Hello everyone, and welcome to the Totally Money Blog Carnival! Below are this week’s entries. They are sure to provide you with plenty of awesome content to read over! I also have my top 5 editor’s picks mentioned.

I spent all weekend at the Sawtooth Music Festival and barely made it back in time to get this post ready to go live. It is an annual music festival held in the mountains of Idaho, and it is quite the experience. A weekend of music, friends, and partying doesn’t typically get off of your mind a few hours after you’ve left it, so I’m going to go ahead and dedicate this carnival to that festival!

If you would like to be included in the next Totally Money Blog Carnival, here is the page to submit your entries: http://blogcarnivalhq.com/totally-money-blog-carnival/

Editor’s Picks

Peter @ Bible Money Matters writes Zombie Attack! Giving the Ax to Zombie Accounts, Subscriptions and Services – From time to time it pays to take stock of your personal financial situation, and figure out whether the accounts, services and subscriptions that you signed up for in the past are still in your best interests. Are they still a good deal and do they still enhance our lives, or have they become dead money sucking zombie accounts?

Young @ Young And Thrifty writes Starting Your Career Rurally – Starting Your Career Rurally can give you an edge over people living in the cities, we’ll show you why.

Kyle @ The Penny Hoarder writes How to Earn Extra Money by Renting Out your Home Wi-Fi – Why not make more money by renting out Wi-Fi access at your home?

Jeremy @ Modest Money writes Does Everyone Need An Emergency Fund? – I just cannot wrap my head around the concept that apparently everyone should tie up a large sum of money in a low interest savings account. While it does make sense for people with debt problems, it just does not seem logical for anyone with decent credit. In such cases a small emergency fund should be adequate.

Jester @ The Ultimate Juggle writes Starting Out Rich Is Not As Satisifying As Becoming Rich – My background from being poor to working and believing that I could become wealthy.

BUDGETING

Jessica @ Budget for Health writes Top Secret Tips for Working out – Pursuing physical fitness now can significantly contribute to your level of enjoyment when retirement comes along. These fitness tips should bring a good laugh.

Jefferson @ See Debt Run writes Six Ways To Listen to Music Online For Free – There are many great websites available that allow for you to listen to music online for free. Detailed are Pandora, Slacker Radio, Spotify, Google Play, & NPR.

CAREERS
Suba @ Broke Professionals writes The Hidden Costs of My Husband’s New Job – My husband’s new job has come with some major hidden costs. Here’s what we’re doing to attempt to deflect his job’s negative impact on our bottom line.

Roger the Amateur Financier @ The Amateur Financier writes Job Hunting Success – Interview 201: At the Interview, and Beyond – Some advice on how to appear more confident and assertive during your job interview, as well as following up after your interview

Robert @ Entrepreneurship & Life writes Getting Started Tracking Your New Business Finances – You started a business! You got customers! You made money! Congrats! But don’t pat yourself on the back too much just yet. You have to figure out what to do with that first check paid to your new business.

CREDIT
MR @ Money Reasons writes Earning 25 Percent On My Previous Mortgage Payment – Earning 25 Percent On My Previous Mortgage Payment by overlapping some awesome money instruments

L Bee @ L Bee and the Money Tree writes Everyone remembers their first…. – Credit Card that is…. I remember one day in late fall of 2005 I didn’t have money to pay for some sisterhood retreat I wanted to go on. So I got online and applied for my first credit card. It was shockingly easy and I received it in the mail less than a week later.

Sustainable PF @ Sustainable Personal Finance writes Do Parents Have To Help? – Just how far should parents go to ensure their children have reduced debt burden after they graduate?

PPlaner @ Provident Plan writes Shop Around for Your Property, Not Your Bank – Looking for a home? If so, then you know shopping around for both your mortgage and your new home can save you thousands of dollars.

DEBT
Teacher Man @ My University Money writes Student Lines of Credit – Student lines of credit are great to have because of the insanely low interest rates. We’ll show you why these are superior to most loans.

