Welcome to the May 11, 2012 Edition #236 of the Carnival of Financial Planning.

This edition is arranged by subject heading, so that you can browse efficiently.

Enjoy!

The Skilled Investor, Editor

Budgeting and Economics

Little House presents The Five Tool Budgeter posted at Little House in the Valley, saying, “In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels in some of the game’s major skills: fielding, base running, hitting for power, hitting for contact, and throwing ability. As we move to your budget, there are five areas where you must excel to find financial success

Philip presents My Accountant Reviews QuickBooks Online vs Desktop posted at PT Money Personal Finance, saying, “Since I don’t know as much about how QuickBooks Online compares to the desktop version, I asked my accountant to share his opinion on the two based on his experience.

Janet presents Expense budgeting posted at Fee Only Financial Planner , saying, ” Many people do not track their living expenses and do not understand the magnitude of their consumption. Failure to monitor your consumption expenditures means that they are flying blindly regarding their future finances. ”

Dr Dean presents iPads And Tablets: Ten Ways To Keep ‘Em Safe While Traveling posted at The Millionaire Nurse Blog, saying, “iPad’s size and weight make them great for traveling Read all about how to help keep yours from the black hole that is ‘ airline lost and found.’

Financial Planning

Ashley presents Should I Get Married with Debt? posted at Money Talks Coaching, saying, “Money and marriage. They go together like peanut butter and jelly

Kyle presents Earn $5 for Taking a Picture of Your Grandparents and 12 other weird things… posted at The Penny Hoarder, saying, “Fotokoi is an online market that allows people to exchange photos. The best part is, people interested in your work will pay you for rights to your photo.

YFS presents What Is Asset Allocation and Why Is It Important? posted at Your Finances Simplified, saying, “One of the things that investment gurus always emphasize is to diversify, diversify and diversify. Supposedly, diversification will help improve the overall performance of your portfolio since it doesnt ride on just one investment vehicle.

PPlan presents U.S. Companies Exploit International Workers – Lack of Fair Wages posted at Provident Plan, saying, “Learn more about Infosys and why U.S. companies should not treat workers this way.

Jester presents The Importance of Vacations For Kids posted at The Ultimate Juggle, saying, “This article explains the reasons that we prefer to take destination oriented vacations for the kid’s sake.

Robert presents 5 Steps Toward Post College Financial Bliss posted at The College Investor, saying, “Over my past few posts, I’ve highlighted key transitions that have financial ramifications in any college graduate’s life: The job search and managing life in your first apartment. Today, I will round out this series with some tips on how you can help solidify a strong financial foundation for years to come.

Savvy Scot presents Defining Purpose and the Importance of Moderation posted at Savvy Scot, saying, “This post seeks to find the purpose in what you are doing. Savvy Scot controversially talks about how to spend money and what so many financial bloggers are doing wrong!

Tushar presents How to Dodge Investment Scams posted at Start Investing Money, saying, “How to Dodge Investment Scams on Start Investing Money”

Dave presents Active Alpha Returns posted at Wall Street Nerds , saying, ” The Old Testament of indexing is Burton Malkiel’s classic A Random Walk Down Wall Street, first published in 1973 by W.W. Norton and now in its ninth edition. For typical individual investors, without special access to information, it offers what is likely the best financial advice they will ever get: It is hard to consistently beat the market, especially after fees. A passive strategy will do better in the long run. ”

Ryan presents Retiring Early is Only Going to Get Harder posted at Early Retirement Investments, saying, “Why Your Children Should Open a Roth IRA at Age 18

Jen presents Using Extra Income to Pay for Luxury Items posted at Master the Art of Saving, saying, “I was under the incorrect assumption that I had already told you guys how I afford to pay for my luxury items.

Wayne presents Unexpected Costs of Pet Ownership posted at Young Family Finance, saying, “Pet ownership can be quite expensive. If you are considering getting a new pet, make sure to consider these costs.

PFP presents Investment Tax Management  posted at Pasadena Financial Planner , saying, ” As you move your cash, bond, and stock financial assets into lower cost, more broadly diversified investment mutual funds and/or ETFs, you should also consider how to “locate” your investment asset allocation with respect to more optimal taxation.”

A Blinkin presents Should I Buy A House? posted at Funancials, saying, “I rarely divulge details from my personal life, but today Im looking for some feedback. Let me give you the full story: I have been dating Miss Blinkin for approximately 1 year and 4 months. Without giving too much information, I foresee an engagement in the coming months.

