Welcome to the 90th Edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction, presented by the No Credit Needed Network. (If you are new to the world of personal finance blogging, I’ve included a brief “what am I looking at” explanation at the bottom of this article.)

Keys To Successful Debt Reduction

Create An Emergency Fund

Tricia from Blogging Away Debt points out the power of having an emergency fund (also called a freedom-fund or rainy-day fund). This article is a powerful reminder of the peace that an emergency fund can provide. My favorite line? The last one, where Tricia states: For us, though, I believe having that emergency fund saved me from really losing it and getting too discouraged. (Blogging Away Debt is a member of the NCN Network. You can find her current chart, and the charts of other members, in the right-hand column of this page. Simply click the chart labeled Blogging Away Debt and you can see Tricia’s progress.)

Begin To Make Better (Tough?) Decisions

This is a very interesting article, written by My Money and Life. My Money and Life is faced with an enviable choice. What should she do with an extra $6000? Pay off debt or stash the cash? Visit the site and leave a comment, voicing your opinion. Me? I’d be sure that I had my $1000 emergency fund, and then I’d put the rest towards debt reduction!

Free Money Finance (who donates all of the proceeds from his blog to charity, and therefore ROCKS!) warns against the practice of co-signing for a loan. What’s the big deal about co-singing for a loan? As FMF puts it: It’s just like you are taking out the loan yourself except someone else is paying for it.

My Two Dollars writes about ignoring your credit card debt. What happens if you simply decide to completely pretend it doesn’t exist, stop making payments, hide from the companies? Yikes! (By the way, My Two Dollars will be hosting this week’s Festival of Frugality, a collection of money saving tips from various personal finance bloggers. The Festival should go “live” on Tuesday, and I’ll link to it from here.)

The Simple Dollar asks, pay off home loan or invest the money? Trent does some math and comes up with an answer that fits his situation. What would you do? (Me? Come on! You know what I’d do.) Oh yeah, Trent’s thinking about writing a book! Do it, do it, do it!

Ask Mr. Credit has some great advice for those of you who are in debt. Be careful about the seminars that you attend and the people to whom you listen, especially if you are deeply in debt. Why? This quote from Mr. Credit card sums it up: When you hear ‘how easy it is to make money’, I think your defenses will go down. (Remember, it took time to build up your debt, it’s going to take time to pay down your debt!)

Think About Money Management

Queercents talks about living on a budget. I love this line: It’s entirely possible to live within a budget, but there’s no getting around the preparation and sacrifice involved. There’s no magic, and not too much math- only the determination to rid yourself of debt is required.

Credit Card Lowdown writes about credit card rate jacks. Why would your credit card company raise your rates? (I’ve got a fool-proof plan for avoiding such rate hikes. Do. No. Use. Credit. Cards. Period.)

Saving Advice has links to some awesome, free spreadsheets for creating your budget. Saving Advice suggests: Before you spend money on accounting or personal finance software, give a spreadsheet a try.

Money Smart Life tells a story about a man, his $1000 cell phone bill, and an automobile wreck. Seriously, read this post.

Mighty Bargain Hunter is thinking about Roth IRAs and debt reduction. This is a subject about which I must plead “ignorance”. Why? I paid off all of my debts BEFORE I started investing. Hmmm… Read the post and leave a comment.

Finding Financial Peace (who is obviously a Dave Ramsey fan!) writes a post about… Dave Ramsey! And the awesome Baby Steps.

Pick A Plan And Start Paying Off Your Debts

This is my submission for the week. Over at No Credit Needed, I wrote a little article about which debts to pay off first. Me? I chose to start with the account with the lowest balance.

Learn A Little About Life

(I’ve included the following, slightly off-topic articles because I liked them. I excluded certain submitted articles because they were way off-topic, filled with advertising spam, undated, or they just did not “fit” this week’s carnival. Contact me if you feel your article should have been included.)

The Wastrel Show talks about retiring at 50.

Debt Free writes about increasing your credit score

Day In The Life Of Baz has a article about the number of credit cards we have.

Ask Uncle Bill summarizes an article about saving a million dollars.

Finally, Clever Dude will be hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance, a collection of posts about saving money, managing your finances, investing, and a whole lot more. Check out this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.

If you are brand new to the world of personal finance blogging, you might be wondering, “What in the world am I looking at?” Let me see if I can ’shed a little light’ on the subject. Every week, personal finance bloggers submit articles to various “carnivals”. A host will then sort through those articles, arranging them in an easy-to-read format. One of the most popular personal finance carnivals is the Carnival of Debt Reduction. I’ve hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction several times. For a complete list of past editions, click here.
Finally, a little about me and my sites. I currently manage 4 websites, 3 about personal finance and 1 about weight loss.No Credit Needed is my main blog. You can read about my journey out of debt and into financial freedom.No Credit Needed Podcast is my podcast site. Want to hear what I sound like? There are over 40 episodes of debt reduction-centered podcasts to which you can listen.

No Credit Needed Network: I created the NCN Network as a place where like-minded people could gather, post their financial goals, and celebrate financial success. Each member gets a custom made personal finance chart (and a link to their site, if they have one.) Would you like to join? Also, take a second and subscribe to the NCN Network RSS Feed, so that you can keep up with all things related to the No Credit Needed Network.

No. Calories Needed is my weight loss site. (Let’s just say, I wish that losing weight was as easy as getting out of debt!)

Thank you for stopping by and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!