optimized living

Optimized Living is proud to bring you this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. We have over 25 excellent articles this week, covering a gamut of topics from energy prices to health to taxes.

Without further delay, let’s get started with the carnival!

Monthly Budget: David Gross at The Picket Line walks through A frugal tax resister’s monthly budget and speculates on why people are often reluctant to attend to their own budgets even though it is in their best interest.

Gas Prices: Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality superbly answers the question What Can We Do About Gas Prices?. But he realizes that it is unlikely major changes will occur to impact gas prices, and at the end of the day all we can do is swipe our credit cards.

Health: Financial Fruition covers a topic that I feel is quite tied to personal finance– health. In Weight Loss and Gym Memberships, Financial Fruition compares the cost of of gym memberships in his locale and why he is joining a gym (both the personal and financial implications). There’s also a special tip for roommates, friends, and others who could save money from a “couples” membership.

Dining Out:FMF at Free Money Finance presents Don’t Let Restaurants Rip You Off. There are several ways restaurants try to get lots of your money — this post tells how. And be sure to read the comments. Lots of good thoughts/suggestions there too!

Ebay: Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity walks through *Five* Quick Ebay Tips for Selling Smarter. Great incentive to get out those items hanging around your closet and put them on Ebay. My pile is sitting right in front of me.

College Savings: Margot at Financial Baby Steps writes about The Perfect Baby Gift. Excellent information on setting up a 529 plan for a newborn; a lasting gift. Forward this to all of the people you know with young kids.

Stocks: Brian at Financial Reference explores the value of Dividends; why high dividend stocks perform better over the long run. Several authors have presented some compelling evidence for high dividend stocks.

Health Care: Henry at InsureBlog brings us Another CDHC Post…, discussing how to save even more on med’s using an HSA (Health Savings Account) or HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangement).

PERSONAL Finance: Many of us often focus only on the pure financial aspects to personal finance and ignore the fact that financial decisions are extremely personal. ncnblog presents PERSONAL Finance.

Investments: Jeremy over at The Dividend Guy, admits to his Dumbest Investment. I certainly have one (or two or three…) of these. Check out his post and add your dumbest investment in his comments.

Car Insurance: Miriam at miriam’s ideas addresses the question What’s compulsory car insurance all about?.

Basketball: Big Cajun Man at Canadian Financial Stuff presents Don’t Pass it to the Other Team. How is financial planning and survival like basketball? Well here is an attempt at making the metaphor work.

Gas: Ironman at Political Calculations presents Is It Worth the Drive? Here’s the situation: you have two gas stations to choose between - one station is closer than the other, but the one that’s further way is selling gas at a cheaper price than the station nearer you. Which one should you choose?

Laundry: Dawn at Frugal for Life experiments in Cold or Hot Water: Clean is Clean. Dawn uses an experiment to find the benefits and setbacks to using Cold water for your laundry needs.

Real Estate: Madame X at My Open Wallet presents High Tech Vacillation. A detailed exploration of an attempt to create a spreadsheet that will answer the question of whether it is better to rent or buy real estate. Some of the scenarios are surprising. Includes a link to download the spreadsheet.

Loans: Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade explores loans in Payment, Interest Rate and Up Front Costs: Choosing a loan intelligently. Dan gives you the key factors in making a smart decision when reviewing various loan options.

Energy: 2million has put together an article, graphs and all, showing the impact of hedging rising energy prices by using an investment in Exxon stock. Find out the result in Hedging Against Energy Prices; Exxon Stock vs Gas Prices.

Financial Foundation: Wealthy Web presents Build a Solid Financial Foundation. Make sure you’re not building on an unsound base. Review this series on the basic elements of any financial foundation.

Flat Taxes: JLP at AllThingsFinancial shows Steve Forbes’ flat tax income tax form. Find out what you would owe under this flat tax system.

Disaster Preparedness: DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room presents the Frugal Guide to Disaster Preparedness. This is the first in a series of posts on tips for frugal, economic ways to stock emergency supplies.

Emergency Fund: mbhunter at MightyBargainHunter makes sure that you Get your emergency fund before the emergency. If you don’t have an emergency fund of 3-6 months’ expenses, one option is to tap into credit. mbhunter explores some additional choices.

Emergency Fund: Flexo at ConsumerismCommentary brings us Emergency Funds, Doing Okay?. Some are saying that a cash emergency fund is not necessary. While there are many drawbacks to keeping three to six months’ expenses in easily-attainable form, Flexo has a solution that can make a variety of people happy.

Heating: Tom at RealBlog shows us how Adding Wood Heat to Your Home is beneficial. With heating oil and natural gas costs going through the roof, you may want to consider wood as an alternative heat source, both to save money on your heating bill and as a potential plus when you put your home on the market.

Credit Reports: The Happy Capitalist tells us about Widgets and free credit reports. A free credit report is now available to all Americans from each of the big three credit reporting companies. But is it really fair for government to make businesses give their products away for free?

Car Insurance: the debt free blog presents a two part series on auto insurance (part 1 & part 2). An excellent walkthrough of how to look at auto insurance. I’ve been searching for an article like this for quite some time. Everyone needs to review their automobile insurance and decide whether significant changes need to be made.

Denial: Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog brings us StevePavlina.com Podcast #002 - Truth and Awareness. This podcast has strong applications to personal finance, which is an area where many people suffer from deep denial and have a hard time facing the truth of their situation.

Cars: FiveCentNickel outlines a strategy for Buying a New Car by getting dealers to bid on your business. There is even a great letter you can use.

Thanks for checking out this week’s carnival, and remember to submit your article for next week, which is being hosted over at Free Money Finance.