Personal Finance Carnival #63

This is the first time that I host PF carnival at 1stMillionAt33. Thanks to Flexo at Consumerism Commentary for giving me this chance to host PF carnival #63. If you’re first time here on my site, you can take a look at my SiteMap on the right column, or any categories that you like at the left column.

Before I start giving you the carnival, I just want to inform everyone that Sharon at The Frugal Duchess is starting her Friday Spotlight to take guest articles from everyone on her blog. Since she writes a weekly column in Miami Herald, had been a stringer for People Magazine, be sure to submit some quality article (on frugal living/finance) to her. Just maybe your article or blog may appear in the off-line world.

Okay, here are all of the 48 submissions for this week of PF carnival, categorized and listed by the submission order within each category. I added a short comment or summary for each submission for the benefit of readers.

RED entries had more votes than others. Voting results are closed now.

I also added a poll on the right column for anyone to vote. The number in front of the post always correspond to the number in the polling. Sorry that there is a little bit out-of-order numbering, for the sake of categorization. You’re allowed to vote multiple times on any number of articles that you like (and please do vote). I have given every article 1 vote as a host of this carnival, and I also added 1 additional vote for the articles that I like. Readers can use it as a reference for a guide to read the articles. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the poll to be tampered-proof, without allowing multiple votes on different articles. Bloggers, you’re welcomed to add 1 vote to your own article, but if I see too many votes on the same article from the same IP address, I will block that IP for the future.

Also, just a word of caution, votes only serve as a guide, but not necessarily the best articles that you will like since everyone’s personal preferences are different. I will leave the poll there for 1 to 2 weeks, and then I will collect the results, and update this post with the yet-to-be determined top posts information. But if I detect that the poll result is likely to be tampered, with any one or two articles getting way too many votes, I will scratch all voting results.

Okay, here you go (enough of the polling. Not sure if it’s a stupid idea.):

Misc. Personal Finance

  1. By Mmm… life… : Get Rich Quick!. A commentary on the opposite effects of get-rich-quick.
  2. By Debt Free: The Three Strategies to Maximize Your Financial Success. The basics on how to achieve financial success.
  3. By Consumerism Commentary: Selling My Books on eBay: Probably Not Worth It. Interested in the Doctor. Who books? Ebay is sucking blood out of the sellers again.
  4. By Getting Out of Debt: Personal Finance: Making Difficult Decisions. Really tough choice made by this supermom for her vacation. I can’t imagine how I can be that brave to do the same thing and teach my kids.
  5. By Aridni: Financial bloggers losing focus. Less counting pennies, but more money-generating ideas.
  6. By My Money Forest: Basic Personal Finance Articles. A good collection of articles on how to handle your finance & how to invest.
  7. By My Financial Awareness: Feel Guilty about Your Finances? Good advices on taking responsibility for your finances, and separate it from guilt or love for that matter.
  8. By Roth & Company Tax Update: Bad Timing, Foot Fault Leads To Tax Debacle For Solv-Ex Exec. Lessons for stock gain tax planning. An example from an energy executive getting a margin call.
  9. By No Credit Needed Blog: 10 Steps For Personal Finance Organization. If you don’t have your personal finance scheme works out, check out this post.
  10. By No Credit Needed Podcast: No Credit Needed Podcast Episode 23. Episode #23….Sorry, I haven’t heard any Podcast before. You’d better listen to it yourself.
  11. By No Credit Needed Network: Highlights From This Week’s NCN Network Members. A highlight from the best PF posts in NCN network.

Saving Tips

  1. By Leahey.org: How I Saved Hundreds Per Month (Part I). Lots of money saving tips for you.
  2. By The MotherLoad: Aldi Supermarket: Price Sheets & Store Information. A truly comprehensive prices for anyone too lazy to go to the store.
  3. By Get Rich Slowly: A College Education for $10 a Course. Good tips on how you can learn some college-level courses for cheap. JD, you’re making me to really miss school. To all the college and school kids, enjoy the best learning time while you can.
  4. By FIREFinance – Financial Independence Retire Early: Research – From Junk to Joy! A super-easy way to trade your junk electronics for cash.
  5. By Frugal Duchess: 10 Luxe-for- Less Vacation Tips. Great tips for any end-of-summer travelling tips.

Career/Job

  1. By Young and Broke: How to make it. Great advices for anyone who are starting out on their jobs.
  2. By Free Money Finance: Which is More Important — A High Starting Salary or Higher Average Salary Increases? Math doesn’t lie. Check out the numbers for yourself.
  3. By It’s Just Money: Ways your personal life can hurt your professional life, or Don’t Be Tom Cruise. Advices on how to stay out of trouble on your job.
  4. By Entrepreneur’s Journey: Pricing Points, Perceived Value And How To Make More Money Per Sale. A personal and interesting experience on how to do pricing for his online editorial business.

Retirement

  1. By Hill’s Personal Finance: Pension Protection Act of 2006. A really good summary on the latest changes in pension.
  2. By Accumulating Money: Affluent Baby Boomers Ready To Retire With No Retirement Plan. Very good action plan for anyone who has no retirement plan yet.
  3. By Simran Gill: Personal Finance and Simulation Modelling. Using Monte Carlo simulation to project a future networth.
  4. By Investing Guide: Roth 401(k) status now permanent. Check out the Roth 401k benefits compared to regular IRA.

