Carnival of Personal Finance #137 – The Passion Edition

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion — Hebbel

That image at the start of this post is a Passion Flower. My passion is investing, primarily dividend investing. However, the thing about blogging and reading other people’s blogs is that you receive great insight and knowledge about other people’s passions. Live is nothing without passion. This carnival is dedicated to those passions that keep us moving forward and provide us with all the excitement and fulfillment that life has to offer. In today’s Carnival of Personal Finance #137, I am going to focus on passion and hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Editor’s Choice

Here are the posts that I believe exhibited tremendous passion about their individual topic. It does not necessarily mean I share the same passion, only that the post exhibited great passion about its choses topic!

I am not sure if there is a more passionate dividend investor than D4L (next to me of course!) This week he presents Pre-Screening Dividend Stocks – Part II, and says, “When done correctly, a thorough quantitative and qualitative evaluation takes a significant amount of time to complete. This article provides you a model that helps to determine which stocks are worthy of that level of evaluation.”

Four Pillars writes great articles with a lot of good information. In this article he covers the 4% withdrawal rule: 4%
Withdrawal Rule For Retirement, and says, “A description on the 4% withdrawal rate for retirement.”

There is one topic in the personal finance world that generates a great deal of passionate responses from people, and that topic is Socially Responsible Investing. Pinyo from Moolanomy presents What Is Your Thought On Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)?, and says, “A debate about the reality of socially responsible investing, and more specifically asked if peer-to-peer lending is morally wrong.”

To me, funky or fancy investment products are too complicated to get involved with. I know very little about them. Luckily Dorian Wales from The Personal Financier pationately tried to convince us of the risks of these products in his article, The Problem With Structures – Risks and Hidden Costs.

The best laid plans sometimes goes awry. paidtwice from I’ve Paid For This Twice Already wrote passionately about not being able to afford everything without a little saving. In his article, There’s No Shame In Not Being Able To Afford It, he says, “Baring your soul is good for you.”

In response to paditwice’s post from above, Mrs. Micah from Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life presents No Shame: I Can’t Afford New Clothes. Paidtwices article really struck a cord with her and you can certainly tell in her post.

Suburban Wife has obviously put some tremendous thought and passion to money matters and her children. On her blog Suburban Wife’s Daily Dollar Diary presents Kids & Money: A 15-yo’s Financials.

Peter gave a good overview of how he and his wife manage finances in their household. You can tell they are committed to working through financial issues in their marriage, and that is not easy to do. Check out Finances For Couples.

This is a really creative way to pay off that student debt. K from Small Cents talks about a unique method he came up with to cover his passion for paying off his student loans: How I Pay My Student Loans.

The time value of money is one of the most important concepts every investor needs to understand. Cameron Schaefer from Schaefer’s Blog presents 3 Investment Principles Every Young Person Should Know: #1 Time Value of Money, and says, “The basic premise of the time value of money is that all else being equal an investor is better off receiving a certain amount of money today than he is receiving that same amount of money in the future.”

A Passion for Investing

The Financial blogger presents Do
Not Look Down, You Might Find your Stocks At The Bottom Of The Pit, and says,
“Many people say that we are about to enter into a bear market. That the party is over and red ink stains will mark the financial statements of several companies. However, it is not the time to panic.

This was an interesting question. Matt from American Consumer News asks who is better to contribute to a 529 account – parents or grandparents. Personally, I support my kids grandparents helping out with their education, however their are tax consequences to consider. Check out Matt’s post at Grandma’s 529 Account May Be Better.

I know nothing about Forex trading. Jed from Forex Trading Strategy Talk gives a good overview in Forex Trading Secrets-Building a Highly Profitable Trading Account, and says, “This article is great for any investor looking to trade in the forex market or any money market. Details what you need to do to be successful.” They key is a system, just like it is for any investment strategy. Still, for me I am going to stick to my boring dividend stocks.

The thing about dividends is the stocks continue to give them even if you just sit around. FrugalTrader from Million Dollar Journey dividends as one of his options for passive/side income in Finding Passive/Side Income Streams.

