Carnival of Personal Finance #446: The To-Read Books Edition

I am a voracious reader. It’s not uncommon for me to be in the middle of two or three books at a time. I’ve been known to finish 3 books in a week. I have an ever growing to-read list that will never be tamed. I’m pretty sure the librarians at my local library are pretty sick of me. And I’ve only been living here for 4 months.

Which is why, when I joined Goodreads 2014 reading challenge, I only picked 37 books instead of 50 or more (which is what I’ll most likely wind up doing). I didn’t want to force myself to finish a crappy book just to meet an arbitrary goal. There are too many books for that. So I went with a more reasonable and sane 37 (insert quote from Clerks) in honor of my 37th birthday this year.

But you’re not here for that. You’re here to see what posts made this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. You can read on for that. And I’ve also included a few of the nonfiction books on my list just in case you’re looking for ideas to round out (or start) your to-read list:

Editor’s picks 

Lenny from Best Money Saving Blog presents You can embrace Digital Marketing even on a Small Business Budget, and says, “While digital marketing definitely has its merits many small business owners are hesitant to use it simply because of the time that they believe it takes to make it work.”

Sam from The New Business Blog presents How to Build a Brand People will Adore, and says, “Many people outside of marketing think of a brand as sort of this false cover that is given to a product or service in order to con them into buying something that they do not actually want or, even worse, do not need.”

Marissa from Thirty Six Months presents The Joys of Freelancing, and says, “One of the things that I really enjoy doing is mentoring freelancers. I work in the start-up world, and freelancers are a big part of that. I get to see the ups and downs of that world every day. It is fascinating to see how people price their time, and creative abilities.”

Alexa from Single Moms Income presents Resolution #2 ? Digital Organization and Putting Systems in Place, and says, “You know when you do not check your email for a few days and then you start to dread it because you just know you are going to have like 100 messages in your inbox? That is how I was feeling yesterday.”

Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents New Year’s Resolution: Frugal Ways to Cut Back on TV Time, and says, “Cutting back on TV is a great idea! But how do you do it without filling your time with costly activities? Here are some ideas!”

Kylie Ofiu from Kylie Ofiu presents 10 Steps For Success With Goals, and says, “Setting, sticking to and achieving goals feels great, but can sometimes be a little hard. Here’s 10 steps plus tips from others on how to do it all from setting your goals, staying motivated and right through to completion of your goals.”

New Year’s Resolutions

Mario from Debt BLAG presents Don’t make New Year’s resolutions; set smart intermediate goals instead

Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life from The Broke and Beautiful Life presents 5 New Years Resolutions Worth Making

Sean Smarty from Growing Money presents 10 New Year Financial Resolutions 2014

Pauline from Savvy Scot presents New year financial boot camp: utilities and bill check-up

Real Estate

Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents Inefficiencies in Homes to Look for as a First Time Home Buyer

Pauline from Reach Financial Independence presents Are You Ready for the Challenge of Real Estate Investing?

Pauline from Make Money Your Way presents Real Estate Investing

Marissa from Finance Triggers presents How to spot a good mortgage broker from a bad one

 

 

Investing and Retirement

Jim from Critical Financial presents Powerwave Technologies | My Ah Ha Investment Moment

 

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents The Prosper Vs. Lending Club Experiment

David from Financial Nerd presents Trends in Interest Rates in 2014

Aaron from Aaron Hung presents Looking for investment advice on Twitter? These new Tools will help

Michael Kitces from Nerd’s Eye View presents Understanding The Two 5-Year Rules For Roth IRA Contributions And Conversions

PK from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents Expected Real Returns on BAA, AAA, and 10 Year Treasuries

Graham Clark from Moneystepper presents FTSE 100 diversification ? performance of the top 10 consitutents

Emily from Evolving Personal Finance presents When to Pass Up a Company Retirement Match

Ray from Squirrelers presents Taking a Pension or Lump Sum: What Would You Do?

Bob from Dwindling Debt presents What’s the Secret to Early Retirement?

Personal Finance and Saving Money

Daniel from Make Money Make Cents presents Want to make smarter money decisions? Use these tips from Economist Noreena Hertz

Jay from Daily Fuel Economy Tip presents Hypermiling ? 5 Tactics to Reduce Gas Consumption

Oscar from Money is the Root presents Need to binge shop? Your local dollar store has bargains, but maybe not all of them

Katie from IRA Basics presents Benefits of a Budget

Alexa from Defeat Our Debt presents 7 Ideas for Saving Money on Food

Lily from Paying Debt Down presents Money Saving Holiday Shopping Tips 2013

Jason from The Money Makers presents Olivia Wilde is Having a Baby: What are the first-month expenses?

Monica from Monica On Money presents How My PT Cruiser Saved Me $27,600

Eric from Narrow Bridge Finance presents 4 Uncommon Ways to Start Saving Money this Year

Jack from Money Saving Ethics presents Holiday Travel Tips 2013

Miscellaneous Money Stuff

Natalie from Debt and the Girl presents Joy is Separate from Circumstance

Larry from KrantCents presents Technology Has Made Me Lazy or More Productive!

Holly from Club Thrifty presents Social Framing

Sustainable PF from Sustainable Personal Finance Blog presents Would You Use an Alternative Currency?

Andrea from So Over This presents Movers Destroyed My Belongings ? Saga Continues

Hadley from Epic Finances presents Why did the Founder of Barnes

Amy from Money Mishaps presents Why do some Credit Scores FALL after paying off a Loan?

Matt from Budget Snob presents Don’t Worry about your Credit Score being affected by These 5 Things

Justin from Edward Antrobus presents Is that awesome Review a Fake?

FI Pilgrim from FI Journey presents Would You Become Self Employed For Less Money?