Carnival of Money Stories #47 – Final Four Edition

My bracket got blown out of the water a long time ago, I don’t have a single pick in the final four this year which is craziness. I don’t follow basketball that much but I usually do better at picking than this.This weeks theme is the Final Four, we will take a look at each of the teams who are going to battle it out for the chance to be in the final.

I take this carnival very literally so if your post wasn’t included it wasn’t a story or your story wasn’t about money.

Duke

The blue devils are probably the favorite to win at this point having finished the regular season ranked 3rd in the AP. Getting their tournament bid as the ACC champions they are no stranger to the big game. They have three national championships under their belt with the most recent coming in 2001.

Monevator talks about tackling your mental beliefs to help you earn more money. This was an interesting story where the write talks about how they stopped increasing their income when they reached the salary of their father. I wonder if I would act the same way, I still have a ways to go to get their though.

The thought never occurred to me that leaving the country for an extended period could wipe out your credit. This was a good piece over at the smarter wallet on how you can build your credit up when you don’t have any.

Silicon Valley Blogger talks about how she was an accidental entrepreneur and gives out some business advice. The one thing I really took away from this article was “Don’t think it is easier than your regular job.” That is true in so many ways.

Tom over at the Canadian finance blog tells a tale of a loaf of bread. I know it doesn’t seem very finance related at first but the end point is about how society over complicates things, that includes finance.

PT over at PTMoney talks about his friend who lost his credit card and what you should do if you lose yours. These kind of tales of lost cards are all too common, it is important to know what to do when you lose your card or your wallet.

West Virginia

West Virginia finished the regular season ranked 6th in the AP polls and got their bid as the Big East Champs. They have made 23 appearances in the tournament with their best finish as the runner-up in 1959. Having a played a solid season they have made a big improvement over 2009 where they finished only the 1st round of the tournament

Short, sweet, and not so sexy post from Budgets are Sexy adds on the ongoing saga of someone who filed bankruptcy then blew $250 after foreclosing on their house. J. Money is of the mindset they need a Financial intervention, and personally I agree.

Kelly, the stay at home mom CFO, had a terrible disaster happen, her TV Broke. In her post titled Math Class is Tough she talks about making the decision to not raid their emergency fund and to start saving cash to buy a new TV. More power to her, I don’t know if I could do it.

Joe’s wife told him they WERE going to get some new patio furniture this year. He does a good job of explaining how a penny saved is better than a penny earned. It makes sense that you can buy things by saving more money without increasing your income.

Ever go through a drive through and get home only to find out something is missing? That is just what happened to Lynnae but she did something most of us don’t she made an effective complaint about the problem. She talks about what happened and ways you can peacefully resolve complaints when it happens to you.

Butler Bulldogs

Butler made their way into the tournament as the champions of the Horizon League. They finished the regular season 32-4 and were ranked 11th by the AP. Prior to this year they had never finished better than the Sweet 16 and have made only 10 tournament appearances. Last year they didn’t make it past the 1st round of the tournament.

Oil and Garlic Blog talks about expanding personal finance teaching out of the realm of those already interested in finance. They make a good point in that most people who write or otherwise frequent finance blogs are already interested in money. How can we help those people who aren’t already actively seeking help?

Derek wrote a guest post over at Bible Money Matters telling us to stop faking it. In the post he discusses how he got a “new” car right out of college and how he learned to overcome that consumer need and eradicate his debt.

Frugal Dad talks about his recent quest to purchase a new air compressor. He highlights the tricks stores use to get us to pay more for the things we buy. It was a little eye opening when you see things called out like the infamous 10/$10 deals at Kroger. Incidentally you don’t have to buy 10 to get the discounted price.

Are your kids more generous than you? That is the question Craig’s wife Jeri is asking over at Money Help for Christians. I think most kids are more generous than their adult counterparts. They see someone with a need and want to fill that need. Adults over complicate the issues.

FMF talks about a bad experience with Comcast customer service that was saved after a tweet. Personally there is only one company in the world I refuse to ever do business with again, and you guess who they are but I am glad to see they are helping at least some people in customer service, even if it takes a comment to a Twitter user with 75k followers to get it.

Money Beagle talks about how it pays for them to recycle. They offer a similar service in my area but I would have to switch garbage providers and then pay for the recycling service so it would be a wash for me.

Michigan State

Michigan State is no stranger to the tournament. They entered the tournament this year on an at large bid but they finished 2009 as the runner up in the tournament. With two previous championships and 23 previous tournaments they have the experience edge over Butler.

Daniel bought a light bulb three times, not just any light bulb but a $7 light bulb.  I don’t know that I have anything in my house that takes a $7 light bulb and I can definitely see where he his kicking himself for buying the one he got three times.

WC covered the third installment of them trying to buy a house. This is a typical tale of the “perfect” house not looking so perfect after you sleep on it a little bit. To make it worse they had a pushy Realtor.

Alvin Tam did something I would not bring myself to do, he went homeless for 24 hours. The idea was to overcome a fear of becoming homeless by living as a homeless person. It was an extreme method but it seems to have worked for him. It is scary to think about what it would be like to truly be homeless and I don’t think 24 hours would really do justice to that kind of life.

Thanks for looking through this weeks Carnival of Money Stories. Be sure to get your submissions in for next weeks carnival being hosted by Bucksome Boomer.

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