Carnival of Personal Finance # 206: The Memorial Day Stars and Stripes Edition

It was at Wisebread last week, and it’s at Funny About Money next week. And this week it’s here. Welcome! I hope you have a pleasant Memorial Day Weekend. Nice to have a day off, but also, to take a little time to think about what Memorial Day is all about.

Editor’s Picks

Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents $500 E-Trade Brokerage Bonus.

Glblguy from Gather Little by Little presents Six Withdrawal limit on savings accounts.

Chance from Personal Finance Software Reviews presents Moneystrands Review, and says, “This is a very in-depth review on the very new personal finance application moneyStrands.”

Spend on Life from Spend on Life presents Twitter Name Game, and says, “Seemingly innocuous, the game will gather things like your mother’s maiden name, the street where you grew up, and your first pet’s name and spit out a “porn name.”

Budgeting

Canadian Finance from The Canadian Finance Blog presents Keep Track Of Your Money With Wesabe, and says, “Wesabe is a free website that allows you to track your expenses and savings. Similar to desktop programs like Quicken or Microsoft Money.”

The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Revealed: The Happy Rock’s Monthly Expenses .

Pinyo from Moolanomy Personal Finance presents Earn More And Spend Less Is Your Ticket To Financial Freedom, and says, “Personal Finance is not that complicated. If you think about it, you can boil down the whole thing to this: Earn More and Spend Less.”

Career

Studenomics from Studenomics presents Planning For Life After Your College Graduation, and says, “Do we really know what we want to do after college? Many of us think so but the truth of the matter is that we have no clue what’s in store for us.”

Todd Metheny from The Personal Finance Playbook presents I Hate the Word Networking.

Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents My Epiphany about being Self Employed.

Credit

Tony from Bad Credit Advisor presents Credit score scale range and guide.

Barbara Bryn Klare from The UpSide of Money presents Hello Kitty Credit Cards - Say Hello to the New Credit Card Industry, and says, “The face of the credit card industry is changing - to pink, white and yellow. Credit card companies to start going after previously “off-limits” targets - like children and those with sterling credit.”

Jim from Bargaineering presents How Secured Credit Cards Work.

Olivia from Independent Beginnings presents Attention Students: You Are Gonna Need Permission to Open that Credit Card.

Frank Curmudgeon from Bad Money Advice presents Credit Cards and Our Nation of Children.

American Consumer news from American Consumer News presents How the New Credit Card Laws Will Affect You.

Jeremy from Taking Charge presents Am I a lab rat in the credit card industry’s psychology experiment?.

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents On Travel Credit Cards: How To Travel With Money.

Manshu from OneMint presents Prepaid Cards: Pros and Cons.

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card presents Credit Card Bill of Rights is Law.

vh from Funny about Money presents Credit Card Companies to Penalize “Freeloaders”: What’s Your Plan?.

Debt

Bret from BretFrohlich.com presents The 10-20-70 Plan for Paying Off Debt, and says, “This is the simplest and most effective plan I have ever seen for paying off debt.”

DJ from Corvus Financial News Wire presents Bankruptcy Alternatives To Consider, and says, “Bankruptcy is obviously in vogue these days , but there are alternatives “.

Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents Debt Tsunami: The Ultimate Method for Paying Off Debt.

Brad Chaffee from Enemy of Debt presents A Destructive Mindset: Is This What You Believe Too?.

Memorial Day honors those men and women who have died for their country. Originally called Decoration Day, the first Memorial Day was on May 30th, 1868.  It was a day set aside to decorate the graves of soldiers who had died in the Civil War.

Chris Holdhiede from Stumble Forward presents 3 Ways You Can Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Get Debt Free, and says, “Can You Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone?”

Economy

Miss M from M is for Money presents I Don’t Want the Recession to End.

Money Beagle from Money Beagle presents Note To Credit Card Companies: We’re ALL In A Recession.

Finance

Peter from Bible Money Matters presents If You Were Strapped For Cash, How Far Would You Go To Make Money?, and says, “Times are tough, how far would you go to make a buck?”

Ray from Financial Highway presents How To Find A Good Advisor?- Ask These Questions, and says, “A list of questions to ask a Financial Advisor before hiring. ”

Bob Vineyard, CLU from InsureBlog presents Wrong On So Many Levels, and says, “Summary: InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard has some potentially bad news for folks taking advantage of Health Savings Accounts to lower their health insurance costs.”

TStrump from The Strump - Financial Blog presents Maximizing Your Personal Revenue, and says, “Are you making the best use of your time when it comes to earning money?”

DR from Doughroller presents Credit Card Legislation: The “Winners” and “Losers” May Surprise You, and says, “The new credit card legislation, while designed to protect consumers, may end up hurting us as much as helping us. Here’s why.”

Frugality

Madison from My Dollar Plan presents 11 Ways to Save Money This Month.

Debt Ninja from Punch Debt In the Face presents You’re only gettin’ older, and says, “Wanna know why now is the best time to figure your life out?”

FMF from Free Money Finance presents 14 Ways to Save Money, and says, “14 money saving tips and my take on them.”

FruGal from FruGal presents Budget sideboard make-over (Fall in love again with an old piece of furniture).

pfincome from Passive Family Income presents 10 Cheap Summer Vacations - Ideas for Staying at Home with the Family, and says, “10 ideas for taking a “day” vacation with your family this summer.”

Curt from PennyJobs.com presents Old Money Becomes Treasure as New Money Sources Have All But Dried Up.

Michal from Energy Saving Gadgets presents How to Save Money with a Monster Power Strip, and says, “Save money and protect your equipment with this Monster Power Strip.”

Tisha Tolar from Leave Debt Behind presents Top 10 Tips to Help You Save Money.

A prayer for peace.

Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator presents To Really Save Money, Cut Recurring Monthly Expenses, Not Daily Splurges, and says, “Bringing your lunch to work and cutting out the daily Starbucks are great ways to save money, but the biggest potential to cut the fat from your budget lies in your recurring expenses.”

Investing

The DIV-Net from The Div-Net presents The World is Bigger than Canada and the U.S..

FIRE Finance from FIRE Finance presents What is the current inflation rate?.

Joe Light from Invest Wisdom presents Why inspiration has no place in investing, and says, “Paying down debt, opening your first IRA, starting 401(k) contributions…these are all positive steps that a little bit of inspiration can make happen. But unfortunately, when it comes time to invest, that same kind of empowerment can get you into trouble.”

D4L from Dividends Value presents Ten Dividend Stocks Beating The S&P 500, and says, “Dividend stocks have long been considered defensive stocks - those that you buy when the economy and the market go south. While everyone else is panicked about their portfolio’s decline, dividend investors see a downturn as an incredible buying opportunity.”

Dan from Darwin’s Finance presents Start an Investment Club: How To, Rules and Reality Checks, and says, “This article provides a comprehensive reality check on the benefits and burdens of starting an investment club.”

Investing School from Investing School presents Volatility and Market Fluctuations are Great for Retail Investors, and says, “Volatility is not just good for traders. Know what the consequences are and you will make more money.”

RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents Is Buy and Hold Investing Dead or Just Misunderstood?.

Saj from Barel Karsan presents Of Swine And Men, and says, “Stock analysts are focused on the short term, but investors should focus on the long term for investing success.”

Bob from ChristianPF presents 3 keys to safe investing, and says, “In order to keep your investments safe and successful, these are three things you should be doing… ”

Don from Keepmydollar presents Increasing your returns, and says, “Investment returns can be increased by keeping your costs down. Using index funds and some simple asset allocations you can run your own portfolio for less than having an advisor.”

Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck from Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents Yet another reason why you shouldn’t even try to time the market, and says, “If Warren Buffett succeeds without timing the market, why do we feel the need to?”

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents The “Super IRA” Strategy, and says, “Consolidating old retirement plans and IRA’s can help organize your life and investments. ”

Wealth Pilgrim from Wealth Pilgrim presents Graduation Gift Dilemma…..Is $9.90 Too Much To Spend?.

Todd from Harvesting Dollars presents Simple Portfolios Are Best

ElizabethG (Modern Gal) from Modern Gal presents My Biggest Investment Mistakes (to date).

Money Management

Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents This Recession has been a Wake Up Call.

David R. Lampsen from Personal Finance Analyst presents Why Good Advice May Not Help Your Personal Finances.

MoneyNing from Personal Finance Blog by MoneyNing presents How to Dispute Unreasonable Charges on Your Bills, and says, “If reason is on your side, don’t give up and dispute that charge!”

Matt from Finance for Physicians presents Improve Your Financial Situation by Decluttering, and says, “With many young people moving in the near future for school or professional reasons, now is a great time to declutter. The article talks about how to declutter and, more importantly, how to improve your finances by tracking and deducting donations and selling stuff around the house.”

Single Guy Money from Single Guy Money presents Financial Tips For Upcoming High School Graduates.

The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents How To Be A Millionaire: Secrets To Success.

FFB from Free From Broke presents 25 Traits Of The Not So Well To Do, and says, “I’ve found that people who are cash strapped tend to have a lot of these traits in common.”

Aryn from Sound Money Matters presents What Do You Do When the Bank Makes an Error in Your Favor?, and says, “Do you notify the bank or take the money and run?”

mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Personal finance will not crawl away and die, and says, “Personal finance is alive and well, but we need to make it our own responsibility.”

As you enjoy your long weekend, cookouts, and parades, please take a moment to think about those courageous victims of conflict - of those that have given their lives for their country, so that we may live with freedom and peace.

Real Estate

linke from Man and his Money presents Renting vs. Buying, and says, “Due to the current economy and tenuous nature of my employment, et cetera, I discuss why my wife and I are currently choosing to rent a home. Typically, I am a strong advocate of home ownership, but I am not right now.”

Debt Freedom Fighter from Discover Debt Freedom presents The Most Common Reasons to Refinance a Home.

Matt Paulson from Fine Tuned Finances presents How Much House Can You Afford?.

Reviews

Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents Student Loans and Real Estate Loans: Default, Repayment vs. Nonpayment and Consolidation.

Saving

Jason Unger from Automatic Finances presents 3 Tips for Easy Short-term Savings.

Kacie from Sense to Save presents Break your big goal into chunks, and says, “Thanks for considering my post!”

Mike from Four Pillars presents Never underestimate (or overestimate) small savings or income, and says, “Compare savings to your disposable income to get a better idea is it’s worthwhile.”

Wojciech Kulicki from Fiscal Fizzle presents Creating Graphic Tools to Motivate Your Finances.

PT Money from Prime Time Money presents The CD Ladder: A Different Way to Save, and says, “All about the CD laddering strategy.”

Other

The Weakonomist from Weakonomics presents Six Lessons Star Trek Can Teach You About Money.

MoneyEnergy from MoneyEnergy presents If You Want To Feel Rich, Count the Things You Have That Money Can’t Buy.

The Incidental Economist from The Finance Buff presents An Illustrative Welfare Analysis of Google Reader, and says, “Using Google Reader as an example, this post explains how economists think about the economic value to consumers and producers of the purchase of a product. ”

MLR from My Life ROI presents Roadside Emergency Kit: What to Include, and says, “Preparing a fully stocked roadside emergency kit is a safe and smart thing to do. The kit should follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: You need to cover food, water, warmth, light, and health. A detailed overview of what to keep in the kit!”

J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents “Goodness Is The Only Investment That Never Fails.”, and says, “Giving back to the community is key for a happy life - this is my attempt to promote the charities closest to your hearts :)”

Rags from From Rags 2 Riches presents Time is Money, But Just Exactly How Much is It Worth?, and says, “Is your time really worth as much as you think it is?”

God Bless America

Related Websites

• Dilbert and Personal Finance I discovered an old post over at Fire Finance today talking about Dilbert author Scott Adam's views of personal finance. In his book Dilbert and...
• Hard Truth Week in Review- Memorial Day Edition Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and I are spending the long weekend at the lake with family (and rain, unfortunately). So this time is about enjoying the fruits...
• Weekend Link Love 5.25.08 My post Don't Invest Like Warren Buffett was included in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance #153 hosted by Money And Values. Here are a...

The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, #6 - Are You Cashing in on Going Green?

Welcome to the still brand spanking new Carnival of Pecuniary Delights!

You can check out last week’s carnival at MoneyNing,  and next week’s carnival at I Pick Up Pennies.

And if you’re interested in hosting, or reading more about the carnival, get the scoop at Penny Pince’s Blog Carnival page.

We had 34 great entries this week.  Well, really 36 great entries, but someone, ahem, I won’t say who - but you know who you are - tried to slip more than one entry under the radar.  Naughty blogger.

Please link back, and if you enjoy the carnival, stumble, fav, twitter and anything else you’d like to do.

If you like my blog sign up for my feed.  I’m trying to get to 200 subscribers and it ain’t easy.  And if any of those google ads are calling you, click it.

Now, to the carnival.

The world is going green.  And for us personal finance bloggers, there’s money to be made!  There’s a plethora of ways to cash in.

For instance, have you heard of the revamped up and coming “Cash for Clunkers” Program making it’s way through the legislature?  It’s designed to assist both the auto industry and the environment, as well as you!

Favs

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Getting Started With Investing.

J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents What makes a job a truly enjoyable place to work?

PT Money from Prime Time Money presents AnnualCreditReport.com and Your Free Credit Score. The only place to get a true credit report.

Charlie from PayLessForFood.com presents How to Buy Bread and Bakery Products So Cheap You’ll Think You’re Stealing.

Prune Danish from Frugal Luxury presents The Perfect Frugal Quiche.  Frugal, to me, means ‘without waste’. This recipe is inexpensive to prepare…but it also saves time, and uses up leftovers.

Career

Writer’s Coin from The Writer’s Coin presents Turning Down a Promotion: A Baseball Lesson.

Debt and Credit

Bob from Christian Personal Finance presents Debt Snowball software. YNAB actually comes with a great debt snowball software tool as a bonus!

Pinyo from Moolanomy Personal Finance presents Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps To Financial Freedom.  An in depth look of Dave Ramsey’s famous Baby Steps To Financial Freedom plan.

Matt from Taking Charge presents You are your own best credit repair company.

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Prevent Identity Theft: Some Credit Report Monitoring Services and Options. He discusses a variety of ways to monitor your credit status and history. There are both free and paid ways to do it and he reviews the pros and cons of these options.

Madison from My Dollar Plan presents Making Home Affordable Second Lien Program.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove from Tough Money Love presents Reasons to Monitor Your Net Worth, not Your Credit Score.  There are some very good reasons to pay more attention to your net worth and less to your credit score. This post lists some of them.

Canadian Finance from The Canadian Finance Blog presents Borrowing for the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC). The HRTC is a Canadian 15% credit on money spent for renovations over $1,000 and no more than $10,000.

Rajeev Kumar Singh from Money For Investment presents Benefits of using your credit card wisely.

