Hello regular readers and folks new to the site, and welcome to the "I Read All The Submissions" edition of the TotallyMoney Carnival!
This is the first time I've ever hosted a blog carnival, pretty funny since we're going on 3 years now (just a few days time). I've gathered that it's proper to give yourself a brief shout-out, so if you like charts, graphs, numbers, and enlightened discussion? Subscribe to our RSS feed, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Enough of that pandering; we've got a carnival to host!
We had 96 submissions, but I trimmed it down to 72 remove obviously commercial posts and paid guest posts. Sorry folks, I make the rules here.
I went through all of the articles and gave a brief summary about each one. To all of our participants: thanks for submitting. To the rest of you? Enjoy the carnival!
Editor's Picks
There were som egreat entries this week, but I pared it down to 5 top picks for the week. Here are the articles that were the most interesting, well written, and fun to read.
Invest It Wisely knocks it out of the park with Getting Screwed Out of Your Hard-Earned Capital: How CDs and GICs Are Rip-Offs for Long-term Investing. Guess what? The abnormally low interest rates make it tough to get ahead with normal savings vessels. Imagine that!
Corey at Bar Whiz Blog presents 99 Bottles Of Beer Prices Of The World with a great infographic and chart mashup. Right up my alley!
AverageJoe at The Free Financial Advisor presents Emergency Fund? You're Closer Than You Think and discusses what expenses you can drop if you have a true emergency. A great read.
Curtez Riggs at Life After The Army presents How To Make Yourself An Easy Decision To Employ. this is an awesome post - well researched, links to relevant articles, the use of the term "e-bbreviations" completely ironically and hilariously? It's all there. Great stuff!
Nelson Smith at Financial Uproar presents Are We Still Having The 15 .vs 30 Year Mortgage Debate and peppers the discussion with his signature blend of witticisms and dirty jokes. Works for me!
The Rest
As Homer Simpson said in the episode Homer the Great, "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.". Here are the rest of the articles in the order that they were submitted. How original!
But hey, I gave a brief summary for each one since I read them all...
Darrow Kirkpatrick at Can I Retire Yet? presents A Guide to Retirement Health Care - How Will YOU Get It? Interesting stuff - although I'm too young to be considering it, there are quite a few good options listed.
Facebook opened at 42.99, and closed at around its offer price of $38. Evan at My Journey to Millions presents I Don't Get the Hype about the Facebook IPO - which he wrote before the fireworks.
Linsey at 1099 Mom presents I Want to Be a Freelance Finance Writer , an interview with freelance writer extraordinaire Miranda Marquit.
Peter at Bible Money Matters wrote A Child's Religious Celebration: A Chance to Show Off? about extravagant religious ceremonies. As an Irish Catholic from Boston, I've seen my share!
Jeremy presents Keeping Up With The Joneses In The Digital Age at Modest Money. Guess what - the internet makes it even easier to seek out info on the lives of the rich and famous, making it harder for some to appreciate what they have.
At Little House in the Valley, Your Money or Your Life Thoughts, a book summary.
Jason at Live Real, Now penned Reason #45,682 Why It's Good to Have an Emergency Fund after some unfortunate times in his family revealed yet another reason why an emergency fund is an incredibly important thing to have.
Wayne at Young Family Finance presents Why Hobbies Save You Money - because keeping boredom away can keep your wallet fat.
Corey at Steadfast Finances presents Facing Foreclosure? Here are Some Programs that Might Be Available for You , with a number of options to consider before drawing out a long foreclosure.
Kyle at at The Penny Hoarder found an interesting study sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis... Read University Will Pay You $3,500 to Eat Only Fast Food for 3 Months and major in eating.
YFS at Your Finances Simplified presents 10 Common Characteristics of Millionaires You Can Follow - good ideas here to steal the best characteristics of millionaires!
Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff got in a food fight with her husband and posted Our Food Fight - Month 1 Results.
Daisy at Add Vodka gives a wonderful ode to her mother (and great lessons learned) is Life Lessons From My Mother.
