Carnival of Personal Finance #298 – The Best Money Articles Online

Its been a while since I hosted the CoPF and I was pleasantly surprised to see many new faces in the personal finance blogging space along with some of my old favorites. It was especially interesting to see some of the newer blogs out there because it reminded me of my journey in building Saving to Invest. Over the 3 years I have worked on this site I have evolved as a publisher and online entrepreneur. I have learned what works, what doesn’t and what it takes to make money online. 

The journey has had its highs, lows, boo-yah moments and plenty of late nights. I am still working to overcome my traffic and revenue statistics addiction (down to checking only 20 times a day now!), but as a finance major I have always found comfort and truth in the quantitative nature of numbers in measuring ones progress. That’s why I am proud to have recently passed the 5 million visitor mark, garnering nearly 10,000 subscribers and getting about 250,000+ visitors a month on average.

All while still keeping a full time job, family and completing an MBA. Hard work – but well worth it.

So without further ado, here are some of the best submissions (from over 90) for this weeks edition of the web’s premier personal finance gathering.

Editor Picks

FIRE Finance from FIRE Finance presents How to Turn $5000 into $22 million? Lessons From One Successful Individual Investor based on the story of Anne Scheiber, who was an auditor at IRS and went on to become a multi-millionaire. Some basic, yet powerful, tenets of investing can be drawn from her story.

D4L from Dividends Value presents 13 Dividend Stocks Headed In The Right Direction, and says, “…the real question for the savvy dividend investor is ‘where is the stock headed?’ Here are four important directional metrics that I look for when updating my stock database…”

Mike from The Financial Blogger presents The Only Check List You Need Prior To Starting Your Business,, Some great tips for those looking to start their own business (especially fellow bloggers).

Flexo from Consumerism Commentary presents 9 Spring Break Ideas, and says, “Spring Break is fast approaching and we have a few ideas to maximize your fun without breaking the bank.” This post is just in time for the start of spring and the end of the dreadful winter in the North-east.

Kevin from Moolanomy presents Save Money by Trading Down Your Home, and says, “Moving to a smaller home forces you to make some great financial decisions. It could even be the key to your financial freedom.”

Budgeting and Money Management

Nicole from Grumpy Rumblings presents External effects on spending, and says, “If you really want to save money, you can do it unconsciously just by living in a small area and having a demanding job. Then every moment of your time will be too precious to spend shopping and every inch of space too valuable to fill up with junk.”

Kevin McKee from Thousandaire presents Living Gas Tank to Gas Tank, and says, “While most of us are not exactly where we’d like to be financially, I think we can all look back to a time when our situation was worse. This is my look back at a time when I couldn’t afford to fill my gas tank in my car, and how happy I am every time I can pay for a full tank of gas today.”

Md from Studenomics presents 20 Financial Moves In Your 20s, and says, “Financial moves worth trying in your 20s.”

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Finances of the Average American, and says, “If this is the way Americans handle their personal finances, is it any wonder that the economy is in the toilet?”

Jason from One Money Design presents YNAB 3 Review (You Need a Budget), and says, “Learn how to use YNAB to proactively manage your money each month by giving every dollar a job.”

Big Cajun Man from THE Canadian Personal Finance Blog presents Tracking Money, and says, “Tracking how you spend your money is important, but what about where it goes? You can watch it move, geographically as well.”

vh from Funny about Money presents Gasoline Costs Putting a Crimp on Life, and says, “Trying to budget for exploding gasoline prices…are we all back to hypermiling yet?”

L. Marie Joseph from First Generation White Collar presents Willpower sucks

MR from Money Reasons presents How Much Money Is a Lot of Money?, and says, “This story is about how different amounts of money has changed as we age. The root is that we will always want more, and what we view as a lot of money will always increase as we obtain more money.”

Money Beagle from Money Beagle presents Roughly Two-Thirds Of All Months Are Good (Financially)

PKamp3 from Don’t Quit Your Day Job! presents Hedge Your Gas Prices!, and says, “It’s possible to hedge your gas prices by carefully purchasing shares of funds that track gasoline futures… I created this calculator to do the math for you!”

Elizabeth (Modern Gal) from Modern Gal presents Coping with Frugal Burnout

Matt Bell from Matt About Money presents The Case Against Frugality, and says, “As the recession dragged on, frugality became all the rage. Many people thought their personal finance habits had been forever changed — more savings, less debt. That was then. Today, the savings rate is headed back down and credit card debt is growing. Why such a short fling with frugality? Maybe the answer can be found with the word “frugality.”

John from Wallet Blog presents Balance Transfer Fees, High Interest Rates: Don’t Fault the CARD Act, and says, “After a year, the CARD Act has proven itself successful, despite what some people may think.”