Lily from The Honest Dollar presents A Hedge Fund Manager on Subprime: 3 Lessons in Investing, and says, “An overview of the subprime meltdown, a hedge fund manager’s thoughts on the situation, and 3 lessons to learn.”

KMC from Advanced Personal Finance presents Why the Recent Market Decline Isn’t That Bad.

Michael Rubin from Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents The Stock Market Was Way Up!, and says, “This conversational post emphasizes the need for a long-term investing view while highlighting the fact that headlines don’t always indicate the full news.”

FIRE Finance from FIRE Finance presents Feds Rate Cut Tumbles Savings APYs.

Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents Anticipating A Stock Market Bottom.

This is an often debated question. Deepali from Paradigm Shifted presents How Much Should You Save for Retirement?. To me, the more money you can have in retirement the better.

Investing Angel from Free Stock Market Investing Tips presents, Tips For Shorting Stocks and says, “In today’s unstable market, many people are considering shorting stocks. This might be because they believe the market is going to get worse, so they want to bet against the market or they just wish to hedge their bets.”

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card presents What
are you doing with your investment portfolio?. He is looking to reduce his equity exposure down to 50%, which is a big jump from his current 80%.

FFB from Free From Broke presents The Stock Market Is Crashing, and says, “The Stock Market is not doing so great lately but I’m in the market for the long haul.”

Penny Nickel from Money and Values presents Companies with happy employees have better stock returns.

Dan from Everyday Finance presents Atonement: Fed Cuts Rates 75 basis points…There Will Be Blood, and says, “An article outlining the implication of the Fed’s overzealous rate cut and how you can profit from opportunities presented as a result.”

Ryan from Millionaire Money Habits presents You’re in Your 50s – Wake Up and Start Saving!, and says, “Funding your retirement for 25 or more years can be very costly and requires a sound plan. While $1 million will produce $40,000 in annual income for 25 years, that’s in today’s dollars. If you’re getting a late start on your retirement planning, here’s a plan to take advantage of catch-up retirement plan programs to turbo charge your savings. This post is part of the Money Matters for All Ages project.”

I hold Citigroup so I was certainly interested in this article. Neumes from Millionaire Neumes presents Citigroup vs Wachovia – Which One To Buy, and says, “Sometimes the best research needs to reexamined when the stock you think you want is clearly not favored by those that are actually buying and moving the tape. ”

A Passion for Finance

This is a cool post, one a very creative topic for that mattter! JS from Smart Money Daily presents 15 Historical & Interesting Cancelled Checks, and says, “The humble bank check’s days are numbered. No one can deny the convenience & ease of use of the electronic fund movement systems. But when you scan through this collection of checks by the likes of John Lennon, Albert Einstein and others you may find yourself, like me, feeling a sense of loss that the only records of our financial transactions these days are credit card statements.” Check out that check from John Lennon.

Britney Spears is a train wreck and Kyle from Rather-Be-Shopping presents a very interesting fly-on-the-wall discussion he “heard” while listening to Brit and a finance professor in Financial Q&A with Britney Spears.

Money is tight and continues to be so. Kimberly Palmer from Alpha Consumer presents Despite the Fed Rate Cut, Loans Are Harder to Get, and says, “The Fed cut doesn’t mean it will be easy to borrow money to buy a new car!”

Tina from Money Smart Life presents Identity Theft is too Easy Phishing with a Fax Number, and says, “I won’t go into detail but a person could find enough information on most any personal blog to spoof an email that would appear legitimate but actually contain a fax number with an identity thief waiting on the other end. Revealing your social security number, name, and address could leave you vulnerable to identity theft, especially combined with the information revealed on some blogs.”

Ciaran from Chance Favors presents Easing into the Golden Years – the 60’s and Beyond.

Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme presents Cash flow diagrams for the poor, the middle class, and the investor class.

A Passion for Frugality

One step at a time applies to personal finance as well – the little steps count. Jacob from SuccessMinders presents How to “only” yourself to death, and says, “An article I wrote regarding all of the “only $20 a month” payments we make and how they suck money out of your life.”

