The Friday Feast ~ the 5th 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: Cashville Skyline, Frugal Rules, Money Boss, L Bee and the Money Tree, The Resume Gap, Pretend To Be Poor, Broke Millenial, NZ Muse, Budget and the Beach and The Billfold.

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, Cashville Skyline wrote about how to save for retirement without a 401k. Your options are plenty...if you know about them!

And elsewhere, Frugal Rules told us that more Americans own cats than stocks. Wait, what?

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from J.D. Roth over at Money Boss who argues that today's financial advice from so-called finance experts is flat asinine.

"This “rule” estimates how much money you’ll need by using your income as a starting point. The 70% ratio is commonly used, but plenty of places use 80% or 90%."

Ludicrous, Roth said. "It’s like trying to guess how much fuel you’ll use on a trip to grandmother’s house based on the size of your vehicle’s gas tank!"

Roth argues that our retirement needs are a direct result of our spending, not income. "Forget the “70% of your income” bullshit when planning for retirement. Use 100% of your current expenses instead."

More from the personal finance community

L Bee and the Money Tree teaches us how to talk about money with our loved ones.

Over at The Resume Gap, Matt answers a question that tickles many a curious mind: How much does Van Life cost?

Also, Pretend To Be Poor wrote about how to pursue happiness. Can it be pursued directly, or does happiness find us?

Lastly, Broke Millennial asks an interesting question: Are you your parent's retirement plan?

Honorable mentions: NZ Muse postulates: Yes, you need both love AND money, Budget and the Beach wonders how much they should spend to upgrade an apartment, and lastly, The Billfold says that how they spend their money is none of our business.

Photo of the week

Next weekend we are camping again out at the Gilbert Ray campground west of Tucson. We spent a weekend there a few months ago too where I captured this late evening shot of Charlie, Clifford and the surrounding desert wilderness.

Coming up in the week ahead on ThinkSaveRetire: On Monday, let's talk about these deceptively generous vacation policies that some companies offer, and on Wednesday, I'm getting some thoughts down on digital paper about where we might travel during our first summer of retirement.

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