For me, the lifeblood of personal finance blogging is to relate all these fancy personal finance concepts, products and best practices to everyone's real life. Take this week as an example: bloggers in our network are either deciding between retirement saving alternatives, evaluating newly available investment option, speculating career changes, counting letters, or, fixing leakages :-)

Share this week's best and most informative ones:

Bloggers' Personal Stories

• Nickel reviews differences between Roth IRA and 401(k) and determines his priorities.
• CC (Common Cents) offered the first cut of personal finance ratios in his dashboard.
• Flexo evaluates hisnewest employment benefit: ESPP.
• Our blogger nickel is a great handyman, and a leaky toilet makes two great posts.
• FMF counted the number of credit card solicitations he received in a month, and the result is alarming.
• CC encountered a water heater leak and later found a good deal.
• MM is anticipating a career turning point, and ensuring financial implications.

Personal Finance News and Resources

• If you haven't got the news by now, take note: information of 40 million credit card accounts has been compromised.
• Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson teach us the same thing: It's Not What You Make, It's What You Spend.
• How expensive is it to have a baby? Mrs. Money shares the first-year cost. It is not cheap.
• Arbee reviews two index ETF alternatives: iShares vs iUnits.
• BA captured some Prof. Jeremy Siegel's thoughts on housing market.
• Some amazing (financial) numbers for Father's Day.
• There is a thing called employee discount, and sometimes such discounts can be huge.
• Some quick statistics on gardening spend.

Personal Finance Tips

• 10 Steps to a Richer Retirement from Kiplinger, shared by JLP.
• Arbee contributes a few tips of picking the right financial planner.
• Some money market products are indeed risky.