I don’t think the markets are all that calm right now - the VIX is still hovering around the 60’s - but they are definitely calmer than they were one month ago.  There’s a more long-term uncertainty now, perhaps, rather than a day-to-day disaster feeling, even if the roller coasters in the Dow are still happening.

Either way, it seems there are less readers now in search of immediate news and analysis - less coming by the blog on a daily basis, anyway, compared with the months so far.  Generally, though, I think this blog always tends to get busier towards the end of each month for some reason.  I checked the stats for this month and so far November is really underperforming.  Any other bloggers notice this too? (Probably not the most popular ones, though).  Not sure why.

It would be nice to engage in deeper discussions here in the comments with readers, however…. it’s great to know you’ve got a new blog or something but I’d really rather hear your thoughts on what I actually wrote about:)  - not pointing fingers at anyone, though.  It could be that I’ve put people off by my emphasis on the Canadian dollar - since Americans are more numerous on here, anyway…

Anyways, here’s looking forward to the holiday season!  Can’t believe it’s being advertised already.  Time to buy some Wal-Mart stock, I think - and if I had the extra cash right now, I might actually do that.  But I’m still waiting for the dollars to turn around…

OK, I don’t want to put words into anyone’s mouths, these folks were here for many reasons, but as we move into September and life starts getting busier again, I do want to thank my top commentators so far. Thanks to you all for contributing, I have really appreciated all your feedback and comments.

Top Commentators:

Double Our Money
Penny Jobs
Young Dough
Top Foreign Stocks
The Almost Millionaire
Saving To Invest
Millionaire With AdSense
Free From Broke
Financial Ramblings
Dividend Growth Investor

Over the next couple of weeks, my work schedule is changing and I’m not going to have as regular access to my computer and the internet, so postings are going to slow down a bit. You can still look forward to updates from me, though - don’t go anywhere!

I’ve been reading some great books that build on my thoughts about life leverage. One thing I can recommend to you is that even when we’re looking for more financial “how-to” knowledge, or even more inspiration for addressing our finances and fixing our personal finance, it’s a good idea not to limit ourselves to the financial section! Well, DUH, you say. Of course!

Lately I’ve been having success by moving away from strictly “financial” or “personal investment” books and looking at titles in self-help, motivation, success and general self-improvement. So much of good planning and investment comes down to psychology anyway. I probably had too much tunnel-vision at work.

So at some point soon I’ll tell you what I’ve learned about creating an authentic relationship with money, getting in touch with your life’s intentions and authentic goals, and the sense in which increasing your personal power is more than just a self-help platitude!

Because it’s time to converge, synthesize, integrate, recoup and redeploy my own life’s energies, and maybe some of this can rub off on you, too.

First off, one of MoneyEnergy’s articles was published this week in the 26th Money Hacks Carnival hosted by Our Fourpence Worth. Thanks, Penelope!

Second, MoneyEnergy’s look is going to be changing again in the near future. Due to some apparently irreconcilable technical problems with the theme that I can’t fix even after playing with the code and even though it all works fine on two of my own computers (mac and pc), the best solution seems to be upgrading the template. I liked this template for a lot of reasons, but MoneyEnergy may have outgrown it.

I need to especially thank David from TopForeignStocks, Sean from FinancialRamblings, Cy from MoneySavingPro as well as CashMoneyLife and WPersonalFinance for their important feedback relating to improving this site. Cy, David and Sean went well out of their way to help me find solutions and the best ways forward.

It’s not all bad - I had been eyeing some really nice templates for a while, now, too. And I like variety as much as I like keeping things the way they are (yeah, it’s a great paradox!).

So this is your chance to have some final input into what type of template MoneyEnergy should use. Comment or email (email might be better) in what the ultimate strengths/weaknesses of this design are and you might be able to influence the next look (and I’ll include a nice link thanking you, of course).

NB: Until we get a new template/theme, try viewing this site with your browser fully maximized. That seems to solve the problem of the “dropping sidebar.” I view this site on both 17″ and 15″ screens with firefox maximized and it looks fine. A couple of readers have said so too, and making sure the browser is maximized definitely took away the problem. Thanks!

Update: thanks for the nice feedback, everyone. I won’t be switching blogging software (I love wordpress, it really can’t get any easier than this), just the template itself. If you have any great (new, interesting, fresh) suggestions let me know.  And of course, the logo, URL and everything else about MoneyEnergy will remain just the same:)