Front page stories (Editors Picks)

Brip Blap presents Best Financial Move in College

I applied to Harvard on a whim, … I started the application, handwritten, in black ink and when that pen died I finished in blue ink. I did it because one of my friends told me there was no way I could get in, and I took the bet.

Living the Cheap Life presents When Bank Account Bonuses Come Back to Bite You

The thing is, sometimes the banks get really tricky with the requirements. Sometimes there are obscure terms and conditions in tiny print …the banks play dirty.

Frugal Dad presents A Personal Finance Wakeup Call

So there I was at the McDonald’s drive-thru with a dead check card, an over-the-limit credit card, an empty wallet and exactly fifteen cents in the change holder in my truck.

Dont Feed the Alligators presents An Ounce of Prevention Saves Tons of Burning Car

“HEY!!! Your car is on fire!” He turned and smiled and kept walking. “HEY!!!” I yelled again, “YOUR CAR IS ON FIRE!”

Money & Fitness Blog presents My Mom Continues to Help Me Financially and She Shouldn’t Be

I have told my mother time and time again that all I want is a card but she continues to send money

Other Fantastic stories:

My Money Adventures presents Y’s Story: Part 2

My ex is a sleazebag. He grew up in a middle-class home with a middle-class mom and a middle-class dad…

The Q Family Adventure presents Handyman in a Making…

This week project is the flower pencil holder…

Finance Gets Personal presents I’ve Never Been So Happy About Not Taking a Week’s Vacation

…we’re taking a vacation in our own city, and our house will be the hotel

Fire Finance presents Beware – Citi Cash Returns Card Charges Hefty Over the Credit Limit Fees

…keep a tab of our credit card’s transactions via any system that works

Money Blue Book presents “Parking Wars” Reinforces Why I Dislike Tow Truck Drivers

The livelihood of tow truck drivers is based on their ability to successfully hide in the bushes with their getaway vehicles and lie in wait for hapless drivers to make a parking mistake or slip up

I’ve Paid for this Twice Already… presents One Person’s Coupon Trash Ends Up My Treasure

Not being one to turn down a coupon, I sorted through them, and found that most of them were for things we don’t buy or use.

The Financial Blogger presents My Smith Manoeuvre – April Update

In fact, it is more like gambling than investing!

My Daily Dollar presents Why Goals are Awesome

The great thing about the blog is that it’s so public. At first, it’s scary to put yourself out there, but then you realize that you have all these wonderful readers helping you along

Lazy Man and Money presents The Power of the Dream

I haven’t felt like this since college. A good friend and I would stay up all night dreaming about business plans

Dough Roller presents How to Turn Mistakes into Opportunities

The fact is that some of our best successes are born out of mistakes. I’ve made many mistakes with The Dough Roller, and most of them have allowed me greater success down the road

Just Shoot Me Now presents How I saved $10 in Gas

“Honey, do you really want me to come be with you?… I’d rather not waste the gas.”

Thats it for this weeks edition of the Carnival of Money Stories. You can submit your money stories using this form here. If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the Carnival of Money Stories please go to the carnival home page under hosting.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Welcome to the 40th edition of the Carnival of Money Stories, the one year anniversary edition. To be exact, our first edition was last year on Christmas day, so the carnival is exactly one year and one week old.

I am really glad that it has made it this far, many great thanks to all the hosts and submitters for all their hard work and efforts. I want to take the time to recognize all the hosts that has contributed this past year including with all the posts and submissions from each carnival. Here is a recap of all the carnivals from the previous year, December 2006 – December 2007.

