The Weight of Money

Welcome to the Sixth Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance. This carnival highlights how your values affect your financial decisions. Whether it’s what you buy, where you invest, or where you work, we want to hear when and how your beliefs and ethics play a role in your personal finance decisions.

Thank you to everyone who submitted an article; I’ve tried to keep all the included articles in line with the goals of the carnival. I hope you enjoy the following articles and consider participating in the next carnival, hosted by Ben at Money Smart Life (submit your article here).

1. Rich presents WWYD: Cheating on Your Taxes? posted at Queercents.
2. TBH presents Working mothers: What are we teaching our children? posted at Tired but happy.
3. Living Almost Large presents Frugal Superman posted at Living Almost Large.
4. Alan presents The Worst Boss Ever - Sound familiar? posted at Made to Be Great.
5. Mr Credit Card presents Should You Pay Off Old Credit Card Debts? posted at Ask Mr Credit Card’s Blog.
6. ispf presents Going To College Vs Starting Your Own Business posted at Grad Money Matters.
7. Eric presents Practical Reasons to Eat Less Meat posted at saving simply.
8. Patricia presents Immediate Gratification posted at A Better You Blog.
9. Silicon Valley Blogger presents How To Throw A Kid’s Birthday Party Without Spending A Fortune posted at The Digerati Life.

Deciding which posts were on-topic or not was a little difficult for a couple posts and I included a couple that teetered on the edge a bit. If your post wasn’t included, you may always try again and maybe another host will be a little more inclusive.

I’ll be hosting the next Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance. Already, the posts have been rolling in and most have been on topic. You have until March 28 (I believe) to submit an on-topic post here. Please keep the posts on topic, if I need to mentally stretch to make the connection, your post probably won’t make it into the carnival. Remember that this is a bi-weekly carnival, you’ve got time to get something in.

Welcome, the Personal Carnival is where I round up the various carnivals about personal finances and figure out how often the personal is prominent. As you’ve noticed and (some have) fussed about, I’ve been slacking in posting the carnivals and statistics - well here it is in it’s catching-up glory.

I spent 150 minutes today reading through all the links in every carnival I missed — thats a lot of reading to do. I’ve posted the statistics and some posts that I enjoyed.

As a reminder, my numbers are not guaranteed and some articles may have been miscounted, overlooked, or simply failed to load. Also, these carnivals are not required to be personally focused and many include tips, suggestions, and strategies posts that are very helpful. However, I want to feel the personal connection with the writers and will highlight posts that I enjoyed where the personal is prominent.

Overview:
For February, the carnivals with the highest percent of personal were the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance No. 3 (66.7%), Festival of Frugality No. 61 (55.6%), and Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 75 (53.8%). Also, I feel it is important to point out that the Carnival of Personal Finance No. 87 had a stellar 44.1% personal element, which is very high for the carnival and there were lots of great posts highlighted.

And now for the carnivals …

Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance No. 3: 8 personal articles of 12 posted (66.7%)
Posted at An English Major’s Money. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Your boss wants you to do what? - do I also hold on to a “it’s not my job” mentality…

Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance No. 4: 8 personal articles of 16 posted (50%)
Posted at Grad Money. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Profiting from a non-profit, ethical or rotten? - Somewhat related to this post, we’re selling lots of things on ebay and have wondered if were getting money when we should. There are some machines that the partner owns that he got for free or from an education shop closing — should we sell it and donate the cash or try to off load it somewhere else? I think it boils down to mostly that we’re just trying to make things go away and selling things is the umbrella strategy we’re using and will simply keep using.
2. Environmental ethics: Corporate culture - my own post about how presenting a certain image comes at the cost of being a good steward of our dollars and the environment.

Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 74: 9 personal articles of 21 posted (42.9%)
Posted at Blogging Away Debt. Articles I enjoyed:

1. How to lower your credit card interest rates - Make the call is always a good first step and Tricia and Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has some other good tips that have also helped us. We’ve lowered our interest rates here and here.

Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 75: 7 personal articles of 13 posted (53.8%)
Posted at The Art of Making Money. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Breaking down your debt - Being a fairly visual person, I really like graphs and charts like this one that help illustrate existing conditions.

Carnival of Debt Reduction No. 76: 8 personal articles of 18 posted (44.4%)
Posted at Money Smart Life. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Why did you get in debt? - Understanding and admitting to why you’re in debt is not the same thing as making excused and justifications. While special circumstances can push people down that slippery slope, there are often some fundamental behaviors and (lack of) strategies that can get people in debt.