Matt B from Financial Methods presents Debt Statistics-How do you Stack Up?.  Where do you stand when compared to the “average” American Adult when it comes to debt?

You’ll want to pay attention to the 2009 tax breaks available for insulating your home, or buying a hybrid, too.

Frugality

Online Banks from Online Banks Blog presents New Hybrid Cars - Save Money On Gas.

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Easiest and Simplest Chicken Pasta Recipe You’ll Ever Make.

Penelope Pince from Pecuniarities presents Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue.  A look at the origins of the word frugality and why it’s a trait to be proud of rather than ashamed.

Jim from Bargaineering presents How to Become a Coupon Ninja in 15 Minutes A Week.

kyle from Suburban Dollar presents Why Budgets Fail.

Insurance

MLR from My Life ROI, Getting the Best Return on Life presents What is Dental Insurance & Who Has It? A synopsis of what dental insurance is, who has it in America, and reasons why you should.

Miss M from M is for Money presents FSA vs HSA.

Investors will benefit from all the money Obama is throwing at alternative energy companies.  Here’s where the money is going.

Investing

Ray from Financial Highway presents Investment Club- Learning About Investing.  Investment Clubs can be a very powerful educational resource to learn about investing and money management.

SVB from The Smarter Wallet presents Investing In The Stock Market? Rules To Help You Sleep At Night.

Money Management

pfincome from Passive Family Income presents How to Create Passive Income Through Affiliate Marketing.  Creating a new income stream through affiliate marketing can be an excellent way to pay down your debt or increase your net worth.

Mr.GoTo from Go To Retirement presents Building a Retirement Emergency Fund.  A retirement emergency fund serves a purpose that is different from a conventional emergency fund. Read more about it.

B Simple from Simplifed Financial Lifestyle presents Financial Delegation will lead to Financial Simplification.

mfd from My Findependence day presents Fancy Tax Software - Should You Be Afraid?.

Smart meters will soon help you locate the energy sinks at home.  The claim is that you can save as much as 20% on your energy bills.

Other

Kelly from Almost Frugal from Almost Frugal presents Living With A Chronic Condition.

Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Ohio CollegeAdvantage Named One of the Best College Savings Plans.

The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Reader Stories - Doing What It Takes.

Get green going green.

Related Websites

• The Frugal Duchess offers The Carnival of Personal Finance #183 It's Monday and that means it's Carnival of Personal Finance Day!  The Frugal Duchess published the latest edition, and it was overflowing with holiday, career,...
• The Carnival of Personal Finance #81 is up up and away! Many thanks to Might Bargain Hunter for putting up the Carnival of Personal Finance #81, the first one for 2007! There are tons of great...
• 3 Common Credit Myths Exposed! I recently pulled my credit report from each of the bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. I used AnnualCreditReport.com. It's like a free credit score check...

The Money Hacks Carnival #59 - The Duct Tape Edition

Welcome to the Money Hacks Carnival #59 - The Duct Tape - sometimes called Duck Tape - Edition.

First, let’s take care of business:

• If you enjoy this carnival, please stumble it, tweet it, facebook it, pf buzz it, etc, etc. and sign up for my feed. 

• You might also want to check out last week’s edition at Ask Mr. Credit Card and next week’s edition at Consumer Boomer.

• You can submit articles to the Money Hacks Carnival here.  Deadline is 9 pm the Tuesday night before the carnival posts.

• If you would like to host this carnival, go here.

Now, on with the carnival!

Duct tape can fix almost anything.  But one thing it can’t fix is my bank account.  That’s why I’ve read through these great posts, and you should, too!

Duct Tape was originally called Duck Tape - because of the way it repels water “like water rolling off a duck’s back.”  It was developed by Johnson and Johnson during WW II to protect ammunition from water.  Soldiers were soon using it to repair a variety of things such as jeeps, tents, and clothing.

Favorites

Neal Frankle asks the question  Are You Holding Any “Toxic Assets?” at Wealth Pilgrim: Money Management Advice, Financial Stress Management, & Resources.

FFB presents No Job Is Below You posted at Free From Broke, saying “In these tough times, you work if you have to, with a job you can find. Job snobbery doesn’t have much of a place when you can’t make ends meet!”

ChristianPF presents First time home owner? This is a great year for it! posted at Christian Personal Finance.

mbhunter presents Don’t worry about hitting the next tax bracket posted at Mighty Bargain Hunter.

The Smarter Wallet presents Trading The Market: What Market Trends Are Stock Traders Riding On Recently? posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Best Online Banks with High Yield Savings Accounts posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.   If you haven’t already, join the debate about best on-line banks with bargaineering jim.

After the war and during the housing boom, duck tape started to be called duct tape, because it was often used to seal air ducts. It’s color was changed from army green to the silver we know today. It has since been “outlawed” in the duct world, replaced with more dependable aluminum tapes.

And now, the rest of this week’s 90 plus  great submissions.

Careers

Dana presents The Economics Behind Work | Investoralist posted at Investoralist.

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Building Self-Discipline posted at Potential 2 Success.

TStrump presents Can You Be Too Nice? posted at The Strump - Financial Blog.

Credit and Debt

J. Money presents New Credit Card #? Don’t forget to update all your accounts! posted at Budgets are Sexy | A Personal Finance Blog.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Lending Club Review: A Leading Peer To Peer Lending Network posted at The Digerati Life.

Chief Family Officer presents Warning for new mortgage holders: Ignore that biweekly payment invitation posted at Chief Family Officer.

Sun presents UPromise Card Improves Rewards Program and Offer $25 Bonus posted at Earn More Invest Wisely at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

PF Credit Cards presents Credit Cards are Evil Just as Knives are Sharp posted at PF Credit Cards.

Raj Patel presents Subscriptions When in Debt posted at DebtGoal.

MBR presents Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) posted at Monitor Bank Rates.

KCLau presents 5 Ways To Take Charge Of Our Finances posted at KCLau’s Money Tips.

PT presents Borrowing from the 401K: The Best of a Bad Situation posted at Prime Time Money.

The Happy Rock presents DD’s Monthly Expenses - March 2009 posted at The Happy Rock.

Credit Shout presents Best Gas Credit Cards posted at CreditShout.

Kate Kashman presents Regaining Control of Your Credit Cards posted at The Paycheck Chronicles.

“A group of engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center came up with a unique design using plastic bags, cardboard and duct tape 39 years ago to save the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13.”  “Once I found out there was duct tape on the ship,” said one of the engineers, ” I knew we were home free.”

Economy

Jeff Rose presents Layoff Is Pending, What Should I Do? posted at Good Financial Cents.

Bank Savings Review presents Four Banks Give Back TARP Already posted at Bank Savings Review.

Frugality and Saving Money

d. ninja presents My Expenses: February 2009 posted at Punch Debt In The Face.

Aryn presents How to Set Up a Toy and Clothing Exchange posted at Sound Money Matters.

Cool Mommy presents 10 Cool Sites To Help You Save Money posted at MyCoolMommy.

Condo Blues presents How to Make Powdered High Efficiency Laundry Detergent posted at Condo Blues.

Money Beagle presents Cheap Ways To Extend Your Computer Life posted at Money Beagle.

Heather Levin presents How To Barter posted at The Greenest Dollar.

MLR presents All-Inclusive: Utilizing Technology to Slash Your Cable Bill posted at My Life ROI, Getting the Best Return On Life.

Nicki presents Benefits Of Outdoor Grilling posted at Domestic Cents.

Ishan presents Best Tips to Save Money when you Buy New Car posted at Save Few Bucks.