ECONOMY
John @ Married (with Debt) writes Does America Need Small Businesses to Fail? – Does the American economy need small businesses to fail? And from this question: does the economy depend on having both losers and winners?

Don @ MoneySmartGuides writes New Consumer Finance Protection Bureau – 9 Things You Need to Know – The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was created to help regulate financial businesses and protect consumers from the kinds of practices that contributed to the recent recession.

Investor Junkie @ Investor Junkie writes Is Honest Tea Being Dishonest? – Ultimately the customer decides what they want, and not the government. Let the free market determine what’s needed. This is where Honest Tea and Seth get it right. They’ve found an untapped niche in the flavored sugar water market.

FINANCE
Bryan Maltier @ Gajizmo.com writes Millionaires By The Numbers – Up Close and Personal – Meet the millionaires of the United States. With 8% of all U.S. households qualifying as millionaires, the million-dollar club is more attainable than ever with the right financial habits and attitude.

Jon the Saver @ Free Money Wisdom writes Should You Invest with Less the $5,000? – If you have a small amount of money, should I invest on a regular basis? Let’s answer this question together and start multiplying our money!

Call Me What You Want Even Cheap @ Call Me What You Want Even Cheap writes 5 Dumb Money Mistakes! – This is a post about some of the dumb mistakes I’ve made with money.

FRUGALITY
Shilpan @ Street Smart Finance writes 5 Life Lessons for Wealth and Happiness from Ben Franklin – Benjamin Franklin’s name embodies timeless wisdom for wealth and happiness. He was an author, inventor, diplomat, and statesman. But he is known for the virtues of frugality, kindness and justice for all.

Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money writes Safeway’s Just for U Program Revisited – Last week, Safeway asked me and two other bloggers to come back to see something new. They also added 15 new bloggers who weren’t there last time. Most importantly they added another guy so I wasn’t completely outnumbered by the mommy bloggers. Safeway was showing off two major things: improved underlying software and an iPhone/Android App.

Miss T. @ Prairie Eco Thrifter writes How to Save Cash and Your Health with a Garden – The advantages of growing your own vegetables include eating fresh, nutritious food, knowing exactly what has gone into your food, reducing food miles to almost zero, healthy exercise, education for the kids and the joy of producing something healthy for the family.

Penny Thots @ Penny Thots writes Safe, Cheap and Easy Cleaning with Three common Kitchen Products – You can clean almost anything in your home with three common products found in most kitchens. And if you don’t already have a supply of these three items, they’re CHEAP and readily available at any grocery store. So what are these three miracle workers? Plain white vinegar, baking soda and salt.

MONEY MANAGEMENT
MMD @ My Money Design writes What are Mutual Funds and How Do I Invest in Them? – Have you ever wondered what are mutual funds? This is your complete guide to understanding mutual funds and getting started on them as part of your investment strategy.

J.P. @ Novel Investor writes How Often Should You Do An Investment Review? – Tracking your investments is more than glancing at those monthly statements. A regular investment review needs to be done.

PITR @ Passive Income To Retire writes Why Blogging is a Respectable Business – Find out why blogging is a respectable business model and why it aligns with the future of online usage.

Beating Broke @ Beating Broke writes Can You Fund Your Own Lending Club Loan? – In order to be both a borrower and a lender at Lending Club, you have to open two accounts. With two accounts, can your lender account fund your borrower account’s loan?

Steve @ Brip Blap writes The Only Real Sources of Passive Income – Don’t think you’ll get rich without working for it. Everything you can generate wealth from takes effort. Writing a book is hard work. It may create a wealthstream for years to come, but that’s what you should be aiming for: wealthstreams, not passive income.

Everything Finance @ Everything Finance Blog writes What My Mama Taught Me about Money – Kids learn from what they watch their parents do – not by what they teach. And I watched my mom routinely max out her credit cards to pay for groceries, clothes, you name it – and then hide the statements from my dad.

