycling on our minds)
• Len Penzo tells you what the 10 most economical sandwiches are (PB and J?)
• Canadian Finance Blog ponders: You can afford retirement, but can you afford retirement care?
• My Dollar Plan sounds like he has the same compulsive coupon obsession like me
• My Journey to Millions celebrates 2 years of blogging (and more!)
• Not Made of Money shares with you ways to save when buying a Nintendo Wii
• Little House in the Valley celebrates her one year blogiversary!!
• Money Beagle says whatever you do, don’t buy designer sunglasses

Hope you enjoy these posts this weekend and have a great first full weekend in August!

The aurora borealis are supposed to show up in the Vancouver area and much of southern Ontario in the next few days (or maybe it’s passed), so I’ll hope to keep an eye out for them.  Have you seen them?

As some of you may know, I wouldn’t be where I am today without having joined the Yakezie group, started by natural born leader and Yakezie mastermind Financial Samurai.  I have learned so much and am forever grateful for the connections I have made with other personal finance bloggers.  Members of the Yakezie have a chance to host the Yakezie carnival, so it’s my turn today!  I’m going to start from the bottom up- Bottoms up!  (Just went to a wedding yesterday night, so don’t mind my references to alcohol)

Here it is for some fun sunny summery Sunday reading!  (Can you say that three times fast?)

PS HAPPY SUMMER! I hope everyone is as excited about summer as I am. =)

PPS Happy Father’s Day to all the fantastic, dedicated, hard-working dads out there!

Readers, what has your father taught you about personal finance that really ‘stuck’?  Please share!

My father has taught me so much about being an entrepreneur, and owning your own business.  He never really worked for anyone and always had many businesses going on, yet he still had time to go on month long trips with us in the summer.  He also taught me that cash flow from real estate properties is a good thing.  He was always so hard working, a real ‘do-it-yourself-er’. …I really admire him when it comes to personal finance (among other things, of course).  Happy father’s day, dad!

Yakezie Carnival

• Smart on Money gives us ten great tips on how to save money on a tight budget
• Miss Thrifty searches for Yorkshire’s Thriftiest Granny
• Wealth Informatics says it’s Christmas Time
• Chasing Prosperity is baaaack!! (in April)
  
