Pragmatic Finance

Welcome to the 45th edition of the Festival of Frugality. I will tell you an interesting experience I had recently.

Last weekend I was organizing my room after hearing Upstate Frugal tell me how it could improve my finances. I was going to throw away some junk mail invitations to seminars that Wenchypoo told me are a waste of money when I heard the telephone ring. It was FreeMoneyFinance. He had come across a flyer advertising some carnival in town. He said it also had some tips to save money during the holidays. That seemed strange for a carnival and I contemplated whether it would be fun. After hearing Ask Uncle Bill tell me to get off the dime many times I decided to finally go to the Festival.

I got dressed, putting on my new gray socks that I bought after learning from Frugal Living that white socks don’t last as long. After talking with the Weight of Money I decided to make a special purchase plan for the kids.

Before I left the house Enough Wealth told me how credit cards can save you money if used correctly so I brought them with me. I left and got into my rental car that got a corporate discount on using My Wealth Builder’s advice.

Once there I had to wait in line unfortunately. While standing there a girl named VicPicks explained how she got loads of student discounts on her purchases using a discount card. I might have to get one of those after I leave here. I asked someone named FireFinance who was standing in front of me about his hair style and he explained how he saves money by getting hair cuts at home.

After I got in I was very hungry so I started looking for something to eat. While I attempted to buy something Jengod explained to me some great tips on cooking at home so I could do that next time. If I do that I should probably listen to Stop the Ride and visit bulk food stores.

I decided to get a hamburger and a soda at sat down with a group of friendly looking people. Queercents made sure to point out that I could save the plastic bags it was in for other uses. Phil for Humanity also told me that I should have recycled rain water at home instead of buying the drink. During the conversation Penny Nickel recalled a story of visiting snack stores as a child to explain how to shop for less at discount stores.

I then went to try out some of the games there. At first they seemed pretty strange. One booth had a girl named Tricia who showed me how to play the paper bag game. Next I went to someone named Highest Echelon whose game involved matching your phone usage with service. He advised using Virgin Mobile. A booth with the words How do People Get Rich attracted my attention. But when I got there they were explaining how to get a much better return on your money using online savings accounts. I began to wonder, what kind of festival is this?

I began to leave and as I was walking out I heard someone complaining. His nametag said DebtFree4Ever and he was telling some people about this year’s nominees for creditcard.org’s lemon aware. A guy next to him named Debt Free told me three mistakes when selling your home.

When I was almost home my car broke down. Maybe I will have to look into that interesting car sharing service that the Good Human told me about. During the walk my knees felt some pain. I thought to myself that I should listen to fivecentnickel’s advice on saving on medical care when I have this checked out.

When I finally arrived I had some more bad news. I noticed a letter from the bank. Apparently, a free house can be too expensive if you can’t afford the bills. Maybe if I had listened to First Time Homeowner and got a tax credit for insulating the attic I could have saved some more money and been more energy efficient.

After the long exhausting day I laid down wondering why it had been so bad. Maybe I would have some better Karma if I did like Tired but Happy and gave tax deductible gifts to friends and family instead of buying them things they don’t really need.

Welcome to the 52nd edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. Some great posts this week, although some of the more interesting ones I left out didn’t really correspond to debt reduction. Anyway, on with the show. First I’ll go over some of the ones that caught my eye this week.

Favorites

Debt Free looks at a comparison of How is a Budget Like a Diet? A unique analogy I hadn’t seen before.

My Financial Awareness discusses two different Methods of Paying off Credit Card Debt. Good analysis of the different ways to pay off your debt. Both saving the most interest and paying it off in a way that gives keeps you motivated have their own benefits.

Craig of Recovering Broke Guy discusses the passing of his father and how it is A painful reminder of the importance of a Total Money Makeover. Although painful, a major event like this is an opportunity to do some introspection.

And now with the others… Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the 38th edition of the Carnival of Investing. I am your host, Pragmatic Finance and I will give you the run down on what went on in the investment blogosphere this past week.