David r. Lampsen presents Cash for Gas: Save Money on Gas by Paying with Paper posted at Personal Finance Analyst.

Jerry Dellison presents Saving Some Green on Fresh Greens at the Farmers Market posted at Dealsupermarket.

Kyle presents Renting a Car - What You Should Know posted at Suburban Dollar.

Len Penzo presents Essential Tips for Lowering Your Grocery Bill (Part 2) posted at Len Penzo . Com.

Studenomist presents Are Your Hobbies Becoming A Financial Burden? posted at Studenomics.

Hank presents Be Careful of People Who Manipulate Statistics To Get Better Results posted at Own The Dollar.

RB presents Want to Cut Costs? Learn to Do Without posted at Recessions Blow.

Jason presents How I Saved $936 in Less Than 30 Minutes Online posted at Automatic Finances.

Wren Caulfield presents Netbooks: Economical Computing Option or a Waste of Money? posted at True Adventures in Money Hacking. If you’re looking for a netbook, this is a great article.

Mark Foo presents Managing Your Money The Rich Way posted at The Big Dreamer.

Michael Haltman presents Mark To Market Eased: Making A Silk Purse From A Sow’s Ear? Example Included posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator.

FitBuff presents 3 Easy Vegan Recipes posted at FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog.

There’s no limits to duct tape’s uses.

Income

pfincome presents Free Passive Income Start Up Opportunities posted at Passive Family Income.

Madison presents How To Earn Money With CashCrate posted at My Dollar Plan.

FMF presents 20 Ways to Make More Money posted at Free Money Finance.

Insurance

Todd shares an excellent example on why you need health insurance inPre-term Labor With Twins posted at HarvestingDollars.

Tushar Mathur presents Health Savings Accounts explained posted at Everything Finance.

vh presents Stimulus program makes COBRA affordable posted at Funny about Money.

Miss M presents Auto Insurance – Are You Covered? posted at M is for Money.

Michael presents How Much Car Insurance Do You Need? posted at How Much Car Insurance Do You Need?.

Investing

http://www.500indexfund.com/just-buy-index-funds-directly-11.htm

Option trading demystified withOption Trading Gives You Better Returns posted at eTrades.

Investing School presents Beginning with Options Trading posted at Investing School.

ifvat presents How To Pick Stocks And Mutual Funds posted at ifvat.

Verna Morris presents How to Build a Simple and Effective All-ETF Portfolio posted at ETFdb.

Larry Russell presents Most Individual Investors Are Poor Personal Portfolio Managers | Personal Investment Management posted at Personal Investment Management.

D4L presents Low-Debt Dividend Stocks posted at Dividends Value.

Aussie Investor presents Asset Allocation - Investing By The Numbers posted at Australian Stock Market Bloga. Tactical Asset Allocation.

Ray presents Asset Allocation-What it is and Why it’s Important posted at Financial Highway.

Dan presents How to Profit from Employee Stock Options Regardless of Share Performance posted at Darwin’s Finance.

Patrick @ Money Saving Deals presents TradeKing Offers up to $150 in Transfer Fees posted at Money Saving Deals.

Walter W. Fouse presents 7 Ways to Pick the Best Noload Mutual Funds and ETFs posted at Top No Load Mutual Funds.

Super Saver presents A Roth Conversion Strategy For a Declining Market posted at My Wealth Builder.

Real Estate

Dollar Frugal presents Dollar Frugal » Blog Archive » Investing in Properties Now posted at Dollar Frugal.

Tallahassee Real Estate presents How To Make An Offer In Today’s Real Estate Market posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

Taxes

The Weakonomist presents <a href=”http://weakonomics.com/2009/03/25/fair-tax-%C2%A0the-pros-and-cons/” >What are the pros and cons of the fair tax | Weakonomi¢s</a> posted at <a href=”http://weakonomics.com” >Weakonomics</a>.

Nate Desmond presents Giveaway: Free TurboTax Online Premier Tax E-Filing posted at Debt-free Scholar.

Bank Champ presents Bank Promotions Are Taxed posted at Bank Champ.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents How to File a Tax Extension posted at Cash Money Life.

Other

Jason presents Interviewing The Creators Of moneyStrands posted at MyMoneyMinute.

DR presents 10 Tips to Declutter Your Finances posted at The Dough Roller.

Learn how being less-than-perfect can be a good thing, in Flaws That Helped Me With My Personal Finance posted at The Financial Blogger.

Shaun Connell presents Being Frugal is Just the First Step posted at Learn Financial Planning.

Nate Desmond presents 23 Warning Signs of Scholarship Scams posted at Debt-free Scholar.

kathryn presents Top Ways to Waste Money on Your Home posted at Out of Debt - Christian Finances and Debt Help.

Jorge presents Book Review: Designing Your Child?s Financial Future (Part 2) posted at Independent Minded.

Diego Cervantes presents What Everyone Ought to Know About the ‘World Currency’: What Geithner Really Meant, SDRs and More posted at Bankling.

vsocorp presents VSO: Prepare Yourself For The New Kind Of Thinking – Business Thinking posted at VSO Corp: Business Logic, Stratey and Success.

Michael Haltman presents Mark To Market Eased: Making A Silk Purse From A Sow’s Ear? Example Included posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator.

That concludes our Money Hacks Carnival for this week.  Thank you for visiting.  If you enjoyed yourself, sign up for my feed.

For the ultimate dt web site, The Duct Tape Guys will take you to knew heights.

Related Websites

• In Duct Tape, Trust You know he will probably want to kill you after you tell him what you did to his beloved clocks. Nonetheless, you put all the...
• Twitter: A Marketer's Duct Tape - John Sviokla - HarvardBusiness.org Image via Wikipedia Voices » John Sviokla » Twitter: A Marketer's Duct Tape This may be the best article written to date about Twitter the...
• Ultimate Frugality - Making A Wallet Out Of Duct Tape. I think I am going to give this a try this weekend just to say I did it. I already have a perfectly fine wallet...

The Weekly BlogHound - 2nd Edition

Submit

your favorites

for free to

The Weekly Bloghound

Listings will be posted at the author’s discretion.

Read about Freegans living on Garbage at Queercents.

Two Lists of Personal Finance Twitterers at the Pecuniary Delights Forum:

• 125 more Personal Finance Junkies You Should Follow on Twitter, by Bible Money Matters
• 118 twitter users Who Blog About Money at The Might Bargain Hunter

The Personal Finance Carnival Line-Up

(drum roll, please)

Personal Finance,  Debt Reduction (Mon)
Festival of Frugality (Tues)
The Money Hacks Carnival (Wed)
The New 1st Edition of The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights (Thu)

Submit your listings to The Weekly Bloghound

Related Websites

• Carnivals and Festivals This is an exceptional week so far for carnivals and festivals.  Definitely not the same-old-stuff:The Carnival of Personal Finance with quotes from Franky's top sixThe...
• The Official Launch of Personal Finance Buzz Over the past two weeks, I have been working on a new project called Personal Finance Buzz. Personal Finance Buzz, or PF Buzz for short,...
• Money-money-money-money carnivals for this week The Festival of Frugality #13 is up at Simply Thrifty. Next week, Neo's Nest Egg hosts! The Carnival of Investing #12 is up at Personal...

Get in on the New Personal Finance Carnival of Pecuniary Delights This Thursday

Penelope Pince

over

at

Pecuniarities

has been

busting her butt.

Here’s what

she’s been up to:

I.  The launch of the new Carnival of Pecuniary Delights this Thursday.

Submissions are due by Wednesday at 6 pm EST every week.

