Welcome to the second edition of the Rich Money Habits Carnival!

In this edition we will highlight the top 5 frugality and success articles out of the tons of money stories we’ve received during the month of February.  May these articles inspire you to live a wealthy and successful life.  Enjoy!

Rich Money Habits Top 5 Picks

• Steve C presents Why Being Frugal Can Only Take You So Far On Your Path To Wealth posted at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. RMH – A great read on the age-old dilemma of going too cheap.  Steve argues that raising your income by working on your business gives back way bigger returns than the measly saved income you gain from cutting back  expenses.
• Faizal Nisar presents Secret of Success: YOU | Be Truly Happy posted at Be Truly Happy, saying, “Creating money begins in the mind. Once you learn that success is a mindset, you can become rich in any industry.” RMH – Inspiring article on taking responsibility for your own success.  The question at the end says it all, “will you take responsibility for your success, or blame others for your failure.”
• KCLau presents Focus: Achieving Goals posted at KCLau’s Money Tips, saying, “A guest post by Sayeed, a senior manager in a large MNC in Penang on how he achieved his financial goals.” RMH – Interesting article on why we should keep on dreaming.  Sayeed offers 5 tips on how to focus on your dream and achieve it.  My personal favorite – “get 15 minutes a day to read a book, best before going to bed. Develop the habit from there…”
• FIRE Getters presents A Simple Budget That Works? posted at FIRE Finance. RMH – Very helpful tips on how to make your budget “actually” work.  The article aptly describes the problem of budgeting as being “too complex and rigid” while real life demands “flexibility and simplicity.”
• Wenchypoo presents Ending Bureaucracy posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket. RMH – Great article explaining what bureaucracy means.  While reading the article, I couldn’t help but compare it to how big companies “bureaucracies” disguised these things as “processes”…in reality, all these “processes” do is delay you from doing what you really need to do in the first place.

Other interesting articles in this edition

Money Stories

• tristin presents This Is Me ? I Will Become a Millionaire posted at tristinaugustus.com.
• Nathan Bishop presents 100 Best Companies To Work For 2010 posted at The Debt Hawk, saying, “100 Best Companies To Work For 2010″
• MyMaria presents Debt Snowball: Making Progress posted at Frugal Homesteading Blog, saying, “We’ve paid off more than 75% of our debt since we started doing the debt snowball. Here’s how.”
• Credit Shout presents Credit Cards From A College Students Perspective posted at CreditShout.

Business

• Frank Goley presents Why a Business Plan is so Important to your Business Success posted at Business Success Strategies, saying, “The business success strategies blog is written by small business success expert, Frank Goley, the chief business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank has more than twenty years experience helping companies start, grow, turn around and succeed.”
• Eadwine Walter presents Why Are College Students Dropping Their Business Majors? We Give You the Stats. posted at Online University Data, saying, “Ironically, while the economy is in the tank, statistics reveal that the percentage of college freshmen who plan to major in business is at its lowest level since the mid-1970s.”
• Martin Russell presents My Biggest Mistake Starting Off posted at Martin Russell.
• Glory Scott presents Maruti Suzuki to roll out Sports Car ‘Kizashi’ in India posted at Breaking News Online, saying, “Maruti Suzuki India is all set to roll out its sports luxury car, ‘Kizashi’ in the Indian market. The car is expected to be priced at Rs 10 lakh – 13 lakh. It will give a tough competitions to brands like Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Skoda and Volkswagen.”
• John Paul Aguiar presents Why You Need To Be A Affiliate Marketer Today posted at Money Dummy Blog.

