Carnival of Personal Finance #119

Welcome to the 119th Carnival of Personal Finance! There were 89 articles that were submitted in time for this week’s carnival, of which 67 are presented here. (If you missed the deadline, your entry was left for future consideration.) If you would like to submit an entry for next week’s carnival, please see the submission guidelines and the Carnival of Personal Finance’s home page. Next week’s carnival will be hosted by My Retirement Blog. Now, on to the carnival.

First, here are my favorites:

My Two Dollars presents Do You Ever Spend Money On Anything? (Hint: he’s not cheap.)

Mrs. Micah presents Charitable giving vs. the value of compounding and debt reduction—a dilemma and temporary solution. She searches for balance between giving and the power of compounding.

GRACEful Retirement presents Mean Ole Grace. What’s the point of reducing debt if you can’t have some fun along the way?

Money, Matter, and More Musings presents A Quick Financial Awareness Wake-up Call. A 20-point checklist to keep you on track. You have probably read about these issues many times on personal finance blogs, but how many times have you acted on them?

Plonkee Money presents Interviewing Fabulously Broke. What is a modern nomad? Hear what fabulously broke has to say on her lifestyle.

Next, it’s puzzle time
Since I tend to view personal finance as both fun (like a game) and challenging, I decided to throw in a crossword puzzle as part of this week’s carnival. Each of the clues listed relates in some way to at least one of the posts from each category. Have fun, and happy reading. (Note that the carnival is listed in a traditional format immediately following the puzzle.)

Crossword Puzzle


ACROSS
2 A synonym for equality.
4 An item acquired at less than what you might typically be expected to pay.
5 Not involving active participation.
6 A mule is an example of this.
8 A liability that must be repaid.
11 A series of back and forth discussions that result in an agreement.
13 The U.S. ____ sells American Eagles.
14 One of the Four Cardinal Virtues.
15 The difference between what you earn and what you spend.
DOWN
1 The edge between one thing and another.
3 You might make these between one account and another.
7 A method of planning where your money goes.
9 You’ll get more ______ from your money if you use it wisely.
10 You should periodically re-balance this.
12 A flat folding container typically used to hold currency.

Here are the rest of this week’s posts.
If you’re interested in a particular topic, choose one of the links below to jump to that topic, or just scroll down to view them all. Thanks to all those that participated.

Saving
Reviews
Finance
Debt
Economy
Frugality
Budgeting 		Entrepreneurial
Career
Credit
Money Management
Real Estate
Investing
Other


SAVING
Exjackly presents Savings Philosophy #1. This is part one of a series about how you think about money and how it impacts your ability to save.

Moneywalks presents Car Gas Experiment: Regular or Premium? Is there a mileage advantage to using premium gas over regular? Find out the results of Andy’s experiment.


REVIEWS
The Money Mythos presents a review of Mint.com: Free online money management. This thorough review of Mint.com gives a nice overview of the features.

FinanceIsPersonal.com presents Don’t Trust Consumer Ratings when Buying Online. This post offers several reasons to avoid buying things based solely on consumer reviews.

The Simple Dollar presents Review: The Courage to Be Rich. Thinking about reading The Courage to Be Rich? This review gives a detailed overview of the book.


FINANCE
Growing Money presents My Financial Accounts. He provides a list of the accounts that he actually uses, ranging from credit cards to checking accounts as part of a series on Money Management 201.

Grad Money Matters presents Campaign Against Financial Myths: 82 Myths Busted! . This post wraps up a series on financial myths, summarizing 82 of them.

Fiscal Musings presents Financial Statements Revisited, which explains the importance of a balance sheet and income statement for individuals.

Online Savings Blog presents Mint Officially Launches, which gives a brief overview of the Mint and announces the launch.


DEBT
The Happy Rock presents If You Are Making Car Payments, You Don’t Own The Car. He hopes to change how the world talks about debt.

Mortgage Blog presents The Best Way to Reduce Mortgage Debt. This post presents a variety of ways to reduce mortgage debt.


