The Wealth Builder Carnival #59

Welcome to the fifty-ninth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

And now onto the Carnival:

Earning

Jonathan from Debt Loans presents Can't Make Ends Meet? Time To Get Creative. posted at Money Mum, saying, "Perhaps you recently lost a job, you have a large number of unexpected medical bills, or you’re trying to pay for university tuition. Instead of letting stress get the best of you, be proactive and consider bringing in some extra cash in a new, creative way."


Linsey B. Knerl presents Ask 1099 Mom: How Can I Advertise my Business for Free? posted at 1099 - Mom, saying, "While the best methods of advertising may require a cost up front, there are some reputable ways to get your name out there. Here are a few of the best ideas from our community:"

Marie presents Can't Sell Your Home? Rent It Out and Earn posted at Money Spending Mommy, saying, "When they find out that they won’t be able to solve their problems by selling their homes, many homeowners just give up and let the foreclosure take its course. But that’s not necessarily the only solution. You may be able to rent your home out and earn the money you need to make your mortgage payments."

Insuring and Protecting

DJ presents Life Cover – What will you leave in your will? posted at The Family Wallet, saying, "Having a valid will is extremely important but making sure that you have something worthwhile to leave behind is also crucial. Would anyone want to leave their loved ones to struggle financially, worrying about making ends meet? A life cover policy can buy peace of mind and provide a financial lifeline for those left behind."

Khaleef @ KNS Financial presents Pay For Spray: Firefighters Let Another House Burn Down Over $75 posted at Faithful With A Few, saying, "A pay for spray policy has lead to firefighters standing by and watching multiple houses burn down over $75. Share your thoughts about this form of insurance, and read how it can be improved."

Chelsea Prescotti presents Credit-Based Car Insurance Rates posted at CreditScore.net, saying, "Most individuals believe that car insurance rates are based primarily on the driving record and the potential risk of the driver. While hitting another car or getting a speeding ticket will undoubtedly increase an individual’s car insurance premium, many drivers do not realize that there is another factor insurance companies take into account, one that is unrelated to driving ability."

Investing

Sustainable PF presents Sustainable Index Investing Is A Joke posted at Sustainable Personal Finance, saying, "You shouldn’t bother with sustainable index investing. Instead, do like the rest of the market does. Put your cash in the spot where you feel it’ll get the best return. Then, if you’re so inclined, spend your profits on whatever environmentally friendly hippie stuff you want. Investing should be about making money, not saving the world. The two just don’t mix."

Barb Friedberg presents Reader Question; SHOULD I INVEST IN A CLOSED END FUND? posted at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance, saying, "Learn about closed end mutual funds. Get the basices to figure out whether they are for you or not?"

Jim Tolley (aka Kidgas) presents An Explanation of the Stock Option Collar posted at Cash Flow Mantra, saying, "In reality, a collar is really not all that difficult to understand. It consists of owning a stock (being long), owning a protective put against that stock, and selling a covered call against that same stock. As always, a real-life example is in order so I will provide just that."

Investor Junkie presents REITs vs. Real Estate Investing posted at Investor Junkie, saying, "Investing in REITs and direct investment in real estate both come with advantages and disadvantages.

Kanwal Sarai presents Are These Your Top 4 Reasons For Buying Mutual Funds? posted at Simply Investing Blog, saying, "In this article we’ll examine why many people choose mutual funds… and why mutual funds may not be your best bet for improving your portfolio."

Living Frugally

B.B. presents 4 Frugal Ways to Keep Young Kids Busy During Christmas Vacation - Beating Broke  posted at Beating Broke, saying, "There are plenty of frugal ways to keep the kids, especially your preschool and elementary school kids, entertained during the Christmas vacation. Consider the following activities:"

Lazy Man and Money presents Save Money with a HARP-Refinance on an Investment Property with PMI posted at Lazy Man and Money, saying, "Having lived in Chumpsville long enough, I decided to call up my lender and see what they could do for me. I came to them as almost a perfect example of who shouldn't get their interest lowered. I had three things going against me."

Matt presents 090 Financial Excellence: Saving Money at Christmas Time posted at Living In Financial Excellence, saying, "Today I share tips and tricks from the Financial Excellence community about how to save money on Christmas gifts, decorations, and other holiday expenses."

misst presents 3 Vital Tips You Need to Start a Frugal Lifestyle posted at Prairie Eco-Thrifter, saying, "If you are planning to live a frugal lifestyle, it is important to know that you are not depriving yourself. Instead of looking at it this way, think of the act as a way of saving money for your future benefit. At the same time, you should look at the many benefits frugality has provided in many people. Even though they have all the money in the world, they have simple lives free of all the complexities."

Jon Elder presents Savvy Shopper Sites for Bargain Hunters posted at Free Money Wisdom, saying, "Some websites actually PAY you to shop! Another one I will be mentioning is a site that lists all the freebies that are being offered by companies currently while showing you the deals that you can score.
Here are a few of those websites:"

SavingMentor presents How To Save Money On Internet Service posted at HowToSaveMoney.ca, saying, "This guide will show you how you can reduce your Internet costs, upgrade your service for less, and increase or eliminate your bandwidth caps."

Jonathan from Debt Loans presents Cheap-o-vision: Save Money on Your Movies posted at Wallet Watcher, saying, "The following tips ought to help you keep the burden of movie entertainment costs lighter and your wallet a bit heavier."

Retiring

MoneyCone presents HOWTO Calculate Your Retirement Income posted at Money Cone, saying, "In this post I’m going to show you how to find out what your income will be at retirement, if you continue saving what you are currently saving. No, no worksheets or spreadsheets or complicated calculations! Not on this blog! I want to highlight a FREE Retirement Income Calculator I found very useful."

Saving

Mr. Money Smarts presents Why NOW Is The Best Time To Start Saving For Retirement posted at Smart On Money, saying, "Actually, years ago was the best time to start saving for retirement. As soon as you started earning income was the best time to save for retirement. But now is the second best time to start saving for retirement."

Taxes

Super Saver presents Strategies to Lower Federal Income Taxes in Retirement posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, "As a retiree, I've learned that I have additional opportunities to minimize our tax responsibility. I gladly use those opportunities to send less of our hard earned money to the wasteful federal and state governments."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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