Free Money Finance March Madness, Final Four

We're now down to the Final Four 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 -- you will help determine the winner! Criteria for the best article is somewhat subjective, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) practicality of the post 2) how interesting/provocative/unique it is, 3) the "personal-ness" of it and 4) its impact on net worth.

Here are today's games:

GAME 1

• Do you appreciate what you have? (Appreciate) - Read about what how a simple volunteer event for my son one evening turned out to to have an impact on our whole family.  His one hour volunteer effort gave us a completely different perspective on what we have and how fortunate we are.  Do you appreciate the things you have?  Don't ever forgot, some people have little to nothing.

VERSUS

• The Pursuit of Financial "Happyness" (Pursuit) - It doesn't matter if you're a financial ninja: personal finance just isn't about the money. If you don't know why you're trying to amass money in the first place, then every dollar you save is just another dollar you waste.

GAME 2

• 10 Things I Have Learned About Money (Learned) - Since I started writing about personal finance  a year ago I've really come to realize a lot of things about money. Some of them are basic, but some of them are life changing.  Here is a rundown of the top 10 things I've learned about money in the past year.

VERSUS

• The College Student Debt Machine:  A National Disgrace (Disgrace) - This post exposes the shameful and often ignored failure of colleges and universities to control their own budgets.  Concurrently, these same colleges freely encourage their students to use student loans to finance the ever increasing costs to attend.  With no one held accountable, young adults graduate with crushing debt that takes years to repay.

Comments

[LC]

Appreciate
Learned

[guilty]

disgrace

[Patti]

Disgrace

[twilight]

Disgrace
Pursuit

[GM]

pursuit
disgrace

[spivey]

pursuit
learned

[Sandy]

disgrace

[Kate]

Appreciate
Disgrace

[Jack]

disgrace

[Judy]

Disgrace

[Jetgirl]

Appreciate
Disgrace

[SGP]

Appreciate
Disgrace

[John]

Disgrace is depressing in some ways but a winner as good journalism

[Glblguy]

Appreciate
Learned

[Rich]

Disgrace

[Mom]

Disgrace

[lwb]

disgrace

[CF]

Appreciate
Disgrace

[Bible Money Matters]

Learned
Appreciate

[Paul]

Learned
Appreciate

[Corporate Barbarian]

Appreciate
Disgrace

[CC]

learned

[Mrs. Micah]

Appreciate

tough... Learned.

[FFB]

Appreciate

Learned

[Miranda]

Learned
Appreciate

[borsodas]

learned

[PT Money]

Appreciate
Learned

[Trevor @ Financial Nut]

learned

[tapatterson25@mac.com]

disgrace

[Kacie]

Appreciate
Learned

[Alicia]

Learned.

[Maria Anderson]

Learned

[Claire Ulanoff]

Disgrace

Claire

[Robb Sutton (198)]

learned

[Dave]

Learned

[helene mann]

game 2 disgrace

[ChristianPF]

Appreciate and learned

[Jeff]

disgrace

[Steve C]

Disgrace
Learned

[Brian]

Pursuit
Disgrace

[KGP]

disgrace

[Lynnae]

Appreciate
Learned

[Beverly]

Disgrace

[Mary Jo Gormley]

Disgrace

[Fabulously Broke]

disgrace

[plonkee]

appreciate
learned

[Richer by the Day]

learned

[Maria Keckler]

Love learned

[Matt SF]

pursuit
disgrace

[Arohan]

appreciate
learned