• Retirement Investing Today talks about UK Rates and Mortgage Approvals
• The Wealth Artisan thinks that fun shouldn’t cost a fortune
• More Style Than Cash tells you the key people that you should call for back up when the sh*t hits the fan
• Darwin’s Money rounds up his favourite posts, and apologizes for apologizing to BP
• Digging Out from Our Mess gives a word of caution to us  young’uns
• Smarter Spend is moving so he’s taking a little break from blogging
• Invest it Wisely talks about opening up new frontiers (hi ho hi ho!)
• Frugal Confessions lets us in on her Frugal Confessions Friday
• Downturn Living discusses whether being completely Vegan is really that much more beneficial for the planet
• Dividend Monk talks about constant income amidst falling value
• Narrow Bridge Adventures talks about how the final stage of the credit card act will affect you
• Car Negotiation Coach talks about flying cars! (yes you read that right!)
• Financial Poor rounds up his Friday Night Likes
• My Money Minute counts down to the end of the Federal Housing Tax Credit expiry in April
• Single Guy Money warns you not to buy the new car!
• Stay at Home Mom CFO tells you how you can get $75 back if you bought a lawnmower in the last 16 years
• The Saved Quarter shares their passion for fresh fruits and veggies
• Bible Debt talks about being faithfully rich
• Watson Inc. talks about how you shouldn’t let your dream (home) become a nightmare
• Foreigner’s Finance explains why you need an emergency fund
• Peak Personal Finance teaches you how to automate your banking
• Clarifinancial teaches you how to tell between a true quote or a fake insurance quote
• BarbaraFreidberg Personal Finance tells you how trading in a car every 2 years makes financial sense
• Money Beagle asks you homeowners if you’re treading water (gulp! I hope I won’t have to ever be in that position)
• 151 Days Off Prays 2.0
• Christian Common Sense reviews the book Control your Cash
• Girl With the Red Balloon helps you answer whether you need life insurance
• Zach Younkin lets you know the options for College Financial Aid
• PF Firewall tells you 60 ways you can feel rich without the price tag
• CJBowker talks about how you only get one chance at it, so make it good!
• My Financial Objectives got nominated for a top 50 Financial Mentors award (me too!)
• Redeeming Riches tells you why making more money isn’t the answer (I concur!!)
• The Amateur Financier gives us his thoughts on tipping
• Beating Broke got nominated for the same award too! (yay Yakezie!)
• Evolution of Wealth explains what sole proprietorship means
• MillionaireNurse rounds up great nurse blogs of the week
• Money Help for Christians shares his free download spreadsheet tool that can help you pay off your debt
• The Centsible Life lets us know who won her Father’s Day Giveaway (darn I didn’t win the dremmel tool!)
• Couple Money reviews E3 (sounds fun!)
• Cool to be Frugal shares with us her net worth and blogging goals
• Little House gives us the range of the rent across the nation (OMG New York is that expensive?)
• Engineer your Finances reviews the book Enjoy your Money (I reviewed it too- it’s good!)
• 20′s Money asks you what you are pursuing
• Fiscal Fizzle updates us on his blog sabbatical (come baccccckkk, Wojo!)
• Out of Debt Again shares with us her Friday Finds
• Budgeting the Fun Stuff shares with us her weekly favourites, too
• Consumer Boomer reviews Ally Bank
• Personal Finance By the Book shares with us his father’s day =) (what a cute drawing)
• Bucksome Boomer shares with us some sweet memories of her father, in honour of fathers day
• Frugal Zeitgeist shows you that shopping for car insurance is really easy, if you follow his steps
• Joe Taxpayer calculates the math of refinancing
• One Money Design helps you decide whether you should transfer the balance to another credit card
• Saving Money Today shares us his lesson on trying to remember to think before you speak (I need help on that one big time!! you’re not alone)
• Money Reasons is reading The Snowball ( I want to read that too!) and learns that Warren Buffett was a renter
• Rainy Day Saver shares her Fix it Friday, learn how to put in a tree flowerbed (cute!)
• Not Made of Money shares some money saving coupon deals
• PunchDebt helps a reader decide whether to be a whore to money or not
• Deliver Away Debt updates us on the state of the blog
• My Journey to Millions shares with us a quote from the Fountainhead
• Monevator rounds up weekly posts and comments on England and the World Cup
• Ultimate Money Blog reviews WTDirect
• Sweating the Big Stuff went to bank heaven (can I go too?)
• Money Funk teaches you how to set up a spending plan
• Wealth Pilgrim gives us his fave links for the week, and tells us about Moolanomy’s new forum
• Len Penzo gives us his fave links for the week too
• Canadian Finance Blog gives us his fave links too, from a Canadiana perspective
• Early Retirement Extreme talks about how it might be the death of the buy and hold strategy as we know it
• Planting Dollars talks about financial baby steps
• Free from Broke asks whether the first time home buyer tax credit should be extended
• Eliminate the Muda gives us an example of the 5S strategy in action
• Consumerism Commentary gives us an update on the Smithee Debt
• Credit Card Chaser explains what a reloadable credit card is
• Financial Samurai tells us that the reply button is there for a reason (hint- it’s not to ignore it for emails!)

Howdy folks!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Seeing as I haven’t done any links for a while (trust me, it’s hard to work on your blog when you are overseas in an internet cafe with sketchy internet access!), here are some interesting fellow Yakezie reads if you need to have a small distraction from work =) (Who’s really productive at work, anyway? kidding!).

As some of you may know (if you were following my random tweets on twitter), I was away in Nepal for a few weeks.  It was an amazing trip- Nepal is beautiful!  Next year (2011) is their “Year of Tourism” so if you’ve gotten a visa before, next year you won’t have to pay the visa fee (it costs about USD $100 for a 90 day visa, FYI).

I will promise to add some photos of my trip and any tips on saving money while traveling in that corner of the world once I become less zombie-like from sleep deprivation and time zone changes.

With the recent European crisis, let’s just say I am glad I set some stop losses and preserved some of my gains with my stocks before I left!

• Financial Samurai has a great post on what to do during the bad times (aka markets crashing again)
• Fiscal Fizzle (Wojo) is going on a blog sabbatical until mid August =(  Will miss him, but hope he has a good break- well deserved.
• Early Retirement Extreme also talks about the Latte Factor and kicks is up a notch with the idea of brewing your own coffee.
• Canadian Finance Blog gives us 5 tips for Getting Back on the Credit Card Ladder (if you’ve fallen off with the current economic crunch)
• Money Funk has a fun post on not getting tricked by Infomercials (yes, the “STOP HAIR LOSS” products)
• Money Reasons has a very thought provoking post on how High Personal Integrity can harm you
• Little House talks about how She was Rich Last Sunday until life took over! =(
• Simple Life in France also has a thought provoking post questioning whether Technology and Entertainment is making us Unhappy
• Rainy Day Saver gives a personal example about the Importance of Health Insurance

Hope you enjoyed those good reads and have a great rest of the week!

Happy hump day!  Hopefully perusing these links will help you get past the rest of the work week and onto the weekend!

