Work | Value of College Degree | WSJ

College degree - necessary but not sufficient these days. Additional and often specialized skills are required. See the article and check out the embedded video for some fields where a college degree is still a hot ticket.

Personal $ | New Social Security Calc | WSJ

I've used the old Social Security calculators that required manual input of your entire earnings history ... and then produce a somewhat complicated output with lots of agency jargon. This new calculator, along with improvements later, should speed the process. Don't rely on the hardcopy report you get, run your own analysis. Article from WSJ.

Personal $ | Medicare Part D | WSJ

Medicare is trying to stop an industry practice that tends to push up costs for folks in Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. Without going into details, insurers often pay pharmacy benefit managers a locked-in price even if that price is much higher than what the drugs really cost at the pharmacy. Guess who is lobbying to keep this practice in place.

This gets really nasty when the person on Part D hits the infamous "donut hole". Part D insured patients pay the first 100% of the first tier of Rx costs to $275, then 25% of the next tier of costs to $2,510 total cost, then 100% of the next tier up to $5,726 total costs, then 5% of everything beyond that tier. The tier between $2,510 and $5,726 is the donut hole. More like a black hole, but whatever.

Best strategy? Shop around. Costco or Wal*Mart may sell Rx drugs for less than the patient's share under Part D. Especially consider paying cash at those places for your lowest cost generics to keep the Part D coverage for more expensive branded meds.

The WSJ article is locked for subscribers only ... let me know if you want a copy.

Energy | Oil Shale | WSJ

Those of us who were living in Colorado back in the late '70s and early '80s remember the oil shale boom in the northwestern part of the state and the crash of Black Sunday (May 2, 1982) that brought it all down. The oil shale didn't go anywhere, of course. However, the price of oil has made it a heckuva lot more interesting (just like Canada's tar sands). Here's a brief article on where things stand today. How much oil is in the US oil shale? How about 800B barrels - or about triple the current proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Homes, Energy | The Newest Cottage Industry | WSJ

Folks are not only downsizing their vehicles, they are (finally!) downsizing their homes. These newly built cottages are typically under 1,000 square feet and have lots of creative ways to get the most out of a smaller space: large porches, lots of built-in storage, and clustering the homes around a landscaped common area vs all facing a residential street. A very different approach than the typical car-centric tract home suburban development with its focus on bigger is better. Here's the article.

Energy | The Way Forward | Kedrosky

A practical, middle-ground approach to the energy crisis with a focus on reducing dependency on foreign oil and on oil in general. I like the concept of a tax on foreign oil with proceeds funding wind, solar, natural gas, etc. The 55 mph speed limit is troublesome, personally ... does this guy live in the Northeast? Bottom line (and a scary thought) is that it's up to Congress to take action. We're clearly going to have to kick butt and take names for that to happen.