Free piggy bank art prizes to all who volunteer to host or submit articles.

You can check out the hosting schedule here.

The 1st Edition is up!

II.  The launch of the  new Pecuniary Personal Finance Network

and

Forum

of which I am a proud member

Penelope at Pecuniarities

Trevor at Financial Nut

Megan at Counting my Pennies

Scott at The Passive Dad

Lisa at Greener Pastures

Thanks for these great new editions to the Personal Finance Blogging World!

Related Websites

• Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance - May Edition is up! The Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance for May is now up over at Greener Pastures. Go check it out, the theme of this...
• Can't Miss Personal Finance Carnivals It is Carnival Round up time again, the carnivals were stellar again this week as always, and nice enough to let me participate yet again....
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights Giveaways: Cute Piggy Bank Magnet Prizes for Hosting and Submissions I recently announced a new personal finance and frugality blog carnival that I've organized called the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, and Madoline and I have...

Carnival of Debt Reduction #183 - Women’s History Month

Welcome to the Carnival of Debt Reduction. I encourage you to also take a moment to head over to the Carnival of Personal Finance at Green Panda Treehouse.  She has a cool music theme going.

Since it’s also Women’s History Month, and other carnivals this week will probably celebrate St Patrick’s Day, I thought instead I’d highlight some of the more interesting successful business women through history.

“In 1875, after her husband went bankrupt, Lydia Estes Pinkham started probably the first widely successful business run by a woman in America. Her product was a medicine for “all those painful Complaints and Weaknesses so common to our best female population.”  Even though Mrs. Pinkham had been in the temperance movement, as a student of phrenology she had studied human nature, and almost 20% of her concoction was alcohol, which she said acted “as [a] solvent and preservative,” certainly solving many a problem and preserving not a few of her fellow citizens. Many similar medicines of the past used alcohol as the active ingredient, which was often the only way respectable women were able to enjoy the intoxicant.  And during the banning of alcoholic beverages in America, especially in the 1920s, the Pinkham “medicine” enjoyed its greatest success.”

Debt Reduction

DR presents 10 Lies that Got You (and Keep You) in Credit Card Debt posted at The Dough Roller.

Leave Debt Behind presents How to Pay Down Your Debts Quickly posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Taking Charge submitted a post called Radical ideas to extinguish your debt.
Shaun Connell presents Short-Term Loans Cause Long-Term Destruction posted at Short-Term Loans.

Personal Finance Analyst submitted a post called Packing a Little Extra Snow on Your Snowball.

Studenomist presents Is an Education a Debt Sentence? posted at Financial Independence in Your 20s | Studenomics.

Consolidator presents Getting Information On Debt Consolidation Loans posted at Debt Consolidation Loans For Beginners.

Destroy Debt presents Debt Snowball, Highest Interest Debt First, or Avalanche posted at Destroy Debt.

Matt Sherberg presents Choosing the Best Debt Solution posted at Debt.

JD presents The Global Debt Disease & How It Affects You posted at debthelpcreditrepairpro.com.

Mary Pickford (1893-1979)
Actress - Pickford , star of Broadway productions and silent and talking films, was loved as “America’s Sweetheart.” A very savvy businesswoman, she co-founded United Artists in 1919 with the revolutionary idea of allowing filmmakers to have total artistic control over their films. As co-owner of United Artists, Mary Pickford became a millionaire several times over. In 1928, she won an Academy Award for Coquette. She continued producing films into the 1930s.

Banking and Credit

NH discusses car loan options in Should You Use a Private Car Loan or Dealer Financing? posted at Car Loan Tips.

The Digerati Life submitted a post called HSBC Direct Online Savings Account Review: With Free ATM Bank Card.

FMF presents Free Money Finance: Chase Freedom Lowers Rewards for New Cardholders posted at Free Money Finance.

CreditCardAssist.com presents How to Keep Your Credit Cards Safe posted at CreditCardAssist.com.

apply4-credit presents How Often Do You Request a New Credit Card Number? posted at Apply For Credit.

Debt Freedom Fighter presents Looking for Low Interest Refinance Loans? posted at Discover Debt Freedom.

Mr Credit Card presents Household Bank Credit Card Review posted at Ask Mr Credit Card.

Lisa presents Saving Money with Credit Cards posted at The Budgeting Blog.

Sun presents Lending Club Adds Yield to Maturity Data to Notes posted at Earn More Invest Wisely at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

Book Reviews

J. Money presents New favorite book: “The Richest Man in Babylon” posted at Budgets are Sexy..

Economy

Jim DeSantis presents You Are A Banker And A U.S. Automaker posted at On Line Tribune | Front Page Blog. He says that some businesses are all about conspicuous consumption without regard for the consequences.

Tony presents Small Business- The Ultimate Obama Casualty posted at Biz World Blog.

Michael Haltman presents Beware The Misleading Nature Of 24 Hour Business News posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator.

Steve Bernal presents What Do They Mean When They Say “Conscious Business”? posted at What Do They Mean When They Say conscious Business?.

Raj Patel presents Laid Off? No New Job? How Bad Can It Get? posted at DebtGoal.

Katharine Graham (1917-2001)
Publisher - Graham was the first woman president of a Fortune 500 company when she became president and then publisher of the Washington Post from 1963 to 1979. In 1971, she resisted tremendous pressure and threats when she printed the Pentagon Papers. In 1972, she supported the aggressive investigation of the Watergate burglary. The Post received a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1973. Her autobiography Personal History won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Investing

MoneyNing presents Zecco vs TradeKing - Online Stock Trading Comparison posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

Investing School presents What are Treasury Securities posted at Investing School.

Money Management

The Happy Rock presents DD’s Monthly Expenses - February 2009 posted at The Happy Rock.

kathryn presents Avoid Paying $81 Billion on Your Credit Card posted at Out of Debt - Christian Finances and Debt Help. She says “Not everyone checks their credit card statements closely, but it is likely that Juan Zamora will be looking a little closer in the future. His last fill up of his 1994 Chevy Camaro cost him around $81 billion (that was with a “b”).”

Matthew Paulson presents Tips for Fixing a Busted Budget posted at American Consumer News.

Christian Financial Help submitted a post called Family budgeting troubles?

The Smarter Wallet submitted a post called Manage Your Money Well: 5 Common Personal Financial Mistakes To Avoid.

Debbie Ducker presents Your Children and Grandchildren Must Learn to Save Money posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine.

Todd presents The Best Time To Save For College Is Before Kids! posted at HarvestingDollars.

PFCreditCards presents Why I Still Get My Bills and Credit Card Statements in Paper posted at PF Credit Cards.

Coco Chanel (1883-1971)
Fashion Designer, Fashion Executive
“Where should one use perfume?” a young woman asked. “Wherever one wants to be kissed,” said Coco.
From her first millinery shop, opened in 1912, to the 1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel rose to become one of the premier fashion designers in Paris, France. Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women’s trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles.

Smart Shopping

Bargaineering.com submitted a post called How To Buy Checks Online.
Momma presents 25 ways to save money and bargain shop in small towns and rural areas: part 2 posted at Engineer a debt free life.
Britannica Blog presents A “Size Zero” Pill? Too Good to Be True? posted at Britannica Blog.

Random Acts of Kindness

kathryn presents You Can Afford to Be Generous posted at Out of Debt - Christian Finances and Debt Help.

