I can’t stop listening to The Crane Wife by The Decemberists. I grew up listening to lots of 60s and 70s folk rock, stuff like The Mamas and the Papas and James Taylor. The Crane Wife is basically in the same lines, but with a bit of a modern sensibility. It’s like candy for my ears and mind. On to the personal finance news…

Rent Forever, Don’t Buy A Home There is a little tiny bit of merit to this philosophy. If you’re going to live in an area short-term, you’re usually better off just renting for a year or two instead of investing in a home. However, as you begin to build serious equity in the house, the home purchase blows away renting. (@ blueprint for financial prosperity)

4 Different Rules of Thumb For How Much House You Can Afford These rules don’t say anything at all about existing debt load. If my wife and I had all of our student loans paid off, I’d probably be looking at something on the order of 2.5 times our combined salary, but this just scares me given our current outstanding debts. (@ my money blog)