Pimp Your Finances

Should five percent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the tax man
Yeah, I’m the tax man

- The Beatles, “Taxman”

Well, it’s that time of year again – tax day! Hopefully you haven’t put it off until the last minute. If you have, you should probably be working on your taxes…not reading blogs

If you’re already finished, I’ve got a great set of links for you.

• Green Panda Treehouse has a great article on 5 Things to Do to Build Wealth in Your 20s. It’s an older post, but I just found out about it this week. Your early years are the best ones to make an impact on your finances, thanks to compound interest. And all 5 of his things are realistic.
• Gen X Finance put together a list of 20 Free Online Finance Courses. The best investment you can make is in yourself, and many of these classes are offered by colleges like MIT, Yale, Rutgers, Purdue, etc…. I plan on signing up for a few of these!
• LLama Money writes about Debt Motivation, and how we’re going about things backwards. Instead of going into debt for purchases, assuming we’ll be able to pay it off later, we should be saving first then indulging ourselves.
• Punch Debt in the Face (a site I just discovered this week) has an article asking What’s Your Favorite Dumb but Fun Expense? Mine? probably music and alcohol.
• Stetchy Dollar has some more tips for Converting a Super-Spender to a Frugal Saver. This is the second part of a two-part series.

And for the fun link, I’m going to keep it seasonal. The company behind Peeps, those marshallow chicks that we love to eat every spring, hosted a diorama contest. You can check out the Peeps on Parade 2009 Finalists here.

I hope you have a good week!