Gather Little by Little

Welcome to the 148th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! I am beyond honored to be your host and had a great time reading through all of the excellent articles submitted. Let me tell you, being this is the first carnival I’ve ever posted, I had no idea how hard it was to pick the “editor’s picks”! All the articles were so great!

Without further rambling from me, here are all of the carnival entries organized by category. As you read through the carnivals, you’ll also receive a photo tour of my home state, North Carolina. I hope you enjoy it!

Glblguy’s gathering of top picks

My favorite place to gather my family together is in the mountains of North Carolina, which make up the whole western side of the state. The picture above is a view from the Blueridge Parkway.

Now, here are my top picks:

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Curb Spending By Writing Goals on Credit Cards – Jim shares a great way to remember your financial goals by writing them on your credit or debit card. What a great and original idea. I also really like the idea that it may spur conversation with someone.
• Cash Money Life presents Spend $10. It’s Worth It! – Patrick reminds us that it really is the little things in life that matter.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… presents Sometimes It Is The Amount of Money You Make – So many personal finance articles focus on expense reduction. Paidtwice looks at it from a different perspective, by taking a look at increasing her income through alternative streams.
• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds presents Beneath the Iceberg: The Psychology of the Recession (and a silver lining) – Ginger not only helps you understand why some are feeling the way they do about the recession, but provides tips on how to survive and strengthen them while it’s going on.
• Tales from the road less traveled presents Emotional Spending – Momma provides a really good and personal read that shows how hard it is to manage spending, especially when emotions are involved. Best part of the article is this quote: “We just resolve to do better next time and move on.”
• Free Money Finance presents Stuck – FMF offers some help to a mother who feels like she is stuck working when she wants to be at home with her kids. Are you a parent who “feels like you can’t afford to not work”? Read this article and realize you aren’t stuck.
• My Family’s Money presents Outsource To Your Kids Already! – Steward shares an interesting article that really made me think and even spurred some good discussion between my wife and I. At first I didn’t like the idea, but then the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. For me, the key here is keeping it your childs choice.
  

Budgeting

There’s lots to do in the NC Mountains, including visiting Cherokee, NC where there is an Indian reservation a zoo, and plenty of places to do a little river rafting.

• Consumerism Commentary presents If Monthly Budgets Don’t Excite You, Try This – For those that aren’t fans of monthly budgets, Flexo provides a possible alternative.

Career

Or, you could visit Grandfather Mountain, home of the “mile high bridge”.

• Pinching Copper presents Riding a bicycle to work – Seb shares all the great reasons you should consider riding your bike to work. Assuming you live close enough that is.
• Get Financially Fit! presents How
  to reduce your risk of unemployment dramatically – Rio shows their is a relationship between education levels and the unemployment rate

Credit

My favorite place is Chimney Rock Park and Lake Lure (yes I’ve stood on top of the chimney)

• Taking Charge presents Presidential candidates have bad credit – Emily lets us know that that even the political candidates aren’t immune to debt and credit issues. They even have reputations for not paying bills on time or at all.
• Smart Money Daily presents 5 Important Steps Towards Credit Repair – JS shares a 5 step guide to help you repair your credit. These are useful regardless of whether you fix it yourself or hire someone.
• FiveCentNickel presents Credit Card Bonus Offers: $1200 Worth of Deals! – nickel shares a list of credit card bonus deals. I’m not a fan of credit cards, but if you are, his list contains a bunch of bonus money!
• CreditAddict.com presents Are You Willing to Sell Your Credit Score? – Credit Addict sheds some light on what happens to your credit score when you apply for all of those credit card deals.
• Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog presents The 6 Best Credit Cards According To CNN Money – Raymond tells us about the credit cards that CNN Money selected as their top card choices by category.
• The Frugal Duchess presents 5 Tips for Improving Credit Scores – Sharon shares 5 tips to improve your credit score.
• Antishay Ventenne presents How to Have No Credit Cards, Protect Your Identity… and Be Safe – Shanti talks about the steps you need to live a debt free life after you’ve paid off all your credit cards. Excellent information.
  

Debt

Rather not hike? No problem, how about a nice leisurely drive on the Blueridge Parkway?