Last week, I briefly rounded up the wonderful Yakezie Challenge members and their associated posts, but didn’t have enough time to add the Yakezie members who were ranked in the top 50,000 of the Alexa rankings.  As promised, I hope to do that this week… don’t want to leave anyone out!  This will probably be the last “regular” volume of my mid-week round up, I might feature some favourite blog posts from Yakezie members instead.  So enjoy my completely non-condensed version (read: took  hours compiling!) while you can!

As you may already know, the Yakezie Challenge was envisioned by our leader Financial Samurai (lol, do we sound like a cult?).  I’ll go by the rankings of the Yakezie Challenge, which is hosted by Ryan on Planting Dollars’ site this week.  The order is from the lowest ranked Yakezie to the highest.

Happy Wednesday!

The 200,000 Club

Girl with the Red Balloon talks about her Debt Snowball: Student Loan Style

Saving Money Today blogs about joining the Yakezie Challenge- welcome!!

Mike at Personal Finance Ninja (hiiiyaaaa!! sorry had to put that one in there) blogs about Life Style Inflation: Why your Savings is Not Growing as Fast as Your Income. Awesome term to describe what we gen-y-ers suffer from- life style inflation!

Beating Broke doesn’t think “Life’s Better Here” and talks about how Innovis Healthcare Stinks.

Rainy Day Saver gives tips about how to Prepare your Finances for Vacation.

One Money Design gives you the how to on Adjusting your Income Tax Withholding Allowances (US taxes)

Bytta at 151 Days Off asks Where Do You Draw Inspiration?

Foreigners Finances gets you to take the Entrepreneur Test- how well do YOU score? Yay! I think I’m a natural entrepreneur (though I certainly don’t feel like it sometimes!)

My Money Minute has joins the 200,000 mile club (no, not the mile high club, get that mind out of the gutter!) because he has done 200,000 clicks on his Nissan! That’s really really impressive.  He must have maintained that car very well!

Stay at Home Mom CFO talks about the things you need to think about when choosing Maternity Coverage

Elle at Couple Money reviews the book Unautomate Your Finances.  Interesting, I myself prefer to automate my finances. =)

The Amateur Financier was featured in MSN Money this week AND shares with us Learning Financial Lessions from Aesop’s Fables

Engineer Your Finances talks about the Financial Lessons Learned from Engineering and how financial literacy and education trumps all!

Downturn Living discusses How Green is Your Sex Life? (yes, you read that right! =P )

Little House in the Valley shares some tips on how to make over a “fixer upper” house and make it your home.

Redeeming Riches gives 10 great money saving tips on how to save $10K, one of my favourites is to pack your lunch.

Single Guy Money talks about how to make money off of Craigslist (great tips! One of my mini goals is to sell unwanted stuff on Craigslist)

Clarifinancial tells us a secret from the Life Insurance Industry… SHHH… Life Insurance Doesn’t last your Whole Life!

CJ Bowker hosts the Yakezie Challenge Carnival (yeahhh!)

Frugalzeitgeist ponders about whether trading your car for a horse will be cheaper. Dang, so many creative PF bloggers out there! LOVE it!  AND he’s good on the computer…he created a widget of recent Yakezie posts.

Money Reasons discusses whether you Can really Trust People Asking for Handouts when they are Dressed Better than You?

Well Heeled asks you How Much Would You Spend on a Mattress? (the picture on her post looks sooo comfy- I want that bed!)

Wealth Pilgrim wants you to make sure that your IRA Beneficiary Gets their Money when You Go.

Evolution of Wealth shares with us the Hidden Gems of Life Insurance Policies

Money Funk fills us in on her new business proposition… hint: it’s a friggin’ great idea!!  PS: congrats on hitting the 200,000 mark!

Punch Debt in the Face also hits the 200,000 mark (yeehaw!) and asks you what hobbies you spend your big buckeroos on

The 100,000 club

Ulitimate Money Blog invites us to be French by practising the same frugal habits… mmm baguette, anyone?

Deliver Away Debt advises you to Do Not Get into Any Debt!

My Journey to Millions shares with us his net worth update

Enemy of Debt talks about his challenge: Manage Your Money Week 2: Teamwork, Accountability, and Kids

Early Retirement Extreme talks about the idea of a Downsizing Party (dang- that’s a good idea.. I need that pronto!)

David @ MBA Briefs tells  us that the Not So Bad News, is Good News

Wojo @  FiscalFizzle pleads for someone to take his money, he just wants that darned space heater!

Monevator asks you to decide whether Cash is King or Cash is Trash in this crazy market.

Suburban Dollar updates us on the Wealthy Bloggers of the PF world for the month of March (see which PF bloggers walk the talk!)