Moving can be ridiculously expensive. Broke Grad Student presents How To Move Without Going Broke.

Betsy at Money Changes Things presents, No-Name vs. Designer: the Parents’ Dilemma, saying “One of my strategies for teaching my son the difference between no-name and brand-name was making him pay the difference. Mean? Perhaps, but very effective!” I don’ think it is mean.

Did you know some people actually get cell phone insurance. Jason from The Amatureist Financial Journey presents Biggest Insrance Scams, why all insurance rips you off – Part 1, and says, “In case you didn’t know, cell phone insurance is a scam!” I am not sure if all insurance rips you off, but it must be purchased wisely.

Terry at Savvy Frugality writes, Clutter Costs Money saying, “I found bills and unopened mail and other paperwork that was almost seven years old. Seven years! Shameful. No wonder my financial life was in shambles back then.”

Brooke from Dollar Frugal presents I Love Lucy Frugality! and says, “Do you ever go too far and end up looking a fool because of your frugality? What is the funniest thing that you’ve done to be frugal?”

NtJS from Not the Jet Set presents The HDTV Challenge, and says, “I’m just getting started as a P-F blogger, and as a blogger in general. I think that “The HDTV Challenge” is a great article on frugality and is counter to the way most of us think and shop in American culture today.”

PT from Prime Time Money presents Electric Shavers Are Horrible – Return Reminder and 5 Tips, and says, “Bottom line: Don’t be like me and have stuff in your house you don’t use; return it quick so you can get some money back.”

Angela Cato from Penny Pinscher presents Redneck Economics.

A Passion for Money Management

Stephanie from Poorer Than You presents Stephanie’s Quick Start Financial Guide, and says the post is, “A quick and easy guide for people just starting to get into managing their own finances.”

J2R from Journey 2 Retirement presents Why we use our emotions instead of reason when dealing with our money. The key point – be aware that we’re genetically wired and predisposed to waste money and you save yourself from getting in a huge financially mess.

Michelle Dawn from Frugal Parenting presents Personal Finance Basics for New Parents.

Art Dinkin from Moment on Money presents On The Radar: Tax Effect of Return of Premium Life Insurance, and says, “Is the additional out of pocket costs of buying a return of premium insurance contract worth it? This post provides an excel spreadsheet to find out.”

Talk about getting kicked when you are down. Bob Vineyard, CLU from InsureBlog presents Mindless Insurance, and says, “SUMMARY: Whatever happened to personal responsibility? InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard has the story of a father who failed to read his new insurance policy, and now faces thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. It’s a lesson in knowing what you’re buying.”

You folks in the U.S. are getting some tax relief I understand. Coupon Fetcher from Coupon Fetcher.com presents 5 Smart and 5 Dumb Things To Do With Your Tax Rebate.

LJ from Mommy Gets PAID presents Does your financial past affect you today?.

Harrison from Journey To Financial Freedom presents 4 Steps to Change the Way You Think about Money, and says, “Your demands on money depend on what kind of lifestyle you want to have. Different level of lifestyle will need different amount of money to support and hence different actions to achieve it. However no matter what level of lifestyle you want to have, there is only 1 step to get started – Changing The Way You Think About Money.”

rocketc from rocket finance presents My wife has her own checking account, and says, “My wife and I have separate checking accounts, but financial decisions are made together.”

We all go through stages in our financial lives. Madison from My Dollar Plan presents Money Matters for All Ages: The Complete Guide , and says, “A complete guide of financial issues for every stage of life.” This post provides good link to other blogs that cover topics of finances through life’s stages.”

plonkee from plonkee money presents family of origin finances, and says, “I learned some new things about how money was handled in my family whilst I was a kid – which got me to thinking about all the things that I still don’t know.”

Matt from One Million and Beyond presents Fears – What’s holding you back?, and says, “My entry doesn’t deal directly with personal finance but the fears that are holding me (and probably many other people) back from accomplishing their goals.”

Livingalmostlarge from Livingalmostlarge presents Single versus Coupledom?, and says, “Is there a difference between single versus coupledom?”

