Money Crashers » Financial Links

Best Of Personal Finance Articles in 2nd Week of November

Erik Folgate — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:24:10 +0000

If you’re new to learning about personal finance or you spend most of your time on the internet shopping or playing games, I encourage you to check out all of the great personal finance blogs around the internet. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, so that’s why I like to highlight some of the ones that I read and stay involved in on a regular basis.

Bargaineering explains how you can save money by canceling your cable TV. I really like this idea, and it’s becoming a lot easier with internet TV like Hulu and a-la-carte buying on iTunes, but for a sports guy like me, I want access to live football and basketball games.
Here’s a guest article on Consumerism Commentary about the lifestyle creep and the self-employed. This article caught my eye, because I am currently starting up an internet marketing company with a partner, and even though all of the basic are set up, we are still learning every day about how to run a small business.
Frugal Dad has a great article about how to set up a personal finance firewall and protect your cash assets from online fraudulent activity.
Kiplinger’s Magazine has ten ways to fatten your wallet on Black Friday. Read this article to get geared up for Black Friday, and I will also get you ready for the big shopping season next week.
Generation X Finance encourages us to make year-end tax moves now to lessen your tax burden for 2009.
Wisebread has a good article about dream jobs and day jobs. I have a strong passion for helping people helping people make their dream job become a reality. It can’t happen overnight, and many people get discouraged too quickly. Transitioning to work you love takes time and preparation.

Check back this week for tips on shopping, black friday, how to find great deals, and negotiate great deals. I’ll also explain how my wife and I keep Christmas spending to a minimum.

The Carnival of Personal Finance #228: Halloween 2009 Edition

Erik Folgate — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:30:50 +0000

Welcome to the 228th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! This week’s theme is Halloween, even though I think Halloween is a big waste of time and money! I’ll try not to be the Scrooge of Halloween, because I know it’s fun for kids, it gives us something to do before Thanksgiving and Christmas, and there have been some great scary movies spawn from the Halloween “holiday”. I have included a couple of scary images, so if you don’t like those, then I apologize in advance! So, does your bank account scare you? Does budgeting give you the creeps? Is your credit report haunted with collection ghosts? If so, use this collection of spook-tacular articles to help you improve your financial situation.

Here are my favorite submissions:

MLR from My Life ROI presents Gifts for Kids: Who Do They Belong To?
JLP from AllFinancialMatters.com presents Bill Miller vs. the S&P 500 Index.
Jim from Bargaineering presents True Power of Compound Interest.
David from Money Under 30 presents Seven Signs You’re At Risk for Identity Theft
Kyle from Suburban Dollar presents When Debtors Go AWOL
Mighty Bargain Hunter tells us to Do this and you’ll manage your checking account successfully
Peter from Bible Money Matters presents 10 Attributes Of The Perpetually Broke
J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents Does it matter who the “breadwinner” is anymore?
Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents 92 Quotes About Debt That’ll Make You Think, Laugh, & Tweet! Here’s a massive compilation of 90+ famous quotes on debt that are all less than 120 characters long!
Patrick from Cash Money Life presents The Early Adopters Tax. Electronics are very expensive when they are first released and you can save a lot of money by waiting until the second generation of the item is released

Halloween/Spooky Themed Articles:

Len Penzo highlights Scary Stories: Bloggers Share Their Tales of Buyer’s Remorse. Muahahahaha (scary laugh)
Little House in the Valley shares Halloween Decorations That Won’t Scare Your Wallet
Austin from Foreigner’s Finances shares Credit Card Debt Facts That Will Scare You Into Staying Out of Debt for LIFE, and says, “A look into the real numbers behind credit card debt and the opportunity lost while stuck paying extra money in interest to the credit card card company every month. “
FIRE Finance presents The Witch of Wall Street – Henrietta “Hetty” Green . Haha, good stuff!

The rest of the best…

Taxes

Free Money Finance reveals Who Doesn’t Pay Taxes Only half of Americans pay for income taxes. Yikes, this makes me angry that only half of us contribute to the luxuries that our community provides.
Michael B. Rubin from Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck tells us that the First time home buyer tax credit may actually expire. Rumors flying around Congress that it will be saved and that it will expire. Which is it?

