Free Money Finance March Madness, Round 1, Posts 57-64

Here we go with the first 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. I've also listed a keyword(s) after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Game 1 - Saving; Game 2 - Investing, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two. Here we go:

GAME 29

• Seven Things You Must Do to Prepare for An Emergency (Emergency) - If an emergency comes are you prepared?  Almost everyone in the United States is subject to one of more the following:  floods, wildfires, earthquakes, blizzards, and hurricanes.  I've compiled a list of things that will help you survive a natural disaster until the worst is over.  Like any good insurance, let's hope you never need it.

VERSUS

• How I Taught My Preschooler the Value of a Dollar (Dollar) - It's important to teach young children about hard work, saving, and spending.  In a quite accidental way, I used a chart system to teach my son the value of money and hard work.  If you teach your children about delayed gratification early, it will have a positive effect on their money management skills throughout life.

GAME 30

• How Do You Pick a Winning Mutual Fund? (Winning) - While the odds of beating the market over time is are pretty low, there are a few characteristics funds that achieve this feat tend to have in common.
  Furthermore, there are a few portfolio strategies you can use to mitigate down-side risk and slightly raise your odds of beating the market over the long term. This post attempts to expose a few of these characteristics of winning mutual funds and how to recognize them.

VERSUS

• Invest in yourself by learning things of value (Value) - How do you spend your time?  Do you spend it learning things that will enrich your life and your bank account, or do you waste it?

GAME 31

• My best financial move this year: The Infrequent Bills Account (Move) - Converting an existing account to "park" money to pay annual and other non-monthly bills was my best money move in 2007. If I'd made this move when I first heard of this type of account, I'd be many thousands richer.

VERSUS

• An Easy Way to Save for College (College) - When our first child was born in August 2007, we started to think about how we were going to pay for her college.  Neither of us had any college funds to speak of when we graduated high school, and after two bachelors and two masters degrees (not mention attending expensive private universities), we are trying to dig out from under a mountain of student loan debt.  We found a credit card that gives us money into our daughter's 529 plan, and at a good rate.

GAME 32

• Financial Strategies for Infants and Young Children (Children) - An informative list of all the financial topics to explore with a new baby in the house from opening a 529 to tax strategies and everything in between.

VERSUS

• Poor Versus Broke (Poor) - If you look in the dictionary, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the definitions of poor and broke.  When you dig into the connotations behind the words, there actually is a world of difference.  I've been broke most of my life, and I've been poor most of my life.  Now I'm only broke, but it only took a trip to the grocery store to make me feel the old fear of being poor again!

Comments

[Jeffrey]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Value
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Children

dollar
value
college
children

[Beth]

Game 29 - Emergency
Game 30 - Value
Game 31 - Move
Game 32 - Poor

[Brian]

I haven't been participating in this too much, but I really liked How I Taught My Preschooler the Value of a Dollar, so here are my votes:
Dollar
Value
Move
Poor

[Super Saver]

29 Emergency
30 Value
31 Move
32 Children

[Susannah]

29: dollar
30: value
31: move
32: children

[paidtwice]

Dollar (this was a good game! hard to pick!)
value
move
poor

[Tim]

29: Dollar
30: Value
31: Move
32: Children

[Melissa]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Value
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Children

[Wolfgang]

29: Dollar
30: Value
31: Move
32: Children

[CBaker]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Winning
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Children

[Debt Free Revolution]

Dollar
Value
Move
Poor ;)

[Dood]

29: Dollar
30: Value
31: Move
32: Children

[Andy]

29: Dollar
30: Value
31: Move
32: Children

[CyanSquirrel]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Winning
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Children

[PT]

29 Dollar
30 Winning
31 MOve
32 Children

[Kyle]

Dollar
Winning
Move
Poor

[Matt]

1. Dollar
2. Winning
3. Move
4. Children

[Miramaxa]

29- Dollar
30- Value
31- College
32- Children

[Lily]

29 - Dollar
30 - Winning
31 - Move
32 - Children

[Money Millionaire]

29 - Emergency
30 - Value
31 - College
32 - Children

[Lynnae @ Being Frugal.net]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Value
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Children

[Dean]

Dollar
Value
College
Children

[My Dollar Plan]

Dollar
Value
College
Children

[simple mom]

Game 29: Dollar
Game 30: Winning
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Poor

[Mar]

Game 29: Emergency
Game 30: Value
Game 31: Move
Game 32: Poor

[Eric]

29: Dollar
30: Value
31: Move
32: Children

[Jessica]

Dollar
Value
College
Poor

[Helen]

29. Dollar
30. Value
31. Move
32. Children

[FMF]

Voting for this round has concluded. Winners are:

29 - Dollar
30 - Value
31 - Move
32 - Children