We are excited to host the Yakezie Carnival this week. There are some great posts included in the list below. We’re new to the Yakezie Challenge and this was a great opportunity to get to know other challenge members. Enjoy!

Investing

Jeff Rose @ Good Financial Cents writes Penny Stock Debacle: How I Lost $5,000 and You Can (and Better!) Avoid It – When buying an over-the-counter stock, otherwise known as a penny stock, you must be sure to protect yourself and make sure that when you place an order to buy or sell, that you put a specific price on it. Learn from my mistake!

A Blinkin @ Funancials writes Should You Buy Stocks NOW? – When people get too pessimistic, I enjoy dishing out encouraging words to breathe life back into their lungs. On the other hand, when people become overly optimistic, I unfortunately have to be the one to bring them back down to Earth. On August 30th of last year, I wrote that Stocks Will Rise and The World Won’t End.

Tushar @ Start Investing Money writes Should You Look Into Unusual Investments? – When you think about investments you probably think of stocks, shares, mutual funds and various other investments of a similar ilk. However you have more options than this, including some rather unusual investment opportunities you may wish to consider.

SFB @ Simple Finance Blog writes Annuities: What Every Investor Should Know – Here is a simplified overview of annuities. We will look at three basic types of annuities that are the foundation of the concept.

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey @ My Personal Finance Journey writes Comparison of Popular Online Stock Brokers – Special offers aside, this post illustrates the basics on some of the more popular online stock brokers and helps you decide which online stock broker may be most appropriate for your unique situation.

FMF @ Free Money Finance writes Confusion with Precious Metal Pricing – I noticed there are a TON of commercials for gold and silver investing. After a while I started keeping track of the advertisements, wondering what the difference would be from one company to the next. Service? Shipping? Something else? I thought that pricing would be the same. Boy, was I mistaken. I decided to do an experiment.

PK @ Don’t Quit Your Day Job… writes When Was the All Time High in the S&P 500? – We’re not looking at a recent peak in the S&P 500 – we calculate the peak to have been around 13 years ago, in March of 2000. We’re still 4.5% of gains off a new, inflation adjusted S&P record!

Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank @ Monster Piggy Bank writes Forex Currency Trading Basics For Beginners – Part 2 – Learn to create a Forex demo account, understand the Metatrader 4 application and start trading Forex.

Jon @ Novel Investor writes What Is Preferred Stock? – When people discuss stock, they are usually referring to common stock. But preferred stock is another type and it is popular with income investors.

CAPI @ Creating a Passive Income writes Tools of a Passive Investor – Passive income is all the hype these days. Many of my closest friends are finally understanding the power of passive income. As we all know, it takes time and money to generate passive income. It’s not as easy as some may make it sound, but it is a great way to build wealth. Focusing on passive income also means that you are focusing on the time investment.

Crystal @ Married (with Debt) writes Starting Your Nest Egg: Investing In Your Marriage – Why not start your marriage right with an investing nest egg.

Steven @ MyDividendStocks writes Why would a Company not pay Stock Dividends – Dividends are an important part of the equation when you want to assess a company as an investment. Dividends that are paid out at regular intervals are a sure sign of the good health of a company. Therefore, companies pay out dividend not just to share their profits with their shareholders, but also to signal that their finances are in good health.

Luke @ Learn Bonds writes 4 Convertible Bond Funds for Investors to Explore – A list of convertible bond funds for those those interested in adding portfolio exposure to convertible bonds to their portfolio.

Jacob @ AllPersonalFinance writes Should I invest in the Forex – The word forex is made up using two words: Foreign exchange. Forex trading refers to any trading in which one buys or sells one international currency against another. Every day, more than $4 trillion worth of forex trading is done all over the world, which should tell us that this is a huge market.

IMB @ Investing Money writes Investment Strategies – Everyone is looking for a great investment. Everyone dreams of high rate of returns and liquidity in their investments accompanied by low maintenance. It’s not everyday that you find all three in one. In fact, it’s almost impossible.

Household Savings

Steve @ Grocery Alerts writes 10 ways to save more money at Costco – Costco provides great regular warehouse savings, but here are 10 additional ways where you can save more money having a Costco membership.

