Kirby on Finance

The Carnival of Debt Reduction!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! Just remember, the weekend was about more than a having an extra day off from work. As promised, here is this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction! I had a blast reading the articles and I’m sure you will too. I was rather liberal on what type of articles I included this week, but in my defense I turned down several Real Estate Speculation articles and what turned out to be a terrific recipe for a Brownie Sunday. Enjoy the carnival!

FMF from Free Money Finance presents Good Debt versus Bad Debt in which he bucks the trend of classifying debt as either good or bad while asserting that the best debt is no debt!

Amanda at Young and Broke presents one of my favorites this week. It’s Radical Saving! which is a great post for when you really want to make a difference in your spending habits and save a bundle!

With student loan interest rates being readjusted on July 1st, Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Consolidate Student Loans before June 30th which offers some reasons why you should be consolidating them if you haven’t already.

Katie presents Weekend homework: keep your future cash—consolidate those loans, posted at Aridni.

Dawn Cadwell at Queercents presents Credit Card Alternatives, which offers some great alternatives for the credit card weary.

J.D. from Get Rich Slowly presents The psychology of spending in which he offers some analysis on the reasons why we spend the way we do. Mastering these part of our lives is awfully critical to reducing debt!

Have you ever wanted to know how lenders fight mortgage fraud? It’s the IRS Form 4506. Find out more as David A. Porter presents Ask Dave: Do I have to sign form 4506 at my mortgage closing? posted at Pacesetter Mortgage Blog.

Matthew Crist presents Keep the Change, where he shows us how losing his wallet has led him to a great money saving service - posted at We’re In Debt.

Steve Faber presents HELOC your way to independence? Maybe So, Maybe Not posted at Debt Free.

Amy Allen Clark at The MotherLoad presents Thirteen Easy Ways to Save Your Family Money.

Bill at Ask Uncle Bill presents Sucking Downward in which he shows that the best debt reduction tool is a successful career.
LA MoneyGuy presents Upfront Rewards Credit Card Offer posted at It’s Just Money.

Kevin Surbaugh at Becoming and Staying Debt Free presents Buying 2nd Hand Is A Way Of Life.

Would you take sticker price on your next car? Would you take the first offer you get on your house? Probably not…So why don’t people [bargain and negotiate] with their hospitals or doctors when they are about to buy…health care?? Why not negotiate? Why not bargain?…Lower prices means less debt! Consumer-Driven Finance discuses this in, Consumer-Driven Finance 2: Preempting Medical Debt.
Chris McLeod presents Budgeting 101: Happiness is a Good Budget posted at The Get Rich Project.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade presents Debt Consolidation Services.

Tricia presents Calling Them Finally Worked!! posted at Blogging Away Debt.

Christine Kane presents Building a Relationship with Money (Money Series #3) posted at Christine Kane.

That’s it for the Carnival this week! I hope you enjoyed these posts as much as I did. If you’d like to see your post added here, feel free to contact me and let me know! Have a terrific week!

The real cost of fast food?

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and a few other anti-fast food books is out to change the economics of the fast food industry.  His argument is that even though fast food is cheap, it only tastes good because it is so chemical laden.  He argues that the chemicals used in processing the meat mask the nasty ingredients that really comprise the hamburger like bone and feces.  But when you leave the chemicals in, we’re left with a deceptively good tasting hamburger that is of course, very unhealthy.

Of course the food industry has released a website to counter Schlosser’s assertions.  You can check it out for yourself at BestFoodNation.com.

To fix the problem, we’d need to go after foods that are organic, which poses its own special type of pain.  It’s expensive!  Just check out your grocer’s organic section and you’ll see what I mean.  Still, wouldn’t you pay more to not eat feces?  I only say that in jest – there’s really more than goes into the equation of choosing whether to go organic or not.

Why are processed foods so much cheaper? The wholesale cost of industrialized foods–from meat to milk–is less expensive. Again, government subsidies help, but processing has become so standardized that foods are cheaper to produce using established factory processes. According to Harwood Schaffer, a research associate at the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, a loaf of bread has gotten so cheap that “the wrapper costs more than the wheat that goes inside.”

That seems to make sense.  However, it only stands to reason that if more people went organic, the cost of producing organic food would drop in the long run.  There are already enough “early adopters” of organic eating to have gotten the ball rolling.  The question is, will you join them?

Cheap Eats [Forbes]

Bankruptcy Filings Back on the Rise?

Those who were in staunch support of last year’s Bankruptcy bill may be a bit disappointed.  According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, the amount of people seeking bankruptcy is climbing back up to the pre-bill levels.  In 2005, one in every 60 households filed for bankruptcy compared to one in ever 79 back in 2004.

If filings continue to rise at anything like this rate — which is not a given, but certainly a possibility — we could see close to 1 million filings by the end of the year.

That would still be significantly less than the record filing levels that drove passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. But it would be a pretty clear indication that the bankruptcy juggernaut was just stalled, not cured, by the new law.

There are a lot of reasons why we’re seeing this climb in filings.  The article points to an increase in the expansion of credit given by the lending industry that’s led to loans being given to people with shaky repayment histories, financial illiteracy, interest rates with no caps, and finally an increasing amount of un/underinsured who face dramatic medical bills.

Bankruptcy filings soaring again [MSN]

Think about it!

You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy. – Garth Brooks

Have a money related quote that you like?  Let me know by leaving it in the comments section, and of course I’ll give you credit.

Time for some “link love”?

I think it’s time to do a little updating to links you see on my sidebar. The list has gotten kinda long and could use an upgrade similar to one that the site received a few days ago.

I always make a point to read the blogs that I like to and try and give them a plug on this blog whenever possible. If your blog is on topic and you’d like to link to me as well, just drop me a line and I’ll throw your link up on my blog as well. What’s a little, “link love” between friends? I’ll update my links over the next couple of days.

Carnival of Debt Reduction reminder!

This is just another reminder that I’m hosting this weeks Carnival of Debt Reduction! Also, don’t forget that since Monday is Memorial Day - the Carnival will be posted Tuesday morning. So, what are you waiting for - get your submissions in!