Carnival of Personal Finance 315 : Bring on the Long Weekends

Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance 315 where we will be celebrating that in Canada and the U.S. at this time of year there are many long weekends, specifically: Saint-Jean Baptiste Day (in Quebec), Canada Day (in all of Canada) and of course the 4th of July in the U.S. What a wonderful time and this year are especially great because all of these holidays fall on a Friday or Monday so bring on the long weekends!!!

I have removed a few of the more blatantly promotional posts (or non-topical (IMHO)), but have attempted to include as many relevant posts as were submitted, unlike my previous attempt on the Carnival of Personal Finance #192 Family Day Edition (I still get angry comments on that one).

Editor’s Choice

As Editor I get to choose the submissions for the week that I enjoyed the most, now remember I am not claiming these are the best posts of the week submitted, only that they resonated with me and I enjoyed reading them (for clarity):

• Mike from Experiglot presents A One Week Guide for Raging Your Way to Personal Finance Success, and says, “One week to master your finances.”
• Nicole from Nicole and Maggie: Grumpy Rumblings presents Prom Memorie$, and says, “Nicole and Maggie discuss the cost of prom and ask: Has the cost of prom really increased or just expectations? Is it worth going to prom if you don’t pay for the whole shebang, limo and all?”

Saint Jean Baptiste Posts

In this section, we have posts that help celebrate the Joix de Vive of our Quebecois amies.

Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents 5 Scary Foreclosure Fiascos, and says, “Here are some crazy examples of foreclosures gone wrong. Some you wouldn’t believe!”

Boomer from Boomer & Echo presents Are Store Brands As Good As Name Brands, and says, “If the price difference is only a few cents I tend to buy name brands, but for the most part I don’t find much difference in generic and store brands.”

FMF from Free Money Finance presents I Joined a Credit Union, and says, “What’s not to love about 4% interest?”

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey from My Personal Finance Journey presents American Growth Fund of America – An Example of Things That UPSET Me!, and says, “According to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the American Growth Fund of America, Symbol AGTHX, is the largest equity mutual fund in the world (by assets). However, does the performance history of this fund warrant its popularity? This post takes a detailed look at this question.”

Canada Day Posts

This year Canada turns 150 years young and with special celebrations with Prince William and Kate in Ottawa, these posts show the joy that is shared in Canada, land of Peat Moss, Potash, Mosquitoes, Black Flies, Poutine, Beaver Tails and Lacrosse (and Hockey I hear too).

Tom Drake from Canadian Finance Blog presents The Three Legal Documents Of An Estate Plan, and says, “The Will, Enduring Power of Attorney and Personal Directive are the three legal documents in an estate plan”

Jim Yih from Retire Happy Blog presents A Personal Directive gives direction for health care decisions, and says, “A Personal Directive is a written, signed, dated and witnessed document that appoints someone else to look after your health matters.”

Control Your Cash from Control Your Cash presents Public Enemy #1, and says, “Why do we let a man with a 5-digit credit card bill make financial decisions for us? “

Sustainable PF from Sustainable Personal Finance presents How Menu Planning Saves Time and Money, and says, “If you have a menu, you are less likely to go off the rails shopping”

Ben from Money Smart Life presents Investing on a Budget, and says, “5 things to consider when investing on a budget”

Miranda @ Financial Highway from Financial Highway presents 35 Ways to Make More Money, and says, “Even the best of times, one of the most common questions asked is, How do I make more money? While an increase in income can ease the way things work in your personal economy, it won’t necessarily solve all your problems. “

Mike from Green Panda Treehouse presents Everything You Need to Know About Automatic Savings Plans, and says, “How you can automate your savings.”

4th of July Posts

These posts really sum up all that is great about our Big Brother to the south, and all that their celebrations entail (I will be watching and enjoying them as well).

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Average Cost of Law School Tuition- Is it Really Worth it?.

Ryan from Cash Money Life presents Unexpected College Expenses, and says, “College is expensive, but it’s even more costly when you let things sneak up on you. Do your best to avoid these unexpected college expenses.”

Money Thinker from Money Thinking presents Reader Question: Are there Alternatives to Student Loans, and says, “Money Thinker answers a reader question about alternatives to student loans. “

Glen Craig from Free From Broke presents Save Money on Vacation Plans with Frugal Staycation Ideas, and says, “Sometimes a full-on vacation is too expensive or impractical. See how you can save and have a blast with a staycation instead.”

NCN from No Credit Needed presents Structure and Freedom, and says, “These are the systems that we have put in place to help us manage our finances, get out of debt, and save money.”

Tom from Stupid Cents presents 401k Allocation, and says, “Want to improve your 401k allocation? Here is a look at a few of the more popular asset classes that available for 401k plans.”

Philip Taylor from PT Money Personal Finance presents Roth IRA Rules, and says, “Article discusses what a Roth IRA is, the advantages and disadvantages, rules for contributing, and why people should consider utilizing them.”

Pat S from compounding returns presents Buy and Hold vs. Buy and Own Investing, and says, “Buy and hold is dead. Buy to own.”

Kevin Mulligan from RothIRA.com Retirement Planning Blog presents Should You Change Your Employer’s Automatic 401k Enrollment?, and says, “Many employers automatically enroll their employees to invest 3% of their salaries into the company 401k plan. But is that enough? Is it too much?”

Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim presents Creating Wealth Avoid These 3 Mistakes, and says, “If you’re interested in creating wealth it’s a good idea to study the people who achieved financial success. Of course, it’s important to have a great entrepreneurial idea. But it is also important to learn from the people who had it and lost it. Here is one story that provides 3 invaluable lessons”

Meg from CreditDonkey presents How to Get Better Gas Mileage, and says, “With gas prices rising, let’s learn how to save money by getting better gas mileage.”

Damon Day from Damon Day & Associates presents Taxes on Debt Settlement, and says, “Consumers are typically confused about why they may be required to pay taxes on a debt they have forgiven. This article breaks it down for them and provides a logical explanation. “

D4L from Dividend Growth Stocks presents 11 Higher Yielding, Lower Risk Stocks To Perk Up Your Dividend Income, and says, “If your goal is to accumulate wealth for a comfortable retirement, then there is no risk-free path.  Inherently, individual stocks will carry higher risk due to the lack of diversification when evaluated on a stand-alone basis”

Squirrelers from Squirrelers presents First Job Lessons Learned, and says, “Many times it’s easy to dismiss first jobs, but we can often learn a lot of lessons from our experience”

Matt Bell from Matt About Money presents How to Be a Smart Organic Food Shopper, and says, “With the high cost of organic food, it can easily feel like you can either eat healthily or spend smart – not both. Here are some ideas for spending smart on organics.”

What do you mean the Next Long Weekend is Labour Day?!?!

These posts make us long for yet another long weekend, and soon! I guess we can burn some vacation days to enjoy them…

Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents Kinder Morgan Partners One Company three ways to invest in it, and says, “Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. owns and manages energy transportation and storage assets. This master limited partnership has consistently increased distributions since 1997. There are three ways to invest in the partnership:”

Roger Wohlner from Chicago Financial Planner presents Investing is Not Sexy, and says, “In a recent post for US News Smarter Investor I said the following: “Sorry to disappoint, but investing is not sexy or trendy. It takes persistence, monitoring, and commitment. I want to elaborate on this a bit here.2”

Ken from Spruce Up Your Finances presents 9 Quick Facts About The Traditional IRA Contributions, and says, “Some facts you should know about when making a traditional IRA contribution”

Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents The Fall Of Blockbuster: A Lesson On Keeping Your Business Model Current.