Lynnae at Being Frugal has posted the 144th Carnival of Personal Finance, and my post about being a content renter was included.

One of my favorite things about carnivals, is you get some of the best blog posts of the week in one big digest. It saves time, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. Just a question for ya: Do you value these mini-roundups, such as the one I included below?

Here’s a few blog posts I want to highlight:

At Saving Savy, the writer is stunned when during a presentation to college students, several asked him about the starting salary they could expect with the company. On one hand, yes, I think it could be quite rude to ask a random person, "How much money do you make?" but on the other hand, if someone is interested in choosing a particular career path, I think they absolutely have to know how much money they can expect starting out.

If you go to school for four years, pay GOBS of money to a university, and find out you’d be lucky to start out at $25,000, don’t you think that student might reconsider his or her career path? People work in a particular field because they have certain skills and interest, but at the end of the day, they’ve gotta pay the bills. What do you think?

At No Debt Plan, we learn about the importance of having a one-month income buffer. This is not the same as an emergency fund; rather, you are living off of last month’s income, rather than the next month’s. This way, you have some wiggle room and avoid living paycheck to paycheck.

At Broke Grad Student, the author considers "Could I have avoided student loan debt?" The short answer is "yes," but trade-offs have to be made.

Check out this fellow 22-year-old’s plan for being financially independent by age 35. She’s earning about $31k annually after taxes, and lives on about $17k. Even if she never gets a raise, she shows us her plan to be financially free and follow her passions. Go get ‘em, girl!

At Credit Addict, we learn the answer to the mystery: "Can merchants require a minimum purchase on credit card transactions?" The short answer is "no." The annoying answer is, sometimes, when you’re at a gas station and want to buy a $2 snack on your Visa, you might be met with a cashier who can’t be reasoned with, and refuse the sale unless you spend $5. Arg. (When that happened to me, I ran out to my car and grabbed the $20 from my glovebox emergency cash fund).