Another month has flown by and it’s time once again to point out a few choice pieces writing from the web for May of 2011. Finally, some nicer weather has arrived here and I hope some of it has made its way to where you are too! This month’s selection of articles is as eclectic as always. Enjoy!

1. Most of us like to look on the bright side. Although this Optimism Bias may not always be rational, it can be quite adaptive. Take a few minutes to read this fascinating article by Tali Sharot courtesy of Time.

2. Staying on the brighter side, how about taking a look at 50 Creative Questions to Create the Life You Really Want. Tiny Buddha shares some excellent food for thought in this article by Lynn Zavaro. I love the opening quote: “If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” ~Jack Dixon

3. Do ‘C’ Students Deserve ‘A’ Lifestyles? Financial Samurai posed this provocative question in May. Read the article and weigh in. What do you think?

4. Robb Engen of Boomer and Echo had some great ideas on how to Balance Your Savings and Investments While Raising a Family. This was one of Robb’s first posts at Canadian Finance and it offers some great tips for 30-somethings who are struggling to figure out how to make ends meet and still save for education and retirement.

5. Squirrelers wrote about The Recency Bias and Investing. Can you think of a time when the recent movements of the markets have coloured your investment choices? (I’m trying to think of a time when they didn’t. Doh!)

6. Continuing in a similar vein, Michael James on Money offered a review of Robert Koppel’s book on Investing and the Irrational Mind. I guess there are many ways our brains can lead us to poor investment choices. Understanding how it happens can be a good first step toward controlling these tendencies.

7. If you don’t trust your brain to make the best investment choices, you might want to incorporate a little technical analysis into your repertoire. Clark wrote a couple of articles at Million Dollar Journey that looked at Stock Chart Continuation Patterns – Triangles and Channels as well as Stock Chart Reversal Patterns – Head and Shoulders. The latter article also took a look at double tops and double bottoms.

8. Thicken My Wallet had an interesting article on The Problem with Too Much Cash. These days, many investors feel like “the proverbial deer in the headlights.” Equity markets are still very volatile, yet interest rates on cash deposits aren’t even keeping up with inflation. In a world awash with debt and negative real rates, safe investment options are murky at best.

9. Intelligent Speculator also wondered about the best investments in the current environment, asking What to Do When Everything Is Overpriced? Many think Microsoft overpaid for Skype, but others have been complaining for years that the company needed to put some of its huge cash hoard to work. While this is a bit of a dilemma, I guess too much cash is a nice problem to have.

10. Bye QE2, Hello QE3? It seems the idea of QE3 came as a bit of a surprise to Larry MacDonald of Canadian Business. Many feel another round of quantitative easing has been preordained by the one-two punch of weakening economic fundamentals and the debt crisis that just won’t go away. QE3 would not surprise me at all. In fact, a few pundits have put forth the idea of QEn – where n is the number of times central banks use QE to pull the economy back from the precipice without the markets calling their bluff. Perhaps one of the biggest problems facing investors today is solving for n. Anyone care to take a shot at that one?  n = ?

Thanks to all of these great authors for sharing your 2 cents this May!

Feel free to comment on any of these fine articles below!