To celebrate, I wanted to continue the annual year-end tradition of highlighting my picks for the best posts of the year.

These posts are a combination of the most popular, most highly commented, most controversial, best (my picks) posts of the year.

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, check out the best posts of 2008, 2009, and 2010 as well.

If you are new here or haven’t yet done so, you can follow the 20SomethingFinance Facebook page, circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to get new posts via email or RSS.

Thanks for making 2011 a great year on the blog, and I’m looking forward to continuing the push in 2012 for early financial independence with all of you! You can look forward to new community features and much more in 2012.

• What are your favorite posts of 2011?
• What would you like to see more of in 2012?

January

• What would you do with your Life if Money were not an Issue?
• The Most Fuel Efficient Cars of 2011
• Hidden 401K Fees

February

• Do you Need to Buy Rental Car Insurance?
• Frugality Through Vegetarianism: How to Save $2K-$3K Per Year & the Planet by Moving Away from a Meat-Based Diet
• How to Port your Number to Google Voice
• The Top 20 Jobs with the Lowest Unemployment

March (this was a particularly inspired month)

• 5 Reasons to Not Build a New Home
• Pay off Debt or Invest?
• Where to Find the Cheapest International Call Rates
• My Cheap Wedding
• What Does the Average Wedding Cost?
• 401K Match Averages
• Broke & Broken: It’s Time to Start Fixing Our Country

April

• How to Not Invest Like a Pro (and beat them) with Passive Index Investing
• Tragedy, Money, & the Good Things in Life
• What is VantageScore?
• The Cheapest Diesel Cars: Worth the Price?
• The Best Online Brokers

May

• Roth 401K Basics
• Invest in a 401K or Roth IRA?
• Bandwidth Usage Caps: It’s Time for Consumers to Band Together
• Extreme Couponing
• The Student Debt Cocktail

June

• The Cost of Air Conditioning Vs. a Fan
• Pay off Student Loans or Save for Retirement?
• How to Sell Things Fast on Craigslist
• Traditional Retirement is Dead: Now What?

July

• 5 Reasons to Ditch your Car
• 2 Paths to Financial Independence
• Electric & Hybrid Tax Credits by State
• Chinese Ghost Towns
• Chase Freedom $200 Bonus Now Easier to Get

August

• How to Lower your Comcast Bill
• What is an ETF?
• Political Election Contributions: Why Our Politics are Broken
• My Counseling Session with Mother Earth

September

• Would you Support your Financially Negligent Parents?
• Free National Wifi Hotspots
• Inheritance? Forget it. 5 Reasons why Gen X & Gen Y Won’t Get Inheritances

October

• The Obama Student Relief Plan
• Citi Dividend Visa $200 Bonus Promotion
• 10 Best Interview Tips
• 5 Banks where Debit Cards are Still Free
• Forget Wall Street. Occupy Needs to Head to DC
• Where to Get Cheap or Free Flu Shots
• Steve Jobs: The Dark Legacy Beyond the Cool Devices

November

• Facebook Stock IPO
• What is a HDHP?
• 25 Awful Things that Still Beat Shopping on Black Friday

December

• What is a HSA?
• Best Grocery Rewards Card: American Express Blue Preferred
• How to Reach Health Insurance Nirvana
• Wants Vs. Needs
• How to Control Wants & Impulsive Buying
• The Lifetime Cost of Cable TV

20SomethingFinance 4th Blogiversary & Best Posts of 2011! is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.

Despite the name of the organization that commissioned the survey, I would consider it to be a fairly conducted and non-partisan. You can see the methodology here, if you’d like.

The results were interesting – and not at all what one may have expected if you consume very liberal or conservative media. Turns out that we weren’t as equally divided down the middle on everything as our politicians and the media would want us to believe.

I thought it would be kind of interesting for us to find out a little bit more about the 20somethingfinance community by showing the random results from the phone survey and then taking a poll from all of you on the same questions.

I’ll focus on only the questions that were somehow related to personal finances (taxes, jobs, health care, etc.).

Remember: random results from the survey, then, your results in the live poll. And you can follow it up with rants in the comments – as always.

Do you strongly favor, favor, oppose, or strongly oppose:

1. Increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 per hour

• Strongly favor: 35%
• Favor: 32%
• Oppose: 19%
• Strongly oppose: 11%
• Don’t know/refuse: 3%

2. Eliminating the rights of public employees to collectively bargain over health care, pensions, and other benefits

• Strongly favor: 16%
• Favor: 28%
• Oppose: 26%
• Strongly oppose: 23%
• Don’t know/refuse: 7%

• Which survey question results surprise you the most?
• Which issue do you feel the most passionate about and how would you fix it?
• What role do you think government should take in fixing these issues?