Maria presents Politics and economy in the Eurozone part 1 posted at The Money Principle, saying, “The people have spoken in France and Greece. They do not like this austerity business one little bit. Can you blame them? After all it was not the people who caused the problem so why should they suffer while the banks get off scot-free?

Frank presents Passively Managed Funds posted at Individual Investor Strategies, saying, “Short-term mutual fund trading is a zero sum game played against other very well informed mutual fund traders and other securities market traders. On average, higher mutual fund turnover is far more likely to result in lower investment fund performance — instead of superior risk-adjusted performance.”

Jason presents Why We Didn’t Sell Our Car on Craigslist posted at Work Save Live, saying, “Last week I detailed why we considered buying a car through CarMax, and I wanted to do a follow-up on a service of theirs that we actually used.

Income

MMD presents What Did You Learn From Working as a Teenager? posted at MyMoneyDesign, saying, “Was your job as a teenager a complete waste of time, or did you learn some incredibly valuable life lessons that prepared you later on in life to be a better working professional? I present to you 17 lessons I learned from my early days of employment that I still carry with me today.

Mike presents May Blog Evolution Report… + Income Stats! posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “The online income for May.

Madison presents Credit Card Application Spree to Maximize Sign Up Bonuses posted at My Dollar Plan, saying, “It’s time for a round of credit card applications to make some money! Readon for some great bonuses.

Beating Broke presents I Quit My Job: Back to Work posted at Beating Broke, saying, “If you’ve been following the I Quit My Job series, you’ll know that I quit my full-time job back in November 2011 and have been working a part-time job and running my websites ever since. With any journey that entails so much change, things are always changing. Several weeks ago, I made the decision that it was about time to start looking for a new full time job.

Insurance and Risk

Hank presents What Is Gap Insurance On Your Car And Why You Need It posted at Money Q&A, saying, “What is gap insurance? And, do you need it? Gap insurance is a type of car insurance policy that is designed to cover the gap between what the value of your car actually is, and what you owe on the vehicle.

Larry presents Identity theft protection posted at Objective Financial Planner, saying, “As a threat to your financial security, you should take the potential for identity theft very seriously. Identity theft sometimes entails a loss of your money, but whether or not you lose money, it can take a very large amount of your time to rectify.”

Green Panda presents 2 Great Reasons Why Young People Need Life Insurance Too! posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Why you should purchase that plan.

Investing

FMF presents 80-20 Your Investments posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “While many people seem intimidated by investing and don’t know where to begin or what to do, being a successful investor is not that complicated. In the end it comes down to three basic (but important) steps.

Larry presents Your investment risk tolerance posted at Independent Fee Only Financial Planner , saying, ” Individual investors with different levels of investment risk tolerance for financial risks tend to be more satisfied with risk management strategies, which are better aligned with their financial risk and return profile.”

Squeezer presents Instructions on how to get started in dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) posted at Personal Finance Success, saying, ” I give my thought processes and what to look for when wanting to invest in a dividend paying company. I explain how to get started by purchasing the minimum amount of shares or dollars.

Dividend Growth Investor presents Build your own Berkshire with dividend paying stocks posted at Dividend Growth Investor, saying, “Buffett’s strategy of using Berkshire’s cash to purchase more businesses is similar to what dividend growth investors like to do. By creating a diversified portfolio of world class blue chip dividend paying stocks, investors are essentially creating a cash machine that would throw off enough cash to buy more shares in quality companies or to provide for in retirement.

William presents Superior Mutual Fund Performance posted at No Load Funds , saying, ” Screen out inferior mutual fund performance — but only after using other ETF and mutual fund selection criteria. Superior or even average mutual fund performance in the past simply does not predict similar fund performance in the future.”

Pierre presents Do You Mind Non Voting Shares? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “Do you trust companies like Facebook and Google?

Div Guy presents Using Dividend ETF’s In A Dividend Portfolio posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “We help you improve your portfolio.

Frank Pinter presents No Load Bond Funds posted at Cheapest Bond Funds, saying, “Investment research overwhelmingly shows that lower cost fixed income funds tend to yield higher bond investing returns.”

FMF presents The Efficient Frontier posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “The efficient frontier measures investments on a scale of risks and return.

Managing Debt

Paul Vachon presents The Effect of FICO Credit Scores on Wealth Creation posted at The Frugal Toad, saying, “We all know that a good credit score can result in a better interest rate on loans but you may be surprised to learn that a bad credit score can affect you in ways you might not have thought about. In addition to paying higher interest rates, a poor credit score can result in higher insurance premiums, denial for employment, or having to pay a security deposit when leasing an apartment or opening a utility account.