Insurance

  1. By Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Effects of Changing Personal Insurance Details on Premiums. Tips on how different parameters will change your premium on auto insurance.
  2. By InsureBlog: $680,000 and Counting. A sad story, but a BIG warning for anyone who doesn’t have medical insurance.
  3. By Chrees’ World: Is your home underinsured? A good list of questions to go through to make sure you’re not under-insured.

Budgeting

  1. By Getting Finances Done: How to create a zero based budget. A very detailed guide on how to create your budget.
  2. By Taking Control Over Money: What Do You Spend Your Money On? Good advices on examining spending/expenses and coming up with a budget. You can download Quicken categories to help making your budget.

Consumption-related

  1. By Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Warehouse: The “Con” in Lexicon. Discussion on marketing words for your emotion.
  2. By Free the Drones PF Blog: Dysfunctional Financial Personality #4 – The Emotional Spender. Tips on how to cope as an emotional spender.
  3. By Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Warehouse: My Big Fat Inanimate Object. Discussion on America’s consumerism on homes.
  4. By Money and Values: Locally-Owned Businesses Vs. Corporate Chains. I fully agreed with Penny Nickel. I try to do the same thing to let my dollars stay locally.
  5. By Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge: Patient Advocacy: Are you getting your money’s worth at the doctor’s office? Tips on how to get your money worth when seeing the doctors.
  6. By FiveCentsNickel.com: Dish Network Customer Service Still Sucks. If you are thinking of getting Dish-network service, definitely read this article.
  7. By AmericanInventorSpot.com: War of the Off Brand Sodas. A cool article on different off-brand sodas at many stores.

Real Estate

  1. By Mad Kane’s Humor Blog: Hapless Home Buyer’s Guide. A step-by-step home buying guide with humor.
  2. By The Finance Journey: Lessons Learned From Selling For Sale By Owner. Learn from his mistakes on FSBO.
  3. By Bouncing Back: The Greatest Real Estate Tool Ever (Part 1). A tool guide on a real estate website.
  4. By “D”igital Breakfast: Foreclosure Investing – A Look At Essex County. Foreclosure investing in action. Lots of notices.
  5. By Queercents: Maintaining a Lifestyle of Conformity. A commentary on master-planned community.
  6. By The Mortgage Reports Blog: Competing for sales in the Chicago condo market. A good local study on the under/cross-currents in rental, resale and new home markets.

Investing

  1. By Stock Market Beat: Semiconductor Sucker’s Rally. Maybe you’re right, but I kind of like to keep my head buried in the sands.
  2. By Start an Online Business – Tips and Advice: Savings Vs. Investing. Good advices on when to save and when to invest.
  3. By The Dividend Guy Blog: Banks as Investments – Works for Me. Investing in canadian banks should be okay due to natural resource development, in my personal opinion.
  4. By No Limits Ladies: Shopping For Stocks. A comparison between buying stocks & other goodies.
  5. By Financial Options: The Week Ahead: Your Financial Roadmap for August 28 to September 1, 2006. Economic data releases and earning reports in next week.
  6. By The Real Returns: Thoughts About Earnings. A lot of thoughts from an investor looking forward.

Last submissions after I published the carnival prematurely (SORRY)

  1. By Frugal Duchess: 10 Luxe-for- Less Vacation Tips. Great tips for any end-of-summer travelling tips.
  2. By My Financial Awareness: Feel Guilty about Your Finances? Good advices on taking responsibility for your finances, and separate it from guilt or love for that matter.
  3. By Roth & Company Tax Update: Bad Timing, Foot Fault Leads To Tax Debacle For Solv-Ex Exec. Lessons for stock gain tax planning. An example from an energy executive getting a margin call.
  4. By No Credit Needed Blog: 10 Steps For Personal Finance Organization. If you don’t have your personal finance scheme works out, check out this post.
  5. By No Credit Needed Podcast: No Credit Needed Podcast Episode 23. Episode #23….Sorry, I haven’t heard any Podcast before. You’d better listen to it yourself.
  6. By No Credit Needed Network: Highlights From This Week’s NCN Network Members. A highlight from the best PF posts in NCN network.
  7. By FiveCentsNickel.com: Dish Network Customer Service Still Sucks. If you are thinking of getting Dish-network service, definitely read this article.
  8. By AmericanInventorSpot.com: War of the Off Brand Sodas. A cool article on different off-brand sodas at many stores.
  9. By The Mortgage Reports Blog: Competing for sales in the Chicago condo market. A good local study on the under/cross-currents in rental, resale and new home markets.
  10. By Investing Guide: Roth 401(k) status now permanent. Check out the Roth 401k benefits compared to regular IRA.
  11. By Entrepreneur’s Journey: Pricing Points, Perceived Value And How To Make More Money Per Sale. A personal and interesting experience on how to do pricing for his online editorial business.

My apology to the late posts but made the deadline. I listed your posts twice to make up your lost 10 hours in the spotlight.

Hope you have enjoyed reading these articles. Next week PF carnival will be hosted at Aridni, another great PF blog.

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