Roundup: My Fiancee and I Are Starting a Rock Band

Yep, we’ve decided to quit our jobs and start our very own rock band! By this I mean we’re keeping our jobs and just spending hours on hours playing Rock Band, a game we just got recently (in part because Guitar Hero 3 for the Xbox 360 is so difficult to get, but now Rock Band is pretty scarce too).

We are “Sexah Thang” with me on drums and her playing the guitar. I wish I could get you guys a screen shot of my character, this guy is ridiculously over the top, but I guess you’ll have to use your imagination. Guitar Hero 3 really showed some creativity in gaming - taking a game like Simon, putting it to great music, and making it ridiculously awesome. Rock Band is like Guitar Hero except you can have two guitars (guitar and bass), a drummer, and a singer! How cool is that!?

• Nickel revisits the best 529 plans.
• FMF answers some serious financial questions.
• NCN does some math and shows us how saving just a little bit can end up being a lot.
• If you want to sort through pennies, you can make some change looking for copper cents according to MBH. No thanks buddy.
• Flexo has part 4 of his series on frugal gift giving.
• JLP shares one good story out of the subprime bust, Goldman Sachs bet against it and pocketed a cool $4b that help offset the other bets. Hedging rocks!
• DailyGratis’ weekly picks of freebies are: subscription to Blender Magazine, some free coffee from Community Coffee, and a subscription to Good Housekeeping magazine from Adperk.
• It’s not often that you see a case made against Roth IRAs, but this week someone did and MyRetirementBlog covered it.
• Thinking about doing a balance transfer arbitrage? Balance Transfer Arbitrage discusses an actual walkthrough of the balance transfer arbitrage process that shows how easy it really is.
• Do you want to do your part to save time, money, and space? Lazy Man has a list of 15 items that will help you do just that.
• Golbguru teaches a lesson about how you have to take control of your own destiny, relying on others is a mistake.
• Ben recommends The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham for some light winter reading.
• Sun wonders if he should pay off their car note.
• Jeremy has some sad news, Santa isn’t coming because of subprime. Bah humbug!
• Need gift ideas for a real estate professional? SVB has a list of cool gifts for a real estate person.