I spent that the last week back in my hometown reminiscing with many old (still current) friends. Many of us are at that point where we are about to start our real adult lives. It seems like it was just yesterday when we were playing football in the side yard or roller hockey on the street, but that is not what this post is all about.

What is your definition of being successful with relation to your monetary value?

In my group of friends, we truly have a pretty diverse bunch of aspirations and how we plan to reach them (it will be interesting to see if they know who they are if they are reading this):

• The guy dedicated to living on crumbs and crackers for the next decade of his life, so he can finally bank on becoming a doctor.

What would you do if spent tons of money on buying a house on the coast, and then one day you were told that suddenly your house is worth nothing.

You can’t borrow or do anything with it. Its worthing NOTHING.

That is what is happening in England. Many people who had bought properties along the coast are now finding out that there houses have no value.

Who is to blame?

The residents say that they were told the country would hold the coastline, while the government says they can’t protect the entire coast because it is too big.

Apparently the area is already losing one house per year, so it seemed like a risk to begin with.

Could this ever seriously happen in the U.S.?

Watch the full video on CNN.

I came across these pretty nifty graphics on NYTimes.com. It basically breaks down where the increasing gasoline prices hit the Unite States the hardest.

Before looking at the images, you would think that the places where gas prices are the highest would be hurt the most. Imagine my surprise…

Gas Prices

Percent of Income Spent on Gas

As you can clearly see California has some of the highest prices in the U.S., but the state is dressed in shades of purple when it comes to percent of income spent. In the D.C area where I’m at, I’ve seen prices go up up, but apparently it doesn’t really matter compared to other parts of the country. The charts are basically inverse of each other.

When I think about it though, it all seems pretty reasonable.

I have heard some people toying around with the idea on cutting down the number of days worked in order to try and save energy, although I didn’t ever think people would do it.

Starting next month, in Utah, many GOVERNMENT positions will move to a four day work week (Monday - Thursday). It will be part of a year long experiment.

However, everything comes with a price. Although they will be working less days, now they must work 10 hrs/day rather then 8.

Supposedly the proposed plan will save $3 million per year out of the the state’s $11 billion budget. Seems like a lot of change that needs to be done for such a small portion of the budget back.

Public transportation schedules will have to be adjusted, while still satisfy those with the normal routine. Parents will have to restructure day care plans. Also change is always expensive. No matter what it is.

If you are like me, then you are probably already sick of the whole oil dilemma.

In order to get your mind off the whole situation through this nice long holiday, I thought I would post links to some of the best articles in the first month of this site’s launch (Sept 07).

It feels like looking at baby pictures of yourself in the family photo album. Enjoy!

The Run Down:

Get Rich Off Alcoholics - My first real post on the site. Till this day, I still think it is one of the best. Hey if people want to keep drinking, then why not making money off them.

Get Money Off Other’s Vacations - A popular vacation option is to rent a private house on the beach for a week. Learn how you can get in on the fun.