Earlier this month, a fellow personal finance blogger, The Simple Dollar, wrote an excellent piece about how he and his family was defining themselves by stuff up until two years ago.  They were buying five DVDs every week along with the latest gadgets, golf clubs, and other stuff on whims.

He nearly had a financial meltdown, he says… until he got smart about debt, money, and what’s really important.  He started selling off excess junk that he had accumulated, and seriously watched his spending.

Read how The Simple Dollar made life-changing habits to make his debt shrink instead of grow.  Now he and his wife celebrate multiple streams of income and feel financial satisfaction–something completely foreign to them before.

Check out The Simple Dollar for this inspirational story and suggestions for your own transition into control over money.

I just read an article over at ‘Smart Money‘ about how couples often make similar mistakes in regards to their finances. It brings up many good points and issues.

“Most of us don’t know how to talk about money,” says Mary Claire Allvine, a certified financial planner (CFP) and co-author of “The Family CFO: The Couple’s Business Plan for Love and Money.”

“People tend to be emotional and reactive about money, not strategic,” she says.

When emotions run high, people tend to make fiscal mistakes. Allvine’s solution: Approach family finances as if you were running a business. “If you put a business metaphor into the picture, you’d be surprised how much more methodical people are.”

In this article she talks about 6 common pitfalls that could arise if issues are not properly resolved.

1. Merging finances
2. Controlling debt
3. Spending habits
4. Investing Wisely
5. Money Secrets
6. Emergency Planning

Give the article a read, I think that you will find it full of good ideas and perspective for you.

Humans have struggled to gain money and power for centuries. In some places, the desire leads to bloodshed and abuse. The desire for money is constant. If it weren’t, sites like Aridni wouldn’t be around. Creating wealth can be done in positive ways, like the cliché about teaching people to fish instead of feeding them a fish.

The basic formula for financial success on any level is simple. Spend less than you earn. In Charles Dickens’ classic novel, David Copperfield, David noted:

Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen six. Result: happiness.
Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty pound ought and six. Result: misery.

So spend less than you have—what a simple theory with abundant results. Piling debt and fees from overdraft accounts and late credit card payments abound when we step from under the wing of our parents. Building a nest egg is impossible… unless you pinch a few pennies or work a little more to create savings.

I don’t know of any way around debts when you’re young—school loans, mortgages, car loans and credit cards maybe. Some experts think that investing any money while carrying debt is plain stupid. They’re right if your money is sitting in the bank, accomplishing nothing.

Then again, my net worth is growing because I carry debt. My real estate investments are carried by the bank. If I didn’t hold debt on these projects, I wouldn’t be able to have these investments. What’s the correct answer? It depends on the individual. You have to know your desires and goals to grasp just how much money you need to be saving and growing.

The battle for money is all a game. We all have to decide on how much we want and how hard we’re willing to work. As a friend always reminds me, “If making lots of money were easy, then everyone would be doing it.” Everyone isn’t. They’re content with the “rat race”. The question is—are you content?

Do you know why the Panama Canal was built? Do you know why we made it to the moon? Or do you know why the light bulb was invented?

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
Before the Panama Canal, if you wanted to get a ship from California to New York there was some serious travel time involved. You had to go all the way around South America on a trip comparable to one around the world. Anyone can take a look at a map and see that putting the canal in Panama would be the most ideal to significantly shorten the trip.

To get to the moon, it would be an understatement to say there was a fair amount of work involved. Despite the massive amounts of data to crunch and problems to solve, engineers were able to figure them out and the end goal stayed the same. Get to the moon.

While working on the light bulb, there was over 900 prototypes before one actually worked as well as Thomas Edison wanted it to (That is another post about persistence). A little known fact is that Thomas Edison was actually the 23rd person to invent the light bulb (That in itself is a whole different post on persistence, strategy, and dedication!). The light bulb was really only part of the problem for Edison. The real problem was the fact that there were no electric lines running to people’s houses, that was the actual goal. Edison once said “We’ll make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”

While you could easily go deeper into the specifics of each one, there is one answer that explains all three. Because someone planned on it. Almost everything great that mankind has done has been planned out.

Not everything has to be planned out, but the achievements are much easier to chisel out when they are defined. Anybody can come up with a goal for something, and when put together with a killer plan you might actually have a shot at reaching it.

Welcome to The Carnival of Personal Finance #64 hosted right here at Aridni! We’ve got a huge number of articles this week. Apparently everyone is trying to make up for the day off for Labor Day by working twice as hard. =P

There are an even 50 articles being posted here, so put your reading glasses on and get to the Personal Finance! (do people still use reading glasses?)

