My Favorites - from the Carnival of Personal Finance #134

This week MrsMicah hosts: Carnival of Personal Finance 134: Building on the Basics you'll find the following post from Teaspoon:

Retiring Abroad - Or, Maybe Sailing Around The World for Free!

There's a good number of posts to read. Here's some of my favorites:

Patrick from Cash Money Life has a new take on your assets. He believes that Your Greatest Asset is the Ability to Create Income. Really enjoyed this post. I really like to review ric edeleman’s articles every now and then I find something that makes a new paradigm shift. He did this same topic from the point that you need to get your disability insurance before any other type of insurance … cause like Partick says, you’re protecting your most important asset! I never thought much about disability insurance until this concept hit me, afterwards I’ve maxed out my, virtually free, disability insurance offered at work and learned more about the short term vs. long term disability insurance. Definitely an eye opener, kudos on a great perspective. Morale of the story: Educate and insure yourself … you’re worth more than your weight in gold and maybe more! At 190lbs I’m worth at least $2,402,208.00 in gold :-)

David from My Two Dollars gives us some Tips On How To Avoid Internet And Financial Scams. This post is especially timely as I've been helping my mother lately clean up her computer from all the crazy internet ads.  It's sad that there's such a plethora of these scams and advertising adware (which is another scam to get you to click and make other people money).  Like David, I'm familiar with what not to click on for pop-ups and ads and mail internet scams, but our parents and loved ones might not be.  It's frustrating that they're held hostage from breathing easy when they use their computers.  David has some great suggestions to watch out for.  I even suggest that folks look up more info on PF Bloggers on scams and identity theft to help get even more educated.

Marcus Hochstadt tells us how to Pay Business Expenses Wisely And Travel For Free.  Great post.  I was a total late bloomer to this concept but am a believer now.  My card of choice is the Alaska Miles Visa.  I push all bills and expenses through that card and pay it off and get great miles for it.  Recently I was looking for a refi and found that they give 1300 miles for every 10K that you finance.  I thought it would be bad choices, but all mortgage companies were premium choices and quotes gave my bank a run for the money.  I've been able to do a lot more free/discount flying as a result.  Love it!

Hunter Nuttall of Hunter Nuttall.com outlines How To Create A Seven Figure Residual Income.  You'll like this post.  It's fun with numbers and puts the power of aggressive savings and investing into perspective.  All you whipper snappers out there, take a look, you've heard it before saving early and not that aggressively will pay off handsomely!  This is the other half of the equation that makes sure you are worth your weight in gold!

MoneyNing from Personal Finance Blog with Money Ning reminds us all to Increase Your 401k Contribution Rate During the Beginning of the Year.  Great post to read right away and get yourself started on the right track with your 401k for 2008!!! I like the concept of squeezing the 401k tournip a little at the beginning of the year. Like you say at 2% you’ll hardly notice (especially as it’s often pre-tax contribution). Goes along with my 2008 resolution to max my ESPP to get all of it’s free money out and try and max my 401k (which isn’t an easy task!).
Teaspoon