Patrick from Cash Money Life presents Money Tips for the Twenty Something Crowd, and says, “Here are some money tips for people in their twenties – the best time to set a strong financial foundation.”

Glblguy from Gather Little by Little presents Improving your finances: direction not perfection.

Laura from Green Panda Treehouse presents His, Mine, and Ours: How We Pay Our Bills and Budget, and says, “We’ve been married a little over a year and this is how our we organize our finances. It works for us.”

A Passion for Careers

Work is stressful. vh from Funny about Money presents 3 ways to cope with this stress in his article Job Stress: Three Ways to Cope.

American Entrepreneur from American Small Business News presents Are You Ready to Manage Your Small Business?.

Now this is a touchy subject with a lot of passion around it. f.f. from Feminist Finance presents Blog For Choice 2008: Personal Finance and Pro-Choice Politics.

The simple nickle from the simple nickle presents Work Hard + Work Smart = Wealth and Success, and says, “While attending a university commencement, I received some sage advice that I will always remember. ”

Good post title here although I am not sure is ‘suckiness’ is a word. However, Steward from My Family’s Money shows his passion for being a dad. He presented the article, A Good Suckiness: Thoughts on the Nature of Work, and says, “An article about how work as a concept is good but in practice it sucks and how I just want to be a professional dad.”

Ever stick your hand in your coat pocket and pull out a 5’iver? I usually just blow it but Stephanie from Unclaimed Money presents other things to think about with that Unexpected Cash.

mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Take a second job or build a side business?, and says, “Do you work for someone else or do you work for yourself? It all depends on how badly you need the money.”

A Passion for the Economy

This is a good attitude to all the media hype that has been going on with respect to the volatile markets and fear about recession. David from Money Under 30 presents What Recession? I’m Going Shopping. I should introduce you to my wife.

There was a lot of talk about the Fed’s rate cut last week. Aryn from Sound Money Matters presents The LIBOR and Fed Rate Fall: What that Means for You, and discusses, “… several areas where falling interest rates could impact people’s personal finances.” A good summary of the impacts rate cuts can have.

Ted from CampusGrotto presents Student Debt in America.

I am going to be traveling to the U.S. in a few weeks and will need to convert some money into U.S. dollars. I should convert now rather than later. Alan from Money Blog presents Is the Falling Dollar Making You Nervous?.

A Passion for (a lack of) Debt

If used wisely, credit cards can have some benefit. The key is to use them wisely. Kevin from No Debt Plan presents Credit Cards are Not Evil, and provides a list of why he loves credit cards.

Raymond from Money Blue Book presents The Best 0% Balance Transfer Offers With No Fees.

Erik from Money Crashers presents Five Reasons To Be Optimistic If We Fall Into A Recession.

A Passion for Real Estate

John Hunter from Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog presents Your Home as an Investment, and says, “Ownership of your home removes the risk of being priced out of the area you want to live by increasing rental prices over time. You also lose the potential of benefiting if rent prices fall over time, but I would say the more valuable of those options is avoiding the risk of rising rental prices.”

Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents Successful Refinancing – An Example of the Issues, Computations, and Thought Process.

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents The True Costs of Relocating To Another Town and says, “It looks to me that transplanting your family from one place to another counts as one of those bigger expenses in life and would need tremendous preparation. The best way to handle this of course would be to get your employer or potential employer to shoulder as many of the costs as possible.”

A Passion for Taxes (and not paying too much of them)

I hope to one day exercise a boatload of my options I have received from my employer and of course will need to worry about taxes on them. Steve from Quest For A Million presents Tax Consequences of Employee Stock Plans, and says, “An overview of stock options and stock purchase plans offered to employees and their tax consequences.”

Kay from Don’t Mess With Taxes presents Uh oh! Audits are up, and says, “IRS audits increased last year and that trend is likely to continue. Here are some things that might make a tax examiner look more closely at your return.”

NCN from No Credit Needed presents Tax Rebate And Economi Stimulus – What Will You Do With Your Rebate.

jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents 2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Package Explained.