KT presents In Debt Consider Paying Cash for Your Purchases posted at Personal Finance Journey, saying, “Are you in debt besides the mortgage? Do you have thousands of dollars worth of student loan debt and/or credit card debt? If you are struggling to make your payments, one of the best things you can do is to stop using credit and begin to use cash.

MR presents Is Now The Time To Buy Real Estate? posted at Money Reasons, saying, “With the low mortgage rates, is this the perfect time to buy real estate? I find myself looking more and more often.

John presents The Goal of Work is Retirement: Rule 10 posted at Married with Debt, saying, “This is Rule 10 in my 10 Rules to Eliminate Debt and Change Your Life The reasons I started Married with Debt are twofold: to help people get out of debt, and help them change their lives.

101 Centavos presents Wall Street Hates Wal-Mart posted at 101 Centavos, saying, “After running a just-for-fun post a while back on a Redneck-themed stock portfolio, some readers suggested adding Wal-Mart WMT to the mix.

Debt Guru presents Actively Avoiding Debt posted at Debt Free Blog, saying, “Find out how you can actively avoid debt by not having a wish list or items that you want to buy next.”

Real Estate

Corey presents How to Furnish Your Apartment for Cheap posted at 20s Finances, saying, “One of the most common places that people overspend in their budget, in addition to buying food or groceries, is in home furnishings. It’s easy to see why this is one of the most expensive areas for people. Furniture and major appliances are expensive.

Aloysa presents How to Make it in America posted at My Broken Coin, saying, “I am sure you know that it is not easy to make it in America. Making it whatever it means for you requires a lot of work and determination. It also requires bravery and courage. For someone like me, making it in the land of opportunity was not just about hard work and determination.

FG presents Betting on the Future President posted at Financial God, saying, “Have you ever visited Intrade, which brands itself as the leading prediction market? You can make a market in almost anything these days, it seems. Intrade is a prediction market based in the Republic of Ireland, and lets you bet on predictions in all kinds of areas, including the future president of the United States.

Nick presents How much house is too much posted at Step Away from the Mall, saying, “Buying a house is never a simple process… Here’s my thinking about how to buy just enough house for my family.

Retirement

Jon the Saver presents When Should you go for a Reverse Mortgage? posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, “Reverse mortgages are tricky things. Instead of avoiding them, why not research them and see if they would work for your financial goals!

Franklin presents Traditional IRA Versus Roth IRA  posted at Better Retirement Planning , saying, ” Many taxpayers puzzle over whether to contribute to traditional versus Roth tax-advantaged retirement plans. For most people, contributions to traditional tax-advantaged plans will probably provide a higher net present value over their lifetimes.”

Boomer presents Turning 60: Some Things To Consider Before You Retire posted at Boomer & Echo, saying, “If you’re still working at age 60 you may be thinking of retirement now, or in the near future. It’s time to consider how you will spend your days.

Whitney presents Retirement Planning Worksheets posted at Retirement Saving Plans, saying, “While personal wealth should measure current financial investments and other salable assets, it should also measure your ability to sustain your household budget, build up your investment portfolio, and weather potential financial risk and misfortune across your lifetime.”

Savings

Martin presents http://studenomics.com/application/switch-online-banking/ posted at Studenomics, saying, “Why you need to save your money in the right places.

TSI presents Hard work determines wealth posted at The Skilled Investor , saying, ” How much you earn, spend, budget, and save are by far the most dominant determinants of your long-term financial well-being. Self-control in your financial decision-making regarding budgeting and consumption is far more important than clever investing. ”

Liana presents Review: Bank of America’s New Travel Rewards Credit Cards posted at Card Hub, saying, “Bank of America just made travel a whole lot sweeter for their customers. With three new travel rewards cards on the market, it looks like they are taking on their competition. But how do these new offers really stack up when it comes to saving on travel?

Suba presents How to Save Money on Hotel Rooms posted at Broke Professionals, saying, “How to Save Money on Hotel Rooms is a post from: Broke Professionals if you enjoy it, please visit us and subscribe to the Feed. You dont have to be rich to take a trip or go on a vacation, but they do cost money.

Taxes

Super Saver presents Taxes are Going Up – Even for the 99% posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “Warning! Taxes are going up in 2013 for everybody

Paul Tabbet presents Retirement Planning Worksheet Software posted at Tax Planning Software, saying, “Retirement planning software should automate the development of lifetime projections that incorporate tax laws and rules associated with tax-advantaged retirement investment incentive programs such as traditional IRA, Roth, 401k, 403b, SEP, Keogh, and other retirement plans.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Financial Planning using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of financial planning, blog carnival.