On Friday, October 24, I left Colorado for a trip to Breezewood, Pennsylvania and New York City. I returned on October 29, but didn’t resume working until October 30.

Since I had very little computer time while I was away, I neglected my blogging… and only just caught up on work-related things this week. Hence, I’m just now getting to my first link round-up in the last couple weeks.

So: It was an interesting week, wasn’t it?

Obama is now the President-elect. The stock market is still dropping. And the most recent reports about retail sales, housing sales, and unemployment are… how shall I say this?… dismal.

In fact, Anthony Karydakis, a former Chief U.S. Economist for JP Morgan Asset Management, writes:

Any doubt that we’re officially in a recession can be put aside. Fourth-quarter real GDP is likely to contract sharply. The rapid deterioration of labor markets points to a sharp decline in hours worked and output in the fourth quarter. This is likely to lead to a decline in personal consumption to the tune of 5% or so for that period. Since that makes up about 70% of the economy, the stage has already been set for real GDP to shrink at a more than 4% rate in the fourth quarter.

In light of this, it will be critical to:

• Reduce costs.
• Repay debts.
• Save money in an emergency fund.
• Oh… and look for opportunities to increase your income.

Anyway, here are some recent posts from my fellow Debt Bloggers Network members that I think are worth reading.

Bulging Wallets Not Good for Your Health or Wealth – I resonated with this post because I wrote about the back problems caused by fat wallets a few years ago when I was still writing a health blog. But what I liked more about FWP’s post was her point that fat wallets are a wealth risk. In other words, if you carry fewer credit cards, you’ll be less likely to make poor spending decisions.

Make Minimum Payments to Avoid Disaster – Anna recently received a comment from a reader who is having trouble making her minimum payments on her credit cards. The reader asked whether or not she could pay less than the minimum. Clearly, doing this is ill-advised for a variety of reasons Anna outlines in her post.

Help a Reader pay off debt – LuluGal offers a real-life scenario in which a reader asks how it’s possible for him to pay off £11,000 of debt in 6 months on an income of £18,000. There are some creative ideas in the Comments section. Perhaps you’ll want to leave a suggestion of your own.

Carnival of Debt Reduction #164 – Coincidentally, Financial Wellness Project, a fellow Debt Bloggers Network member, also hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction this week. My post “Will Your Debt Be Marked Down?” was included.

That’s it for this week. Look for more good stuff next week.

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