Taxes and Retirement

Mike Holman from Money Smarts presents The Perfect Retirement Myth, and says, “When planning for your retirement, don’t get too hung up on the ideal retirement income.”

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents What Happens When You Die Without a Will, and says, “Here’s some very important information about wills and why you don’t want to die without one.”

Madison from My Dollar Plan presents How Do You Handle College Advantage 529 Plan Taxes?, and says, “If you’ve received some bonuses from the College Advantage 529 this year, read this to find out how it will affect your taxes.”

Money Walks from Money Walks presents Some Do’s and Don’ts for this tax season

Ken from Spruce Up Your Finances presents 4 Payment Options You Can Use If You Owe Taxes

Jim from Bargaineering presents What is Tax Form 1040?

Jim Yih from Retire Happy Blog presents What is a safe withdrawal rate?, and says, “When you retire, you will need to switch your thinking from being a saver to being a spender. The first thing you need to decide is what is a safe withdrawal rate?”

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog from Canadian Finance Blog presents Do we have a retirement crisis on our hands?, and says, “Despite the doom and gloom messages about retirement planning, there may be less of a crisis than you might think.”

Grace from GRACEful Retirement presents Notes on Being the ‘Go To’ Person

Outlaw Finance presents 5 Famous Celebrity Tax Evasion Cases, and says, “Some of the most notorious and well know tax evaders (i.e. what not to do at tax time).”

Careers and Living

Pat S. from compounding returns presents The 10 Highest Paying Jobs (And how to get one), and says, “BLS Statistics reveal the 10 highest paying (non-medical) careers.”

Bob from Christian Personal Finance presents Freelance Career Ideas: Writing, Webdesign, and more, and says, “The most recent recession has been marked by an increase of people starting home businesses. The combination of a tough job market and technology that makes it possible to start a freelance business from home has tempted many to quit the more traditional workplace and work for themselves…”

Mike from Experiglot presents Quit Your Job To Freelance, and says, “The argument for leaving a steady job for freelance work.”

Ramsay from Moneyedup presents How to be good at what you do, and says, “I once heard it said, “A man should know all there is to know about his business.” I never forgot that saying and it sticks with me everywhere I go in business. “

Trent Green from Money for Regular People presents Is Buying (or Owning) a Home to Fight Inflation a Bad Idea After All?, and says, “Is buying (or presently owning) a house a good strategy for fighting the rising tide of inflation even though the residential real estate market is down? The answer is yes, and here is why.”

Miss T from Prairie Eco-Thrifter presents 7 Tips for Marital Money Bliss, and says, “Marriages have their financial ups and downs and when not properly managed can can take a serious toll. Here are 7 tips to ensure your financial health and relationship health stay in check.”

Michael from DoughRoller presents Why Term Life Insurance is the Smart Life Insurance, and says, “Term life insurance expires after a certain period of time but would you rather cash it in, or live!?”

Craig from Free From Broke presents Rework – Book Review, and says, “Rework was an eye-opening book on how to best run your business. You don’t need millions to get started on your business goals.”

Roshawn Watson from Watson Inc presents The Impossible Question: Just Who Is The Middle Class?, and says, “The term “American middle class” is universally familiar but devilishly elusive. Incidentally, recent research has illustrated just how controverted this issue really is. Let’s explore the impossible question: just who is the American Middle Class?”

Tim Chen from NerdWallet Credit Card Blog presents Considering a Medical Credit Card? Proceed with Caution, and says, “Originally used for elective surgeries like liposuction, medical credit cards are increasingly used by those with limited or no health insurance to pay doctors, dentists, chiropractors and even veterinarians.”

Ryan from Cash Money Life presents Resume Mistakes to Avoid, and says, “These resume mistakes are easy to make, and easy to avoid. Take a look at this article before sending in your resume on your next job application.”

The Smarter Wallet presents Pros and Cons of Investing in Real Estate, and says, “Real estate investing — what decisions should you make before getting into it?”

Economy and Investing

Alex Garcia from Leveraged ETF presents Crude Oil ETF, and says, “A list of crude oil exchange traded funds which have exposure the the rising commodity”

Shaun from Money Cactus presents Conquering Self Doubt: How to Kick the Sh*t Out of Un-productiveness, and says, “Self doubt can be a particularly nasty customer when it comes to creating wealth, but only if you let it. Here is a way to take control and defeat your self doubt.

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance presents Use NPV to make investing decisions, and says, “Find out why figuring out the Net Present Value of future cash flows leads to better investing decisions.”

