When I first saw the carnival of personal finance, I thought it would last only a few weeks. Like Jeniffer Lopez and whoever she’s with. Boy was I wrong.

Har har. Just kidding.

This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance returns to homebase at Consumerism Commentary to celebrate it’s anniversary. A great read would be Ramit Sethi’s “World’s Easiest Guide to Understanding Retirement Account.” Check it out here.

The 27th Carnival of Investing is also hosted today over at All Things Financial aka All Financial Matters. I don’t care what those bastards at First Horizon thinks, I’ll keep calling it All Things Financial, thank you very much.

The government can be a wealthy source for information. Problem is, finding those information through public channels can feel like a trip through the DMV (aka Satan’s backyard).

If the information was the product, and distribution of these info is part of the service, then it’s a good thing the entire U.S. government isn’t a business—because they’ll totally get outcompete. And out of business. And bankrupted. Really bankrupted.

Uh, so regardless of the government’s acutal financial situation, they’re still a great source for financial information. Seriously.

Say Hi to Mymoney.gov

Brought to you by the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Comission, Mymoney.gov is a big o’ index site that points you towards various information on finances from many different U.S. government agencies and departments. Topics indexed ranges from bugeting, taxes, home ownership, to savings and investing. It’s basically an attempt to gather up all those useful information that you can’t find.

While visiting the site, you will notice that you can order a FREE “My Money” Tool Kit, a package of helpful publications dealing with savings, investing, protecting and getting the most from your money. Since I love free stuff, I ordered one.

The “My Money” Tool Kit

Let’s see what this package from Uncle Sam consist of, eh?

Brouchers and leaflets on personal finances. Yawn?

That was my first impression when I received the package a few months ago. After actually reading the materials, I realized that there are plenty of useful information within these booklets—albeit the small packages they came in. I’ve also found their ebook counterparts in pdf formats, so feel free to download them.

Here are some noteworthy ones in the package:

Saving Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future [download] 3.12 Mb

Provided by the Department of Labor, and partnered with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., this 16 page booklet discusses basic steps to take for a healthy financial picture, with an emphasis on retirement planning.

Social Security: Understanding the Benefits [download] 902 Kb

Nevermind that it may not even be there in a couple of years from now—-it’s still important to learn about Social Security. Brought to you by the Social Security Administration (dur), this 24 page booklet provides a good basic understanding on Social Security: how to apply, qualify, and types of benefits provided. A useful read.

Get the Facts on Saving and Investing [download] 5.7 Mb

From the US Securities and Exchange Comission (where else?), this 34 page booklet gives you a quick lowdown on the differences and importances of saving and investing. Emphasis on investing, covers some basic types of investment and things to consider when choosing to invest. A nice read with plenty of good information.

Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner [download] 347 Kb

Here’s a recommended read. A straight-forward 14 page broucher from the Certified Financial Planners on 10 questions you should ask when you look for a financial planner—an important decision that should be accompanied by important questions.

The following weren’t in the package but they’re worth a mention:

Taking Control of Your Finances [download] 1.31 Mb

From the FDIC, this 12 page guide is geared towards young adults, with useful advice such as “Don’t get a credit card just so you can get a free t-shirt.”

66 Ways To Save Money [download] 79 Kb

From the Consumer Literacy Consortium (whatever that is). Straight forward and diverse in its applications; from insurance to housing, there are quite a few practical tips in there.

Noteworthy Sites Indexed on Mymoney.gov

All in all, the “My Money” Tool Kit was pretty decent, even if they just threw in a bunch of different booklets from different agencies. You can order your own free kit here. The free package isn’t all that Mymoney.gov has to offer—the real goods are the indexed sites:

• FTC’s website on Credit – Everything you should know about consumer credits.
• The Fed on Choosing a Credit Card – A VERY good read on things to consider when choosing a credit card. Was going to write an post just like this one, but why bother when the Fed’s got it covered!
• US Treasury on Identity Theft – A pretty nice, if not well organized page with plenty of information on identity theft. Do’s and don’ts, what to do to prevent, and what to do if you are a victim of identity theft.
• FTC’s website on Identity Theft – Another resource on identity theft from the boys that receive the complaints. Much better organized and an easier read.
• SEC Guide on Avoiding Securities Fraud – A very nice index guide on the many, many different types of securities frauds you should watch for when investing.
• Department of Housing on Buying a Home – Nine steps to buying a home. The steps are pretty watered down, but there are plenty of links to many other resources.
• FTC on HELOCs – A good page that describes home equity line of credits and the important questions that you should ask yourself before applying for one.
• US Treasury on IRA (476 KB, PDF) – A 104 page publication on everything you want and don’t want to know about Individual Retirement Accounts.
• Step-by-Step Retirement Planner – Straight from the fun folks at the Social Security Administration, a good guide on steps to take when you’re near retirement (focuses on social security).

