Carnival of Personal Finance #127 - Wonders of the World

November 19, 2007 by Pinyo.

I found this great list on Wonders of the World so this week carnival will be based on wondrous things in the world. There are a lot of submissions this weekend but I did manage to read through them all, and could certify their high quality. I list these in the order in which they were submitted and according to the category; so late submissions appear toward the bottom of each category.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China via morgueFile

Editor’s Top 10 Picks

Out of all the submissions, I thought these were some of the more creative, unique and informative posts.

  1. Raising4Boys presents What’s the Right Age to Start an Allowance? — Dad offers an excellent framework on giving out allowance. This systems teaches savings, charity, match fund, and even “live within your mean” — awesome!
  2. Cash Money Life presents A Penny Saved is Worth More Than a Penny Earned — Patrick offers a great build on the saying popularized by Benjamin Franklin: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
  3. My Dollar Plan presents Strategy to Contribute More Than Roth IRA Limit Allows — A well explained strategy on how to use 401k after-tax contribution as a mean to contribute more to the Roth IRA than the limit allows. Very interesting concept.
  4. The Dough Roller presents Slow Motion Retirement (or Retire Early, Retire Often) — DR offers several techniques to retire part-time now, and discusses 4 common problems with these techniques.
  5. Two Wise Acres presents How Much Money Do You Need to Start Investing in Real Estate? — Mike explains conventional mortgage for investment properties and goes on to explain how investors can accelerate their ability to grow through leveraged approach.
  6. Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Year end checklists for flexible spending accounts — Some important deadlines for flexible spending accounts are just around the corner. MBH offers some really useful tips on what to do before the year ends.
  7. Canadian Dream: Free at 45 presents The Magnification of Savings — I love this quote about saving: “It’s not a trick or a one time thing, but rather an attitude that you have.”
  8. Journey to Financial Freedom presents Prepare Your Mindset to Achieve Financial Freedom — Mindset can make or break your plan and change your life. Harrison offers some powerful ideas about mindset to achieve financial success.
  9. Gather Little by Little presents 5 Reasons You Should Buy a New Car — GLBL shares his philosophy on car ownership.
  10. Broke Grad Student presents Why I Use Credit Cards — A good approach to using credit cards correctly.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza via Wikipedia

Money Management

  • 2million’s Financial Freedom presents Strangers Can Do Bank Transfers From Your Accounts? — This is quite a disturbing story. The author points out how easy it is for someone to perform electronic fund transfers on your account. According to him, “Apparently, anyone can take money from your checking account with your routing number and account number. “Single Guy Money presents Slipping back into bad habits….ALMOST! — Single Guy Money fought off his desire for a new gadget, a new Blackberry phone.
  • Home Office Women presents What I Can’t Leave Home Without… — Personally, I would say the house keys, but that wasn’t the answer. I will just let you find out what it is.
  • I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… presents My evolution from new to used… car, that is — Paidtwice tells us about her dad and why her first car was brand new. She then reveals why she is now a believer in buying used car. But as frugal as she is, not having a car is out of the question.
  • Quest For A Million presents Car Lessons — Wow, Steve leased, bought, and sold so many cars that it’s mind boggling. At the end of his post, he shared some really great lessons learned from having all these cars over the years.
  • Finding Financial Peace presents A Gas Pump Blunder — A gas pump blunder that costs Jennifer $819!
  • Money Ning presents I Almost Burned Down My Apartment — A small moment of carelessness can cost you big, so always think before you act.
  • The Financial Blogger presents 3 Reasons Why Personal Finance Should Not Be Personal — Why are we so afraid of discussing our personal finance? Here are three reasons why it shouldn’t be.


Stonehenge

Stonehenge via Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Debt

  • Reverse Mortgage Information presents HECM or HELOC? A Tool to Help You Decide — Tim puts HECM and HELOC through 7 rounds of fighting so that you can decide who is the champ for your situation.
  • I Was Broke. Now I’m Not! presents Sangl Home Pay-Off Spectacular - November 2007, and says, “I am using a visual aid to help me understand the progress I am making toward paying off my house!” — A couple shares their quest to eliminate their mortgage debt. Nice graphic!
  • Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents If I was in your situation, here’s what I would do… — MMND puts herself in Sleepless in Seattle’s shoes and shares how she would have dealt with the difficult financial situation.
  • Green Panda Treehouse presents Family and Finances — I never like mixing family and finance; somehow, things always turn out worse. In my opinion, helping them to get a good financial start might be worthwhile, but helping them get into debt buying luxuries like a car is a definite no.
  • Debt Prison presents How to settle your debts on your own — Barry discusses the pluses and minuses of debt settlement and explains the process of doing it on your own without paying someone else to do it for you.
  • Payday Loan Cheapskate presents The Payday Loan Debt Cycle — James explains the anatomy of payday loan and how a victim can fall into a death spiral. Two words. Stay away.
  • The Better Credit Score Blog presents My third mistake: I dealt with creditors over the phone — Ryan shares his hell on earth experience dealing with 3rd party collection agency and shows you how to avoid making the same mistake.

