The Carnival of Personal Finance #228: Halloween 2009 Edition

by Erik Folgate  
Filed under Financial Links

26 Comments

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:

1. MLR from My Life ROI presents Gifts for Kids: Who Do They Belong To?

2. JLP from AllFinancialMatters.com presents Bill Miller vs. the S&P 500 Index.

3. Jim from Bargaineering presents True Power of Compound Interest.

4. David from Money Under 30 presents Seven Signs You’re At Risk for Identity Theft

5. Kyle from Suburban Dollar presents When Debtors Go AWOL

6. Mighty Bargain Hunter tells us to Do this and you’ll manage your checking account successfully

7. Peter from Bible Money Matters presents 10 Attributes Of The Perpetually Broke

8. J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents Does it matter who the “breadwinner” is anymore?

9. 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!

10. 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 Present

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Tags: best investing tips, carnival of personal finance, saving money, tips on being frugal