A Passion for Saving

How did you manage to save money last week. In my family, we changed our Cable plan to a lower one which is much cheaper. SingleGuyMoney from Single Guy Money presented his: Did you save money this week?.

Shadox from Money and Such presents Savings Calculator, and says, “I have created a cool little calculator for letting people run quick “what-if” scenarios about their future net worth.”

Adfecto from Adfecto Abundantia – Aspire 2 Wealth presents Millionaire Rule #7, and says, “There is no better way to save for your financial future than to take advantage of a 401(k) which is matched by an employer. This post will explain how a 401(k) works and demonstrate what a powerful tool it can be for building a retirement nest egg.” Free money is cool – it is something I too am very passionate about.

I did this in school – recouped some of the gobs of money I spent on text books during both my undergrad and graduate degrees. Bob from Christian Personal Finance presents How to get textbooks for free, and says, “This was a trick I discovered late in college, that I wish I would have known about earlier, it could have saved me thousands over my college years. It shouldn’t take more than a hour and could save you hundreds each semester.” I didn’t get mine for free, but at least I got some of my money back.

Veteran Military Wife from Life Lessons of a Military Wife presents S-t-r-e-t-c-h
Your Money in 2008, and says, “It’ll be easy to save THOUSANDS of dollars this year if you follow these tips!”

Peter from Money Management And You presents The How To, On Saving Money, and says, “An article highlighting the eastiest and most effective way to save money. No more budgets, this strategy will help you save money without you ever having to worry about it.”

Colonel Cash from Money and Credit presents Do you have an emergency fund? Good name Colonel!

BEIT from Building Equity in Toronto presents Stop flushing your dollars down the toilet: The economics of a high-efficiency toilet set.

Another good article on defining your retirement needs. Deamiter from Handling Finances presents Retirement: A Poorly Defined Goal, and says, “An article on defining and planning for retirement to ensure that you can live life as you want after retiring.” I like the suggestion of talking to other retirees about their experiences. We always shy away from bringing up money, but it can be very helpful.

Not spending money on the weekends is hard, never mind long weekends. Jim from Getting Ahead in Life presents Free Three Day Weekend, and says, “I wrote about how my free 3 day weekend should be free.”

Bob McDonald from The Platinum Years Network presents What if We SAVED Our “Stimulus Package” Checks?, and says, “On Thursday I posted a little “tongue in cheek” quiz designed to encourage people to use their “economic stimulus package” checks to pay down their debt or (by inference) save rather than squander, I mean, spend them. In this more thoughtful follow up, I look at our country’s meager savings rate and take an idealistical look at what would happen if people took that advice.”

A Passion for Goal Setting

Stuff happens. The key is to keep focused on our goals and never stop until you are satisfied. Dan from Money Myths presents Life Tests My Goals, and says, “Life has a way of making us get serious about our goals.”

A Passion for Other Stuff Not Covered Above

I am all about making more money. FMF from Free Money Finance presents Make Money by Becoming a Writer, and says, “A great way to make some extra money.” Something I have thought about for awhile now.

David from My Two Dollars presents 10 Tips For First-Time Apartment Renters. I like the first one, “When you meet the landlord, try to act like a grownup.”

BTA from Balance Transfer Arbitrage presents Set It & Forget It: Auto Bill-Pay A Transfer.

Joanna from keeping feet presents American Wallets, Global Impact, and says, “When we spend our money, we’re voting for values. How much do we need to think about what we’re supporting?”

Hank from MyInvestingBlog presents The “Magic Quadrant” of the Personal Finance blogs…, and says, “The PF Magic
Quadrant is designed to provide an unbiased qualitative analysis of a the Personal
Finance Realms direction, maturity, and participants.”

Smarty from Growing Money presents New Year Goals for 2008.

Michael presents, Spreading Risk – The Basics of Insurance.

Thank everyone for all the passion you are putting into your blogs. It was a lot of fun hosting this week (and a lot of work too – man there are a lot of articles) and I hope to be able to do it again soon.

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