Weekly Roundup: Laboring All Day Edition

Well, it’s now September, and only 1 week until my fall class starts up. And specifically today is Labor Day, but does that mean I’m supposed to work or not work? I couldn’t remember, so I worked on my (hopefully) last retaining wall. It’s a 31-footer along the front-side of the house that will take about 124 bricks, or about $250. But I couldn’t complete the wall because I cleared out Home Depot’s stock of red castle wall bricks. I’m fine with that though, because I was able to jump into the pool to cool off.

So let’s check out the articles from the past week that caught my eye.

From the Personal Finance Network:

• Squawkfox likes to surround herself with excellence, which I totally agree with.
• MoneyNing tells us how our perception keeps us poor.
• Canadian Capitalist questions whether BRICs belong in your portfolio. If you’re wondering, BRIC stands for the emergins markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
• Four Pillars wonders whether he can create a garbage stockpiling business. I think we might need to be closer to the apocalypse to make this idea feasible.
• Blunt Money gives her own view of buying your kid a car.

From My PF Blog Reader List:

• The Simple Dollar warns about splurging as a reward for “being good”.
• Kicking Tires (a car blog) educated me on how the U.S. could become a gasoline net exporter.
• Brip Blap scared me with the statistics on the number of books adults read. People simply need to read more.
• My Two Dollars finally found a place where people don’t care about the car they drive.
• Gather Little by Little identifies teen money management mistakes.
• The Frugal Duchess learned a lot from a mother letting her handicapped child get up on his own.
• Frugal Dad took his family on a frugal safari. Goes to show that there ARE fun things to do in your own area!