Lance @ Money Life and More writes Moving Soon? How and Where to Get Free Boxes to Save Money – In addition to learning how to move I’ve also learned how to save money while moving. One of the biggest costs can be packing materials (moving boxes, wrapping paper, bubble wrap, etc.) and I’m going to share with you how I managed to get these items for free!

Emily @ PT Money writes 7 Inexpensive Powerhouse Foods to Add to Your Diet – One reason people don’t eat healthy foods is because it’s so expensive. In honor of National Nutrition Month, we share 7 foods that are healthy AND cheap.

Thomas @ Finance Inspired writes Cut the costs on your weekly commute to work – with a few small changes you can save a little bit of cash on a daily basis just by following 3 simple steps

Michelle @ The Shop My Closet Project writes How to connect with new people without being a creeper – Last week I went to Atlanta to attend a conference. While I was there I wanted to connect with a friend of mine from Up With People and with some personal finance bloggers who live in Atlanta. I had never met them before and quite honestly they are pretty well known in the personal finance community and I am not. I’m a big believer in meeting new people but introducing yourself to new people can be tricky. You don’t want to come across as a creeper.

Raymond Weiss @ http://www.weissins.com/ writes 17 Little Known Home and Auto Insurance Discounts – Home and auto insurance discounts, you may be missing out on.

Amanda L Grossman @ Frugal Confessions writes Impermanent Solutions to Make your Apartment More Energy Efficient – Owning a home yields many opportunities to increase overall energy efficiency.

Mike @ Personal Finance Journey writes Is There Such Thing as Saving Money While Shopping? – Ever considered saving money when shopping? Did you know its even possible to spend AND save? Easy smart shopping tips that work.

Buck Inspire @ Buck Inspire writes Stop Your Services Mr. Telephone Man! – When moving to a new home, you of course need to setup utilities in your new place. But do you always remember to shut everything off in the old? Don’t pay for services you won’t be using anymore!

Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff writes Ask for Discounts or Get Screwed… – I don’t know how else to say this, I took 15 minutes and saved 15% or more on my car insurance. Call and ask for discounts or you could be vastly overpaying!

Budgets

Emily @ Evolving Personal Finance writes When Did We Acquire All This Cash? – I woke up to the fact that we have a decent amount of cash in our short-term savings accounts – we’re not as broke as I tend to think we are.

Kurt Fischer @ Money Counselor writes H&R Block Tax Snafu – A flaw in H&R Block’s tax preparation software may mean 6-8 week delays of thousands of refunds for returns that included Form 8863, “Education Credits”.

Everything Finance @ Everything Finance Blog writes Your Marriage: Who Spends & Who Saves? – When it comes to your marriage, your differences can actually strengthen your relationship. We have a few set goals that we agree on, and we have several priorities (like education and travel) that we both agree deserve the majority of our savings. We balance each other out when it comes to our budget and the items we want.

Matt @ Living in Financial Excellence writes Strategic Planning for the Everyday Family – We started working on our strategic financial plan. We recognized that this should include more than just a few financial goals and targets. We wanted to take some time and plan our family’s future. Financial planning is just a small piece of the overall picture.

Daniel @ Sweating the Big Stuff writes 3 Things We Pay For That Prove We’ve Become Lazy Americans – We pay for things we don’t really need out of laziness. Watch out for these 3 budget busters!

Gary @ Gajizmo writes How To Save Money – Saving money isn’t easy. There is really only so much you can cut from your budget, but knowing how to save money and finding creative ways to meet your financial goals can make all the difference between a fully-funded retirement and living on social security. Here are in-depth methods of reviewing your spending and finding savings.

Retirement

Kevin @ Passiveincometoretire writes 4% Retirement Rule, Pros and Cons – The 4% retirement rule refers to a particular strategy that is used by retirees when they want to use their savings. The rule says that the best strategy when using your retirement savings is to withdraw about 4% of the savings every year, adjusting the sum for inflation every year.

Invest It Wisely @ Invest It Wisely writes What Does ‘Early Retirement’ Mean to You? – We often use the same word to mean different concepts, and early retirement means different things to different people.

MR @ Money Reasons writes Roth IRA Unusual Benefits – The following is how I view a Roth IRA, my view is personal and I don’t recommend this approach, since a Roth IRA is a retirement instrument. That said, it works for me!