We’ll start off with last week’s host 1stmillionat33 who gives us some investing advice My investing advice if you have $1000 to $10000

“Finding a new job can be a daunting challenge. But if you follow my simple 21-step plan, you’ll soon be battling cranky alarm clocks, rush-hour traffic, and the “living for the weekend” daily grind.” Madeleine Begun Kane presents Working Stiffed posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

“Your kids are starting out strapped because they haven’t been taught how to fend for themselves properly because YOU were so busy working your tail off trying to keep a roof over their heads!” Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Warehouse: Another Book You Shouldn’t Bother Buying–Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead

What does a credit report look like? How can I read one? If I’m running a credit report on someone, what sort of information should I be looking for? The anatomy of a credit report

Think your finances are screwed up? It could be worse. You could be Jack Bauer, who needs much more than 24 hours to get his money house in order. Here’s something Jack Bauer can’t fix in 24 hours

From Opportunities Aplenty we find out How Aussies Get to Pay Off Their Mortgages Early

Errors on medical bills are more common than many consumers realize. This post includes steps for detecting, correcting and avoiding billing errors at the hospital and at the doctor’s office. The Frugal Duchess: Watch out for Medical Bill Mistakes!

A lot of peole are scared to start saving their money because it’s a scary world. People don’t know a lot about it and therefor scared of it. Here is an article that explain one of the most basic things that people see all the time. What Does the Dow Jones and Nasdaq Mean on the Front of My Yahoo/MSN homepage?

3 ways it costs more to be a women is Adult ADD and Money’s followup to 3 ways it costs more being a man

We’ve all heard “don’t put off for tomorrow…” but it can be sound financial advice when considering insurance. A health problem can mean a big insurance problem, as well. Bob Vineyard explains. Cost of Delay

How much does an average nursing home cost?A post about the cost of nursing homes in retirement and how to plan your retirement to protect you against that possibility.

Not dividends, not growth, but both. HJL wants to let you know why he love investings in companies that pay and are increasing their dividends.

Tired but happy has to make a choice between Roth versus the 401k.

A new blog that has popped up in the last month, My New Choice, looks like it is off to a great start. They bring us a Strategy to Curb Impulse Buying

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is going to be keeping a good chunk of change. If you need to work on your home you might be able to as well. Energy Policy Act of 2005 Saves Me $500

FMF gives us the math behind his own retirement number How I Set My Retirement Number

(Continue reading this article…)

A real quick note to those of you looking to find a job, there are a couple good articles over at The Business of America is Business The festival of Job hunting.

Also there is a guest article over at Yaro’s site, Small Business Branding written by yours truly. Do quality work to build a quality brand

Building and defining your brand is one of the most time consuming projects that businesses tackle. It might even be something that you worry so much about that you lose a significant amount of sleep. Perhaps though, it is something that really small business owners shouldn’t worry about at all. If you work to produce the best product or service every time you do something, your brand will be reflected in a positive light. Even when you don’t necessarily produce your best work your brand is still reflected, so in fact branding is not something you need to consciously think about at all - you create one just by running your business.

The age old question for people has always been, “How do I save money and not be a mooch?” Perhaps you were wondering about the meaning of life, the universe, everything, but that is another post. Here at Aridni, we tackle things one at a time!

So how do you save money without relying on your friends, family, and roommates to pick up the slack? It takes that one word that everyone loves… or perhaps it is the complete opposite of that. Budgeting.

While it isn’t necessarily as easy as a cakewalk, budgeting can improve your awareness of your money flow. When you are forced to think about your spending habits, you become instantly aware of all the excess you are purchasing.

Even if can’t stay with your budget for very long, the process of creating it alone might just be beneficial enough.

Welcome to the Festival of Frugality for the second week of June 2006!

We’ve got a huuuuuge amount of entries for the week so you’ve got all kinds of articles to read, ponder, analyze, and debate. Or whatever it is that you do with them!

If you are interested in hosting the Festival or learning more about it, skip on over to Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Next week the festival will be returning there to its creator.

We’ve got a wide variety of articles. With that, here we go!

DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room presents Frugalities

Paul over at Paul’s Tips presents My eight best negotiation tips

Chuck Russell has a great Car Buying Tip-Summer Service posted at buyanauto.

Tony Miller presents SavingMoney » Build New Credit Fast Using This Method posted at SavingMoney.

Rebecca Mielke at The Space Between My Peers presents Frugal Mom Has a Social Life

Tricia presents A Few Cheap Ideas to Spruce Up the Look of an Old Home posted at Blogging Away Debt.

Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality presents Not So Rewarding http://multiplementality.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2006/06/06/970/trackback/

mbhunter presents 25 cheap ways to keep your house cooler, Part 1 posted at Mighty Bargain Hunter.

Chuck Russell presents Tips To Improve Your Credit Score posted at buyanauto.

nickel at fivecentnickel.com presents Reducing Our Electrical Usage http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2006/06/05/reducing-our-electrical-usage/trackback

Mike Price at Value Investing, and a Few Cigar Butts presents Portfolio Review

Steve Faber knows a thing or two about Customer Satisfaction – Spend Your Money Where It Will Make You Happy posted at Debt Free.

