The Best of Finance Blogosphere: The Ugly Monster Called "Debt"

Today’s edition of the "Best of" looks at some of the best articles in the recent past that talked about debt reduction. Since we have a long list of articles to cover, let me jump right in without further ado -

The ugliest of all the debt monsters is the slippery slimy "pay day loans" monster. Most personal finance bloggers loathe this creature and refuse to advertise this on their blogs. But when a pay day loan company approached Ben @ Money $mart Life and offered to pay $50 for a mention on his blog, Ben decided to get creative and it was payback time for payday loans. Like a modern day Robin Hood, he accepted the money from the payback loan company and offered it in a contest to someone who shared their story of dealing with payback loans. Here are the heart wrenching stories of Charles and Emm. Kudos to Ben for his resourcefulness and Charles for getting out of the trap, and good luck to Emm for paying off her payday loan and starting a savings fund.

Single Ma @ Single Ma's Fabulous Financials has some great insights on keeping an eye on the priorities while paying off the debt. A reader recently asked her if s/he should “raid her savings account to pay off the car loan”. This response by single ma is very well balanced and a very rational explanation of what happens if you don’t stick to a plan because you are bitten by the debt-reduction bug. If you are actively working on your debt I highly recommend this post. Another very good post in a similar vein is by Tricia @
Blogging Away Debt where she answers the question How far will I go to pay off our debt.

The first step to reducing your debt is to recognize that you are in debt and accept responsibility for getting there. I liked this post @ My New Choice for the honest, personal writing by the author. Check it out.

Have you heard about the “good debt” vs “bad debt” discussion before? Have you ever heatedly participated in one? Then you are sure to love this perspective of the issue @ My Financial Awareness.

I personally believe that credit cards are not evil. It is the ignorance on the part of the credit card holder that causes all the debt problems. So, in general, I don’t agree with the stance taken by NCN @ No Credit Needed. But I have to admit this article about 10 Common Debt Reduction Mistakes is very good and highly recommend it to anyone on the quest for debt reduction.

There are a lot more excellent articles about debt reduction out there, but I don’t want this edition of “Best of” to get overwhelmingly long. So, I promise to periodically dedicate “Best of” posts to the topic of debt reduction. If you are on a quest for reducing debt – congratulations and good luck. Hang in there and before you know it, you will have paid off all of it. Keep reading and writing about debt reduction and let the motivation keep you going. If you know of anyone close to you on this quest feel free to forward this edition to them.

Let me wind up this week’s edition with a list of the Carnivals and Festivals for the week.

• The Festival of Frugality was hosted on the Festival of Frugality Homepage.


• The Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.


• The Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance was hosted at Stingy Students.


• And of course, the Carnival of Debt Reduction was hosted at Debt Hater.

Related Articles:

• 7 Steps That Made Me Debt-Free


• Debt – Were We Really Irresponsible or Just Ignorant?


• A Step-by-Step Guide to Reducing Debt on an Irregular Income

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