Jason Hull @ Hull Financial Planning writes How Bad is Bad? The Magnitude of Failure in Retirement Planning Scenarios – Financial Planners like to give you a percentage of time that your retirement plan will end up without running out of money. Is this the right approach?

Greg @ http://thriftgenuity.com writes Retire Early or Work With Less Stress? – The goal is to retire well before 65, but is working a high stress job with better pay worth it compared to a job with less stress but not quite a much pay? Pros and cons examined.

Wayne @ VisualFin writes Financial Lifecycle – During our lifetime, we are always at different stages of our financial lifecycle. Based on this lifecycle, we should be able to determine how much money we need to save in order to retire and whether or not our goals need to be adjusted based on our future expectations.

Savings

Deacon @ Well Kept Wallet writes 3 Unique Ways to Save Money – Do you like saving money? Who doesn’t, right? There is no reason to pay more for something if you don’t have to. There are so many ways that you can save money whether it is coupons, discounts, promo codes, you name it. Here are three unique ways that I have found to save money.

Hank @ Money Q&A writes Easy Ways To Save Money Right Now Without Even Thinking – Stopping yourself from spending money and wasting money is the easiest easy ways to save money right now without even having to think about doing it.

Taxes

Joe @ Midlife Finance writes Five Tax Tips: Past, Present, Future – If you’ve been Johnny-on-the-spot and kept careful records every month all year long, feel proud — and smug. Tax preparation should be fairly easy for you.

Jules Wilson @ Faithful With a Few writes A New Perspective on Our Tax Return – We recently got our tax return and it was a different experience than in the past. We just recently have been trying to get a handle on our finances, so we approached this with a lot more care than in the past. I am going to share what we would have done in the past with the money we got back, and then I will share what we changed this year.

Jon the Saver @ Free Money Wisdom writes Five Red Flags that Could Trigger an Audit – Here are five red flags that can easily trigger an audit with the IRS. You will want to avoid these this tax season!

Sam @ Simplefinancialfreedom writes How to Avoid a Tax Audit – Preparing and filing for your taxes is far from an easy exercise.

Debt

Arnel Ariate @ Money Soldiers writes Dealing with Debt After Losing Your Job – Learn how to be debt free. I made my final loan payment in February of 2013. It was two years, to the month, after I had lost my job. Now when I buy something, I appreciate it even more because it is a well-earned treat and not a wasteful indulgence.

CollegeMom @ ConsumerFu writes Are you liable for pre-marital debts? – A quick rundown on how pre-marital debt is treated in most states and whether you will be held liable for your future spouse’s debts.

John @ WILD about Finance writes Video: What is a Fixed Rate Mortgage? – Everybody talks about them, but are they best for you? BagMan has bags of knowledge and will explain all in this video

Kevin @ 20smoney.com writes Student Loan Forgiveness – Student loans allow millions of students in the United States to pursue an education they otherwise would have missed out on.

Jon Haver @ Pay My Student Loans writes GoFreeCredit Review – Keeping a close eye on one’s credit score is a good way of figuring out when is the best time to take out a loan, especially for graduates and undergraduates. Applying for a new credit line, especially for tuition and the expenses of college life can be a daunting task for those who don’t know where to start.

Wayne @ Young Family Finance writes The Important Facts About Home Equity Loans – Buying a home is a financial investment can lead to extra money in a few years in the form of a home equity loan.

Frugal Living

Tim @ Faith and Finance writes Can You Be Too Frugal? – This can seem like a ridiculous question when you are struggling to pay your bills, pay off debt, or to save money. But it’s also an important question because there’s a difference between being frugal – and being cheap!

Everything Else

Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes Hecka’ cool! It’s the official launch of our financial eBook, The A-Z of Saving Money – Check out the A-Z of saving money! My first ebook.

harry campbell @ Your PF Pro writes Does it Make Financial Sense to Move In With Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend? – Whether it’s after a few months or a few years, after a certain point in every relationship you’ll probably consider moving in together. It’s a natural progression in most couples’ relationship and at this point, you’ll have to weigh the positives and negatives. You will save on gas driving to each other’s houses, save on food cooking together, save on utilities, etc. Financially, it sounds like a great move but is it the best thing for your relationship?

