Here are the Editor’s Picks:
Gather Little By Little: Best Investment for 2009: Use your Emergency Fund to pay off your debt
Bible Money Matters: The Great Big List Of 75 Budgeting Tools, Finance Softwares And Iphone Money Apps
Man Vs. Debt: Travel Hacking for Noobs: How We Save Hundreds on Airfare, Get Free Accommodation, & Make Money while Overseas
Own The Dollar: Why Dollar Cost Averaging Makes Sense and Works For Investors
Financial Highway: Best Credit Card

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Miss M of M is for Money. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are her Editor’s Picks:
Christian Finances: Is the 401k a bad idea?
Consumerism Commentary: Seven Zen Principles to Guide Your Money and Your Life
Len Penzo: My Store-Brand vs. Name-Brand Blind Taste-Test Experiment
Enemy of Debt: Enjoy Frugal Entertainment Without Breaking The Bank

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Tom of The Canadian Finance Blog. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

From a purely business perspective, my friend/mentor advised me not to quibble over who paid the bill when I dined out with an older, successful, networking acquaintance. “He can most certainly afford it, he invited you, and he can always write it off,” she asserts. These points were all true, at the time. The person in question is both gracious and helpful whenever possible leads come up, and has since taken the initiative to point me and my resume at highly placed persons who were interviewing for desirable positions. [At which point it’s up to me so that there isn’t impropriety or influence on my behalf which I would never ask for or expect.]

But what happens when the acquaintance morphs into a semi-friendship? When you’re meeting to catch up and tell stories, it’s no longer 100% business. I feel like that development then brings with it the obligation to offer to, and even insist on, paying sometimes. It’s only fair. I don’t want my acquaintance/now friend to think that I simply expect a great meal at his expense; that’s certainly not the case.

I’m aware that insisting on footing the bill when he has selected the restaurant, when he is more than financially comfortable [yes, finances have come up in the conversation in a career-related turn], and/or when I am unemployed seems to smack more of irrational pride than sense. But I’m unemployed, not destitute, and it hardly seems right to assume that I shouldn’t pay simply because I don’t have access to a corporate account. That seems like a recipe for brewing resentment; the line of reasoning that “you have more money than I, so let’s use your resources, thanks!” doesn’t sit well with me. Neither party’s resources should determine who pays. It can certainly influence the selection of the experience, but I think fair means that both parties take it in turn to pay.

How does the financial relationship change when your business relationship acquires shades of the personal? How should it?

[Disclosure: This post is also published at my blog, A Gai Shan Life.]

Here are Money Crasher’s Editor’s Picks:
My Life ROI: Gifts for Kids: Who Do They Belong To?
AllFinancialMatters: Bill Miller vs. the S&P 500 Index
Bargaineering : The Economics of Energy
Bargaineering: True Power of Compound Interest
Money Under 30: Seven Signs You’re At Risk for Identity Theft
Suburban Dollar: When Debtors Go AWOL
Mighty Bargain Hunter: Do this and you’ll manage your checking account successfully
Bible Money Matters: 10 Attributes Of The Perpetually Broke
Budgets Are Sexy: Does it matter who the “breadwinner” is anymore?
Man Vs. Debt: 92 Quotes About Debt That’ll Make You Think, Laugh, & Tweet!
Cash Money Life: The Early Adopters Tax

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Kelly of The Centsible Life. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

The sky-high unemployment rates, the unprecedented call for long-term unemployment benefits, the staggering number of people struggling to make it from one day to the next, all these indicators point to the wisdom of continued frugality.

Officials talk about a “jobless recovery” which can only mean that the depredations of this recession – homelessness due to foreclosure (NY Times), students carrying tens of thousands in debt with few job prospects (LA Times), people joining the Army as a last resort for family medical care (Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel) – continue to take a huge bite out of whatever remaining resources, and hope, people may have.  Rainy day accounts, emergency funds, family and friends are tapped out, public and private sources of assistance are equally drained as charitable donations disappear.

And with the constant political fights over every single solution, none of which seem terribly effective [not to get political here], these circumstances aren’t getting better in a hurry.

If you read the sometimes harsh, certainly intense comments over at Bargaineering about the proposed extension of unemployment benefits, you can see that there’s a dichotomy between those who are currently unemployed, and those who are not.  Many of those unemployed have been so for months, some for over a year, and I have to wonder how deeply this will affect our career paths.

Yet, for some of those who still bring home a paycheck, the deprivation of frugality palls and as this article in the Washington Post notes, “deep and lasting change might prove challenging in a country where the phrase “shop ‘til you drop” gets 1.7 million Google hits.”