Dr. Dean @ The Millionaire Nurse Blog writes Student Loan Repayment: Just For Moving! – Did you know you could get student loan repayment by relocating or moving to Niagara Falls, NY or to rural Kansas. I give you the facts

REAL ESTATE
YFS @ Your Finances Simplified writes How I Almost Got Cheated out of 650 bucks – So as you all may know we recently purchased our 3 rental property. I did a lot of talking about in the following posts.

Ted Jenkin @ Your Smart Money Moves writes The Best Time To Buy A Home Might Be Now – From a financial perspective, the window for pouncing on a once-in-a-lifetime deal on a home might be narrowing.

Shawanda @ You Have More Than You Think writes The Rent vs. Buy Debate: Why Renting Makes Sense – Is it better to buy vs rent? Buying your home may give you the warm and fuzzies. But before you take on the expensive cost of home ownership, run the numbers.

Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff writes Life is Too Short to Spend Time Ironing Sheets – Here is the list of things that I refuse to waste time on since they do not give me enough satisfaction to justify the time spent. Life is too short.

Corey @ Steadfast Finances writes Should You Build Your Own Home? – Owning a home is the dream of most middle-class families. Not only does it offer the ability to be in control of your own housing environment (as opposed to renting), but it offers long term financial security. Yet, it’s not always attainable. As we have mentioned before, buying a house can be difficult with the recent economy.

Jen @ Master the Art of Saving writes We’re Buying Our First House! – Around a month ago, my husband came to me and said that we really need to buy a house right away. Scary! I’m the one who handles the budget and all the money…

Earth and Money @ Earth and Money writes Seven Reasons for Renting over Buying – There’s a lot of reasons to buy property, but sometimes its better to rent. Here’s seven reasons why renting is better than buying.

REVIEWS
SB @ Finance Product Reviews writes Iberia Bank Visa Gold Card Review – Almost Lowest APR Card in the Market – We reviewed Iberiabank visa gold card card and found it to have one of the lowest APRs in the industry, this can be an excellent choice for your short term cash need.

SAVING
Greg Field @ NerdWallet writes What Are the Best Ways to Send Money to an Individual? – A really useful review of the different ways to transfer money to people and how you can save the most. Enjoy!

SFB @ Simple Finance Blog writes What is Offshore Savings? – Offshore savings is an aspect of offshore banking that focuses on just savings accounts. This is a popular option for many people looking to diversify where their cash is held, but don’t necessarily need the full features of an offshore bank. Having an account offshore can offer diversity that being in a single country cannot…

Deacon Hayes @ Well Kept Wallet writes The Purpose of an Emergency Fund – Emergencies happen and you need to be prepared. If you were to have the transmission go out on your car, how would you pay for it? Would you put it on a credit card? If the emergency cost you $2,000, how long would it take you to pay off that card? With an Emergency Fund, you can plan for the unknown and avoid paying more than you need to.

vh @ Funny about Money writes Ridiculous Retirement System: With a Vengeance – Why it is that 75% of Americans can expect to spend their “golden years” in poverty.

TAXES
Eddie @ Finance Fox writes If You’re Traveling, Don’t Forget To Pack Travel Insurance – Travel insurance protects more than just the expense of your flight.

OTHER
J Wayne @ All Things Finance writes The State of Social Security – Social security has often been called a Ponzi scheme. This infographic details why it has been called such.

A Blinkin @ Funancials writes Your Obsession With FREE – Are you drawn to things that are BOGO (buy one get one free)? I’m guessing you are. We all are. The sound of FREE is music to our ears. Why? Because it’s not only free, it’s RISK FREE. The majority of us are such sissies that we would rather “not lose” than “win.&

Corey @ 20s Finances writes Five Ways Anyone Can Make Extra Money – Ever since I started making a little extra money from my hobby (and realizing the difference that it makes on your monthly budget), I have been a little obsessed with different ways to make money. There is so much more that you can do with extra money. The idea of it being extra money can be dangerous though because it can encourage more splurging.

Kevin @ Thousandaire writes I Saved a Bunch of Money on Food Last Week – I identified a spending problem and I fixed it. I saved a bunch of money by not eating out last week.

