Carnival Round Up For The Week #2

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Carnival of Personal Finance #88 is hosted by Stock Market Beat.	My Carnival choice is 5 Important Ways to Protect Yourself Against Job Loss by Debt Free. The guidance is a mix of diversification, having contingency plans, and having the right knowledge.
The Carnival of Debt Reduction #75: Diamond Jubilee Edition is hosted by Money, Matter and More Musings.	My Carnival pick is Shift Your Thinking to Reduce Debt presented at Extreme Perspective. It's a real life story that shows investing in real estate can be a lesson about debt management. I agree. In the past, I had found myself trying to justify debt and negative cash flow for real estate because it was an "investment." The reality is that it is still DEBT. Fortunately, I was never able to convince myself and didn't buy the properties :-)
The Festival of Stocks is hosted by The Stock Geek.	My Festival choice is Warren Buffet Buys More USG and More presented by Fat Pitch Financials, which highlights Mr. Buffet's recent buys and sells. If only I could know what Warren Buffet bought and sold before he did it:-)
The Carnival of Taxes #12 is hosted by Don't Mess with Taxes.	My Carnival pick is Reduce taxes by fighting your property appraisal posted at Trying To Get It Right. The excellent coaching tip to getting a reduction are: Follow instructions, do your homework, and meet deadlines. I will keep these in mind for when I receive my next appraisal of my home for taxes.
The Carnival of 30s and 40s Personal Finances: The Wealth Accumulation State is hosted by Making Our Way.	My Carnival choice is Leaving Taxes to My Accountant presented by Ask Mr. Credit Card, which provides good reasons for using a tax professional. I would love to outsource this annual task to an "expert." However, my personal experience with tax accountants has been less than stellar. While we were on an international assignment, my taxes were done by one of the major accounting firms for four years. In two of the years, I found errors which resulted in a higher refund. In another year, the accounting firm rechecked the filing and found an error (in data provided by my company) resulting in another significant refund. In only one of the years, there were no changes, perhaps indicating the return was done correctly. Admittedly, while I am not a tax professional, I prefer to read my returns in detail before signing them. And it is concerning to me that I found errors in two out of the four returns done by a professional tax preparer. On the other hand, I also admit that it is getting more difficult for me to keep up with all the new tax laws. So I continue to look for a tax professional that will meet our needs.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding tips you can use. I have moved my Carnival reviews from Tuesday (Ideas You Can Use segment) to Saturdays since several Carnivals that I read publish after Tuesday. In the Saturday review, I will be adding a bit more commentary to the review to fit into the Reflections and Musings theme.

Check back every Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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