Happy Saturday everyone!

Gas and food prices are on the rise, lenders are cracking down, and the stock market may be starting to see a slight upswing, but we aren’t out of the woods yet.

With all these things in mind, I decided that I wanted to link to some of the very best articles on the web this week - the ones that dealt with real-world, everyday issues.

The articles below cover paying down your debt, setting up your emergency savings funds, and managing your everyday financial challenges. All good advice in any economy, but very relevant given the current state of the nation. Enjoy!

• My Two Dollars presents: Paying Off Debt And Saving Money Can Be Done At The Same Time. Hooray to David at MTD for this post! I have believed this for years. If you don’t start that emergency account while you pay down your debt, then all of your hard work will be undone with the very first emergency. When you choose not to have an emergency fund you are making your credit cards your emergency fund by default.
• Money Ning has a guest post that reveals how you can Possibly Avoid Bankruptcy with Debt Consolidation. You’ve got to be careful about this though, because not all debt consolidation companies are created equal. You can check out our post on selecting a counseling agency here.
• Frugal Dad has a guest post from the Happy Rock. This is a must read article. This is the lowdown on what an emergency fund really is - and why you absolutely need to have one to protect your family.
• The Simple Dollar wrote a down-to-earth post on how to quit lying to yourself about your money. I am guilty of this one on occasion!
• Blunt Money has my favorite post of the week. It’s a quick article on the fine art of putting things into perspective. Anything that makes me realize just how blessed I really am is worth noting.
• Moolanomy rounds things out this week with a series on managing personal finance risks. These topics are all things that most of us regularly ignore - even if we manage the rest of our finances perfectly. Definitely worth a read.

We were featured in several carnivals last week. Thanks to these sites:

• The Finance Fiesta! @ Counting My Pennies
• The Money Hacks Carnival #19 at Sound Money Matters
• The Carnival or 20 Something Finances @ Dollar Frugal
• Carnival of Personal Finance #163 - “Quotable Quotes” at You Need A Budget

That’s it for this weekend’s Best of the Web Roundup. Wishing you peace, prosperity, and a well balanced portfolio. Have a good weekend!

Happy Saturday Everyone! Here’s hoping you are spending it with a tall cool drink, and plenty of sun, friends and family. If you get a chance to take a break this weekend, then relax a bit and check out some of the personal finance articles we enjoyed this week:

Moolanomy wonders if you should Start an Emergency Fund or Pay Off Your Debt? I vote for both at the same time.

The Dough Roller examines credit card fees and fine print and wonders, “What’s In Your Wallet?”

Mrs. Micah gives us the lowdown on How Lemon Laws Protect You.

Fit Wallet wishes “Death to Credit Cards!” *Gasp!* Can you hear us falling over?

The Happy Rock wonders if those of us who are irresponsible with our credit are funding the rewards for those who manage their credit.

20’s Money shows us how to Take Our Personal Finances to the Next Level.

Milk Your Money takes at look at the pros and cons of Renting vs. Buying your home.

Carnivals that I participated in

Carnival of Personal Finance #162 - Baseball Edition

Carnival of Debt Reduction - Secret to Life Edition

Money Hacks Carnival #21

Finance Fiesta #8 - Austin Edition

Carnival of Tips

Carnival of Financial Planning - Cute Kitten Edition

Carnival of Credit Report Stories

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you back on Monday with all new reader questions!

Have a question for us? Leave a comment below!

Wow, there we a ton of incredible posts in the financial arena this week, it was really hard to decide who to include!

Here are some of my favorites:

Mrs. Micah wonders How Foreigners Get Credit in the United States? This is a really good question. It’s one I may even have to explore myself in the future!

The Dough Roller has a magic recipe for Turning Gift Cards Into Cash. I could have used this one last Christmas when I was swimming in cards for restaurants I never go to. If you have gift cards from Christmas that are about to expire or have their balance reduced, then be sure to check this one out.

Brip Blap tells us to forget about work / life balance because it isn’t going to happen. I have to admit, I agree. He offers a unique solution though, so it’s worth a read.

Over at Get Rich Slowly J.D. Roth gives us the lowdown Dirty Secrets of Debt Reduction. He fearlessly flies in the face of the common financial advice that instructs us to pay down our high interest debt first.

