Weekend Carnival: A New Beginning

Today is a new beginning. We are now past the Chinese New Year, and hey, we have survived a month without the world blowing up, or anything! There are a lot of storms on the horizon, but I think it’s going to be an exciting time, too.

Here are some of the recent posts here, that you may have missed:

• What Are You Doing to Turn Your Discomfort into Action?
• These Three Jobs Are a Great Way for a Teen to Earn Money and Learn Something About Life at the Same Time
• The Tools of a Blogger and Developer
• “The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World”: A Book Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to the winners of the Book Review and Giveaway: Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School:

• petra
• Sustainable PF
• Maria 
• Eric
• Hank

Thanks for entering the contest, guys, and for being part of the community here at IIW!

On to the weekend reading:

Blogging

• Sandy from Yes, I Am Cheap lets us know how she makes money online, by building niche websites.
• Sunil talks about an effective pyramid structure for your website (don’t worry, he is not talking about a shady MLM ;)).
• Jeff Rose from Dollars and Roses has some pretty awesome numbers up for his January 2011 Income Report.

Economics

• Did you know that unemployment is the worst it has ever been in the E.U., since the introduction of the common currency? DQYDJ tells us more about The European Debt Crisis and You.
• From Darwin’s Money: Your President Is Lying About a “Strong Dollar Policy” – Why Dollar Weakness Matters.
• Is Canada Immune to a Financial Blowup?

Giveaways

• Ghirardelli Chocolate Giveaway

Investing

• Check out this triple whammy on investing in Canadian oil:
  • Canadian Oil Stocks: Top 2 Alberta Bakken Oil Companies
  • Investing in Canadian Well Completion & Drilling Companies
  • How to Invest in Oil
• Do you invest in what you use? For example, if you use an iPod, do you invest in Apple? An interesting question by Money Beagle!
• Free Money Finance introduces March Madness! This is a competition between the best personal finance articles; FMF kindly included a post from IIW, so starting February 6th, head out and vote! 🙂
• The Passive Income Earner writes on how to maximize your RRSP.
• Should you invest in a TFSA or pay down debt, instead?
• Cancer survivor Andrew Hallam writes on What Cancer and Investing Have In Common. Andrew is my favorite writer on investing and personal finance simply because he has so much integrity, passion, and spirit for the field, and he has a wonderful way of simplifying the concepts so that anyone can understand. If you haven’t read it yet, I also recommend you check out his book, The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School.

Miscellaneous

• Everyday Tips shares her Thoughts For Thursday: Ten Questions I Have…, with a quite interesting topic: What would the world look like, if human life was starting over from scratch?
• MD asks us if we are Wasting Time in our 20s? I probably wasted some time, but everything is a learning experience, too.
• Is Discrimination OK If You Aren’t Being Discriminated Against? What do you think?
• It seems that everyone is quitting their jobs these days! You Have More Than You Think shares her story.
• I enjoyed reading this post by Young & Thrifty about the plight of men in clubs: Ladies, Men are Not ALWAYS Trying to Get Into Your Pants!
• Psycho Money talks about his motivation, as part of his story to becoming a millionaire.

Personal Finance

• My Own Advisor tells us to Get your financial house in order or keep dreaming? If we want to retire at a reasonable age, we need to start building assets right now. The good thing is that it is never too early to start.
• Ever have a rock give you a bad day and a chip in your windshield? Double-check your insurance coverage before you run out and spend hundreds of dollars on the replacement!
• How do you teach your kid about the purchasing power of money? Christa Palm at MomVesting has some ideas.
• Justin tells us how to How to Throw a Super Bowl Party on the Cheap.
• Derek has been writing a lot on how to create passive income:
  • How Anyone Can Create Passive Income
  • Is Online Passive Income Really Possible?
  • Passive Income With Niche Websites
• The Daily Money Shot has just published her Porn Star Guide to Managing Your Money.

Real Estate

• Fred Carach has an interesting post on 101 Centavos, where he goes back in time and writes his thoughts on the real estate market — from the viewpoint of July 15th, 2008. It’s an interesting read!

Carnivals

• 58 Ways to Save Money or Make Extra Money – Finance Blog Carnival #11 (Maximizing Money)
• Canadian Finance Carnival #73 (Canadian Finance Blog)
• Carnival of Financial Camraderie WTF Edition (FSYA)
• Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #222 – February 3, 2012 (The Skilled Investor)
• Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance Carnival #24 (Curious Cat)
• Festival of Frugality #320: The It’s Warm Somewhere in the World Edition (Squirrelers)
• The Festival of Frugality #321 Reviews (Finance Wand)
• TOTALLY MONEY BLOG CARNIVAL – #52 (Canadian Personal Finance)
• Yakezie Carnival – Winter Wonderings (The Amateur Financier)

Have a great weekend!