Anyway, here’s what I found this week:

Why I Started My Debt Reduction Blog

• NCN has a great little write up about why he started blogging.
  

Money Saving Tips for Online Shopping | Moolanomy

• Here are some great tips for making purchases online. This is especially useful for me coming in to the holidays. I buy everything online.
  

15 Products that save Time, Money, and Space

• Here’s a great list of products to save time, money and space. There’s some really great ideas here if you are looking for gifts.
  

Carnival of Personal Finance: Naughty or Nice Edition ? Get Rich Slowly

• I participated in this carnival this week with my advice on investing in the stock market.
  

Millionaire Mommy Next Door: My Investment Portfolio Revealed

• I love seeing the portfolios of people who have been really successful with investing. Check out the Millionaire Mommy Next Door’s portfolio.

Enjoy

Time Alone is Time Well Spent

• I have another guest post up over at Lazy Man and Money. It’s about the importance of spending some time alone to gather your thoughts. Go check that out if you get a chance. Lazy Man is another one of the blogs that has been so helpful. He’s always so willing to help and I really appreciate everything he’s done for me and my blog.

My Foray into Prosper as a P2P Lender | Moolanomy

• I’ve been really wanting to get in to Prosper. I also learned about them because they are a sponsor here on this site. Pinyo talks about his experience with the system. A great read if you are interested in what the startup process is.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich » How I gained 5lbs in one week

• This is the site that made me want to blog. I absolutely love Ramit’s writing and his style. He’s in the process of writing a book so he hasn’t been posting much lately. I highly recommend his site if you are just now getting in to personal finance blogs.

Deep In A Buyer’s Market: Time To Buy A House on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

• Have home prices hit bottom? Is now the time to buy? I hope not because in San Diego, home prices are still outrageous.

Creating a Budget-Friendly Christmas List – 5 ways to make the holidays less expensive for your friends | Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life

• Mrs. Micah discusses making a Christmas list. This is how to do it so that you don’t make your gifter spend too much on you. Some cool ideas in here.

How I Became a Millionaire While Working in My Pajamas ? Get Rich Slowly

• A great guest post from The Millionaire Mommy Next Door about how she became a millionaire. It’s a great post and it’s inspirational to hear about how others have gained their success.

Carnivals I Participate in This Week:
(I Just Realized these links were broken. They’re fixed now)
Carnival of Money Stories #38 | Cash Money Life
Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness #25 | Credit Card Lowdown
103rd festival of frugality : plonkee money
2008 Financial Resolutions | Cash Money Life

Enjoy

My Guest Post

brip blap » action is what cures fear

• I am proud to announce that my first guest post ever is up. I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank Brip Blap and all that he has done for me and my blog. He has been so helpful with tips, advice, link-backs, and now, my first guest post. He is a great guy and has a great blog.

Great Reads From Other Personal Finance Blogs

7 Irresponsible & Fun Ways To Spend Your Holiday Bonus on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

• Because every once in a while it is ok to splurge a little.

The Lies That (Some) Financial Advisers Tell @ fivecentnickel.com

• This is actually some really great investment advice here. The post discusses a lot of common misconceptions that a financial adviser might share.

Top 10 Everyday Ways to Save Money at Ririan Project

• 10 great, easy ways to conserve your valuable dollars. A really great article from a site that constantly impresses me.

The Simple Dollar » Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on the Back of Five Business Cards

• A great, quick run down of what it takes to make a lot of money throughout your life. It’s all explained on 5 business cards.

8 Tips for a Unsuccessful Office Holiday Party » Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog

• I love the office. It’s one of the funniest shows on television. Check out this post for a good laugh.

Carnivals That I Participated In:

The Carnival of Personal Finance #129 | Cash Money Life

• I participated in this carnival with my post on saving money on gas.

Festival of Frugality #102

• Lazy Man and Money did a fantastic job hosting The Festival of Frugality this week. He actually took the time to make a comment on every single post. My post about giving the gift of frugality was actually and editor’s pick this week!

Over at Be Healthy and Relax:

Simple Ways To Improve Sleep | Be Healthy and Relax

• Here is an article from the other blog that Joe and I run. Like the title suggests, it’s got some great ways to improve sleep. My problem lately is that I stay up until the wee hours of the morning writing blog posts.

Here’s what I came up with for this week.

Eight Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Goal Setting at Ririan Project

• This is something that I think pretty much everyone can use. It’s tips on how to set goals better.

Using Pareto Principle to Improve Personal Finance | Moolanomy

• Here’s a good post about using the Pareto Principle. This one grabbed my eye because I really love the Pareto Principle. So much, actually, that we wrote a post about it a while back.