BARBARA FRIEDBERG @ Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance writes 3 PRODUCTIVITY TIPS FROM MY SUMMER VACATION – Put all the same type of tasks together. Work through them quickly and with focus. Next move on. Don’t recheck, reread, and review. It’s a waste of time. Once done with a task, don’t come back to the same task to do just one more little bit. That is totally inefficient. Move on.

Luke @ Learn Bonds writes How to Predict Inflation and Deflation – Inflation is something that market participants care a lot about. How exactly do you go about predicting inflation? Learn here.

Bridget @ Money After Graduation writes What you can learn about blogging from 50 Shades of Grey – Oh yeah, you read that right. I promise this is NOT a joke post. I have some serious advice for you guys here. Just like Christian Grey, I don’t mess around! Now, I’m not going to launch into a lengthly review about the book, though I am tempted.

Jason @ Work Save Live writes Saving a Down Payment For a House – Our Journey June 2012 – Saving a Down Payment for a House The end of May and throughout the month of June presented a lot of great changes for us.

krantcents @ KrantCents writes The 3 Y’s of Success – The 3 Y’s of Success is the twenty-fifth in a series of articles to help you reach your goal.

Hank @ Money Q&A writes Five Professional Athletes Who Are Struggling Financially – I always find it so interesting to see some of the inner workings of professional athletes and famous people’s finances. Below are five professional athletes who filed bankruptcy.

Aloysa @ My Broken Coin writes My Top 10 Worst Shopping Mistakes – Read these top 10 worst shopping mistakes! Do you do the same ones?

Amanda L Grossman @ Frugal Confessions writes My Family’s Circle of Savings – I try to imagine the looks on the faces of Transportation Security Administration Inspectors when they x-ray my bag full of liquids, perishables, drugs

Wayne @ Young Family Finance writes Tips for Buying a New Car – Learn a basic step-by-step guide for buying a new car. It’s not as easy as you might think.

JP @ My Family Finances writes Average Family Spending On Back-to-School Shopping in 2012 – This year total family spending will be a record $83.8 billion. How do you stack up against the average family spending on back-to-school shopping.

Daniel @ Sweating the Big Stuff writes The 6 Best Wedding Gifts To Give – Don’t know what to get the bride and groom? Here are some great suggestions that you simply can’t go wrong with!

Tushar @ Start Investing Money writes Why is it Important to Create Your Own Unique Investment Plan? – Read my article on why it is important to create your own unique investment plan!

Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy writes Bitcoin, the ‘Comeback Kid’ – Bitcoin is a fascinating concept! Read about how it’s making a comeback and see if it could have a place in your financial arsenal?

Daisy @ Add Vodka writes Handling Mistakes at Work – When I first started in internship #1, I was so excited to get a little bit of real world experience in my field.

Maria @ The Money Principle writes Cuts in public spending are not going to affect front line services! – In this post how cuts in public spending affect adversely public services is discussed through my latest business trip experience.

Invest It Wisely @ Invest It Wisely writes How Hard is It to Become a Freelancer? – Do you find that the world is becoming a little bit more entrepreneurial, these days? Read my experiences and see if you agree!

Passive Income Earner @ The Passive Income Earner writes Dividend Growth Index – 2012 Q2 Results – We are currently in our 3rd quarter of the Dividend Growth Index (DGI)which started back in September 2011 as a project to see how our picks (a group of dividend focused bloggers) would perform over time compared with an index. Here is a background on the Dividend Growth Index (DGI).

TTMK @ Tie the Money Knot writes Petty or Fair? You be the Judge – When it comes to money and friendships, we sometimes have to be careful how we mix them. This story illustrates this concept.

SB @ One Cent at a Time writes Earning Quick Money – $100 a day – various tips to earn quick cash in a day without investment . This article lists various ways to earn $100 in a day legally and without a single penny of investment.

Paul Vachon @ The Frugal Toad writes Forex Pattern Recognition – Although pattern recognition programs cannot yet outperform experienced technical analysis in terms of accuracy, they can usually provide a relatively quick and numerically accurate graphical analysis of a forex price chart.