time has been passing by so quickly, i can not believe it’s already november!  my apologies for this late issue of the FWP weekly roundups.

first, a reminder about FWP’s (first and) current book giveaway!  featuring an advance reader’s paperback copy of the homeowner’s handbook: energy efficiency, this opportunity ends 11/15 midnight PST!

carnival hosting

last week, i had the pleasure of hosting a few carnivals here at FWP.  check them out to find a handful of interesting and/or useful reads:

• carnival of money stories #82: questions for you edition
• carnival of financial resources #2: late halloween edition

carnival submissions

i also participated in the following carnivals:

• rich life carnival #16 — sleep is good for your wealth
• carnival of personal finance: financial armageddon edition — 5 questions for your post-debt savings plan
• carnival of money stories #82 — a freelance switch ?
• festival of frugality #149 — 6 lessons from a frugal past
• money hacks carnival #36 — put aside $1000 now (e-fund) @ gen x finance
• finance fiesta: financial secrets revealed — take advantage of your work perks!
• carnival of financial resources #2 — quick resolution with ing direct
• rich life carnival #17 — procrastination is not good for your wealth
• carnival of living cheaply: november edition — 6 lessons from a frugal past

the living cheaply and rich life carnivals are new resources for me.  in particular, i must say that i very much find the premise of the rich life carnival resonates with me greatly.

guest posts

i was honored to be able to submit guest posts for the following sites:

• generation x finance — set aside $1000 for you.  now!
• women’s personal finance network — donating eggs as a source of income?

these were my first guest posts during my time as a personal finance blogger.  i enjoyed the experience immensely, and intend to participate in future similar opportunities!

debt bloggers network roundup

reflections on fellow DBN members’ articles:

debt reduction formula addressed the question of whether credit cards are good or bad last spring.  i must admit i am not satisfied with the point he makes in favor of credit cards:

“2. Credit cards automatically track spending, which eliminates the need to save and file receipts. This is extremely important to me since I am self-employed and have to track every expense in my business. I never pay for business expenses with cash”.

paypal use aside, one can do that as well with a debit/atm card, as monthly statements are generally available.  that is what i have been doing for the past several months now.  and if security of debit cards is an issue, i must point out dave ramsey’s point on this:

“If you hold a debit card from a well-known name like Visa or MasterCard, it will have the same policy about unauthorized charges that credit cards have.”

over the summer, on a quest to be debt free wrote a piece about ways to handle money in a marriage.  on one hand, i disagree with the statement,

“Keeping all your money separate is not going to solve your money differences. All that implies is, ‘I don’t trust you.’ ”

quite the contrary — i would (and currently do) keep the finances separate because i don’t trust myself, not the SO!  i know about my poor money management ’skills’ thus far, and i don’t want the SO to have to suffer any problems from my doing, until i believe that i have strong personal finance habits.

on the other hand, i agree with,

“It’s also a good idea to have a separate checking account so you can each pay for your personal indulgences.  The concept here is that once you fully fund all your joint commitments, it’s healthy to divide what’s left over and give your partner the freedom to spend or save that money as he or she wishes.”

after the main ‘together’ expenses such as house related bills, emergency funds, etc. have been taken care of, i do not see anything wrong with having a separate account of funds for each of us to do as we see fit.
also last spring, how i save money covers the whys and hows of an emergency fund.  i agree with her on this one, as notable by a recent similar guest post i wrote at generation x finance just last week.  i believe that a $1000 base is a fairly sound start.

welcome to the first ever edition of the carnival of financial resources!  as such, this shall be the birthday issue! you may be amused to know that today is actually my (fwp) own birthday as well!

first off, i want to say thank you to EVERYONE who submitted something for this first CoFR carnival edition.  it was really kind of you to make the effort to share your posts with the rest of the PF blogging community and readers.

CoFR received almost 50 submissions — not too bad for its first issue!

i’m sad to say that there were many articles that although fabulous, and/or really interesting and different, did not abide by the submission guidelines that were posted at CoFR.  as a result, i had to disqualify at least 10 really cool articles! :(  i’m sorry, but i want to be fair and stick to the criteria for what i was envisioning for CoFR material.  i encourage you to (re-)read the CoFR submissions guidelines, and submit another post for the next edition!

for those whose submissions are included below, please kindly take a moment to do the following:

• link/track back to this issue from your own site
• offer feedback and insights to the writers below at their respective sites
• share this issue with others!
• pfbuzz, stumble, and/or digg this post!
• consider subscribing to the Financial Wellness Project via rss or e-mail and receive interesting stories, lessons, reviews, and more several days a week!

due to the volume of submissions (a great turnout!), CoFR will be posting every two weeks (rather than once a month).  the next edition will be october 31st, with deadline the 29th by noon EST.

CoFR is looking for hosts for upcoming editions of this carnival!  if interested in volunteering, please refer to the hosting guidelines.

lastly, i would be interested in receiving feedback on what you think of this carnival, what you might like to see, what might be improved upon, ideas for new categories, etc.  please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or at the CoFR site under this edition’s announcement.  if you would like to contact me privately for any reason, you can reach me through this contact form.

thank you, and i hope you enjoy this issue!

tools & software

francois at liberta tells us to write down our expenses and be amazed at how much we’re spending, exactly!

