Carnival of Personal Finance #113: T.G.I.N.F. Edition

Thank God It's Not Friday! Welcome to this week's installment of the Carnival of Personal Finance, a weekly collection of the best posts from bloggers covering personal finance, investing, saving, budgeting, getting out of debt, real estate, and pretty much anything else you can think of that has to do with money. You can learn more about submitting, hosting, etc. here.

It's kind of amazing given the theme of this carnival, but after saving the entire thing in draft last night, I went to post it this morning and Blogger had somehow reverted it to a previous draft, so I lost a huge amount of work! It was a scramble to get things back into shape to post this by 9am, and I didn't want to delay things any further by trying to rewrite all my comments. Sorry folks, I swear I did read every post!

EDITOR'S PICKS:

#1: Chief Family Officer from Chief Family Officer presents Six Reasons to Take Control of Your Finances NOW.

#2: NCN from No Credit Needed presents Is it really possible to talk with your spouse about finances without getting into an argument., and says, "Thanks for hosing!" Sorry, NCN, I just have to leave in that amusing typo!

#3: The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Principles In Action #1 : Treat Others Like They Have Value, and says, "Treating other like they have value is a key principle for a successful financial life." I liked this little story and the lesson the author learned from it. So often, the last thing we think of about spending is how we treat the people who take our money in stores.

#4: Shadox from Money and Such presents Asking for Another Raise, and says, "You got a raise, but it's not what you wanted. Here is how to ask for another raise without coming off as greedy or ungrateful."

#5: j2r from Journey 2 Retirement presents Beware of The Invincibility Complex.

#6: Story Girl from My Money and My Life presents What does your budget say about your values?.

#7: Mike from Four Pillars presents Mistakes for New Parents to Avoid, which "goes through a number of financial mistakes that a lot of new parents make."

#8: DR from The Dough Roller presents 10 Surefire Ways To Spend More Than You Make, and says, "Are you having trouble spending all your money? Read on."

#9: Jon from The Money Mythos presents Cleveland versus Boston: A study in housing costs.

#10: Hazzard from Everybody Loves Your Money presents How Free Is My Computer?, "A look at all the free applications I use on my computer. Almost all of the applications I use on a daily basis were free."

#11: Golbguru from Money, Matter, and More Musings presents Interesting Facts And Confusing Thoughts About The American Poor , and says, "Some interesting facts about people defined as "poor" in the US."

#12: Patrick from Cash Money Life presents How Much is the Home Run Record Worth, and says, "A lot of people stand to make money from the record that Barry Bonds broke this week. Here is a little analysis I put together about it."

#13: One Frugal Girl from One Frugal Girl presents Is Your Lifestyle Preventing You From Saving? I like the author's exploration of her and her huband's interests and habits, showing that small choices can lead to big savings.

All other submissions in order received:

FrugalTrader from Million Dollar Journey presents American Express Centurion (Black) Credit Card: "A discussion about the mystic "black" American Express Card."

T. Pettinger from Mortgage Blog presents What can we learn from the Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis, covering "Things we can learn from the sub prime mortgage crisis, including making sure we don't get carried away by suspiciously attractive introduction deals."

Retirehappy from My Retirement Blog presents Contributing To Nonworking Spouse’s Roth IRA.

FIRE Finance from FIRE Finance presents Lies About Credit Card Debts!.

Meg from All About Appearances presents Discount Stores Aren't Just for Cheap Clothing.

Chip Parker from Bankruptcy Law Network presents Bankruptcy reform will fix the subprime lending crisis and save the economy, and says, "There is a realistic bankruptcy solution to the subprime mortgage crisis, requiring only slight amendments in the current Bankruptcy Code. The idea is not at all radical, and, as a matter of fact, it is a common bankruptcy tool that has been utilized for decades."

Jim from War on Credit Cards presents Free Credit Score from Experian, and says, "If you need your credit score (not just your history), then Experian has a great offer. If you just need a score, use AnnualCreditReport.com"

Amy from Two Pennies Earned presents Why Dental Insurance is Often a Waste of Money.

Pedro from Your First Million Dollars presents Save More by Tracking Down Your Spending.

Starving Artist from INDEBTED 2 YOU presents Locking In The Budget, and says, "This is a tip to prevent you from blowing your budget and charging Cheerios at the end of the month."

Money from Moneymonk presents America is one big used car lot.

The Financial Bullet from The Financial Bullet presents Makes You Want to Spit, offering "what to do and what to avoid during a down market."

Tyler from MarriedAndBroke.com presents Emergency Financial Cheat Sheet, and says, "The article is on what to save financially in case of an emergency."

Ashley from College of Cash presents Why It Pays to be a Good Worker, "Explaining how I got paid for more hours than I worked."