Personal Finance

• Lazy Man and Money presents Seven Things You Must Do to Prepare for An Emergency posted at Lazy Man and Money.
• Roshawn Watson presents Americans Have Loss Financial Hope posted at Watson Inc, saying, “A recent study highlights how Americans have loss hope for getting rich”
• Kathleen Gaga presents One of the most effective ways to energetically attract money posted at Daily Awareness, saying, “You must expect nothing in return. Not from where you give your money nor from any other source. Simply give because you want to give.”
• CreditCardAssist presents Card Issuers Step Up for Haitian Relief Efforts posted at Credit Card Assist, saying, “Credit card issuers have stepped in to assist with Haitian relief efforts by waiving interchange fees on relief donations and donating money to international relief organizations.”
• youngandthrifty presents youngandthrifty joins the ?Million Dollar Club? posted at youngandthrifty, saying, “Youngandthrifty takes the plunge and joins Budgetsaresexy’s Million Dollar Club- whereby members pledge to have rich money habits in order to reach a net worth of a cool million.”
• JJF presents IRS Imputed Interest Rules | IRS Tax Advice posted at The Personal Finance Blog.
• Patrick @ Military Money presents Which Types of Insurance Do You Really Need? posted at Military Finance Network, saying, “This article covers some of the basic types of insurance needed by most people, young and old.”
• ABC presents Income Tax Brackets And Marginal Tax Rates for 2010 posted at ABCs of Investing, saying, “Complete list of income tax brackets and marginal tax rates for 2010.”
• Four Pillars presents Complete Tax Return Myself Or Should I Hire An Accountant? posted at Quest For Four Pillars, saying, “Should you complete your own tax return or hire an accountant?”
• PT presents How to Cook a Better Steak for Less posted at Prime Time Money.
• FMF presents What Your Boss Wants You to Do posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Your career is your #1 financial asset. This post tells how to make the most of it by delivering the results your boss wants delivered.”
• Colin Robertson presents Making More than the Minimum Payment on Your Credit Card posted at The Truth About Credit Cards.com, saying, “When the new credit card rules go into effect on February 22 (Credit Card Bill of Rights), perhaps one of the most exciting changes will be the way payments are allocated.”
• Joel Ohman presents CARD Act | Credit CARD Reform Act of 2009 | Credit Card Accountability Responsibility & Disclosure Act posted at Credit Card Chaser, saying, “A 5,000 word guide to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, & Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD).”
• Weddings Affordable presents Wedding Help From Friends and Family posted at Affordable Wedding Planning, saying, “A great way to save money on your wedding is to enlist help from your friends and family.”
• Cathy Stucker presents Finding Money posted at Cathy Stucker, saying, “Know that cool feeling of reaching into your pocket and finding a $20 bill you forgot about? Multiply that feeling by 10′s or 100′s with the tips in this post.”

Investing

• BeaBu presents Are You a Bear or a Bull? Or a BeaBu? | BeaBu posted at BeaBu.com, saying, “Investors, short sellers, and the others – why you should trade on both sides. BeaBu.com is a blog about risk taking, macro trading, and alternative investments.”
• MoneyNing presents Avoid These Five Investment Mistakes posted at Money Ning, saying, “Don’t make the same mistakes I did and avoid the pitfalls with these simple but important points.”
• Abdulrasool Sumar presents How to Retire as a Millionaire with your 401k Plan and 7 Strategies to Achieve Growth of your 401k Plan posted at 401k, saying, “Learn the story of Knute Iwaszko who saved $1 million in his 401k plan with a $60,000 annual salary and paying the costs to raise 5 kids. You do not have to be a Goldman sachs CEO or a whiz kid on Wall Street making millions!”
• Gracie Turner presents The Heaviest Price Tags In Higher Education posted at Online Colleges.net.
• Jasmine Hall presents 100 Best RSS Feeds for Your Financial Literacy posted at Accounting Degree.com.
• Hoven Keith presents Ultimate Guide To Biotech ETFs posted at ETFdb, saying, “ETF investors looking to gain exposure to the biotech sector have a number of options to consider–five to be exact. While there are some similarities between these funds, there are also some significant differences that result in unique risk and return profiles and diverging returns. In this article, we profile each of the ETF options, highlighting the pros and cons of each.”
• Honeypurple presents 100 Important Personal Finance Posts for Women posted at Accounting Degree.com.
• Debt Hawk presents Best Mutual Funds 2010 posted at Best Mutual Funds Now, saying, “The Best Mutual Funds 2010 will be determined at the end of the year. What needs to be evaluated is which ones have the best prospects of having the greatest returns and which one will be consistent.”
• The Investor presents Rebalance your portfolio for your benefit, not the tax man’s posted at Monevator.com, saying, “Rebalancing your portfolio between stocks, bonds and other assets can boost your returns and reduce risk over the years – but don’t reduce the benefits by increasing your tax bill.”
• The Smarter Wallet presents Peer To Peer Lending Sites: Lending Club vs Prosper vs Kiva posted at The Smarter Wallet.
• Steve Patterson presents FastSwings – Blogs – Netflix (NFLX) Continues to Move Higher posted at FastSwings, saying, “If analyst nudge their expectations higher again, the stock should move accordingly. Look for this increase as a chance to buy or look for a slight sell off for your chance to trade the stock long.”
• Patty Pedersen presents Seven Ways to Invest in Auto and Auto Part Stocks posted at AlphaProfit MoneyMatters – Investing Blog, saying, “Auto stocks are a favorite of the momentum crowd. Assets in Fidelity Select Automotive have swelled 20 times from a year ago. This article presents five prudent auto plays including Autoliv and Penske Auto.”