Kitty O’Neal (1946- )
Stuntwoman ( Though not in business I added Kitty because she sounds very cool.)
O’Neal is one of the world’s greatest stunt women. She drove a 48,000 horsepower car at 618 miles per hour. She jumped off a 105 foot cliff, has crashed cars, been set on fire, and jumped off a ten- story building. She has performed stunts for TV shows such as Bionic Woman and Gemini Man. In 1970, O’Neal set a world record as the fastest woman on water skis at the speed of 104.85 mph. She was a diver and competed for the US in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

References:  All information taken directly from About Women in Business and the Women’s National History Month website.

Related Websites

• The 50th Carnival of Debt Reduction Welcome to issue 50 of the Carnival of Debt Reduction! As an extra feature I'll highlight the great work that some of the posters have...
• The Problem with Debt Consolidation You’ve probably seen the commercials, whether it be on TV or the Radio. A man in a nice suit tells you how he can “pay...
• "I'm debt free... except for the mortgage, my student loan, and our car payment." How many times do you hear a statement like that? While it's absolutely wonderful...

Blog Carnival Round-Up (March 12th, 2009)

Check out these great Blog Carnivals.

And check back here - As I read through, I’ll be adding more of my favorites posts from them.

The Carnival of Personal Finance at Stock Trading To Go

• My Stimulus Tax Credit:  Should I Spend or Save My Tax Break at The Digerati Life.  I keep wanting to save it, but if I am a “responsible American,” should I be spending it?
  
• Energy Saving Gadgets presents Watts Up Pro, Kill a Watt Monitor (this is a great addendum to my post about the Google Power Meter
  

The Festival of Frugality at Funny About Money

• Inaccurate Grocery Story Pricing at Simple Forties - One of my pet peeves.
  

• Passive Family Income entered  Passive Income Opportunities: Think Creatively .  I liked these ideas.

The Money Hacks Carnival at Money Ning (just posting today!)

Other Carnival Notes:  I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction next Monday, March 16th.  Be sure to get your posts entered by 5 pm EST!  I’ll have a lot to go through.

Related Websites

• It's a Festival of Carnivals! Before you get too excited there's no cotton candy. A festival or carnival in the blogging world is a group of posts on a similar...
• Weekly Round Up: Great Nexus Photo Credit: Great Nexus   Pinyo over at Moolanomy has a new and very helpful site over at the Great Nexus. If you're looking to get a nice...
• Can't Miss Carnivals This week I participated in several of the carnivals related to personal finance. If you haven't had a chance to visit the Carnivals here they...

Carnival Round-Up (February 20th, 2009)

Here’s a few great reads for ya:

Spilling Buckets presents the First Edition of the Carnival of Government and Money.

For a first time ever carnival - or any carnival for that matter! -  there was quite the blogger turn out.  We all have a lot to say on this subject!  I look forward to upcoming editions.

Here’s just a few highlights of the many great posts:

• The Smarter Wallet discusses the Obama Economic Stimulus Package - and what that means for us.

• MoneyNing explains seven things you may not know about the TARP bill (the original “bailout”), including the fact that none of the banks can explain where the money went and several admit to simply not knowing…

• Living Almost Large write about how we are on the road to socialism, with both bank bailouts and aid to the middle class. Socialism Here We Come…

• My entry:  I asked the perplexing question  “Is Save a Four Letter Word?”

The 3rd edition of the Carnival of Investing Strategies! can be found  at The Penny Daily.

My Highlights:

• I learned something about Asset Allocation in a post submitted by Less is More.

• Increasing my investing knowledge has become my latest hobby, and The Silicon Valley Blogger turned me on to a new site in his post Free Stock Charting Tool To Check Stocks, Chart Market Trends posted at The Digerati Life.

• Speaking of increasing stock knowledge, Moolonomy’s Lost Money In The Stock Market, What Should I Do? gave me some great tips from expert investment councilor, Larry Swedroe.

• My entry:  I present the  Global 100: Most Sustainable Corporations - and Should Companies be Evaluated Within Their Business Sectors?

Related Websites

• A Response To: The Market’s Nose Dive Continues - Boy Am I Glad I Got Out. A number of other personal finance bloggers have started picking up on the fact that several others of us have sold some stock due to...
• 4 Investing Ideas for Your Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Check Today's post comes from Miranda Marquit. She writes about personal finances for YieldingWealth and edits debt consolidation information for Destroy Debt. The "economic stimulus" tax...
• I Share My Asset Allocation (as do 7 other Money Writers) The Money Writers is having a group writing project. Each of us have decided to share our asset allocation and performance from the first of...

Carnival Round-Up (Jan 7th, 2009) and a Contest

I’m not used to writing 200 “9″ yet…

Carnivals

Here’s the Carnivals I posted articles in this week.

The Weekend Edition at The 52 Week Experiment - A blog about analyzing micro and small cap stocks using fundamentals and technical analysis

The Festival of Stocks at Stock Pursuit

Carnival of the Green #161- an environmental traveling carnival at The Tao of Change - a boots-on-the-ground view of the change that’s afoot

The BoBo Carnival of Politics- Driving the Loony Left Loonier

The Carnival of Politics-  A Weekly Blog Magazine About Politics

Also,

A Contest.

A great blog called

Your Money Relationship

is kicking off the new year with a contest.

The prize:  a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Check it out!

Carnival of Money Stories #91 - Manifesting Wealth in 2009

Welcome to the Manifesting Wealth in 2009 Edition of the Carnival of Money Stories.

If you think it, it will come…
New Studies in Neurobiology & Quantum Physics say so.

This week’s carnival has many great articles!  Be sure to visit the carnival’s website, and check out some of the great blogs of this week’s entrants.  Please link the post to your social bookmarks if you like it.

Editor’s Picks

The Dough Roller presents How to Avoid the Infuriating Cost of Disorganization posted at The Dough Roller, saying, “Here’s a story from Mrs. Dough on how disorganization can cost you a lot of money.”  A very entertaining read, indeed!  I confess, my desk has come pretty close to looking like the one in the picture at this post.

Pinyo Bhulipongsanon presents Should You Repair Old Appliance Or Buy A New One? posted at Moolanomy.  Great post if you’re in the market for a new appliance, and great blog, anyway, if you’re not.

Business

Mark presents The Five I’s of Building Wealth posted at Smart Money.

Credit

Credit Shout presents Spotting Fraudulent Credit Card Charges on Your Credit Report posted at CreditShout

Mr Credit Card presents Outrageous Credit Card Practices posted at Ask Mr Credit Card

It’s human nature to require explanations about everything.  Thus, many ancient beliefs were often drenched in mysticism, until their true causes could be ferreted out through scientific research.

Debt

Jason Patrick presents Getting out of credit card debt. My story. posted at MoneyTheory, saying, “My story of getting out of $17,000 of credit card debt in 2 years.”

Michael Bass presents Does Debt Validation Actually Work? posted at Debt Prison, saying, “A recent reader at Sample Debt Validation Letter questioned as to whether or not requesting debt validation would prevent a collection agency from pursuing a judgment. Since his debts were nearly past the Statute of Limitations he was hoping to prevent payment and a possible appearance in civil court.”

For example, the ancient Greeks explained the forces of nature, disease, and human emotion through their Gods.  Today, we know that natural disasters have causes.  We have medicines and vaccines for many of those once unexplainable diseases - such as influenza and small pox. And human emotion is slowly being broken down into a series of hormonal and chemical reactions.

General

FIRE Getters presents FIRE Finance: Lottery Tickets - Our route to Wealth? - A Top Personal Finance and Investing Blog for Early Retirement and Money Management! posted at FIRE Finance

Polly Poorhouse presents Economic Crunch: Another Mortgage Story posted at Economic Crunch, saying, “A man, a woman and a mortgage.”