You Are A Business, Act Like One! on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

• This is a great post about treating yourself as a business to get ahead. It kind of reminds me of the advice that I gave on how to make more money in your current job.

Why do poor people always win the lottery? – myinvestingblog.com

• This is an interesting post about a lottery that confused so many people that it was pulled off of the shelves. Why was it confusing? Because it used negative numbers and the majority of the people that played it, couldn’t grasp negative numbers. It’s actually kind of sad.

Making overseas experience count — life, simply improved

• This is an interesting read from Brip Blap. If you’ve spent time overseas, check this article out to understand how you can leverage your experiences in your personal career.

Save Money With Unusual Savings Devices: An Illustrated Guide To Cool Piggy Banks

• This is one of the coolest/funnest articles I’ve read in a while. It’s from The Digerati Life and It’s all about various piggy banks (with pictures). There are some really creative ideas here.

Please give those a read. I really think you will enjoy them. Leave some feedback in the comments. I really can’t get enough feedback. Did any of these articles really hit home with you? Was there one that you disagree with? I want to here what readers think.

Enjoy,
-M

22 Money Maximizing Moves You Can Do Today | Moolanomy

• Here’s a great list of things that you can do to have more money. Sounds good to me.
  

ETFs vs. Mutual Funds – Stock Trading To Go

• The debate continues between what’s better, ETFs or Mutual Funds. I currently own some ETFs but I’m thinking about switching them to Mutual Funds. This is a great read if you are curious about the differences.
  

Millionaire Mommy Next Door: How Do I Select My Investments? Why Are They Performing So Well?

• This is a great site that I just recently found out about. In this post she describes why her investments are doing so well and how she picks them. A really great read! I recommend the whole site.
  

How To Safely Borrow For A House Purchase

• I’ve been looking in to purchasing a house for a long time now. There is some great advice here on borrowing money.
  

How to Get 1,050 Subscribers in 3 Months

• This is a great post about how to gain more readers to your blog. I want to thank Brip Blap for turning me on to this site. It is just packed full of really great content for bloggers.
  

saving money on books — life, simply improved

• I read a ton of books and there’s nothing better than getting some for free. Here’s Brip Blap’s advice on getting books.

Unfortunately, I blew it and missed the deadlines for the carnivals I wanted to participate in so I’m in none for this week.

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving and I’ll be back to posting on Monday.

Enjoy,

-M

Most blogs have some sort of Weekly Roundup of cool posts from around the blogosphere. This is my version. I pick my ten favorite articles from all of the blogs that I read. I love adding new blogs to my reader and always check out blogs from people who comment on my site. I love reading and getting a little look in to some of my reader’s lives. So without further ado, here are my picks for the week:

• invespBlog discusses various PR blunders that may hurt your blog. Watch out to make sure you don’t make some of these mistakes if you are trying to build a successful blog.
• Blueprint For Financial Prosperity looks at how Scrabble and Personal Finance are related. This is a really fun post because my girlfriend and I love boardgames. We are especially fond of scrabble.
• Get Rich Slowly is giving up his day job to become a Professional Blogger. I love this post because it gives hope to the rest of the PF blog world. This is every bloggers dream and he is making it his reality.
• Dumb Little Man gives 7 Tips That Will Turn You Into A Powerful Leader. I manage a business and I could always use new pointers on leading my people better.
• Brip Blap describes frugality as High Quality as Opposed to High Quantity. I need to focus more on high quality in my everyday purchases. I think that I occasionally look for quantity over quality when that’s probably not always the smartest route to take.
• AllFinancialMatters looks at whether or not it’s a good idea to Pay Off a Car Loan Early. I picked this one because I dug in to this topic a little bit in one of my recent posts.
• Stock Trading To Go looks at Why Gold and Oil are Hot and The Dollar and Financials are Not. Stock Trading To Go is a great site with lots of great advice on investing in stocks. I read it daily and think that you should too.
• The Simple Dollar has Eight Tips from an Ultra-Frugal Parent. I’m always looking for more tips on frugality. There is some great advice on saving some money in here.
• Money Smart Life discusses why Time is Money. This post really hit home for me. I constantly feel like there’s not enough hours in the day. I work between ten and twelve hours a day and then try to find time to blog in between.
• Brip Blap wrote a great guest post over at Lazy Man and Money describing why Alternative Income is a Virus (In a Good Way). This is my goal. I want to have streams of income coming from all over the place. That way, if I lose one, I’ve still got money coming in.

Carnivals that I participated in this week:

• The Carnival of Personal Finance – My Thoughts on Robert Kiyosaki
• The Carnival of Debt Reduction – Pay Off My Debt or Don’t and Save The Difference

Over at our other site, Be Healthy and Relax, I recommend “How Long Does it Take to Decompose?” This article looks at how long it takes various products to decompose in our environment.

