TotallyMoney Blog Carnival #59 – Putting the PERSONAL back into finance

March 19, 2012 by Jay in Miscellaneous with 26 Comments

For us lads here at Sterling Effort we like understanding a subject fully before throwing ourselves into it head-first. So when we signed up to host the 59th Totally Money blog carnival, naturally we spent 3 months in Rio de Janeiro studying the etymology of the word Carnival.

After concluding that it has something to do with meat and/or cars depending on who you speak to, we decided to stop clowning around, get back to the UK and publish some great articles from the past week from various personal finance blogs for your viewing pleasure.

On a serious note however, we have been a little disconnected from the blogging scene, so taking the time to read the 100 or so blog submissions we received for this week’s carnival has been thoroughly enjoyable. We have had so many great article submissions it has been hard to pick and choose, but below are the posts which we thought simply had to make the cut.

Editors’ choice
When writing about personal finance, it can be easy to get bogged down with technical definitions and preachy nonsense. We believe it’s important to remain entertaining instead of just regurgitating facts and ideas. With that in mind, this week’s theme is “putting the personal back into personal finance”.

This first article is a perfect example of what we’re talking about. Jefferson at See Debt Run presents his personal story about what he did when he found out his co-workers were making more than him. Interesting story that you can use to apply to your own life. Personal finance writing at its best, in our opinion.
Jason over at Work Save Live rightly points out that Money Won’t Make You Happy…But It Will Buy You Stuff! We like stuff. Stuff is great. So this get’s the thumbs up from us. Jason discusses goals, priorities and success as well as what they mean in the context of his own life.
The global economy is showing signs of recovery. Justin at Money Is the Root reflects on when this wasn’t the case. In particular, he discusses his story about how he survived being laid off.
Dividend Ninja writes about how he’s building a dividend and bond based income portfolio. I can’t even begin to explain how much I believe in this kind of strategy so instead I’ll just tell you to get your ass over to his site and get reading now!
A post submission from Dave hilton at Debt Black Hole looks at financial problems within his family and discusses the issues that can arise when trying to help out family members get out of sticky situations.

Saving / Frugality
Karl over at Cult of Money looks at logo design contests and how not to make them suck. We wish he’d written this post one month ago so that ours didn’t suck. Which it totally did.

At Smart on Money, Miranda asks Do You Really Need Coupons to Be Frugal? She doesn’t think you do, and we kind of love her a little for that.

Careers
Savvy Scot of Savvy Scot fame takes an interesting look at using the hand you’ve been dealt in life to your advantage. Check it out here!

Excellent thought provoking post here and well worth a read, this article written over at Passive Income to Retire looks at location independence - something I cannot get with my job but would desperately love to have.

KT from Personal Finance Journey talks about saving on living expenses when living alone. Some good ideas here people so check it out if it applies.

Linsey from 1099 Mom explains how Becoming a Virtual Assistant can be a convenient option for work at home parents.

Aloysa from My Broken Coin offers some interesting insights into how much money you can make in domestic jobs. It turns out some jobs pay more than you think. If I liked people, like, at all, I might actually do one of these jobs.

Spending / Money Management
A good post over at Free Money Finance discusses how your spending habits can get you into trouble if you’re not careful. This post can be read here.

Karen at Help me to Save explains why you should always carry at least 2 bank cards. No, not because she’s Scottish and one of the cards is used for breaking into places! I joke. Check out her article for this very useful tip!

Melissa from Moms Plans made me feel sick (in an informative way) with her post on the current issue with certain types of red meat and why eating healthy is a worthy expense. I think you’ll agree after reading this.

Eddie over at Finance Fox looks at what you can/should do with the money you earn and what it can do for you with his post entitled ‘Rich are never rich enough’.

Little House in the Valley believes you shouldn’t keep up with the Joneses. We strongly agree. The Joneses are morons.

Jeffrey from Saving Advice writes about the Lessons we all learned from board games. I was actually going to write about this. Now I don’t have to as Jeffrey’s taken care of it. Just as well, as clearly my writing is not good enough anyway. Thanks Jay.

Investing
Kanwal Sarai from Simply Investing casts Expelliarmus on 3 common investing myths.

Next up is a great post from 101 Centavos looking into Investing in Farmland. Well worth a read so go read it!

Real Estate
Shaun from Smart Family Finance has written an article which looks at when you should be renting instead of buying property. Ash also wrote a similar post which isn’t as good.

Amanda Grossman from Frugal Confessions blogged about how sitting on her arse actually paid off. Pretty big win really. Jay can relate to this. lols.

Ash found this article over at Simple Finance Blog. It talks about costly mistakes people often make when buying a home for the first time. It’s good and you should read it. Unless you have a house already then, well, too late.

Taxes
This article from Money Reasons looks at the theory of giving businesses a tax break on the first to years of it’s life. Great idea, now I can make a new business every 2 years and never pay tax again! . Seriously though it’s a nice idea and you should take a look!

Finance
Darwin writes about a really cool equation that is used to calculate the rate of return on an investment. I don’t often say that equations are cool. OK, that’s a lie; I love maths, but that’s not the point. This really is a useful calculation that can give you access to information you can answer questions you never thought you could answer.

Economy
Justin, who owns every PF website in the known universe, writes about ways to help your business survive in a tough economy. Kudos to Justin for cranking out the top quality content and being included in the same carnival twice Actually, I think this was written by someone called Evan. Way to go for ruining what I just wrote, Evan. And nice work on the article!

