The Skinny On: Credit Cards, by Jim Randel, is a delightfully fun read. I don’t mean this in a “I am a finance geek who loves reading about this stuff” way, either. The book actually makes learning about credit cards fun.

Intro and First Impressions

The cover of the book itself is attractive. I love comics (as evidenced by the fact that I post one every Friday), so the stick figure on a credit card grabbed my attention. The testimonial at the bottom was a great eye-catcher, too. It’s from Gerri Detweiler, one of the expert authors on Credit.com.

Upon opening the cover, I was pleasantly surprised by the free bookmark that comes with the book. The bookmark also doubles…

As mentioned on Monday, Matt Jabs of Debt Free Adventure won my Global Giving gift card giveaway. This got me in the spirit to do a charity themed link roundup.

I can’t wait to hear what project Matt chooses to help, and I am sure he is excited to let us know!

Carnivals

• Money Hacks Carnival #68 @ Financial Highway included my article 6 Signs That the Recession is Ending.

Other Articles

• Moolanomy presents 6 Ways to Give. The first one is Christmas specific, but the rest can be done at any time and are very good ideas.
• How to Give More to Charity @ 2 Million Blog

If you are one of those people who dreads taxes every year and wind up standing in line with everyone else at the post office on April 15th, this may be the right post for you!

I have listed 5 ways to make filing taxes next year less painful, but it involves front loading a little bit of the work.

1) Pretend You’re a Fortune 500 Company

Large publicly traded companies are required by the SEC to file financial reports on a quarterly basis (form 10-Q) to keep the stakeholders (which consist of the shareholders, the public, the government, and others) informed about their performance. Similarly, you should divide your year into quarters, or if it’s easier to keep track of, seasons:

• Summer – In the summer, you

Alright, sorry for the long delay (two weeks to be exact)… but I have finally gotten around to figuring out the winner of the Global Giving gift card giveaway.

After putting all of the RSS specific messages, comments, and link backs in an e-hat of sorts, I have chosen the winner and that person is: Matt Jabs. Matt also happens to be the owner of a blog titled: Debt Free Adventure, so check that out.

Matt is being contacted as we speak, and hopefully he will update all of us on what project he uses the $10 towards!

Thank you everyone for participating and next up is a few books after I get around to reviewing them!

Thanks

I’ve been thinking about teachers a lot lately.

Is it because Suze Orman says teachers have no real self-worth? Or is it because I can’t wait to see my girlfriend, who happens to be a teacher, tomorrow?

I think the choice is obvious! :)

Right now she is actively seeking employment after grad school which I do NOT envy. The interview process is insane. She has submitted 30+ applications. She is in the 6th round of interviews for one district. And how many applicants are left after 6 rounds? Three! Hopefully this winds up being the last round for her sake.

And at other districts, when they reject you they send you five different letters of rejection. Ouch. How is that for stomping on…