Enjoy,

-M

I’ve found some great posts throughout the financial blogosphere this week and Tuesday is the day that I’ve picked to share them with you. I love finding new financial blogs so if you own one or write for one, drop a comment. I pretty much check out all of my reader’s sites.

• Over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity there is a great post about renting vs. buying. What is even more great about it is the discussion that it invokes from the readers. Go check it out and add your two cents.
• At AllFinancialMatters there is a List of 50 Ways To Improve Yourself. It’s a great list from a book that JLP is currently in the process of reviewing. Give it a read and adopt some of the philosophy.
• Money, Matter and More Musings discusses Things You Should Know About Percentage Traps. This post discusses looking at returns on investments. Don’t just look at the percent of return. Investigate the amount of time to achieve that return.
• Simply Thrifty lists off 33 Things You Can Recycle. This is sort of what my Blog Action Day post discussed but it’s a much more comprehensive list.
• Brip Blap discusses his 8 Steps to a Six Figure Career. This is a list of tips that he created based on personal experiences throughout his life. This is a really great read.
• Moolanomy has a guest post that looks at What School Doesn’t Teach About Credit Cards. This is a great little post on how to deal with credit cards.
• The Frugal Law Student has The Ultimate Tipping Guide. This is really great for me because I am constantly wondering when and how much to tip. I even printed it out. This is one that would be great to bookmark.
• The Digerati Life gives 10 Tips For Being A Smart and Safe Consumer. With all of the recalls and scams lately, this is some great advice to make sure you know what you are getting before you buy it.
• Stock Trading To Go gives his Most Important Investing Advice Ever. This is a really great site that I read daily. I strongly recommend this post as a starting off point for this site.
• Clever Dude discusses Recognizing Stress and It’s Effects. This is something that I am constantly trying to improve. I am constantly trying to reduce stress in my life.

Here are the Carnivals that I participated in this week:

• The Festival of Frugality, Hosted by Paid Twice.
• The Carnival of Personal Finance, Hosted by My Two Dollars.
• The Carnival of The Capitalist, Hosted By Small Business Essentials.

Over at Be Healthy and Relax, Joe wrote a great post about Early Morning Workouts that I highly recommend.

There are some great reads in there and I recommend them all.

Enjoy,

-M

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Last week was a rough week for my blog. There was a lot going on here in San Diego. To make up for it, I’m going to pick some of my favorite posts from over the last two weeks. When I finally got to reading my RSS reader, I had something like 500 posts to sift through. Here’s what I found:

• Brip Blap has a very interesting article entitled, “Follow the White Rabbit to Financial Freedom.” It basically discusses personal finance but with a Matrix theme. It’s a fun idea.
• Consumerism Commentary gives 5 Tips For Unexpected Job Loss. Some good tips to always have in your back pocket… Just in case…
• Financial Hack gives you 117 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Reading This. Sort of counterintuitive for running a successful blog… It’s about procrastination with all sorts of great quotes.
• FreeMoneyFinance has Money Saving Tips For the Entire Family. Who couldn’t use some extra money advice. That’s why we all read these sites…
• Generation X Finance discussed the statement “You Don’t Need To Save Money – Just Use the Equity in Your Home.” Basically, the article discusses why it’s not a good statement to be making.
• There is a guest post over at Get Rich Slowly called “Understanding the 7 Habits of Wealth.” It’s a great article about the virtues needed to build wealth.
• Finance is Personal asks Are You Getting Paid What You’re Worth? Isn’t this something everyone wants to know?
  
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already discusses The Financial Incentives to Being Healthy. I’ve got to post about this, seeing as I also help run a health website. Health and Finance in one post… A Great read.
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich wrote an interesting post called “Look How Men’s and Women’s Magazines Write About Money.” Definitely worth a read.
• Lazy Man and Money talks about Saving Money by Making Your Own Beer. I’ve always wanted to do this but have never really gotten around to trying it.
• Mighty Bargain Hunter has 8 Ways to Invest in Yourself. There are some good ideas here to help make you more money, healthier and happier.
• Moolanomy discusses Choosing the Right Tool For the Job. When setting up various savings plans, you want to make sure you are using the right tools.
• Stock Trading To Go gives you 8 Ways to Fight Stress From the Stock Market. And yes, it is often very stressful. Follow some of this advice.
• Money Smart Life discusses How to Work Extremely Hard and Get Nothing Done. Try not to do that.
• Simply Thrifty has 50 Do It Yourself Halloween Ideas. Fun idea, given the season.
• The Digerati Life discusses retiring early in her post, “Ready to Retire Right Now? Find Out if it’s Time to Quit the Rat Race.”
• The Frugal Law Student gives 13 Ways To Kill A Cold Without Killing Your Budget. I’ve been battling a cold now for a little over a week… So this seemed appropriate.
• The Simple Dollar talks about Preserving The Things That Money Can’t Buy. This article was especially relevant to me, given the fact that a natural disaster just swept through my city.
• The Ririan Project gives a list on How to Be Frugal Without Being Cheap. This site constantly puts out quality content. They are typically articles on health but here’s a great one on frugality.
  
