From Spender To Saver, Awesome Debt Reduction Guide @ The Roundup

Is it just me or is my financial reading list just growing longer over time? That’s cool though — the weekends are a time when I catch up a bit on what the net is saying about money. There have been a few common threads I’ve noticed in this particular edition of my roundup — including some discussion on financial infidelity, the economic stimulus check, and net worth updates (it’s the end of the month and everyone’s tallying up their financial numbers). And something else that never changes — more of us are having babies! Congratulations to Brip Blap on this momentous occasion. He’ll soon be waxing poetic about saving on diapers, using piggy banks and 529 savings accounts.

And before I jump into my reading list, I’d like to give a nod to Get Rich Slowly, All Financial Matters and My Money Blog for taking best marks in the May 2008 Edition of Money Magazine!

Personal Finance Reads

• The Simple Dollar: What’s your take on your kid’s education? Trent offers a comprehensive and well-rounded view of children’s education and personal finance, reminding us that education is not just the stuff taught in schools.
• Get Rich Slowly: J.D. tells us how he shifted from becoming a spender to being a saver. The turning point for him was when he got out of debt and began to realize how thrilling…and fulfilling it is to see one’s savings build and grow.
• Lazy Man and Money: Lazy Man attended Finovate, a business conference that showcased 40 financial startups ranging from Zopa to Trade King. He’s covered the whole gamut of startups and their demos in a series of posts ending with this one (it has links to the all other Finovate articles in the series).
• Money Smart Life: Are you a college graduate ready to face the “real world”? Do you know anyone who is? Going to college may be the point in time when one should think about getting their own health insurance.
• Gen X Finance: Conventional wisdom encourages us to protect ourselves financially, and to be prepared for disaster. But the question is, how much insurance should you really be getting? Should you get disability insurance? It depends on your situation.
• The Sun’s Financial Diary: I love Sun’s recaps on his net worth. Here’s yet another one showing his April 2008 scorecard, which shows a positive turnaround in his net worth trend.
• Free Money Finance: Looking to reduce college costs for yourself or your kids? Here are 10 tips to do it. For those students eyeing college, it sure helps if you load up on advance placement classes while still in high school so you can save on those credits in college.
• Five Cent Nickel: Nickel tackles the concept of financial infidelity or the act of keeping financial secrets from your spouse or partner. A survey mentioned in his article shows a surprising 48% of people involved in a serious relationship have committed such infidelity.
• Mighty Bargain Hunter: Let’s see… what else could we do with our economic stimulus check? Hmmm…. how about buying a “refund-season gift card” from a retailer? Some retailers are offering additional value on their gift cards (up to 10% more) if you buy the higher valued cards — yes, a campaign made to coincide with your receipt of your rebate check.
• No Credit Needed: I just had to bookmark this awesome “No Credit Needed Debt Reduction Guide” index care of NCN. For all those who want to wipe out your stubborn debt, here’s a comprehensive set of articles to help you get on the right track!
• Million Dollar Journey: Financial infidelity seems to be a common topic in the online financial community this week. Here’s another article that ponders the relationship between financial infidelity and divorce.
• My Dollar Plan: We all have different ways of managing our financial goals and money plans. Madison walks us through her custom money plan, showing us how we can weigh the cost vs time vs priority of each of our financial goals.
• Brip Blap: Steve jokes with us about coming across a new tax deduction this week. He just celebrated the birth of his baby daughter a few days ago. Congratulations man! Good luck with no sleep.
• MSN Smart Spending and TipNut.com: Frugality and saving money is in! Thank you to Donna for featuring my post proclaiming that frugality is the hot new trend. TipNut.com also featured my humongous list of coupon usage tips!

Additional Readings

• Discover Your Investment Style In 15 Minutes @ The Shark Investor
• 15 Things To Do With Your Economic Stimulus Check @ Free From Broke
• The New Frugality @ The Mark of Ashen Wings
• Speak Up to Get A Deal @ American Consumer News
• How I Handled A Collections Letter @ The Wisdom Journal

Recent Carnivals

• Budget Busters, College Costs and Car Buying Advice
• Carnival of Money Stories #57: Thank you to Andy for picking my post on savers who died wealthy as an Editor’s Pick!
• Money Hacks Carnival #10

 
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