Related Posts:

• The Age Wealth Gap is Getting Bigger & Our Net Worth Sucks
• Forget Wall St.: Occupy Should Head to DC
• Why Our Politics are Broken: Political Ad Money & How to Fix it

What Should Our Government do when it Impacts your Bottom Line? (reader poll) is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.

1. Republicans and Democrats in Congress put their own political futures ahead of the best interests of the country (once again) before finally agreeing on an incomplete deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending.

2. The stock market dropped over 12%.

3. And finally, S&P cut the U.S. governments credit rating from AAA to AA+ (on a Friday after the markets were closed no less). This is the first downgrade ever for the U.S. in history.

4. Oh, and Europe is becoming more insolvent if anyone cares…

What Does the U.S. Credit Rating Cut Mean?

It basically means that S&P, a credit rating agency, has slightly downgraded our government’s ability to repay its debts. The U.S. had a AAA rating, the highest offered, but it was cut to AA+. .

Some are already claiming that the impact of the credit downgrade will be:

• An increase on the interest rates the U.S. pays on its debts – resulting in an estimated $75 billion annual increase in payments
• Increase in consumer interest rates – mortgages, auto, credit cards, etc.
• The stock market tanking
• Job loss
• A further slowdown in the American economy

It remains to be seen whether those things will actually happen, but regardless, we’re heading into some murky waters. I’m not here to place blame (on Wall St. bankers and greedy mortgage providers) or tell you what to do with your investments (dig a hole in the back yard). Rather, I want to focus on what you, me, and the common folk of this fine country (turned steaming pile) can do to protect and even thrive in troubling times (apocalypse). Here’s a list to start.

1. Budget as if You’ve Already Lost your Job

Relax, I’m not saying you’re going to lose your job. But I do think you would be wise to start planning as if you are going to.

Why? Who knows how employers are going to react to the latest developments. This is an unprecedented age of employee and employer disloyalty. But as we saw during the last recession, they are rather quick and brutal in making personnel cuts to maintain profitability. Do you want to be held prisoner by someone looking to pad or keep their multi-million dollar year-end bonus?

Taking budgetary steps now to diminish that threat can only be good for you. You’ll start saving more and you’ll have less stress about what is out of your control. Budgeting puts you back in control. You can start doing this by working on the budgeting spreadsheet that I personally created and use.

2. Pad your Emergency Fund

An emergency savings fund is meant to mitigate a negative financial event like job loss or medical emergency. At a minimum, you should plan on having 6-9 months of living expenses set aside and easily moveable, if needed. That may sound difficult, but the payoff in peace of mind is worth it.

3. Plan your Next Career

If you love your career and see no potential for job loss, smile and be happy. However, if you’re in a declining industry or geographically tied to a particular area and there aren’t many alternatives to your current employer, start thinking about your next career.

Job security has little to do with performance, and much more to do with economic forces, communication, locale, and a scarce skill set. Doing what you are going to be passionate about is key, but these 4 factors are next in line.

If the unthinkable does happen, and you lose your job, you already have a plan for your next move – whether that’s an apprenticeship, school (bitterly avoid more student debt), moving, or building a network.

4. Build Multiple Income Streams

Focusing on growing multiple income streams is the buzz strategy of the last few years in the personal finance world. But there’s good reason. It offers stability, peace of mind, hope, and can allow you save above normal means if it’s in addition to a full-time gig.

Figure out what your marketable hobbies are and start exploring a little. One of my colleagues started making and selling jewelry on Etsy her store became so popular that she ended up quitting her job to pursue it full-time when she started making more income than through her day job.

5. Start Scaling Back your Consumption

Maybe this should have been #1 on the list. I personally think we are at the very beginning of a prolonged recession. The economy could only expand so far on inflated housing values, consumer debt, government debt, technology, and cheap oil for so long.

Instead of accepting that reality, we fight it with even more debt and problems. We treat the symptoms, but not the cause. Those who start embracing a simpler life with less consumption are going to thrive.

Instead of buying more stuff, enjoy the stuff you have. And if you don’t enjoy the stuff you have, sell it and use the money to pay off your debts.

Your Turn:

1. Do you think we are heading for very troubled economic times?
2. How are you preparing?

US Credit Rating Cut by the S&P: How to Save yourself from the Coming Economapocalypse is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.

- Our budget deficit is over a trillion dollars.
- Our total debt is over $14 trillion dollars.
- Our political leaders would rather hold the line than look for real solutions.
- Our GDP growth is smaller than hoped for coming out of the recession, at 2%.

…we do have some very real problems.

As we’ve struggled there’s been a lot of mention about China’s economic vitality. China’s GDP growth has hovered around 10% for many years and sits at 9.1% in the latest data release. There is talk about all of the debt and how the Chinese should be seen as a real threat to surpass the U.S. as the world’s economic leader.

