Here in DC, the local NPR affiliate is WAMU out of American University. I know I’ve posted about the Diane Rehm Show before. Diane is great. Kojo is great too, very mellow voice and funny too. Today’s show is on tax tips with guests from Kiplinger’s and USA Today. The opening segment is about AMT which is a very mysterious subject to me, probably because I don’t have to pay it.

They go on to talk about what to do with IRA’s if you’re ex-spouse is deceased, writing off an SUV/truck for your business, receiving gifts of stock, etc.

Scott has interviewed one of my favorite PF Bloggers, The Frugal Duchess, aka Sharon Harvey Rosenberg. The Duchess is a professional journalist and a frequent commenter here. (Well, at least when this was hosted at the same place as her blog.)

It’s nice to listen to these interviews. It gives you an audio taste of a blogger’s speaking voice and I always begin imagining their real voice when I read their posts. She is spot on when she says her blog is another mouth to feed in her house. It’s true. But like a mom feeding her kids with nutritous food and filling happy bellies, it’s a labor of love.
Scott was awesome and polled a lot of bloggers for questions and my peers have come up with a lot great questions!

Sharon says she tries to help people make smart choices by asking questions. And yeah, like her old boss, I drink the free coffee at work too.
I was totally flummoxed when she said she “adored” me! WOW!

I hate blogs that have blogrolls that are mutual love-fests, but The Frugal Duchess was one of my first blogroll links and getting to know her better through an interview reinforces my admiration of her work and ideas about money. I’m flattered that she likes MFC. I hope to keep earning her respect.

Thanks Sharon!

PS - Visit her boutique! I love it! It’s the answer to the interview question I submitted! Build that brand!

Justin Henry does a complete write up of Wesabe. He actually does the legwork and interviews the CEO for you. Interesting and clever idea about the knowledge of the masses. Not sure how I feel about it though. I’m a late-adopter of a great many things, like say, WordPress.

I don’t have a TV, but JD at Get Rich Slowly recommends a PBS Frontline special on the Secret History of Credit Cards. I think I’m going to try the free download available. He’s got the links for it in his post.

I am going away on Thursday and Friday. I’ll try squeeze out one more post tomorrow before I leave. Otherwise, you kids have a nice weekend!

A Filipina friend of mine and I once decided long ago that it is the right of all Asian peoples occupied by Americans to love that canned meat known as SPAM.

Take it from a girl who grew up near Amish country, it’s a step up from scrapple. (Which I like, fresh off the farm, very crispy with maple syrup.) You don’t want to know what’s in it, so please don’t ask.

Anyhow, I am getting comment spammed and I’m trying to zap them all when I have the time to moderate them properly. It’s really disgusting stuff and that’s what I get for turning off comment registration. I have zero time to explore solutions right now. (Can you say “botched upgrade at work”?) I’m just happy to remember to eat some calories. (Best weight loss plan ever involves lots of work stress, tight deadlines and serious “portion control”, i.e. skipping lunch because you completely forgot to eat.)

So please bear with me for now. My to do list for the blog has spam control at the top.
Also, if I put an actual “Subscribe to my feed” link back up on the right, will folks resubscribe? The new feed is rather sickly. Thanks for visiting me here. One day it’ll all get better. I promise. This condition is only temporary.

Black Friday is a day for rest and quiet. I feast upon leftovers, read a book, play some video games and go for a nice walk to the park where I grew up. I can’t feed the cows anymore because that farm turned into a subdivision, but at least the leaves were nice and crunchy to step upon.

Black Friday is also known as Buy Nothing Day! It’s a movement for anti-commercialism. I love Christmas, but I hate Christmas. It’s a family birthday for us, so we like to celebrate it. As a sort-of Catholic family, we used to do the religious rituals as well. (Midnight mass staring at painted ceilings full of angels and saints is way cool when you’re a half-asleep kid.) But lately I find myself disgusted by the early celebration of the event. I’m not interested in getting oversaturated with annoyingly cheerful holiday music. I don’t think it’s good to get caught up into buying gifts for every person that said hello to you or asked if you want fries with that.