Other

• nissim ziv presents Career Goals: Examples of Career Goals and Objectives posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “Every now and then we come across people who are unhappy with their jobs. The reasons of their unhappiness may vary – they do not like their work schedule, or they do not like a particular colleague in their office, or even that they do not like their boss. However, these vague reasons actually serve as a cover for the underlying reasons of all dissatisfaction with jobs – the employee is unaware of or has not given thought to his or her career goals and objectives”
• Peak Personal Finance presents Advantage of Having a Tax Professional Do Your Taxes posted at Peak Personal Finance, saying, “It can really pay to hire a professional.”
• Joe Johnson presents How to Be Fashionable on a Budget posted at Fashion Merchandising, saying, “About saving money and resisting impulse purchases when buying clothes.”
• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Balance Transfer Credit Card Tips, Facts and Traps posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Find out how balance transfer credit cards can help you out.”
• Four Pillars presents How Many Years Should You Keep Tax Paperwork posted at Quest For Four Pillars, saying, “If you have just filed your taxes – then keep your paperwork for a while.”
• Deposit Accounts presents How to Build a CD Ladder (Infographic) posted at Deposit Accounts.
• Rugbygirl Crosby presents Top 50 Sports Business Blogs posted at Sports Management Degree.
• MatthewPaulson presents Tips to Repair Bad Credit posted at Fine-Tuned Finances.
• Billeater presents Foreclosure – Should You Walk Away From Your Home posted at Billeater.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Rich Money Habits Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: rich money habits carnival, blog carnival.

• What encouraged you to start Rich Money habits?

It has been said that we are creatures of habit. Some money habits make us poor, while others make us rich. The key to being rich is knowing which is which.

My money habits growing up can be described as “working hard for money”. The only way I knew how to make money then was to work hard and and get paid at the end of each month.

Being young and foolish about money, I made sure that my “hard work” was compensated by having lots of fun. I have earned and spent my money as if there’s no tomorrow, dining out with friends, buying the latest gadget, or buying home appliances all at once, EVEN if I didn’t have the money to pay for it. I only had to use my new credit card.

When my debts piled up, I realized that my money habits are eating me alive. I even had to do cash advance on my credit card just to pay for rent. That was a wake up call for me. I realized I had better take care of my own money by controlling my own money habits or I’d end up begging for money to pay for what I eat.

That proved to be a turning point in my financial life. My journey of trying to learn how the world of money works started by discovering my own “poor” money habits and forming new “rich” money habits to help me get started in taking control of my own finances.

Rich Money Habits was born out of my desire to help people take control of their own money habits. It starts with recognizing that years and years of “poor” money habits programming cannot be undone overnight. It takes constant exposure to the financial habits of the rich, making your own financial mistakes, and having the courage to take action in spite of financial failures. More importantly, Rich Money Habits was built in the hope of cultivating a community where people can learn and encourage each other to discover and strengthen the “rich man” within each one of us.

• How does Rich Money habits differ from other financial sites?

The main focus of Rich Money Habits is in helping you develop the mindset of the rich in the hope of drawing out the “rich man” in you to help solve your own financial problems.

Some financial sites focus on being frugal. Others focus on ways of saving. While a few concentrate on the different investment vehicles, whether it be online savings accounts, mutual funds, real-estate or stocks.

Even though Rich Money Habits will occasionally feature these topics, it is mainly to highlight the money mindset behind the financial decision and examine how and why people take advantage of these financial vehicles in the first place.

• Does personal experiences play a key part in the content of your blogs?

My personal experiences (both successes and failures) are occasionally included in some of the articles in Rich Money Habits in the hope that it might help encourage other people to explore and discover their money habits on their own.

• Where do you get the ideas for your blogs?

Ideas are a dime a dozen. I’ve read hundreds of personal finance books, magazines, blogs, attended financial seminars and coaching, designed software solutions to major financial services companies but nothing beats jumping in and experiencing how to solve your own money problems. Listening to other people’s money problems also allows me to tune in and understand why people do what they do with their own money. My goal is to extract the valuable financial lessons from all these sources and effectively communicate those gem of money ideas to readers of Rich Money Habits.

• What are some key concepts to keep in mind when creating a budget?

