The Friday Feast ~ the 15th of July

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: Mad FIentist, Financial Samurai, Go Curry Cracker, Money Q&A, Steveonomics, Boomer & Echo, Freedom Is Groovy, The Financial Buff, Distilled Dollar and Money Under 30.

Welcome to another Friday! It was an exciting week as I finally, after countless delays, sold my house, making us 100% debt-freaking-free. No mortgage. No car payments. No credit card payments. No debts of any kind. Free at last!

Now I'll stop tooting my own horn and start talking about the amazingness in the personal finance community.

First, Mad FIentist graced us with an epic post about accessing your retirement stash before the government-approved retirement age.

And elsewhere, Financial Samurai teaches us how to live like the top 1% without actually being rich - if that kind of thing is important to you.

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from Go Curry Cracker who writes about the opportunity cost of early retirement. How much has early retirement set GCC back? Eh, around $5 million.

"I walked away from years’ worth of stock options, and the stock has more than doubled since (related, perhaps?) Had I continued to work, I could have exercised these options for at least $400,000," Mr GCC wrote.

"But bean counting is only one side of the evaluation. How do we determine the value of our time? People like to say that time is money, but they are two completely different currencies."

More from the personal finance community

Money Q&A gives us five sneaky ways to save some serious cash when selling our car.

Over at Steveonomics, Steve, who enjoys writing about "liberty, menswear and money", discusses getting rich in expensive cities.

Also, Boomer & Echo gives us the scoop on five so-called "rules of thumb" about personal finance that probably need an update.

Lastly, Freedom Is Groovy gave us a cool post about financial tough guys.

Honorable mentions: The Finance Buff talks credit cards at Costco, Distilled Dollar reminds us that personal finance is sexy, and lastly, Money Under 30 implores us to change our habits by staying out of debt.

Photo of the week

Last week, my wife and I took a one-week vacation to Baja California, Mexico. Just down the beach from our rented house, we saw this arch naturally carved in the rock along the sea shore. Very cool!

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday, I'm discussing how to make those "I retired at XX age" posts actually connect with your audience, and Wednesday I discuss the Pareto principle and how to 80/20 the hell out of your life.

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