Hello and welcome to the 286th Carnival of Personal Finance- Check Your Math Edition. One thing about budgeting, investing, and saving money, is you need to calculate your gains, your losses, and your totals. Sometimes you can even get fooled into a bad deal if you don’t do your calculations right. This week, I have included some movie clips all about checking our math and being careful not to be fooled. I find them quite funny and I am sure you will too.

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Editor’s Picks

Len from Len Penzo dot Com presents Patience Is A Virtue, Learn It If You Can (but Please Hurry). I have been working my own patience for quite a while now and it is coming slowly. I do find the odd urge to be impulsive but I am a lot better at controlling it; my finances are thankful.

Kristina from DINKS Finance presents Could You Save $5 Every Day for One Year?. It is amazing how much the little things can make a big difference. Even if you don’t calculate any interest, at a rate of saving $5 a day, your total is $1,825. For me that pays for my car insurance for the year and then some.

FruGal from FruGal presents Store food properly and save money. We have been practicing many of these tips for years now and they definitely help keep the food budget in check.

Aloysa from Aloysa’s Kitchen Sink presents Five Reasons To Stop Being Frugal And Get A Life . I really liked Aloysa’s take on this. We need to keep our perspective in check. Being frugal is a good thing but it shouldn’t involve not living life or fulfilling our dreams.

Kevin from Financially Poor presents 5 Life Lessons That You Need To Learn. I think these lessons don’t just apply to our finances but every aspect of our life. I particularly liked #5. We need to take accountability for ourselves and our decisions. We and us alone are the ones with the power to change our situation.

Saving

VBT from Money Obedience presents Let’s not save enough for retirement

Lindy from Minting Nickels presents Easy or Hard?

Jeri Ford from Help Me Travel Cheap presents Tips and Tricks for Booking a Discounted Hotwire Hotel

Stuart from Pennywise2Pennyworth presents Ten Ways to Realistically Cut Spending Without Budgeting

Frugality

The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents Making Gifts For Friends & Family

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents 10 Cheap Ways To Get Someone A Great Gift For Under $5

Donna Freedman from Surviving and Thriving presents Prepare for the cold and flu season. But don’t pay retail.

Madison from My Dollar Plan presents Inexpensive Christmas Gifts for Coworkers, Teachers, and Others

John from Passive Family Income presents Inexpensive Holiday Traditions

Paul Williams from Provident Planning presents Raising a Cow for Beef: Month 15 – Goodbye, Bambi!

Stephan Marks from Promo Code Center presents How to Negotiate a Better Deal on Cable Television Service.

Jeff from Before You Invest presents How To Save Money Around Christmas

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Investing

Sean Smarty from Grow Money presents 11 Healthcare Facilities Stocks with High Dividend Yields.

Philip Taylor from PT Money presents On Short Selling Stocks

Money Thinker from Money Thinking presents Let’s Discuss Inflation

2 Cents from Balance Junkie presents Insider Trading Probe: Misplaced Justice?

RJ Weiss from Gen Y Wealth presents 8 Investments I Have Made in Myself

Pat from Do Not Wait presents Thoughts On Borrowing Money At Retirement

Mike from The Dividend Guy Blog presents SRI ? Socially Responsible Investing or Investing to Make Money: Are Both Possible?

Squirrelers from Squirrelers presents The Importance of Rate of Return

Arjun Rudra from Investing Thesis presents Discussing active asset allocation using ETFs with Terry Shaunessy of Shaunessy Investment Counsel

Clint from Accumulating Money presents An Overview of Arbitrage Trading

D4L from Dividends Value presents 11 Higher-Quality, High-Yield Dividend Stocks

Credit

Ben from Money Smart Life presents The Best Cash Back Debit Cards

Tim Chen from NerdWallet Credit Card Watch presents Citibank Forward: Best Rewards Credit Card For Urbanites

CreditCardGuru from Credit Card Forum Blog presents How To Pay Off Credit Card Debt Quickly

Craig from Free From Broke presents Miles by Discover® Card Review

Janet from Credit Cards Canada presents Are You Ready for Your First Credit Card?.

Control Your Cash from Control Your Cash presents What’s the Difference Between a 12.9% Interest Rate and a 239238.9% Interest Rate? Nothing.

Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians presents The Basics of a Credit Report

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents How to Find Your Absolutely, Positively REAL and TRUE FICO Credit Score. Seriously.

Career

Ramsay from MoneyedUp presents Learn from a billionaire: James Isray

Mike from The Financial Blogger presents From $18,403 to $124,514 In A Single Year!.

Mark from Buy Like Buffett presents How I Grew My Blog.

Finance

Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents The End Of Free Checking.

Roger Wohlner from Chicago Financial Planner presents The Deficit Commission and Your Retirement

Barb Friedberg from BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance presents Are You Wealthier Than You Think?

Debt

Danielle Liss from DanielleLiss.com presents Black Friday and Compulsive Shopping Addiction.

Big Cajun Man from THE Canadian Personal Finance Site presents Side Effects of Credit Card Build Up

Ken from Spruce Up Your Finances presents Tapping Your 401k Plan: The Pros and Cons of Taking Out a Loan.

Mike from Green Panda Treehouse presents Should You Go on Vacation When You’re in Debt?

Travis from Go Banking Rates presents Why You Need Communication to Eliminate Debt.

Budgeting

NCN from No Credit Needed presents How To Save Money For A Mid-Range Goal.

J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents It’s Okay to Go Over Budget

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog from Canadian Finance Blog presents Mint Officially Launches In Canada

Bob from Christian Finances presents 5 Ways to Destroy Your Budget

Money Management

ElizabethG (Modern Gal) from Modern Gal presents Year-End Financial Tune Up.

Chris from Dealerity presents Freedom of Time and Money

Roshawn Watson from Watson Inc presents The Rich Get Richer

Jim from UHNW presents How to deal with $10 million – what would you do if you won the lotto?

vh from Funny abaout Money presents Eine Kleine Estate Planning.

Ann-Marie Murphy from Quizzle Wire presents 5 Financial Opportunities to Take Advantage of before 2011

Flexo from Consumerism Commentary presents Body Parts You Can Sell

Jason from Live Real, Now presents Consumer Action Handbook

N.W. Journey from NetWorth Journey presents How To Manage Your Money

eemusings from Musings of an Abstract Aucklander presents Adventures in car buying: Insurance

Real Estate

Nicole from Nicole and Maggie: Grumpy Rumblings presents Mortgage Update and a Worry

Taxes

Miranda from MoneyNing presents Now May Not Be the Time to Increase Your Tax Deductions.

Other

Echo from Boomer & Echo presents Understanding Disability Insurance

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Are You Tipping This Holiday Season and If So, How Much?

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. Remember to link back to this edition so that others can have access to all of these great tips.