Welcome to Canadian Finance Blog and the 230th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Today is also the re-launch of Canadian Finance Blog, hope you like the new look!

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Editor’s Picks

Mike @ GLBL from Gather Little By Little presents Best Investment for 2009: Use your Emergency Fund to pay off your debt, and says, “Just by writing this title, I already know that people won’t agree with this strategy. How can you tell people to get rid of their emergency fund while we are in one of the most important recessions ever? So please, keep reading until the end of the post, I promise to make sense”

Peter from Bible Money Matters presents The Great Big List Of 75 Budgeting Tools, Finance Softwares And Iphone Money Apps, and says, “A list of 75 + budgeting tools, finance software, Iphone money apps and other personal finance related programs that can help you implement your financial plan.”

Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents Travel Hacking for Noobs: How We Save Hundreds on Airfare, Get Free Accommodation, & Make Money while Overseas, and says, “A real case study of the step-by-step system I use to save hundreds on airfare. Also, how we get free and cheap accommodation and make money while on the road. Most importantly, what are your top tips for saving money while traveling?”

Hank from Own The Dollar presents Why Dollar Cost Averaging Makes Sense and Works For Investors, and says, “A brief discussion on the benefits of dollar cost averaging.”

Ray @ Financial Highway from Financial Highway presents Best Credit Card, and says, “Using Credit Cards properly can be a good part of your financial planning, here are some tips on how to find the best credit card that fits your needs.”

Career

Don from Keep My Dollar presents High unemployment here to stay for a while, and says, “My opinions of how employers see layoffs.”

Studenomist from Studenomics presents Why College Is The Best Time To Start A Business , and says, “The many benefits of starting a side business in college!”

ElizabethG (Modern Gal) from Modern Gal presents Coping with a Job You Hate.

Credit & Debt

Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator presents Beware “No Cost Refinance” Loans, and says, “Most loan programs out there purporting to offer “no cost refinancing” are misleading. Rest assured you’ll end up paying for the refinancing some way or another.”

Clint from Accumulating Money presents An In-Depth Look at Internet Payday Loans

Darwin from Darwin’s Finance presents Credit Card Rewards – Buyer Beware? I Don’t Think So, and says, “After ABCNews published some rather disturbing data on the spending habits of users of reward cards, it’s worth evaluating their assertions because Correlation is not necessarily Causation. Is this just sloppy reporting or is there something to be concerned about?”

Tyler Metzger from Taking Charge presents My credit card life in 4 squiggly lines.

Cecil Dellision from Clear Choice Credit Cards Blog presents House Effort to Speed CARD Act Implementation Passes… And Why It Doesn’t Matter….

mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Convenience credit card users are not perfect customers, and says, “If convenience credit card users are not perfect customers, what are they?”

Finance

Cheapskate Sandy from Yes, I Am Cheap presents Finance 101: Understanding Your Flexible Savings Account (FSA), and says, “This is a general overview of flexible spending accounts and its tax benefits.”

Zina from Tonka Beans Blog presents Mental Quirks That Lead to Bad Decisions, and says, “There have been many studies that have documented long-term historical phenomena in securities markets that contradict the efficient market hypothesis and cannot be captured plausibly in models based on perfect investor rationality. Behavioral finance attempts to fill the void.”

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC from InsureBlog presents Long Term Care Insurance: When’s the best time to buy?, and says, “Summary: When should you consider buying Long Term care insurance? A guestblogger at InsureBlog has some helpful suggestions.”

DR from Doughroller presents How to Tell if a Credit Card Number is a Fake, and says, “Have you ever taken all of your credit cards, spread them out on a coffee table and noticed patterns in the 16 digit numbers? “

The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents Small Business Financing: How To Fund Your Venture, and says, “On small business financing.”

Frugality

Adam from RabbitFunds presents Why coupons could cost you more money, and says, “There is a problem with coupons that easily leads to spending more money – coupons are a marketing tool or sales gimmick! Meaning, stores don’t send out coupons because they love us.”

Carrie from Carrie…On The Cheap presents Top 7 Healthy Budget-Friendly Foods That I Swear By, and says, “I’m a huge health nut, so healthy food on a budget is really important to me. These 7 foods are my go-to foods that are both delicious and super nutritious!”

Bob from Christian Personal Finances presents How to get free shipping (3 ways), and says, “These are just a few ways to get free shipping on stuff you buy online…”

eemusings from Musings of an Aberrant Aucklander presents From spender to scrooge: breaking down my habits, and says, “Analysing my habits and rating how frugal – or nor – they are.”

Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card presents Some Money Saving Tips.

Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents How to Save on Health Care Without Skimping on Quality.

Investing

D4L from Dividends Value presents Dividend Stocks: A Disciplined Approach, and says, “Those that have read this space for any period of time are well aware of my enthusiasm for using dividend growth stocks as a vehicle for building long-term wealth and income. However, not all dividend stocks are created equal – there is a discipline to selecting good dividend growth stocks.”

Mike Piper from The Oblivious Investor presents Asset Allocation and Time Horizon, and says, “Conventional wisdom says that asset allocation should be linked to how far away your goals are. Is conventional wisdom wrong?”

pkamp3 from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents Funds or Physical Metal?, and says, “So you want to invest in gold. Before you shuffle over to eBay and bid on some American Eagles, you should put some thought into what other ways there are to invest in gold. Read on.”