Carnival of Personal Finance No. 87: 30 personal articles out of 68 posted (44.1%)
Posted at 2million - My Journey to Financial Freedom. Articles I enjoyed:

1. How to stop nickel and diming yourself - Another personal example of how holding yourself accountable will help trim the fat from your finances. Sigh, another good article submitted to multiple carnivals.
2. WWYD: Revealing how much money you make - Post on one of my favorite topics, sharing the nitty-gritty financial decisions with others. Posted on multiple carnivals.
3. Top 100 personal finance blogss - Okay, so there isn’t much new here, just a great collection of blog links including your’s truly (thanks!).
4. Get oodles of money, but work for a company you don’t like? - Work and money are high on my radar these days and I can say that I couldn’t take a job I didn’t like. In fact, I almost left the one I’m in due to fears of not liking it; thankfully, things have improved since my first week.
5. The Cost of a free ride - why not to use a buyer’s agent - A good read for those, like us, scanning the housing market right now.
6. Getting my insurance together - Getting life and disability insurance is at the top of our to-do list. I don’t see this topic described often enough in the personal finance sphere.

Carnival of Personal Finance No. 88: 18 personal articles of 61 post (29%)
Posted at Stock Market Beat. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Getting rich: It’s the little things - Yet another nick and dime post, those small things add up — start saving them!

Carnival of Personal Finance No. 89: 15 personal articles of 53 posted (28.3%)
Posted at Binary Dollar. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Reader comment: Newborn baby expenses - Babies are on our horizon, albeit distant horizon, but there just the same. I like watching the number games people play when thinking about having a baby — of course, i still find that having a baby is far more valuable than the savings or expenses needed.

Festival of Frugality No. 61: 20 personal articles of 36 posted (55.6%)
Postedat Hustler Money Blog. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Free money: Unclaimed property - I found this amusing because I also ran my name and all family members name and came up money for them (and none for me). Maybe charging commission is something to consider, hehe.
2. Using up veggies, or “it’s not frgual to throw it out” - I take advantage of almost all the tips listed here to make our food go the extra mile. In fact, the soup bag in the freezer is about ready for a yummy pot of whatever soup.

Festival of Frugality No. 62: 8 personal articles of 26 posted (30.8%)
Posted at Lazy Man and Money. Articles I enjoyed:

1. It’s easier to be frugal when you are single, true or false?

Festival of Frugality No. 63: 15 personal articles out of 31 posted (48.4%)
Posted at Stingy Students. Articles I enjoyed:

1. Frugalities and potatoes - potatoes and milk are our tonight’s dinner menu (potato soup, yumm).
2. Frugality births creativity - combining my creative and thrifty side is always a big plus for me.
3. Frugal butterfly wings for our daughter - yet another creative-frugal example.

Welcome to my Personal Carnival is where I round up the various carnivals about personal finances and figure out how often the personal is prominent. Due to the overwhelming amount of time required to read through all the articles, I’ll post a weekly tally and highlight any articles that personally interest me.

Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance No. 2: 13 personal articles out of 45 posted (29%)

Tired but Happy hosted the Second Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance last week. I enjoyed the following articles:

1. Get Up Off My Ads - Why Advertising Sucks: Good opinion piece on ads that I actually agree with in many ways. Of course, I also agree with pulling in some passive income from ads too. I’m still working on figuring out the balance that will work for me.

2. What Class are You?: Paula at QueerCents touches on a topic that has interested me since first discussing it in a family studies class - class and our misperceptions of it. Her article seems to focuses on the professional side of class, but I really enjoyed thinking about the social side in terms of authority and power.
3. Prelude to a Job: A post from yours truly where I start to reconsider taking a new position.

Carnival of Personal Finance #86: 26 personal articles out of 74 posted (35%).

The Simple Dollar hosted the 84th Carnival of Personal Finance. I clicked through all 74 links and found 26 articles including the personal side of personal finance.The ones I liked best were:

1. Making the Financial Sacrifice to Get What You Want: David at my two dollars laid out what he and his partner accomplished in order to live where they want. Considering my recent relocation woes, this is timely and poignant.

   After reading the carnival submission, I browsed to another article, How Sprint got me to stay with them instead of switching, that also relates to our current situation. We’re currently throwing away $100 a month on cell phones. Time to start playing carrier against carried (Cingular vs. Sprint in our case).

2. Stop Comparing Your Finances with Others: Five Financial Ratios to Keep You on Track: Good ratios that I’ve considered before but need to think about more often to help me us keep on track.
3. Be Honest with Yourself Darn, I liked this article but it is posted in more than one carnival, tsk tsk.

Carnival of Debt Reduction #73: 3 personal articles out of 21 posted (14%).

Journey to Financial Freedom posts the 73rd Carnival of Debt Reduction. There were some good posts, but nothing that I wanted to focus on.

Festival of Frugality #60: 26 personal articles out of 26 posted.

Frugal for Life hosted a pictographic version of the 60th Festival of Frugality, interesting composition.

1. Be Frugal but Don’t be an Idiot: Some good advice for pointing out how bring frugal shouldn’t be criminal or unethical.

