The Friday Feast ~ the 12th of August

The personal finance community is filled with so many talented writers and inspiring families in search of something better out of life than the traditional society-approved plan of buying lots of stuff and retiring in your 60s if you're lucky.

Here is a look at the best of this week's personal finance blogs.

In this episode of Friday Feast: From Cost to Coast, Raptitude, Investment Zen, Daily Worth, Money Nugget, Money Q and A, Cult of Money, Finance Superhero, Millenial Budget and Frugality Magazine.

Welcome to another Friday! And woohoo, it's finally August, which means summer is on its waning end of delivering brutal heat to the southwest and football season is right around the corner. That, and we are one month closer to December.

Now, onto the personal finance gems!

First, From Cost to Coast writes about the best financial advice that she's ever seen. "Investing in the stock market is not Russian roulette." Amen to that!

And elsewhere, Raptitude published an awesome post with 88 truths about life.

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from Nate over at Investment Zen who believes that compound interest isn't as powerful as you might think!

"The magical doubling penny shows that compound interest is a relatively weak force if you’re short on time and money," he wrote, describing a scenario where a penny that doubles in value every day for a month ends up at over $10 million!

Instead, Nate articulately argues that the power of the Compound Hustle is the ultimate wealth builder. "To truly take advantage of the power of compounding, we can’t just wait around for our pennies to double. By applying compound hustle to our careers, our businesses, and ourselves — we take advantage of a compounding formula where the variables are within our control."

Thought-provoking...and it makes sense!

More from the personal finance community

Writing for Daily Worth, Jen says that she doesn't have a budget, and neither should you.

Money Nugget asks an interesting question: How many people could we help by simply talking about money? Probably more than you think.

Also, Money Q and A tells us about how our addiction to technology can wind up costing us some serious money.

Lastly, Cult of Money reveals some "Back to School" items that we should buy...even if we don't have kids?!?

Honorable mentions: Finance Superhero says whining is easier than winning, Millenial Budget describes how to find your magical retirement number, and lastly, Frugality Magazine teaches us how to shave $500 off of our spending, easily.

Photo of the week

In this photo, fire roars out of a hot air balloon at the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in 2015. Amazing experience!

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday, let's distill personal finance down into the simpliest terms possible and demonstrate how easy saving money can be. Then on Wednesday, I'm releasing my guide to a career in the information technology industry and how to make as much money as possible and then get out before it kills you!  :)

Thanks for reading, and cheers to another financially productive week ahead!