The Sunday Review #13

• Going To Vegas? Play The Games With The Best Odds! by Jonathan @ My Money Blog. Jonathan is planning to go to Las Vegas and refreshes his gambling hacks. Check out this post to find out which games will increase the probability of you returning richer from Vegas.

• The cure for “Hon, Let’s Eat Out Today” Syndrome by ISPF @ Grad Money Matters. A post for the busy couples. ISPF shares some nice tips on how to encourage yourself to cook at home.

• My Foolish Money Mistakes: Moves That Cost Me More Than $1,000 Each by SVB @ The Digerati Life. Learning from your mistakes is a good way improve your financial situation…learning from other people’s mistakes is an even better way of doing it. Look for some priceless stuff like this:

We lost money because we tried to be landlords for far flung properties without hiring a property management company to represent us locally. In the end, we were defrauded by some tenants who refused to pay the rent for a few months and who decided to trash our property before vanishing.

• Shop and Save for College: UPromise vs. BabyMint by Sun @ The Sun’s Financial Diary. This post carries some encouragement for people like me; over the last few years, I have managed a mere 35 cents in my Upromise account. Sun has managed to save $400 !

• Revealing the Keys to Prosper Success by Lazy @ Lazy Man and Money. Lazy spills the beans on how to make Prosper work for you. In an earlier post, Lazy mentions that he is earning something like 12%~16% rate of return on the money he puts in Prosper. From my rule of 72 calculations (rather a rule of 74 for this case), Lazy will double his money in about 5.28 years at an average rate of return of 14% .

• Maintaining a Margin of Safety by Super Saver @ My Wealth Builder. By way of examples, Super Saver gives some rules of thumb on how thick our safety cushion should be. Thicker cushion means lower returns and thinner cushion means higher risk…and a hard fall (if you do fall). It’s always the balance that’s difficult to manage.

• How to Put Your Deceased Loved One in the Ground for Under $1,000 by Jeremy @ Generation X Finance. A frugal thing to do when you are dead - make your death easy and economical for your near and dear ones. the excerpt below voices Jeremy’s sentiments.

Sometimes we get caught up in saving pennies on our electric bill, worry about correct tire inflation for gas mileage and even make a big issue about a fraction of a percent expense ratio on a mutual fund, yet we are completely unprepared when it comes to one thing that is absolutely certain in life.

• Invest in the Sun and the Wind by Matt @ Binary Dollar. With the world going green, Matt points us towards the increasingly rewarding prospects of investing in green technology.

• How to Ace a Job Interview by Ben @ Money Smart Life. Ben shares 10 practical tips for a successful interview. While we are on this topic, let me also recommend a related post by Trent @ The Simple Dollar titled “17 Essential Tips For Getting That Dream Job“.

Links to the week’s carnivals:

• Festival of Frugality (66th edition): A Carnival of Money & Poetry hosted by Sharon @ The Frugal Duchess.

• Carnival of Personal Finance #92 hosted by Lazy@ Lazy Man and Money.