Credit / Debt
The post submitted by Dana from Not made of Money covers some great tips on protecting yourself from identity theft.

Steve from Money Infant mentions good tips for paying off your credit cards should you have them.

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly is Debt Consolidation and if it’s a good idea, this article from ReadyForZero will set you straight.

Matt from Living in Financial Excellence explains how those of us you with debt already have a date at which we you will become become debt free. The only reason anyone stays in debt is because they are stupid. At least, that’s the way I understood the article. Read it yourself to find out why people allow themselves to remain enslaved to debt.

Other
If you are thinking about carpooling with work colleagues then this post is for you. It’s from Jeremy Waller at Personal Finance Whiz and it’s good.

If you’ve read a couple of posts on here written by Jay, you know how he loves his goals even if he does fail to meet them from time to time. Maybe he should read this post published on Krantcents talking about meeting goals using certain keys to success.

An interesting post on personal development written by ETZ25 from Entertainment Timez. Made me chuckle.

MBAs can be an expensive way of furthering your education. Jeffrey from Money Spruce looks into Personal MBAs and if they are as good as the real thing.

How much time do you waste? Read this post from Jester at the Ultimate Juggle so it doesn’t happen again. You time wasting peasant you. #shakesfist

Ashley asks How Has Your Childhood Affected Your Money Habits? That’s a topic that’s very close to my heart so head on over to Money Talks Coaching and reflect on how you learnt about money. You might learnt something about yourself that you never noticed before.

So that concludes our first ever blog carnival. We hope you enjoyed reading the articles we chose and sorry if your submission didn’t make it into the carnival this week.

If you like what you just read, maybe you want to stick around. Why not stay up to date with our latest articles by subscribing via Facebook, Twitter or RSS?

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26 Comments

Carry at Least 2 Bank Cards | Help Me To SaveMarch 19, 2012 at 12:05 pmReply

[...] This article was included in the Totally Money Canival #59. [...]
Savvy ScotMarch 19, 2012 at 12:06 pmReply

THANKS for the mention
- AshMarch 19, 2012 at 2:03 pmReply
  
  Hehe that’s OK. Thanks for submitting! We had to call you Savvy Scot because we still don’t know you’re name. You’re so mysterious, Savvy Scot.
- JayMarch 20, 2012 at 9:01 amReplyAuthor
  
  You are welcome dude!
WorkSaveLiveMarch 19, 2012 at 12:56 pmReply

Thanks for hosting and being so diligent going through all of the posts and making personalized comments!

Hope you had a great weekend and thanks for making me one of the editor’s picks!
- AshMarch 19, 2012 at 2:01 pmReply
  
  No problem, Jason. Thanks for submitting. I really enjoyed the humble tone of your article. It was one of the ‘nicest’ things I’d read in a while so that’s why in our top picks
Harri @ TotallyMoneyMarch 19, 2012 at 12:57 pmReply

Thank you so much for hosting this week’s carnival guys!
- AshMarch 19, 2012 at 1:55 pmReply
  
  No, thank you. And sorry for the email glitch!
- JayMarch 20, 2012 at 9:03 amReplyAuthor
  
  No worries! Huge apologies for not replying to your multiple emails – you must have thought I was being an ignorant so and so.
  
  #mustlearntoworkemailaccount
TotallyMoney Blog Carnival #59 - TotallyMoneyMarch 19, 2012 at 1:30 pmReply

[...] hope you all had a great weekend! This week’s TotallyMoney Blog Carnival was hosted by one of our favourite blogs, Sterling Effort. While you’re over for the carnival, [...]
Money InfantMarch 19, 2012 at 1:34 pmReply

Thanks for hosting and including me!
- AshMarch 19, 2012 at 1:54 pmReply
  
  You’re welcome, Steve. I actually had quite a lot of difficulty explaining a couple of the points in this article to a friend a couple of weeks ago. So when I saw your article, I knew I had to share it
The Dividend NinjaMarch 19, 2012 at 4:52 pmReply

Thanx for the mention Jay, and I’m really glad you enjoyed the post!
- JayMarch 19, 2012 at 9:52 pmReplyAuthor
  
  No worries!
Why Did I Start My Business?March 21, 2012 at 11:57 pmReply

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101 CentavosMarch 23, 2012 at 12:52 pmReply

Thanks for the inclusion, SE! A well-edited and well-written carnival.
- JayMarch 23, 2012 at 4:29 pmReplyAuthor
  
  You’re welcome and thanks for the kind words!
Rounding Out The Week – Cereal Killers | 101 CentavosMarch 23, 2012 at 2:28 pmReply

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Link Love: Giving Credit Where Credit Is DueMarch 23, 2012 at 11:46 pmReply

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Weekly Tweets and Mentions #6 | Money InfantMarch 24, 2012 at 11:19 amReply

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Link Love: The Blogoversary Edition | Money TalksMarch 25, 2012 at 4:51 pmReply

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Some Jobs Pay More Than You ThinkMarch 25, 2012 at 9:54 pmReply

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Payday LoansMarch 28, 2012 at 1:46 pmReply

Hey Jay,

Thanks a lot for sharing all these excellent articles from some great bloggers around the web!..I look forward to speaking to each of them, and hopefully learning a few new skills!

Michael
- JayMarch 28, 2012 at 6:47 pmReplyAuthor
  
  Hey Michael, thank you for taking the time to comment and also read through the Carnival! Glad you enjoyed it.
Benefits of Blogger Carnivals | Money ReasonsMarch 31, 2012 at 6:29 pmReply

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