And that’s why the following video on ‘Chinese Ghost Towns’ so intriguing. It was from an Australian news outfit, SBS Dateline. You can find the rest of the story and aerial photos here.

It’s a little over 14 minutes long, but I think you’ll find it well worth the time.

It appears that a great deal of China’s economic growth has been through the strategy of the government building massive cities and universities that there is no demand for. All of the materials and labor that goes into these massive projects improves GDP. Unfortunately, its led to an estimated 64 million empty apartment units in China that are too expensive for most Chinese families to afford (there is only a little over 30 million multi-unit housing units in the U.S.). Occupancy rates in these new cities are at less than 25%. And the ‘world’s largest shopping mall’ is almost completely empty.

There is even an aerial photo of the Yunan University – built to accommodate 2.3 million students. How many students actually attend? 11,000.

All of this could ultimately result in a few little problems for China:

• Massive government debt to build and maintain all of this when there is no demand for it and then eventually tear a lot of it down.
• A housing bubble that will be so big it could potentially bring down the entire economy.
• Civil unrest for the wastefulness of taxpayer dollars to create housing that nobody can afford.
• Complete degradation of an already poor environment and habitat.

If this is what it takes to maintain economic growth… then China has some big problems. You get the feeling when watching this eery video that China’s government is completely mismanaged and it’s only a matter of time before that house of cards comes crashing down.

Chinese Ghost Towns? Get Ready to Feel Good About Being American Again is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.

2010 was a great year at 20SomethingFinance and with traffic to the site more than tripling and the subscriber-base growing by 50%, I’m more than encouraged to keep on writing for the years to come.

If you’re newer to the site, you might also want to get a quick recap of the back-catalogs through my 2009 and 2008 ‘best-of’ editions as well. If you haven’t yet done so, you can also subscribe to the 20SomethingFinance Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to get new posts via email or RSS.

Thanks for making 2010 a great one, and I’m looking forward to keeping the fight for financial freedom alive in 2011 with all of you!

January:

• Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office: Hate paying for MS Office? I did too. So I stopped using it. Here’s how.
• The Best Android Personal Finance Apps: Android is now the most popular mobile operating system. This post highlights the best ways to use the phone for personal finance purposes.
• How to Avoid Putting your Bridesmaids & Groomsmen in Debt: They will thank you later.
• Itemizing Tax Deductions: This post is a teaser on how to do it if you are considering going a different route than the standard deduction.

February:

• The First Steps to Stop Dreaming & Start Retiring Now: A motivation post on lifestyle design.
• Getting Paid to do what you Love: People are willing to pay you for doing what you already do for free.
• 55 Marketable Hobbies that you Love & Can get Paid for: This post was written to squash the self-defeating notion that “there’s no work for me to do that I enjoy”.
• PerkStreet Financial Review: PerkStreet came out of nowhere and is easily in my top 10 for ‘best financial service products’.

March:

• 6 Reasons Why your Next Car Should be a Ford Fiesta: The American automaker haters railed me for this one, but a number of readers came to my defense.
• Free Credit Report Scams: The FTC created a series of ‘free credit report’ commercial parody spoofs.
• 5 Personal Finance Goals for your Thirties: It doesn’t hurt to look ahead a little, no?
• American Paternity & Maternity Leave (vs. the rest of the world): Another one that got some people fired up.
• Health Care Reform: An article on how the Healthcare Reform Act will impact readers over the next six years.

April:

• Save on Groceries? Not if it means sacrificing these 6 food qualities.
• 4 Keys to Saving Money on Food & Groceries without Sacrifice
• Auto Insurance Quotes (How to Get the Most out of them).
• 8 Personal Finance Spring Cleaning Ninja Moves: A series of 8 tips to help you improve your financial situation.

May:

• Roth 401K vs. Traditional 401K: A comparison between the two.
• How to Donate your Car to Charity: 7 easy steps to do it right so that you don’t get taken advantage of.
• How to Replace the Air Filter in a Car: An easy money-saving tutorial.
• Ooma Review: I wrote this review one year into using the Ooma.
• How to Check Tire Pressure & Inflate your Tires: Another easy money-saving tutorial.

June:

• How Much do you Tip for Food Delivery? A reader poll that resulted in a lot of people expressing very strong opinions.
• Federal Tax Brackets: How to plan before it’s too late to impact your taxes for the year.
• Finding Happiness Along the Way to Long-Term Financial Goals: If you only read one post this year on 20SF, let it be this.
• Does Nitrogen Tire Inflation Save Mileage?

July:

• The Top 10 Cities for Young Professionals: My review on Kiplinger’s picks.
• Tracfone Review: I don’t know of a cheaper way to get cell phone coverage than Tracfone.
• Intro to Urban Homesteading: If you don’t know what it is yet, check it out.
• How to Get Rid of Clutter: I highlight 3 guerrilla tactics for doing so.
• Standby Power Appliances: How to identify where you are wasting money on your electric bill from appliances that aren’t running.