MoneyNing presents Value Added Tax Refund (VAT) for Vacation Shopping posted at Money Ning, saying, “Remember not to leave money on the table!”

Jim presents Researching A Refinance posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

nickel@fivecentnickel.com presents Airport Car Rentals are a Ripoff posted at Money Tipper.

J. Savings presents New Year’s Resolutions - Did i actually accomplish something? posted at Budgets are Sexy., saying, “For once in my life i followed through w/ my resolutions! All about picking things you’re passionate about i suppose :)”

The Happy Rock presents Christmas Came Early for the Debt Destroyer Household posted at The Happy Rock

Miss M presents Gifts from the Heart, not the Wallet posted at M is for Money

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Are You In Financial Trouble? Money Tips To Cope With Hard Times posted at The Digerati Life

In much the same way, the mystical powers of manifestation are slowly being grounded with scientific evidence. New research tools allowing scientists to follow brain reaction patterns have discovered that you can, indeed, remap your brain.  How?  Through the power of believing and visualization.

Investing

JCL presents Househunting For Investment Properties posted at The Real Estate Investing Journey, saying, “A story of how we search for our next investment house.”

FMF presents Employee Stock Purchase Plans: Great Investments posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “One employee makes a fortune from a company perk.”

millionaireblog presents Act quick if you want to buy Gold or Silver posted at millionaire blog .co.uk, saying, “Now is the time to invest in bullion. Learn how to start investing in Gold. You may be surprised to hear that you don’t need to be rich to invest in Gold.”

Dorian Wales presents The Madoff scheme – 4 Valuable Lessons posted at The Personal Financier, saying, “As always scandals present valuable lessons for us household investors”

Net Worth

Raymond presents Review Of E*Trade Bank High Interest Savings and Checking Accounts posted at Money Blue Book

Pamela Grundy presents You are Greater than the Sum of Your Investments posted at Personal Finance Analyst.

Experiments following brain activities during focused thought and visualization have shown that we can remap our brain circuitry - create new neural pathways -  for what we wish to manifest, by repeatedly thinking about and visualizing our goals in a focused way. Conversely, unwanted pathways can be quieted by ignoring them.

Other

Wenchypoo presents Santa, All I Want for Christmas is a Decent-Sized, Decent-Priced House posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket, saying, “Real estate”

SingleGuyMoney presents Another Home Foreclosure In My Neighborhood posted at Single Guy Money

Ryan Suenaga presents Forwarding Services: Worth it? posted at Uncommon Cents.

Debt Free Destiny presents Should Mom and Dad Get an Allowance? posted at Debt Free Destiny

The Smarter Wallet presents Nintendo Wii Review, Video Game System Pros and Cons posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “I’m a big gamer, but I wanted to through the pros and cons of an item before paying up for it. Here was my thought process.”

Mary@SimplyForties presents Having a Hard Time Getting Life Insurance? posted at SimplyForties, saying, “It’s not as easy as the commercials make it seem!” Madeleine Begun Kane presents Banks To Taxpayers: Drop Dead! posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of money stories using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Manifestation sound interesting?  For further reading on the science behind the power of visualization and manifestation, see my amazone widget in the sidebar.  A little blatant monetizing here.  If you click on the link from my website, and decide to buy the book, Amazon gives me 4% commission.  I’v’ also included some very powerful older reads on visualization, and finally a few spiritual/mystical takes on the subject.

Happy New Year!!!!  Now go manifest!!!

Technorati tags:

carnival of money stories, blog carnival.

Related Websites

• Money Hacks Carnival #40 at Steadfast Finances This week Money Hacks Carnival #40 is hosted at Steadfast Finances.  The host said this is his first time hosting a blog carnival and I...
• Hidden Dangers of Automatic Bill Pay Let me start by saying that I love using the automatic bill pay that is available with my checking account. Not only do I get...
• Should You Buy Credit Insurance? Consumers who are considering taking out a loan, applying for a credit card or other forms of financing will most likely be offered credit insurance...

Please Join Me for the Carnival of Money Stories #91 This Tuesday

I’ll be hosting the 91st Carnival of Money Stories on December 30th.

Come read about the personal experiences of every day people like you and me, as we struggle through this historic financial world crisis.

And if you’d like to submit your own story, do so here.

Last week’s Carnival was at the Personal Financier.

The Financier’s Editor’s pick:

Silicon Valley Blogger relays her stories and some tips on handling a layoff in this excellent post:  Got Laid Off? What To Do When You Lose Your Job, posted at The Digerati Life.

And whenever I’m involved with the Money Stories Carnival, I like to revisit the post about the rags to riches story of my Uncle Mike.

A Self-Made Millionaire Gives Back.

Related Websites

• A Million Bucks By Thirty Review By Alan Corey Everyone loves a true rags to riches tale, and although we’ve had some with the dot com boom, there were few that echoed the stories...

Festival of Frugality #155: The Chic-Tacky Christmas Edition

Related Websites

• Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. I'm finally off work for the rest of the year (I know it's not...
• Saving on Christmas Decorations I've posted lately about deals and finds on outdoor Christmas decorations.  I've found several deals on lighted entryway trees at Big Lots, as well as...
• Christmas Traditions - Easy and Inexpensive I've written before that there are many things we do during the Christmas season including minimalizing commercialism.  We have loads of fun with handmade christmas ornaments.   We take...

Blog-O-Rama: Finance and Frugality Blogs

Some great posts to check out at the carnivals this week- here’s a few of my favs.

The Mighty Bargain Hunter hosts The Carnival of Personal Finance this week, and gives us a little Cyber Monday history lesson.

Here were my favorite posts:

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has a list of 0% balance transfer offers.  (Fifty different offers.  You should be able to do a 0% transfer of the national debt with this volume of plastic.) Because no one should be paying credit card interest.  Likewise, Saving To Invest has some end-of-year tax tips that should help with tax overload.

The Financial Blogger wonders if the Dogs of the Dow have had their day, and the Dividend Growth Investor discusses why companies should pay dividends.

And, on the lighter side, Happiness is Better lists three keys to banana-free living.  (Sounds a-peeling.)

Next, you can make your way to the Festival of Frugality at Living Almost Large.

Are frugalites in?  Check out the latest new consumer trend with Frugality Goes Mainstream posted at Value For Your Life. Other posts on hip-frugal are LAL’s article, “Is poor the new affluence?” and my own article, No-Frills Chic.

I’m a fan of good cookware.  Quality Cookware can Save You Time and Energy posts at The Smarter Wallet.  A nice article about ways to justify buying something you love.

That tax clock is ticking.  3 Tax Tips you can still do before ‘08 ends! (they’re very sexy) at Budgets are Sexy offers some good ideas.

Related Websites

• Carnivals! Three Monday carnivals are up for your viewing pleasure, with articles in each from yours truly: The Carnival of Personal Finance #34 at Financial Reference...
• Carnivals are up! Jim of Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has the seventh installment of the Carnival of Debt Reduction up. Next week this Carnival travels to MyMoneyBlog.com. If...
• Roundup for week of 21 January 2007, and some carnivals Some links of interest from this week:Five Cent Nickel discusses steps he's taking with his business formation.Free Money Finance reviews a book on financial bliss.All...

