Financial Carnival for Young Adults ' 25th Edition

Welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of the Financial Carnival for Young Adults. My purpose with this carnival is to create an easy-to-find place for information about finances for young adults. The carnival is hosted here at 20's Finances almost week and features the most recent articles from around the web. While last week we talked about side-jobs and credit, this week's topics include productivity and financing. If you want to learn more about these topics from some of the best personal finance bloggers, continue on.

Productivity:

I have long been known as staying productive. It's part of who I am. I can't take too much time to relax and enjoy myself. It's certainly something that I need to improve, but I love the idea of setting myself up for a better future. In case you are looking for ways to be more productive, SB @ One Cent at a Time writes 101 Ways to be More Productive ' 101 ways to be productive, better and successful at your work, Learn to excel in whatever job you do. these tips are essential for any job. tips to get you ahead in your career.

One of the things that has been floating in the back of my mind is if I would be more productive if I had a smartphone. Lance @ Money Life & More writes Should I Get a Smartphone Update! ' Am I Glad I Got a Smartphone? After about a month and a half of owning my smartphone I am extremely happy I got it! My biggest concern was the smartphone data bill, a whole $30 a month. Thing is, I rarely buy things for myself and am definitely not a big spender'

Daniel @ Sweating the Big Stuff clearly doesn't have the same addiction to being productive (either that or he has a better grasp on how to work hard, play hard so to speak) as he writes Why $200 Lost Gambling Was Better Spent Than $200 Cirque Du Soleil Tickets - In all, we spent about the same amount on the Cirque Du Soleil tickets as we lost playing Craps over the weekend. Where did we have more fun?

Financing:

Financing is a tricky thing. Most of you know my stance on financing as it means putting yourself in a bad situation going forward. With that said, I do agree that it's almost impossible to buy a home in cash ' and I'm not even sure that it makes sense because paying for one in cash means leaving your money just sitting in a savings account. That doesn't keep Deacon Hayes @ Well Kept Wallet from exploring this possibility. He writes about How to Buy a Home WITHOUT a Mortgage - About 6 years ago, I didn't even think this was possible. I thought the only way I will ever own home is to borrow money. Man, was I mistaken. Looking back at all of the interest I have paid to banks makes me sick. I knew there had to be another way and there is.

If buying a home isn't the option, maybe you want to explore financing a home and making sure it is a good option. Eddie @ Finance Fox writes Many Are House Poor and How You Can Avoid The Same Mistakes ' One of the biggest mistakes I've seen friends (and acquaintances) make is to buy a home that's simply too expensive for them. House poor'

While Eddie's post is helpful to explore the idea of specifically focusing on a mortgage, PPlaner @ Provident Plan gives us a philosophical and religious take on debt. He writes Should You Avoid Debt? ' Too often people in both niches of finances and religion identify a situation as black and white when it is actually gray.

Bridget @ Money After Graduation seems to share my same distaste for debt as she writes make pre-payments on your student loan debt to make progress - On Monday I blogged about how much I've overpaid my student loans. Well, I keep a running tally of a number of my student loan metrics, including how much of my payments go towards the principal balance and how much just pays off interest: Note where it says the net paid off is about $5,100.

To complicate the issue even further (which is great in mind, because hardly anything is black and white anymore):  Jon the Saver @ Free Money Wisdom writes Three Reasons You May Not Want to Make Extra Mortgage Principal Payments - These three reasons are great advice for why one should not make extra mortgage payments. While some may disagree, these are great reasons.