Finance Fiesta – Now With More Piñatas!

Welcome to the 9th edition of the Finance Fiesta! In choosing a theme for this week’s event, I tried to think about what the word “fiesta” meant to me. And the first thing that popped into my head? Piñatas!

For your edification, some facts about piñatas from everyone’s favorite resource, Wikipedia.

A piñata is a brightly-colored paper container filled with candy and/or toys. It is traditionally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling during celebrations for birthdays and other holidays. Blindfolded children take turns swinging a stick at the piñata in order to break it open and collect whatever is inside.

The word piñata comes from the Italian word pignatta, a pinecone-shaped clay pot. (Breaking open a clay pot sounds much more dangerous!)

photo by glennaa

This week’s submission totals were hard to choose from, so I opted not to pull out any Editor’s Picks this week. I think all these articles are great and you should take the time to check them all out!

Money Management

Del presents 10 Ways for You to Survive the Rising Cost of Living. Little things can really add up.

Coupon Artist explains How We Finally Stopped Fighting About Money. I think a lot of couples struggle with combining finances, and it’s nice to see an explanation of how one couple managed to fix their problems.

Will presents Money In The Bank – How Much Of It Is Insured? A common question with the recent news of bank collapses.

Dorian Wales offers an answer to the question Is It Better to Buy or Rent?

Cash Money Life continues a great series with How to Become a Millionaire Step Four – Invest. Be sure to check out the other steps as well!

Ray continues the banking discussion with FDIC Insurance Protection For Your Bank Savings Account. Important information everyone should know.

LAL presents Should we deviate from our goals?. I think we’ve all dealt with this question before. Go offer your suggestions to LAL!

Jonathan not only gives us a great photo, he asks Can the Rich Teach The Rest of Us Anything About Money?

photo by ~Ilse

Career Development

Silicon Valley Blogger explains My Silicon Valley Job History. This is a fascinating read.

Responsible Use of Credit

Mr Credit Card presents How Will Closing Multiple Credit Accounts Affect My Credit Score? Want to get rid of some of those credit cards but not sure if it’s worth it? Check out this article.

FIRE Finance presents Sneaky Credit Card Trick #8 – Fixed Rates are NOT Fixed. FIRE Finance has put together a great series about the sneaky things credit card companies do. Definitely worth a read.

photo by Zé Eduardo…

Saving Methods

Helen Anderson offers 3 Warnings Signs Your Bank May Fail. Might want to watch out for these.

J. Money brings us another great one with It’s time to whip out the old Sell-O-Meter! After I read this, I added “clean out closet” to my to-do list. Might as well get rid of the “junk” and make a few bucks, right?

ChristianPF presents Make money with Cash Crate. I hadn’t heard of Cash Crate, but this gives a great overview. Thanks for playing guinea pig!

Jim asks (and answers)Best Gasoline Station Has Best Gas? I admit, I find myself leaning towards specific gas stations.

Crystal Nichols presents Frugal Challenge: Going out to eat. Crystal has issued a challenge. Anyone else in?

Other

Faron Benoit presents Why do Women Love Shoes?. This is important information for any man who has ever been baffled by a woman’s shoe collection.

And there you have it, folks!  Hope you enjoyed the Finance Fiesta!  Get your submissions in now for next week’s carnival!

Megan Smith

Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.