1. Moneywalks on 12/25/06
2. Moneywalks on 01/08/07
3. Save Money on 01/22/07
4. BinaryDollar on 02/05/07
5. DigeratiLife on 02/19/07
6. Money,Matter and Musing on 03/05/07
7. WiseBread on 03/19/07
8. MoneySmartLife on 04/02/07
9. FireFinance on 04/16/07
10. Young and Broke on 04/30/07
11. Sun’s Financial Diary on 05/14/07
12. Getting Green on 06/04/07
13. Money Walks on 06/11/07
14. The Frugal Law Student on 06/18/07
15. Retire Young and Wealthy on 06/25/07
16. My New Choice on 07/02/07
17. A Penny Saved on 07/10/07
18. Sushi Money on 07/16/07
19. Dough Roller on 07/31/07
20. Bryan C. Fleming on 08/07/07
21. Ask Mr. Credit Card on 08/14/07
22. Carnival of Money Stories on 08/21/07
23. Fire Finance on 08/28/07
24. Enough Wealth on 09/04/07
25. Tight Fisted Miser on 09/11/07
26. Paid Twice on 09/18/07
27. Money For Military on 09/25/07
28. Building An Empire on 10/02/07
29. Money Monk on 10/09/07
30. Free Money Finance on 10/16/07
31. Stop the Ride! on 10/23/07
32. Bag Lady on 10/30/07
33. Moolanomy on 11/06/07
34. Being Frugal on 11/13/07
35. Living off Dividends on 11/20/07
36. The Dividend Guy on 11/27/07
37. Loonies and Sense on 12/04/07
38. Cash Money Life on 12/11/07
39. Time to Budget on 12/18/07
40. Here on …today!

…and finally on to our 40th edition of The Carnival of Money Stories. Great selection of stories here so please take your time to look over these articles. Theses are in order from the time it was submitted. Enjoy!

1. My Dollar Plan
2. Millionaire Neumes
3. Credit Withdrawl
4. Me Vs. Debt
5. Gather Little by Little
6. The Investors Journal
7. Free Money Finance
8. The Financial Blogger
9. Chief Family Officer
10. Free From Broke
11. Early Retirement Extreme
12. Money Blue Book
13. Singly Guy Money
14. Money Clipped
15. Paid Twice
16. Credit Cards that Pay
17. Ask Mr. Credit Card
18. Money Changes Things

So that was it, I really enjoyed reading through all these stories. If you have time, please highlight your favorite story or even your favorite carnival edition from the past since its posted all here. Thanks for taking the time to look over this edition and big thanks to all submitters and also once again to all the previous hosts. Lets hope we can have another successful year of Money Stories.

If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the Carnival of Money Stories you can either send an email to carnivalofmoneystories(at)gmail(dot)com or just leave a simple comment here to this post. To submit your stories to the next edition, you can use this form here. Have a great week everyone and Happy New Years! Cheers!

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Merry Christmas!

It’s that time again for another year of gift opening, eggnog drinking and spending time with your loved ones. This day a year ago was the first edition of the carnival of money stories and I am very glad that it has made it this far. I want to thank all the hosts and story submitters for their hard work and efforts.

As for todays edition, I will be extending the deadline for another week so that we can get more stories. We had plenty of awesome entries, but most of them were not stories dealing with money or experiences so I could not include them. Please remember that this carnival is specifically just for stories and experiences. So it will be hosted here on January 2nd here at Money Walks. You can use this submission form to submit your stories.

Have a safe and a joyful break!

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Hello and welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists. I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend and a smooth black Friday. I want to start off by thanking Jay of Bizosphere for giving me the opportunity to host this great carnival. If this is your first time hearing about the carnival you can read the details from their main site and submit to their next edition, if you have an awesome article you would like to share, using this blog carnival form.

I had a great time reading through all the entries, 21 articles made it to this edition. Following the guidelines of the carnival theme, as long as the article was not older than 3 weeks and it was quality work it was included here in this edition. Okay, without further delay I present you the Carnival of the Capitalists.

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Capitalism
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Banks + Debt = Evil

http://www.pqinternet.com/94.htm

Buffet on Diversifacation

Most people end up di-worse-si-fying their portfolios by adding stocks in unfamiliar sectors for the sake of diversification

What Is A Cap Rate

The lower the cap rate, the more the market values the future appreciation of the area.

Estate Tax or Death tax?

Paying taxes is like pouring water down a drain. Yeah, some good happens (the drain gets cleaned and is kept functioning), but so much is wasted

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Personal Finance
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Will A Bank Sleep With You? Understand Credit As A Relationship

Do not try to lie to a women, they have a sixth sense for this kind of stuff. So do banks

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Business
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Business Investment Strategies That Work Every Time

The secret to investment success is the consistent application of time-proven strategies, not the use of complex, hard-to-understand investment vehicles created by investment bankers out to take your money

Five Powerful Techniques to Help Your Business Stand Out

It is impossible to know how to brand your company if you don’t have a clear vision of what you offer, why it is different from others who may offer similar concepts or products, and how to convey all of this to your customer

Business Cards:A Valuable Investment or a Waste of Paper?

