Carnival of Personal Finance #139: Valentine Edition

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! It’s time to get out the scissors and red construction paper and make some hearts for those special people in your lives.

From celebrating frugally to funding your Roth IRA, you’re sure to find an article you love. We have 95 great articles in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. Next stop for the carnival: The Financial Blogger.

Photography by: Philgarlic

Here’s the one’s that stole my heart (editor picks):

David at My Two Dollars presents 5 Frugal Ways To Make Your Valentine Swoon. I especially like the idea of cooking from scratch!

If none of those ideas jumped out, you are sure to find a frugal idea in Trent’s huge list of 100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started at The Simple Dollar. You’ll notice number 5 to make your own gifts would be a great money saver for a Valentine’s Day present.

Free From Broke comes clean to let us know that the 2008 goal is not going as well as planned in Roth IRA Goals Update. Thanks for being honest… hopefully you can divert a little money you might have been planning to spend on Valentine’s Day by using the tips above and invest it in your Roth IRA instead.

In case you wanted to spend “a little” more on your Valentine and were inclined to buy a 1000 acres in Napa with a mansion for $35 million, it’s too late, someone from France beat you to it. Find out why foreigners are hot on buying in America at The Digerati Life in We’re On Sale: Time To Buy America!

Feeling a little pinched to be spending any money on a “Hallmark Holiday?” Depending on where you are from and the cost of living in your area you may find Struggling on a Six-Figure Income in line or out of this world. Make sure to read the big discussion at Free Money Finance.

Thinking of getting a piggy bank for your Valentine? From “papier-mache piggy banks” to “Titanium-reinforced Kevlar® piggy banks inside a force field” Mighty Bargain Hunter helps you determine how strong you need your piggy bank to be to help you meet your goals in How strong is your piggy bank?

Finally, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating love. Lynnae’s tip to make sure your wife knows how much she means to you in 7 Things Women Wish Men Knew About Money is a perfect reminder for the upcoming holiday at Being Frugal.

Special Mention

Here’s some more articles that stood out. I figured they deserved a little heart.

Ryan from Millionaire Money Habits presents 8 Habits of Millionaires. As a huge fan of planning my favorite is number 2: Have a plan and work the plan.

Chief Family Officer was trying to switch to all cash but it ended after only two days. Find out why in The All Cash Spending Experiment is over (yes, already). The good news is that they did learn something as they found they don’t have to use cash just to save money.

Quest For Four Pillars decided it would be good to convince a friend Why ETFs Are Better Than Mutual Funds during a dinner-time conversation. See if the friend took his advice…

If you aren’t sure if ETFs are right for you, check out the review from Richard Ferri on whether an investor should buy ETFs or mutual funds at The Dough Roller. It includes a very informative rundown of the costs considered.

Still looking for some more free ideas to celebrate with your Valentine? Cindy from Oh My Aching Debts has a great list of Frugal Valentines. My favorite is the breakfast in bed.

Here’s another idea for a completely free Valentine’s Day. Do what Ashley from College of Cash is doing and watch a movie and snuggle in I Don’t “Do” Valentine’s Day.

Jeremy from Generation X Finance put together 15 Ways to Establish and Improve Your Credit History and FICO Score. It takes time to fix, but Jeremy has some great tips including working with your local lenders.

Photography by: naama

Finance

• Pinyo from Moolanomy explains I Missed My Goal, Dealing With Failure.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… presents The Pursuit of Perfection and What Happens Next.
• Praveen from My Simple Trading System walks us through The 62/70 Solution for Claiming Social Security Benefits.
• The Financial Blogger prepares us in case of financial emergency in The 4 Steps Personal Finance Drilling.
• The Div Guy uses NetworthIQ for Tracking Net Worth. Here is how he got started.
• Kevin from No Debt Plan presents The No Debt Plan: Pre-Step #1: An Honest, Positive Attitude.
• InsureBlog explains why “keeping it simple” can be so rewarding in To Be Continued on health insurance.
• Smarty from Growing Money presents Consolidate Accounts and Save Time.
• Bible Money Matters lists the 5 things I can’t do without.

Money Management

• Randall from Credit Withdrawal presents Dave Ramsey and the Great Debt Payoff Debate.
• Kimberly Palmer from Alpha Consumer explains how to navigate sticky situations in Dealing With Family, Friends, and Money.
• Ron from The Wisdom Journal examines the relationship between men, women, and money in 7 Things Men Wish Women Knew About Money.
• Are You Going To Be This Way the Rest of the Time I Know You? presents How Do They Sleep at Night? Part 4 – Banks and their Usurious Fees.
• Alison from This Wasn’t In The Plan presents Checks and Balances and My Credit Card.
• Erik from Money Crashers presents Four Tips for Dealing with Money and Family, and says, “Here are some tips for what to do when your money mixes with your family. “
• Money and Values explains The Psychology of Money: Sad people are willing to pay more.
• Blunt Money reveals Why poor planning often equals higher spending.
• RacerX from Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Money explains what happens when you skip asking an important question in Learning Finance from “The Smartest Guys in the Room”.
• GRACEful Retirement presents Saying Goodbye to Life Insurance.

Taxes

• In time for tax preparation, Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity gives us a List of Free Tax Preparation Services.
• Stacking Pennies presents Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction Fair?
• Mercedes from Common Sense with Money presents Debt and Income Taxes.

Budgeting

• Lisa from Greener Pastures: Personal Finance presents Life On a Spreadsheet.
• Cheap as chips details situations where Making use of the interest free period works and the pitfalls.

