I’ve missed a lot of things, especially opportunities finance related and otherwise.

Part of not missing things, especially financially is gaining as much knowledge as you possible can.  A great way to gain knowledge is making friends and reading as much as possible.  Blogging provides a personal perspective on personal finances, then the word “personal”.

So enjoy this weeks carnival of personal finance bloggers:

Dominique Brown @ YourFinancesSimplified writes Taxes and You: Go Cheap or Go Pro? – Yep, it’s that time again, that jolly season where we desperately hunt for paperwork, receipts and statements, the dreaded (by some) tax season. Time to fire up that calculator in the bottom of your desk drawer or head off to Staples to pick up a copy of Turbo Tax. Or should you?

Debt Guru @ Debt Free Blog writes Be Prepared: What to Do After Losing a Loved One – Losing a loved one is traumatic. Regardless of who they are, this is never an easy time in your life, but there are important steps to take after such a loss.

Crystal @ Married (with Debt) writes Baby Budget: How to Start Saving for a Baby – Learn what to expect financially when you’re expecting. Planning a baby budget and saving for a baby early can help you be better prepared for the expenses of raising a child. Open a money market account or certificate of deposit to get started today.

Maria @ The Money Principle writes Do you have what it takes to be a strategic saver? Take the test! – You need to be a strategic saver to win the Game of Wealth. Do you have what you need? Take the test and see.

Mr. Frenzy @ Frenzied Finances writes Finance Fast: Having a Successful Yard Sale – Are you in need of some quick cash? One of the best ways to earn some extra finances is to have a yard sale.

Wayne @ Young Family Finance writes 5 Ways to Budget for a New Car – Purchasing a brand new vehicle is exciting, but it’s also rather expensive. Instead of spending all of your savings on this car, follow these tips to ensure you receive the best price possible.

Suba @ Broke Professionals writes Quit the Gum! – How I stopped using nicotine gum after 8 years of chewing and $6000 worth of dental crowns for cracked teeth.

Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff writes 7 Financial Lessons from “Good Burger” – I hung out with my Little Bro’ from Big Brothers Big Sisters last night and he chose the Netflix movie for our evening – “Good Burger”.

Mrs. Accountability @ Out of Debt Again writes Did I Ever Tell You About the Time We Ate Dog Food? – Why would someone eat dog food? We’ve all heard stories about elderly people who are so poor and desperate that they would eat canned dog or cat food.

Don @ MoneySmartGuides writes How To Make Extra Cash – Do you want to know how to make extra cash? Who doesn’t? This post lists easy ways to make extra cash without a lot of effort. It’s the best of both worlds!

Roger the Amateur Financier @ The Amateur Financier writes 8 Ways to Keep Toddlers Entertained on Trips – A guide to methods for keeping your children, particularly toddlers while trying to travel, focusing on games, music, artwork, sites, and sleep.

Tony @ We Only Do This Once writes 5 Crazy Ways Credit Cards Ruin the Cash Culture – With the ease and convenience, not to mention the safety of using credit cards, it is easy to see how credit cards ruin the cash culture.

Mike @ Personal Finance Journey writes The 8 Most Common Car Insurance Myths – Will believing in car insurance myths help you save or not?

Kyle @ The Penny Hoarder writes How to Sell Your Old Phone for the Most Amount of Cash – A few months ago I published my guide on how to escape the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. A lot of you emailed me to say you loved the monthly goals and action steps, but told me that I missed one of the easiest ways to build your emergency fund – selling your old crap.

IMB @ Investing Money writes Investing in Solar Stocks – The solar energy sector has been growing steadily as a need for new sources of power grows. Now, solar energy stocks are a growing investment option.

SBB @ Simple Budget Blog writes Falling in Love With Your Finances – Getting financially frustrated? Here’s how to fall in love with your finances instead of hating them.

SavingMentor @ How To Save Money writes Aeroplan Credit Cards Comparison – Helping you understand and choose the best Aeroplan credit card on the market. Take advantage of the significant sign up bonuses and fly free faster!

Don @ Money Reasons writes Why It’s Wrong When Billionaires Try To Destroy Companies – Can and will Billionaire Bill Ackman start to destroy companies and jobs. I think it’s wrong when Billionaires Try To Destroy Companies and here’s why.