I admit that I was fatigued by all the dire recession talk by mid-May, despite my own preparation for unemployment.   Who wouldn’t become sick of such constant negativity?  But my baseline has always been set on savings and frugality.  For many Americans, that’s still a concept with negative connotations: “I’m saving/spending less because the company’s going through layoffs,” “I’m cutting back because we have less money.”   There aren’t a lot of positives associated with the notion of New Economy frugality, just a lot of coping techniques.

Because of that, I have to wonder how this will all shake out.  Will we reach a median somewhere between the high-luxe spending of the boom years and the extreme belt-tightening of this past year?  Or are we looking at the beginnings of a fissure in American society where a greater gap opens between the haves and have-nots?  Or will we return to business as usual as the cycle turns again?

[You can find my everyday writing over at A Gai Shan Life.]

Len Penzo: 7 Deadly Sins of Personal Finance
Free Money Finance: 5 Stages of Investing Enlightenment
Bret Frohlich: The Economics of Energy
Bargaineering: Most Valuable Regular U.S. Coin
Money Help for Christians: The characteristics of the poor, middle-class & wealthy
M is for Money: Should colleges charge more for certain degrees?
Saving to Invest: Why even high-income earners are not far from the edge of poverty

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Money Crashers. Please be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

I was just mulling over the struggle we experience when relationships with family and friends intersect with money. We see some of this all the time: the subtle dynamics of ” my sibling the rich one” vs. “my cousin the poor one,” the profligate vs. the saver, the haves vs. the have-nots. Generational money (or lack of it) adds another layer of complexity to the picture, as does the responsibility factor: who should or must step up when times get tough? And how?

Today, more than any other time in my almost four years of blogging, this question carries an urgency thanks to the economy we’re facing. With an all-time unemployment high, stringent credit throughout the market, and businesses still staggering under the pressure, it’s no wonder that people will need a helping hand from time to time. Things happen, life happens.

It’s critical that as a possible resource, you make sure that your finances are in order. It’s a mistake to lend money that you cannot afford to lose. In this case, learn to say no. It can be tough.

If you can afford to lose it, and decide that you are at ease with the idea of losing it, if you choose to give a family or friend a loan, seriously consider making it a gift. I’m not encouraging giving the recipient a free ride, whether or not you choose to tell the person in question that it’s a gift is up to you: every situation is different and perhaps the person is a younger sibling or a friend or a child who needs the opportunity to take responsibility. That’s fine, but for the sake of your sanity, make it a gift on your part.

Early on, that suggestion didn’t make sense to me, but it’s starting to now. After many years of quietly resenting that the sibling loans I made, and after giving myself countless nights of heartburn when the money never materialized, it dawned on me that I honestly couldn’t afford to give that money away in the first place. The loan wasn’t a permanent solution, and beyond that, it was causing me more harm than good.

Even when I could afford to let go of the money, the unfulfilled expectations were driving me Crazy. Thus, in our most recent debacle, the verbal message to my father was: pay me back. In my heart though, I just let it go, and on my desk, my budget was reworked. Adios, money!

It’s still irritating to be out that money, but it’s not keeping me up nights fussing about what else he spent the money on or why he failed to repay the loan. It’s less personal, in a way. And in the grand scheme of things, a good night’s sleep is more important than $500 that won’t put me in the poorhouse.

[Hi! My name is Revanche, and I normally write at my own PF blog: A Gai Shan Life.]

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by Fabulously Broke at Fabulously Broke in the City; be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

JLP will be posting/hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance #226 tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13th.

We’ll see you in the morning!

Studenomist’s Editor’s Picks:

Budgets Are Sexy: So What If People Make Fun Of Our Frugality!

Get Rich Slowly: Money is More about Mind than it is about Math

Bible Money Matters: How To Get The Best Deal When Signing Up For Cable Or Satellite TV

Silicon Valley Blogger: Get A Fast Cash Loan, Pay Through Your Nose.

Please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival hosted by JLP at All Financial Matters; be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Articles should be submitted by 5 p.m. Sunday night before the Carnival.

This week’s Editor’s Picks:

Man Vs. Debt: The “Sh**-That-Doesn’t-Inspire-You” Factor.
Finance Your Life: How To Pay Down $73,674.28 In Student Loans
FiscalGeek: Why My Kids Will Drive a Piece of Crap
Own the Dollar: Know as much about a company as possible
Dough Roller: 5 Ways to Calculate How Much House You Can Afford
Amateur Asset Allocator: How To Invest When You Don’t Have Much Money

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival; be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

This week’s Editor’s Picks:

PT Money: Prevent your television from draining your money.
Get Rich Slowly: 11 ways you can make building an emergency fund more exciting.
Carrie on the Cheap: Common personal finance mistakes (or “fails”)
Own the Dollar: Know as much about a company as possible
Dough Roller: 23 tips and tools that can be used to eliminate debt.
One Money Design: Overcome impulse shopping.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival to be hosted at My Life ROI. Be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

We look forward to next week’s Carnival to be hosted at Taking Charge. Be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST!

