Carnival of Personal Finance #112: Best Week Ever Edition

http://www.frugallawstudent.com/2007/08/06/carnival-of-personal-finance-112-best-week-ever-edition/

t’s the second week of August 2007: The Best Week Ever!

It’s everything you love, everything you missed, and everything you need to see again! The Best Week Ever!

Spent all week chastising yourself for paying $1.50 for bottled tap water? (That’s right. We’re talking about you Aquafina drinkers.) Here’s what you missed money burners and earth polluters. One of these bloggers is having the best week ever!

Indebted 2 You has discovered a way to lose that bloated feeling you experience when you’re at the gas pump.

You know what's a money trap? My girlfriend. Takes all my money, but I'm stuck in the relationship.

If You Want It… looks at the real cost of having a sexy new car.

My Money and My Life has discovered an ingenious way to get rich with cars.

BasenjiMom discusses 10 Money Traps to Avoid.

Dough Roller busts out the wisdom he gained from time in 10 Things I Know At 40 That I Wish I Knew At 20.

The Amateurist Financial Journey brings us an awesome break down of the hows and whats of mutual funds and index funds. This is a great place to start if you’re just beginning to look at investing.

In honor of the Simpsons Movie, Don’t Mess With Taxes presents 6 Homer Simpson "Doh’s!" of personal finance.

I'm not comfortable making money online, so I pimp my cat out to icanhazcheezburger.com to make money for me. Sorry Patches.

My Wealth Builder asks the question: “How Will I Know I Have Saved Enough?” and then gives us a break down on how they think they can know.

Do you know what a “dosh” is? How about "wonga"? If you don’t, check out Plonkee’s British money slang dictionary. Fun stuff!

I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… takes a look at their comfort level with making money online. I’ve done everything on his list from using blog ads to doing online surveys.

Chief Family Officer explains why they keep their emergency fund in a low interest bank. As a guy who is moving completely to online high interest banks, this post caused me to reevaluate my plan.

Growing Money takes a look down personal finance memory lane to the income they made at old summer jobs. It would be interesting to see how much I made at my high school summer jobs. It’s probably more than I’m making as a full time law student. That’s sad.

You really don't have to fill out a form to save money on food. Most Hollywood stars don't. They save by not eating at all. But maybe they make up for it in cocaine costs.

Mortgage Blog presents 5 tips for students leaving college. These are great bits of advice. I particularly like tip #4: Keep finances in perspective.

Frugal Underground has made their 2 week meal plan form available free for dowloand. One of the best ways to cut down on food costs is planning.

APR? APY? What’s the difference? The Finance Buff argues that it doesn’t matter.

Consumerism Commentary makes a case not to trust too much in statistics when it comes to making financial decisions. Statistics can be manipulated easily. The Commentary gives examples of this happening in the financial world.

Hustler Money Blog gives advice on how to re-build a bad credit score.

Finance is Personal presents Five Money Topics to Discuss With Your Future Spouse Before You Get Married. They say that the two things that cause divorce are money and sex. Take some preventive measures by having these discussions with your future spouse.

Moolanomy (that’s fun to say!) presents 35 Common Sense Rules For Investing. Rule 23 is timely: Don’t sell into a panic.

Finance is Personal's advice worked especially well for Kevin Federline.

College of Cash looks at the benefits and drawbacks of an on-campus job.

Four Pillars takes another look at the standard “Pay yourself first” advice that we often read about and concludes that for some, it might not be a great idea. See why.

Married and Broke looks at the SWOT method of decision making in their personal finance life. Don’t know what SWOT stands for? Check this post out for a really neat decision hack.

Free Money Finance suggests taking professional classes to boost your career, which in turn will boost your income.

InsureBlog takes a look at a family that was edited out of Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko.” This family’s situation is a sad case of our health care system failing, but it is a warning to us all to look at our own insurance policies more closely.

Here's hoping that Britney Spears looks into life insurance for her rugrats!

Millionaire Mommy Next Door reveals how she became a millionaire working in her pajamas. My dream is to be a Millionaire Daddy Next Door working in my PJ’s. This post has got me thinking about how I can make that happen.

Journey 2 Retirement takes a look at life insurance on kids. Children don’t make money, so why take out a policy for them? Here’s an interesting argument for making this step.

Despite the downturn in the stock market, Advanced Personal Finance argues that no, it’s not a buying time.

Make Your Nut presents part two of the complete newbie’s guide to buying a house.

Ever wonder how banks look at you? Check out The Financial Blogger’s post on how banks see you as a customer.

Your First Million Dollars talks about calculating how long you need to achieve financial freedom. I think everyone’s goal is to one day get to the point where their investments pay for living expenses. See how long it will take you after reading this post.

Finding Financial Peace reviews The Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity. I’ve never heard of this book before and I’ve read a lot of personal finance books. It looks like a good read.

Home Finance Freedom looks at how Homeowner Profits Ignore Huge Costs. This is part 4 in a series of Housing Myths. Make sure to read the other posts in the series.

Family Finance Blog asks “How Frugal Should You Be When Hosting Guests?” This is an interesting read. It seems like whenever we have guests over, my wife and I splurge. Should we be doing this? Read this post to find out.

Online banking is the leading internet activity that makes life easier? Apparently Online Savings Blog hasn't seen the video with Will Ferrell and Pearl the landlord. Makes life easier for me.

Everyday Finance discusses the easiest tax free $1,000 they make every year.