Miranda from Personal Dividends presents Investing in Economic Recovery.

Paul @ FiscalGeek from FiscalGeek presents The A-Team talks about the Roth 401k vs. Traditional 401k’s, and says, “Who better to break down the tax advantages of the 401k vs the Roth 401k then the A-Team. Nice BA!”

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Are Stocks Overvalued? , and says, “Back in the summer months of May, June, and July, the stock market, measured by the S&P 500, remained in a range around 900 after investors moved from pricing in another great depression to a typical recession.”

Joe Plemon from Personal Finance By The Book presents Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 5: College Funding, and says, “Just getting to Step 5 indicates that you have been doing some great things with your finances. You are debt free, except for your house and you have a fully funded emergency fund. You are also investing 15% of your income toward retirement. Congratulations! Now, and not until now, is the time to save for your kid’s college.”

Ben from Money Smart Life presents College Savings Accounts for a Bad Economy.

Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents The Best Trades could be the ones not entered , and says, “Most investors typically want to be told what to buy, when to buy it and how much they would make when selling. This strategy always works in get rich quick books, but it seldom generates any profit in the real world.”

Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents How Bear Markets Can Help Grow Savings.

George from Fat Pitch Financials presents Fat Pitch Take on Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and says, “Could the Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A)acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) result in a fat pitch special situation opportunity? Value investors chime in.”

Money Management

Fabulously Broke from Fabulously Broke in the City presents Why the hell do guys have to pay for everything?, and says, “Why is it, that many women hold the attitude that the guy should pay for everything and handle everything with money?”

The Financial Blogger from The Financial Blogger presents Having a Plan B, and says, “A “plan B” is way bigger than having an emergency fund.”

Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians presents 14 Statements of Financial Losers, and says, “Sometimes it only takes one statement to know someone is losing financially. Here is a list of 14 such statements to be sure you avoid using.”

FFB from Free From Broke presents 10 Things Similar About Personal Finance And Running The NYC Marathon, and says, “Running the NYC Marathon made me realize there are a lot of similarities between running and personal finances.”

J.D. Roth from Get Rich Slowly presents The Curse of a Big-Win Mentality, and says, “While you certainly don’t want to miss the opportunity to capitalize on a major event, you also don’t want to develop the habit of relying on ‘big wins’ either. These type of large gains for minimum effort can make us lazy. “

Wojciech Kulicki from Fiscal Fizzle presents Send the SWOT on Your Money.

Miss M from M is for Money presents Have the Bailouts Killed Personal Responsibility?.

RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents Fixing Financial leaks in Your Life.

Reviews

Papa Boomer from Consumer Boomer presents Visa Gift Card Review, and says, “How legit are the Visa Gift Cards at Wal-Mart?”

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Money Management Software For The Desktop: YNAB 3 Review, and says, “Thanks!”

Jason from One Money Design presents Thoughts on Mint and Mvelopes with Some Fiscal Fizzle, and says, “This post provides thoughts on the differences between Mint and Mvelopes, two strong personal finance software applications, in an interview style post with Fiscal Fizzle. The co-founder of Mvelopes also stopped by to let us know there are some new things coming in 2010 for their 10 year anniversary.”

Other

FT from Million Dollar Journey presents When Money Doesn’t Matter.

Brad Chaffee from Self Reliance Exchange presents Saving Money – Paying Yourself First Really Pays Off, and says, “Too many people in the U.S. are not saving money. If they’re not saving money then they’re not taking advantage of compound interest.”

WellHeeled from Wellheeled, with a mission presents Disney World in December will be a Christmas to Remember, and says, “Deciding on going on a big trip – even though it’s a lot of money, sometimes experience trumps the finances. “

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Intelligence Still Linked to Income, Not Wealth, and says, “Smart people often don’t have high net worths despite the fact that they have high incomes. Why is this?”

Jim from Bargaineering presents The Mints of the United States, and says, “Just a little fun trivia about the Mints of the United States!”

Paul Williams from Provident Planning presents Who or What Is Mammon?, and says, “Jesus warned against the dangers of serving Mammon. Although it’s often translated as “money”, there’s more to it than that. Find out exactly what or who Mammon is in this article.”

Bret from Hope to Prosper presents Plight of the Consumer, and says, “Americans are being taken advatage by companies like never before. Here are some tips to defend yourself.”

PT from PT Money presents Save Money on Health Care: Tax Advantaged Medical Savings Accounts.

Mr. GoTo from Go To Retirement presents Common Mistakes in Using Retirement Planning Tools, and says, “Online retirement planning tools are everywhere. Most oversimplify or use false assumptions. This article tells you what they are.”

Mr. ToughMoneyLove from Tough Money Love presents What is Your Retirement Risk Index?, and says, “Are you on track to be prepared for retirement? The retirement risk index may frighten you.”

Andy from Saving to Invest presents A Statistical Economic Recovery – Is America’s Recession Really Over?, and says, “35% of respondents think the economy is getting worse; just 28% think it is getting better”

Hope you enjoy all these great articles! Bloggers, submit your article for next week’s edition, hosted by M is for Money.

• Credit Card Debt – Make a Plan to Get out of It
• Using Credit Cards to Make More Money
• Weekly Roundup: Credit Card Use Stings Edition

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