The blog Free Money Finance runs a contest they call “Free Money Finance March Madness” where they pair off personal finance blog entries and have readers vote on which they thought was the best.

FMF was kind enough to accept my entry What Makes Kids Happy as an entry and today it is in the second round of the competition.  Thanks to everyone who helped in round one!  If you like Financial Reflections and the post, please consider voting for the article. Click here to see the contest.

What makes the contest great is the number of quality entries.  You get to see the best of the personal finance blogosphere, so there’s plenty of great reading, no matter who you vote for.

You might have noticed a new addition to the blog. I added a Skribit widget not long ago and thought I’d point out how it can help you get topics you’re interested in on the blog.

It’s pretty simple.  You put topics you’d like me to write about in the widget (in the sidebar over to your right when I wrote this) and send them in. Ones people like are voted on. It’s a great way to see what people are interesting in hearing about rather than getting what’s fed to us by editors.

Then I look through them to get some ideas on what to write about. There’s even a Skribit personal finance group where you can suggest ideas to all kinds of personal finance bloggers to spur a discussion on certain topics.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think! I’m going to start writing like crazy a gain after about a week of slow going, so I can use your ideas.

I’m in several carnivals and festivals this week, hopefully I can get them all straight:

• The Money Hacks Carnival was hosted by Your Money Relationship and had my article How Identity Theives Sell Your Data Online.
• The very first edition of the Carnival of Government and Money linked to my article questioning the stimulus bill.

I know I submitted articles to more carnivals than that, but I can’t seem to find the links.  I’ll keep updating as I go along.

Is it time for Abraham Lincoln to retire?   The US Mint doesn’t think so.

To honor Lincoln’s 200th birthday, the US mint is going to issue 4 new versions of the Lincoln penny, each with the face of Lincoln on the front, as it has been for 100 years, but with 4 new designs on the back. The four designs are:

1. The log home Lincoln was born in.
2. Lincoln reading while sitting on a log.
3. Lincoln speaking in front of the Illinois state capitol.
4. The unfinished dome of the US capitol.

The Associated Press ran a segment on the new pennies, which ended up on the front page of Afternoon Rally today.  It’s pretty interesting.

Of course, there is a lot of love for President Lincoln.  After all, it was his signing of the Emancipation Proclomation that helped pave the way for President Obama’s election.  But not everyone loves the one cent coin which carries his image.

The Washington Post asks if pennies still make sense, and a Chicago Tibune blog begged to retire the coin back in 2006.  After all, the cent is more than just an annoyance these days, they cost more than a cent to produce, meaning we lose money every time we mint one.  There’s even the group Citizens for Retiring The Penny, which says it is “non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public on the advantages of retiring the penny from general circulation.”

Certainly any hopes of letting the coin go will have to wait at least until 2010, when the last of the new designs will have been released.  After that, old Abe will have had a solid century run on the front of the penny.  Not bad for a kid born in a single room cabin.

Do you think the penny should retire?  Want to keep Honest Abe around?  Let me know in the comments below…

The blog Free Money Finance runs a contest they call “Free Money Finance March Madness” where they pair off personal finance blog entries and have readers vote on which they thought was the best.

FMF was kind enough to accept my entry What Makes Kids Happy as an entry and today it is in the first round of the competition.  If you like Financial Reflections and the post, please consider voting for the article. Click here to see the contest.

What makes the contest great is the number of quality entries.  You get to see the best of the personal finance blogosphere, so there’s plenty of great reading, no matter who you vote for.

I’ve been featured in two “blog carnivals” this week. The first was at Credit Withdrawal who hosted the Festival of Frugality Credit Withdrawal was kind enough to consider my post The Joy Of Owning Nothing a favorite.  Thanks!  It has tons of great articles and some rather funny “motivational” posters.

Money Beagle sniffed out my post Foreclosure Hits Sinners and Saints for the Money Hacks Carnival and has tons of good articles and about a dozen adorable doggie pictures to boot.  Good boy! 

Be sure to visit the carinval/festival and check out some great links!

If you had millions of dollars, what would you buy?  For some of us, the best answer might be “nothing.”

Sure, almost everyone has wondered what they’d do if they won the lottery.  I imagine a beach house, a large boat and probably a couple of cars would be coming my way if I won.  Of course I’d have to play the lottery, but you get the idea.  But on further inspection, winning the lottery doesn’t always work out.

Consider the story of a man who sold his company for 22 million.  What would he do with all that loot?  Not much, or quite a bit, depending on how one looks at it.  He sang the joys of owning nothing and decided to pass not only on the iPhone, but just about any other ownership.  He’s not alone, when one looks at the lifestyle of billionaires, they may own some nice things, but they don’t always live as large as their bank accounts.