Fiveberries in Texas analyzes whether $200 a day for a family vacation is reasonable and whether they can do better. They’re looking for feedback!

Online Savings Blog presents a recent survey that shows that online banking is the leading internet activity that makes your life easier.

Grad Money Matters continues their great series, “Campaign Against Financial Myths,” with the seventh installment: Debt.

Financial Dominance presents 6 ways to increase your kids’ financial intelligence.

My Two Dollars breaks down the benefits they cashed in from reward cards. Use your credit card, get airplane miles? Score indeed.

Free plane tickets for using a credit card? That's...preposterous!

Five Cent Nickel gives us the run down on the Three Best 529 College Savings Plans. If you have little ones, it’s never to early to start saving for their education. Make sure you get the best return by following FCN’s advice.

Suite 101 is giving away 10 brand new 2007 editions of Quicken. Check to see how you can enter.

The Digerati Life asks “How Are You Building Your Net Worth?” They go on to look at their own wealth building strategies. Great post to get you thinking about how you can improve your own net worth.

FIRE Finance presents key points to remember about making a will. I know a lot of us don’t like thinking about death, but if you want to make sure your loved ones are taken care of, then get one.

The Simple Dollar presents A Guide To Setting and Reaching a Net Worth Goal. This post was based off of the “crossover” point as explained in “Your Money or Your Life.” Trent has done a good job explaining how to get to the crossover point in your life.

Money and Such talks about the allure of Lifestyle Funds. If you’ve never heard of a Lifestyle Fund, this post is a good primer.

Ask Mr. Credit Card gives us a list of mandatory personal finance books to read. I haven’t read several of the books on the list. I’m looking forward to checking them out at my library.

Legal Andrew explains how to maximize your cash when selling textbooks online.

Art Dinkin looks at Newton’s First Law of Personal Finance. This is a clever take on Newtonian physics applied to personal finance.

Credit cards don't cause debt, and paparazzi don't cause the downfall of celebs. Celebs cause their own downfall by having meltdowns in front of the cameras.

Mighty Bargain Hunter shows us how to get free gift cards without too much effort. I’ve done what MBH has suggested and have received free gift cards to Chili’s and Circuit City.

Money Ning suggests setting boundaries for yourself to guide yourself to wealth.

Brip Blap says that credit cards don’t cause debt, people do. I agree 100%. See why Brip Blap thinks so.

Smart Money Daily analyzes Adjustable Rate Mortgages In the Post Boom Era. We’ve all been hearing about the real estate bust, will adjustable rate mortgages go bust along with it?

Saving With Me explains how the student loan industry became big business. As a student, I found this post very fascinating. The private student loan industry needs to take a sleep with the fishes.

Stock Trading To Go outlines 7 strategies for online investing. As a newb to investing, this post was informative.

The Sun’s Financial Diary analyzes whether they should get the VISVX Mutual Fund if they already have a VTMSX. If you don’t know what those acronyms mean, read the post.

Money Smart Life asks “Why do people ignore easy money?” Good question. I’m guilty of ignoring some of the easy money Money Smart Life mentioned in their post.

Speaking of integrity problems....Barry Bonds hit his 755th home run on Saturday.

No Credit Needed takes a shocking look back at store-brand credit cards. When the clerk at the Gap offers you a 10% discount for signing up for a store credit card, just say no.

The Happy Rock explains how hypermilling can save you $466 a year or more. This was the first time I’ve heard of hypermilling. To find out more about it, read this post.

One Frugal Girl discusses whether being in debt is an integrity problem. It’s an interesting post that got me thinking about the causes of most people’s money problems.

My Retirement Blog presents 7 retirement tax haven states. I’m not anywhere near retirement, but for those of you who are, this is an informative read.

Home Insurance Guide suggests understanding your claims process before you need it. This is really good advice. Knowing what to do when accidents happen will definitely keep stress levels down.

Money and Values presents part 2 in the series “Socially Conscious Gas Guide.” This post focuses on how oil companies treat their workers.

Trying to figure out why Living Almost Large is frugal is like trying to figure out how KFed became the responsible parent. Impossible!

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity presents one sentence summaries for 10 prominent personal finance books. This was awesome. If you want to know if you would like a particular personal finance book fast, check this post out.

Living Almost Large tries to figure out why they’re frugal. Is it genetic? Due to circumstance?

Poorer Than You gives us a college freshman checklist for getting your finances in order during the first year of school. This is great advice for any university student, not just freshmen.

Financial Reference takes a look at the surprises their recent budgeting revealed.

The Money Well asks “How Much Can We Borrow?" This post is a look at the borrower’s situation in the post market hiccup we’ve seen the past few weeks.

We’re In Debt explains how to avoid credit card fees. Solid advice from an always solid personal finance blog.

It's about time those hippies saw the branding opportunities with Burning Man. Now maybe I can walk down Haight Ashbury without getting asked for some money.

Queercents discusses the economics of the Burning Man Festival. The Burning Man Festival started out as a cool counter-culture art festival that required little or no money. Queercents looks at the rising costs of attending Burning Man.

These posts were all great submissions. But one blog topped them all by presenting an awesomely creative photo personal finance confessions essay. That’s why Saving Advice is having the best week ever! It’s like Post Secret for personal finance bloggers!

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to subscribe to my feed before you leave. I also want to to thank my wonderful wife for helping me with putting together this carnival. I couldn’t have done it without her.