Free Money Finance March Madness, Round 2, Posts 49-56

We're continuing with the second round of Free Money Finance March Madness (if you wonder what's going on in these posts, see my article announcing March Madness and/or click on my March Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.) I've listed each "game" (one post versus another) in segments along with the wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two as commenters have the chance to win a free book. Here we go:

GAME 25

• Financial Security - Financial security is something that people relate to retirement, investing, and wealth. For me, financial security is insuring that my money is protected from hackers, thieves, and overall bad people. We’ve taken a multitude of steps to defend our financial information. With identity theft on the rise, I feel that securing your finances is a critical component in insuring your financial security. Therefore, I’ve listed some of the main things we done thus far.

VERSUS

• 10 Ways to Cut Your Restaurant Bill Big Time. I love to eat out but I hate to spend money. The cost of a lunch here and a dinner there can add up quickly. Now with these tips you can grow your net worth and eat out too.

GAME 26

• The True Cost of Owning a Home - Not a true devil's advocate post, but certainly a biased look at home ownership and many of the costs that are ignored when someone says that buying a home is no brainer decision.

VERSUS

• Sixteen ways being disorganized costs you money - Organized folks stand a better chance of achieving a healthy financial life than disorganized folks.  Here are sixteen reasons why.

GAME 27

• Towards a Better Financial Future (Even If You Don't Have a Penny to Save) - What if someone is in a temporary situation where their income does not allow any room for savings? What can they do to ensure a better financial future? What lessons would you share with them based on your personal experiences?

VERSUS

• Buyers Who Don't Want A Buyer's Agent - This one is about one of the most common mistakes home buyers make, not engaging a buyers agent to work on their behalf.  Mostly, it's due to not understanding the way things really work.  Difference it can make in the value you get: multiple tens of thousands of dollars on the immediate scale, and a whole lot of heartache later.

GAME 28

• Ten Ways Anyone Can Go to College With Zero Student Loans - I was inspired to write this one after seeing so many of my friends burdened with student loans even into their 30s. This is one of my best articles because people who follow its advice could stand to save themselves tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan payments and interest.

VERSUS

• My Financial Journey's Pimp Ride - How I roll and my feelings towards vehicles.  I personally like to diversify my vehicle expenses and never like to invest too much money into a car at one time.  If something major were to go wrong I would just cut my losses and buy another one (how's that for low maintenance costs).  This philosophy has allowed me to easily save tens of thousands of more dollars for retirement versus spending that money on new fancy cars that in a few years would worth a fraction of the price you would have bought them for.  There isn't a whole lot of depreciation with a car like mine.

Comments

[Dan Melson]

My votes:
25: Financial Security
27: Buyers Who Don't Want A Buyer's Agent (never too proud to vote for myself)
28: Ten Ways Anyone Can Go to College With Zero Student Loans

[LivingAlmostLarge]

25. Financial Security
26. true cost of owning a home
27. Buyers who don't want a buyer's agent
28. My financial Journey's Pimp Ride

[Super Saver]

25. Restaurant
26. Home
27. Buyer's Agent
28. Ride

[Nick]

25. 10 Ways to Cut Your Restaurant Bill Big Time
26. Sixteen ways being disorganized costs you money
27. Towards a Better Financial Future (Even If You Don't Have a Penny to Save)
28. Ten Ways Anyone Can Go to College With Zero Student Loans

[FMR]

25 - 10 ways to cut rest. bill
26 - True cost of owning home
27 - Towards a better future
28 - Pimp Ride

[fb]

25. Financial Security
26. true cost of owning a home
27. Buyers who don't want a buyer's agent
28. My financial Journey's Pimp Ride

[Lou]

25. 10 Ways to Cut Your Restaurant Bill Big Time
26. Sixteen ways being disorganized costs you money
27. Towards a Better Financial Future (Even If You Don't Have a Penny to Save)
28. Ten Ways Anyone Can Go to College With Zero Student Loans

[Jeff]

25. 10 ways to cut your restaurant bill big time
26. 16 ways being disorganized costs you money
27. Towards a better financial future (even if you don't have a penny to save)
28. 10 ways anyone can go to college with zero student loans

[Ben]

25. Restaurant Bill Big Time
26. 16 ways Disorganized
27. Better Financial Future
28. Zero Student Loans

[FMF]

Voting is now closed on this set of games.

[FMF]

FYI -- Game 26 was a tie and since I thought they were both equally good, the winner was decided by coin flip.

Stay tuned to the next round to see who that was. ;-)