I've long admired the lifestyle of university professors, and this site just stokes my desire for such perks of the occupation. Campbell R. Harvey, Ph.D., is a professor of finance at Duke University who has posted a series of video lectures on asset management. From portfolio theory to short selling to option pricing, the material gets quite specific. Harvey gets so involved in his material that he is actually entertaining to watch! He even throws in a bit of economics to make it complete. I downloaded the series on Global Financial Management, extracted the audio, and now I listen to it on my MP3 player while I eat lunch. Fascinating stuff...

http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Video/Digital_video.htm

A good friend of mine and I share a similar value - the ongoing search for value. We both hate overpaying for anything, and cherish those moments when we find or negotiate a good deal. For us it's all about the repect and appreciation for our hard earned assets.

This week he told me about a recent value strategy he has deployed at home: the pressure cooker. What does this have to do with value? Well, with a pressure cooker he can just throw in a bunch of vegetables and other items he bought at the discount grocery store, set it to cook before he goes to work, and when he arrives home dinner is magically made for the whole family (value of time spent). Vegetables contain more nutrients per pound than meats or processed foods such as pastas (nutritional value).

At first I teased him about how he is compromising his family's right to meal diversity for the sake of saving money, but really this is not the case. The pressure cooker is merely one symptom of a mindset for building wealth. If you are constantly seeking value for your money or your time, you too would probably feed your family stewed vegetables for dinner 5 times a week.