Mr.CBB @ Canadian Budget Binder writes What My Life Is Like With Terrible Credit – Bankruptcy may be her only option so she can get a fresh start with her personal finances. She is tired of just existing and wants to start living. An emotional yet inspirational story of one CBB fan who hopes she can inspire others to take control of their debt and start budgeting like she has.

Michelle @ Making Sense of Cents writes Case of Lifestyle Inflation – But I’m Not Upset – Whenever we make a financial decision, I’m not going to lie, I tend to think about how readers will perceive the decision and whether I will get yelled at. That’s not always bad though, because it just makes me triple think everything and make sure I’m happy with whatever decision that I do make!

Steven @ Canadian Personal Finance writes Five sure-fire signs that you need a new job – Here are five sure-fire signs that you’re in the wrong job – and that it’s a high-time you started looking for a new one.

Grayson @ Debt Roundup writes Who Do American’s Look To As A Financial Mentor? – As the US economy and the economies of the world sputter along, who can we look to as a financial mentor? Spending and consumption is out of control and we need help.

Jon Rhodes @ HypnoBusters writes Napoleon Hill – The Secrets of How To Think Rich – This article illustrates the great Napoleon Hill who closely and personally followed hundreds of geniuses for more than 20 years. These geniuses included people like Henry Ford and Thomas Edision. He observed them, interviewed them, and boiled down this information and found the traits that you can acquire to become successful and rich. This is a fasinating source of wisdom straight from a fountain of success.

KK @ Student Debt Survivor writes Put College on Hold & Get a Job – At age 18, did you know what career you’d want to do for the rest of your life? I didn’t. Should we encourage high school grads to put college on hold for a few years until they, “figure it out”?

Nick @ A Young Pro writes Finding Your Passion – Back when I was applying for every job I could see I was also taking every interview that I could. I learned a lot from those interviews, and one of the first lessons that I learned was to show passion. Potential employees that are passionate stand out from the crowd. If you are energetic, enthusiastic, and can talk intelligently about certain topics, employers will notice that you are in it for more than just the job.

John S @ Frugal Rules writes 4 Great Ways to Enjoy March Madness at Work – March madness is both loved and hated at the same time. There are many fun and frugal ways you can enjoy the fun without being a drag on your employer as well.

Jules Wilson @ Fat Guy,Skinny Wallet writes How To Track Your Food And Exercise In A Calorie Counter App – Using a calorie counter app? Entering exercise can be confusing at times, here is exactly how you should handle it in order to be as accurate as possible!

Teacher Man @ My University Money writes Why Do Professors Have Such Long Booklists? – One key trick that I learned while going to university (and also one we pointed out in our book), is to go to the first few classes before you plunked down hundreds of dollars of textbooks for a course.

Jerry @ Repaid.org writes 4 Top Things Home Buyers Must Always Do – As the real estate market lumbers toward a recovery, there are several things that prospective homebuyers must keep in mind before they bother to go to their first open house.

Miss T. @ Prairie Eco Thrifter writes Traveling with Kids. Do You Really Need the Gadgets? – I don’t mind having my son play with an electronic device for an hour or two each day while we’re road tripping. However, I don’t want him to miss out on the richness of the world around him. Otherwise, why travel at all? Creating ways for him to engage with me, and with the world around him, has a long-term impact while still keeping him from getting bored in the car.

Girl Meets Debt @ Girl Meets Debt writes Eating Single in the City – I should probably start this post with a simple fact. This Girl does not know how to cook. I can not even toast my bread properly without burning it!

Tony @ We Only Do This Once writes Be Willing to Look Stupid – The only way we improve at something is to push the boundaries of the possible. We need to build new connections in our brain; which means screwing up after reaching for a new skill…and often looking stupid in the process.

Jester @ The Ultimate Juggle writes The Grablet Review – This is a review of the Grablet, an inexpensive accessory for an iPad. It has made my tablet experience that much more enjoyable!

Little House @ Little House in the Valley writes Micro-Unit Apartments in New York – With the tiny house movement moving ahead, Manhattan’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is jumping in on the action to create a building dedicated to 55 micro-unit apartments.

