It’s Friday again, and time for lots of links. It turns out this blog has some readers in influential places, because our discussion of Time magazine’s “The Richer Sex” cover got quoted in the Editor’s Desk page of last week’s issue. I am billed as a “self-help author” who “pointed to a bleaker side of the story — that often ‘women are breadwinning … because otherwise there’s no bread.'” Humorously enough, we’re mentioned alongside DailyWorth, the financial website that’s a longtime friend of this blog. DailyWorth had a better quote: “It’s time for women to shift focus from budgeting and couponing to building net worth.” Amen!
My bedtime math column appeared in Wednesday’s USA Today (reprinted here yesterday). I guest-posted for Danny and Jillian Tobias’s I Should Log Off blog (also reprinted here Wednesday).
Over at CBS MoneyWatch, I tackled a few pressing issues:
“3 ways to save money on an engagement ring.” In ATM, I discuss a couple that bought a non-diamond ring that’s so large and distinctive that everyone comments on it. But it cost less than $300! That’s one way to save money: change the category completely. But I also was introduced to this intriguing site called I Do, Now I Don’t where people can re-sell their “pre-loved” diamonds from broken engagements. The stones get a good karma cleanse and then go off to a new home where the owners are out a lot less cash than they’d pay for retail.
“When Twitter is actually productive.” A few cases when Twitter is not a vast and addictive time suck.
“How to lighten your mental load.” This came out of a morning mix-up. Somehow, no one had realized that my 2-year-old’s preschool was on spring break. It’s one of those mental load things. I remembered that the cantaloupe in the fridge needed to be cut up and eaten, but not that. How does one need to remember fewer things? I put forward a few ideas.
In other news:
Modern Mrs. Darcy posts a lovely review of ATM and runs a short interview with me.
Leaderview, an organization of executives, did a conference call with me this week on ATM. You can listen to the audio by following this link. If you’ve got a book club that’s reading ATM (or 168 Hours) and you’d like me to call in, just shoot me an email and we can probably work something out.
I started a new syndication gig with AOL. They’ll reprint some of the content from this blog on the AOL Jobs site. This link goes to my homepage there.
Carrie’s Busy Nothings shares more thoughts on ATM in her monthly Bottom Line post.
And a special thank you to Gretchen of The Happiness Project for touting this blog and sending several hundred folks my way.
Around the web:
Avik Roy’s The Apothecary blog has been posting interesting analysis of the whole Supreme Court health care circus this week.
The use of common agricultural pesticides — used because they’re supposed to be safer for people — may be leading to epic losses of honeybees. This is one of those stories that reminds me of the equilibrium of so many things. Few things are riskless, but when we focus on one set of risks, we often fail to see others. One of my favorite examples is that for years, physicians told pregnant women not to exercise, because it might be dangerous to the fetus. We now know that not exercising is probably more dangerous from a public health perspective. People-safe insecticides may not be safe for other non-bug species.
Finally, a quick pitch: please consider signing up for my newsletter (email entry form is on top of this blog). I send out a newsletter once per month that has an original essay, a book review, tips, and links. If you read the blog daily, I promise there will still be something new, but if you don’t read it daily, it’s a low-commitment way to keep up with what’s been posted. The next edition comes out April 1 (I hope) so be sure to sign up before then. Thanks!
(photo: slightly blurry photo of the page I’m quoted on in Time magazine)