Happy Carnival of Personal Finance! The two hundredth & forty-fifth to be exact, hosted by yours truly: J to the Dollar Doodle Money! Only I wish I were 1/2 as creative as some of these artists ;)

But dollar bills aside (as magnificent as these beauties are), we've also highlighted some of the finest personal finance posts from from the week today. Everything from cutting back debt, to investing and smarter financial management. We couldn't include all the posts as with all carnivals, but I did my best to pick the ones I thought were informative and worthy of our eyeballs. So sit back, grab yourself a coffee (and Kit Kat bar?), and enjoy some financial loving!

Editor's Picks:

#1) Magical Penny: Financial Lessons of a Cheese Pedlar. Cheese & finance?! AWESOME! :) If you frequent Subway a bit, and like keeping your money, this is a must read. Well done Adam!

#2) Mighty Bargain Hunter: Would you out a friend's spending patterns on Facebook? Haha...wow. I could never do this myself (unless I knew for sure it would help my friend!), but I'm sure plenty of others would! Would you?

#3) Len Penzo dot Com: Taste-Test Experiment: Bottled Waters vs. Filtered Tap. As someone who once spent $40 on a bottle of water (BlingH20), and currently drinks at least 1 bottle of water a day, this was pretty interesting to read. The BEST part is the actual rundown of his 14 testers! haha...well put together for sure.

#4) Amateur Asset Allocator: Does Money Prevent Happiness? If any of you read that article last week about the millionaire giving away his entire $5.3 million estate, you will enjoy reading this :) Money & happiness is always an interesting topic.

#5) Money Beagle: Did The Banks Force You To Sign Your Mortgage?. The "walk vs. stay" debate is still alive, baby! Really really enjoy reading about this stuff, especially as an under water homeowner myself. So many great arguments to both sides.

Money Management:

Gather Little By Little presents 9 Ways to Multiply Your Sources of Income and Pay off Your Debts.
Think Your Way To Wealth presents Occam's Razor, Simplicity, and Personal Finance.
Live Real, Now presents Avoiding the Downside of Saving.
Sweating The Big Stuff presents Personal Finance 101.
Modern Gal presents Curbing Spending Binges.
The Oblivious Investor presents How Much Income Will You Need in Retirement?
Free Money Finance presents Deadly Mistakes on the FAFSA Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars in Financial Aid.

Budgeting:

Financial Uproar presents You're A Sucker To...Have a Budget.
Living On a Budget presents What Budgeting Can learn From Dieting.
The Wisdom Journal presents Monitoring Your Money Isn't the Same As Budgeting Your Money.
You Have More Than You Think presents Friends Don't Make Friends Overspend: Wedding Edition.

Debt:

Debt Reduction Formula presents American Credit Card Debt - Is It Crushing Us?
Single Guy Money presents Instant Gratification and the MacBook Pro.
Balance Junkie presents RRSP vs. Paying Down Debt.

Taxes:

No Debt Plan presents Why Doing Your Own Taxes is Beneficial.
Free From Broke presents Who Should I Pick To Do My Taxes?
One Money Design presents Income Tax Refund: Is it Good or Bad?
Money Smart Life presents The 2010 Federal Tax Brackets and How They Work.

Frugality:

Eliminate The Muda! presents The Value Of DIY Is Greater Than Just Savings.
Don't Quit Your Day Job... presents Attempting the Secret Ripoff.
Gen Y Wealth presents Optimizing Vs. Minimizing Food Costs.
My Dollar Plan presents 9 Tips to Stretch the Life of Common Household Items.

Investing:

Money Help For Christians presents 5 Steps to Retirement Planning for Young Adults.
Christian Finances presents Should you convert to a Roth IRA in 2010?
Steadfast Finances presents Can Google's 'Insights for Search' Make You a Better Investor?
Intelligent Speculator presents Greece… the next Lehman??... what to do next?
Personal Finance Ninja presents Roth IRA's: Why Twenty-Somethings Don't Have an Excuse for Retirement Investing.

