Apr 1, 2008

Welcome to the Carnival of Money Stories #53 - April Fool's Edition

This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four. - Mark Twain
Welcome to Chief Family Officer! I'm delighted to host the Carnival of Money Stories this week. I've got an April Fool's edition for you, which mixes some April Fool's trivia and famous pranks in with the great articles that you should definitely check out.

Let's start with a few Editor's Picks:

Ashley presents The evolution of a budget posted at Wide Open Wallet. I was especially impressed with the budgeting as a waitress.

Madison presents Investment Club Portfolio and Returns posted at My Dollar Plan. The investment club idea fascinates me, and I'm very impressed that Madison and her club beat their benchmark last year.

Bryce presents Budget Trade-offs posted at Save and Conquer. I couldn't agree more with the emphasis on how we all make choices about spending our money.
April Fool's Day originated from the switch to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500's, which also switched New Year's Day from April 1 to January 1. Those who forgot the New Year's Day switch were the first "April fools."
GENERAL

Ana presents What Would Make You Feel Rich? posted at DebtFREE-Revolution.

Faron Benoit presents Ten Things Women Wish Men Knew About Money posted at Financial Learn.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Taxing Verse posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

Steph presents How to climb up from the bottom or 6 months in review posted at The Debt Hole.

freefrombroke presents Five Ways Fantasy Baseball is Like Personal Finance posted at Free From Broke.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How'd You Get Interested in Personal Finance? posted at The Digerati Life.

BeThisWay presents Shrinking Package Sizes Screw up My Recipes posted at Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of The Time I Know You?.

poetloverrebelspy presents Why I Love/Hate RyanAir posted at Less Than a Shoestring.
The most famous April Fool's prank may be the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest by the BBC in 1957. The station aired a report about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland, complete with footage of farmers pulling spaghetti off trees. Viewers called the station to find out how they could grow their own spaghetti tree.
CREDIT & DEBT

Raymond presents How To Avoid A 0% Balance Transfer Mistake posted at Money Blue Book.

Finance Girl presents When Did You Finally Hit Rock Bottom and Decide to Get Out of Debt For Good? posted at Finance Gets Personal.

Heather Allen presents An Interesting Way Out of Debt posted at The DebtFree Playbook Blog.

LJ presents Snowflaking the Mortgage posted at Mommy Gets PAID, saying.
A more recent prank occurred in 1996, when Taco Bell took out an ad in the New York Times to announce the purchase and renaming of the Liberty Bell to "Taco Liberty Bell." When asked about the sale, White House spokesman Mike McMurry quipped that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the "Ford Lincoln Memorial."
BUSINESS

Shanti presents WWSD #3: How Can I Work at Home Successfully? posted at Antishay Ventenne.

Adie Dornom presents Low Cost Way to Get 1,000 Workers Today posted at Lee McIntyre's Honest Marketing Blog.
My personal favorite prank in recent memory is Yale's colored placard prank on Harvard, in which some clever Yale students got unsuspecting Harvard fans to hold up colored placards that spelled out "WE SUCK" at a football game.
RETIREMENT & INVESTING

paidtwice presents Retirement Advice I Didn’t Want To Ignore posted at I've Paid For This Twice Already....

GBlogger presents Success Stories: Couple Retires at Age 44 With 3 Young Kids posted at Can I Get Rich On A Salary.

Moneywise presents Largest mutual funds and their expenses posted at The Real Returns.

The Dividend Guy presents What Music Band Nine Inch Nails Taught Me About Investing posted at The Dividend Guy Blog.
If you want to play some pranks on your family and friends today, I recommend visiting Family Fun's April Fool's page, where you'll find ideas like serving a fake grilled cheese sandwich or giving your kids an allowance tax letter.
OTHER

WBL presents 10 Tips On How To Negotiate posted at Wealth Building Lessons.

Foxie presents Conclusion to the Miata Repair Saga posted at Dreaming of Ferraris.

FMF presents Help a Reader: Negotiating Salary for a New Job posted at Free Money Finance.

Pinyo presents My Plan For The Tax Refund posted at Moolanomy.

Praveen presents Importance of Testing Websites posted at My Simple Trading System.

Jeremy Zongker presents 21 Ways Credit Cards can Save You Money on Your Summer Vacation posted at Credit Card Offers.

Shane Wilson presents Small Actions = Big Changes posted at Michael Shane Wilson.

Edith presents Creating a Poverty-Free World posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

That wraps up the 53rd edition of the Carnival of Money Stories. Thanks so much to all of the contributors, and thanks especially to you for stopping by. Be sure to check out next week's carnival, which will be hosted at Financial Blogger.

Subscribe to CFO in a reader or by email.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including my post -- and great work as host! Happy April Fools Day...

Anonymous said...

Happy April Fool's Day and thank you for taking the time to put together this carnival.

Free From Broke said...

Great job! Thank you for hosting. I was wondering why there's an April Fools' Day. Now I know - or is that an April Fools?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including my post. And being an editor's pick! That makes me doubly excited. Thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

Great job hosting and thanks for including my article.

Take Care

LJ

Anonymous said...

Thanks for hosting, great job!

Anonymous said...

Wow, thank you so much for choosing my post as an editor's choice. This is the first time that's happened for me.

Hey, this isn't a joke, is it? :-)

I am honored.

Anonymous said...

This is a great carnival, carefully chosen posts and really nicely presented. Thanks for including mine!
I loved your April Fools theme.

Madison said...

Thanks for including me as one of your Editor's Picks!

caffeine head said...

it's great when take chances with their marketing campaigns (such as with the Taco Liberty Bell)

credit card offers said...

Every April Fool's day I am nostalgic about my childhood days. One year, I remember telling all my friends that I flew a plane the previous evening. They actually fell for it! (We were only 5 at the time :)