• My Debt Quest presents My Spiral
  Into Debt – Jonathan shares a personal story about his journey into debt and then shares some basic principles for getting out of debt.
• The Simple Dollar presents How Big Should My Car Down Payment Be? – Trent provides a very comprehensive answer on how much of a down payment you should have when buying a car. There are a number of things you need to consider.
• American Consumer News presents 10 Warning Signs of Debt Disaster – Debbie provides 10 signs that you may be headed down a very troublesome path with debt.
• Discover Debt Freedom presents A Common Sense Way to Reduce Your Debt – Debt Freedom Fighter tells us how to reduce your debt the common sense way, stop going further in debt!
• Think Your Way To Wealth presents Should i stop contributing to my 401k to pay off debt? – RC answers the question and gives us a few things to consider.

Economy

Or visit Biltmore Estates, nestled in the mountain city of Asheville, NC

• Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Idling our way to $4 per gallon – mbhunter wonders why, with gas prices so high, people still leave their cars idling in parking lots?

Finance

Or maybe you are a city type. Visit Raleigh, the state capital.

• The Digerati Life presents How Money Challenges Prevent You From Building The Life You Love – You can’t buy love, but “Focusing on wealth creation for the sake of our families will help us create just the life we’re looking for, for ourselves and for those we love”. Good stuff.
• Master Your Card presents Why America NEEDS a Recession – Jonathon asks Does America need a recession? That is the argument Jonathan makes and I think he might actually be onto something.
• The Wealth Accumulator presents Keeptrack of your financial progress – Enoch tells you what to keep track of, how often and how. Tracking your finances will not only keep you on track, but will make your progress visible.

Frugality

Raleigh not big enough? How about Charlotte?

• Being Frugal presents When Times are tight: 168 Frugal Ways to Make Your Dollar Stretch – Lynnae shares a HUGE list of tips to reduce your expenses and help weather the recession.
• The Wisdom Journal presents 24 Signs You May Be A Mega Consumer – Wondering if you might be a “Mega Consumer”? Check out Ron’s list and see.
• Money & Fitness Blog presents Netflix vs. Redbox: Which is the better DVD rental service? – Luke does a nice job comparing the two movie rental services. I’m a pretty avid Redbox fan, but may have to give Netflix a try after reading his review.
• Sense to Save presents Spend to save: Items that can save you money in the long run – Kacie shares a pretty comprehensive list of tihngs you can buy that might cost you in the short term, but will save you money in the long term.
• Kids Meal Crowd presents The Lesson of the $26 FREE DVD Rental – Danielle shares her story of how a $1 Redbox rental ended up costing her $26! 3 steps forward, 1 step back.
• Blunt Money presents Cleanup with
  craigslist – bluntmoney provides some tips on how to clean-up your stuff with my favorite selling service, Craigslist.
• My Investing Blog presents Use your “gut” instinct when deciding who and when to tip – Hank presents some good advice here and the bottom line is if you’re having food delivered, give a good tip!

Investing

 

While you’re in Charlotte, check out some Nascar. The #24 shop is right across from the speedway.

• FIRE Finance presents Etrade’s Quickplan – Personalized & Easy Retirement Planning! – A good introduction to ETrade’s retirement planning tool, Quickplan.
• Dividends4Life presents Harvest the Fruit – Dividents4Life shares an interesting article that makes an analogy between dividend investing and mango trees. Plant and nuture your tree today.
• Amateur Asset Allocator presents Does Your Fund Company Put You First? – Kyle shares four ways you can tell if your fund company is putting you first.
• Moolanomy presents Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) – Pinyo goes into the details of Efficient Market Analysis. Make sure you read through the comment as well as there is some great discussion going on.
• Quest For Four Pillars presents Is Lending Club Bankrupt? – Four Pillars asks: Is LendingClub Bankrupt? Four Pillars speculates they are. I didn’t think p2p was a good idea.
• Finance Viewpoint presents Investing 101 – Knowing when to sell a stock – Andy shares tips to help you know when the time is right to sell a stock. This is a really easy to understand but thorough article.
• Free From Broke presents Saving Money For College When Your Children Are Older – So you have teens and haven’t started saving for college yet. What should you do? FMF gives you some thoughts and perspective.
• The Platinum Years Network presents Your Best Investment Posture? Benign Neglect – Bob shares a great story about a book he read and a lesson he learned about focusing on a macro view of economic conditions. Bob says “Do not get too close to the market!”
• Investing Adventures presents General Electric Fizzles – Market Retesting Lows? – Jorge wonders if GE’s recent earnings miss is a sign of more downward direction for the market.
• Uncommon Cents presents $4,000 Now, Nothing Later: the Beauty of the Roth IRA – Ryan tells about the beauty of the Roth IRA. Now only a pf blogger would find an IRA beautiful!
• Canadian Capitalist presents Another Reason to Avoid Hedge Funds – Canadian Capitalist does some reasearch into hedge fund compensation and finds that it is difficult for investors to tell the smart managers apart from unskilled ones.
• Everyday Finance presents Vulture Investing with the Pros – Dan discusses an opportunistic investing method for the current market environment.”
• The Dividend Guy presents Did Some Buying To Meet My Asset Allocation Goals – The Dividend guy previously identified some gaps in his asset allocation and summarizes some recent transactions he made to meet his target allocation.
• My Dollar Plan presents Stock Splits 101 – Madison shares the basics of stock splits and what they do to your investments.