Blog-O-Rama Highlights in the Blogosphere, November 16th, 2008

On Credit and Debt

The comments about credit card limit “reduction” left at nickel’s post Reduced Credit Limits?  Share Your Experience.  were surprising.  Seems that people are still having their credit limits increased more than decreased! I know I keep getting credit card offers, in spite of all the talk about credit tightening up for the average consumer.  I wish they’d at least go paperless, and quit killing trees.  It keeps the post office from going bankrupt, anyway.

I’m a statistics fan, so Living Almost Large’s post The Next Meltdown? talking about who owes money and how much they owe caught me.

Knocking Down Debt Doesnt have to be Dramatic or Inspirational posted at StopBuyingCrap.com is a touching personal account of taking debt down one step at a time.

Banking

Keep Your Money Safe:  Online Bank Accounts and More Savings Options at The Digerati Life is a nice overview for those inclined to stay below the radar until this recession is over.

Deflation

We all well know the pains of inflation, but here you can brush up on the aftermath of inflation, Defaltion, at a post just published at The Simple Dollar called Personal Finance 101:  Deflation and You.

If there’s any articles you’d like to mention, you can leave them in the comments.

Related Websites

• Personal Finance Roundup For May 8, 2007 Some articles of interest from around the personal finance blogosphere: MyMint discusses The Four Terrible Money Mistakes We Make With Our Kids. Free Money Finance...
• Personal Finance Roundup For May 8, 2007 Some articles of interest from around the personal finance blogosphere: MyMint discusses The Four Terrible Money Mistakes We Make With Our Kids. Free Money Finance...

Carnival of Debt Reduction #165: A History of the National Debt

Welcome to the 165th Edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction.  This is a weekly traveling personal finance carnival.  Be sure to visit the 164th Edition at The Financial Wellness Project.

The theme of this week’s carnival is:

The History of National Debt

(Note that much of this data was collected from a recent article by political analyst Steve McGourty)

Chart I: Every Democrat since President Johnson has decreased national debt, while every Republican has increased it.

Credit Cards

Ryan Healy will change how you think about credit cards in his article Visa Takes Life, posted at Debt Reduction Formula.

nickel presents Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Debt Wizard presents Credit Cards- What To Look For posted at Money Help.

Tyler Metzger talks about consumerist gluttony in his post Diamond-inlaid credit card to be released in Kazakhstan at Taking Charge.

Benjamin tells us about “a couple of things you need to consider before you take advantage of special balance transfer offers” in Be Careful When Consolidating Your Credit Cards at Trees Full of Money.

MBB presents Christmas Shopping Offers With Credit Card Rewards posted at Money Blue Book.

Kelly from Almost Frugal presents How to Look Fabulous, Frugally: Part Two posted at Almost Frugal.

MoneyNing presents Credit Card Spending Limit, Credit Scores and Conventional Mortgages posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning. A credit card representative told me that my credit card limit alone will affect my credit score. Do you believe her?.

Mr. CC presents Removing Yourself As An Authorized User posted at Ask Mr Credit Card’s Blog.

Andrea Smith presents Credit Card Debt Consolidation - A Credit Card Debtor’s Perfect Solution posted at Free Debt Consolidation: Qualified Financial Management.

Again according to Steve McGourty,

“If you look at the 60+ year record of debt since the end of WWII, starting with Truman’s term, the difference between the two parties’ contributions to our national debt level change considerably.  Since 1946, Democratic presidents increased the national debt an average of only 3.2% per year.  The Republican presidents stay at an average increase of 9.2% per year. Republican Presidents out borrowed and spent Democratic presidents by a three to one ratio.  Putting that in very real terms; for every dollar a Democratic president has raised the national debt in the past 63 years Republican presidents have raised the debt by $2.84.”

Chart II:

The Fiscal Crisis

sherin presents Economic Recession and Preparing for a Recession posted at Investment Internals. A study on the preparation for recession time. Focused on Savings, Portfolio and Job security. An educational article for ordinary person to help self to build a self defense against problems from economic slowdown i.e. recession.

Joe Manausa presents How To Stay Calm In The Real Estate Market posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

TheMoneyHawk presents Reality Check: The President Can’t Save Us, Nor Should He posted at The Money Hawk. He says that Everyone should read this article. Period.

LAL presents The next meltdown? posted at LivingAlmostLarge.

Curt presents Saving Money Will Once Again Be Rewarded posted at PennyJobs.com.

hank presents How Is What We Are Going Through Now Different From The Great Depression in the 1930’s? posted at MiB Smarter Money.

Joshua Seth presents Benefits Of Economic Recession posted at Joshua Seth Blog.

Rich Credit presents Debt and the Credit Crisis posted at Rich Credit Debt Loan.

Budgeting

Raag Vamdatt presents Money Fundamentals: Spending, Investing, Credit, Debt :: RaagVamdatt.com :: Financial Planning demystified posted at RaagVamdatt.com.

Carson Brackney presents Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball - Bad Math, Great Results posted at Personal Finance Analyst.

Money Beagle presents What We’re Doing With The $2,700 posted at Money Beagle.From the author: “This talks about applying $2,700 towards our debt.”

Denise Trowbridge presents The One-Month Spending Crash Diet posted at Saving Advice.From the author: “We feel making a diligent, conscientious effort to stop spending might help us slow down, hop off of the consumption train and take a look at where the heck all of our money goes each month.”

NCN presents 10 Things That Will Happen On The Road Between Being In Debt And Being Debt Free posted at No Credit Needed.

Hanna Kassis presents It’s Not Too Late To Fund Your Child’s Education posted at College Finance 101.

Save Money presents Revising My Budget posted at How I Save Money.net.

Chart III: So much for Republicans being fiscally conservative.

Investing

Jason Philips presents Investments To Avoid posted at Stock Investing Tips.

Retirement

Dorian Wales writes about permanent income gone astray in Shortcuts to Early Retirement – Absurd Frugal Thinking or Common Financial Sense? posted at The Personal Financier.

Taxes

Big Cajun Mn presents I should Divorce My Wife? posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog. The Canadian Tax system is so buggered up it is better to divorce my wife in their eyes (if I want to save taxes)

DianeDean presents Penalty Abatement posted at Need IRS Help?.

Miscellaneous

KCLau presents Case Study: Financial Goals of a Malaysian working in Singapore posted at KCLau’s Money Tips. Replies to queries on personal finance related to insurance, retiring early and parenting.

Carlos Sera presents A Mortgage Tale; Financial Tales posted at Financial Tales.

Cap presents Knocking Down Debt Doesnt have to be Dramatic or Inspirational posted at StopBuyingCrap.com. A story of my debt, and how it went away as easily as it came.

Khan presents Student Loan Forgiveness posted at Higher Education and Career Blog. While you may not be able to convince Uncle Sam to entirely forgive and forget your accumulated debt, he might be able to help you find some ways to reduce some of those financial woes.

The Happy Rock presents A Couple’s Wist List - Motivation For Success posted at The Happy Rock. DD @ The Happy Rock discusses some of their motivation for debt reduction.

HIB presents Getting Closer to Being Debt Free posted at Happiness is Better.

The Financial Blogger presents Prosper and Other P2P Lending System posted at TheCreditToolBox.com.

That concludes this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction.  I hope you enjoyed it. Please be sure to check out next week’s carnival.

Related Websites

• Salary vs. money owed I thought it might be interesting to run this poll: How many years' worth of salary would it take to equal all of the non-mortgage...
• Why Not Prosper? Tyler with an anonymous e-mail address writes: Why prosper? There are much better ways to earn returns on that money that 1) does not put...
• Debt: It’s All About Compound Interest A lot of people casually borrow money based off of need or because that’s what everyone does. Nobody saves up and pays cash for a...