w00t! The 164th Carnival of Personal Finance is online at Squawkfox. It’s vast: a whole galaxy of PF articles. And it’s really beautiful, with many wonderful photos of bucolic scenes. And a cool dog. Funny’s jeremiad calling on readers to shop local appears among the many offerings. I see iWeb (or possibly user error on my part?) has struck again in transmitting the homepage URL rather than the link to the post itself. So, since the Archive’s links are very iffy in the new improved MobileMe environment, I’m moving the post’s date from July 6 to today, so it will appear near the top.
Meanwhile, you’ve got to visit some of the excellent sites in this week’s carnival. I like Financial Reflection’s rumination on the actual cost of one’s car, mostly because it pretty much agrees with my opinion. And in the great minds in the same path department, GLBL brilliantly (IMHO) reviews the ten least-expensive-to-own vehicles and reveals that (lo!) nary a one is a hybrid. Not Made of Money explains how to decide what documents to spare from the shredder while you’re in declutter mode. Two bloggers raise questions about 401(k) plans: Generation X Finance explains how to tell whether your plan sucks, and No Debt Plan raises the possibility of discontinuing his 401(k).
My partner in crime and I were pleased to see that Squawkfox accepted The Copyeditor’s Desk’s first contribution to any carnival, a rave on the ideal job for liberal arts majors. Yay!!!
The 71st Carnival of Money Stories is up at Value for Your Life. This also offers a large selection of interesting and lively pieces, along with a great selection of travel photos. Funny’s rant about health insurance and US healthcare in general made Editor’s Pick here. It’s three in the morning and I’ve already started reading some of the entries. Check out Free Money Finance’s piece on the outcome of some of Extreme Home Makeover‘s projects–this one generated quite a slew of commentary! And did you realize that more than a third of Brits have only about 11 days’ worth of emergency savings? Yipe! Dorian Gray at The Personal Financier reports a survey to that effect; no parallel survey of Americans, though he found one saying 71% claim they have enough to cover unexpected costs like a car repair…that’s a lot different from having enough to live on for a two or three months if you lose your job. And finally, we were delighted to see my business partner’s first contribution to the Carnival of Money Stories, an essay at The Copyeditor’s Desk on how well editorial work fits the needs of a working mom.