Last week the The Digerati Life, a generally worthwhile blog, had a generally worthwhile post on market timing. (Bottom line: you really shouldn’t.) But 
it had a few sentences I keep rereading.
I have in my portfolio two ETFs that track the movement of the Dow. One makes money when the market goes up and the other makes money when the market goes down. The only job of these ETF’s is to react to the overall market. The responsible thing that I do is to buy them both as a form of insurance. I buy both because I know that I cannot predict the market movements.
So Silicon Valley Blogger owns two ETFs that exactly mirror each other, such that the net of the combination of the two is zero? (Actually, it would be the T-bill rate less the management fees, which is approximately zero but maybe less.)
That can’t be right. She didn’t mean that. That would be dumb.
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Time for another of my lazy Tuesday posts recapping the week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. (Last week I couldn’t find the carnival, but then again I was too lazy too look very hard.)
Amongst the several items that caught my eye was one from Fiscal Fizzle listing ten places you still need cash instead of plastic. It made me feel old. 
(Admittedly not that hard to do.) I always carry cash when I leave the house. Along with keys, identification, and a charged cell phone, cash is one of the four things I think no adult should go outside without.
But the theme of the post is that, of course, the days of cash are numbered. The author tells us "I have to admit – it’s rare for our family to carry cash on our person on a daily basis." And then his efforts at reassuring me that cash will always have role fall flat. At several of his places even I now pay without cash. (E.g. highway tolls and the appliance repair guy.) Before reading the post I wasn’t worried I would soon be the last guy in America using worn pieces of paper to buy stuff, but I am now. Of course, our currency has looked like play money to me since the mid-90′s, so maybe it’s just as well.
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This blog is primarily about bad advice, that is, the recommendation of unwise money choices. But I also have a nice sideline going in misinformation, statements about personal finance that are not merely foolish, but are flat-out objectively wrong.
A recurring topic in that area, you might call it a running gag, is the lack of tax saving advantages of Roth IRAs over 
traditional ones. When I started this blog a few months ago I assumed that most of the people who published misinformation about Roths knew better but had some motive, be it sinister or well-meaning, to mislead. Now I understand that they just don’t understand what they are talking about.
The latest infuriating instance of this is a blog post on Mint.com written by Michael B. Rubin, author of the book and blog Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck and "President of Total Candor, a financial planning education company." It was linked to by the Wall Street Journal’s Wallet blog.
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There was just so much exciting frugal material in July that it took me an extra two days to sort through it all.
Many of the posts in the best frugal blogs are seasonal, so it should be no surprise that July brought a wave of excellent tips on Christmas shopping. (For example, here, here, here, here, and here.) Being Frugal (the fourth link) suggested getting your family photo taken now when studios are not so busy. I think that’s better than paying more in November, but if you were really being frugal you’d just use the same picture every year.
Speaking of Being Frugal, its author has decided to go on a "change fast" for August. The plan is to not spend coins received in change and to save them instead. How could that not increase wealth? My plan is to visit the ATM every morning, withdraw $100, not spend it during the day, and deposit it back in the bank each evening. By the end of the month I will be rich.
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Last week the Baltimore Sun ran a list in picture gallery form of "Money Wasters to Avoid." It got picked up by the often amusing Consumerist, which 
was then noticed by the WSJ’s The Wallet, which is where my jaded mouse found it. And now I am going to write about it too.
To be fair, this particular bit of sound in the blogosphere echo chamber hasn’t much substance and likely wasn’t intended to be taken very seriously. I imagine a few summer interns brainstorming a list of things people waste money on, rounding up some stock photos, and then poof, it’s internet content.
But if I limited myself to commenting on things that truly deserve comment this blog wouldn’t be much fun to write.
The thirteen wasters of money are: the lottery, books, eating out, pets, DVD rentals, ATM fees, cigarettes, coffee breaks, bottled water, designer clothing, car washes, speeding, and bars.
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it had a few sentences I keep rereading.
Investing, PF Blogs | Frank Curmudgeon | 
August 12, 2009 11:59 am | 
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