But what’s so bad about owning stuff?  Here are a few downides I could think of:

• Hidden Costs: I wrote about the real costs of car ownership before, and some of the ideas fall over into everything.   There’s maintenance, storage, monthly fees, input (fuel in the case of a car, games in the case of an xBox, DVDs for your player, food for a pet, etc.), insurance and more.
• Immobilization: To paraphrase George Carlin, the more stuff you have, the bigger the place you need to store it.  If you favor a mobile lifesytle, excessive ownership can make life difficlut.   Home ownership can be great, but just try to relocate these days, and you might find the home is an anchor (for better or worse) to a certain city.
• Time Drain: There’s more to the hidden costs than just money.  Somebody’s got to manage all that stuff.  It takes time and can steer us away from what matters.

Then again, people do get real satisfaction from ownership.  Like I said, home ownership can be great.  Car ownership can actually provide freedom and mobility and cars don’t have to cost you a ton and repaired fairly cheap if done right.  But I’m going to try and err on the side of frugality more and see what happens.  

In the mean time I’m working on selling my excess stuff.  I’ll get some money back, clear out some of the clutter in my life and be in a better position to move in the future.

What have you enjoyed not owning?  Any ownership nightmares?  Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks to Clever Dude  who has been kind enough to host the Carnival of Personal Finance this week.  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a blog carnival is a periodic event where one blog profiles links to other blog articles.  This carnival is huge and happens every week, so I’m glad to support it.

The Carnival of Personal Finance: Fairy Tale Edition has a link to last week’s article about places to sell stuff online, plus a ton of other articles from around the web, so you’ll have plenty to read as you start the new year.  Enjoy!

It’s been a wild year.  A 700 billion dollar bailout, a 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme, the Big 3 auto makers begging and stock indexes dropping like a rock.  I decided to take a look at a how a few key numbers changed over the year to help see just where we are — and how far we’ve fallen:

Unemployment:

November 2007: 4.9%
November 2008: 6.9%
(from http://www.bls.gov - Bureau of Labor Statistics)

I personally know a few people who’ve lost their job in 2008, myself included.  Fortunately I found a new job, but at a sightly lower pay rate than I was making before.  Some other people I know haven’t found a new job yet, and for one it’s been months.

Dow Jones Industrial Average:

January 2, 2008: 13,043.96
December 29, 2008: ~8,483.93
(Source: finance.yahoo.com)

That’s right, “The Dow” lost about 35% of it’s value in a year.  The drop is more dramatic when one realizes that the Dow peaked over 14,000 in October of 2007 and was still over 10,000 as late as September of 2008.  My 401(k) is still in shock.

Federal Reserve rates:

Federal Funds Rate: That “is the interest rate at which depository institutions lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions overnight” – in short, that’s the rate banks loan each other money.  With the credit log-jam in place, the Fed thought it would shake things up a bit, but dropping the rate effectively to ZERO, in an attempt to get the money flowing again.  I’m not so sure it’s working

December 11, 2007: 4.25%
December 16, 2008: 0.00%

Discount Rate: “The discount rate is the interest rate charged to commercial banks and other depository institutions on loans they receive from their regional Federal Reserve Bank’s lending facility–the discount window.” In other words, that’s the amount the Federal Reserve charges banks fo money it loans to them.  Again, a huge drop, to try and get money flowing withing banks, open up lines of credit and get the economy flowing again.

December 11, 2007: 4.75%
December 16, 2008: 0.50%
(Source: www.federalreserve.gov)

30-year Fixed Mortgage Rate:

Jan 1 2008: ~5.49%
Dec 29 2008: 5.22%
(Source: bankrate.com)

That’s the one thing that hasn’t changed too much, but with lower Fed rates, it just might in 2009.  I’m really glad to be in a fixed-rate mortgage.  Sadly, foreclosures still seem to be going strong.

What’s in store for 2009?  I’d love to say I knew it was going to get better.  Or even that I knew for sure one way or the other, but it seems really hard to think the economy is going to turn around very fast.

Update: I just found these articles on Afternoon Rally.  This is apparently the worst year on the stock market since 1931.  Also home prices havd declined at a record pace.

How was your 2008?  What’s 2009 look like?  Let me know in the comments below.

The holidays have passed, gifts have been given and received, relatives have been visited and I’m back to my day-job.  It was an enjoyable break, but it’s back to reality.  With that in mind, I’ve got three post-holiday plans (besides watching bowl games) to help out with the finances after the holidays.

1. Return it: Unless your aunt Edna just won’t forgive you for returning or exchanging that Christmas sweatshirt with Santa and his elves printed on the front, return it, sell it, exchange it or “regift” it.  If you haven’t exchanged it yet, don’t delay, as there might be a returns policy that will run out.
2. Use that gift card: Some gift cards come with fees for inactivity.  You’re better off using it before it runs out.  If it’s not your kind of store, sell it or give it.
3. Set some goals: With the end of the (tax) year coming up, you might want to consult with a tax pro to see what moves you can make, or just set some SMART financial goals for the new year.

Exchanging unwanted gifts can do more than lift your pocketbook.  It will de-clutter your life, but doing it at the peril of relationships can be touchy.  Hopefully we can all start the new year financially organized and clutter-free.