Lauren @ L Bee and the Money Tree writes It’s Worth the Spend: When You Should Be Totally Okay with Spending Money – Some things in life are worth the money. Sometimes, we should avoid beating ourselves up for not saving and be totally okay with spending money instead.

Hank @ Money Q&A writes Affordable Home Insurance Checklist – Are You Paying too Much? – First time buyers and existing homeowners alike can benefit from a few practical steps in purchasing homeowners insurance. Here is a home insurance checklist to get started.

Marissa @ Finance Triggers writes Quirky tips for conserving cash – Here are a few quirky tips for saving some cash. Read on to find out how you do not have to turn your life inside out to gain control of your finances.

 

Ted Jenkin @ Your Smart Money Moves writes Five Financial First Time Homebuyer Mistakes – In all of the financial transactions we make in our lives, there are few that pale in comparison to the excitement of making the purchase of your first

CAPI @ Creating a Passive Income writes College Past 22? Why It Might Not Be Too Late – Whether a student is 18 and thinking of postponing or 22 and thinking of attending college for the first time, here are a few things to think about.

Kurt Fischer @ Money Counselor writes Couple Sacrifices for 5 Years, Retires $109,000 Credit Card Debt – Think you have a lot of credit card debt? Meet Travis and Vonnie. After 5 years of sticking to their plan, the couple erased over $100k in credit card debt.

Emily @ Evolving Personal Finance writes Why We’re Holding on to My Student Loans – Despite Suze Orman’s condemnation as the most dangerous type of debt, I see many advantages to keeping my federal student loans longer than necessary.

Adam @ Stop Worrying About Money writes Day 13 – How To Identify Quality In The Products You Buy – Today, we are going to be talking about the term quality,”and what it means for the products we buy.

Charles @ Getting A Rich Life writes What It Means To Be Poor In America – There is a fascinating article I found on Frugaling about a poor person who wrote about why she made bad decisions. She explains why she smokes, eats junk food and has several kids by several different fathers.

Alexa @ Defeat Our Debt writes How to Get Rid of Debt on Your Own – There is no easy way to get rid of debt. You have several options, each come with their own set of pros and cons. Here is how to get rid of debt on your own.

Natalie @ Debt and the Girl writes Spending Money to Save Money – Driving down an LA surface street to go to my friend’s house, that dreaded feeling came over me at a stoplight. My car was kind of doing this weird shaking thing.

Justin @ Edward Antrobus writes Considering ETFs? Here’s How to Get a Good Deal – ETFs can be purchased practically anywhere you can buy a stock, either through a broker, or a brokerage account.

Marissa @ Thirty Six Months writes Simple Strategies for Prioritising Your Debts – Most of us have debt in some form; that is a fact of life. It is important to have a goal to pay back any debt owed, but it is just as important to know which debts should be paid off first.

Sam @ The New Business Blog writes Fastest Ways to Build Debt Straight Out of High School – Graduating high school is a big milestone in life. It is an exciting time that often makes young adults feels a bit of freedom.

Bob @ Dwindling Debt writes Protect your Tax Refund from Identity Thieves – What could be worse than having to file your taxes this year? How about having an identity thief steal your tax return check?

Lily @ Paying Debt Down writes A Few Reasons that Investors like ETFs – In recent years, ETFs have become much more popular and are actually gaining against some other, more mature mutual funds. The reasons for that gain in popularity are explained below.

Andrea @ So Over This writes Rocky Balboa Invented CrossFit Training – I have prided this site on being a good mix between topics on life, and on finance. Fortunately for me those two topics often collide.

Hadley @ Epic Finances writes Which Bond ETFs are Doing Well so Far in 2014? – It is well-known among investors that US equity markets have gotten off to a pretty rough start here in 2014. Because of that being the case, there is much higher interest in fixed income securities resurfacing this year.

Lenny @ Best Money Saving Blog writes How to Cope With Overspending – There are many reasons for overspending. Some people do it because they are insecure and use possessions as comfort objects. Others use acquiring new things as a quick pick-me-up if they are feeling a bit low.

