Finances & Money

Carnival of Clever Dude 2007

I first intended to just highlight a few of my favorite posts, but as I went through all 550 or so posts from 2007, I found it hard to pick just a few, so I turned it into a Carnival of Clever Dude! Feel free to bookmark this and take a few days to browse through all of the articles. Oh, and I still accept comments on older posts and enjoy reading them all!

First though are my top articles for the year by pageview traffic:

2007 Top Articles by Traffic

I’m placing the % of total pageview traffic in () after the rank:

1. (13.89%) How I Get Laptops and Plasma TVs for Free – This article made it on the front page of Digg and garnered over 1200 diggs. It brought about 24,000 visitors in one day, and those are the ones that made it through to be registered before the web server crashed. This, and #2 below, are the two single articles that launched me from obscurity into the public spotlight. Also, this is the 2nd most commented article on my site.
2. (9.20%) Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette – And I didn’t even write this article! Stacie’s article was picked up by Lifehacker.com and along with #1, have consistently been in the top 5 of pageviews every day since being posted this year. Also, this is the most-commented article on my site (currently 108 comments).
3. (6.93%) How to Find Technical Service Bulletins for Your Car – Another article picked up by Lifehacker, but it caused much less (or no) controversy compared to Frugal Lunch.
4. (2.53%) Webkinz: Waste of Money or Learning Opportunity? – Who buys these things anyway? Well, a whole lot of people apparently. I had to spend a lot of time moderating comments on this post because 9-year-olds and wannabes liked to brag about their Webkinz conversation and they just didn’t contribute to the discussion.
5. (0.99%) Inexpensive Ways to Woo Your Wife – Yet another popular article written by my wife. I personally like my photo of our black-eyed susan flowers from our backyard. Oh and yes, I do have fresh flowers for her all the time.
6. (0.95%) How to Value Clothing Donations – I usually stop at 5, but I wanted to add this 6th one since it’s tax time and a pretty useful, and current, article.

2007 Best Articles by My Own Opinion

I marked my personal favorites in each category:

January:

• FAVORITE: Simple Tip for Aggressive Drivers – Check it out because it seriously works
• In a Pay Raise Slump? Sometimes You Just Need a New Job – I outline how I earned a 31% pay raise in 1 year
• FAVORITE: How Many Hours Do I Need to Work To Pay for That? – I’ve seen a number of these this year, but I like to think I was one of the first 🙂
• 4 Tips to Teaching Your Children Finances Early
• 5 Tips to Choosing the Right Attorney – I had a bit of a run-in with the law late last year and had to find an attorney. Here’s some of the tips I learned first-hand.
• FAVORITE: 5 Xtreme Savings Ideas – I got a kick out of writing this, and the 50 readers I had back then loved it too!
• FAVORITE: How We Lost $14,500 by Stupid Mistakes – One of my personal favorites and often linked-to articles as reference

February:

• FAVORITE: When You’re Old Enough to Refuse Cash Gifts from Family – honestly, why would you still accept cash from your family unless you’re unemployed? Grow up and live your own life already!
• Why I Buy Lottery Tickets – We all have a vice, and mine is $1 lottery tickets a couple times a week. Last year, I spent about $200 on lottery tickets, and made about $60 back. That excitement and anticipation keeps me going sometimes.
• FAVORITE: Save Energy and Money: Insulate Your Crawlspace Properly – This got picked up by Consumerist, as did about a half dozen of my articles last year. Give it a read yourself as you can still save money this winter on energy.
• Car Paid Off in Maryland? What to Do With The Security Interest Filing – This is a niche article for those of you living in my state of Maryland, but pretty useful. I even had to refer back to it when I got the document for our MINI.
• FAVORITE: 10 Easy Ways to Look Unprofessional – This could be one of my personal all-time favorites because it was fun to write and hopefully opened up some of your eyes if you fell into any of these categories.
• Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette – As mentioned, this was one of my biggest articles of the year, thanks to Lifehacker. You’ll see the next one in March…

March:

• FAVORITE: How I Get Laptops and Plasma TVs for Free – This, along with Frugal Lunch, put me on the map, and it is still my most viewed article of all time.
• Parents, Spending and Retirement: A Tough Combination
• FAVORITE: 3 Ways to Use Gmail for Your Other Accounts – I thought this would take off because it’s been one of the single most useful things to me in 2007, but perhaps people didn’t notice. Oh, and Lifehacker or someone wrote a similar article like 2 days later. Boooo!
• 5 QUICK Ways to Save Money IN the Bathroom – I’m still a big fan of #5
• FAVORITE: 5 Ways Balding Gracefully Can Save You Time, Money and More – And I loved the image I used too!

