Rather belatedly I would like to say thanks to MyOpenWallet for hosting the Carnival Of Personal Finance #113.

There is a great selection of articles listed and I will highlight a couple I found interesting here.

10 Ways to Spend More Than You Make – An alternative way to view ways to save money. View the problem from a different angle and see the crazy ways we can spend more than we earn.

Is It Possible To Talk With Your Spouse About Money Without Having An Argument – Apart from having and incredibly long title I really liked this article. Yes, not only can you talk about money without arguments but you must. Don’t just talk, nor just listen. Make sure you both understand the situation and how each of you feels about it. It is important that you work together in this, just as it is in relationships generally.

What Can We Learn From The US Sub Prime Mortgage Collapse? – Lot’s I hope. I liked this article as soon as I saw the heading to the first point “1. Never trust a mortgage salesman“. I would go so far as to say never trust anybody who is going to gain by persuading you to deal through them. They have everything to gain from your money. You must make sure yourself that it is the right thing for you. Anyway, I got a bit off topic there -  I got SO excited by the headline. Other good lessons in this article are to be wary of speculative bubbles and think ahead. Being able to pay today does not mean you will be able to pay in the future if you haven’t planned ahead. A very good article.

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

I want you to imagine you have decided to employ someone to do all the things that are involved in running your life. You are looking to emply someone to look after your investments, run your business, if you have one, run your household, look after the kids, look after your wife/husband/partner and look after all of your personal finances. Buy the shopping, make investment decisions, decide if you can afford a new car or a holiday or a new house.
Sounds like you are looking for a pretty technically savvy and skilled person doesn’t it? So if you were to employ someone.. Would you emply yourself?

Just how skilled are you to make all these decisions. How much do you know about investing? How good are you at running your business? Are you an expert buyer of cars and washing machines?

In life we have to be reasonably adequate at everything but we can’t claim to be the best at everything. If someone is a top athlete, perhaps the very best in the world,but that doesn’t mean they are good at gardening or driving or finances. If you weere a top politician or the head of a religious order that doesn’t qualify you at being great at sorting out the laundery.

Be honest with yourself. If you are terrific with numbers, you have a good feel for stocks and other investments then that’s terrific but don’t assume that because you have been successful in a rising market that you will still be successful in a falling one. If you have done well with your house purchases that’s great too but be sure your success was through wise decisions and not because house prises were rising and a monkey could have made a profit too.

The important thing is to look at yourself honestly. What are your best talents. Use them and make the most of them. Look at your areas of weakness and accept they are there. Be aware of them and try to improve your knowledge and abilities in those areas but be honest with yourself. You do not have to demand perfection of yourself in all areas.

There is no shortage of advisers for all aspects of your life. If you are weak in certain areas that’s no problem. Find someone who is good at dealing with that subject and employ them to advise you. The ability to judge and act on advice is as important and maybe more important that having the ability for choosing what advice to give.

Advisers are specialists. You are unlikely to have a broker who also advises on the best brands of washing machines and gives gardening advice. Don’t expect yourself to be a specialist in everything. Your important task is to sift the advice you receive from many different sources and make a judgement.

Look at all the different areas of your life and make those judgements. For this particular task, are you the right person for the job? If not look for assistance. It is better to be successful than proudly stubborn and fail. So, do what you are good at and ask yourself…would it be a wise decision to employ yourself?

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

The 112th Carnival Of Personal Finance has just been published at www.frugallawstudent.com and it has a fine collection of finance articles listed. Thanks go to him for that. It must be a ton of work. A few of my favourites are:-

store-branded-credit-cards-a-shocking-look-back – a good reminder that store cards are good for the store but not so good for you.

I’m not a great lover of credit cards though they certainly can be a useful tool if used wisely.
Credit cards don’t cause debt, people do Show exactly how you should use them.

Teaching our kids about finance is a really important thing to do. Here’s some good advice about that.

6-ways-to-increase-your-kids-financial-intelligence

Thanks to the FrugalStudent for assembling this fine collection

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)