Easter Island

Moai Statues on Easter Island via Wikipedia

Real Estate

  • Quest For Four Pillars presents Renting vs. Buying - Is there any difference?, and says, “Four Pillars has come up with some advice for renters and home owners to follow that will even out their respective financial paths” — The great rent versus buy debate continues, as Four Pillar offers his perspective.
  • FIRE Finance presents Wild Fire Disaster Preparation - Part 2! — FIRE discusses the recent fire in California and present information about insurance and disaster preparation in a nice questions and answers format.
  • Mortgage Blog presents Reducing Your Mortgage Interest Payments, and says, “Some tips on reducing your mortgage interest payments” — Four suggestions that might help you reduce your mortgage interest payments.
  • Project One Million presents Real Estate Developer Grows in Flips and Bounds — Charles shares a story about Stephen Siegel, a real estate developer with the “passion and intensity” that inspires him.
  • Searchlight Crusade presents Working with Multiple Agents for a Purchase — Dan offers his perspective on exclusive representation agreement: “I have heard every rationalization under the sun as to why exclusive agreements are desirable. The only person they’re desirable to is insecure or incompetent agents”
  • A Penny Closer presents Our Home Financing Options — A couple in the process of buying a house shares their experience about mortgage and alternatives to avoid paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).

Finance

  • The Happy Rock presents Can’t Believe Everything You Read: 1953 Yale Goal Study — The Happy Rock shares the result of a research which debunk the 1953 Yale goals study that tied financial goals to a huge increase in wealth. In my opinion, a powerful story is worth a thousand words, and if it works constructively, then so be it.

Economy

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon via Wikipedia

Investing

Mount Everest

Mount Everest via Wikipedia

Budgeting

Frugality

  • Rather-Be-Shopping.com Blog presents Frugal Travel Tips From My Dad, and said, “Frugal travel tips that from the most frugal guy I know, my Dad” — Kyle shares how his dad took a 23 days trip traveling throughout the Northeast and only spent $56 a day!
  • American Consumer News presents Could You Survive With Only $25.00 a Week for Groceries? — An interesting exercise. If I have to live on $25 a week, I am thinking a bag of rice, a bag of beans, and whole chicken. I don’t think one week is that bad, but imagine this week, after week, after week.
  • Free Money Finance presents How to Get a Free Cruise — FMF offers some practical ways to score free cruises. Cool.
  • Debt Free presents Ways to Save Money — Need about a dozen ideas to save your money now? Then take a read.
  • Queercents presents Never Buy Discount Gifts — The insanity of gift giving; $95 on-sale gift is not as good as $80 full-priced gift?
  • Brip Blap presents High Quantity versus High Quality — Brip Blap shares his epiphany: “I suddenly realized the simplest way to define frugality and the various spend-less-than-you-earn philosophies. It is to live in a high-quality way rather than a high-quantity way.”
  • Plonkee Money presents About my car — Plonkee shares her story about her rather peculiar looking car that requires no upkeep or maintenance, and the total cost was under $100.

Saving

The Nazca Line

The Nazca Line via Wikitravel

Insurance

  • Philby’s Finance presents Top Tip: Check Your Insurance Coverage — Offers the following tip about insurance: “Check your policies regularly. Comparison shop once a year. The bottom end insurance policies and the top end insurance policies tend not to be cost effective.”
  • Treasure From The Heart presents Health Insurance - HSA’s. Offers a a short review of Health Savings Accounts: how they work, the advantages, and how it’s worked for the author. I already opted for my normal insurance coverage. But with the introduction of HSA, this option may be worth considering.
  • Me vs. Debt presents Health Insurance: My decision to go with HSA/HDHP — Another blogger that did the math and went with Health Savings Account/High Deductible Health Plan. If my company offers to add $1,500 to my HSA, I would have done the same.

Taxes

Other

27 Comments

  1. gravatar
    glblguy, 19. November 2007, 7:11

    Thanks for selecting me as an editor’s pick! Know this was a lot of hard work and we appreciate it!