Photography by: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Real Estate

• Lily from The Honest Dollar discusses Mortgage Rates Up – Refinancing Up in the Air?, and says, “Why my boyfriend and I aren’t refinancing our apartment.”
• Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents Differences Between Loans Look Smaller Than They Are.

Frugality

• Aryn from Sound Money Matters explains how to Save Money on Books using book swaps and the library.
• The Happy Rock presents Free 80 Hour Dual Tuner Series 2 SD Tivo.
• Terry from Savvy Frugality puts it all together in Of Course the Economy is Bad…It’s an Election Year!
• Plan Your Escape tells us how to Be Frugal Without Depriving Yourself.
• Marc from Askix – Making Every Penny Count teaches us how to make your own gifts in 5 Inexpensive Homemade Gifts.
• Debbie from American Consumer News presents How to Give Gifts That Are Inexpensive and Practical.

Credit

• Single Guy Money says, “My Credit Card Companies Miss Me“, they’re offering him balance transfers.
• Ana from Debt Free Revolution presents Bank of America Takes Rate-Jacking to a New Level.
• Megan from A Dollar a Day asks Credit Reports – Why Haven’t You Checked Yours?
• Raymond from Money Blue Book put together a List Of Airline Credit Card Offers Providing Free Miles.
• Colonel Cash from Money and Credit presents How to dispute a credit card billing error.
• Handling Finances explores the conditions where credit card debt makes good financial sense in When Credit Card Debt Makes Sense (and When to Run Away).
• Building Equity in Toronto presents the second post in a three- part series on Tips on optimizing and simplifying your credit card use experience.
• Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card presents Some Credit Card Trends I Foresee in 2008.

Debt

• Dorian Wales from The Personal Financier presents When is it Reasonable to Take a Loan? Consider These 4 Questions.
• Smart Easy Money asks Budgeting: When Do You Change Yours?
• One Girl’s Quest reveals My secret to debt reduction success.
• No Credit Needed presents Debt Cures For Living Debt-Free.
• Cynthia from Debt Marathon presents The Kick in the Butt You Need.

Saving

• Ciaran from Chance Favors presents ‘My Two Cents’ On How To Avoid Cell Phone Termination Fees.
• FIRE Finance presents Free Hosting & Free Domain For Businesses Courtesy Microsoft!
• J.C.’s Money Blog explains How the Federal Reserve works and why the interest rate on my savings account dropped.

Photography by: celinet

Investing

• Patrick from Cash Money Life analyzes the Roth IRA Versus Traditional – Which is Better?
• Jorge from My Adventures into The Street put together a guide on How to Read the Fed Funds 30 Day Futures Rate.
• Eric Toya from Leonard Wealth Blog presents The Super Bowl Indicator: does it work?
• Steward from My Family’s Money reveals what they learned in Investment Strategy Update – One Month.
• My Retirement Blog asks Where Should I Open A Roth IRA?
• American Small Business News presents Dive Right In, The Sharks Won’t Bite: Recommended Reading for Entrepreneurs.
• Ryan from Uncommon Cents presents The Joy of Index.
• Squawkfox compares ING Direct Streetwise Funds Vs. TD Index e-Series Funds, and says, “This is good news for Canadians considering we pay some of the highest management expense ratios (MERs) in the world. However, I believe the average investor could do a lot better than ING’s Streetwise Funds by simply constructing their own portfolio using TD e-Series Funds. Here’s how to do it!”
• One Snarky Chica with Issues presents A look at some investing strategies.
• JS from Smart Money Daily tells us How to Buy Foreclosed Homes.
• Mariam from Money Relations presents Stock Market Rules: How much institutional ownership for individual investors?
• John Hunter from Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog presents Starting Retirement Account Allocations for Someone Under 40.
• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck reminds us Even “reputable” stock tips can be dangerous, and asks, “So why do reputable magazines make stock recommendations? And what happens when a magazine actually prints the wrong company name and ticker for their stock pick?”
• Create Increasing Passive Income from stocks with above average dividend growth presents Why
  do I like to invest in dividend aristocrats?
• Dividends4Life presents Tech Stocks in a Dividend Portfolio?!

Career

• Amanda Milne from Value For Your Life presents How to Survive Losing a Job.
• Matt from One Million and Beyond lost his job recently. Here’s his Next Steps. Good luck Matt!
• Dog Ate My Finances presents Breaking Free From 9-5, and says, “Small business is scary when you’re just starting.”
• Tim from Canadian Dream: Free at 45 presents The New Mercenary, and says, “We are not out for big salaries, but rather the best benefit package.”

Economy

• David from Money Under 30 asks if Americans will live within our means in A Country Without Credit?
• Aaron Stroud from On Financial Success presents It’s hard to be optimistic when you forget the past.
• Richard Epley from Blue Jeans Millionaire presents Bear Market?

Reviews

• Million Dollar Journey presents Book Review: Retire Rich from Real Estate.
• Jason from All About The Ben explains his views on a new peer-to-peer lending site in ZOPA USA, Finally, And It Is Quite A Disappointment.

Other

• Dawn from iowahippiechick explains the finances of owning dogs in Meet Buddy & Fugee.
• Brooke from Dollar Frugal presents Why We Don’t Need Trucks.
• Feminist Finance explains Books And Their Covers, and says, “You frequently can’t tell who’s on track financially just by looking at them.”
• Debtbeater relates values to personal finance in Values.

Finally, one special Valentine goes out to My Wealth Builder. Super Saver, 40-something, retired in October. Here’s a rundown of how they are doing: Retired Life – A Four Month Report Card.  

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