March Madness Free Money Finance Style, Round 1

If you're like the rest of the free world (really just the U.S.), you know that it's March Madness time -- the time that 64 college basketball teams play a series of games to determine the national champion. The formula is simple: winners advance to play other winners, losers go home. Eventually, there's only one team that's won every game.

As I was thinking about my best posts at Free Money Finance (and what even were my best posts), I decided to have my own version of March Madness. So here's what I'm going to do:

• I've created my own bracket system that can hold 64 posts (like college basketball uses for 64 teams).
• I've reviewed the 877 posts I've completed since November 1, 2005 and selected what I would consider the top 64 (I actually got down to 95, then had to have a mini-playoff). My criteria for selecting these was (note: it's the same for the rest of the competition too): 1) practicality of the post 2) how interesting/provocative it is, 3) the "personal-ness" of it and 4) its impact on net worth.
• I've placed those 64 posts randomly (in alphabetical order) in the brackets (sorry, no seeding this year -- maybe next year).
• The posts will "play" each other with the winner advancing and the loser being bumped. They'll "play" in this manner: 1) I'll post the competing posts, listing who's playing who, 2) you all can leave comments (if you like) on which you like better, 3) I'll ultimately decide a winner between the two, and 4) the winner will advance in the bracket to "play" again. Ultimately, there will be only one post left -- the "champion" for this season.

This either could be lots of fun for us all or a complete bust. But at least it will provide some entertainment for me. ;-)

All this said, here are the first sets of 16 posts. Again, in each set, one will be declared to be better than the other. Here goes:

• 10 Big Tax Deductions Too Many People Miss versus 10 Nasty Money Habits to Kick
• 10 Resolutions to Fix Your Financial Life versus 10 Steps to Freedom from Debt
• 10 Tips to a Prosperous Retirement versus 3 Rules for a Happy Retirement
• 4 Critical Investment Errors You Must Avoid versus 4 Habits of Successful Investors
• 4 Rules for Asset Allocation versus 4 Ways to Get Spending under Control
• 4 Ways to Save Big on College Costs versus 5 Mistakes Investors Just Can't Afford
• 8 Ways to Consolidate Debt versus A Great College Money Saving Tip
• Americans Spend $4.3 Billion to Get Their Own Money versus Becoming a Millionaire -- A Real-Life Example

In the comments below, let me know if there are any of these you particularly like or dislike and I'll take that into account as I decide on the winners.

Click here to read Round 1, Part 2.

Comments

[Jared Franz]

Great Idea, can't wait to see them.