I had to chuckle when My 1st Million at 33 said I beat you on this stock, Warren Buffet! Who Knew ConocoPhillips could generate so much excitement. And to balance out my emotions Consumerism Commentary let us know that The Market Goes Up When Congress is Out. Maybe some of the more creative out there can think up some ways to lesson the time Congress is in session so my IRA will go up. Read the rest of this entry »

This is my first time hosting a festival. For those that are unfamiliar, this new carnival is aimed at collecting advice and information that would be financially useful to those under the age of 30. Both young and old can submit articles and there is also a specific question each week that you can answer if you wish. If you want to participate in the next edition at Ninja Pigeon, head on over to the blogcarnival and submit your post. Don’t forget to answer the question in the comments field too. I tried to point out things I liked about the articles or give comments when I had time to fully read them.

Sally at Through a Glass Darkly wrote an article which answered my question in the form of a letter: Financial Advice (a letter to my younger self). This was a great piece that really illustrated some of the common challenges when a person first enters college. She tells her younger self about the important of learning to manage money for the first time and making budget priorities. A great read. Read the rest of this entry »

I will be hosting the Festival of Under 30 Finances this week so don’t forget to submit an article! Every festival has a unique question so don’t forget to answer it as well. This week’s question is If you could go back and tell yourself one piece of financial related advice as you first entered college or the job market, what would that be?

Also, if you are a personal finance bloggers who is under 30 and think you might want to join the network simply send an email to pennyfoolish at gmail dot com. New versions of the Under 30 Honor Roll site and forums were put up awhile back. Check them out if you have the time.

Oh and the last day for submission is wednesday. Anything submitted after then will be received by the next week’s host, Ninja Pigeon.

JLP over at AllFinancialMatters from time to time will post a question of the day for his readers to answer according to their own personal situations. It’s very interesting to read the different and varying responses. He has decided to make a marathon of it during the month of August. Each weekday a different blogger is going to post a question to answer. I signed up and will be posting my question on Tuesday, August 29.

I will list each question and a link to it in this post. This post will be edited to include each question so be sure to check it out and return on the 29th to answer my question.

1. AllFinancialMatters asks If your budget required you to give up something you like because you just didn’t have enough money to cover your expenses, what would that be?
2. Caustic Musings wonders What is the weekly average cost per person for food in your household, including groceies, snacks, and eating out?
3. The Investimist asks What was the last thing you splurged on that you really didn’t need?
4. Experiments in Finance ask us How many credit cards do you have and what’s their combined credit limit?
5. FreeMoneyFinance ponders Which is more important to financial success: saving money (spending less than you earn through cost cutting) making your income as high as possible (earning more money)?
6. Single Ma wonders In terms of your annual gross salary, what percentage do you save? Are you happy with that amount or do you think you could do better?
7. Young and Broke wants to know If you had $10,000, one day, and one store to spend it in, what store would you choose?
8. Savvy Saver asks us If you had to pinpoint one financial decision (good or bad) that put you on the path to where you are now, what would it be? If you could do it over, would you change your decision?
9. Young Finance Guy wonders What do you consider an expensive night out?
10. Money Dummy inquires as to What’s the most unusual, quirky, or bizarre thing involving money that’s happened to your personally?
11. Steve Braun wants to know your opinion on What percentage of financial success comes from “financial skills” and what percentage comes from “character?” Share some examples to support your theory.
12. Mighty Bargain Hunter asks us What’s the best deal that you’ve ever gotten in a store?
13. Journey to financial Freedom ponders If you have any side income other than your paychecks. If so, how do you generate it?
14. Penny Foolish wonders What are your vices?
15. Consumerism Commentary ponders While growing up, what were you taught about personal money management by your immediate family and surroundings (direct or by example, positive and negative), and how do these ideas factor into your life now?
16. No Credit Needed gives us a two part question about What is the first and last thing you purchased on credit (debt)?
17. Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge asks us How much of a balance do you leave on your checking account/s?
18. Chipping away wonders If tomorrow you were to suddenly find yourself unemployed, what would your action plan be and how much trouble do you feel you would be in?
19. Udandi & the Craft of Money asks What is your hobby and how much money do you spend on it?
20. Money and Values wants to know Do you involve your values in your money decisions? If so, what are some examples? If not, why not?
21. I ask What factors affected the career you chose? Was it purely about pay or were there other aspects that influenced the decision?
22. City Girl’s Financial Blog wonders In the past 24 hours, what have you done in relation to money?
23. Get Rich Slowly asks What does money mean to you?