August:

• AGI vs. MAGI: what these boring terms mean and why they are important to know.
• Chevy Volt vs. Nissan Leaf: find out which is more economical.
• Amazon Kindle Wifi 3G Review: Kindle’s are getting cheap, but do they still make sense economically?
• 7 Huge Benefits to Downsizing into a Tiny Home
• CouchSurfing: is Couchsurfing a legit economic travel alternative?
• Roth IRA Conversion Rules

September:

• Mail Identity Theft & Mail Fraud Protection: 7 tips to protect yourself.
• Free Birthday Meals: 10 free meals that you can get on your birthday!
• Cheapest Mobile Data Plans: I review all unlimited mobile data plans and highlight the cheapest.
• Do you Tip for Takeout?: Reader poll and opinions.
• Chase Freedom Review: One of the top 5 credit cards on the market.

October:

• How to Get Rid of Cable: Readers share their stories.
• The 4 Pillars that will Bring Job Security: An important read for our generation in today’s economy.
• Secured Credit Cards: How to use them to build your credit.
• The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World: When do we Draw the Line? This post was the most popular of 2010, going viral through social media twice.
• Bartering Websites: Which are legit and how to barter online.

November:

• 3 Steps to Pull Away from the Rat Race & Work Fewer Hours: One of my favorite posts to write in the past year.
• 2011 FSA Changes: Find out what is changing in 2011 with FSA rules.
• Cost of Bottled Water vs. Tap Water: Find out what the true cost is of each.
• I Hate my Job!: 55% of Americans agree. Here’s what to do about it.
• Moving in with the Parents: 85% of college seniors planned on it. Is it the right move?

December:

• The 5 Worst Retailer Return Policies: Find out who made my s$%# list.
• Money Saving Gift Ideas: 7 gift ideas that save money for the people you are giving gifts to.
• How to Sell Gift Cards: A look at Plastic Jungle and how to buy and sell gift cards through them.
• Discover More Review: A review of another one of the top 5 credit cards out there.
• Napping at Work: Why aren’t more employers encouraging it?

The 57 Best 20SomethingFinance Posts of 2010. Happy New Year! is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.

20somethingfinance has grown to well over 2,000 subscribers and 50,000 monthly visits (and it keeps doubling every few months). Thanks to all who have helped build a strong community here at 20somethingfinance in 2009.

For 2009, here’s a month-by-month breakdown that includes some of my personal faves and the most commented on posts. If you’re newer to the blog, you might want to check out the best posts of 2009, 2010 and 2011 as well.

If you are new here or haven’t yet done so, you can follow the 20SomethingFinance Facebook page, circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to get new posts via email or RSS.

I would love to hear what your favorites were and suggestions for post topics that you’d like to see in 2010! Have a safe, happy, and prosperous new year!

January:

• Can Money Buy Happiness? 5 Arguments for (and Against)
• Roth IRA Basics in a Question & Answer Format

February:

• 5 Ways to Use Craigslist to Save & Make Big Money
• 7 Personal Finance Teachings that Could Save our Nation

March:

• How to Use Ooma & Net10 to Cut your Phone Bills in Half
• The 5 Best Places to Sell your Stuff
• How to Buy Quality EyeGlasses Online & Save Hundreds
• My Battle with Etrade over a $25 Fee on a No Fee IRA

April:

• My Review of the Budget Slimming Ooma VOIP System
• A Review of Net10′s Prepaid Wireless Service
• The Before you Turn 30 Financial Goals Checklist
• Pensions vs. 401(k)’s – why you Should Care that Pensions are Going Extinct

May:

• The Economics of Owning a Motor Scooter vs. a Car
• The Service Engine Light: Your Mechanics Dirty Little Secret

June:

• The Beginner’s Guide to Backpacking

July:

• The 5 Best Ways to Absolutely Destroy your Personal Finances

August:

• Battle of the Sub Sandwich Franchises
• A Look at the Tiny House Movement

September:

• Harvard’s Endowment Fund Hoard
• 3 Simplistic Strategies for Getting Rid of Clutter

October:

• The Next Sin Tax: Twinkies and Ice Cream?
• The Shockingly Low Amount of Retirement Savings Per American

November:

• 4 Things you Should do Before Open Enrollment Closes
• The 5 Worst Twenty-Something Personal Finance Blunders
• Pet Owner? The Happy Tax Might Bring you Tax Deductions

December:

• My Personal Quest to De-Commercialize the Holidays
• The 3 Questions you Must Ask Yourself Before Reading Another Personal Finance Post
• The 12 Best Songs About Money. EVER.
• 2010 Financial Resolution Guide: 10 Choices A La Carte Style

Best 20SomethingFinance Posts of 2009 is copyrighted by 20somethingfinance.com without consent to republish.