ECONOMY
Million Dollar Journey presents Loonie at Parity with the USD?. With the increasing strength of the Canadian dollar and the continual weakening of the USD, it’s only a matter of time before they reach parity.


FRUGALITY
Lazy Man and Health presents Your Diet or Your Money. Lazy Man discusses some research from the University of Minnesota that says that if you are on a diet you might spend money impulsively.

One Frugal Girl presents Can You Resist a Bargain?. She wonders, is it a bargain to purchase something for which there is no foreseeable need?


BUDGETING
DebtBeater presents 5 Immediate Advantages of Making Your First Budget, which points out some of the immediate realizations he and his wife had after forcing themselves to actually make their first budget.

ChristianPF.com presents How to budget with ING direct. ING Direct is his secret budgeting tool.


ENTREPRENEURIAL
My Money Blog presents What Is Passive Income? Does It Really Exist?. He digs deeper into what passive income really is, and adds his own requirements.


CAREER
Four Pillars presents Living and Working in Different Countries. He interviews a person who lives in Canada and works in America. The
post covers such topics as taxes, crossing the border and retirement issues.

Cash Money Life presents MBA Options Part 5: How Much Will It Cost?. This is part 5 of a series that analyzes the true costs of an MBA.

Rather Be Shopping.com Blog presents 8 Ways To Financial Freedom and Wealth. This article comments on J. Paul Getty’s 8 rules for gaining wealth and financial freedom.

Calgirlfinance presents What I did with my 18% raise. (As you might guess, she uses it wisely! Find out how.)

The Financial Blogger presents 6 Things You Should Do Before Quitting Your Job. If you are about to quit your job, there are a few things that must be done before you actually pull out the plug.


CREDIT
FIRE Finance presents Credit Score - Myths & Facts!. FIRE Finance answers a common question: what really hurts our credit scores and how can we improve it.

Ask Mr Credit Card presents A Credit Card With No Balance Transfer Fee Is Harder To Find. He provides an update on the state of the balance transfer fee situation.

Savvy Saver presents Balance Transfers - Savvy Style. Savvy shares her process for securing and managing 0% balance transfers, as well as tips for getting higher credit limits and making balance transfers profitable.

Saving With Me presents 10 Ways To Correctly Manage A Credit Card. You’ll find steps that can be taken to ensure your credit stays intact and you do not have problem with credit cards.


MONEY MANAGEMENT
Moolanomy presents The True Earning Power and the Real Cost of Luxuries. This post demonstrate how to calculate what we really earn per hour taking taxes, living expenses, and the additional time we consume to prepare for work and commute into consideration.

4 Eva Young presents How To Set Up A Contingency Fund — along with reasons why it’s a good idea to have one, and how to get started.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents Women, Men and Money. Many factors hamper financial equality between the sexes. Could the way that women think about money be one of the factors?

Advanced Personal Finance presents The Personal Finance Lifecycle. Personal finance concerns vary by age. Things that are important when you’re 22 become trivial at 55.

I’ve Paid For This Twice Already presents My List Fetish pays My Bills On Time. She’s obsessed with lists, but it sounds like that’s a good thing.

Make Your Nut presents The Bill Clinton Method of Personal Finance. Bill Clinton had the ability to compartmentalize, or separate different aspects of his life. The same concept works quite well for money management.

Single Ma’s Fabulous Financials presents Stop Paying Your Bills Late. Single Ma has a great system to make sure her bills get paid on time.

The Finance Buff presents Best Checking Account Which Is Not A Checking Account. Get all the good features of bank accounts and none of the limitations.

ProBargainHunter presents Save the environment, at bargain prices. Is a plugin hybrid car an efficient way to save the environment?

Gather Little By Little presents Money Saving Monday Tip #10 - Patience is a virtue. Being patient and just waiting a little while can save you significant amounts of money on purchases.

The Dough Roller presents Behold, the Power of the Pawn. How a lowly pawn can teach us about personal finance.

My Wealth Builder presents Some Money Rules of Thumb I Use. Rules are thumb are often easy to remember and easy to use, especially when doing a quick assessment.

