The Blog Portfolio

"It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others." ~ Michel de Montaigne

As you may have noticed, I do not have a "blog roll" like most other bloggers.  I only visit a small handful of blogs on a daily basis and another small handful on a weekly basis.  As with a portfolio of investments, I try to achieve a "blog portfolio" built on diversification, moderation, and simplicity.   Furthermore, to overcome "the poverty of attention," I allocate a relatively small portion of time to reading blogs...

As for my "attention allocation" to media sources, blogs only represent approximately 20 percent of the pie, which, in total, I estimate to be 65% Books, 20% Blogs, 10% News Periodicals, and 5% Television. 

My blog portfolio is broken into the three broad categories of Financial / Productivity & Self-Improvement / Philosophy: 

Financial Blogs

The Big Picture:  The blog content is primarily "macro perspective on the capital markets" but author, Barry Ritholtz, is a philosopher.  His analytic insight and proficiency are nearly unmatched in the world of financial blogs but his delivery, in my humble opinion, is more Socrates than stocks.  Barry consistently doubts everything, especially government and mainstream media, and asks questions that have his loyal readers asking their own questions and hungry for more information.

The Kirk Report:  Author, Charles Kirk, actually studied philosophy in school and it shows:  First, he is a trader, which requires emotional stealth and, second, he appears to have a great understanding of himself as a person and as a human -- traits that place him solidly on the path of self-awareness.

TraderFeed:  In addition to his blogging efforts, Dr. Brett Steenbarger is a psychologist, trader coach, and book author.  His insights into human behavior and his view from the world of psychology make for interesting reading -- and I'm not even a trader!

FinanceTrendsMatter:  David Shvartsman creates a fine balance of financial trends, simplicity, and relevance that makes for an informative and easy read for all levels of financial proficiency.  Even more important, to me at least, David really is a nice guy!

GetRichSlowly:  You only really need one good personal finance blog and this one, for me, is it!  Blog author, J.D., covers all the ground from debt management, consumer tips, and basic investment guidance to creative home remedies for the common financial challenges in our daily lives.

Self-Improvement & Productivity Blogs

For this category, I will lump three blogs together:  PickTheBrain, Zen Habits, and Lifehacker are all immensely popular and quite useful.  As my readers may have already guessed, I will say that self-improvement and productivity blogs have the same strength and weakness:  They structure content, mostly in the form of lists and catchy titles, to appeal to our human attraction to shortcuts.  These three blogs,  however, are the cream of the crop and, more often than not, place substance on an  equal or higher plane with marketing hype.  The authors all seem to have a genuine  passion for providing useful information rather than just fluff to drive up their traffic  numbers.

The Growing Life and I Will Change Your Life are two "up and coming blogs" that show immense potential.  Both are written by young and original thinkers who, at first, may appear to be defined as "self-improvement" bloggers but I find their apparent intelligence, honesty, and openness with sharing their thoughts and life trials to be interesting, engaging, and refreshing.  I look forward to watching these young bloggers grow (and perhaps finding some new ways of thinking)...

Philosophy Blogs:

The Splintered Mind:  For some real "heavy lifting," go to this college Philosophy professor's shared thoughts on both classic and progressive philosophy.  When I am ready to be challenged mentally, this is where I go...

The Philosopher's Carnival:  There's something here for everyone and every "ism"  you could dream of:  Taoism, Buddhism, Idealism, Relativism, Individualism, Collectivism, and more!  Take a look at the current and past issues and see if you  find anything meaningful...

The Financial Philosopher:  Why doesn't anyone list their own blog as one of their favorites?  Are we all so pretentious that we can not just admit that, no matter how much we are driven by passion, we ultimately are driven by our own inner desire to reach self-actualization?  I would like to say that TFP is a combination of all of the three categories mentioned and that my ultimate objective is the quest for self-awareness and leading others to it...

What does your media source "portfolio" look like?  Do you read more books or do you read more blogs?  What about television? 

Do you have any favorite blogs that you would recommend to others?  I would love to know what you are reading (blogs or otherwise) when you are not at TFP...

Cheers to all of the bloggers and readers...

TFPAuthor, Kent N. Thune, QPFC, is the President and founder of Atlantic Capital Investments, LLC (ACI), a 'fee-only' financial planner and Registered Investment Advisory firm located in Mount Pleasant, SC.

Comments

[John Forman]

Well, if we're going to include our own blogs among our favorites then I have to say http://www.TheEssentialsOfTrading.com/Blog and http://www.RhodyTrader.com are my favs. :-)

In all seriousness, TraderFeed and Get Rich Slowly are definitely on my list. I'll have to check out some of the others you've listed. I've got a lengthy list of ones I track, but I only really read a handful on a regular basis.

[The Financial Philosopher]

John:

As I stated in my post, I'm not a trader. With that said, however, I am convinced that, like all other areas of our lives, self-awareness (via emotional intelligence) is crucial for traders.

Thanks for the comment. I always enjoy hearing from traders...

I'll be sure to check out your blog suggestions...

[John Forman]

Are any of us really "traders"? I do trade, as I do invest, but I don't define myself as a trader or an investor. :-)

Sorry. Had to do it. Just finished reading "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts.

[David]

Kent,

Thanks very much for once again including Finance Trends in your list, and for the kind words.

I have been meaning to bring up this topic on my site and poll my readers to find out about some of their favorite blogs. So this post not only gives me some new sites to look at, it also serves as a reminder.

I will try and chime back in tomorrow with some links to some of my favorite blogs/financial sites.

For now, let me say that I agree with you on the principle of including your own site as a favorite. If you feel it to be so, say it! Too much "false modesty" posing as true modesty these days, in my opinion.

[John Jones]

I like reading blogs. My blog reading time was cut into fractions through NetVibes. What a timesaver.

It allows me to scan more blogs. And when I find a good one (like this one), I add it to NetVibes.

My all-time favs are TraderFeed and TraderMike

[The Financial Philosopher]

David:

You're a scholar and a gentleman!

John:

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I do not use a feed reader of any kind! I must do something about that! I'll be sure to check out NetVibes...

Can anyone out there suggest a good reader? What's different about NetVibes?

[Charles]

Kent:

In addition to Traderfeed, I also like SharpBrains http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/
Mind Hacks http://www.mindhacks.com/
and Daniel Pink's blog http://www.danpink.com/

Charles

[The Financial Philosopher]

Thanks, Charles. I'll take a look at your blog suggestions...

Cheers...

[David]

Kent,

Thanks again for the kind comments, I will try harder to live up to them.

Wanted to include a couple of links to some of my favorite (content-driven) blogs and websites, outside of the ones already mentioned in your post.

http://www.mises.org

Ludwig von Mises Institute. Austrian Economics and libertarian philosophy. Great essays and blog posts; tons of articles, presentations, and books online. A veritable warehouse of info and opinions on liberty and free markets.

http://www.financialsense.com

Home to the Financial Sense Newshour broadcast (highly recommended) and an array of guest editorials and articles on markets and investments, written by investment professionals, newsletter writers, bloggers, and students of the market.

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/

http://www.theoildrum.com/

The Energy Blog and The Oil Drum are two great sites for learning about all types of energy - from fossil fuels to advances in alt. energy sources. Wish I had more time to keep up with these lately, the commenters and contributors know so much about how energy drives our world.

Well, I could go on, but I think this comment is running long as is.

[Peter]

Hi Kent,

Thank you for the mention - it's appreciated.

Also, you have introduced me to The Growing Life which, although being a relatively new blog, looks to have a big future.

Thanks again,

Peter