The Friday Feast ~ the 7th 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: Optimize Your Life, 1500 Days, Life Zemplified, Dads Dollars Debts, Budget On A Stick, Jason Fieber, Smile and Conquer, High Income Parents, The Happy Philosopher, Saving George.

Welcome to the end of another week. The Friday Feast is my opportunity to highlight some of the best personal finance content that I read during the week. Both old and new articles get mentioned here because I enjoy going through people's posting archives.

Now, on to the personal finance blogosphere!

First, Optimize Your Life says that hard work doesn't pay. Whaaa?

And 1500 Days explains why just being yourself is super freaking sexy.

My favorite post of the week

My favorite post this week comes from Life Zemplified who wants people to just get over themselves and get things done.

"You hear it around the office; you hear it talking with friends, overhear it at restaurants and parties, you’ve probably even said it or something like it yourself. Over and over again. I need to do this, we should do that, yet we often make empty promises to ourselves, have endless false starts and struggle to stop procrastinating and get things done."

Making excuses is easy. Putting aside those excuses and focusing on achieving your goals and improving your life seems to be much, much tougher for a lot of us.

"Telling yourself, you’ll start your diet on Monday is just another excuse to not take care of yourself today. Instead, start now, just do it!"

More from the personal finance community

Dads Dollars Debts talks about paying off your debt as asset protection. Amen to that, by the way.

And, Budget On A Stick details the anti-deprivation allowance.

Oh, and Jason Fieber says that it's not about the money.

Lastly, Smile and Conquer argued that working your typical 9-5 job is old news.

Honorable mentions: High Income Parents talks about setting up your kids for financial success, The Happy Philosopher goes back to full-time work, and lastly, Saving George discusses how a little saving now adds up to huge bank later.

Photo of the week

We are spending a couple of weeks chillin' on the Oregon coast. Yeah, views of the Pacific aren't bad.

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