Saving Advice presents There is No Such Thing as Divorce Insurance. Don’t rely on your partner to take care of all your finances.


REAL ESTATE
Everything Finance presents Features that “DECREASE” the Resale Value of Your Home. A pool isn’t always an advantage. Check out this listing of features that could decrease the resale value of your home.

Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog presents What to Do If Your Offer Isn’t Accepted. Most of the outcome of a real estate investment is determined during negotiations on price and terms, so, while it hurts sometimes, it’s not always bad to have an offer that isn’t accepted. Here’s what to do afterwards.

Searchlight Crusade presents Will Agents List My Property if I Owe More Than It’s Worth?. As with everything else pertaining to real estate, there are potential upsides and downsides.

TwoWiseAcres presents Confronting Your Fear of Real Estate Investing. Rob addresses some of the common fears about real estate investing.

Home Finance Freedom presents Hidden Burden of Overbuying: Housing Myths Part 6. Would You Pay $250,000 for a Room?


INVESTING
The Baglady presents Not All 401ks Are Created Equal. Having two different 401ks has taught her that not all 401ks are created equal, and just blindly dumping a lot of money into a 401k is not wise.

Neural Market Trends presents A Review Of My Forex Trading. Tom provides a review of his Forex trading.

Dax Desai presents A Gift from the Fed (I was Wrong). How could you have made money with the recent Fed cuts? Gold, CDs, and foreign exchange are explained here as shown by this person’s real-life investment examples.

Financial Reference presents Raw P/E Ratios. Basing the cheapness of a stock on the raw P/E ratio is overly simplistic.

Moment on Money presents Understanding Indexed Annuities. This post looks at what an equity indexed annuity is, and when it would be appropriate (if at all).

Nordic Money presents How to profit from the credit crunch. Make sure your portfolio is well positioned to take advantage of market movements

Stock Trading To Go presents Should Market Research Begin with Technical or Fundamental Analysis?. A look at both technical and fundamental analysis and a breakdown of which is better to utilize first when conducting market research.

Debt Free presents How to Analyze Potential Investments. The only question you need to ask yourself when considering a potential investment is “Will it make me any money, and if so, how much, and how risky will it be to generate that return?”

The Amatureist Financial Journey presents Options Extravaganza. This post explains the types of financial options and some of the related terminology.

Everyday Finance presents Emerging Market Telecoms up 50%+ YTD. Buying into telecoms can be a good thing.

Smart Money Daily presents What Does it Mean to be ‘Wealthy’?. The Forbes 400 list was just released, and for the first time ever, having a billion dollars was not enough to make the list. When you look at the wealth of the country’s richest individuals, it makes grabbing a million or two for yourself seem rather easy.

Money and Such presents How to Play the Fed Rate Cut. This article talks about how the fed rate cut may impact different asset classes, and how investors should try to take advantage of these trends.


OTHER
The Dividend Guy Blog presents Buying Stock in a Company Just Because You Love The Products?. Is this a good idea, or are other methods better?

Queercents presents WWYD: Buy or Read in the Store?. Would you read a whole book or magazine in a bookstore and not purchase it? What circumstances make it ok? When is it not ok?

Five Cent Nickel presents Dealing With Found Money, Followup. He & his wife found ran across a wallet containing eleven $100 bills and nothing else — no identification, no credit cards, nothing. Here’s how they handled it.

Money Smart Life presents Should Healthy People Pay Less for Health Insurance?. He wonders if people should be offered a discount on their deductible for abstaining from those behaviors, and talks about a pilot program that proposes exactly that.

No Credit Needed presents Day 21 of 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt: Focus. What’s the ’secret’ to succeeding at personal finance goals? Focus.

One Million and Beyond presents Social Pressures to Spend your Money. The pressure to keep up with the proverbial Jones’ is so strong in our society that it hamstrings us financially from a young age.

Thanks again to those who participated. (Note that the crossword puzzle was made with the help of puzzle-maker.com.)

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Filed under: Carnivals. Monday, September 24, 2007

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