FiveCentNickel participated in three carnivals this week. Here they are, along with links to my articles that were included in each.
The Carnival of the Capitalists, which is up at The Integrative Stream, included “Bankruptcy Filings are on the Rise.”
The Best of Me Symphony, which is up at The Owner’s Manual, included “How Flexible Spending Accounts [...]

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Everything went exactly as planned and, as of just before lunch today, we’re homeless… But we have a pocketful of cash! By this time next week, the situation will be reversed — we’ll once again have a house to call home, but we’ll be back to our usual selves in terms of cash on hand.
For [...]

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Just when I thought I had it all figured out, it turns out that the ‘new and improved’ Kroger gas discount is better than I thought (but worse than it used to be). According to the signs on the pumps, you can still get $0.10/gallon discount for spending $100 on groceries. Moreover, you can get [...]

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This afternoon the people that are buying our house will be doing their final walkthrough. Assuming that all goes as planned, we’ll then be closing tomorrow at 11AM CDT, at which point we’ll be homeless (but flush). A word to the wise… A day in advance of your final walkthrough, be sure to run back [...]

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As this site has grown, I’ve gotten interested in the possibility of taking a home office deduction on my federal taxes. The problem is that I know virtually nothing about doing so. According to the IRS, if you use a portion of your home for business purposes, you may be able to take a home [...]

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While I’m confident that this won’t be an issue for us, I just ran across an interesting article on the costs associated with a failed real estate deal. Depending on when the sale falls through, it can turn out to be quite costly for the buyer in particular, as the buyer is the one that [...]

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You’ll have to excuse me, but with two closings coming up within the next week and a half, I have moving on the brain… Now that our internet situation has been settled (and even more favorably than we initially thought), I’m turning my attention to TV. We still can’t get cable on our street (at [...]

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After learning that we wouldn’t be able to get ‘traditional’ broadband internet (i.e., cable or DSL) at our new house, I was thrilled to death when I heard from BellSouth would be hooking us up in early July. After all, that meant just a month on dialup before we’d be back to full speed. Well, [...]

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Well, the results of this week’s earning vs. saving poll were among the closest thus far… The question of the week was “What’s more important when it comes to improving your bottom line, earning more or spending less?” After a neck and neck (and neck) race, ’spending less’ finally pulled ahead at the end with [...]

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As a followup to my post about withdrawing contributions from your Roth IRA without paying taxes or penalties, I wanted to point out a small(ish) glitch that was brough to my attention by a reader…
Withdrawals from your Roth IRA may make you ineligible to take the extra “saver’s credit” on future contributions. The way it’s [...]

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