Jen presents at Master the Art of Saving gives a review on the service Manilla in What is Manilla & Why Should You Try It?
Steve at Brip Blap presents his take on de-cluttering his 4 person household in Frugality or Decluttering, or Both
Ashley at Money Talks Coaching knows the trials of teaching a 10 year old to save. She recently found some success... read The Envelope System Works: Even on a 10 Year Old
Eric J. Nisall at DollarVersity writes Does Cash Really Keep You From Overspending? . Another great post breaking down one of the personal finance stereotypes which isn't automatically true - going cash only doesn't mean you'll automatically save more.
Luke presents Why Bond Laddering is a Bad Idea at Learn Bonds... because slaying financial misinformation is a good thing. Read his thoughts on why you shouldn't bond ladder if you start getting into bonds soon.
Kevin at Thousandaire wrote How to Save Money on a Date after starting a babysitter's club. Interesting stuff!
Sustainable Personal Finance found a TOY LIBRARY in Green Tip #242: Sharing Toys. I wish I belonged to one of those back in the day - although the germs on some of those toys may be a bit scary. But hey, isn't school similar?
Tushar at Start Investing Money presents What to Do When an Investment Pays Out and gives you a list of things to consider before blowing it on a something silly.
Amanda L Grossman at Frugal Confessions lost me with the Sex and The City references, but had a good piece with Do You have a Future as the Woman Who Lived in Her Shoes, or the Man Who Lived with His Tools? posted
Jason at Work Save Live didn't get his car at CarMax, but he learned some interesting things anyway. Read Should You Buy a Car Through CarMax?
Simple Finance Blog has 6 Hidden Money Wasters in convenient list form.
Hank presents How A Little Preparation And One Question Saved Me Over $1,000 at Money Q&A where some simple manuevers saved him half a point on his car loan...
Provident Plan wonders Would Jesus Support the Buffet Tax Law? Of course, you get the most prominent quote "Render unto Caesar...", but there is a lot more good analysis as well!
Don at MoneySmartGuides presents The Money Conversation for Couples after finding a good US News article on the subject.
101 Centavos presents Career Tips For Young Folks at 101 Centavos and shares his tips on how to advance yourself.
Corey at 20s Finances shares How to Increase Net Worth and gives a few of his top tips.
Sicorra at Tackling Our Debt gives you a number of ideas of side jobs to do in Do Side Hustles Really Help You Make Money? ... I've done a grand total of 0 of them, heh.
Aloysa at My Broken Coin presents How to Lose Friends and Alienate People , from her husband Beaker. A great tale of what happens when you neglect to pay back a debt and the potential consequences of that decision.
Jon the Saver at Free Money Wisdom presents Why You Should Be Debt-Free on Your Carand talks about why you shouldn't have a car loan.
John at Married with Debt gives himself a raise by finishing off some debt in Give Yourself a Raise No Boss Required
Money Reasons presents Debt Free... Now What? Real Estate and considers adding a mortgage to his portfolio of 0 loans!
Suba at Broke Professionals presents Should you buy Supplemental Unemployment Insurance and goes over the pros and cons of the potential decision.
MMD at MyMoneyDesign says Yes, People Still Fall for Pyramid Schemes after witnessing people actually falling for one at a coffee shop.
FMF at Free Money Finance breaks it down as the title says in The Difference between Needs and Wants: Getting Spending Under Control
My Canuck Buck at My Canuck Buck asks Do you have any "missing" money? and tells you, our northern friends, where to find it.
Everything Finance lets you know how to find restaurant coupons How to Find Online Coupons for Your Favorite Restaurant
Steve at 2012 Taxes presents Be Prepared For Your Taxes and reminds you of a few things to keep in mind to make taxes easier for you later.
Earth and Money at Earth and Money presents Planning a Green Frugal Wedding - Guests where he gives advice on how to save money and being environmentally friendly. In my wedding we had a good number of people flying cross country - so add 'marry someone with local family' to the list.
