The Friday Feast ~ the 14th of October

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: The Resume Gap, FinanciaLibre, My Money Design, Add Vodka, Budget And The Bees, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, REI, I Am 1 Percent, Everybody Loves Your Money, Shane Parrish.

Welcome to another Friday, and congrats for making it here. First, thanks to everyone for your encouraging words about the new YouTube channel. It is still in its infancy, but I am working on a bunch of video-based content that I hope will reach the general population with our message.

Now, onto the personal finance gems!

First, here's one from the beginning of the year that deserves resurrecting. From The Resume Gap, 10 ways a dude saved for financial independence at the age of 28.

Next, how do you stack up with the American spending average? FinanciaLibre gives us all the data. Who knew that the average American spends more on their cars than they do their healthcare?

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from My Money Design who writes that success might come from disconnecting from your work rather than immersing yourself in it.

"Rather than pour more hours than I needed into my job, I decided to start investing my time back into myself by looking for things I could do outside of work that would be both fun and financially fulfilling."

I'm on board! In fact, I enjoy my relative unimportance at the office. It gives me much more time to focus on my life, my wife, and our looming early retirement.

Awesome post. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

More from the personal finance community

Add Vodka argues that finding richer friends isn't the key to life.

Coming off of a breakup? Budget And The Bees offers up some advice on the financial lessons to learn after calling it quits with your mate!

Also, Give Me Back My Five Bucks writes about why he doesn't want to be self-employed. How about freedom and some time off? Hmm...

Lastly, if you've got some time, check out this inspirational film on the REI blog about hiking the Appalachian Trail. Cool video concept.

Honorable mentions: I am 1 percent asks if your career matches your personality, Everybody Loves Your Money talks about saving for retirement without a 401k, and lastly, Shane Parrish explains the pot belly of ignorance.

Photo of the week

Here's a shot from around 11,000 feet hiking the Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park in August. Beautiful country. Breezy, though!

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday, side hustle extraordinaire Claudia from the TwoCupHouse.com blog wrote a three-lesson guide to choosing a side hustle, and on Wednesday I am recalling a time in my life where I nearly made a bat-shit stupid financial decision but was saved by a car dealership.

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