Amy @ Money Mishaps writes Have a childhood savings bond? Here’s what you can do it – Although it was not always a welcome gift, many children got savings bonds for birthdays and other holidays. The goal behind them, in most cases, was to have something ready when it was time to pay for college.

Jack @ Money Saving Ethics writes Is the myRA destined to be a misguided, bureaucratic nightmare? – Critics are already lining up to deride Pres. Barack Obama’s new retirement account, the myRA, saying that it will do almost nothing to help the working poor is destined to become another bloated bureaucratic system that will waste of taxpayers’ dollars by the billions.

Matt @ Budget Snob writes Should you consider refinancing a student loan? – One of the biggest debts that the average American has is their student loans from college. Recently there has been a lot of talk about refinancing a student loan. We look at a number of different factors that you should know about before making a decision on whether to do this.

Danielle @ Saving Without a Budget writes Most in US Have No Savings to Speak Of, Unfortunately – The average American continues to struggle when it comes to saving money due to problems like prolonged unemployment, underemployment and stagnant wages.

Oscar @ Money is the Root writes What Do Americans Really do with Their Tax Refunds? – Surprisingly the IRS has already issued over 31 million refunds in 2014 and the average refund so far is $3200. Despite their best intentions however, the average American finds it quite difficult to save that money.

Daniel @ Make Money Make Cents writes Where exactly IS the Best Place to Retire? – If retirement is approaching for you and you are planning on making a move to spend your golden years in an area of the world where you can stretch your budget, a new report says that you should be taking a good look at Europe.

PFC @ PF Carny writes Does Couponing Really Save Money? – Depending on how you do it and how into it you get, it can be either bad or good. Does couponing really save you money? It can, but it can also cost you money at the same time.

Jen Perkins @ Master the Art of Saving writes 10 Ways to Save More Money (Even If You Don’t Want To Be A Couponer) – Couponing for the last 5 or 6 years has taught me many things. Things I never really paid attention to before I started using coupons. Since not everyone is interested in learning about coupons or even extreme couponing, I thought I would share some of my enlightenment with you all.

Jen @ Prepping is Sexy writes Food Insurance: Keeping Your Family Fed – I can’t be the only one noticing the skyrocketing prices everywhere. Products, both food and non-food items just keep getting more expensive. So what can you do? How can you ensure that your family will be able to eat if this continues?

Mario @ Adventures in Frugal writes Plan out your next job (or three) while happy in your current one — a personal finance goal for March 2014 – Don’t wait until you’re miserable or jobless to look for your next position

Little House @ Little House in the Valley writes Do You Need a College Education to Make a Decent Salary? – There are plenty of jobs out there that require no more than an associate’s degree, or two years at a local community college at a fraction of the cost, and pay hefty salaries compared to jobs that require a lot of college (hmmm..teaching, anyone?!) and don’t pay nearly as much.

Shannon @ Financially Blonde writes Investing Fear Factors – As a financial advisor, I have seen many fear factors that prevent people from investing as much as they should. These are the top four fear factors I see and ways that you can overcome these fears.

GYF @ Gaming Your Finances writes Our Savings Rate Was… !!! – We calculated our savings rate for the last year. This is something we’re really interested in because that will tell us exactly how long until we reach early retirement! Follow the link to find out what our savings rate was in 2013.

Andrew Pohl @ Finance with Reason writes Prospect Theory: Do you sell winning investments too early? – Answer these two questions to find out if you may be cutting your investment gains short by selling stocks too early and learn how prospect theory can help.

Harry Campbell @ Your PF Pro writes The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Your 401(k) – When I started this site back in 2011, it was only a hobby. I didn’t ever expect to gain the following that I now have or turn it into a viable business but that’s what it’s become. Over the years, I’ve picked up a ton of knowledge about topics ranging from investments and credit cards to budgeting and creating multiple sources of income. But the real reason why I started this blog was so that I could share all that information with anyone willing to listen.

Brock Kernin @ CleverDude writes Success Is All About Choices – Given the same opportunities, people can choose very different paths – choose wisely!

Marvin @ Brick By Brick Investing writes Outline On How To Buy Municipal Bonds – A quick and detailed description of how to find and buy Municipal Bonds.

And there you have it.  I hope you found some value in things that you might have missed from a finance perspective.

Thanks for reading.