Trent over at The Simple Dollar gives us a list of 100 Things to Do During A Money Free Weekend. This is a neat concept, and I’m going to try it out with my family next weekend. As long as it doesn’t kill them, it may become a regular thing!

MoneyNing gives us 7 Reasons Why We Need to Start Budget Tracking Now. Tracking your budget is like investing in the stock market. The best time to do it was yesterday. The second best time is today. It’s hard to break the debt cycle if you ignore where your money is going. Trust me on that one! My budget was one of the first places I started when I finally decided to get control of my money.

Money Under 30 gives us Five Reasons to Apply for a Business Credit Card as an Individual Consumer. Hmm…you know I’m not sure I agree with this article, but I did list it here because I know some of you have had questions about it, and they make some valid points.

Student Scrooge extolls the Benefits of an Online Savings Account. This one I absolutely agree with. I use an online savings account and my interest rate is three points higher than all of my friends and family’s rates at their normal banks.

Carnivals that I was involved in

Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Personal Finance #161

Carnival of Debt Reduction - Gazelle Intense Edition

That’s it for this week’s Best of the Web Roundup. Here’s wishing you blue skies and cheaper gas! See you on Monday

One of the blogs I read everyday is John Chow’s blog. He is also the owner of The Tech Zone, one of the most read technology review sites. One of the reasons why I like reading his blog everyday is that he talks about his online experience (which I like reading about) but also shares his personal story in often humorous ways. There is always a hint of darkness in his humor which I find enjoyable to read. He also loads his blog with lots of pictures.

Today, I noticed that John posted an article titled The Ultimate Bling - The Amex Black Centurion. John gives a brief description of the card. He mentions the annual fee of $2,500 and that you need $250,000 in annual spending to be even considered for the card. The card is also made of titanium. The card is by special invitation only and you need to have preferably an Amex Gold Card or Platinum Card first.

What was more interesting was John mentioning the fact that the titatium card sets of the airport security machines! I found this really amusing.

John posted a picture of an actual American Express Centurion Black card on this post. It was not his card (he does not have one), but instead it belonged to his friend Tyler Dikman. He was smart enough to erase the card number and the 1800 personal concierge number.

If you read the comments posted on his blog, you will find the typical opposite polar views on the Amex Black Card. For some, it is an utter waste of money. For others, it is an aspiration to get the card. I have recently been bombarded by Amex to get a Platinum Card (and I’m so tempted after reading this post!).

I have been wanting to do a review of this card for a while. But since I do not have one, I have held it off for some time. But after John’s post, I think I will be sending him an email and asking him to introduce me to his friend. I think an interview for this blog (and site) from someone who actually owns a black card is due (how can I call myself Mr Credit Card if I do not write about the Centurion Card?).

Check out this post and John’s site as well. You will find many funny articles. He has some very interesting credit card articles! Below are a few examples of his cc post.

Making Money off Citibanks’ Mastercard

Showing Mastercard who the Real Master is

Also check out this post The World’s Most High Tech Urinal for a good laugh.

This week, the Mighty Bargain Hunter hosted the 81st Carnival of Personal Finance.

My post on How to choose a 0% balance transfer credit card to reduce your credit card debt? was featured in this carnival.

There are lots of great personal finance articles, so please head over to check them out. One credit card related article caught my attention. How can you reduce your apr that credit card issuers are charging you? Simply ask! Find out how many points did Save Money reduce on the credit card interest rate.

The No Credit Needed Network published the first carnival of debt reduction for 2007. My post on Credit Card debt Reduction Basics was posted in this carnival.

Binary Dollars hosted the 55th Festival of Frugality. My post on Which credit card reward program has the lastest Apple iPod? appeared in this series.

Once again, please check these carnivals for some great post.

Frugal from 1st Million at 33 posted an article on Earning Airline Travel Vouchers.

Essentially, he talks about how you can earn airline travel vouchers if you get bumped off a flight to a later flight during the day! From the tone of his post, it looks like he will be using this strategy to get more vouchers.

It obviously requires some careful planning, like not scheduling your trip carefully (so you can arrive in time despite being bumped!) and knowing which flights on which day are you most likely to be bumped off!.

While there is a fair amount of my thoughts on airline credit cards on this site, you should check out what Frugal has to say about earning travel vouchers this way.