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It is carnival time once again. This week, I have posts included in two carnivals.

• The Scale of the Federal Deficit is included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #125 hosted at My Two Dollars
• Leasing a New Car Makes No Sense is included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction #112 at Cash Money Life

Carnival of Personal Finance

With there being 74 articles in this week’s carnival, I thought I would take some time and point out some that I found interesting.  They are:

• How To Buy On Ebay and Get the Best Deal at Money Blue Book
• Real Estate: Know What Can Be Fixed… at Searchlight Crusade
• Can We Really Afford to ‘Move Up’ at A Penny Closer
• And of course, where would we be if we couldn’t talk about Marriage and Money at My Good Cents

Carnival of Debt Reduction

Debt Reduction is such a need for so many people, that I would be remiss if I did not offer a selection of my favorite articles from this carnival too.  There are many more worth reading too.

• Money, Matter, and More Musings asks Will You Spoil Your Children If You Give Them Substantial Economic Gifts?
• At Green Panda Treehouse, the question is Pay Off Debt or Start Savings (Chicken or the Egg)
• Free Money Finance tackles Issues Not Usually Addressed When Discussing Paying Off Home Debt
• In one of the best articles this week, Me Vs. Debt has a good rant against credit card policies and a positive review of Prosper.  Watch out for a couple of words, but enjoy it at Goodbye 30% APR
• My Two Dollars takes a tone I like about bankruptcy.  David suggests that if you got yourself into trouble, you should learn, make changes, and get yourself out of trouble rather than ditching what you can through bankruptcy.  Read the whole post at Why You Should Avoid Bankruptcy When You Spend Yourself Into Debt. Now, his exclusion for extenuating circumstances like massive medical bills does occur more often than we would like to admit.  It would be great if we could demonize everybody who files for bankruptcy as being irresponsible, but that isn’t true. For those that are irresponsible, it would be better to actually learn about personal management and responsibility than to give them a clean slate to keep on doing the same thing.

I hope you enjoy both carnivals.  They were a pleasure to read through and I am glad to have been included.

Ask Mr Credit Card hosts the 12st Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance this week.  He does something a bit different, posing the carnival as a presidential debate, linking in personal finance blogs and posts throughout.  Very creative and well done.

In addition to including How To Live on Minimum Wage, there are a number of other useful posts included.

Kim Stadenraus earned the top spot on my list this week with her story about financial success.  How To Get Out of Debt has lessons she learned in getting out from under $48,000 in debt.  Congratulations and good advice.

Uncovering The Truth About Needs and Wants includes a step by step guide for figuring out which is which. Millionaire Mommy Next Door has written that post as a part of her Baby Steps to Financial Freedom series.

The Simple Dollar has a one hour project for us.  Trent gives us Thirty Ways to Use One Hour to Improve Your Finances.

How I Will Be Rich discuss their powder coating business and include several good insights about starting a business.

For those of us that have not sworn off using credit, Improve Your Credit 102 by The Financial Blogger discusses how much credit is optimal.

The “Debt-Free” Deception is from Home Finance Freedom’s Housing Myths series of articles.  It discusses rent vs buy decisions in housing.  Not to be outdone, 4 Eva Young chimes in too with the opinion that Buying Is For Suckers, Why Renting Is The Way To Go.

Also discussing housing, Truthful Lending points out that the mortgage tax deduction on partially offsets the interest you pay on a home mortgage.  Pay off Mortgage, Lose Tax Deduction is a quick and easy read.

With all the focus on saving money to reach our financial goals, Money Ning asks a if Feeling Guilty to Spend Money on Anything can be a problem long term.

As may be appropriate in a politician-themed carnival, Mrs Micah talks about Sucking and Selling Your Soul: Ethics and Finance.

Do I Need an Emergency Fund is answered with a strong YES! by Christian PF.

Never Have a Car Payment sounds like a paid program on late night TV.  Chris Kakaras assures us that it is true, and even gives the secret away for free.

We’re in Debt may be an apt description, but the reminder to Free Your Inner Spender is good, because the reminder includes how to do it responsibly.

There are plenty of other good articles in this week’s carnival.  Head on over to the 12st Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance and enjoy all of them.

Thanks goes out this week to My Retirement Blog for hosting the 120th Carnival of Personal Finance.

My post on Personal Goals and Financial Life was accepted.

Other posts that I like from this week’s Carnival include:

• Cheap Healthy Good is very entertaining in discussing the perils of being a foodie in Treating Food Borne Affluenza.
• Two Wise Acres talks about how tax advantageous real estate can be with 5 Tax-free Ways to Make Money with Real Estate Investing.
• The Baglady reminds us that comparing ourselves to the neighbors down the street with all the toys is a bad idea. Hopefully we can all avoid The Dangers of Keeping Score with Money.
• Money and Such arguing that Rent is NOT Waste. Many people will disagree with that post, but for many people, renting makes a lot more financial sense than buying – and it is definitely not just people who cannot afford to buy a home.
• The Dough Roller points out some huge pitfalls with the latest plan for the government to spend our money in Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Plan is Slick, So Watch Your Step. For the record, I am not against health care for all, but it has to be done responsibly, and Hillary’s plan is not it. What might work would take a book, but if I see anything that passes the smell test, I will be sure to point you to it.
• Four Pillars has some commenters discussing a potentially explosive situation related to his example of being frugal in buying a gas BBQ in his post I can be frugal too.
• The Digerati Life offers us the lowdown on inflation with lots of facts in Watch Prices go Up.
• The Boulevard to Retirement offers up a good reminder to decide what your vision for retirement is, as it will have a huge impact on what you need to do to plan for retirement. Checkout Mariette’s Balancing your life with your retirement vision.
• Randy also submitted from The Boulevard to Retirement but his discussion is about how It’s hard to eat your house.

I hope you enjoy this week’s Carnival as much as I did.

Woohoo! I’m proud to announce that my submission for the 119th Carnival of Personal Finance has been accepted this week. It is being hosted over at Blunt Money.

Click here to find the Carnival of Personal Finance website.

The post I submitted is from the Saving Philosophy Collection series. Specifically, it is the first post: Savings Philosophy #1

For everybody visiting from Blunt Money, welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy looking around and come back as the site grows.

I also want to highlight Smart Money Daily for their highlight post about the Carnival and helping trace the origin of the phrase ‘Pay Yourself First’.