The Friday Feast ~ the 22nd of January

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: Stefanie O'Connell, She Picks Up Pennies, Fervent Finance, Slowly Sipping Coffee, 60 Minute Finance, Modern Mrs. Darcy, Goodnight Debt, Two Cup House and Little Grey Box.

Welcome once again to another Friday. This week has been...interesting from a stock market perspective, but the personal finance community kept true to form with so many excellent blog posts.

And without further ado, let's get right into it.

Stefanie O'Connell started 2016 off with a bang by arguing that while these "I quit my high paying job to travel the world!" stories are great to read, it is possible to make fulfilling decisions in your life that give you the best of all worlds.

Is there anything POSITIVE that you could say about your mortgage? She Picks Up Pennies had plenty to say about what having a mortgage is providing them. How about time. Time with your friends and family. Time to think, ponder and maybe just relax.

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from Fervent Finance, who wrote this week about why he hasn't quit his job for higher paying opportunities, valuing flexibility and fringe benefits over pure salary.

"At the end of the day I don’t hate my job. Do I love it and would do it for free? Hell no, but the reasons I don’t leave my current job have nothing to do with money."

I have learned over the years that the grass is almost never greener. While there are certainly legitimate reasons to quit your job, most companies suffer from very similar challenges, and it's really tough to escape them all. Once you find a job that you can stand and feel relatively comfortable with, it may not be worth the effort to "find something better".

More from the personal finance community

The gang over at Slowly Sipping Coffee decided recently to change their retirement plans to include a possible move out west and altered their retirement date due to stock market weirdness.

60 Minute Finance offers his perspective on Roth IRAs - is it really an emergency fund?

In a thought-provoking piece by Modern Mrs. Darcy, she quoted an author, "When something keeps rising to the top in your life, pay attention to it. Even if it seems like nothing much at all. It may seem like just a little thing, but if it keeps surfacing, pay attention to it." Definitely give this one a read.

Honorable mentions: Goodnight Debt talks about looking ahead, Two Cup House gets down and dirty by decluttering, and lastly, Little Grey Box chats with us about the virtues of trusting the timing of life.

Photo of the week

I made this photograph last year at beautiful Manito Park in Spokane, Washington on our way back from our summer trip to Glacier National Park. Check out our Manito Park post over on our companion blog, FullTimeExplorers.com!

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: I'm talking pure, unabashed retirement! On Monday, I am going to discuss shifting our lifestyle plans - including moving into an Airstream trailer - up a bit in 2016 (here we go!). On Wednesday, I will get into how the recent stock market weirdness is going to affect our post-retirement spending habits.

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