Carnival of Personal Finance #421 : Free Agent Mania Edition!

Over the years we have seen “free enterprise” enter the world of professional sports, with Baseball starting it all off with Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally and the Seitz Decision, now it is common place in all sports for players to leave franchises “high and dry” to get more money from another team. I applaud this ability that Athletes have only recently been given, and with this in mind, here is a tenuous thematic concept for this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance #421 Free Agent Mania Edition!

This week, many hockey, basketball, soccer, and maybe even a few cricketers will exercise their right to have folks “show them the money!”

Michael Jordan (aka Editor’s Choice)

These articles were my favorite and I will call this section, the greatest Free Agent That Never Was , aka Michael Jordan  (for many years). These top 5 posts tickled my fancy the most from the ocean of articles submitted to the Carnival this Week:

1. Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents Protect Your Home: Don’t Go Without Home Insurance, and says, “I believe that home insurance should be mandatory for every home owner. Unfortunately, it is not mandatory once the mortgage is paid off here in the great white North, and some people go without to save some cash. This can have big, ugly consequences, and can end up bankrupting families as a result.”
   This one scares me to know that there are folks (in Canada) that don’t carry some insurance on their homes. Yes it costs a bloody fortune, but you need it for so many reasons (even if you have paid off your home). I like this one Miss T.
2. Glen Craig from Free From Broke presents DOMA Goes Down: What Does it Mean for Same-Sex Finances, and says, “Parts of DOMA have been ruled unconstitutional. This has a number of effects on the finances, taxes and estate planning, of same-sex marriages.”,
   OK, so I guess DOMA is a big topic in the news these days, and Glen elaborates about some other topics that same sex marriages will need to consider (financially). A good explanation of the important stuff that new same sex couples might not consider right away.
3. Mike from The Financial Blogger presents My Biggest Issues With College, and says, “I look over the biggest issues with why college isn’t always the best idea.”
   OK I gotta admit, that any post that starts with a quote from Frank Zappa gets my attention every single time! I almost demoted this off the Editor’s Choice, since it didn’t really have a money angle, but it sneaks in just at the end.

Reggie White (testify minister)

Reggie spent many years toiling with the Eagles, but he decided to go to Green Bay and with that move he got himself a Super Bowl ring, a good free agent pick up. Reggie White was a force throughout his career and sadly his life was cut short, as he might have been a great role model for younger players (he is still, but his presence might have helped even more).

Reggie was a skilled orator, and enjoyed explaining things, as these posts do as well:

• Ryan from The Better Credit Blog presents How Secured Credit Cards Help You Repair Your Credit, and says, “Secured credit cards aren’t the best, but they might be your only option if you have bad credit.”,
  Secured credit cards are again a subject I did not know much about, but this helps as an introduction (but I don’t think this is a good idea, maybe you should just not use credit cards, if you are in this situation).
• D4L from Dividend Growth Stocks presents 9 High-Rated Dividend Stocks With Above Target Returns, and says, “It doesn’t take a genius to determine that most dividend stocks are now trading in excess of their calculated fair value. However, capital appreciation is not the primary reason for investing in dividend stocks. Dividend fundamentals are what drive my purchase decision, and if I could only look at one metric it would be…”
  It’s an interesting list of dividend-paying stocks and lots of self-promotion, too.

Andre Dawson (worth every penny)

When Andre Dawson decided he couldn’t continue his career on the concrete turf of Olympic Stadium in Montreal, no one would sign him (can anyone say collusion?) however, the Cubs finally signed him for a pittance and he flourished in the friendly ivy-lined grass turfed confines of Wrigley Field (even if Harry Carey kept calling him Andy Dawson). Dawson, in my heart, will always be an Expo, but I know why he left.

Andre Dawson was an exceptional bargain and well worth the money, as these posts are worth the read:

• Emily from Evolving Personal Finance presents First Values and Goals, Then Strategies, and says, “Don’t jump straight to picking a PF strategy; first you must evaluate your values and goals. Without what makes you unique in mind, you may not use an appropriate strategy.”,
  A good overview of the steps you need to take when you start a Personal Finance Strategy of any kind, if you can’t live with the strategy, why use it?

Reggie Jackson (in it for the money)

The greatest baseball-hired mercenary player of the 20th Century was Reggie Jackson, who won World Series with the Oakland Athletics and then pulled up stakes and went to George Steinbrenner’s New York Yankees. Reggie deserved the money, Steinbrenner’s gamble paid off too, and the Billy Martin/Reggie Jackson Circus in New York was most entertaining.

If you are also in it for the money, the following posts should help you out a great deal:

• Gary from Gajizmo presents Highest Paying Jobs, and says, “Here is a list of the highest paying jobs, job requirements and descriptions, average salary figures, and the number employed in the field.”,
  knowing how much certain jobs pay is important, but at the end of it, let’s hope you are doing something you want to do, and not just doing it for the money
• Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents Dividend Growth Investing is a Perfect Strategy for Young Investors, and says, “One of the most common misconceptions about dividend investing is that it is not a good strategy for building your nest egg, and therefore it is not suitable for younger investors. Being a youngster myself, I (not surprisingly) disagree.”
  An interesting article with lots of self-promotion, but useful information about Dividend investing for the younger folks too.
• Jon from Novel Investor presents Create A Stock Watch List, and says, “With a watch list, you create a personal list of “best stocks to own when the price is right. Then, when a stock drops on some short-term bad news, you can pick it up for a steal.”
  Stock watching is a dangerous thing especially if you are planning on using a Buy and Hold strategy, this is more useful if you are planning on being a day trader (which is a really bad idea (IMO))
• Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents How to Get Rid of an Escrow Account During a Refinance, and says, “If you’re contemplating a refinance, this is a must-read!”
  Interesting concept that I don’t really understand, and strikes me as very specific to someone refinancing their home, which I have always thought was a scarey thing to do.

Editor’s Note: This is the smallest number of submissions I have ever seen for a Carnival of Personal Finance, must have been a slow week. There were also a few posts that seem to have nothing to do with Money, so if I am posting the Carnival of Personal Finance, it might need to have something to do with Finance.

If you have reached this part and are still reading, as you can see I don’t agree with many of these posts, however, I included most of them so I didn’t end up with the same Unhappiness with my Hosting a Previous C of PF (hey I can include my own links too!).

If you want to volunteer to host the C of PF (shameless plug) click there!