• Tweet ^[1]
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• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

We started gardening ^[3] a few years ago because we thought it would be fun. We don’t have that much ground space living in a townhouse so our stuff has always been in buckets or planters (one of these days we’ll do square foot gardening ^[4]). Over the years we’ve learned what has grown well (any spice, tomatoes, strawberries, red peppers, hot peppers of almost any type) and what hasn’t (eggplant, though that’s mostly our fault).

One thing we didn’t really take into consideration was plant selection based on profitability ^[5]. I suppose we did it intuitively, after seeing how expensive fresh herbs and spices are at the grocery store, because we are growing chives and dill (and oregano and basil and thyme). This year, we’ll be sure to dry our fresh herbs for later.

• I’m always a fan of Robert Brokamp’s posts on Get Rich Slowly and today he tackles a subject commission-based financial advisors always hate to see – the best way to pay for financial advice ^[6]. Fee only is the way to go.
• Burton Malkiel, author of Random Walk Down Wall Street ^[7], gives an hour-long talk at Google ^[8] for their fiscally fit series. This is a must watch.
• Trust me, what could possibly go wrong? ^[9] Pointing out self-regulation was popularized in the Bush era, which is true, shows some tunnel vision but otherwise an entertaining animated cartoon.
• This is a classic question in the pf blogging world – what would you do with a windfall ^[10]?
• “Children make easy targets for identity thieves because they don’t use their own credit and likely wouldn’t notice any discrepancies until they reach adulthood.” Scary story on CNN Money about parents stealing their children’s credit ^[11]… before they even know what the heck credit is. Surprising fact of the day – credit reports don’t report age.
• Amidst all the gloomy stories of college graduates without jobs, Main Street shares 10 job paths ^[12] that don’t require a four year degree. These aren’t slouch jobs though, we’re talking Clinical Lab Techs (2 year training course at a hospital) and Dental Hygienists (associate degree) so these are legitimate career paths.
• Ken at Deposit Accounts talks about an unorthodox CD saving strategy. Open long term CDs at weak banks ^[13] so that in the event they do fail, and thus sold by the FDIC, your CD can be closed early without penalty. There are so many problems with this strategy and Ken hits on them all.

Have a great weekend!

(Photo: lollyknit ^[14])