John at Wallet Blog presents How’s a Little Medical Bill Transparency Sound? posted
Dave at Financial Conflict Coach gives you the three Ps in financial fights in Fighting About Money? Remember The 3 P’s!
Lance at Money Life & More used his knowledge of financial markets to beat his friends in Magic The Gathering in How I Paid for My Hobby. Sorry, I mean to subsidize his collection!
Emily at Evolving Personal Finance presents Taxes You Should Be Paying and talks about what taxes may appear next year which don't exist now.
Ben Feldman at ReadyForZero Blog in his article Debt Consolidation Fees and Costs writes - in exactly detail - about the fees and costs of debt consolidation. Great information here.
Steve Zussino at Canadian Personal Finance wrote Why Facebook should be scared with its Revenue Strategy and discusses the state of advertising on Facebook - and considers their revenue model (pre-IPO).
Little Miss Moneybags has the article The Complete Idiot's Guide to Couponing reviewing the book on the matter.
Sean at One Smart Dollar writes How is my Credit Line Determined? and gives the details of the credit limit calculation.
PK (um - me) at Don't Quit Your Day Job... presents some silly article on stock analysts in... Who Will Rate the Raters? The Analyst Crisis on Wall Street.
PT Money Personal Finance has Philip's How to Decide Where to Live article where he discusses what he and his wife went through to decide where to put down roots.
JB at My University Money wrote Are Banks Really In It For You? and talked about how banks aren't always out for the best interests of their customers - especially if their customers are unsophisticated.
At Young And Thrifty, RRSP vs RESP Accounts is a post on something I can't help you on, so surf over there for the details!
Boomer at Boomer & Echo presents How To Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster and discusses paying down the largest debt you'll probably ever have... a little faster.
Dividend Growth Investor's article Searching for Hidden Dividend Stars has a good list of companies which recently increased their dividend yields.
TTMK at Tie the Money Knot discusses some tips about teaching kids an appreciation for funds in 7 Ways to Teach Kids the Value of Money. Bonus points for opportunity costs and compounding.
Glen at Parenting Family Money presents Is a Child’s Gift Registry a Good Idea? and discusses the pros and cons. I guess I like the idea for the same reason I use my Amazon wish list - a continuous wish list of things for people to get me. Interesting stuff.
Ray at Squirrelers gives us Managing Financial Risks: The Tricky Math Behind Losing Money and discusses some of the math behind stock losses. Here's another point - if a stock loses 50%, it can lose another 50%. Oh and another 50%. (and so on)
Mike Collins at Wealthy Turtle penned Dividend Investing in Plain English and gave a nice overview of why he suggests dividend stocks over other options.
Roger at The Amateur Financier in his article Book Review - How to Learn Any Language gives a good review on... well, the book How to Learn Any Language. Interesting stuff, even if not specifically Personal Finance related.
Roshawn Watson at Watson Inc has 10 Reasons To Seek Abundance, a nice piece on why you should seek a financially sound life.
Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance has a new guest blogger posting in NEW MONEY SERIES FOR THE SERIOUSLY BROKE COLLEGE GRAD. Good luck!
Sandy at Yes, I am Cheap spreads the word with Social Security Statements Move Online.
Kurt Fischer presents Debt Account Aversion posted at Money Counselor, with an article on the psychology of paying off debt - and whether you should pay off debts highest rate first or lowest balance first. You had me at "If you don't mind academic-style writing"!
Jason at One Money Design wrote Should Parents Pay Children an Allowance? Weigh in on the discussion!
Kristen at My Dollar Plan gives us 11 Free Travel Apps to Save Money.
Squeezer at Personal Finance Success tells us Why Social Security should not be your sole source of retirement income. It's an important point - Social Security is only supposed to be a supplementary source of income. You better be saving outside of it!
The End
That concludes the carnival! Hope you learned something new, found some new sites to read, and generally had a good time. Thanks for joining us today, and of course:
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