Business cards don’t work in all cases though. They will only work as well as you do

Interviewing Employees: Avoiding Problem Workers

Beware of any job applicant who badmouths their previous employer. All they are saying to you is that you will be the next evil one on their list

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Management
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The illusions of superior professional mutual fund manager performance

If investment mutual fund managers were truly skilled at beating the market, then you would expect mutual fund manager performance prowess to persist over time

The Startup Team or the Startup Idea:What’s More Important?

If you surround yourself with great people, the great ideas will flow like good wine.

Please, Lord, Not Another Trademark Leadership Concept

We don’t need more “creative” ways to write about leadership. We need more good leaders we can use as role models, examples and mentors

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Marketing
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Get Demographic Market Research For Free

Don’t rely on visual cues such as “oh I saw at least 10 old people in the pharmacy.” Be scientific and be cost effective.

The Psychological Effect of 99 cents

Manipulating the price to make it look like a bargain is a powerful psychological strategy used in marketing for the best ROI

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Economy
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The Most Anticipated Recession Ever

households in the lowest third of the income distribution have experienced a ‘devastating impact’ from high fuel and food prices, with 60% reporting a worsening financial situation.

Ron Paul Wants to Abolish the Federal Reserve

abolish the Federal Reserve and replace it with a computer

So Now you know

The Fed’s 3-year-ahead inflation forecast also surprises me a little, in that the highest inflation rate that any member anticipates for 2010 is only 2.0%

Good News on the Declining Dollar, Savings & More

Many people who denounce our national savings rate do not realize that the savings rate statistic does not include most investments nor does it include assets in retirement plans or even home equity

Informations and the Commons

Today in Professor Rustici’s class, we discussed the tragedy of the commons…

What is the Bank of England Base Rate and Why is it Important?

The Bank of England interest rate is the rate at which the Bank lends money to high street banks

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Sales
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Don’t Let your Car’s value Go Down “Like a Rock”. Buy the Vehicle that Keeps it’s value the Best.

Its 2008 Best Resale Value Awards found that Volkswagen produced vehicles will keep their value the longest.

So that concludes this edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists. If you are interested in submitting or hosting in the near future you can stop by the carnival home site and learn more on how you can contribute. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

This week, there was well over 50 submissions and 37 made it to the festival. I had a great time reading these articles, they were awesome, but in order to keep the festival’s theme consistent, I had to omit articles that had no relevance to frugality. But I want to say that I tried my best to fit each article in this edition. First off, I want to share with you the definition of frugality from wiki:

Frugality (also known as thrift or thriftiness), often confused with cheapness or miserliness, is a traditional value, life style, or belief system, in which individuals practice both restraint in the acquiring of and resourceful use of economic goods and services in order to achieve lasting and more fulfilling goals. In a money-based economy, frugality emphasizes economical use of money in meeting long term personal, familial, and communal desires

I think this is a great definition of frugality. That is why I have chosen this definition as a baseline for this festival and have broken down into 7 strategies for frugality. This way, reader can pick what part of frugality they want to read about. But before we start, I want to thank all the contributors for their submissions, I learned so much from reading all the posts. I hope you can get out as much information out of this festival just as I have. Many great tips and suggestions here, also I made an asterisks(*) on the ones that I particularly enjoyed.

Okay, without further delay…

Welcome to the Festival of Frugality #83
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1.) Changing costly habits and/or suppressing instant gratification

Lower Your Cable and Internet Bill Today

Cutting The Cable Cord

Cut your Spending Today

2.) Reduction of wastes and bartering

House obsession

“Found” Money

Save Money by Using Less than Suggested Amounts

The Cost Of Living With Pampered Pets In Luxury And Some Really Weird Pet Products

3.) Seeking efficiency

7 Habits of Highly Effective Money Managers

Present Simplicity

*Ten Commandments of Frugal Living*

Resourceful West Virginians

*Are Poor People More Frugal Than Rich People?*

4.) Defying expensive social norms

Day 435: Riding the Rails

Clean your whole kitchen with baking soda and vinegar

Comfort and Style on a Cheapskate’s Budget

*Trash to Treasure: My Flower Power Pants*

10 Ways to Pay for College with OPM (Other People’s Money)

Save Money and Eat Healthier: Buy Frozen and Canned Produce

5.) Embracing free options

Libraries Are Not As Bad As You Think

*5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water*

Frugal Fridays: The Library is More Than Books

Why MyPoints Is Worth Joining And What I Have Gotten From Them

Free or Low Cost Entertainment Ideas for Families

6.) Staying well informed about local circumstances

Buy American – Frugality Strategy?

