The Carnival of Personal Finance (New!)

I'm a big fan of "Carnivals" (roving sites dedicated to one theme or another that collect submissions on various topics). There's a new one called the Carnival of Personal Finance, and it looks promising. The inaugural CPF (maybe that should be reworked so that it could be "CFP"?) is up at ConsumerismCommentary. Here are a few posts I found particularly interesting:

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Security has a nice series on the entire process of buying a house (from soup to nuts). It's worth checking out for those buying their first one - we've bought two in the Unknown Family so far, and I still learn new things from articles like this. Given the magnitude of the decision to buy a house, it behooves all of us to learn as much as we can.

JLP at All Things Financial has a nice piece on comparing interest costs of 15, 30, and 40 year mortgages.

Nickel from Five Cent Nickel drives home the point that it's important to control costs with a post titled a dollar saved does not equal a dollar earned. For example, if you are in the 2o% marginal tax bracket, cutting your expenses by a dollar is as good as earning an additional $1.25.

Finally, Jonathan, the author of MyMoneyBlog, gives some tips on the fine art of fighting over the check. My personal favorite is #4 - the "pre-emptive strike". If you have any good strategies to add to the list, send them in.

Of course, these are only my picks. As the ads often say, "your results may differ".