Pandora Has Comedy and I Have Financial Spreadsheets!

A good friend of mine took me out to dinner tonight (thanks Fat JJ!) and I was telling him about my website and how I surprise myself with my ability to write a new article five days a week. I was raving about my creative genius and my ability to write something awesome and creative every day. And of course, I get home for my nightly blog post and I’ve got nothing. So much for the genius that is Kevin McKee.

I may not have any financial epiphanies for you today, but I do have some super interesting news stories.

Pandora, the online radio station that plays only music you like, now offers stand-up comedy. The fact that they made something so awesome exponentially better is almost incomprehensible, so kudos to my friends at Pandora. I created a new station for comedy like Daniel Tosh, and the first clip I heard was a fart joke. Perfection!

Speaking of flatulence, two boys in Ohio were suspended from school for farting on the bus. The article says the boys were “…repeat offenders with a history of passing gas on the bus,” which only makes me proud of them. Call me old fashioned, but until they are lighting their farts on fire (which is a real thing, search for it on youtube) I think it’s fair game.

In other kid news, a mom is giving her 8 year old daughter botox injections so she can be more competitive in beauty pageants. First of all, this is disgusting. Second of all, this is disgusting. I don’t see how this could possibly be legal. Someone call CPS.

Since I don’t have any new personal finance revelations today, I’d like to share an oldie but a goodie. For those of you that haven’t been here very long, you may not know about my Downloads page. You can get free copies of any of the songs I’ve recorded and/or some of the spreadsheets I’ve made to help you understand your finances. My favorite is a handy-dandy retirement calculator called The RC. You can go to the Downloads page and get it there, or just download it right here.

The RC (Retirement Calculator)

If you’ve ever wondered how much you need to save to reach your retirement goals, this spreadsheet will give you everything you need. Just put in all your information, like how old you are, how much you have saved, how much you’re going to save, and your expected rate of return, and the spreadsheet will tell you if you will meet your goals or not.

It’s pretty slick. Give it a shot and let me know how you like it. If you’ve never seen the power of compound interest in action, it’s flipping sweet!

That’s all I’ve got for you this week, so if I haven’t quenched your personal finance thirst yet, here are some cool articles from PF Blogs I’ve liked this week:

• Is a Dream Job Worth It if you Can’t Save Any Money? at Budgets Are Sexy – This pretty similar to a post I wrote a while back, but tackles a full time job instead of a part time hobby.
• A Wii is NOT an Investment at retirebyforty – I disagree with Joe here in certain circumstances, but agree with him in principle. Spending money is spending money, not investing.
• All That Glitters: Why I’m Not Investing in Gold at Get Rich Slowly- If you invest in gold, or have considered it, this is a phenomenal breakdown of why JD isn’t jumping on the gold bandwagon.

P.S. If you are a very astute observer, you may have noticed a change in my favicon (the little picture to the left of the url in your address bar). Is that a hint of a new logo to come? I guess you’ll just have to come back next week and find out.

Kevin McKee

Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.