Adam Graham presents Money Saving Chronicles #9: Net Flix Revisited posted at Adam’s Blog.

The Family CEO presents Fun Freebie: A Course in Frugal Living posted at The Family CEO.

Jane Dough at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet presents Sometimes it is the little things…

Jazz has written Use your frequent flier miles for things other than flying posted at Afexion.com.

Amy Allen Clark at The MotherLoad presents Weeding Through Your Child’s Art Work Creatively -Why spend money on a bow when you have five thousand art projects laying around your house just waiting to be displayed. I share a simple way that you can incorporate your child’s art work into gift-giving (and reduce the chaos in your home).

Kevin Surbaugh at Becoming & Staying Debt Free presents Recycle Almost Anything & Save Money - In my community, the county hazardous waste program gives away the recycled paint… So I was able to get 5-gallons of paint to paint my shed… The remodeling work was completed in late April, and I just got myself around to paint it. My choices of colors were limited, as they mix all the paints they receive together. They did have the colors of each bucket on the lid, so you could view the color, however as I said it was limited. I chose a greyish color as blue was not an option. It still looks decent and you can’t beat the price.

supermom_in_ny presents Free Summer Activities For Your Kids! posted at Getting Out of Debt.

Thatedeguy presents MyPoints posted at A Penny Saved….

King of Debt presents Save Money By Not Going Out at Night posted at We’re In Debt.

story3girl at presents Towards a Simpler Life

claire at Tired but happy presents Frugal school lunches for young children

FMF at Free Money Finance presents Comments: Money Saving Tip: Don’t Dress Like You’re Rich

Amanda at Young and Broke presents Wedding Costs: The Home Stretch

LAMoneyGuy presents Coke and Popcorn at the movies without breaking your budget posted at It’s Just Money.

Dasha at Privet Colorado presents Value of the dollar

Trent presents Stock Market Beat » Blog Archive » Our Guest Blogging Appearance at BFP posted at Stock Market Beat.

Brian presents This Post Could Change Your Life by Brian posted at Brian.

And last on the list is Aridni’s own Katie telling us that Wealth is more than the money

That’s it for this week’s entries. Be sure to check out these blogs, there is a wealth of information waiting for you!

Welcome to the Aridni edition of Carnival of Debt Reduction #39. This week we’ve got a bunch of articles for you to read through. You don’t have to do them all today, you’ve got a whole week to go over them! You could read through two a day if you wanted.

Look forward to the Carnival being hosted next week at Finandom

Kevin Surbaugh at Becoming & Staying Debt Free presents Revisiting Consolidation Loan Scams
As anyone who listens to Dave Ramsey or John Cummuta knows, the reason you don’t get a consolidation loan is 2 fold. One you may get lower intrest rates, but people tend to roll all their debts into it, including those with even lower interest rates. Two, consolidation loans usually take unsecured debt and secure it with your house. It is just plain stupid to gamble your house that way.

Wenchypoo at Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Warehouse presents Here’s to Luxury Creep
Punk rockers teach us a lesson–albeit way too late!

FMF at Free Money Finance presents Another Evil House Loan: 50-Year Mortgages
Another loan to add to the “bad” list.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade presents Practical Applications: Credit Cards versus Home Equity Line Of Credit

King of Debt presents Day 44: Pinch and Pay posted at We’re In Debt.

supermom_in_ny presents The Online Income Experiment Figures posted at Getting Out of Debt.

Amy Allen Clark at The MotherLoad presents College Coupons
Getting into debt over gifts isn’t something that I am about. I decided to create a free printable download that readers could use as a gift to graduates that wouldn’t break the bank!

Tricia presents Where My Debt Came From posted at Blogging Away Debt.

Chuck Russell presents Car Buying Tip-Check Into Leasing An Auto posted at buyanauto.

mbhunter presents Pay it down, or ING it? posted at mbhunter.

J.D. @ Get Rich Slowly wrote an article No temptation, no debt!
It basically describes how to make credit card offers stop coming in the mail.

Harrison Loke at Journey To Financial Freedom presents Some Information About Auto Loans

Financial Reflections at Financial Reflections presents 30 Day Trial: Zero Charges To Credit Cards I’m paying down my cards, but I noticed that I still have a few charges going on them. I’m putting that to a stop to see if I can live without a credit card at all.

Paul at Paul’s Tips presents My eight best negotiation tips Negotiation is a part of life we all have to deal with. Being able to do so successfully can make a big difference to our outcomes. Here are eight tips that have helped me.

Steve Faber presents Don’t Get Taken When You Buy a New Car posted at DebtBlog.

Chuck Russell presents Tips To Improve Your Credit Score posted at Car Buying Tips To Save You Money.