General Finance:

Good Financial Cents presents Warning Signs You Need to Fire Your Financial Advisor.
Foreigner's Finances presents Lease or Buy? What to Know Before Your First Car Purchase.
The Smarter Wallet presents How To Improve Your Credit Score In 3 Easy Steps.
Bargaineering presents How to Avoid Credit Card Minimum Annual Purchases Fees.
The Financial Blogger presents Becoming a Ninja of Happiness.
MintLife presents The Future of Mobile Finance.
PT Money presents Make Extra Money Blogging.
20s Money presents Josh's Ten Year Financial Plan.
The Digerati Life presents How To Create A Blog For Fun Or Profit.
Four Pillars presents 8 Reasons why you should use a real estate agent.
Wealth Pilgrim presents Immediate Annuities Stink. Never Buy One. Here's Why.
Money Crashers presents Becoming Wealthy Is Like Becoming An Olympic Athlete.
Fiscal Geek presents What is a Good Credit Score? Should you Care?
Darwin's Finance presents Top 10 Degrees By Starting Salary 2010.
Frugal Babe presents Wills And Other Unpleasant Topics.
Doughroller presents Are Discount Health Plans a Scam?
Redeeming Riches presents What is Your Motivation in Giving?
Pop Economics presents How who you are affects what you make.
Family Balance Sheet presents How Long Should You Keep Your Financial Records?

Thanks for all the great submissions everyone! Hope you readers found some interesting links today :) Next week's Carnival of Personal Finance will be hosted by Taking Charge, so keep your eyes out for it. And we'll be back to more budgety sex love tomorrow.

Stay classy,

Labels: art, carnivals

I have a new favorite person these days - Carlton. A brilliant artist and a genuinely nice human being. I see him each and every day, and each and every day he's there to greet me with a smile and his regular salutation - "what up, what up my man J?! How you feelin' today?". Coming from him, this means a lot.

While Carlton follows his passion by creating art all day (that's his painting up there on the left), he's also one of the many homeless here in DC. But rather than roam the streets asking for money every other minute, he finds a curb and he paints. And he paints, and he paints, and he paints! And the most interesting part about it all? He's HAPPY! I've never once seen him complaining or agitated with that brush in his hand - on that street, he's as peaceful as can be.

Now, I'm not naive to think his life is all rosy and without hardship, nor do understand that much about the homeless lifestyle in general, but I DO know that when Carlton paints he's following his passion. He'll sit there for hours sketching on scraps of cardboard, poster board, wood, whatever he can get his hands on. Just this morning I saw him outlining his family portrait on a rug. A rug! Seriously, even if you're not a fan of art you'd be inspired by this guy.

And I think that's what this post is really about today - inspiration. Inspiration to keep moving on when life gets you down. To keep pursuing your dreams and holding onto that positive mentality as best you can. Yes we might be in $XX,XXX of debt, or owe way more on our houses than they're worth, but you know what? Life is more than about making money and working for that next promotion. It's about LIVING. About finding that little piece of happiness every time we awake. Every time we're blessed to have another day on this Earth.

Does that mean we just quit our jobs and go fly fishing all day? No, of course not (unless you can figure out a way to make some money off it :) ) but it does mean we could do better at setting aside a little more time each day to pursue the things we enjoy. We still have to pay the bills and all, but following that passion of yours keeps the flame inside of you hopeful and going strong.

And that's exactly why I put Carlton's eye painting right next to my desk - to remind me to wake up and spend time on living today. Kinda like he's watching over me and making sure I don't forget ;) It's a wonderful feeling seeing that. My friend right there to remind me of what's important.

Labels: art, inspiration, life

My entry into Poorer Than You's free laptops giveaway :) If every dollar looked like this I guarantee people would spend less! haha...Drop by her site and leave your own piece of multimedia/art that embodies a sound personal finance concept and get entered. As long as it's in by noon tomorrow, you've got a chance to win TWO free laptops! Then try and beat me to the $207 Mega Millions...

Labels: art, awesomely awesome, giveaways

Last night I had my last screen-printing class and I'm afraid I'm really gonna miss it. When you're surrounded by creative people like that, you REALLY get into it! Esp. if you're not a perfectionist ;)

There's a process you have to follow in order to get your images to come out exactly the way it's shown, but if you don't mind "creative mistakes" like our shoddy little gang then it's totally awesome (and easier to mass produce).

