The Carnival of Money Stories Edition #90 – Happy Holidays Edition

The 90th Edition of the Carnival of Money Stories Hosted @ The Personal Financier

Merry Christmas

Welcome readers to this edition of the carnival of money stories hosted here, at the personal financier.

This December the three dominant monotheistic religions are celebrating their holidays and I thought it would be appropriate to use it as a theme for this carnival. Happy holidays to all.

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The carnival of money stories is about personal experience and stories shared by bloggers. Here are the selected posts:


Editor's Choice

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Got Laid Off? What To Do When You Lose Your Job posted at The Digerati Life, relays her stories and some tips on handling a layoff in this excellent post.

Frugality

KCLau shares Christmas On A Budget posted at KCLau's Money Tips, or how to be frugal this christmas season with the economy down.

Nora Dunn presents Taco Tuesday: The Inner Mechanics of Budgeting on Vacation posted at Wise Bread, sitting around a table with a bunch of travelers enjoying Taco Tuesday, Nora saw something interesting happen...

Miss M presents Pets are Priceless (and Pricey) posted at M is for Money, even tried a cost benefit analysis of pets?


Career

Jeff Rose presents Four Options With Your 401k When Changing Jobs posted at Jeff Rose, sharing his recent experience on the matter.

Richard Taylor presents How to Find the Perfect Job for Yourself posted at Fun With Living Blog, a version of a cute little tale I heard before...

Living almost large presents No Raise this year posted at LivingAlmostLarge, unfortunately no raises in our firm either. Hope 2009 proves to be better.

Happy Hanukah

Other

vh presents Privacy: It's none of their business posted at Funny about Money, a good post on the psychology of phone interactions between companies and their consumers.

Mr Credit Card presents Living Without Debt, An Extreme Example posted at Ask Mr Credit Card, a story of the Economides family... interesting.

Lazy Man and Money presents Lazy Man's Gift Guide 2008 posted at Lazy Man and Money, I guess this post qualifies as a story as it has some useful experience. Some very good gift ideas indeed.

Single Guy Money presents 2009 Financial Goals posted at Single Guy Money, sharing his financial goals for 2009.

The Dough Roller presents Starting a Business During a Recession–A Real Life Story posted at The Dough Roller, a story of his good friend who just started a business in the middle of one of the worst recessions in our country's history. Good reading.

Intelligent Speculator presents Recharging Batteries posted at The Financial Blogger, sharing how he always takes a moment to look at what has been done during the current year and what is coming next in 2009.

FMF presents Money Stereotypes: The Dutch, Indians, Jews, and More! posted at Free Money Finance, shares his experiences with money stereotypes. Not very PC and very untrue.

Dollar Frugal presents Save Time by Taking the Earliest Appointment Possible posted at Dollar Frugal, great tactic. Adopted it a while ago.

The Smarter Wallet presents Don't Pay Full Price! Where To Find Bargain Gift Cards posted at The Smarter Wallet, learned of bargain gift cards. Just make sure you don't get more than you bargained for.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Rules for Regifting posted at Cash Money Life, asking whether regifting an acceptable practice? I wouldn't go there. Too much social politics...


Credit

J. Savings presents USAA just hollered - They're raising my credit card rates! posted at Budgets are Sexy., sharing the ever true moral of the story: Read the letters your bank sends ya!

Chris Holdheide presents Financial Money Traps: How Your Credit Cards Can Get The Best Of You And How To Fix It posted at stumbleforward.com, sharing some bad credit card experience.

Happy Eid ul Adha

Investing

Tristan presents I Found Financial Freedom - And It Was Really Easy! posted at Find Financial Freedom, shares his plan for financial freedom - delayed gratification.

Curt presents Rebalancing My 401k posted at PennyJobs.com, catching a lucy break like this isn't easy. If you can't time the market (which is probable since we care about our 401k) lowering risk levels will hurt long term returns. The stock market is really the only option for long term savers to meet an adequate pension.

Michael Cohen presents Are TheStreet.com Ratings Great Contrarian Indicators? posted at Stock Investing Tips, asking whether snapshot ratings on sites like thestreet.com good indicators of what NOT to do. I think in such volatile times one cannot really judge any analyst (although I'm usually not very fond of them in general).

Images by: shoshanah, samirdiwan, krisdecurtis