Free Money Finance March Madness, Round 2, Posts 17-24

We continue 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 9

• Avoid 10 Common Debt Reduction Mistakes - If you've decided to get out of debt, that is awesome!  But, be careful.  Read this post so that you can avoid some common mistakes.

VERSUS

• 12 Simple Ways to Save Money on Utilities (and the Planet) - I like this one for the simplicity of the suggestions -- minor, one-time changes can pay big dividends over time.

GAME 10

• How To Identify Bad Financial Advice - Let's face it, a lot of financial advice that you see out there shouldn't be followed by anyone! Learn the vital questions you need to ask
  to see if you're being given bad financial advice.

VERSUS

• Thinking of Emergency Funds as Insurance - Thinking of Emergency Funds as Insurance is about the importance of changing the way we look at certain financial obligations.  By thinking of an emergency fund as "rainy day insurance" and then thinking of the monthly contribution as an "insurance bill" it is easier to justify to oneself the necessity of an emergency fund.

GAME 11

• Why Aren't We All Wealthy (Yet)? - If PF bloggers are so knowledgeable, why aren't we all wealthy?   After all, most of the principles are simple, timeless, and can be done by the majority of people.  Here's my take on the age-old question.  Only one group will likely make it.  The other three groups will try valiantly ... and likely fail.

VERSUS

• What's it Worth to You? Liquor, Lotteries, and Cast Iron Pans - What's it Worth to You addresses the issue of different personal tastes and preferences and what it means to our spending habits.  Elizabeth suggests that by asking ourselves the question, "what's it worth to me?" before making a purchase we can cut down on buying things that we don't actually value.   

GAME 12

• Liberal arts to law school? - How I, a liberal arts major, pushed through parental pressure and twentysomething angst to decide against law school. Thank goodness I got a job, or else Mom would never let me live it down.

VERSUS

• How To Invest With Only $100 - I was turning up the creativity bone on this particular post where I recommend ways someone with $100 could increase that to over a $1000 by taking advantage of referral bonuses from banks like ING and Bank of America and signup bonuses from Sharebuilder and the like. It was picked up by Lifehacker and quite popular with readers.

Comments

[Getting Green]

9. Avoid 10 Common Debt Reduction Mistakes
10. How To Identify Bad Financial Advice
11. Why Aren't We All Wealthy (Yet)?
12. Liberal arts to law school?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

9. 10 common debt mistakes
10. Thinking of emergency funds as insurance
11. Why aren't we all wealthy yet?
12. Investing $100

[db]

Can't you spread these out over the month? These are WAY too many links to be coming all at once this way. I'm not even reading these. The first time was enough.

[FMF]

It will slow down once we get through round 2 (which is really round 1 -- remember that we started with almost twice the original number that the NCAA tournament hosts)

[Jo]

Oh! Round 2 is a lot harder to do...everything is so good.

9) 10 Common Mistakes (Great for someone just started out on Debt reduction)

10) Emergency Fun (I like the comparison to insurance [we all know we should have different kinds of insurance] plus it had advice how to start & how much to save)

11) Why aren't we all wealthy

12) Invest $100 (Good advice to just start saving/investing even if we don't have that much...any little bit helps)

[Chris J]

9- 12 Simple Ways to Save Money on Utilities (and the Planet)
10- Thinking of Emergency Funds as Insurance
11- Why Aren't We All Wealthy (Yet)?
12-How To Invest With Only $100

[Super Saver]

9. Debt Reduction
10. Insurance
11. Wealthy
12. Invest $100

[Dan Melson]

My Votes:
9: Avoid 10 Common Debt Reduction Mistakes
11: Why Aren't We All Wealthy (Yet) ?
12: Liberal arts to law school?

[Nick]

9. Avoid 10 Common Debt Reduction Mistakes
10. Thinking of Emergency Funds as Insurance
11. Why Aren't We All Wealthy (Yet)?
12. Liberal arts to law school?

[MFJ]

9. 10 Common Mistakes
10. Emergency funds as Insurance
11. Why aren't we all wealthy
12. How to invest with $100

[Pete]

10 common mistakes
emergency fund
why aren't we weathy yet
law school

[FMF]

All but the last one is closed for voting. Since the last one is very close, I'll leave voting open until 2 pm Eastern time today.

[FMF]

Ok, voting is now closed on this competition.