The Carnival of Personal Finance #103 is up and this has one of my favorite theme: The 24 edition - based on the FOX series, obviously, 24. This one is hosted by Clever Dude and  I’ll tell you what, this is a hell of a work to come up with this idea and then organize all the articles around it! My article Saving for Retirement: The Earlier, The better was featured here and can be found on the 17th hour: 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM but somehow it was referred as better late than never when saving for retirement, just in case you’ll be looking for it.

Some notable articles to consider:

Accidental Millionaire - written by Free money finance, discussed how “many Americans have been trapped into thinking they’re wealthy because of all the equity on their homes.” Although, I would call them differently: House Rich, Cash Poor!!

The Wealth Building Dilemma - The Rich Do not save - written by My Wealth Builder, discussed a very good issue that the Rich people don’t save either. It just proves the point that “People are broke at all levels.” Your expenses are very relative to your income. The higher your income, the higher the expenses as well. That’s why you should always consider maintaining your standard of living even when your salary increases. If you ever have to spend when you receive a raise, try to keep at least 10% of it in your savings.

The Current High School Curriculum Needs reform and fast - written by My Credit Group  discussed why finance courses should be offered in high school, too. I truly believe that kids need to learn not just the science or math classes but also finance classes that would truly affect the student’s life in the long run.

Cashing Out Roth IRA To Pay Off House - written by Five Cent Nickel. I never like the idea about this strategy. For one, you are tying up a very liquid asset to non-liquid one. Second, you might be earning a higher rate of return with your Roth than with the house. Third, when you take money out on your IRA, it might take you a while to even put back the same amount in the future. And lastly, the interest on your house is tax deductible. By paying off your mortgage, you might  not be able to deduct your other expenses that you normally itemized such as property taxes, charitable contributions, investment interest, casualty losses, and other miscellaneous expense. The total might not exceed your standard deduction (assuming that you are filing married jointly)