Buy Nothing Day was a great success for me. I got in an extra long nap and ate dumplings, turkey, stuffing, and noodley soups. I hope you bought nothing too!

My mom tells her friend who is over for dinner, “Everything in this house, I bought on sale.”

I *heart* my mom.

I got my first question for advice. To which I will have to say, take my advice with a grain of salt. What’s worked for me, may not work for you, but here goes nothing!

Reader JP asks:

“Do you have any tips on how to handle mid-year performance reviews? i’d like to take advantage of the company’s benefits, mainly the tuition reimbursement for language courses and i thought this would be a good time to ask. how would you suggest i approach my boss about the tuition reimbursement?”

First thing you have to do is read up on the tuition reimbursement benefit. What exactly does your company allow? Will they only pay for classes that relate to your job, or will they pay for any schooling you want? How much tuition will they cover, and what grade do you need to get to pass? Do you have to take the course at an accredited school?

Second, view this from the perspective of your manager. If this employee is serious about the coursework, am I willing to let them leave early for class/study for an exam? Will this impact their performance on the job? Will they come out of the class a better employee for the whole group/company? Is this a career-vaulting move for which my employee will be grateful to me for approving?

Third, be prepared when you talk to your manager about how the coursework will fit into your abilities as an employee to do your current job and any future promotion you want. (see above) I wasn’t sure how a language course fits into that for you, unless you are in a field that involves international work, etc. If it’s not directly relavant, I’d expect to have the request declined. But some companies are fairly generous and will pay for enrichment courses.

As far as the first question, how to handle a mid-year review, I’ll be honest. I haven’t had that many. For the most part of the last 4 years, I’ve had great managers. I would just plop down in their office and we’d start an informal conversation about the status of things. I’m lucky that my last 5 managers in 4 years have been good friends and/or mentors. Direction and guidance came forth from those relaxed chats. One company did require formal quarterly conversations, but those were mainly to sign off on progress sheets. All serious discussions about direction and movement had already taken place.

Simple Dollar is relatively new to PFBlogging, but this post really made me stop. It’s about that good ole’ Mind-Money connection I like to talk about.

He really nails it down. These are the 100 essential questions you should ask yourself about your finances. I’m not sure I can think of any more in my current work-weary exhaustion, but start with these. I’m sure they’ll set you on a different path than the one you’re headed down if you’re using credit cards to fund your life, or keeping up with the Jonses.

Usually I like CNN Money articles a lot. However, this one gives me pause.

I didn’t do great on the SAT verbal, but I do have a strong vocabulary. It’s so strong that I get blank stares in meetings with my word selection. I also get kudos for the 50 cent words as well, but in the end, I’m kind of known as being stuck up because I use words beyond the ken of my workers. So if you take this advice, be really darned careful how you use that new-fangled vocabulary. Your bosses may love you, but your peers and minions may not.

Donna Jean writes about having the conversation about money with friends. LAMoneyGuy has probably the post that started that thread. I’m very opinionated on the subject. After all, I was turned on to PFBlogs by a friend who pointed me to Boston Gal. (whoops! nearly called her Jane!)

I would say the biggest reason people don’t talk about personal finances is because they fear there is an income disparity. I think a lot of the conversations I end up having are with friends I guess might be in the same boat as me, i.e. had a lot of student loans, little expectation of an inheritance, etc. How willing are you to talk about finances with friends who you know are not doing as well as you are? I know my tendency is to clam up unless directly asked for advice.

Part of the reason I started this blog was because I felt I made other friends uncomfortable by talking about money on my personal blog. Rather than alienate anyone, I created a whole site about it. They can visit here if they want and I’m not shoving it down their throat. I’m proud to say my friends in real life like to visit me here and we talk about it.