Actually Read Everything?

If you’ve seriously, and I mean seriously read through all those information above—I will guaranteed that you would have learned a bit more about finances. The next time you’re looking for general financial information, check out Mymoney.gov or a do a search on Consumer.gov, you may be plesantly surprise on what you tax dollars can produce.

Quick Thursday night rant.

Why can’t they make doorbell buttons that won’t get stuck? The noise that the electronic bell makes when it gets stuck must be killing a dog somewhere—because they sure as heck drive me nuts.

I suppose lubing it regularly will fix the problem.

Inflation, market (was) getting owned, doomsday, etc. Here are Five Tips from CNN Money on ways to save some precious dough.

1. Cut your car insurance cost

Some insurers give discounts for people in certain professions, including vets, speech therapists, economists and teachers. You may also qualify for discounts if you’ve cut down on driving. In some cases if you drive less than 7,500 miles a year you’ll qualify for a 5 percent discount from your insurer.

There’s also stuff like good student discount. After about two years of screwing around, I finally qualified for a good student discount last semester. Oh happy days.

2. Save Your Energy

Check AC filters, unplug gadgets, don’t use the dryer to dry one underwear, etc.

3. Be supermarket savvy

Skip buying toiletries like toothpaste, shaving cream or soap at the grocery store. Prices can be almost 25 percent higher than in a discount store, like Wal-Mart. Look at the top and bottom shelf if you want to find the discounts.

That’s a weird tip. In my experiences, toiletries mentioned above are cheaper at Wal-Mart and Target, than compare to my local supermarkets. But then again maybe my local supermarkets are a rip. Woops, totally misread that tip. lol

5. Get the freebies

The Web has a lot of new product offerings from companies that are all too willing to have you test their products out.

Wow, news flash! A few sites were mentioned: thefreesite.com and brandsaver.com, but IMO, freebie samples aren’t that hot, mostly because of:

Keep in mind, you’ll likely be bombarded by marketers for the rest of your life..but you know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

How was that for a filler post? Now, back to my summer break.

	Hummer H2/H3 Built on the Chevy Tahoe platform with a skin of a Hummer, the H2 is the ultimate poser vehicle. Good news for GM is that the U.S. is full of consumers with single digit IQs. To continue with the tradition of ruining the Hummer name, they rolled out the ‘Hummer’ H3. Yay! For more H2 hate, check out FUH2.com.
	Spinners Rims. That spins. Hey, it’ll go great with the H2 and H3! The bigger the rims the bigger your you-know-what. Never mind that they cost more than the car—or your house.
	Sony PSP Mmmm… PlayStation Portable. It’s a pretty cool handheld game console, with plenty of awesome feature and what-not. But, at a cool $250 USD? No thanks. Mobile entertainment for me = library books.
	Trophy Wife Too expensive.

Related Post and Links

• Four Things I’ll Never Buy
• Four Things Savvy Saver Won’t Buy

A reader’s request:

I was wondering if you could post a question to your readers? I never learned as a child, teenager or even as a young adult how to handle money. So for YEARS I just had a lifestyle of just blowing money and never saving a dime. I’ve even made the same mistake with my older children, but now that I am able to control my own spending I have no real idea what is the best way to teach my younger children how to save, be wise about money or even invest. Would any of your readers be interested in sharing with me anything that has worked for them? Thanks!

I’ll keep this short, since I know very little and won’t be a parent anytime soon (I hope). In my opinion, consistency is very important. Example, if you want your kids to sleep on-time everyday, you’ll set a consistent bed time and enforce it. Same deal with money; if you’re going to give your kids allowances, keep it consistent. Explain to them how much they’ll receive and never budge if they want more. If they want more, they’ll have to either earn it or learn to save up.

The related post below goes into a bit more detail on what I mentioned above. But since the reader is asking for other’s opinion, feel free to chime in with your thoughts and comments.  I would definitely appreciate it!

Related Post:

• When to stop helping your kids financially?
• How do you teach your kids about money?

The late payment fee for some credit cards are $39. Being penalize with a late fee sucks. It’s like being punished for being forgetful.

