This Week’s Totally Money Blog Carnival: A Roundup of Great Personal Finance Posts From the Blogosphere

So begins the latest Totally Money blog carnival, hosted by yours truly!  If you’re not familiar with a blog carnival, it’s basically a round up of some of the most interesting and informative posts in the blogosphere.

In the spirit of increasing abundance and financial success, the following are a variety of great posts about saving money, investing, improving your financial IQ, and growing as a person. Be sure to stop by these great blogs and leave some comments!

Vanessa’s Money: A Mini-Economics Lesson on Opportunity Cost

Vanessa over at Vanessa’s Money offers some good perspective on evaluating the “seen” and “unseen” costs of a purchase. The price tag isn’t the only thing you should be looking at when making a big purchase!

My two cents: I think Vanessa offers a great perspective on this. As she points out, a great trip costs you not just your travel expenses, but perhaps your ability to make an income during that time (assuming you’re not using paid time off). It think the opposite perspective is true as well. If you’re already in reasonably good financial shape, is it worth forgoing experiences in life just to get a little more into your bank account? Balance in life is important, and I think that applies to frugality and saving. Saving money is important, but don’t take it to such an extreme that you stop living your life.

Check out the full post entitled Mini-Economics Lesson: Opportunity Cost.

Watson, Inc: 10 Reasons To Seek Abundance

In today’s culture wealth is demonized seemingly on a daily basis – ironically, often by people who are themselves wealthy – but without some having abundance, there would be no way to care for those that are less well off. In short, if we were all poor, who would be able to take care of the poor? Roshawn Watson discusses this and many other reasons to seek abundance in a post entitled 10 Reasons To Seek Abundance over at Watson Inc.

My two cents: If we weren’t a wealthy culture, we would have no money to care for the environment, educate our kids, or offer a social safety net that includes unemployment insurance, medical care, etc. How many poor people have ever given you a job? We shouldn’t be demonizing or stifling financial success, we should be praising and encouraging it! The more you have, the more you can give to others, right?

I’ve seen plenty of selfishness and greed at both ends of the economic spectrum, so encouraging financial success is not automatically encouraging greed. We should encourage wealth creation by cutting the burden of government, getting rid of unreasonable regulation, and stop allowing politicians to demonize successful people for political gain. If it weren’t for successful people, most of us wouldn’t have jobs and the government wouldn’t have any tax revenue to spend.

Check out the full post here.

Brip Blap: 6 Things to Avoid If You Want to Be Creative

With so much stimulating our minds on a daily basis in today’s media-saturated culture, might the absence of quiet time and introspection be stifling our creativity? Steve over at  Brip Blap discusses 6 Things to Avoid If You Want to Be Creative.

My two cents: There are many times where I feel like I have to be doing something, whether it’s listening to the radio, reading a book, catching up on emails, watching TV, etc. Thanks to the iPhone, it’s particularly easy to fill a few extra minutes by surfing the web, checking my Twitter account, or responding to an email. Sometimes it’s nice to just put all that away and let your brain wander. Often I’ve solved perplexing work problems right before falling asleep or during that time in the early morning when I’m waking up simply because my mind isn’t occupied with outside stimulation. My brain is free to wander and examine problems from different angles.  Steve offers good advice: shut it off and let your mind wander!

Check out the full post here.

Personal Finance, Frugality, and Investing

• Time for back-to-school shopping — really, by Donna Freedman at Frugal Cool.
• 8 Ways to Keep Pet Care Expenses Under Control, by Carrie Smith at ReadyForZero Blog.
• The 52 Best Money Saving Tips, by FMF at Free Money Finance.
• How long does it take to manage a dividend portfolio?, by Dividend Growth Investor at Dividend Growth Investor.
• So You Want to Start Investing: Mutual Funds, by Vanessa at Vanessa’s Money.
• Getting Help with Medical Bills, by Phillip at PT Money Personal Finance.
• 4 Reasons Not to use your 401k to pay off your credit cards, by Joe at Personal Finance By The Book.
• I Don’t Understand Extreme Couponing, by Mike Collins at Wealthy Turtle.
• 10 Home Improvements To Make Before Selling, by Bob at Christian Personal Finance.
• Mortgage Lender vs Mortgage Broker, by Sean at One Smart Dollar.
• Tips for Couples Traveling on a Tight Budget, by Sicorra at Tackling Our Debt.
• What to Do if You Lose Your Wallet , by Odysseas at Wallet Blog.
• How to Negotiate Your Bills, by Miranda Marquit at ReadyForZero Blog.
• What To Do With ‘Windfall’ Cash, by Megan at Credit Karma Blog.
• How to Save Money by Fixing Health Care Errors, by Adrienne at My Dollar Plan.
• Do I Need a Trust, a Will, or Both?, by Tim at Personal Finance By The Book.
• Getting a student loan co-signer removed, by Bob at Christian Personal Finance.
• Should You Pay Off Loans Early?, by Tim at ReadyForZero Blog.
• 8 Great Things That You Can Find at Thrift Stores, by Miss T at Prairie Eco Thrifter.
• Even More Stuff You Might Not Know About Credit Scores, by Bethy at Credit Karma Blog.
• How Your Driving Record Affects Your Term Life Insurance Rates, by Jeff Rose at Life Insurance By Jeff.

Personal Growth & Work

• What’s Luck Got to Do With It?, by Roger the Amateur Financier at The Amateur Financier.
• Laying a Path from Here to There, by Emily at Evolving Personal Finance.
• How To See A Bright Financial Future, by Roshawn Watson at Watson Inc.
• 5 Ways to Ask for a Raise , by Tim at Faith and Finance.
• “Do What You Love” Is Bad Advice, by FMF at Free Money Finance.

Are You a Blogger?

If you’d like to be a part of future blog carnivals by Totally Money, you can submit your posts here.

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