But as I waited my 17 minutes at the end of the night for the metro to come take me home, I remembered why I signed up for the class to begin with - I wanted to start my own clothing line! Or at least my own graphic tee store like the Busted & Snorgs out there. How fun would that be? Designing and printing out shirts for all those sexy tween out there? haha...I seriously think i could do that for a living and be really happy. The problem, of course, is that it takes a LOT more work than you normally would think, along w/ some splashes of luck and a pocket full of start up cash. So while it would be hotter than Britney Spears circa 2005, I'm not delirious enough (yet) to think I could make it 1-2-3. What if I started slowly through cafepress or zazzle though? With something so automated like that I'm thinking it might be a nice little testing ground.

ORRRRRR, better yet, perhaps I sell a few Budgets Are Sexy shirts?! huh? whatcha know about that? humm.....would any of you buy them? Say, if i sell 'em for like $10 a pop? Might be something to expand on methinks.

Even if I don't end up setting up shop, it's pretty cool wearing around the shirts i've created with my bare hands :) in fact, i'm @ work right now wearing one of them! Yup, I created a simple one last night where it's just black text spread across a white shirt saying, "Fashions fade, style is eternal" a quote by Yves Saint Laurent. And with some of those creative mistakes I mentioned before, it has a little spraypainted affect to it. $hit, at the very least I have a good 15 or 16 new shirts to wear! haha...

Who knows what'll come out of it all, but I'm happy to report that i'm a bit more happier after jumping back into art classes. That's a department where your money is wisely spent! And my family will be glad that I finally used up some of that bday money too. Now, who want's a Budgets are Sexy shirt?!

Labels: art, randomness 3000

You HAVE to check this out over on mymoneyblog.com - How cool is this? $20 bucks (plus shipping) to get brilliant artwork? Ca-ching! I might have to buy my whole family one for Xmas...you all know i love mixing art and currency ;)

Labels: art, awesomely awesome, link lovin

Painting Supplies: $50.00
Number of $1 bills: 48
Effort put in: 6 months (on and off)

Finishing your 1st painting since 2nd grade? PRICELESS.

There are some things money can't buy.
For everything else, there's Budgets are Sexy.
<--click to enlarge


Update: Wanna know HOW i created this? Check out the steps here :)

Labels: art, awesomely awesome, currency, randomness 3000, updates

Update: I FINALLY finished it :)

I MEANT to only spend $30-ish dollars, but i get so caught up when i'm looking around and starting an art project. Every now and then an "image" of something i want to do pops into my head, and i have to do it right away before i forget. Or get lazy, which i often do ;)

In this case, it's a blue/reddish painting on canvas that i'm envisioning. It just really sucks that there's no way to put down EXACTLY how you see something in your mind down on paper. Sorta like when you have those awesome dreams, but you can't ever physically "save" them anywhere (except in your brain).

If someone could please invent a Memory Camera, that would be great. thanks. Anyways, so now that I have this vision or whatever, i took a trip to Michaels to pick up some supplies.

Here is what i was SUPPOSED to get:

1. large canvas
2. paint brush
3. 2 colors of paint

And this is what i ACTUALLY got:

1. large canvas
2. 11 brushes, all diff. shapes and sizes
3. 3 colors of acrylic paint
4. a "sample" box of 10+ colors of oil paint (returned)
5. palate (returned)
6. and a bottle of turpentine (will explain) (returned)

Dang, what am i thinking!!! Here's what: Do i need acrylic or oil paints? Which will work better for what i need? What if i need to paint small strokes vs. large strokes? Do i even HAVE enough paint? Will i even get close to my vision? haha....needless to say, i just grabbed a bunch of stuff and will use as needed.

I asked a guy who "looked like he could paint" about the diff. between acrylic and oil, but it's a bit more than i can handle at this point. So i'll prob. end up returning the oil paints (yup!) and the turpentine (yup!) needed for cleaning up, and pocket back the $30 (so expensive!). I'm gonna try and paint using just acrylic if it works out right, so we'll see what happens.

It just goes to show that if you're not careful (or good at averting your eyes), you can spend a LOT more money than you mean to. On a side note, this money comes from my Fun Fund ... so i'm allowed to use it anyway i want, no questions asked :)

Labels: art, fun fund, shopping