Links

I’ve been trying to increase the number of carnivals I participate in to bring more traffic to my sites so maybe I start getting some comments and feedback on my posts. I participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance #170, which was graciously hosted by The Personal Financier. If you were unable to guess, the Personal Financier is a blog about personal finances. Visiting the carnival was my first time checking out this blog and I will most likely be returning. Here are some of my favorite posts from the carnival:

• The Sun’s Financial Diary wonders whether small-cap stocks are making a comeback. Small cap stocks generally lead the market charge of an economic recovery. Now might be a great time to get in at a discount.
• Free From Broke lays out his current asset allocation and how he re-allocated and re-balanced his 401k portfolio. I would personally have more international exposure and maybe some REITs, but overall it’s a great read as to how to rebalance a neglected portfolio.
• No Debt Plan tries to figure out whether or not he should shift some of his emergency fund into laddered CDs. I personally think the emergency fund should be put into a CD ladder if the CD rates are higher than available high yield savings accounts. No Debt Plan does a great job discussing the risks and potential shortcomings from using a CD laddering process for an emergency fund.

I also participated the Investing Carnival #13 that was hosted by Triaging my way to Financial Success. Here are some of my favorite posts from the carnival:

• Contrarian Profits discusses a few options for investing in wind energy. With the gas and oil demand set to increase for the foreseeable future, alternative energy is a very hot sector.
• Living Off Dividends makes his passive income for August 2008 transparent. Doesn’t everybody wish they had a huge source of passive income. All of mine is unfortunately active. This post also breaks down how much of his income is from what type of online ad source.
• Silicon Valley Blogger wants to know why you aren’t opening a 401k. I personally don’t participate in my company’s 401k as they do not match and I don’t particularly enjoy the investment options. I would much rather open a self-employed 401k and select my own investment funds.
• Baltimore Real Estate Investing Blog provides an answer to the question, where do I start? A good, quick read on how to start thinking about real estate investing.