Dividend Growth Investor presents Dividend Growth Investing Gets No Respect, and says, “Dividend Growth investing is one of the most misunderstood investment strategies out there. Yet various studies have proven that quality dividend growth stocks tend to outperform the broad market indices over time.”

Mike Piper from Oblivious Investor presents Asset Allocation is a Sloppy Science, and says, “Asset allocation is often made out to be a matter of precise calculation. In reality, it’s based on a series of guesses and assumptions.”

IS from Intelligent Speculator presents Why a country’s economy can grow “too fast”, and says, “An explanation of the negatives of national growth.”

Mike from The Dividend Guy Blog presents To What Point Are You Ethical?, and says, “What are your ethical limits? How ethical are you really?”

Mike from Green Panda Treehouse presents 5 Steps To Create Your Investment Portfolio, and says, “Must read about your investment planning.”

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents How To Use Stop Loss Orders To Lock In A Profit, and says, “Discussion of stop loss order technique to perform the best market timing decisions.”

Bret from Hope to Prosper presents Government Budgets vs. Public Pensions, and says, “I have been predicting for years government budget problems would finally boil over into a crisis. This is starting to play out in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey.”

Saving vs. Debt

Jon Elder from Free Money Wisdom presents How I Graduated College Debt Free and Survived

Lindy from Minting Nickels presents The Millionaire’s Broke Daughter & Me, and says, “This is a story about how a classmate and I each handled being broke in college. The difference was that she was the daughter of a millionaire.”

Philip Taylor from PT Money presents Encourage Your Spouse to Save Money, and says, “Some great relationship advice on how to encourage a spendthrift spouse to be more frugal.”

Sandy from Yes, I Am Cheap presents I Grew Up Poor And Survived, and says, “I grew up poor and am thankful for what the experience taught me about life.”

AJC from How To Make $7 Million In 7 Years presents Personal Finance Advice In America Is Broken, and says, “A reader’s question about debt made me realize that personal finance advice in America really is broken!”

Revanche from A Gai Shan Life presents Generational Poverty

Kris Bickell from Debt Relief Tips presents Why You Should Completely Ignore Your Credit Score When You Are Struggling With Debt

Other

Julie from Taking Charge presents Girl Scout cookie payments go mobile

Junior Boomer from Consumer Boomer presents Permanent Life Insurance Rates, and says, “This article will help you learn more about universal life insurance rates, and you’ll find out how a permanent rate can be a good thing.

Jeri Ford from Help Me Travel Cheap presents Priceline and Hotwire Hotel Bidding Tips | Book Early or Book Late?, and says, “Bid early or bid late? That is the question. See a follow up post by Craig Ford from Money Help for Christians presents How to Easily Earn Airline Miles | Become an Airline Points Junkie Today, and says, “How to earn 275,000 airline miles in just a few minutes.

Clint from Accumulating Money presents How to Get More Money for Your Trade-In

FruGal presents Baby fever: inexpensive gifts for new mums

Len Penzo dot Com presents Why Bottle Redemption Fees Belong In Your Local Landfill

Shawanda Greene from You Have More Than You Think presents 10 Frugal Ways to Save Big on Booze

Ryan from The Military Wallet presents Can You Collect Unemployment while Using the GI Bill, and says, “Many military veterans separate from the military with the intention of using the GI Bill to complete their degree – the good news is they may also qualify for and collect unemployment benefits while attending school.”

Obama Stimulus Benefits presents Impacts From a Government Shutdown

Hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the carnival of personal finance. To keep up with newer posts and hot personal finance and money topics,  I encourage you to subscribe (free) via Email or RSS . The next edition of this carnival will by hosted by Fabulously Broke in the City . Be sure to get your submissions in using this form.

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10 thoughts on “Carnival of Personal Finance #298 – The Best Money Articles Online”

  1. Wow! We are at the top of Editor’s Picks! Amazing, thanks for hosting this great carnival. Congrats for earning your MBA while working full time and also maintaining such a super site.

    Cheers,
    FIRE

    Reply
  2. Thanks for hosting the carnival and including my post. I think I am beyond obsessed with my stats. I can’t help but check them multiple times a day.

    Reply
    • Thanks….trust me, I was this obsessed when I was getting 100 visitors a day…..My i-phone has just made things worse. But hey, I work hard so if I get a few seconds of positive energy when looking at the “good” stats, then I think it is perfectly okay. After all, if it wasn’t for all the comments, stats and $$$ most of us would not be doing this. Especially when you consider how much time it takes to maintain a site consistently.

      Reply
  3. Thank you for hosting this carnival. I have to say that I too am obsessed with my statistics and it’s been over two years now that I’ve been running the blog. I was hoping that I would get less obsessed as the blog got older but I see that I’m right on track!

    Reply

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