Carnival of Personal Finance #155 — Time With Family

Hello everyone and welcome to 155th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. Initially, I had a plan to make this a more unique and interesting carnival, but my sister and her family came up from Virginia for a surprised visit. As a result, I opted to spend more time with my family and less time on everything else.

About the format

98 submissions were excepted in this carnival and presented below. The first section contains articles that I thought were particularly good, or I was able to relate to in some way. In each section, I also presented what I thought was the best article in each category in the #1 spot. Although these articles are numbered, they are not ranked in any particular order.

Editor’s Picks

1. 29 Free Or Low Cost Ways To Save Energy & Money at My Two Dollars — It’s incredible how fast energy costs is going up. Personally, my raise this year didn’t even come close to covering the increased expenses. As such, I think this is a timely article to help us move in the right direction.
2. Stop Complaining about Gas Prices at The Red Stapler Chronicles — I love the concept. It’s incredible how much energy and mental health we all spend on things we that we can’t control. This article urges us to focus our energy on things we can actually control.
3. Invest In What You Know at Brip Blap — A philosophical look at the relationship between debt and investing. Brip Blap think a person’s attitude towards debt has something to do with the types of investments they’ll make and their risk tolerance.
4. Five things Indiana Jones Can Teach Us About Personal Finance at Free From Broke — Indiana Jones always manages to come out winning. Here are five of his traits that can help with personal finance.
5. Taxes…now or later? at Stewards of Wealth — A very interesting perspective on deferring taxes and investing for the future.
6. 26 Ways To Make Extra Money While Keeping Your Day Job at The Wisdom Journal — 26 more ideas on how to make money on the side.
7. Economic Mobility — What Are Your Chances of Moving Up, Really? at Can I Get Rich On A Salary — Can you really move from your current position to the top rungs of wealth, as the “American Dream” (or equivalent) suggest?
8. Learn to Say NO at Christian Money and Finances — The power of developing the skill of saying “NO”.
9. My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites at Our Fourpence Worth — A list over 30 links
   to web sites that offer free or low-cost products and services to help save time and money.
10. Increase Your Salary Without Increasing Your Work at The Digerati Life.

I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich. ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, “Identity Crisis,” M*A*S*H

Budgeting

1. How to Make a Budget and Stick with It at David Makes Cents — Step-by-step guide on how to make a successful budget.
2. Envelope Budgeting at On-Purpose Living
3. Tracking Expenses at Keeping Feet — Cool idea of using Google Docs to track expenses — i.e., electricity usage.
4. I am a phantom power ninja at Bumble f u c k ed — Great idea to hunt down all the power drain…I need to do this.
5. What Is: A Budget at Not the Jet Set — A good look at the concept of budgeting.
6. Still Hungry with Food Stamps? at LivingAlmostLarge — Is $280/month in food stamps too much or too little for a mother and a child living in DC?
7. Our budget & emergency fund will really pay off in June at Chief Family Officer.
8. May 15th-31st Financials at I’ve Got A Little Space To Fill.
9. Preparing for baby without breaking your budget at True Cost of Paradise.
10. Cash or Debit at Million and Beyond.

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Johann Schiller

Career

1. Become an Invaluable Employee by Adopting a Solution Oriented Mind Set at The Personal Financier — Invaluable and desired employees are a very rare resource, and a solution oriented mind set is a prerequisite to becoming one.
2. 5 Tips for Managing Your Finances if You Have Been Laid Off at Accumulating Money
3. Help Your Teen Find a Summer Job at Personal Finance Hacks — Great tips for helping your teenager find a summer job.
4. Q&A: Building a Business and Planning for the Future at American Small Business News — Q&A with Brett Wilder, the author of The Quiet Millionaire.
5. Advice For New College Graduates at Prime Time Money — A great set of career and saving advice.
6. 10 Great Ways for College Graduates to Start Off on the Right Track with their Finances at Think Your Way To Wealth.

