Reduce Debt Faster

While we have hosted many other great carnivals in the past, this week at Reduce Debt Faster we are extremely proud to host the Best of Money Carnival.  If you have not heard of this carnival, then you are certainly in for a treat.  The best of money carnival is one of the most exclusive, highest quality personal finance blog carnivals around.  Best of Money receives tons of great submissions every week, and only the 10 best personal finance articles are selected.

Choosing the best ten articles for this week was incredibly difficult.  There were so many great submissions and I literally spent hours reading great articles and new blogs about finance, insurance, debt, investing and everything related to money and personal finance.  It was tough to narrow this list down to ten, but here is the winner followed by the rest of the best of the best, in no particular order.

The Best in Personal Finance for this Week

The winner of this week’s carnival answered a question I often struggled with: How Long Should I Keep Financial Documents? This is a question I often asked myself and, I’m ashamed to admit, sometimes I did not even keep them at all!  Other times, I saved practically useless documents for years and years (I am terribly disorganized, if you couldn’t tell!).  Luckily, Jim over at bargaineering does a great job of answering this question for us.  Looks like it’s time for me to do some cleaning up in my file cabinet.  Thanks Jim, and congrats on winning this week’s carnival!

The Rest of the Best

Over at thedigeratilife.com, the Silicon Valley Blogger had a very interesting post on Thoughts on Tipping Etiquette: Why Should I Tip? I have to admit, I don’t really agree or see this issue from his point of view.  But, as usual, his article is well written and presents a compelling argument for his side of the argument.  Fortunately, he does state that he usually does leave a tip.  I know that most of us in this community enjoy finding ways to save money, but let’s not resort to stiffing the people who provide us with customer service and depend on these tips to make a living!

Ray at Financial Highway wrote a fantastic post about Top 5 Budget Busters-What Are Yours? One reason I probably like this article so much is that it was like he was talking about MY budget busters: looks like Ray and I have a lot in common when it comes to busting our budgets!  It also got me thinking about other bad spending habits I have and how I can fix them.  I guarantee you’ll come up with at least one way to improve your budget after reading this.

PT over at PT Money presents 20 Tips for a More Affordable Auto Insurance Policy. One thing I have noticed when talking to friends and colleagues is that very few people try very hard or even pay attention to how much they pay for auto insurance.  The few people I do know who have tried only did so after getting tickets or a DUI and their rates went through the roof.  This is article has some good ideas about how to lower that car insurance bill.

LeanLifeCoach presents Combat The Closing Techniques – The Ben Franklin Close posted at Eliminate The Muda!.  On the surface, this may seem like an article only relevant to people who are in sales.  However, read this with an open mind and you will see how to apply these ideas in many different aspects of your life.

Wealth Pilgrim submitted a post that really got my attention: Best Small Business Ideas 2010 And Beyond.  After all, one of the best ways to improve your personal finances is to increase your income.  And one of the best ways to increase your income is with a small business.  This is a great read for all of you entrepreneurial types.

Debt, Insurance, and More

Peter from Bible Money Matters submitted a very informative article, What Types Of Insurance Do I Need To Protect Myself And My Family? As a younger guy, I have to admit that other than health and car insurance, I don’t think about my insurance needs very much.  Peter’s post taught me a lot and is a must read.  Many of us are under insured and do not even really know what our insurance needs are.

Unfortunately, with the way the economy has been the past few years, many of us have been faced with unemployment.  Consumer Boomer addresses an important point with his article, What Are Your Options With Your 401k if You Lose Your Job? This is another area I knew very little about, and found this to be a very informative post.

Free Money Finance included a fascinating post about Actual Versus Acceptable Debts of Americans.  Since I have an entire website dedicated to getting out of debt, I obviously found this post of interest.  This is a very good article with many interesting points to think about.  If you have any debt at all, this is well worth a read.

And last but not least, MoneyNing (does that sound like a tongue twister to anyone else?) wrote an article about What Owning a Small Business Can Do for Your Personal Finances.  This is yet another post that appeals to my entrepreneurial spirit.  Anyone who has that itch to start their own business should definitely read this inspiring post.

That does it for this edition of the Best of Money Carnival.  Everyone here at Reduce Debt Faster would like to thank all the bloggers who submitted to this weeks carnival, and special thanks to the Best of Money Carnival for allowing us to host!