Budgeting

Susan from Brain Dead Simple tells a story about a Financial Organizing Soap Opera Episode #1. Meet Holly & Jack, fictional characters facing a real-life financial organizing and planning challenge.
Henry Stern from InsureBlog explains Budgeting for Healthcare. He asks, “What could be more scary than facing a big bill for unexpected health care?” I don’t know, maybe a blood-sucking vampire? Check out the video!
Jason from One Money Design presents The Bucket Budget: A Simplistic Approach to Budgeting. The bucket budgeting is a great approach to budgeting for those who like to keep it simple or don’t like to budget.”

Career

Mr. Cheap from Four Pillars explains what it’s like Working With Computer Nerds. Hey, what’s so funny about working with computer nerds?
Miss M from M is for Money presents Group Legal: A New Workplace Benefit.

Saving

Evan from My Journey to Millions tells what he is going to do with a $1,000 that he won! Congratulations, can I have some?
Studenomics reveals to us Money Saving Techniques That Work & Don’t Work. This is a list of ways to save money that simply make no sense.
Paul from FiscalGeek asks if You Should Treat your Emergency Fund as an Investment

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Free High Yield Checking Accounts, and says, “I still need to get the most out of my checking account. I review several checking accounts that offer returns.”

Single Guy Money presents Save Money On Your Auto Insurance.

Being in a lot of debt can be scary, but not quite as scary as the Jigsaw character from the scariest movie I’ve ever seen, the original “Saw”.

Credit/Debt

The Credit Toolbox presents Debt All Rolled into One. Is your debt spread out in a million different places? Consider consolidating it!

Carrie On The Cheap reminds us What You May Be Forgetting When You’re The Victim Of Identity Theft Carrie was a victim of identity theft, and she has learned some tough lessons!

Brad Chaffee from Enemy of Debt presents his EOD Challenge: Need Motivation To Pay Off Debt? I think that by challenging yourself to take a “nice challenging” hike, you will give yourself a glimpse into how getting out of debt feels.”

Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians explains How Not to Recover From Bankruptcy. This post challenges some conventional beliefs about the best ways to recover from bankruptcy.

Xanthia Berry from Becoming Zofie presents Catch 22: Student Loans.

Clint from Accumulating Money explains How Balance Transfers Work

The Smarter Wallet presents How 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards Can Save You Money

Banker, Saver presents Should You Get Branded Retail Credit Cards?

Cecil Dellison from Clear Choice Credit Cards explains that a Tougher Credit Card Situation Helps Pawn Shops.

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card reveals that Citibank closes Shell Credit Card Accounts.

Economy

Helen from Affine Financial Services presents Sustainable Energy: Solar Cell Skeptic. The government is investing millions in solar cells, but she remain a solar cell skeptic.

Money Management

Fabulously highlights The Paradoxes of Money & Women, and explains that she wasn’t given too much direction about how to manage money as a young girl.

The Financial Blogger tells it like it is: Americans Consumers Are Like Children Are Americans spending less because they have learned to become frugal or simply because they have less money in their pockets?

Darwin’s Finance reveals 5 Reasons Living Paycheck to Paycheck Costs You Thousands of Dollars. Hidden fees and missed opportunities can financially kill you over the long-term.

J.D. Roth from Get Rich Slowly asks if you Should Stop Funding Retirement to Focus on Debt?

In order to answer this question, you need to factor in your personal life situation.

Simon from Realm of Prosperity says that just because you are using Coupons, Discounts, and Sales Do Not Mean You Are Saving. Very true, it’s so easy to buy things you don’t need or will never use when using a coupon.

Bob from Christian Finances presents How he used a third car to prevent a financial catastrophe

B.B. from Beating Broke asks “Are Your Personal Finance Skills Holding You Back?” Are you letting your skills and goals hold you back? Have they limited your ability to live your life passionately?

The Canadian Finance Blog presents 10 Money Management Tips For Expectant Parents With a baby on the way

Frugality

MoneyNing asks the question, Does Maturity Affect Spending? Do you spend more or less because you are more mature?”

Paul Williams from Provident Planning explains his experiment with Raising a Cow for Beef: Month 2. I’m by no means a member of PETA, but I think I would get too attached to the cow if I raised it from birth with the sole intention of eating it! I guess I’m not cut out to be on the farm!

Sandy from The Always Frugal Blog asks, “Are Rechargeable Batteries Cost Effective?”

The Everyday Minimalist from The Everyday Minimalist shows us How to deal with and stop bad gifts. Controlling the gift-giving process can save you money in many ways.

Investing

Gather Little By Little tells Why I will probably never buy gold because gold has a horrible long-term track record.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job questions Predicting the RecessionHe asks, “Can the stock market predict recession?”