• Young and Broke discusses Financial Basics – What’s a Bond? A great quick read for a new investor who wants to know about bonds.

So that’s my, extra long, list for the week. Those are the articles I’ve found over the past 2 weeks that I really enjoyed. Post comments. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy,

-M

Normally I would be doing a recap of the best posts that I’ve found in the financial blogosphere today. Since yesterday was blog action day, I figured I’d do a recap of the various financial blog’s posts regarding the topic. So here is what some of the other financial blogs out there have to say about the environment:

• Dumb Little Man has a list of Items You Never Thought to Recycle. This is the same approach I took with my Blog Action Day post but I think he probably did it a little bit better than me.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already has 10 Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. A carbon footprint is the affect that humans have on the environment in terms of green house gases.
• Lazy Man and Money has ways to Save Money and the Environment. There are some really great ideas here.
• Simply Thrifty has Some Ways to Conserve Water. Also check out her article on Gray Water, the water that goes down the sink and bathtub can all be reused for things like watering plants.
• The Digerati Life has 10 Simple Ways to Save Money and the Environment. There are some more excellent tips in here.
• Brip Blap discusses How Politics Have an Impact on our Environment. Voting can lead to change and voting for the person with the most environmental concern can make all the difference.
• Get Rich Slowly gives 5 Eco-Friendly, Wallet Friendly sites. There are some great stores listed in here to get everyday needs the eco-friendly way.
• Moolanomy has some Little Things You Can Do to Save Money and The Planet. This is a great list of 40, really simple, things that you can do.
• Money Smart Life has more ways to Save the Environment and Save Money. There are some more great ideas in here as well.
• Zen Habits give 5 Ways to Save the World, While Getting Fitter, Saving Money, Simplifying and Becoming Happier. Each tip he gives does all of these for you. Another great read from Zen Habits.
• John Chow talks about the Car that can save the environment. Looks like a pretty cool car too.
• Get Rich Slowly also recommends buying less stuff as a way to save the environment.
• The Simple Dollar discusses what you can do on a local level to help the environment around you. I must say, this is a really good read and I completely agree with his point of view.

There you go. There is a recap of some the Blog Action Day posts that I read yesterday. Check them out and go do something that helps the environment.

-M

It’s Tuesday again and on Tuesdays I like to give all my readers a list of some of the best articles I’ve read throughout the week from with in the financial blogging community. Check them out.

• Over at Money Smart Life they discuss How Spending Money Can Actually Save You Money. They discuss how buying something you will need in the future could be a good buy now.
  
• The Frugal Law Student has 27 Ways to Save Money on Food. One great tip is to go to the grocery store that you shop at’s website and figure out what’s on sale.
  
• Frugal Journey lists 20 Ways To Save Money on Clothes. I used to shop a lot at thrift stores but lately I just get my clothes at cheaper places like Target. So far they’ve held up just fine for me.
  
• Lazy Man and Money also has a great article about how to Save Money on Clothing. One great tip to take away from this one is to buy clothes in their off season. Sweaters and jackets are cheaper in the summer and shorts and tank tops are usually on clearance in the winter.
• The Frugal Panda gives 57 Creative Ideas to Save Money as a Pet Owner. This is especially relevant to my girlfriend and I lately because we just got a new puppy.
• Getting Finances Done suggests 8 Products that Save You Money, Save the Environment and Make Life Easier. We’ve got the motion activated light switches throughout our offices right now and I will be putting them in my home as well (whenever it is that I get a home).
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already gives some of her Best and Worst Financial Decisions.
• Simply Thrifty has 10 Pink Money Saving Gadgets. They are pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
• Get Rich Slowly offers 10 Ways to Build the Habit of Saving Money. Definitely a good thing to be in the habit of.
• The Simple Dollar asks How Can a Frugal Person Buy Expensive Items. This is a great post discussing how someone can spend a lot of money on an item but still consider themselves frugal.

Over at our other site Joe Discusses Milk. It’s a very interesting and informative topic. If you’re at all curious, go check it out.
Those are my favorites from over the past week. Comment and let me know what you think.

Enjoy,
-M