Mighty Bargain Hunter

Welcome to Carnival of Debt Reduction #102

Thanks for visiting the 102nd edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction! The goal of this carnival is to highlight posts on personal debt reduction stories and debt reduction advice. (If posts were about another area of personal finance unrelated to debt reduction, they were not included.) A big thanks to all of the posters included this time around!

• Indebted2You celebrated its 100th post with a recap of the first seven months of debt reduction activities. Lots of debt repayment going on, including most of a car loan. Great job!
• Paid Twice, the host of last week’s carnival, outlines annual financial goals through 2009. Reaching these goals will require over $1,000 per month to go toward debt reduction. Outlining goals for these kinds of things is important, and makes for a higher probability of success. Keep doing what you’re doing, PT!
• The Amatureist Financial Journey lists the pros and cons of repaying student loans faster instead of maintaining a bit of cash flow. In some cases it may actually be wiser to hold onto a fixed low-interest-rate debt if the money can be put to better use elsewhere, but in any case one needs to run the numbers before making a decision.
• Gather Little By Little takes the hard-line view of debt and describes it as all bad. (Except for one concession in some circumstances for borrowing to invest.) I largely agree with this statement insofar as most things that are bought with debt, necessary or not, tend to depreciate.
• Free Money Finance asks if you should pay off your mortgage or invest in Moose Tracks® ice cream. (No, actually that’s not what he posted about; it’s about paying off your mortgage or investing.)
• Clever Dude uses an example of a spendthrift coworker to illustrate the ease by which you can come up with money to pay down debt.
• My Two Dollars gives a carefully-reasoned response to a reader who asks about paying off a car loan with a 0% credit card introductory offer. The answer isn’t as easy as it sounds. Another point I’d add is to investigate whether this makes it easier to hold on to your car should you get in trouble again. Paying off the car loan in full releases the lien, but at the expense of much costlier financing down the road. I don’t have a cut-and-dried answer to this one.
• Blunt Money remembers the time she first got really serious about getting rid of debt. These realizations require a change in heart regarding debt and the effect it has on one’s life.
• Teaspoon Finance includes debt reduction as part of a four-step personal finance zen approach. (At the risk of divulging too much of the post, paying off high-interest credit card debt is part of the “Zen of Right Effort.”)
• DebtFREE-Revolution accomplishes the debt reduction process in the well-known 12-step process, the first of which is to recognize that you have a debt problem.

And there you have it: ten great posts on debt reduction! Thanks again to everyone who submitted, and please spread the word about the carnival if you have a blog and your readers would enjoy it. The main carnival page is here, and you can ask to host the carnival here or submit your article for next week’s here.