Intelligent Speculator says,The Dow hit 10,000..that is so last century. In fact, it hit 10,000 in 1999. Get it, that was last century!

Ben from Money Smart Life explains How To Outsource Your Investing Decisions.

Dividends Value gives us 8 Dividend Stocks With The Right Stuff. Every dividend growth investor is looking for a stock that will increase its dividend every year, and he has found that stocks that are able to do this share some common characteristics.”

Mike Piper from The Oblivious Investor analyzes Financial Advisors and Unique Investment Portfolios

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents asks if You Can Reverse/Undo a Roth IRA Conversion

Don from Keep My Dollar tells us his take on the rule of 72

Elle from Couple Money gives some examples of Mutual Fund Expenses?

Investing Toolkit asks if the Spot Gold Price is Headed For $1,200. I guess it has a chance if the dollar continues to weaken due to inflation.

Madison from My Dollar Plan compares and contrasts ETFs Versus Index Funds.

George from Fat Pitch Financials presents Ideas from the 2009 Value Investing Congress, New York This post Includes stock ideas from Bill Ackman, Whitney Tilson, Alexander Roepers, Julian Robertson, David Einhorn, David Nierenberg, and more.

Financial Highway presents Gold Investment Wow, gold investing is on a lot of bloggers’ minds lately.

Alex G from Value Investing Pro presents Joel Greenblatt On CNBC. Joel Greenblatt talks about the magic formula on CNBC.

Personal Finance

Mrs. Accountability from Out of Debt Again gives us an Update On the Denied Insurance Payments, and it turns out that they are going to fix everything and retroactively reinstate his policy.”

Doughroller presents A Buyer’s Guide to Rent-to-Own Homes. The experience has taught him two very important lessons, read on to find out.

Elizabeth G from Modern Gal asks us, “Does Greed Always Trump Fear?”

Matt B from Financial Methods asks, “Do You Follow a Financial Task Schedule?”.

Reviews

Adam from Rabbit Funds outlines a Review of writing a Will on LegalZoom. He gives his honest review of what he liked and didn’t like about preparing a last will and testament on LegalZoom.com.

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Free High Yield Checking Accounts A review of several quality checking accounts that offer a return on your money.

Next Week’s Carnival will be hosted by: THE CENTSIBLE LIFE

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope it is very safe for you and your kids. Remember, you can do a lot of fun stuff with the family without spending much money at all!

photo credits: officially dead, Hub Pages, Night Side, and Life In The PresentRelated Posts:

Festival of Under 30 Finance – March 23rd Edition

5 Tips For Saving Money This Halloween

How To Handle A Credit Card Debt in Collections

Five Steps to Effective Budgeting

Choosing Your Credit Spending Wisely

The Carnival of Personal Finance #228: Halloween 2009 Edition is a post from: Money Crashers

Best Of Personal Finance Bloggers for Week of August 24th

Erik Folgate — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:38:43 +0000

Here are some of the best personal finance and career articles from some of the best bloggers in the PF community:

Free Money Finance analyzes six questions to ask in an interview to sell yourself.

My Two Dollars explains how to have a no-spending weekend. I find that we spend the most money on the weekends, so I really liked this article.

Consumerism Commentary asks what’s most important to you for health care reform. Health care reform is a hot debate in the country, and it’s important for you to understand what you want from health care reform.

Wisebread has a great list of 26 green websites that help you save money. Make sure you bookmark this one for future reference!

Man Vs Debt reveals 16 pieces of information identity thieves crave. If you’ve never checked out this blog, make sure you do! There are loads of great content on here!

Money Smart Life did an interview with a financial planner who likes to blog. Also, check out Ben’s list of financial planners that write blogs.

Odds and Ends

Keep checking back for a new theme and a whole new approach to Money Crashers. We’re looking to build more of a community here, and we want to make the site more interactive. There are big changes in the works with this website, so stay tuned! If you have any suggestions or ideas for new content, please contact us or write a comment below.

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Best Of Personal Finance Bloggers for Week of August 24th is a post from: Money Crashers

Best of Money Crashers Articles in December

Erik Folgate — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:52:51 +0000

Here are a few articles from the archives to check out from last December:

Your Guide to Holiday Tipping

What I Would Do With $1,000 on the Holidays

Seven Gift Cards to Buy for College Students and Teenagers

Should You Refinance Your ARM to a fixed rate mortgage?