FIRE finance offers resources from books to tools in top resources for early retirement

lazy man at lazy man and money shares his concern about how other unexpected events might need use of an emergency fund, aside from a job loss.

rich leverage evaluates 3 basic money management skills.

j. money encourages us to use text-messaging to entertain ourselves and communicate with — for cheap or free! at budgets are sexy.

heather evaluates at least 3 tools — online banking, pen and paper, software — to share with us how you can save money by tracking your spending, at the greenest dollar.

here is my own article on 43things, a web resource that can further your financial goals.  it has helped me with my life outside of personal finance, and now i use it to remind myself of my financial goals.

deals & coupons

card blogger at my credit card blog shares his thoughts on the best chase credit card offers.

investment products

patrick at cash money life gives us a comprehensive review of tradeking, an online discount broker that has been rated quite well.

jim at blue print for prosperity shares with us his review of FNBO direct’s high yield savings accounts.

mbb at money blue book finance blog offers a detailed review of the top 5 online banks with high interests savings and checking.

kclau tells us how fundsupermart will revolutionize the unit trust industry in malaysia.

praveen at my simple trading system tells us about a different kind of investment purchase he made recently, in taking out the DOG.. “DOG is an ETF that is the inverse of the Dow index.  So it goes up when the Dow goes down, and vice versa.”

john at weekly technical commentary shares his breakouts and breakdowns with respect to wall street activity, including several charts to view.

lifestyle

moneyning encourages us to focus less on the economic turmoil, and do something else in 10 activities for the bear market!

businesses & services

phil for humanity shares his analysis of the recent bank bailout, and 4 reasons why it will not work.

steve at debt free evaluates how mortgage debt consolidation may or may not be a smart financial move for you, and shares several pitfalls to watch out for.

and there you have it, the first ever edition of the carnival of financial resources!

i hope you will consider submittting a post for the next issue.  please be sure to read the guidelines first!
thanks for stopping by!

this week’s carnivals

this week’s carnival of debt reduction #158 at nodebtplan includes my post, Using the tax refund towards debt payment

this week’s carnival of personal finance #171 is up at sound money matters.  my post on a craft as a source of income? is included under ‘career’!

festival of frugality #171: ‘the host bailed out edition’ at my two dollars includes my post on, what recent lifestyle change has been saving you money?

unfortunately, carnival of money stories #178, for which i had submitted move on after a setback, has been postponed until next week.

look out for a possible inclusion of one of my posts in tomorrow’s #31 edition of the money hacks carnival at moolanomy!

my carnival thoughts of the week

the simple dollar wrote about various ways to declutter and make income from that clutter.  he brings up a lot of commonsense, sound suggestions.

i am rather a minimalist myself, and have pretty much sold all things that are only ‘things’ to me, such as dvds, furniture i don’t need, rarely used motorcycle gear, etc.  i not long ago sold my marin bicycle that i had not used in months on craigslist, and earned a few hundred dollars.  i encouraged the SO to sell his gios bicycle that he hadn’t ridden in years also on craigslist, for which he received $500 he can use on other expenses!  it was just sitting in the basement gathering dust after all.

the author brings up a good point of keeping/purchasing things with high value to you — on this note, i value my various books (especially self-help ones), and so keep the ones that i foresee referring to repeatedly.  the rest, i sell to a used book store called half price books or on amazon, or donate to charity.

i have also sold various items on ebay, and irregularly encourage my SO to do the same for things i suspect he no longer needs, uses, or wants.

cash money life has a guest post on 10 ways to pay your debt off faster.  this article resonated with me because i only very recently adopted the number 1 way:

1. Get serious! It isn’t going to do you any good to decide to pay off your debt if you aren’t serious about it.

i agree wholeheartedly!  the ‘true intent’ is key.  the other 9 suggestions come much more easily with this right mentality:

i consolidated my debt and cancelled and closed all my previous credit cards; i’ve decluttered by selling and donating things i no longer need, want, or use; i’ve decided to go into freelancing my web development skills and to sell my crochet projects on the side in addition to my regular day job; i share my progress and desire to be financially strong with the SO and a few close friends and family; i only spend now what i have in my checking account, no more; i’m working on either dipping into my ira a bit to pay off part of my debt, and/or transferring some to a 0% balance transfer on a new card if possible; and i am constantly reevaluating my progress and situation.

please come back later this week to see which other interesting personal finance blogs’ posts in particular caught my eye and brain!

readings & activities

i am scheduled to host an edition of the carnival of debt reduction in a few months, for the week of 11/3!

i have also volunteered to host a future edition of the carnival of money stories!

i am now a member of the money hackers network!  check out the lower left section on the MHN home page for the latest (randomly selected) personal finance related blog posts by fellow money hackers.  one of my posts might even be included!

i am currently rereading my copy of the richest man in babylon.

a few weeks ago, i finished reading you’re broke because you want to be.  i am preparing to write a book review, coming soon!

i took too long to finish reading the wealthy barber and maxed out the number of times i can renew it from the local public library (oops!!).  i’ll have to check that out again later and continue reading it for a future book review here.

personal progre$$ report

i am currently waiting to see if my $6400 balance with the credit loan service will get balance-transferred to a 0% for 6 billing cycles jo-ann’s fabrics mastercard.  i suspect i will know by next week.  if this works out, i plan to either put the card away in my filing cabinet with the intent of only keeping my balance transfer on there for at most 7 months, and/or using it for jo-ann’s fabrics-related purchases only through a pseudo gift-card system.  then i will pay $1000 a month towards the balance transfer until it is paid off.

on the other hand, if that does not work out for whatever reason, i may take out $6000 from my ira, pay off the remaining $6400 with it and upcoming income, and then ‘pay back’ my own ira $1000 a month to replenish my supply.

a few days ago, i inadvertently went over my balance on my ing checking account — oops!  it appears i have miscalculated my recent financial activities and put away more than i could afford into my emergency fund.  i took $200 back from it and stuck that in my checking account.  unfortunately, i will incur a few cents? worth of fees for the $81 overdraft.

i have put away about $1100 towards my emergency fund.