April:

• The Mental Effects of a Gas Mileage Computer in Your Car
• FAVORITE: No Employer 401k Match – Should You Still Contribute? – I marked this as a favorite because, from experience, I think it’s very important for anyone not contributing to their 401k to read
• Breathing New Life into an Old Lawnmower
• FAVORITE: 5 Common Money Mistakes – This also launched a series
  • Create a Budget
  • Save, Save, Save
  • Be Sure to Insure
  • Research, Wait, Repeat – Although this was in May
  • Don’t Fall For Those Scams – And this was all the way in late July
• Finding Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) for Your Car Online – Picked up by Consumerist
• Why Does Adoption Cost So Much? – We’re still considering adoption, but it’s on hold at the moment

May:

• Sharing Money Works for Our Marriage
• Dealing with Trust, In-Laws and Money – Luckily, my MIL has gotten more trusting of me lately, but trust is such an important thing in any relationship.

June:

• FAVORITE: Carnival of Personal Finance #103: The 24 Edition – I spent many hours writing this carnival (and editing images), and I love the way it turned out. But it’s the main reason I haven’t volunteered to do another carnival again.
• FAVORITE: Marriage isn’t 50/50 – Can you guess what the correct ratio is?
• Couples at Financial Odds: New vs Used and So Much More – I got to work out some problems that a fellow blogger was having and help educate all of you too!
• Postponing Financial Responsibility Until You “Grow Up”
• Frugality is More than Just Saving Money

July:

• Money and Marathons: Guess What, They’re Related
• Joint Accounts: One for You, One for Me, and One for Us – A guest article by a reader that still leaves me considering separate and joint accounts mixed
• Pools are Expensive: Our Yearly Costs – If you’re ever considering installing a pool, re-read this article and think again
• FAVORITE: Is Adoption Costs for You? Costs, Choices and Decisions – I first published this as a guest article at Raising4Boys.com and got permission to repost it here.
• FAVORITE: 50 Tips for New Personal Finance Bloggers – I was told these are great tips for any blogger, but the title stuck.
• FAVORITE: Is the Thought of Debt Ruling Your Life? – I got a slew of linkbacks and comments on this article, and I think it deserved them all.

August:

• Moving Away From Your Parents – This was an emotional article for me
• FAVORITE: Classifying Your Debt: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
• Cheap Clothes Aren’t Always a Value
• You Can’t Trust That Carfax Report! – One of my biggest search results
• FAVORITE: Are You Too Self-Sufficient? – This was a book review, but I wrote it more as a psychological analysis
• FAVORITE: Examine Your Motives Series: Introduction – Here was one of my other big series last year:
  • Going to College
  • Buying a Car
  • Having Kids
  • Buying a Home
  • Changing Jobs

October:

• Insurance: Do You Have an Umbrella for a Rainy Day – A guest post by Shawn that discusses a special, lesser known type of insurance
• Trying and Buying Musical Instruments the Wrong Way
• 132 Items of Clothing Gone – I passed on a few good nuggets of information based on our experience of donating clothing
• How to Value Clothing Donations – Gives a number of resources from the IRS and other sources
• FAVORITE: Are You in the (Financial) Loop? – Another guest post from Shawn with quite a few new (to me) ideas for sharing financial responsibility in your family
• FAVORITE: Inexpensive Ways to Woo Your Wife – A guest post by Stacie that highlights my love for her 🙂
• Cleaning Out Cluttered Relationships – Stacie wrote a great non-financial article and it got a good bit of link love!
• FAVORITE: Calculate Financial and Opportunity Costs of Your Decision
• Temptation in the Workplace, and Accountability – An article to help the guys (and the ladies I guess)

November:

• FAVORITE: Recognizing Stress and Its Effects – Stress is such a big problem in today’s society. Learn how to spot it and fix it
• FAVORITE: Don’t Be Afraid of the Big Bad Debt – Why are people so ashamed of their debt? Get over it!
• What Could You Give Up When You’re In Financial Trouble:
  • Part 1: Luxuries
  • Part 2: Semi-Luxuries
  • Part 3: Essentials

December:

Whew! Finally we’ve made it to the last month! I spent most of December in too much pain to even think about writing serious or helpful articles, but a few made their way to the web:

• FAVORITE: Safety Tip: Riding an Elevator – I had a couple trolls saying watching your back on the lift is silly, but they must not live in reality
• Do You Always Have to Be in Debt?