Ethics, Values & Personal Finance

The very first Carnival of Ethics, Values & Personal Finance is up at Money and Values. In a world run amok with greed related scandals (among others!), this is a valiant effort by Penny Nickel to bring some sense, values and ethics back to the forefront. There are a lot of very interesting posts! As Penny Nickel says, it’s hard to choose the best. But, I encourage you to head over to the carnival site and pick some that you like and highlight them in your blog. Let’s help spread the word. (NOTE: I don’t know who Penny Nickel is and this is NOT a paid review! I just like the idea that someone is willing to make the effort to get such a carnival started!) Here are the ones I liked –

• Charity: TBH has an excellent post on How to create a giving plan posted at Tired but Happy. Does it sometimes feel like there are more causes than you can afford to support? This post helps you narrow down the cause that means the most to you and will provide you the most satisfaction. On a related note, Ben at Money Smart Life discusses getting the maximum squeeze out of your charity dollar by availing company match policies in Act Now and Double Your Charity Donations for Half Price. Check them out.
• Supporting Local Businesses: Vote with your Wallet: Book World Monopolies by Shaula Evans posted at Tsuredzuregusa inspects how monopolies in the book world threaten the diversity and quality of new literature. It is a well-written post. If you love reading and spend hours in Barnes & Nobles or browsing the amazon.com book section, I highly recommend this post to you. Hopefully, some of you will be inspired by this post to start supporting local independent bookstores. Me? Oh, I buy my books only at Half Price Books or local library sales The post by David Shopping small versus big- Mom and Pop vs. Big Box Stores at My Two Dollars, is on a similar theme but is more general in nature and looks at the advantages and disadvantages of independent stores Vs large superstores.
• Family, Friends and Finance: English Major’s We Can Talk It Out at English Major’s Money has an interesting take on how sharing financial information among friends can be helpful. She makes an extremely powerful argument that got me thinking about this (I belong to the camp that friends and finance don’t mix). Check it out for yourself to see what you think. In Family Values Donna Jean at The Weight of Money writes about her decision to choose family over a very satisfying but demanding job. A very hard decision and more power to her. I hope she will soon find a job close to her house that is equally satisfying.

My submission to the carnival titled A Time to Save, A Time to Give looked at ways that cash-strapped young adults(like me) can still get involved in charity. It gave me a lot of satisfaction writing that post. I have decided to submit to the future Carnivals of Ethics, Values & Personal Finance as well. I hope you will too.

PS: If you do not have a blog and would still like to submit to the Carnival, I will gladly host your article on this site! Feel free to email me at: ispfmail at gmail dot com.