Money Hacks Carnival #78 – Looking Back At Summer Edition

Welcome to the 78th edition of the Money Hack’s Carnival.

Even though where I live the warm weather has just kicked in, the unfortunate part is that the summer is almost over. Instead of a back-to-school theme or a depressing look at the end of the summer I have chosen to reflect on the summer that I had. For today’s carnival I’m going to tell you guys about what I did this summer. Yes I realize that most of you may not care. It’s okay you can choose your own theme when you host. All I ask is that you share something you did this summer when you post a comment.

Took Up Kick Boxing.

Something I always wanted to do was to try a combat sport. Since I was on a strong streak of pushing myself mentally, I decided that it was time to push myself physically. Don’t worry I won’t be quitting Studenomics any time soon to begin a MMA career.

Debt & Credit

David presents How To Fix A Mistake On Your Credit Repot posted at My Two Dollars.

Debt Kid presents I’m on a Budget, Not Broke! posted at DebtKid.

Peter presents Should I Do A Debt Consolidation Loan? Important Things To Consider Before You Do. posted at Bible Money Matters – Things to consider before you decide to take out a debt consolidation loan.

The Dough Roller presents List of Free Prepaid Credit Cards posted at The Dough Roller – All the rest unless the theme of the carnival is completely at odds with credit cards.

Baker presents Should You Hate Debt… Should You Hate Anything? posted at Man Vs. Debt.

jim presents How Debt Management Programs Work posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Secured Credit Cards To Boost Your Credit posted at The Digerati Life – Some ideas for establishing credit or repairing credit with the use of secured cards.

Wojciech Kulicki presents The Foolproof Method for Responsible Credit Card Use posted at Fiscal Fizzle.

Mr Credit Card presents Plum Card Review posted at Ask Mr Credit Card.

Free From Broke presents Underwater Refinancing With The Home Affordable Refinance Program posted at Free From Broke – Making Homes Affordable had a recent change that can benefit those who
want to refinance with underwater loans.

d. ninja presents High School Money posted at Punch Debt In The Face – Do you think high school finance class would work? I don’t.

Traveled To Europe For 3 Weeks.

Got to get away from normal life and spend some time visiting relatives. 3 weeks may seem like a long time but time flew by unbelievably quick. It was 9 years since my last visit so I was long overdue.

Frugality & Saving Money

Finance Tips 101 presents Pocket Some Hard Earned Cash By Saving On The Electric Bill posted at Finance Tips 101.

Tyler Tervooren presents Improve Your Water Heater Efficiency And Save $125 A Year posted at Frugally Green – Don’t let your electricity bill get you down. If you spend the next weekend implementing a few really simple changes to your water heater, you could improve its performance by 25% or more.

Lazy Man and Money presents How I Saved Hundreds in a Half Hour posted at Lazy Man and Money.

Rohit presents Dump your savings account posted at MoneyLog – Thoughts on how High Yield checking accounts have made savings account obsolete.

Pinyo presents How To Find Cheap Airfare And Hotel Like A Ninja Master posted at Moolanomy – If you travel a lot, this is a must read article that can help you save a bunch on money on your hotel accommodations and airfares.

J. Savings presents Find Out Where Your Spending Leaks Are, and Fix Them. posted at Budgets are Sexy. – Just started budgeting? Look for your leaks! (and then fix them).

The Smarter Wallet presents YNAB (You Need A Budget) Review, Financial Budgeting Software posted at The Smarter Wallet – A great budget tool to check out.

Madison presents Back to School Opportunities to Teach Kids About Money posted at Kids and Money.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove presents Using Technology to Save Money posted at Go To Retirement – Online technology continues to roll out, all designed to save you money.

Miss Bankrupt presents Money Lessons from My Father posted at Miss Bankrupt.

Mrs Bankrupt presents Being cheap is not thrifty posted at Mrs. Bankrupt.

Coupon HoundDog presents Simple Savings Rebate Codes posted at Coupon Hound Dog.

My Cool Mommy presents Meals for a month, 30 days of savings! posted at MyCoolMommy.