Money Mangement

What? Don’t like the mountains or the city?? How about the outer banks? Nothing but sun, sand, water, and quiet.

• Bible Money Matters presents College Expenses: Should parents pay for their children’s tuition? – Pete shares his personal story about college and shares his thoughts on the advantages of children paying for their own education. Really good perspective that challenges the current view that parents should pay for college.
• brip blap presents A Quick and Easy Way to Control Spending – Steve has an excellent post that encourages us to write things down in order to eliminate a habit, including spending. Excellent advice.
• My Two Dollars presents How We Managed To Survive Financially After I Left My Corporate Job. – David talks about how he left his corporate job, after he felt like it was killing his spirit. Now he survives just fine and states “the last 17 months of all those years has been the most rewarding and interesting, and I hope I don’t have to ever trade it in to go back!”
• Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning presents Understanding Is the Key to Saving More Money – David says that understanding what you need vs. want is the key to saving money.
• Cortni Marrazzo from Saving Advice Blog presents Can
  a Brand New Car Be a Better Deal than a Used Car? – Cortni considers buying a new car because she thinks it’s a better deal, but is it?
• David Bates from Protect Your Nest Egg in Retirement presents 10 Questions Baby Boomers should ask their Financial Advisors Now! – Are you close or at retirement? 10 questions you should be asking you financial planner. If their answers are no, it might be time to find a different one.
• LAL from LivingAlmostLarge presents The Money
  Charade, – LAL wonders if everyone is just putting on a charade with their money. They also wonder why we can’t talk openly about money, and that maybe if we did it would really help. What keeps you from talking about money, fear or pride?
• The Financial Blogger presents Couples With Different Levels of Income – Money is difficult to manage when you’re on your own, but when you combine two incomes together along with a relationship, things become a bit more complicated.
• Can I Get Rich On A Salary presents The 9 Or So Paths To Getting Rich—And My Purported Analysis Of Them (Part 1) – G Blogger looks at the various ways people get rich.
• Know The Ledge presents Money Management Basics Revisited – Joe revisits the basics of money management.

Other

While there, check out the Wright Brothers Memorial. First in Flight you know!

• Funny about Money presents Generating Traffic with Carnivals and Festivals – vh shares a very insightful article that uses statistics and traffic measures to show the benefits of participating in blog carnivals. Not directly personal finance related, but good information.
• Million Dollar Journey presents The Best Time to Start is NOW – FrugalTrader answers the question of when to you should start doing something about your finances. When? Now.
• Working for Rachel presents The Financial Generation Gap – Rachel provides some really good insight into the financial generation gap that makes it seem like young people don’t know how to save. She argues its a different world for them, and I agree.
• Chief Family Officer presents Our car buying experience – Part Two: Financing and the Trade-in – CFO shares her experience of financing a new car and surprising the dealership after the deal with a trade-in. Way to go! Nothing better than getting a great deal.
• Dreaming of Ferraris presents Reasons to Not Buy That Car… – Foxie gets tempted by a red Honda S2000, but maintains control and manage her debt. Good choice!
• Millionaire Money Habits presents Should I Use a 401k Debit Card? – Ryan tells us why 401k debit cards are such a bad idea, and I couldn’t agree more.
• Ask Mr Credit Card presents Bought a New Lexus RX 350 – My Adventure and Reasons – Mr. Credit Card buys a new Lexus and shares his reasons why and takes us through the negociation process.