Overall, the personal side of personal finances is getting a little less talk time in the weekly carnivals this week. The Festival of Frugality seems to be the one exception with the highest personal percentage and an overall increase from last week. Of course, frugality is a little more broad than personal finance and it is the one area where I consistently enjoy reading tips, suggestions, and less personal content.

On a final note, I noticed that Flexo is jumping on the keeping personal finances personal bandwagon, in his recent post. I’m glad to see more people pushing this platform and thank the many readers and comments who’ve been spreading the word.

This week’s Debt Reduction Carnival an easy to review with only 15 articles to read through. I found 5 articles (33.3%) that included the personal side of debt and debt reduction. Also, No Credit Needed did a podcast for the carnival, go check it out.

1. Handcuffed by Debt: Climbing Out of Debt tells how his debt might be tying him to a drowning professional ship.

2. Debt Tally for Week Ending Jan. 24th: Debt Be Gone shares their debt numbers for this week.

3. A Media Collection Purge is a Great Way to Free up some Extra Money for Debt Payments and Investments: The Simple Dollar shows how occasional inventory reductions produces from extra cash and extra space.

4. Get Hitched and Get Out of Debt: John at Queercents talks about using a wedding to get out of debt.

5. Get Out of Debt and Sink the Economy?: Money Smart Life is pondering the economic side of not buying anything.

Personal Carnival #3: Carnival of Personal Finance #85

Welcome to the Third Personal Carnival on The Weight of Money - I’m continuing my trend of pulling the personal out of recent personal finance carnivals.

The Eighty-fifth Carnival of Personal Finance had 58 posts — I found 22 articles (37.9%) where the personal was obvious. I’ve included links to the majority of those below.

1. What’s it Worth to You? Liquor, Lotteries, and Cast Iron Pans: Elizabeth posts about the different pleasures people get from their spending and suggests we put the breaks on criticizing how someone else spends their cash, especially when our own habits can be fodder for criticism.

2. Keeping up with the Joneses or not?: Living Almost Large shares one of my pet peeves - assuming that people who look to be living large can’t afford it.

3. That’s A Lot of Money: Blunt Money looks at the past 12 years of spending — things do add up.

4. Watching Dividen Payments Grow: The Dividend Guy is showing personal numbers.

5. Our Personal Finance State of the Union Address Money Smart Life looks at the state of their personal fiances and all the recent personal changes that have happened.

6. Switching to Geico: lulugal talks about switching car insurance for a better rate.

7. Credit Score Going Down, Down, Dow: Scott on Money tells why his credit score is dropping.

8. Creating a Personal Finance Goal: No Credit Needed looks at personal short and long-term goals and how they are created.

9. Acceptance of Your Financial Situaiton Can Be Freeing: My Financial Awareness shows financial acceptance as a positive step and personally relates to the difficulty in doing so.

10. Frugal vs. Cheap: The Stubborn Capitalist gets personal and looks at the difference between cheap and frugal.

11. Get Rich!! Play the Lottery!! Somebody has to win!!: My Financial Journey talks about his reaction to his partner throwing $10 at the lottery.

12. The Great Big Lie About Personal Finance Blogging! Making Our Way lashes out at the hopes and dreams of some personal finance bloggers - blogging ain’t the get rich scheme you might think it is.

13. Musings on Commuting PegL talks about her 5.5 commute to work and why she is making the drive.

14. Recieved Student Loan Check Today, What Should We Do With It: David at My Two Dollars considers what to do with the student loan check.

15. Prioritizing Between 401(k) and Roth IRA Contributions: Financial Fitness tackles the retirement investment options.

16. True Me Up, Baby: Mapgirl’s company is kicking in some extra dough for front-loading 401 investors.

17. A fool and His Money: Burford Twain looks at the Motley Fool through a lens of personal experience, growth, and learning.

18. Three More Ways to Insure Income for Life During Retirement: Free Money Finance takes another look at the Bogglehead’s book and suggestions he is using for retirement.

Tuesday’s Festival for Frugality has 35 articles. Through very unscientific analysis, I found 17 articles (49%) where the personal aspect of frugality shined. I felt these twelve articles were worth sharing and articles submitted to multiple carnivals/festivals have been intentionally excluded.

1. Ethnic Markets: Feel Worldly for Cheap: Wise Bread expresses personal experience shopping in ethnic markets for some frugal shopping and offers some great suggestions.

2. Leasing vs. Buying: The Car Debate Continues: Nina, over at QueerCents, maintains an excellent balance of personal experience and information when addressing the lease vs. buy debate between her and her partner.

3. No Car Note: Mapgirl talks about how nice it is to have a car that is paid off and how the thought of car payments put new car fantasies in perspective.

4. Thrifty 101: Tightfisted Money Tips I Learned in College: Kelly Bejelly describes her thrift learning curve while offering up suggestions.

