Wednesdays are supposed to be response day, per last week, but I didn't get around to reading the complete second page of The Edge's question of the year responses - I'm only about halfway through. I have been reading some other stuff though, so here's some pre-linkery to the normal Friday stuff.

Dave Barry's latest book is out, Money Secrets. I have a signed copy, as I was able to make it to a reading he did at the Union Square B&N earlier this week. He remembered me as the guy who he had beers with at the Republican convention. And I FINALLY have a picture of me and Dave Barry.

Speaking of money, today's WSJ points out some good tips for people my age who's baby boomer parents are nearing retirement. Now...my parents were slightly behind the boomers, its more like my dad's older brother's age, but all the same, good stuff. You need a WSJ account to see the article, but I'll recap - basically its an article on how children who work with their parents creatively can help maintain the parent's financial security throughout retirement and (as a natural by-product) help them leave a better estate behind. The five key points were 1) delaying tactics (e.g. delaying taking Social Security until later), 2) trimming taxes (e.g. consider converting retirement accounts into Roth IRAs), 3) sharing the load (e.g. children helping with payments for expenses such as long-term care insurance), 4) taking credit (this one I didn't quite get but it basically involved mortgaging a house with some combination of #3 - having the kids pay a certain amount of the monthly payback), and 5) giving back (e.g. grandparents investing in 529 college-savings plans for the grandchildren if they are counting on their own children to be helping them through retirement).

History of the Post-It Note.

Grabbed a copy of New York Press on my way home, just to reconnect with NYC's alternative media. There's a lot of crap in there (and questionable ads on their website, too), but there are some diamonds in the rough. I enjoyed The Dogs of Gowanus in their current Brooklyn edition.

Interesting new budgeting technique - sounds like one that might work for people like myself. (PDF File, btw)