Carnival Highlights For The Week #7

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

The Carnival of Personal Finance #93 is organized by Tired But Happy.	My Carnival choice is Early payoff: The great mortgage debate, posted at Frugal Zeitgeist, I have been evaluating what I need to do to retire in my forties. My analysis shows that a key enabler will be to eliminate all debt, including my mortgage. I will likely be in the camp of paying of my mortgage in the next few years.
The Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #3 is hosted by One Guy's Investments.	My Festival pick is by The Israeli Speculator which presents Where Are The Customers' Yachts?, which revisits the 1920's question of why brokers were getting rich and not their customers. The reason was that brokers made their money on commissions and not stock picks. The same question applies to all the newsletters and blogs that recommend stocks. Friends sometimes ask me about stock investments. I generally preface the discussion with, "If I were really good at investing, I'd be doing it full time, " which is the truth. True, I've had my moments, such as Dell rising 6X in 18 months and Intel calls growing 28 to 56 times in 4 months. However, I am not consistently this good, which requires me to keep my day job:-)
The Carnival of Family Life #47 is at More4Kids.	My Carnival choice is How To Pay Cash for College posted at Thrifty Mommy, which shares some excellent strategies a student can use to keep avoid using loans to pay for higher education. I have one additional suggestions for parents. Start a college saving account when one's child is born and let the power of compounding help.
The 67th Festival of Frugality is presented by Debt Hater.	My Festival pick is Don't Budget to the Penny by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, which is a devil's advocate post on how detailed to make a budget. I confess, I don't keep a budget. My strategy is to put 25% of our income into savings at the beginning of the month and spend the rest. When I run out of money, I stop spending. Has worked for me for quite a while:-)

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

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

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

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