For the Frugal Mind: Cheapest days to shop

Staple Rewards – How to Save Money at Staples

10 Ways to Save on Travel Expenses

7.) Market and Products

The Dollar Store

Don’t fear the warranty

Eco-friendly consumerism is still consumerism

Frugality, Morality & Harry Potter

Free Software Roundup: Not All Freeware is Created Equal

Frugal Way to Save Money on Lipstick

Do My Frugal Ways Harm Workers?

A Great Alternative to Buying Expensive Cameras, Lenses and other Photography Equipment

Clean, Safe, NonToxic Cleaners

Cost Effectiveness of Homemade Laundry Detergent-A Reader’s Question

Well that’s it. I hope you had a great read here, take with you as much as you can. If you see any articles here you enjoyed, please share it with your readers. Also, if you do not see your article here and think that it should be, please email me and let me know. I’ve been known to make mistakes every once and a while. Once again, I want to thank all the authors for their fantastic articles and don’t miss out on the next edition over at The Frugal Law Student.

First of all, I want to thank John of Might Bargain Hunter for giving me the opportunity to host this edition. I was really surprised to see the number of submissions to this edition, it was really low.

As always, there were really good articles submitted so please take your time to read these posts. I made some comments on the articles and also took out a quote from each just to give a small idea on what each article talks about. I hope you have a great time here and take a lot out of these great tips with you. Without wasting any more of your time, here are the articles for edition #92:

These articles are in order in which they were submitted

Personal Finance Blog Articles on “Getting Money to Finance Your Purpose in Life“.

Editors Note: This is a nice article on how to get into the right mind set into helping you get out of debt. “No matter how much you earn from these financial streams of income, you must manage your money effectively….
You can have as much money as you want because money is an energy. You may need to change the way you think about money”

3 Debt Consolidation discusses “When Is Your Credit Card Debt Too High?“.

Editors Note: Also shares a nice list of ten indications that shows you carry too much credit card debt. “You know your credit card debt is too high when you have to spend more than 20% of your take-home pay towards paying off the interest + original principal balances on your credit cards”.

Stewart Hsu shares his experience on “Advice from a Billionaire“.

Editors Note: Stewart’s right, its not everyday that you get the chance to hear a billionaire speak about their experiences and their success stories. This article points out some useful tips from a billionaire. Stewart says “Sitting in the audience, what made him so compelling was the genuineness and warmth in which he spoke; I personally felt he was speaking from his heart”.

Family Finance Blog tells us “How to get out of debt – one day at a time“.

Editors Note: “Debt is one of the easiest things in the world to get into and one of the hardest to get out of. There are thousands upon thousands of tips for getting out of debt whether it be slowly or quickly”. FFB is right, debt is so easy and so inviting with hard temptations and once you’re in debt its so hard to get out of. Like what FFB says, take it one day at a time.

The Happy Rock posts, “Having Goals Is Great, But Having Purpose Is Better“.

Editors Note: Happy Rock gives us two situations in which deals with getting out of debt and explains that having purpose is the key success in becoming debt free. “Having goals is very helpful, but having purpose will change your life.”

Golden Fleece Blog on “Bundling Cable, Phone, and Internet Costs More“.

Editors Note: The title says is all. Read on to get some advices on how you can save money on cables, phones and internet costs. “One advantage to bundling is that you can periodically call your cable company and threaten to cancel, citing the low promotional rates offered by its competitors.”

Might bargain Hunter explains that “A mortgage is still debt that needs to be reduced”

Editors Note: Amy has a debt of 72,000 and she wants to pay it off by April 2009. Now that’s a great goal, shes going to have to pay roughly 3,000 each month to pay that off in time. MBH says, “I wonder why there’s not the same urgency for people to pay off their mortgages”.