5. Seriously Thrifty? Some Wild Ways to Save (Part 1): Personal thrifty comments paired with some wild options Silicone Valley Blogger has seen. Nothing new, just a personal take on it.

6. This $9 gadget Might Save You from Cable Bills Money, Matter, and More Musings shows how money saving tips can be shared through a personal connection.

7. Saving Money While Traveling for Business: makingourway finds a local grocery instead of maxing out of pre diem on hotel food.

8. Haircuts at Home: Stop the Ride tells how do-it-yourself haircuts is a frugal choice for their family.

9. Saving Even More at Salvation Army: Krista from My Family Finances tells a new tip she heard for saving more at Salvation Army.

10. How to get a Free Car Wash: Money Smart Life talks about how he gets free car washes.

11. Why I Don’t Spend Money on Bottled Water: My Two Dollars tells us why.

12. Beat February Financial Funk: A Money Map: The Frugal Duchess responds to Howard Dayton’s Your Money map book.

Blog carnivals are a great way to highlight some of your recent posts, see what is popular, and find new writers. However, they can be very long (one had 77 entries) and wading through all those articles gets time consuming. Because of this, I find it frustrating to see the same articles posted to multiple carnivals.

My blog carnival experience began with the Carnival of Personal Finance (CoPF)and I assumed that their guidelines for submissions was standard for all carnivals:

Do not submit an article which has already appeared or will appear in any other Carnival.

However, before getting up on my high horse, I reviewed the guidelines of the other carnivals/festivals and found that this is a somewhat unique guideline. Therefore, submitting an article to multiple carnivals (as long as you don’t submit it to CoPF) appears to be acceptable. While it may be acceptable, I still find it annoying and inconsiderate to carnival visitors and will not include links to any articles submitted to multiple carnivals.

Writers that submit unique articles to each carnival give me a reason to explore their sites further; those just linking up the same article give me the impression that they are only looking for traffic and are exploiting the resources available to get it.

I clicked on all 77 entries in yesterday’s carnival and have pulled out all the articles where the personal is prominent. Of the 77 articles, I found only 15 (not quite 20%) where the personal side of personal finance was obvious. 12 were worth sharing and one was double listed in another auction (a no-no in my book) and intentionally excluded.

1. A Year of (Intentionally) Not Working: The personal experience of Financial Fitness leaving her job, the steps taken to make it happen, reasoning behind the transition, and adjustments to living without the income.

2. So, Where do You Keep Your Money: My Two Dollars lays out where their money is kept and managed. I like seeing how many cubby holes people have for their cash.

3. Rebalancing Your Retirement Portfolio: Kirk posts his analysis and rebalancing of his retirement portfolio; real numbers from a real situation - not just advice.

4. Financial Achilles Heel: Kelly Bejelly talks about the items that are her financial Achilles heel and some of the reasoning why.

5. Do I Need a Will: Living Almost Large consider whether or not they need a will based on their individual circumstance.

6. Car Buying Part 1 – Going for Broker: Wise bread’s personal experience using a broker for the purchase of a new (used) car. We might consider using a broker later this year.

7. Saving on Telephone Costs with VOIP: One family’s adjustment to Voice Over IP and the savings they received. Link removed because it was submitted to multiple carnivals/festivals.

8. Quiken for my Little Sister’s 18th Birthday: Debt be Gone talks about her little sister’s request for Quicken and how she went about selecting the best version for her.

9. Don’t Rely on the Lottery: Corey talks about how he knows he won’t win, but still plays the lottery anyways. I admit that I sometimes play too, when the jackpot gets high enough that dreaming about winning is worth the $1 ticket. Link removed because it was submitted to multiple carnivals/festivals.

10. Hair, Hair, Everywhere: Well-heeled admits that she doesn’t skimp on hair cuts. I’m thinking of splurging on a good hair cut soon.

11. Primary Home as a Percentage of Net Worth: Tired but Happy reflects on the portion of net worth tied to home value. The possible move to a more expensive house might tip the net worth balance too far.

12. Public Experiment #1 - Using the Law of Attraction; Part 1: This seems to be a leap of faith and jumping out in the world to see if he can make his goals. I like seeing people just jumping out there, I like seeing them succeed even more.

The Monday following a very long weekend always bring a reluctance to get out of bed on time and a desire to extend the weekend indefinitely. Luckily, there is the Carnival of Personal Finance #76 beckoning us to our offices.

Hopefully everyone had a good holiday and survived the societal pressures to spend, spend, spend. I, however, did not fare so well and my pocketbook is considerable lighter despite my good intentions. I did not participate in any of the black Friday shopping blitz and made plans to make it a no-spend weekend. However, quite the opposite happened and I’ll recap that experience later this week. Oh, the cost of creativity.