welcome to the Financial Wellness Project site!  i am your host this week for the 82nd Carnival of Money Stories!

i hope you’ll enjoy the selections in the list below; please take a bit of time to visit these writers’ sites to read their full stories, and to offer comments or feedback.

i certainly enjoyed reading these stories — thank you to all who submitted for sharing your experiences with the rest of us.  i love these types of personal tales, packed with lessons learned.  for this reason, this carnival is one of my favorites.

instead of a particular theme to adorn this edition, i ask you questions based on the posts. this is to encourage you to contemplate what you might not have contemplated before, to ask yourself questions that will help you learn more and succeed in your pursuit of financial goals.

while you are here, please take a moment to poke around my site to see if there might be an interesting and/or useful post that you might benefit from!  i would enjoy and appreciate any comments or questions.  and while you’re at it, why not subscribe to my rss feed? ;)  thank you in advance!

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ONWARDS, then!

this month, i struggle with the decision of leaving a comfy full-time job to explore the freelancing alternative.   like many others who consider this route, i am concerned about ensuring enough cash flow to pay for basic necessities.  do you have any words of wisdom you might share with me?

EDITOR’s PICK of the week!

jenna at ask mr. credit card shares with us the many lessons she learned from filing for bankruptcy, both helpful and to their detriment.  i admire her and her husband’s resolve to work more than one job in order to make ends meet — doing what needs to get done to achieve success.  do you also have a story about bankruptcy?

retired at 47 wrote about his decision to retire early, after a series of big life changes including a divorce, and job changes.  i found i could relate to his tale, in that i too had to handle big changes in order to find some level of fulfillment.  and like many others, we both perceived retirement as something very far off in the distance.  when do you think you will retire?

money blue book gives us an update on his networth and finances.  congrats on being happily self-employed!  i would personally find managing multiple credit cards a bit of a pain, but he tells us how he uses them to his advantage.  i can relate to his desire of holding much of his cash flow in fdic insured places during these tough economic times.  how are you doing with respect to your personal finance goals?

the financial blogger shares with us his tale of the worst job candidate he thus far had the privilege to interview.  take note of the list of mistakes the applicant made!  i am astounded that the candidate did not realize with each of his answers that he was digging himself a deep, deep hole..  have you ever experienced a botched job interview as well?

master your card tells us why he rents instead of owning a home.  i found his 8 reasons compelling.  i particularly can relate to not wanting the responsibility of having a bigger real estate to maintain, and not wanting to fork over taxes and hoa fees.  are there others out there who share these sentiments?

living almost large tells us about how she has come up with the belief that loans to those close to you may very well be gifts instead.  i’m still working on paying off the little brother, and i never once perceived it as a ‘gift’.  on the other hand, when i’ve borrowed small cash amounts (think, dining out) from my sis-in-law, she really prefers that i not pay her back!  (family should help family sort of thing.)  what is your policy or take on this?

j money at budgets are sexy tells us that he might like verizon, that warranties do work!  but ebay is the way to go for a reasonably priced phone battery.  i can relate — i once bought a plastic holster for the cell phone from ebay for the amazing price of $1, instead of maybe $20 from at&t!  and it was of decent quality, too.  have you found an awesome deal on ebay too?

little thomas at soon to be debt free tells us about his father, although financially successful, who is drawn to various scams and schemes.  funny how ‘free’ things actually comes with fees here and a purchase there..  he shares the reasons he believes people are susceptible to such shenanigans.  have you been involved in these type of programs, and have a story to share?

moneyning offers encouraging words in even a decade long recession will be ok.  he tells us about his friend who went through a similar experience in japan, and his 3 reasons for the success.  i believe it is a very good idea not to panic, first and foremost.  in this state, hopefully one can take a more collected stance, and make smarter decisions.  do you also have encouraging words of advice?

two pennies earned tells us about an experience of attempting to lock in a desirable interest rate on a mortgage.  her story sounds kind of intense.  i don’t know yet what exactly a home purchase process entails, although i learn occasionally from the SO who owns the house (and reading posts such as these!).  have your experiences also been up and down, positive, or negative?

funny about money tells us about his frustrating experience with qworst in dealing with his phone account.  he highly does not recommend them!  after reading his story, i don’t think i need much more convincing than that.  have you too had a nightmarish experience with a business?

the part-time life is in water-conservation mode in order to take advantage of her city’s discount low water-usage program.  that’s cool!  unfortunately, most likely our household won’t qualify if such a program existed here, as there are 4 of us.  but i may inquire within.  do you participate in a similar program?

kclau introduces us to the NEETs, or those NOT IN EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, or TRAINING (NEET).  he explores how these types of individuals come to being.  personally, i think i would go crazy if i wasn’t doing a bit of at least one of those things!  would you be happy if you were a NEET?

dividends 4 life gives us his quarterly update on his investments, returns, and other income.  this post made me re-realize just how much i really need to read a good investment book to better understand how i too can participate in investing.  how is your knowledge in the area of investments?

free money finance wonders if the economy has gotten so bad that people are foregoing medical visits.  apparently his dentist friend is feeling the crunch.  for me, it is important not to forego doctor and dental visits, but i will give up frequent haircuts and such instead.  what about you?

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i hope you enjoyed this issue.  please let me know in the comments if you have thoughts in the way my hosting might be improved for future reference.

don’t forget to submit your money tales at blogcarnival by 5pm est monday for the next edition!  please visit the carnival’s home page to become familiar with the submissions guidelines!