Weekly Roundup: Great Personal Finance Articles and Blog Carnivals This Week

Here are some of the great blog postings around the personal finance blog world that I have really enjoyed reading this past week or so. I hope that you enjoy.

Notable articles from my RSS reader:

Cigarettes vs. Coffee – Which Is Financially Worse For You? - J over at BugetsAreSexy had a great and interesting post about how much our addictions cost us. We all think that a cup of coffee, a pack of smokes, or even a Red Bull is a cheap vise. And, they are one at a time, but when we combine the cost over a week, month, or year, they can really add up.

Are You Really a Permanent Employee? – Everyone wants to think that their job is secure. Everyone wants their employer to be loyal to them like the job market was for our parents and grandparents, but that simply isn’t the case anymore. Many of us think that we are a permanent employee of a company, and Cash Money Life helps us set the record straight in a recent posting about how none of us are truly permanent.

How To Get Out Of Debt On Your Own Terms – Most people want to get out of debt, but many do not know how to start. My Two Dollars gives readers a great starting point in this posting.

What Is Your Credit Card Philosophy? – Moolanomy had an interesting blog post about how we use our credit cards. There are some wrong ways to use them of course, but there are some benefits to owning credit cards. I’ve talked before about how my wife and I use our American Express card as a budgeting tool and to earn rewards points. We pay almost all of our bills with the American Express card.

Math vs. Psychology – Personal finance is one of those fields in which our human brains get in the way of rational action. Being a finance geek and having degrees in finance, I have taken courses in behavioral finance. The field is very young relative to the classic finance, but there are a lot of great ideas we can learn to help us improve our investing. This is a great post by Mike at The Oblivious Investor.

Why a Degree From a Fancy College Isn’t Worth It – Five Cent Nickel recently tackled a topic that has been high on a lot of personal finance bloggers’ radar screens now that schools are starting again. I’m the product of a very expensive private liberal arts college in the South, and I have a lot of feelings about the cost of education and its worth. While I feel that a college degree is imperative to success in today’s economy, I think that there is a definite breakeven point to a high cost education if a cost benefit analysis was conducted.

Why Do Companies Use Coupons And Rebates? – I drive my wife nuts because I often forget to mail in rebates. I have lost hundreds of dollars thanks to my laziness. Weakonomics has a great post talking about just this topic.

Blog Carnivals:
Carnival of Money Hackers – 81^st Edition – Hosted by ABCs of Investing

Tagged as: Round Up

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Patrick September 13, 2009 at 12:32 am: Thanks for the mention, Hank!
Shannon @ Ace Cash Express September 17, 2009 at 2:03 pm: I used to smoke, but not that much and I never found the logic to smoking really which is why I quit. Never had the need for nicotine patches or anything like that. Smokes will cost you more than it’s price as you’ll have to spend for medicine and medical bills later on because of it.
Miguel @ Great Stops November 20, 2009 at 5:38 pm: Great list of Blog post. The Coffee Vs. Smoking one is very interesting. However, it does also need to take into account the future medical cost that can come up from either “hobby”.
Good Work