Ron from Outta Debt presents Fiscal Discipline, which he describes as "Another article on how important an emergency fund is and the fact that almost no one in America has one."

Matthew Paulson from FinanceIsPersonal.com presents What to Do With Your Childhood Baseball Card Collection, and says, "Have a collection of baseball cards in from your youth sitting in your closet? Here's how to cash in on them and how much you might make."

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Save Thousands by Cutting Cable TV, and says, "An easy, but controversial, way to save a good amount of money."

KMC from Advanced Personal Finance presents A Radical Tax Idea I Love.

Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents How To Financially Prepare Your Kids For College.

Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents Developers and Conditional Incentive Money to Use Their Lender.

FFB from Family Finance Blog presents Not counting on my inheritance.

The Financial Blogger from The Financial Blogger presents Book Review: Why we Want you to be Rich, covering the book written by D. Trump and R. Kiyosaki. "I write about what I had learnt from this book and also why you should not read it;-)"

Brian from A Personal Finance and Investing Blog - FinancialDominance.com presents Maximize Your Paycheck.

Lauren from SavingExplained presents 7 strategies to consistently deplete your savings, and says, "There are heaps of articles on the world wide web telling us how we can consistently grow our savings by applying these 7, 10, 13, pick a number, principles. However, few deal with what we do to consistently to cause our savings goals to fail. There are a few (myself
included) who actually get a kick out of saving but for the rest of the world it's not a fun and exciting experience. Why put off for tomorrow what you can borrow to get today? This short list will go over what we consistently do to cause our savings goals to fail and what we can do to not let this happen."

Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents Could I Have Profited From The Housing and Subprime Collapse? .

MoneyNing from Personal Finance with Money Ning presents How Washing Laundries Is Like Reducing Debt, and says, "Our laundries are exactly like debt. The less the better!"

Nina from Queercents presents Happiness is a Balanced Checkbook, and says, "Why do people need to know how much is in their checking account? "

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Do You Buy New Or Used Cars? 10 Popular Reasons To Buy New, exploring some stats about car buying habits and wondering what kinds of issues might prompt people to change them.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door from Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents How To Find Financial Happiness, and says, "There is an endless array of money- hungry possibilities on which our disposable income can be spent. Financial happiness is figuring out what is important to you and spending accordingly. The more money you free up on the items that don't mean much to you, the more you'll have for the things that do. This exercise provides a beginning structure for your spending plan-- a budget that you'll be enthusiastically motivated and happy to adhere to."

Sid from The Money Well presents Would You Employ...You?, suggesting we should take advantage of our strengths and look for help where we're weak.

Michael Dawson from Breaking the $hackles of the 9 to 5 presents Leave Buy and Hold to the Billionaires, an interesting take on what to do if you're holding stocks that have taken a downturn.

Paidtwice from I've Paid for this Twice Already presents A Personal Testament to Having an Emergency Fund, discussing the peace of mind she gained from just $1,000.

xynny from the baglady presents After “I Do” — A Checklist for Financial Matrimony. These financial to-dos probably aren't the first thing on most people's minds when they are getting married, so it's a good reminder.

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card presents Credit Card Balance Transfer Arbitrage Success Factors. Some things you may not have thought to consider about 0% balance transfers.

nickel from FiveCentNickel presents Online Banking Comes of Age. Some reasons you might not need a local branch bank any more.

Jason Dean from Smart Money Daily presents The Federal Reserve and the Stock Market, and says, "This article examines what the Federal Reserve is, what it does, and how its actions (and inaction!) affect the stock market."

mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Another good reason to pay cash for a car.

Harrison from Journey To Financial Freedom presents 8 reasons why I start Internet Business.

Brian from Financial Reference presents Causation. A good reminder not to rely on fallacious logic , especially in financial matters.

Ben from Money Smart Life presents Forgot to Pay Taxes on eBay Income?, and says, "What should you do if you “forgot” to pay taxes on your eBay income?"

Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents (Not Exactly) The Price of Credit Card Arbitrage: Marching toward 800. Surprise-- having lots of open credit cards with balance transfers might not hurt your FICO score.

junger from Online Savings Blog presents Scan and Upload Your Checks: The Next Step in Online Banking? Interesting-- I'd never heard of anyone offering this method of depositing funds.

J at IHB and HFF from Home Finance Freedom presents Fact V. Emotion in Personal Finance: Do Not Confuse.

Penny Nickel from Money and Values presents Install Rovr so your online shopping benefits good causes!.

Ana from DebtFree revolution presents Credit Is Today's Indentured Servitude.

Graham from Saving With Me presents 6 Things To Know About Your Homeowner’s Insurance Prior To A Disaster.

Brett McKay from The Frugal Law Student presents Personal Finance Books That Inspire Personal Finance Bloggers.

Thanks everyone-- I feel lucky to have read all these great submissions!