Worked Like An Animal On Studenomics.

Spent countless amounts of hours on putting together guest posts and working on promotional strategies for Studenomics. Not the funnest summer activity but I definitely enjoyed it. Hosting this carnival is another way to help spread the word about Studenomics.

Income

PT presents Would You Consider a Move for More Job Opportunity? posted at Prime Time Money.

Dividend Tree presents Building Core Competency for Long Term Survival posted at Dividend Tree – Whether it is running a business or individuals it is important to build a core competency for long term sustainability.”

KCLau presents Thoughtless Spending posted at KCLau’s Money Tips – The article emphasizes the need to curb spending on the miscellaneous things in daily life.

Worked On My Golf Game.

Alright the truth is I played tons of mini golf with my 13 year old brother. I also tried the driving range a few times. I will promise this to you guys though- I will play a full golf game by the end of the season.

Investing

Jeff Rose presents Using a Roth IRA to Maximize Your Wealth posted at Good Financial Cents.

Manshu presents Green ETF List posted at OneMint – A list of Green ETFs. Funds that invest in companies working with green technologies.

Ben presents Stock Analysis: Earnings per Share Price to Earnings Ratio posted at Money Smart Life

Dividends4Life presents Another Call For The Bottom posted at Dividends Value – Time and time again the market throws them a cruel twist and heads lower. Will this time be different?

Darwin presents How do Stock Options Work? Trade Calls and Puts – Part 1 posted at Darwin’s Finance – Everything you need to know about getting started in stock options -from income generation and protection of profits to pure speculation.

MoneyNing presents Rental Property vs REIT posted at Money Ning – Which is best? Getting a rental property or investing in REITs? Here we weigh in.

Miss M presents Money Time Frames posted at M is for Money.

James Williamson presents Best Green Mutual Funds: How To Invest in Green Technology posted at Inside Mutual Funds – This article explains what green mutual funds are and how they are good for both the planet and your portfolio.

Dorian Wales presents Dollar Cost Averaging ? Practical Lessons From Recent Experience posted at The Personal Financier – My recent experience with Dollar Cost Averaging and the lessons I learned.

Investing Toolkit presents Dollar Cost Averaging Basics posted at Investing Toolkit.

Investing School presents Scottrade Promotion and Review posted at Investing School – Scottrade has been winning customers over with its amazing customer support. See what the stock broker offers.

Helen presents Benchmarks Behaving Badly posted at Affine Financial Services – Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance do not include capital gains distributions in the historical value of mutual funds, making the graphs completely useless.

Madison presents Scottrade Remains Our Broker of Choice posted at My Dollar Plan.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Scottrade, OptionsHouse, and tradeMONSTER Review posted at Cash Money Life – Reviews of Scottrade, OptionsHouse, and tradeMONSTER, three of the top online discount brokerage firms.

ABC presents Investment Real Return posted at ABCs of Investing – A simple explanation of investment real return.

Consumed A Few Beers.

What’s a summer without a few drinks? As college students I’m sure we all have nights that will represent a certain summer for many years to come. This summer was no different for me. Many great nights helped me survive summer school and full time work.

Other

FMF presents The Keys to Financial Success posted at Free Money Finance – Great tips on what it takes to be a financial success.

Dan at Everydayfinance presents Child Costs 2008-2009: $221,000 thru 17 (Before College Costs!) posted at Everyday Finance – This article breaks down a recent government report outlining the sticker shock associated with children – over $200K each excluding college!

ChristianPF presents Is the iPhone coming to verizon? posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog – I have been hearing rumors lately that Verizon will be selling the iPhone in the next few months.

Paul Williams presents Should a Christian Retire? posted at Provident Planning – If retirement is not Biblical, should a Christian even consider retiring?

Mrs. Modern Tightwad presents What Constitutes An Emergency? posted at Modern Tightwad.

Todd presents Social Security Primer posted at The Personal Finance Playbook.

Instead of just thanking me for including your article tell me what you did this summer? Submit your blog article to the next edition of money hacks carnival using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

photos: Cyril.Drouot, jasonrubacky, ferrous, archidave