Here are Ray’s Editor’s picks:

Bob from Christian Finances: 6 unusual uses for common household items

Matt Jabs from Debt Free Adventure: Spending Filters – How I Save Money On Just About Everything

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog: Where To Find Other Sources Of Income

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

Simply Forties will be hosting next week’s Carnival, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 5 pm EST.

Here are SD’s Editor’s picks:

Budgets Are Sexy: Automation and Forgetting to Brush My Teeth

Financial Highway: Probate: Understanding What Probate is-Steps in the Probate Process

Man Vs. Debt: Leveraging Social Media: My Journey To Untangle The Web

Prime Time Money: Cash for Clunkers Tax Rules – What You Owe

Enjoy the collection and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

Financial Highway will be hosting next week’s Carnival, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 6 pm EST.

Here are Adam’s picks:

M is for Money: What to Do When Your Partner Doesn’t Care About Money.

Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck: Bank Fees and Billing Errors.

Weakonomics: What Kind of Saver Are You?

Darwin’s Finance: The Cost of That Puppy in the Window.

Enjoy the collection and please remember to link back to the Carnival if your submission was featured!

Stretchy Dollar will be hosting next week’s Carnival, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 6 pm EST.

Here are  J’s Editor’s picks:

• My Two Dollars: Cut Spending By Looking At Hours Of Work Put In To Pay For Stuff


• Realm of Prosperity: The Infomercial Copycat Method of Debt Reduction


• My Financial Journey: $100,000 in principal by Age 30 – Final Recap


• Free Money Finance: Does a Pleasant Attitude/Personality Help You Succeed?
  


• Saving Cents in the City: Lessons I Could Learn from My Younger Self – Value Cash

Chris of Your Money Relationship will be hosting next week’s Carnival, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 6 pm EST.

Here are a few of Kelly’s Editor’s picks:

• Money from Budgets are Sexy presents Be Aware of Reference Groups


• Debt Ninja from Punch Debt In The Face presents Mega Mad Lib Recap


• Mr. from Not the Jet Set presents To Convert or Not To Convert: Roth IRAs


• Adam from Rabbit Funds presents Stop Lying, 5 Ways to Stop Overspending


• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Savings Account Rates: Where Are The High Returns?


• Jason Unger from Automatic Finances presents Leasing a Car? Know the Downsides


• vh from Funny about Money presents Real Estate as Investment

J. Money of Budgets are Sexy will be hosting next week’s Carnival, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday, 6 pm EST.

• Identify & Overcome Money Anxiety & Stress in Relationships
• How to Save Money on Your Property Tax
• 12 Ways to Fail Your Job Interview
• The Other Costs of Home Ownership
• Do You Keep Money Secrets From Your Spouse?

All participants should remember to link back to today’s Carnival of Personal Finance. Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by Darwin’s Finance. Please submit your articles before the deadline on Sunday, 6:00 PM Eastern Time. Here is the upcoming hosting schedule through September.

• Dealing With Annual Expenses
• When Spending the Money is Worth the Cost
• It’s Pick-Your-Own Fruit Season
• 16-Year-Old Skips the Last Two Years of High School to Play Professional Baseball

Thanks to everyone who participated in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. Please check out all of this week’s articles. Next week’s Carnival of Personal Finance will be hosted by Green Panda Treehouse. Please submit your best article this week by Sunday evening at 6:00 PM ET.

We’re currently in the process of determining the hosting schedule for the next three months, and we will announce the schedule once everyone has confirmed their placements.

• Average Student Loan Debt By State
• Can Credit Card Companies Go After You If You Leave the Country?
• Ways to Watch TV Without Paying an Arm and a Leg for Cable or Satellite
• How Not to Worry About Money
• That Makes Me Stabby: Cash for Clunkers Program

There were several excellent articles included this week; be sure the check the full 209th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance to find something you will like.

• The Three Most Influential Lessons My Parents Taught Me
• Are Green and Socially Responsible Mutual Funds Worth It?
• 5 Ways to Report Scams

There are many more articles to read in the 202nd edition. Take the time to view some of the articles included. With many aspects of personal finance represented, there is bound to be something for every interest. If you participated in this week’s Carnival, thank you. Please don’t forget to link back to the Carnival, pointing out to your readers some of your favorites this week.

Next Monday, the 203rd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance will be hosted by Weakonomics.

Thanks to everyone who participated this past week. Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by FIRE Finance; please submit your best article from this week before Sunday evening to be included in next Monday’s Carnival.

• Augment Yourself, Not Your Resume from Bargaineering
• I am Just a Blogger, Damn It! from Moolanomy

Please peruse the rest of today’s Carnival of Personal Finance for more excellent articles about money and life.