Where do Dead Blogs go?

Where do dead blogs go? I have a few of them listed on my blogroll, and I'm not sure what I should do. Money, Matter, and More Musings (link might not work) written by golbguru, has pretty much ceased publishing. For a few months his postings have been sporadic, and increasingly negative in tone. Then in May, he posted what most would consider to be a rant about a need for internet income regulations reform (link might not work). Several commenters on his blog were openly concerned about what happened to golb. Personally, I tried sending a couple of Emails offering him some moral support, but he never responded. I am still scratching my head about what happened.

Retiring Early has been AWOL since last September, though this blog remains on my blogroll. He stopped writing at about the same time that he reached the $1 million mark on his net worth. When I contacted him, he seemed to indicate that he was busy, but would resume posting sometime soon. That was over half a year ago...

There are many other dead blogs in the PF blogosphere. The blog Million Dollar Count Down inspired me to write my post What happened to the exuberant PF bloggers? He has not been heard from for over a year.

And the list goes on. Some other blogs that I used to read include:
300 @ 30 who expects to live until 120, and is still waiting for 3 unspecified things to happen in his life before posting again.
Money 360, who after a few starts and stops, is in a permanent retooling phase.
My Money Path formerly authored by a young certified public accountant. Leave it to a CPA to explain how shelling out over $1200 for Dodgers playoff tickets doesn't affect his net worth unless the team actually makes the playoffs.
Clutter2Cash whose last post gave us a net worth update, just before she seemed to drop off the face of the Earth.

I did try to contact a few of these bloggers about their apparently dead blogs. In most cases, I didn't get any response. Of those that I did reach, they clearly seemed not to want to be contacted.

Sometimes dead blogs do come back to life. Penny Foolish was one of the blogs that originally inspired me to start my own blog. You can tell that I used the same color scheme as Kira did. Her blog was idle for a long stretch from September until June, but it looks like she is back. Let's hope that she'll keep up the posting.

Another blog, calgirlfinance, went on an 11 month hiatus before coming back. Actually that one was a bit of cliffhanger as the writer informed her readers in the last post before her wedding that she had not told her fiance (now husband) about the blog. Many readers assumed that things didn't go over too well when she finally let him know.

Note: I usually contact a blogger to let them know if I have written a post linking to their blog. However, since it is clear that many of these PF bloggers no longer wish to be contacted, I will not be doing that this time.

DC

July Stock Pick

This month, Smarty of Growing Money is running another stock picking contest. I did beat the S&P 500 for June, but since my return was still a negative number, I didn't beat the "money-stuffed-in-a-mattress" portfolio.

Smarty is offering a book from his collection to the first and second place winners. Anyway, for the month of July, I have chosen Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) for the July 2008 Growing Money Stock Challenge.

To the other entrants in the stock picking contest, I wish you good luck too.

DC

Money Market Interest Rates

Interest rates seem to be constantly changing these days. Since it is a constantly moving target, it is hard to keep track of the rates that I've been getting in my various money market accounts. I've decided to compile a list of the annual percentage yields (APYs) for institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in the blog. These rates are sorted by APY.

3.65% Countrywide SavingsLink
3.50% HSBCDirect Online Savings
3.40% Umbrellabank Pot O'Gold Money Market
3.30% Washington Mutual (WaMu) Online Savings
3.15% E*TRADE Complete Savings
3.00% ING Direct Orange Savings
2.65% Citibank Ultimate Money
2.43% Western FCU Money Market
2.33% PayPal Money Market
2.30% Guaranty Bank Gold Rewards Money Market
1.65% TD Ameritrade Money Market

Rates are believed to be accurate as of 7/1/08. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because these are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list.

My own assessment is that Countrywide has the best money market rate. For those people who are not comfortable with an online only account, I would recommend WaMu's Online Savings. Although that account has to be opened online, you can use a local branch for most transactions. I will probably close out one or more of the accounts that are paying me a lower interest rate.

Does anybody know of any money market rate better than Countrywide's 3.65% SavingsLink account. If so, I'll add it and update my list.

DC

A Note About Comments

As my blog has grown in popularity, I have seen an increasing number of people posting links to various commercial websites. For obvious reasons, PFStock's comment policy does not allow links to commercial websites (the only exception is for sponsors of PFStock where I have reviewed the link in question). Unauthorized comments to my blog will be deleted.

I hope that readers will adhere to this comment policy in the future. Note that this policy does not apply to links for bona fide PF blogs. However, I would prefer that PF bloggers contact me by Email (my address is in the sidebar) about a link exchange. If you qualify, you can have your blog listed for free.

DC