Carnival of Money Stories

Matt Jabs presents Lending Club – My Review of Social Lending posted at Debt Free Adventure!.

Is Lending Club right for me? Those of you who read DFA on a regular basis know I am on a mission to free myself and my family from the bondage of high interest and all other debt. For the last 7 months I have been trimming excess fat from every part of our budget and after making many positive changes have recently shifted my focus on getting a few big wins. That’s when I stumbled upon Lending Club…

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Counted Out (Limerick) posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

They praised his accounting as splendid,
But told him his contract had ended…

Wenchypoo presents Free Heat on the Street Part III–Abandoned Homes and Businesses posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

While driving down a major thoroughfare, I noticed an older building, which used to house a tax service, now had a “For Rent” sign on it, and a bunch of tree limbs were piled up in the front of the parking lot. I pulled in, picked out the thickest of the lot, and piled them in my trunk. Among them were trunks of narrow trees, and I took them home for further cutting…

KCLau presents From Credit Card Debt to Owning Six Houses posted at KCLau’s Money Tips.

The journey for my financial world have been a tough one, after graduating we (my wife and I) got into huge debts, simply because a few mistakes…

FMF presents The Worst Money Stories I’ve Heard posted at Free Money Finance.

About 15 years ago or so my wife and I became financial “coaches” for a church-based organization designed to help people having financial trouble. Through the year’s we’ve probably helped a couple hundred people/couples manage their finances — mostly simple stuff like setting up a budget and working to pay off (usually high) debt (mostly credit card debt.) Over those years we’ve seen and heard some pretty strange stuff (as you might imagine.) I thought I’d share a few of the more unusual stories that have stuck in my mind. Here goes:

J. Money presents Why throw things out just because they’re old? posted at Budgets are Sexy.

It’s funny, the older and wiser I get, the less stuff I feel like replacing. I mean, if they get the job done I say keep on using them baby! Why get rid of old stuff just because it’s a little out of style?

Peter presents How To Save Hundreds Of Dollars On Your Tax Bill By Challenging Your Property Taxes posted at Bible Money Matters.

After reading on some other blogs how the bloggers had successfully challenged their property tax assessments, saving them hundreds of dollars every year, I decided that it was time that I give it it a shot as well. Our assessed property value last year was almost $20,000 higher than we thought that it should be, and reducing that taxable value would likely save us a few hundred dollars on our property taxes.

Keith Morris presents Money Resolutions: Stick To It This Time! – LifeTuner Blog Posts posted at LifeTuner.

We recently hosted a chat on Twitter with a few experts and bloggers to talk about 2010 money resolutions. Here are some highlights from the chat…

J.D. Roth presents Ask the Readers: Do You Buy Christmas Gifts For Your Spouse? posted at Get Rich Slowly.

At this point, I hope you’ve done most of your Christmas shopping (and/or making). Only the brave or the foolish have yet to form a holiday shopping plan of attack. *looks around* Alright, so I have a minor confession to make: Courtney and I don’t buy gifts for each other.

Miss M presents Multi Generational Households posted at M is for Money.

Once upon a time many generations of a family lived together under one roof. But in Modern America, such an arrangement is seen as unusual. In our society, children are expected to move outward and onward soon after reaching adulthood. Anything less is certain to invite gossip, despite some obvious advantages to sharing a house with your folks. Let me share a story.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents On Spending Money: How Do You Buy Stuff? posted at The Digerati Life.

The story of Sam Walton has always fascinated me. Here was a guy who was worth a huge load of money yet who was reputed to live a simple life. Then there are those folks with these interesting spending and saving profiles:

Nicole presents When to Stop Being a Spender and Become a Saver — What Was Your Breaking Point? posted at Rainy-Day Saver.

I’m very lucky that I’ve never been a spender. I once was given a credit card at the age of 15 to go shopping, with no restrictions, from what I remember. What did I buy?

Joe Plemon presents How to Work Out Settlements With Debt Collectors posted at Personal Finance By The Book.

Last week I popped a few buttons sharing how my son Jeremy and his wife Erin worked and sacrificed to eliminate all of their debt ($21,500)  in their first year of marriage. I mentioned in that post that Jeremy and Erin had negotiated settlements on two old debts that had been sold to collectors.  In this post, I want to walk through the settlement process of working with debt collectors.

LeanLifeCoach presents Emergency Funds – Do You Really Need One? posted at Eliminate The Muda!.

Honestly the thought of saving a thousand or more dollars just didn’t come to mind, it wasn’t even discussed. How realistic is that anyway? We obviously had not had the discipline before to acquire and hold any money. If we had discipline, would we have been in debt?

Kyle C. presents How Much are you Willing to Pay? posted at Suburban Dollar.

I have decided Christmas does some crazy things to people. I am certainly not excluded from this grouping either.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

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