With job stress at an all time high and our adoption process in full swing, sometimes it’s hard to concentrate any one thing long enough to really make it as good as it can be. In work (and life in general) we need to be able to at least focus a little in order to get the best out of our abilities. The old saying “jack of all trades, master of none” definitely holds weight when it comes to focus. If you’re spread so thin that you have to give a little bit to a lot of things, chances are you aren’t doing any of them all that well. Things will ease up in about a month when school is over and our adoption process is finished. Until then, the beat goes on!
Know The Ledge is a part of the usual three carnivals this week. Moneyning hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance this week which included our article about the potential downsides of being considered a team player. Over at the Festival of Frugality which was hosted by Penny Saved, our article about starting your day off right was included. Last, but certainly not least, our article about my recent experiences with Roth retirement accounts was part of the Money Hacks Carnival hosted at Mommy Gets Paid. I just want to send a big thank you to those three for hosting and doing such a nice job with the carnivals this week. If you haven’t been over to check out all the great entries, you’re missing out!
Here are some articles that caught my eye this week…
There is an outstanding article at The Simple Dollar regarding the current state of the economy. Trent does a fantastic job of answering some basic questions about things that are in the news on a daily basis. A must read if you keep up with the daily business and financial news. Even if you don’t, it’s stuff you should know to increase your own knowledge.
I loved the article at Dumb Little Man about misguided motivation. So many times we are driven by tangible goals or things, when the true value of what we do comes in the improvements we see in ourselves and in those around us. In your career, it goes back to the idea of aligning your passions with your work. Otherwise it can be difficult to see the value in your improvement as opposed to things like raises and promotions. If you don’t like what you do, you’re more likely to do it for those misguided motivational items.
Lynnae has a nice example of the importance of an emergency fund at Being Frugal. I only had to pay the IRS $8 and not $5000, but my wife and I have dipped into our emergency fund for other events that popped up out of the blue. There’s no telling what life will throw your way at any given moment, so get that savings in place!
G Blogmaster at Can I Get Rich On A Salary had an interesting list of the 9 or so paths to getting rich. Being that money and being rich is on a lot of people’s minds out there it’s interesting to see the different categories of “rich.” Some of them are obvious when you read them, but if you’re really trying to be rich, it’s a good place to start to see which categories you fit into it. Knowing that you could never really be a superstar athlete, or that you’re too risk adverse to make a risky investment, can help you to concentrate on the avenues that you can be successful at to be rich.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Joe,
Thanks for mentioning my post — I am glad you found it interesting. Part 2 of that post went up today, by the way!