And that concludes the question of the day marathon. Thanks AFM for coming up with this great idea. It was a lot of fun and extremely interesting reading through all of the responses.

This week I participated in two carnivals. My post that tells what I consider are the most important features for online savings accounts is shown over at the carnival of personal finance at All Financial Matters. I show how to get 2% back on all purchases with the MBNA/Fidelity 529 card at the festival of frugality at My Financial Journey.

Be sure to check out the second ever Festival of Under 30 Finances at College Student Financials. This week’s special question asked which was more important: your GPA or first “real” job?. There are a lot of good answers there, most of which believe your first professional job is more important. Check it out and if you’re under 30 and blogging about finance you might want to join the Under 30 Honor Roll.

The Carnival of Personal Finance has my post about using the MBNA 529 card to get 2% back on all your purchases.

First of all, today is the grand opening of the Festival of Under 30 Finances! I contributed my post on forgetting the bookstore in favor of buying textbooks online. There is also a question that each submitter answers for each carnival. This week’s question was what was/is your major in college and what impact does this have on the job you have now? Go check it out, there are some interesting answers and posts there.

I also forgot to mention last week that I submitted my post about Using Discovercard’s Get More Promotion to Save 5% to the Carnival of Personal Finance at Raising4boys. Oops.

This week I gave the advice Forget the Bookstore, Buy Textbooks Online in the Carnival of Debt Reduction at My Money Forest. I also submitted my post about saving 5% back at restaurants, bookstores, and movie theaters with the Citi mtvU card in the Festival of Frugality at Frugal for Life. My advice to start a Roth IRA early rounded out this week over at Experiments in Finance who hosted the Carnival of Investing.

If you notice on my blogroll I have added a new column, The Under 30 Honor Roll. Kira at Penny Foolish has set up a group for personal finance bloggers that are under 30. Just contact her about joining and then visit the Under 30 Honor Roll Forum. We are also going to have our own carnival, the Festival of Under 30 Finances to deal with issues that are particularly important to us young ones.

The first Carnival is going to be held next week, Friday July 14 and each subsequent carnival will be held two weeks after. If you would like to submit a post, visit the Blog Carnival. Any article that is relevelant to younger workers is welcome. Each carnival is also going to have a specific question that each person who submits an article should answer. Normally the host of that particular week will choose the question.

I participated in two carnivals this week. My advice to Start investing early with a Roth IRA is at this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and my discussion on how to Save 5% at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies is at the current Festival of Frugality.

If you aren’t familiar with Carnivals, they are blog posts that list some of the interesting articles recently about a particular topic. They are gathered from articles submitted to that week’s host. They are a great way of consolidating and presenting a list of posts in a specific area for readers. It can also expose new readers to many blogs that haven’t seen and may be interested in reading, including yours.
If you would like to participate in one you can send a post using either Blog Carnival of Conservative Cat. Here’s a list of some of the blogs that I am going to consider sending posts to whenever I have one that fits the category:

• Carnival of Personal Finance
• Carnival of Investing
• Festival of Frugality
• Carnival of Debt Reduction
• Carnival of Entrepreneurship
• Carnival of the Capitalists
• Carnival of Taxes
• Carnival of Business

If you have a blog and have written a good post that is about one of these topics I encourage you to submit it that week. Oh, and if you would like to host one, normally you are eligible once you have participated in that carnival once. I am going to be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance on….March 19, 2007. It appears that one is very popular and hosting is booked quite a ways out