Free Money Finance March Madness, Round 2, Posts 1-8

Ok, change of plans.

I had originally planned to wait until all of round one of March Madness was over before posting any round two games. But at that rate, it will take weeks to get the competition over. Besides, voting is now closed on all the round one posts from Tuesday, so why not post the winners and get them going on round two? With that said...

Here we go 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 1

• Be Honest With Yourself - This blue-chip post is my real-life experience on the behavior and mindset that landed me in debt and the crucial step I needed to take to get out of debt.  For people struggling with debt, you will find that this simple step of being honest with yourself can lift the weight off of your shoulders and set you on the course to be the champion that you are.

VERSUS

• The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification - The popular saying goes "there's no free lunch" and in finance, it is true for the most part.  Normally, it is impossible to get something for nothing but diversification allows us to do that.  It is possible to keep your expected return the SAME while DECREASING your investment's volatility and such a thing is very rare.  This post highlights ways to diversify your portfolio that you may not have thought of before.  Are you diversified?

GAME 2

• Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor - This post builds a case against David Bach's concept of *Latte Factor* and suggests putting bigger problems higher on the list of priorities. To make things easy to understand, a hypothetical case of a person in debt is followed and the approaches are compared with respect to his debt reduction efforts.

VERSUS

• How to Eat on $20.00 a Month - If you find yourself in a huge financial mess, you still have to eat, even if you don't have any money. Learn how you can keep your stomach full on an extremely tight budget.

GAME 3

• Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan - This article was one of the first posts I ever wrote that actually got any traction.  It was an Editor's choice in one of the Carnivals of Personal Finance and at the time I wrote it, I was fairly new in the blogosphere.  So imagine my surprise over the reception it got.  I believe it's a pretty good intro post into personal finance and good money management.

VERSUS

• Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook - This is one of my favorite money stories about our kids. I'm not sure why, but I just about fell out of my chair laughing when it happened.

GAME 4

• 31 Days To Fix Your Finances - 31 Days To Fix Your Finances is a series of activities that can enable anyone to improve their financial status by centering your financial life around your own core values. Instead of supplying a bunch of budgeting sheets and asking you to commit yourself to a program, these activities are about figuring out what you want out of life and reorganizing your finances so that you can have it.

VERSUS

• Tips for Having a Successful Budget - What is a best blog list if it does have at least one on tips for doing a budget?  Yet, instead of getting caught in the details of the numbers this takes a high level look what it takes to be successful by focusing the process rather than just the dollars.  It is in the process that we learn how we live our life and control our spending.  So, if you are going crazy with your current budget (or do not have one), this may offer you a path to a better budget.

Comments

[Nick]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
3. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
4. Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[Getting Green]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. How To Eat on $20 a month
3. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
4. 31 days to fix your finances

[Jack]

1 - The Only Free Lunch in Finance: Diversification
2 - How to Eat on $20.00 a Month
3 - Money 101: My Basic Financial Plan
4 - Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[fivecentnickel.com]

Be Honest With Yourself
Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[Dan Melson]

1: The Only Free Lunch in Finance - Diversification
2: Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
4: Tips for Having a Successful Budget
(I abstain on 3)

[Pete]

Be honest with yourself
Get rid of debt
Money 101
Tips for successful budget

[Pete]

Be honest with yourself
Get rid of debt
Money 101
Tips for successful budget

[LivingAlmostLarge]

1. Be honest with yourself
2. Get rid of debt without latte
3. Money 101
4. Tips for a successful budget

[Super Saver]

1. Honest
2. Latte
3. 101
4. Budget

[plonkee]

1. Be Honest With Yourself
2. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
3. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
4. Tips for Having a Successful Budget

I thought game 3 was the closest, but comedy wins over sensible-ness.

[Raaid]

1. Free Lunch in Finance - This is a fantastic post about an absolutely critical financial process. Behavioral finance articles are well and good, but getting to the analytical core is much more difficult.

2. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor - Excellent conceptual post and the competition is providing only a really niche discussion.

3. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook - Too funny

4. Tips for Having a Successful Budget - The competitor's series is great, but it's very long and somewhat difficult to just give an overall opinion of. Budgeting is important and this post does a great job with it.

[Ray]

1. Free Lunch in Finance
2. Getting Rid Of Your Debt Without Worrying About The Latte Factor
3. Don't Let Your Kids Get Ahold of Your Checkbook
4. Tips for Having a Successful Budget

[FMF]

Voting is now closed for this competition.