Carnival of Money Stories: Tell Me A Fairy Tale

First, this post ranks as the top editor’s pick because it touched my heart. Craig Ford presents The Rich and Poor: My Interview With The Poor People of PNG posted at Money Help For Christians. We often define ourselves and our station only in the terms of our own culture.

Now for this week’s money story……
There once was a princess who was living “happily ever after” in her fairy tale land. She soon discovered that none of the other princesses she spoke to, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, had ever mentioned what hard work “happily ever after” was.

She had to make responsible decisions about credit cards (Joanne presents First Time Credit Cards For Teens posted at First Time Credit Cards).

She and Prince Charming had no idea what they really wanted in a castle (The Financial Blogger presents Thinking of The Perfect House posted at The Financial Blogger) or if they should take Cinderella’s offer to rent the summer castle (J.D. Roth presents Does Renting Make Sense? posted at Get Rich Slowly).

They had questions about their future, making smart investments (Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Should You Borrow Money to Fund a Retirement Account? posted at Cash Money Life).

They even had ethical quandries (J. Money presents The $20 Discount that Shouldn’t Have Been. posted at Budgets are Sexy) which she never expected as the previous ruling class, Wicked Witch, LLC, never had any.

Sometimes they thought about their situation in life. What would happen if they woke up tomorrow and the castle moat sprung a leak? (MDP presents Do You Have a Worst Case Scenario Plan? posted at My Dollar Plan.)

Who might help them if they lost the castle? (Silicon Valley Blogger presents Loan Modification Companies vs The Fair Housing Authority posted at The Digerati Life).

They didn’t always make the right decision (Lakita presents The 2nd Dumbest Financial Move I’ve Ever Made posted at Personal Finance Journey), but they started with simple steps (Lynnae presents Tracking My Expenses: The Results posted at Being Frugal.net) to put them in the right direction.

Once they started budgeting the castle expenses(Joe Plemon presents Budgeting Without Bean Counting…5 Great Tips posted at Personal Finance By The Book), they found they had a little extra in the coffers and took pride in their savings (freefrombroke presents How I Love Thee ING Direct, Let Me Count The Ways posted at Free From Broke).

After all was said and done, they realized they were truly rich, not from their castle or coffers, but from their friends, their loved ones and all those who linked back to their fairy tale.