  2. gravatar
    J at Home Finance Freedom, 19. November 2007, 7:21

    Thank you for the wondrous carnival, the bookmarking endorsement, and for hosting my article, “Payoff Mortgage v. Invest Stocks: Housing Myths Part 12.”

  3. gravatar
    Mike-TWA, 19. November 2007, 7:28

    Thanks for the editor’s pick and for the the great hosting job! The considerable time spent is apparent.

  4. gravatar
    Brip blap, 19. November 2007, 7:30

    Thanks for the link, and for doing such a good job with the carnival!

  5. gravatar
    hgstern, 19. November 2007, 7:30

    Awesome job!

    Thanks you for hosting, and for including our post.

    Happy Thanksgiving!!
    Â

  6. gravatar
    Dividends4Life, 19. November 2007, 7:42

    Wow! Great job with comments on each submission. Impressive! Thanks for including my article.

    Best Wishes,
    D4L

  7. gravatar
    MillionDollarJourney, 19. November 2007, 7:55

    Great job! I can tell that you put A LOT of effort into this carnival as I hosted last week. :)

  8. gravatar
    Patrick, 19. November 2007, 7:58

    Great theme for the carnival, Pinyo! I love the pics!

    Thanks for selecting my article as an Editor’s Choice! :)

  9. gravatar
    Kyle, 19. November 2007, 8:42

    Thanks for including my article. You did a great job hosting, I know how much work it is to put this many articles together, well done!

  10. gravatar
    plonkee, 19. November 2007, 9:07

    Thanks for the inclusion, but I’ll have you know that my transport is perfectly normal looking. Sort of.

  11. gravatar
    Dorian, 19. November 2007, 9:08

    I take great pleasure in being included in this carnival. I’ll be sure to help promote it. Good job!

  12. gravatar
    TV Girl, 19. November 2007, 9:19

    Thanks for the link, and great job organizing the carnival!

  13. gravatar
    Canadian Dream, 19. November 2007, 10:17

    WOW! Thanks for making my post part of the editor’s picks!

    Really great job on the whole theme and all those comments. I guess I better get reading.

    Thanks,
    Tim

  14. gravatar
    Ruchir, 19. November 2007, 10:23

    Thanks for including me. And stumbled ;)

  15. gravatar
    FourPillars, 19. November 2007, 11:45

    Great carny! Thanks for including me.

    Mike

  16. gravatar
    Broke Grad Student, 19. November 2007, 13:47

    Awesome job on the carnival! I’m honored to be an Editor’s Pick.

  17. gravatar
    Flexo, 19. November 2007, 14:49

    Thanks so much for hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance. Great job!

  18. gravatar
    SingleGuyMoney, 19. November 2007, 16:58

    That is a huge list! Thanks for hosting and including my post.

  19. gravatar
    Harrison, 19. November 2007, 17:21

    Thanks for spending time and making such a great carnival of personal finance for us. This going to make us spend a few hours to go through all the articles.

  20. gravatar
    Eric, 19. November 2007, 17:38

    Great job with the carnival! I can’t believe how many submissions there were!

  21. gravatar
    Pinyo, 19. November 2007, 18:12

    Thank you everyone. It was a lot of effort, but it was time well spent — all submission were top-notched. :-)

  22. gravatar
    Dough Roller, 20. November 2007, 4:45

    Pinyo, thanks for the editor’s pick this week. And the pictures look great! Wonderful job hosting.

  23. gravatar
    Madison, 20. November 2007, 10:05

    Great job!
    Thanks for picking me for the top ten.
    Lots of great stuff to read through this week!

  24. gravatar
    Guy, 21. November 2007, 13:02

    That was a great carnival, and it’s obvious you put a lot of time into it. Way to go, Pinyo!

  25. gravatar
    jim, 26. November 2007, 11:17

    Wow, what a great plethora of information. Thanks.

  26. gravatar
    Millionaire Mommy Next Door, 28. November 2007, 12:23

    Thanks for hosting. I’ve linked back to the carnival at:
    Recommended Reading
    (sorry for the delay - I’ve been sick…)

  27. gravatar
    Pinyo, 28. November 2007, 12:49

    @DR - You’re welcome. It was a great post.

    @Madison - You’re welcome and thank you for the submission

    @Guy - Thanks. It was a lot of work. :-)

    @Jim - You’re welcome

    @MMND - I hope you are feeling better now and thank you for the link. I am still working on your guest post, just need more time.

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