No Credit Needed says he prefers “Creating The System Versus Doing The Work“.

Editors Note: NCN has many tips here on techniques for building better systems. “First, you need a budget that you can setup, modify, and actually use. Elaborate, fifty-page, multi-screen budgets only work for a select few. Create a budget can and will actually use”

That about concludes this edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. I hope you will take many tips from these articles and apply them somehow in your life. I hope you will have a great week. Submit your articles for the next edition of Carnival of Debt Reduction here.

For this edition, I’ve decided to take the popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul” idea as my theme but instead filled with money stories with pictures. There is a total of 14 great stories and I put them each into their own perspective chapters or topics. In order to get to the story, just click on the picture. Anyway, without further delay, I present to you the Carnival of Money Stories #13 :Chicken Soup for the Financial Soul.

Chapter One: Real Estate

Trent from The Simple Dollar

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life

Cap from Mint

Chapter Two: Customer Service

Mr Medicated Money from Medicated Money

Fire Finance from FireFinance

Chapter Three: Financial Mistakes

Bret from The Frugal Law Student

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card

Chapter Four: Credit Cards

FundZine

The Credit and Credit Card Blog

Matthew from Getting Green

Skilled Investor from The Skilled Investor Blog

Chapter Five: Career

Nina from QueerCents

FreeMoneyFinance

Chapter Six: Retirement

Stop Swimming

So that concluded this weeks Carnival of Money Stories. I want to thank all the contributors for their great work.

The next edition of Money Stories will be hosted Monday over at Frugal Law Student, don’t miss it! You can submit your money stories here.

Also, please keep in mind that you should only submit articles that are stories or experience dealing with finances. I’ve already received tons of articles that were just personal finance and has no personal experience/stories behind it and I’m going to have to reject for the carnival.

Anyway, have a great weekend and check back on monday for the upcoming carnival.

Clever Dude hosted the 103rd edition of the carnival of personal finance. He has an awesome theme based on the big time tv show 24 and basically sums up all the articles in an 24 hours story line. If you have not visited the carnival yet I strongly suggest that you go and visit. Here are some articles from the carnival that caught my interest.

1. A Penny Saved submited a piece called The cost of not doing yard work.
2. We’re in Debt wrote an article called Love and marriage: The joint account.
3. Tricia from Blogging Away Debt performed a Personal Finance Interview.

David from My Two Dollars hosted the 77th edition of the Festival of Frugality. Don’t forget to check out the editors choice! Again, here are 3 more articles that I liked from the festival.

1. Paul from Wise Bread shares 10 Frugal Things to Try Before you Die.
2. Free Money Finance explains How to Have a Wedding for Under$200.
3. Bill from AskUncle Bill posts How to Save a Million Dollars.

No Credit Needed Network hosted the 90th edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. The carnival is broken down into simple sections so it is really easy to follow.

1. Ben from Money Smart Life wrote How to Talk your Way into Debt.
2. My Money and My Life presents To Pay Off or Not to Pay Off.
3. Credit Card Lowdown shares How Credit Card Rate Jacks Actually Works.

Don’t forget to check these carnivals out, there were so many great articles I couldn’t post all of them here. Have a great week.

First off, I would like to start off with a nice poem from Market Poetry, Now’s the Time to Trim.

Stock Tips and Tricks:

The Skilled Investor Blog says No Financial Software or Calculator can Predict the Future

WorldWide Sucess gives advice on how to Succeed with your Investments.

The Financial Whiz’s Investment Strategy.

The Time and Money Group breaks down the Anatomy of Stock Trade:Entry Techniques.

Stock News:

Financial Pragmatist on The Return of Volatility.

Sox First explains What Happens to the Company’s Stock Price when the CEO Buys a Mansion

Fat Pitch Financials brings up Warren Buffets Response to Shai Dardashtis question. 

Stock Stats:

Please Don’t Take Me Seriously gives a general review over the Eagle Plains Resources (EPL)

Trader’s Narrative takes a look at the Monster Worldwide(MNST)  

And that will conclude this edition of Festival of Stocks. I hope you enjoyed all the articles here. Don’t mess out on the next edition over at Stock Market Prognosticator. Have a great week!