Weekend Randomness: Cable News, Fi's Graduation, & Self-Help Books

I have a hate-love-hate relationship with cable news. For the most part, it's very trashy. But people continue to watch because it's entertaining (to some extent, because the cable news shows always over-sensationalize everything) and supposedly it's informative. There's just so much spin going on, it's hard to believe either side of the coin.

Let's just say, I'm almost happy that I'm such a comedy-drama-action fan because those shows don't pretend to be fair and balanced (NSFW + foul-language warning: Bill O'Reilly WILL DO IT LIVE!). Yeah, Chuck doesn't have over-reaching pretensions about (mis)informing the masses - just entertaining it.

Fi graduated from Petsmart's beginning obedience class (graduation photos). I think the class was more for my benefit. She's 10 years old; she knows what she's doing. I just need to know how to communicate with her. I can't believe we've been together for almost four months now ... it really feels just like yesterday when she came into my life. To keep you updated: (1) My cat, Chip, still hates her, and she him. (2) She's still super-excited to see me come home everyday. (3) It's such a pain to walk the dog in the dark. Try picking up poop in one hand while trying to shine a light on said poop in the other hand. Yeah.

Are self-help books any good at all? I think to some extent it is, but like cable news shows, you just have to learn to filter out bad, bad, bad information. But if you were that on-top-of-things, why are you needing self-help books in the first place? Ahh, the conundrum. Anyway, I bring this up because Gary Fong was blogging about Tim Ferris's book The Four-Hour Workweek and I thought the points he brought up were pretty funny (link | link). (Note that I've yet to read Ferris's book.) I did, however, read David Bach's The Automatic Millionaire. He's got some great ideas about automating the savings process, which I've always felt was a good thing to do (i.e. transfer money from your checking account or paycheck directly to a savings account ... it's the out of sight, out of mind mentality). He also advised to, if possible, max out your 401Ks. And, also, YOU CAN'T GET RICH WHEN YOU'RE RENTING.

I'll give you a moment to laugh it out. Yeah, funny how something that sounded so logical just a few months ago is completely upside down now.

Overall, the advice isn't bad. I just think that he, like most finance advice people, are too bought into the idea of homeownership to see an alternative (renting). A home isn't the be-all, end-all to your wealth-building. Actually, if anything, in this market, it could be a detriment. My two cents.

Fi wants you to have a nice weekend, so please do.