PF Spotlight: Get Rich Slowly

If you follow financial blogs, even casually, there's a good chance you've read, seen references to, encountered quotations from, or at least heard about Get Rich Slowly. J.D. is one of (if not THE) most famous and trusted personal finance bloggers around, and he consistently writes interesting, thought provoking pieces.

I'll be honest, I haven't been reading Get Rich Slowly long, and most definitely haven't had the opportunity to go back through his rather impressive archives, but what I have read is interesting, informative, and helpful. A few of his more recent articles:

Finding a Good Job in a Bad Economy - A reader named Jill writes in to ask whether she should stay in her secure, but not particularly desirable, current job, or take a temporary job with lower pay in her field of choice. I'm honestly not sure what I would recommend to her; it comes down to whether she values safety or job satisfaction more (and how much of each she would get with either choice). On a side note, I do wish I was facing the choice between a full-time, permanent job I didn't quite care for and a temp job offer (or possibly offers) in my chosen field. At the moment, either one would be a great improvement on my situation.

Some Thoughts on the Return of Traditional Skills - J.D. notes the recent up tick in interest in traditional skills, like gardening, home maintenance and sewing. I haven't noticed quite as much of an increase, myself (in suburban Pennsylvania, it seemed that most people were do it your-selfers with regards to yard and house work for as long as I can remember). But I can certainly see how, when the economic climate is so shaky, that people would want to be as independent as possible; I've been trying to find more time to learn about home maintenance, myself.

25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb - Just about every one sentence bit of financial advice I've ever heard is listed here, from 'Pay yourself first' to 'Your mortgage should cost no more than twice your annual income' (although, I've heard as high 2.5X elsewhere). Some of the rules I actually disagree with (the 100-(your age) rule as a good guide to how much money to have in stocks, for example), but all are at least worth knowing, so you can form your own opinions.

How do Marginal Tax Rates Work - A good explanation of how marginal tax rates work. I'm not going to try to explain the concept in one paragraph, especially as J.D.'s already done an excellent job. Some of the conversations that resulted are worth reading, if only to see the diversity of opinions that exist with regard to tax policy.