CreditCardChaser talks about Warren Buffets $50 Million GEICO Credit Card Business Loss

20′s Money wonders why Consumer Discretionary Stocks are Soaring

Sweating the Big Stuff interviews Monevator!

Canadian Finance Blog has a guest post on Frugal Getaways: 5 Ways to Treat Yourself with a Frugal Vacation

Planting Dollars interviews Daniel of Sweating the Big Stuff (hey! It’s like an Interview love triangle!!)

Fiscal Geek talks about the Single Most Important Step to mastering your personal finances.

The 50,000 Club

LeanLifeCoach at Eliminate the Muda asks you think think whether you’re Earning a Living or Living an Earning?

Free From Broke asks you to ponder whether it’s Okay to Be Allowed to Copy Children’s DVD’s?

PT Money discusses Easy Money: Some Good and Not So Great Ways to get Money Fast

Budgets Are Sexy graciously compiled a list of the 20 best money websites

Debt Free Adventures tells us how he saved $41,123.16 with just one phone call.‘

And finally, our Yakezie leader is on top!

Financial Samurai talks about the Mental to Physical Connection for a Healthier Lifestyle

The Yakezie Challenge is an idea created by Financial Samurai, a highly entertaining personal finance blogger.  It facilitates a sense of community in the personal finance world by encouraging us to work together to help increase each other’s Alexa rankings.  Alexa, in case you don’t know, is the website that lets you know where your website ranks in the web world.  LOL How many times did I use the word “web” in there?

Inspired by Deliver Away Debt’s awesome weekend links of Yakezie group members- he stayed up until 2-3am to write it, thought I’d do the same for mid-week (but try not to stay up too late past my bed time!).  Anyway, here are some great links to lighten up your work week.  Maybe you can peruse them at work if you’re not busy or if you’re having a bad Wednesday (hey look on the brighter side, you’re on hump day!  Just two more days until the weekend).

I’m only going to post up the Yakezie members who are above the 200,000 goal for July 4, 2010 because I am falling asleep on my laptop as we speak…   (My sincerest apologies to all you high ranked Alexa personal finance bloggers!)

Enjoy! Happy Wednesday!

Rainy Day Saver has a new webpage design- go check it out here!

Stay at Home Mom CFO writes about how she received a credit from the IRS (wow since WHEN did the government gladly give US money? =P )

My Money Minute enlightens us on the $40,000 video game… and how old stuff may actually be worth preserving- after reading that post I ransacked my old video game collection but alas, did not find any gems that were worth $40,000.

Chasing Prosperity talks about Lessons learned from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (Having experienced the Olympics here in Vancouver, I learned that 6 hour line ups all over the place kind of suck! And that trying to get into Heineken House three times and getting rejected three times hurts your feelings!  And that Vancouver is really in the lime light now!)

151 Days Off has a picture that will surely excite your boring ol’ Wednesday–> Check out what they did at the Sydney Opera House.

Foreigner’s Finances talks about how to save money for retirement while working abroad.  He’s teaching English in Japan right now- and while you don’t have to pay your home country’s tax, you also don’t get access to all the retirement planning!

Little House in the Valley also changed her theme- it’s really cool- check it out here!

The Amateur Finacier shares his Net Worth AND talks about how he jumped 100,000 spots on the Alexa Ranking- woo hoo!

Elle @ Couple Money also shares her Net Worth for last month

Downturn Living talks about the Price of Fame, a Story about Pre-Planning.

CJ Bowker explains to us what his response is when someone asks “What do you Do?”

Clarifinancial interviews Elle from Couple Money on his Fresh Perspective post =)

Money Reasons shares with us the Important Financial Lessons his Son Learned Today

Blog Income Life talks about Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff

Deliver Away Debt shares with us his Net Worth too!

WellHeeledBlog talks about Eat Pray Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book about her and her ex husbands relationship with money.

Evolution of Wealth defines Financial Planning, and what it REALLY means.

Money Funk also shares her family’s Net Worth. Check it out.  She has automated most of her bills- good tip!

Wealth Pilgrim gives you the “in” on  How You Know if You Are Saving enough for Retirement.

Ultimate Money Blog shares with us how she makes Embroidery Wall Hoops for her home.  Cute!

Punch Debt in the Face justifies how he is planning to spend $4000 on his honeymoon (I say go for it!! People have to live their lives somehow.  We need to be saving for the sake of enjoying aspects of life, not just for saving!)  P.S. the picture associated with the post is hilarious.  It could be on one of those Carlton cards!

My Journey to Millions talks about how cool the Yakezie Group is.  It’s cool.  Get in on the action!

Early Retirement Extreme talks about how you should Never Do Things for Their own Sake.

Enemy of Debt encourages us to Live Life to the Fullest by Getting Out of Debt.