Have a Happy Monday! Related Posts:

Mortgage Rates Fall From News of Fannie And Freddie Mac Bail Out

Should You Refinance Your Adjustable Rate Mortgage to a Fixed Rate Mortgage?

Seven Gift Cards To Buy For College Students and Teenagers

The Best Way To Refinance Your House

Important Holiday Shopping Dates To Remember

Best of Money Crashers Articles in December is a post from: Money Crashers

The Top Referring Blogs and Websites To This Site

Erik Folgate — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:41:44 +0000

Thanks to all of the blogs and websites that link to this site on a weekly basis. You bring targeted traffic to this site and allow readers to find this blog as just another resource for their financial needs. It’s awesome to know that the personal finance blogging community works as a team, rather than group of competitors. I have not found a personal finance blogger that doesn’t have a heart to help people win with money and make better financial decisions in their personal lives. Here are the top ten referrers to this site this past month.

Free Money Finance

Lazy Man and Money

The Bloggy Network

Broke Grad Student

PF Blogs

Cash Money Life

Your Credit Advisor

Fire Finance

Mighty Bargain Hunter

Make sure you check out these great websites and support them and everything they do.

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The Top Referring Blogs and Websites To This Site is a post from: Money Crashers

Financial Worksheet Downloads

Erik Folgate — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:47:42 +0000

I found some good, free worksheets online the other day, and I thought that I would share them with you.

Here is a comprehensive budgeting worksheet in Excel format: Budget Worksheet

Here is a great debt elimination plan worksheet in Excel format: Debt Elimination Plan

Here is a nice comparison worksheet for the various different college savings funds out on the market: College Fund Comparison

Check them out and see what you think. Related Posts:

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Financial Worksheet Downloads is a post from: Money Crashers

Christian Money Websites Of Interest

Erik Folgate — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:17:50 +0000

Here are some great websites for those of you looking for some financial direction from a Christian perspective.

Wall Watchers. As a Money Crasher, giving is very important to me. I love to give gifts, money, and time to others. This is a nice website that keeps track of how companies are donating their money.

Kingdom Advisors. It’s tough to trust a financial advisor. Kingdom Advisors is a network of Christian advisors who are dedicated to helping you with your finances from a Christian perspective.

Christian Financial Ministries is an financial counseling organization designed to help you get out of debt, give back to others, and learn how to make wiser financial decisions.

Ministry Watch helps you research a ministry or charity before giving your hard-earned money to them. Make sure you check out a ministry or charity before giving. There are a ton of scum bags out there that will scam people out of their money in the name of God or a good cause.

Got any more sites to share? Leave them in a comment below.

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Christian Money Websites Of Interest is a post from: Money Crashers

Top Referring Blogs For The Month of July

Erik Folgate — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:01:26 +0000

Thank you to these personal finance bloggers who send traffic my way. We have the best network of bloggers out of any genre in the blogging community. Please get to know these sites well. I read these blogs frequently, and I learn something new from them every day.

Free Money Finance

Lazy Man And Money

Fire Finance

Mighty Bargain Hunter

Broke Grad Student

Money Smart Life

Cash Money Life

Again, thanks to everyone for your links this month!
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Top Referring Blogs For The Month of July is a post from: Money Crashers

Great Site For Finding High Yield Checking Accounts

Erik Folgate — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:39:03 +0000

My mom found a cool website that she shared with me, and I want to pass it along to you. It’s called CheckingFinder.Com. You type in your zip code, and it searches for banks that offer high-yielding, interest bearing checking accounts.

I typed in my zip code and the closest bank that it came up with was about 250 miles away, but you might have better luck than I did. All of the banks it listed were showing 5% to 5.5% interest rates for balances up to $25,000. That really caught my eye. I’ve never come across a checking account that offers 5% interest on your money! It’s worth checking out. We need to respond to the large banks like Bank of America and Wachovia by taking our money to smaller, local banks that offer great checking account products. Related Posts:

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Great Site For Finding High Yield Checking Accounts is a post from: Money Crashers

Money Crashers Articles of the Week

Erik Folgate — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:39:47 +0000

Here is a short list of some great articles to read from this past week. Hope you enjoy it.

Free Money Finance gives you ways tosave on cooling costs

Consumerism Commentary tells me why I should wait to buy a G3 iPhone

Wisebread explains the benefits of a walkable neighborhood.

Lazy Man and Money gives us another reason to hate credit card companies

.The Digerati Life has simple ways to improve the value of your home.

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Money Crashers Articles of the Week is a post from: Money Crashers