Please stop by PodcastAwards.com every day and vote for Mad Money Machine in the “Best Mobile Phone Formated [sic] Podcast” which is the 2nd one down on the right column.

Thank you for nominating the Mad Money Machine podcast at PodcastAwards.com.

Strangely, you nominated it for the “Best Mobile Phone Formated [sic] Podcast”. I was kinda hoping for “Best Business Podcast” but I’ll take whatever I can get. Does seem like a typo though (or a categoryo).

Is the MMM really that good on a mobile phone? I know I like it on my iPhone, but I don’t put any special graphics in or anything. Perhaps it is because I work endlessly making the sound come out level? And that makes it easier to listen to on a phone? Anyone have any suggestions why, please email me.

Nonetheless, I am grateful. Thank you for nominating MMM. It will help me help you.

I am having trouble keeping up with all the economic news. And why should I, really, if I’m a buy and hold investor? Oh yeah, I do a podcast in the investing category. Well, like my momma told me, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Therefore, show 129 will be delayed a few days until I can bring together something coherent and informative. 

In the meantime, visit Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty and see what he has to say.

Also, visit IFA.com and read Mark Hebner’s sidebar called The Invisible Hand and Why Prices Change? 

I actually recorded some stuff for show 129 today and I’m going to delete most of it and instead let you get the info directly for yourself. I wanted to focus on three people I respect get their opinions of what is going on with the financial crisis and what we should be doing right now. The three people are Ron Paul, Mark Hebner, and Jim Cramer. Please visit these links yourself instead:

• I read Letter from Ron: Time is Running Out
• I played the audio from Mark: Should you be worried?
• I talked about Cramer who says buy gold.

The most important thing I ask of you is to nominate the Mad Money Machine for best Business podcast at PodcastAwards.com. Type in “Mad Money Machine” in the podcast name box (under Business the 3rd one down on the left), type in “MadMoneyMachine.com” in the Podcast URL box. THEN…. go down to the bottom of the page and enter your name and email address (and a comment if you like) and then press Submit.

To get nominated is my reward for doing the show. Thanks for helping me.

133 People have taken the MMM Survey so far. If you haven’t taken it, please do so now.

But here are results at this point:

So nobody’s interested in soccer? C’mon dudes, it is the one true international sport. Get globalized (before it is too late). Anyway, you guys (and I do mean guys… see next chart) liked talk about money, inflation, index funds, ETFs, lazy portfolios, and Warren Buffet but sadly not Paul Boyer, XBOX, Libertarianism, iPhone, or Ron Paul. I guess this is an investing show after all.

When I say “dude” I really mean DUDE.

Folks generally aren’t interested in DEFINITELY subscribing to another podcast, but a daily, news-oriented one would be most considered.

Again, you listen for investing tips, economic insights (and a little humor thrown in). Mostly nobody is just listening to check out the competition (or will admit to it).

Hey, this isn’t a music show, so Paul please don’t play full songs.

Almost everybody makes over $50K a year.

The average age is 40. Wow, I had no idea you guys were so old. (Hahaha, me too.) But obviously these surveys are what they call “self-selecting” meaning that the results of the survey are skewed toward those who are willing to volunteer to take the survey. Maybe young people aren’t willing to volunteer to take it? Maybe really old folks aren’t willing to volunteer to take it? Maybe women don’t like to volunteer? Yeah, that’s it. And where are all the teenagers? Oh, playing DS.

But I like that Age vs. Index Portfolio chart. It kinda shows the general tendency to take less risk as one gets older, doesn’t it? The chosen Index Portfolio is on the left axis with Portfolio 100 at the top. Age gets higher going from left to right. Nobody will admit to a less than 25 index portfolio.

Well, do it then! And tell them Paul Douglas Boyer from the Mad Money Machine sent you!

I have more results from the survey that aren’t as easily shown on a graph, such as what you are doing while listening and the general comments question. I’ll try to cover some of these on upcoming shows. I do want to thank you for all the kind words and even for the critical words. Doing this show is great fun for me. If you want to see everyone else’s entries, click on the survey link again and they are at the bottom of the page.

Thank you for taking the survey!

The Mad Money Machine podcast is proud to be rated one of  the TOP 10 Investing Podcasts by U.S.News & World Report. Katy Marquardt, an associate editor there and author of the New Money column, says:

Whether your work commute involves driving, riding the bus, biking, or running (like me), it’s a great chance to improve your investing know-how through podcasts. You’re a captive audience, after all. Below are podcasts that cover investing from 10 unique perspectives:

and then goes on to include Mad Money Machine as one of the Top 10. (I think she should have included Sound Investing there also.)

Thanks Katy for recognizing the MMM! And I hope you especially like the Couch to 5K episode while you are running.

I have created a 20-question survey for you the listener and reader to  help me make the Mad Money Machine better. Would you please take a few moments to completely answer each of the 20 questions and let me know what you’re thinking?

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE MMM SURVEY NOW!

Thank you. You can click the link again at any time to view continuous results that other people have posted.

NP (Nick Pardini) interviewed me on his RR (Rational Rants) podcast (Episode 9) asking me about the FED, the gold standard, and active vs. passive investing. Get it at CommonSenseMag.com or thru his feed.

I kinda forgot to finish my answer to his question about “what got me to this revelation about passive investing and don’t I have the urge to do active trading?” I went on about the recent credit crisis and forgot to mention that at that time I did sell some of my ETFs and mutual funds. I’ve kept track of how much those funds have gone up since I sold them and it isn’t pretty. But thanks Nick for the interview.

As you can tell, I have given the web site a new look today. Does it work for you?

I’m not the only one who wants the penny eliminated. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said, "the penny is worth less than any other currency." But he cannot spend any time on it because of the housing crisis and slumping economy.

The article mentions a group called Citizens for Retiring the Penny but their website doesn’t seem all that active.

I reiterate that I propose not only eliminating the penny but also the nickel and quarter as well and then moving to use only one decimal place in prices. And to those who think that getting 9 dimes back in change is bad, ever heard of the "Leave a Dime, Take a Dime" tray next to the cash register? Oh wait, that was for pennies. But anyway…

Metal prices as of today according to coinflation.com:
1909-1982 Cent: 2.57 cents
1982-2008 Cent: .72 cents
1946-2008 Nickel: 7.02 cents
1965-2008 Quarter: 5.9 cents