The thing about late fee though, is that it’s not really a punishment from your credit card company (at least from their perspective). When a credit card company issues you a late fee, they’re not saying: “This is so you’ll learn your lesson, so you’ll realize that you should pay on time, and we hope you won’t pay late again.” No, what you do get is a little line on your statement: Late Fee—XXX Amount.

So it’s in my opinion that credit cards company aren’t really up to the task of keeping you responsible; they shouldn’t, and it wouldn’t work anyway. Even if they triple late fees to $117—the amount of some traffic violation tickets—there will still be plenty of people paying their bills late. Just like how there are still plenty of people driving around without their seat belt on.

Like traffic tickets, paying your bills late is a common sense no-no. There are also the same potential long term affects, traffic record for your ticket, and credit history for your late payment. The immediate late fee may suck, but if you do it frequent enough, your credit will be affected, and you’ll really feel it on the day you sit across from the mortgage lender. Thousands-of-dollars feel it.

There are many reasons why a person would be a late bill payer. For me, it’s because I’m a lazy sucker. I tend to put things off till the last minute, for no particular good reason. Really bad habits, my friends will attest to it. Although I’ve only paid my credit card bill late once, you wouldn’t believe how many late fees I’ve receive from the library.

Thankfully, lazy people can get away with a lot of things today. There are too many different ways to pay for your credit card bill these days, that it’s silly to pay late. Be more responsible? Start caring more? Stop being lazy? Changing bad habits will take time, paying your bills on time—won’t.

Online Payment Saves The Day

Just about every major credit card issuer allows online payment. Your credit card doesn’t provide one and you tend to pay late? Ditch them. Seriously, get a new one. I’m not saying it’s a requirement, but if having a card with online payment can stop you from paying your bills late, then the money saved will be well worth it.

Many online payments also allows you to schedule your payment, automatically. That means you can set your bills to be paid on a certain day, via a certain amount. Best bet for late payers? Set it to the minimum amount due, on the day that you know you’ll have funds in your checking account. Or, set it to a fixed amount if you have a balance currently. Better yet, set it to pay-in-full monthly.

Too lazy to setup an online account for your credit card? It won’t take that long at all, the time you spent on this now, will save you plenty more time in the future. Even if you don’t pay your bills late, you should sign up for an online account. The conveniences and accessibility will amaze you. If you’re careful with your password, and be proactive about distinguishing fake emails, security for your online account should be the last of your worries. Trust me, the benefits outweigh the low risk.

Changing Due Date To Fit Your Busy Lifestyle

Don’t want to sign up for an online account? Want to do this the hard way? Fine. Did you know that most major credit card issuers will allow you to change your bill due date? This means, you don’t have to worry about writing out different checks to different card issuers on different days. Call up your credit card company and check if they’ll let you change your due date to a more flexible date.

Quite a few issuers also allows you to set your due date while you apply for your credit card, so keep that in mind the next time you open up another credit card account. Match the date along with your other bills, or set it after you receive your paycheck, plenty of options.

Pay By Phone To Save Your Butt

Today IS the last day and you totally forgot to pay your bill? Many card issuers also allows you to pay by phone, but make sure there aren’t fees associated with it before you use it. Pay by phone is indeed the last minute option. Last week, I totally forgot about a bill due for my Bank of America VISA. While I was busy hating myself (again), I realized I could pay by phone. Flip the card around, call the 1-800 number on the back, punch in my checking account information, specify the amount, and I’m done. Once again, modern day convenience beats out modern day laziness.

Try Changing Your Attitude A Bit

As mentioned, there are many reasons why a person pay their bill late. I don’t want to get on a hypocrite lecturing rampage, but it’s in my opinion that if you adjust your mental outlook a bit, things will be a lot easier. You shouldn’t require a $117 late fee to make you think twice about paying late, just like how people shouldn’t buckle up just because of some lame threat (click it or ticket)—you should do it because it’s the right thing to do. If you’re starting to pay late frequently, ask yourself why. It’s worth it.

Related Links and Resources

• HOWTO: Get Rid of Late Fees? Just ask!
• How to avoid credit card late fees from Bankrate
• Changing due date on your credit card from Bankrate

Small stuff like, 25% off at Borders, 20% at Brookstone, etc.

Big stuff like a 2006 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible for $5,000.

Three Four catches:

1. You have to have an American Express Card
2. You have to get the discount on specific days.
3. There are limited quantities on offers.
4. Great excuse to blow more money on stuff you otherwise wouldn’t buy.

Check out the list of wish certificate at Fatwallet, or head straight to My Wishlist to see what all the fuss is about.