It’s my turn to host the Yakezie Carnival today (in case you don’t know, it’s a collection of the best personal finance blogs on this planet, basically), and given the current events in Japan, I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but wanted to encourage everyone to think about Japan today and consider donating to the red cross. It’s the least we can do.  Rachelle from Landlord Rescue has a very creative way of determining how much you should donate (e.g. if you have ever eaten sushi, donate $5; if you own a Sony, donate $5…)

In Canada you can text ASIA to 30333 to donate $5 (will show up on your cell phone bill)

If you live in the US, you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10  (will show up on your cell phone bill)

I’m not sure what the difference in dollar amounts of set donation amounts say about us in Canada (that we are cheap?) but if you want to donate more, you can go directly to the redcross website (Canada and US) to donate more.

Now on to the Yakezie Carnival:

This week, it’s my turn to host and I have the honor of receiving the torch from last week’s host, Dr. Dean!  Next week, it’ll be Control your Cash who will be hosting the Yakezie Carnival, so be sure to tune in and follow the Yakezie torch

• My Personal Finance Journey discusses about Why A Credit Score Boost Is Necessary For Most Consumers.  Jacob looks at the various factors that go in to calculating your specific credit score and a reminder of the benefits of keeping it as high as you possibly can.
• Squirrelers has a light-hearted blog post, a post looking at some Crazy Keywords. He says “it’s often funny to see the keywords people use to find their way to your blog. Someone came to my blog looking to find out about humans
  exterminating alligators!”  Hmm I wonder what that post that was referring to?
• Kevin over at Invest it Wisely has a great post I found very useful as a first time home buyer-  called “Don’t Get Suckered by the Banks: How Much Can You *Really* Afford to Spend on a New Home?” In this post he proposes spending no more than 33% of your net worth on ALL housing costs including mortgage, utilites, taxes, etc.
• Dr. Dean over at the Millionaire Nurse Blog has a great post too, titled “Buy and Hold: Is It Dead?“  Buy and Hold as an investing strategy has been declared dead by many.  In the post are his thoughts this and a poem to boot, too! (Dr. Dean sure is a creative cat!)
• Don at Money Reasons has a creative post (all these creative cats in the Yakezie, I tell ya!) “Best Way to Crush Aluminum Cans“.  The article is about how his son’s aluminum can recycling experiment has accumulated in the garage and how Money Reasons discovered an easier way to crush the cans to make the process much quicker.
• Krantcents has a great article I really enjoyed myself, called The Emotional Side of Retirement.  Planning retirement is more than just savings, what are you going to do?
• Bucksome Boomer talks about how to dispute a credit card charge
• Joe from Retireby40 blog discusses who really loses in a short sale
• A Yakezie challenger, the Ultimate Juggle reveals how you can work remotely (one of my ultimate dreams).  In this post, ultimate juggle talks about the adjustment she had to make when she started telecommuting into work.  She still drives to work a few days a week and that’s a piece of cake.  But with a baby at home, working remotely required an adjustment period.  She hopes this helps other that are following a similar path!
• Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff gives  you the low down on how to buy a car.

That’s it for the yakezie carnival this week, folks!  Please tune in to next week’s host, Control your Cash as he catches the torch and passes the Yakezie light on.

Have a great Sunday, everyone!