Carnival of Twenty Something Finances - Oscars Edition

Welcome to the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances - Oscars Edition!

There were way too many submissions (over 100) to post here, so I took the liberty of sorting through the pile to find those Oscar-worthy posts.

Also, here are some general rules that I tried to use to ensure that the most relevant posts were included:

1. Must be a real blogger, not a company - you don't know how much spam I got from real estate and credit card companies.

2. Cannot be about best (fill in the blank) rates - if you're looking for the best rates, you can always find them at bankrate.com or FatWallet Finance.

3. Must be interesting to read, express new ideas, and most importantly, be relevant to people in their 20's.

Now drum roll please......badadadadadadadadada..... The Oscar for best post goes to.............

Five Tips for Your Boss During a Recession posted at Money Smart Life! ::applause:: There are enough articles out there covering what we should be doing during this recession. Now, here's an article sticking it to our bosses. Kind of like the infamous scene in Half-Baked, but with a little bit more class.

Oscar Nominees

Fabulously "Broke" presents Why are you renting instead of buying a home? posted at Fabulously "Broke" ...in the City. And why even consider buying a place that you have to maintain rather than living in a place where you can throw fratastic parties? I'm only half-kidding.

Live Money Smart presents Student Loan Consolidation and Early Payoff posted at Live Money Smart. Good article on consolidation. Borrow, baby, borrow! is my new motto. I figure with the rate of inflation, my $100k student loan will be worth about $10k by the time I actually have an income. But remember, never pay off student loans early.

kathryn presents The Importance of Shopping Local posted at Out of Debt - Christian Finances and Debt Help. Difficult to do in these tough economic times for some, but long-term, I agree local is the way to go.

Lazy Man presents Financial Football Teaches Students about Personal Finance posted at Lazy Man and Money. Who would've thought you could mix finance and football? What next? Using alcohol to teach algebra?

Silicon Valley Blogger presents YNAB (You Need A Budget) Personal Budget Software Is 10% Off posted at The Digerati Life. I think Chrysler could have used this program a while back.

David presents Salary Advance Loan Program--A Low Cost Payday Loan Alternative posted at Payday Loans Review. It sounds the same, but they're pretty different. Kinda like come and ........

Green Panda presents Use Allpoint ATMS to Reduce and Eliminate ATM Fees posted at Green Panda Treehouse. Now we just have to wait for the ATMs that give us money to use them.

Roshawn Watson presents Lame Defense for $18.4 Billion in Wall Street Bonuses posted at Watson Inc. Blaming Wall Street bonuses never gets old.

Mr. CC presents The Co-signer Delimma posted at Ask Mr Credit Card's Blog. Think twice before you co-sign the loan for anyone whose nickname is "Frank the Tank"

Matthew Paulson presents Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile & Others Ripping off Customers with Third Party Billing posted at Fine-Tuned Finances. What I do to get back at cellphone companies is to send as many texts as I can.....o...n....e........l...e...t....t...e...r.......a...t......a......t...i...m...e

Best of the Rest

Tushar Mathur presents Investment expert offers 10 tips for surviving the recession posted at Everything Finance.

nickel presents How to Claim the Recovery Rebate Credit posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Savings Toolbox presents Finding Yourself unable to Make Your Mortgage Payments? posted at Savings Toolbox.

David Weliver presents Is It Smart to Buy a Home in This Recession? posted at Money Under 30.

The Investor presents Why a little passive income from a side project is worth a lot more than you think posted at Monevator.

Pinyo presents Where To Sell Used Books And Textbooks posted at Moolanomy.

Pinyo presents Low Cost Diversification With Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT)? posted at Moolanomy.

Carrie presents Learning About Investing as a Child posted at Less is More.

Save Money presents Frugal Frauds Revealed posted at How I Save Money.net.

nickel presents MyFICO ScoreWatch: Free Access to Your FICO Credit Score posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Jeff Rose presents Why Avoid Bankruptcy? posted at Jeff Rose.

CreditAddict presents Pentagon Federal Visa Rewards Credit Card posted at Credit Card Addict.

nickel@fivecentnickel.com presents Limit on Savings Account Withdrawals posted at Money Tipper.

Alicia Messinger presents Ditch Your Cable/Satellite Provider posted at Recession Obsession.

Poker Playing Ladies Man presents How To Fleece Your Friends Playing Poker posted at Poker, Women, Life.

The Investor presents Time value of money: Why locking money away earns a better return posted at Monevator.

Patrick @ Military Money presents Green Ways to Save Money posted at Military Finance Network.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents $25 Sign-up Bonus from Lending Club, plus a Chance to Win $100 posted at Cash Money Life.

Will presents Second Chance Checking Accounts: Banks That Do Not Use ChexSystems posted at Money Galaxy - Make Money | Save Money | Invest Money.

Thanks for everyone who participated in this edition of the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances!

Ebates for Rebates

I just got my check from Ebates in the mail, and I thought it would be an opportune time to remind everyone about the cashback opportunities available through various sites. I've written previously about the programs I use, and in addition, I'd like to recommend a couple more which I have come across.

Extrabux - A program I came across from the recommendation of another reader. They have very competitive rates, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

RewardsDB - A reader, AJ, recommended this site to me. It's not a rebate site in itself, but it works much like evreward.com. They both have a list of which rebates programs have the highest rates for any given merchants, so I always check with both of these to make sure I am getting the most cash back.

Live Search - While the days of 35% cashback on eBay have come and gone, they still offer some higher rates on some merchants, although the number of merchants seem to be limited.

If you go to sign up for any of these, some of them have sign-up bonuses for referrals, so please keep my email there if you found this article helpful. Thanks!