Real Estate

Wilmington, NC isn’t far away and houses the Battleship North Carolina

• No Debt Plan presents How Much House Do You Buy Each Month? – Kevin shares a good article that overviews the mortgage process of paying monthly interest and principle and goes into how you account for making extra payments.
• The Personal Financier presents How to Successfully Navigate Your Way through Home Renovations: 10 Practical Tips – Great timing on these renovation tips Dorian, at least for me, since we’re looking hard at a house that really needs some. Particularly appreciated the info on contracts.
• The Orange Paper presents Black Money Saves Our Financial Sector – Austin provides a comparison of the India housing market to the US market and some perspective on what caused the current US housing crisis. Informative read.
• Finandom Dot Com presents Home Improvements That Really Increase Your Property Values – Harrison helps us understand what home improvements will get us the most return for the money…but don’t always expect to get your money back.

Reviews

Maybe head a little further south, and walk one of the many beaches on the NC coast.

• Single Guy Money presents Most Reliable Used Cars – SGM shares a summary of the most reliable used cars from 2007 from Edmunds.com. Looking for a reliable used car? Look here first.
• GRACEful Retirement presents Time for a Book Report – Grace reviews the Social Security Answer book and recommends it.

Saving

Oh yeah, don’t forget to grab some Carolina BBQ!

• Don’t Feed The Alligators presents 7 Ways in Which Wealth Building is Like Weight Control – MITBeta shows that weight loss and wealth building both have a great deal in common.
• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents Five (Nonsensical) Reasons to Delay Saving for Retirement – Five of the most common ways people convince themselves they can delay saving for retirement. Prepare to be unconvinced.
• Invest In India presents Saving Habits that show results – Everything Finance provides basic money management tips to save money and manage your finances. Basic tips that never get old.
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents 7 Tips for Cheaper Travel – Excellent tips to save money while traveling. Particularly liked the idea of staying in a cottage instead of a hotel!
• Prime Time Money presents 7 Can’t Miss Ways to
  Kick-Start the Saving Habit – PT shares that overall savings in America is on the decline and privides some dead-on tips on how to start saving.
• Sound Money Matters presents 10 Tips to Survive Wedding Season without Going Into Debt – Aryn provides 10 tips to help you save money during peak wedding season. Great tips!
• Alpha Consumer presents Taking a Vow of Frugality – Taking a vow of frugality isn’t necessarily the way to go… making big changes over time can end up saving more money than going cold-turkey.
• My Daily Dollars presents The GroceryGame – Amy provides a comprehensive review of the Grocery Game and shares how it’s working for her.
• The Money Kings presents Why You Should Get A Hybrid Car NOW! – The Money Kings layout their reasons for why we should all buy Hybrid cars now. I’d love to, can’t afford one!
• Frugal Babe presents Should We Be Saving Less? – Frugal Babe has paid off all her debt for the mortgage and wonders if she should be saving less and using a little money “just for fun”.
• Your Finish Rich Plan presents 10 Tips To Jumpstart Your Emergency Savings Fund – Will shares some tips on how to get that all too critical emergency fund started.
• Save and Conquer presents Retirement Planning – Saving – Bryce takes us through the process of how to save for retirement.
• Financialgal presents Weddings – resisting the urge to splurge – Financialgal provides us with some useful tips for staying within the wedding budget.

Taxes

Last, but not least, make sure you eat some grits with those biscuits!

• The Happy Rock presents Professional Tax Preperation Saved Me Over $5,000 – The Happy Rock shares how he found that using a tax professional to do your taxes really pays off.
• Online Savings Blog presents How the Bush Tax Cuts Have Affected You – junger provides some details on the bush tax cuts and how they may effect you.
• Money Crashers presents How To File For A Tax Extension – Erik tells us how to file for an extension to avoid those late fees!
• Growing Money presents Make More Money With the Same Paycheck – Smarty tells us how to make more money by not getting a tax return.

Photo credits to: Matthew Abadi,msprague,Karl Palutke,triplezero,kreg.steppe,kreg.steppe,candescent,rvaphotodude,Ricardo (Kadinho) Villela,HowdeeDoodat,Go Card USA,Go Card USA,Go Card USA, Mark Sadowski, wilbanks, nickgraywfu