The family is a haven in a heartless world. ~Attributed to Christopher Lasch

Credit and Debt

1. What do you think of bankruptcy? at Plonkee Money – Reactions to bankruptcy range from disgust to
   sympathy. What do you think, and why?
2. Thin Credit Files Are Not Sexy at Your Finish Rich Plan — Do you know what a thin credit file is and why it’s bad?
3. Would you rather…Default on all loans, OR… at Budgets are Sexy
4. Debunking the Latte Factor at Sound Money Matters — But it’s so much fun to poke at people who drink $5 coffee…
5. Bankruptcy, Last Resort For Debt at DebtFree Playbook Blog — Good information on different types of bankruptcy and how it could help you (while devastating your credit).
6. Do you have the energy to fight debt? at Until Debt Do Us Part — Personal finance is boring? You be the judge.
7. Looking for Extra Money to Pay off Your Debt? Here are 10 Things You Can do To Free Up
   Money at Destroy Debt — Wow, long title…but very descriptive.
8. Five Strategies For Surviving Tough Times at Goal of Financial Freedom.
9. Bankruptcy Untouchables: Debts That Remain After a Chapter 7 at Small Business Blog.
10. Does Your Credit Card Company Go For Your Pocketbook? at Uncommon Cents.
11. Do RFID Credit Cards Encrypt Data Before Sending? at Credit Addict.

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown

Finance

1. Dave Ramsey: Financial Planning Guru … or Charlatan? at Brian Preston’s “Money Guy” Blog and Podcast — Love him or not, Dave Ramsey is a financial planning phenomenon.
2. Interviewing Gen-X at Our Common Cents — Stories directly related to Gen X and Y — the missing pieces in the PF blogosphere?
3. The Graduate at InsureBlog — Some tips for recent graduates on what to look for, and what to look out for when buying insurance.
4. SUV-mania Persists at Funny about Money — SUVs are still alive and well…
5. Financial Readiness For Early Retirement at My Wealth Builder.
6. A Different Way to View Your “Number” at Harvesting Dollars.

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Frugality and Saving

1. Why living cheap is more important than investing at Living the Cheap Life.
2. Being Efficient and Frugal in your Bathroom at Money & Fitness Blog — “A faucet dripping at the rate of one drop per second can waste 3,000 gallons of water per year” — yikes!
3. Frugal Living Bandaid: Give Yourself an Allowance at One Caveman’s Financial Journey — This is an interesting concept to help prevent budget overrun and irresponsible spending.
4. What Savings Is To Me at Dreaming of Ferraris.
5. Store Brands Prevent Epileptic Attacks at The Village Idiot from Save, You Fool!
6. Double-Checking Your Prices Can Really Pay at The Money Kings — Items that are mis-tagged, mis-marked, or mis-prices can save you a boat load of money in certain instances.
7. We Need to Conserve as Much Energy as Possible at Personal Finance with Money Ning — Here’s more ways to save more money.
8. Is it worth picking up a penny from the sidewalk? at Pinching Copper — Do you still pick up pennies from the ground?
9. It’s Wedding Season! Tips to Keep the Costs Down at My Dollar Plan.
10. Snacks at Lunch at Dollar Frugal.
11. Why Do We Need Savings? at PennyJobs.com — The US savings rate has been declining for 15 years, from 8% in 1992 to -0.5% in 2007.
12. Certificates of Deposit: Don’t Bother Unless… at Money Under 30.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu

Investing

1. Three Rules Of Leveraged Investing at Amateur Asset Allocator – Three simple rules for using leverage.
2. The Truth About Oil Prices at How to profit from financial markets — An interesting prediction on oil prices and what he’s planning to do as an investor.
3. Vanguard Index Mutual Funds Versus Vanguard Managed Funds at Best No Load Funds — Can Vanguard’s actively managed mutual funds actually beat their passively managed counterparts?
4. You Can’t Beat the Herd by Following the Herd at Dividends4Life — If you want to beat the averages, you have have to do something different. An introduction to MSN’s stock screening tool.
5. SmartMoney’s 2008 Best Discount Brokers at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity — A look at this year’s Smart Money Broker Survey.
6. Schindler’s list’s investment style at Wealth=Wise(Investments+Strategies) — An interesting and reflective thought on the economy and investment style.
7. TradeKing.com IRA Review at My Retirement Blog — A straightforward review of TradeKing.com
8. How Fees Eat Your Lunch — It Still Adds Up To Dollars at Free Money Finance — An in-depth look at various investment costs — costs that can kill your investment return.
9. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Dividend Analysis at Dividend Growth Investor — Automatic Data Processing is a dividend aristocrat as well as a component in the S&P 500 index. It has been increasing its dividends for the past 33 consecutive years.
10. Retirement Plans in Trouble at Save and Conquer — If you are a teacher, make sure you have a good diversified allocation of stocks, bonds, and money market funds in your self-directed retirement plan (most likely a 403b).
11. International Stock Investing - Are You Diversifying Your Portfolio Globally? at Money Smart Life.
12. Can You Predict Dividend Payments into the Future? at The Dividend Guy — Although not a method
    to select dividend investments, projecting out future dividends from a company can be informative and fun.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. ~Jane Howard

