Weekly Roundup: Weber Smokey Mountain Edition

I don’t know how many of you folks also read my nascent grilling blog, Grill Maestro, but I recently wrote about how I was going to buy a Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker… well I did and yesterday it was delivered. Installation took about ten minutes so this weekend, specifically tomorrow probably, I’m gonna smoke me up some goodies.

Now, onto the weekly goodies…

• Flexo writes about gap year between high school and college where rising freshmen take a year off to travel the world and expand their horizons. Not a bad idea if you can finance it with something other than credit cards.
• JLP answers a reader question about whether to pay off credit cards or student loans.
• FMF reminds us that insurance should be used to handle the big losses, not every loss.
• MBH handles a sticky subject, home value and net worth.
• Nickel writes about how Discover is changing their Open Road card rewards program. We have the card and say “BOO” to that.
• Ben has carpal tunnel and it’s expeeeensive.
• Henry spent two and a half hours on the phone with mortgages companies and came away with 10 mortgage lessons. Save yourself two and a half hours by reading his list.
• Jeremy explains how achievement is directly tied to setting clear goals.
• That Toyota Scion commercial with the weird cartoon demons didn’t work well on Lazy Man, sounds like he’ll never buy a Toyota because of it. PR Oops. (I have a Toyota and I found that commercial creepy, I mean cartoon heads are being cut off… maybe that’s a sign that I’m old and not understanding “cool.”)
• Golbguru’s third used car buying tip is how to inspect a used car.
• Dow busted 14k. Sell sell sell!
• SVB shares five ways credit card companies dupe kids.
• Tricia shares 20 dates for under $20.
• Are you maxing out your 401k? If so, great! If not, why not!?
• Did you know in some states your deductible on your homeowners can’t be greater than 1% of the value of your home? I think it’s a ridiculous rule, those damn insurance lobbyists.