Weekend Reading – the end of some blogs and the growth of others

Earlier this week I learned Balance Junkie is calling it quits.  Balance Junkie will continue on with other bloggers providing site content but I will miss Kim’s frank and passionate views about personal finance and the financial industry in general.  Whatever your goals for the future are Kim I hope you reach them.  Thanks for sharing some great material over the years.

As some bloggers decide to take different paths, I confess I’m staying put for now.  Yep, you’re stuck with My Own Advisor for some time to come.  I am happy to report the growth of my blog continues on a nice upward trend, approaching 800 followers on Twitter and inching closer to the same milestone for subscriptions.  Thanks for this support everyone, it’s great to experience!

Over the next few weeks, I look forward to sharing updates on my dividend income and my 2012 personal finance and investing goals.  Later this year, I’m also going to give away a few personal finance books and some gift cards on my site so make sure you subscribe and tell others to do the same if you haven’t already!

Now some great articles to check out this weekend…

Canadian Couch Potato revisits foreign withholding tax and provides investors with a few options to invest in a more tax efficient manner Foreign Withholding Tax: Which Fund Goes Where?

Invest It Wisely said to explore all your options before attending college.

Sustainable Personal Finance offered some cool observations from CPFC12 in Toronto last weekend.

The Dividend Guy Blog launched an ebook – two versions in fact!  I will provide a review of his work within the next couple of weeks.  On the topic of this ebook, Dividend Monk already reviewed this dividend book from Dividend Guy.

Y&T wondered if you should invest in Apple.  I do, indirectly by owning VTI.

Michael James on Money said ETFs offer a wide range of investing options, some of them not so good.  I prefer the plain vanilla kind.

Money Smarts Blog discussed mutual fund trailer fees.  I don’t pay those.

MoneyCrashers wrote about the benefits of hiring or retaining older workers.

Canadian Capitalist wondered if we should really care who owns ING Direct.

Boomer & Echo wondered if changing demographics will affect financial markets.  I suspect, yes.

Finance Fox shared ways to save money at the vet.

Big Cajun Man spent some trying to crack some PINs.  I hope mine wasn’t one of them in his list.

Retire Happy Blog said happiness comes from keeping it simple.  Totally agree.

Passive Income Earner revealed the ins and outs of a reverse mortgage.

The Blunt Bean Counter celebrated 2 years of blogging recently and wondered if CRA should reward tax snitches.   I had the pleasure of meeting the Blunt Bean Counter last weekend.   When are we golfing next year?