Money Management

1. A flight delay isn’t an emergency, but you should fund one anyway at Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck — While you should only concern yourself about what you can control, you should prepare for the unexpected. Because, sooner or later, you can expect the unexpected.
2. Wants vs Needs at Journeyer’s Chronicles — The importance of considering want vs need in a conscious way when making purchasing decisions.
3. Financial Advice from a Call Girl: How Great Sex Can Make You Rich at Saving Advice — What does great sex have to do with financial advice?
4. How to Stay on Financial Track No Matter how Busy or Lazy You Are at Saving Savy by a Future Millionaire — Could you imaging being too lazy or too busy to take care of your finances? Here are some tips to make it easier.
5. UFirst Money Merge Account Shaves Years off your Mortgage…And Defies Logic! at Everyday Finance — A critical look at the new UFirst Money Merge Account and it’s risk/benefit profile.
6. Money Lessons for Generation X at American Consumer News — Some basic advice for Gen Xers.
7. 5 Tips for Finding Financial Freedom at Discover Debt Freedom — Great set of tips to improve your finances today.
8. Let Windfalls Jumpstart Your Goals at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
9. 100+ countries agree to ban cluster bombs; what does your money have to do with it? at Money and Values.
10. A Rolls Royce And Million Dollar House : Having Financial Vision at The Happy Rock — What’s your vision?
11. Rejuvenated And Ready To Rock: 10 Steps For Getting Back On Track at No Credit Needed.

Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted. ~Paul Pearshall

Real Estate

1. Revisiting the Buy vs Rent Question at Greener Pastures - Personal Finance.
2. Why Cost Is As Important As Rate For Mortgage Loans at Searchlight Crusade.
3. Rental Property Status May 2008 at Growing Money.
4. Are We Meant to be Homeowners? at The Baglady.
5. Rural Real Estate - Know Your Risks at Millionaire Money Habits — With any kind of investment you make, it is critical that you do your own due diligence and fully understand what you are getting into.

The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of life’s essential unfairness. ~Nancy Mitford

Taxes

1. Graduating? Calculate Your Tax Withholding at Poorer Than You — Advice for fresh college graduates on how to calculate tax withholding at their new job, and whether they should withhold too much, not enough, or just the right amount.
2. Where Is My Stimulus Payment? at Wealthy Reader — A list of the most common problems/issues with stimulus payments ranked by popularity.

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to. ~Dodie Smith

Other

1. The Knowing-Doing Gap at The Financial Philosopher — We know what to do but we don’t do it. Why not? There is a broad gap between knowing and doing and our success in life greatly depends upon closing this knowing-doing gap.
2. A new goal : $300 monthly passive income by year end at Saving to Invest — Andy shares his passive income goals.
3. Continuing to Simplify at A Dollar a Day — I must declutter.
4. Surviving A Funk at Adult ADD and Money — Dealing with ADD and finances.
5. Introduction to Insurance at The Wealth Accumulator.
6. The Hidden Costs of Growing Up at One Chance To Live — A young man experiencing the various grown up costs for the first time.
7. The next blogging niche: local money blogs at Monroe on a Budget.
8. The Future of Retirement? at FiveCentNickel.
9. Find Happiness by Working After Retirement at Smart Money Daily — Retirement is fast becoming a
   myth, while a lot of people may be forced to work to augment their income a growing number are actually choosing to work…just because they enjoy it!
10. When do parents hold the financial hammer? at Mighty Bargain Hunter — When can parents take their
    kid’s money? When should they?
11. What is Phishing–A Real Life Example at The Dough Roller — Don’t let a phishing email steal your
    confidential information. Here’s how to spot a phishing email.
12. Marketing Your Etsy Shop at My Small Cents.
13. Reasons to Cheer the Higher Price of Gas at Smart Easy Money.

Thank you for your participation in the 155th Carnival of Personal Finance. Next week article will be hosted at Prime Time Money.

Photo by babasteve via Flickr

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