Jason @ Live Real Now writes Make Extra Money, Part 6: Setting Up a Site – In this installment of the Make Extra Money series, I’m going to show you how to set up a WordPress site. I’m going to show you exactly what settings, plugins, and themes I use.

Jessica @ Budget for Health writes Leave the Light on, Pay a Quarter – I remember this saying was frequently used growing up. My parents never verbally taught me about finances, but their actions said it all.

LaTisha @ Young Finances writes The Importance of an Ecommerce Business Plan – Creating an eCommerce business plan is an important step for the success of your business. You need a basic understanding of website building techniques.

Evan @ My Journey to Millions writes Recalculating My Monthly Nut – It has been about a year since I calculated my monthly nut so it is about time I lay it on the line for both readers and myself.

Roger the Amateur Financier @ The Amateur Financier writes My Bucket List (So Far…) – I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about bucket lists, that is, lists of things that people want to do before they die.

BARBARA FRIEDBERG @ Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance writes How to Talk About Money with the Family-The M Word – Deal with family money issues. Learn how in the M Word.

JP @ My Family Finances writes Kid Friendly Healthy Eating Tips – The key to this is to find a method that woks for your entire family, this includes your youngest child, all the way to grandma.

Corey @ 20s Finances writes Ways to Make Extra Money – Everyone wishes that they had a little extra money. It’s time to stop your complaining and use these tips to make a little extra.

SBB @ Simple Budget Blog writes Your Next Days Off: Budgeting for Vacations – Got some vacation days to spend? For a successful and fun time off, stress-free, use these steps on budgeting for vacations.

Ashley @ Money Talks Coaching writes My Dad Has Cancer But Not Health Insurance – My dad has cancer. He started chemo today. The onset was fast and severe.

Maria @ The Money Principle writes About net worth, value and structure – Knowing how much is your net worth is helpful but could be misleading. Another important aspect of wealth to consider is its structure.

Thomas @ Journey Scout writes Travel the world on a Budget – A little bit of financial acumen can go a long way in earning your trip around the world, here’s how

Kyle @ The Penny Hoarder writes Make Money by Helping College Students – Do you live near a university or community college? Do you know any current college students? If so, you have an opportunity to make money by helping these students! With a bit of creativity, networking and flexibility to work with varied schedules, you can make money by helping college students through the following avenues…

MMD @ My Money Design writes Wealth Creation Strategies That Are Within Your Reach – With the information age and all the resources that come with it, there are more wealth creation strategies and opportunities available to us than ever.

krantcents @ KrantCents writes I Am Broke! – I am broke, but not broken! Do I have your attention? Should you feel sorry for me? Do I need help? Perhaps, I need a psychological evaluation? My answer is simple, don’t worry about me! You can take away my credit cards,

Brent @ PersonalFinance-Tips writes What to do after Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy is one of the most significant events in life, comparable with marriage or divorce in its impact. However, unlike those two events bankruptcy is almost always a sign of bad times.

Lauren @ L Bee and the Money Tree writes How to Ruin a Friendship In 3 Easy Steps – Want to know how to ruin a friendship? Involve money.

CT @ Cashtastrophe writes The Definition of a Recessionista – Many people have found themselves making financial cuts that they never would have considered before. Frugality is IN! There’s a term being thrown around these days, and that’s recessionista.

Suba @ Broke Professionals writes My Best Meeting Tips – You probably have attended business meetings, or family meetings, or public meetings and may have considered most of them a waste of your valuable time.

Don @ MoneySmartGuides writes Financial Lessons Learned From The Bachelor – I watch The Bachelor. Every Monday night, my girlfriend duct tapes me to the couch and uses toothpicks to pry my eyes open to watch this season as Sean tries to find true love from 25 women contestants.

Debt Guru @ Debt Free Blog writes Hidden Fees When Traveling – My wife and I started planning our annual vacation last week. Every year we plan a week-long vacation to celebrate our anniversary. We usually alternate having a “big” vacation and a mediocre vacation. These are poor descriptions, but the basic idea is one year we take a more expensive vacation and the next, a moderately-expensive one.

Ted Jenkin @ Your Smart Money Moves writes Out Of Financial Shape? Try CrossFit – Over the past several years, CrossFit has taken the nation by storm as one the newest and fasting growing fitness crazes.