One thing I learned about a traditional budget is that it doesn’t work – at least for me anyway. I don’t keep a detailed list of all transactions that I make. What works for me is keeping an overall picture of where my money is coming from, where is it going out, and more importantly, if I’m keeping any of it at the end of each month. If I need to know where my financial life is, I can check my accounts and instantly get an idea if my money is growing or not. I’ve learned to stay flexible and treat a budget like a plan that has to be continually refined as I go.

• What is some financial advice you could give our readers?

Keep learning. Keep dreaming. Keep building your own rich money habits.

Thanks to Lydia @ MoneyHackers.net for the interview.  The original article got published @ http://www.moneyhackers.net/465/interview-with-allan-from-rich-money-habits/.

When I was in College, I wanted very much to help my parents pay for my education.  I was fortunate to have been granted a full scholarship, so that took care of the tuition.  Even then, making money from a far away province, and spending it in the most expensive city in the country is no easy task.  It is an uphill battle similar to walking up to a going down escalator.  So in my own little way, I also tried to make money by applying as student assistant to one of the university’s projects.  It doesn’t pay much since it is a government project but enough to pay some of my daily expenses and grow my confidence.

After graduating, I immediately started work as a mainframe programmer for a multinational IT company.  The offer I got then was around 16,000 pesos which was BIG money then for someone who’s fresh out of college and don’t have much working experience.  I worked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.

As my paycheck increased, my appetite for consumption also increased.  I bought a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stove, shoes, etc, ALL at the same time, EVEN when I didn’t have the money to pay for it.  I just used my new credit card!  That’s when my debt started to pile up.  The “easy” monthly payments never lived up to its promise.  No monthly payment was easy, especially when you only have your paycheck to rely on.  As my debt seemingly increased every month, I also had to worry about paying my monthly house rental, buying groceries, eating out with friends, and more.  There were times I was so out of money I even had to do “cash advance” on my credit card.  As some of you might know, you get to pay a hefty “fee” for doing a cash advance.  This is on top of the amount of money you actually “advanced”.  My already big debt, ballooned even more!  I was so ashamed of having to do cash advance, I promised right there and then, I had to pay for my debt no matter what.  It was like a having compound interest working against me.  I had to learn how money works.  I had to figure it out no matter what.  I had no choice.

While pondering my huge debt, I tried to look for ways to earn more money.  I tried doing some programming projects for friends.  I even entered the world of network marketing, tried selling wellness products and failed miserably.  I remember that my only “downlines” (a term indicating those you’ve recruited into the business) was my mother, my aunt, and a few of my friends.  It was a learning experience.  The thing that struck me most, was that my “need” for money, was being transferred to my “clients”, without me being conscious of it.  It was hard “selling” something you don’t 100% believe in and it’s even harder when your motivation is “making” more money without necessarily helping other people.  I think this mindset barrier is one of the reasons why I was not able to make it work.  Everyday, I had to battle with myself.  Am I here to really help other people?  Or is it just because of the money?

One time, while me and my friends were hanging out at a bookstore, I saw the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  I heard my friend say it’s a great book, so I bought it, took it home and devoured the stories and financial lessons in the book.   The book opened my eyes to the world of money I never knew existed before.  That’s when I realized that the rich have different sets of money habits from the poor and the middle class.  For the first time, it finally made sense why I can’t seem to be making a dent on my credit card debt; why I can’t seem to sell anything at all.  Because I had the wrong money habits.  I had to learn rich money habits to achieve financial freedom.

After that, it got me excited to learn more about money. First, I signed-up for our company’s savings plan.  I started really small. At first, only about 2% of my paycheck is automatically deducted and kept under my savings account.  I don’t even get to hold the money.  After a month, I increased it to 5%, then to 10%. After a year of saving, I was able to set aside 20% of my paycheck without necessarily scrimping myself too much.  That was rich money habit #1 – pay yourself first.

With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely.  More than that, it gave me confidence to know that I can do it, with the proper discipline and rich money habit.  When the opportunity came for me to be assigned to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, I was able to save even more and pay-off the rest of my credit card debt. That was rich money habit #2 – get out of bad debt as soon as possible!

I also started to take serious notice of the numerous calls I got from insurance agents offering life insurance.  Before, I would always make up numerous excuses just to avoid talking to them.  But now, I wanted to know more how I can use the different insurance products to protect myself and my family.  I also started reading more on business, money, investing and personal finance.  After a few years, I managed to save up for an emergency fund.  That’s rich money habit #3 – Get some protection!

I’m still a long way to go from financial freedom.  That is my goal.  I am in the process of learning how to build passive and semi-passive income, and I am loving every minute of it.  In this website, I will share whatever I learned so that you too can build your own rich money habits and ensure your financial success and freedom!