Category Archives for Blogging
Tour de Personal Finance 2012 – Final Championship Sprint on the "Parisian Champs-Élysées" of Personal Finance
The 2012 Tour de Personal Finance has been an absolute 100% success (far beyond anything I could have imagined!). A big thanks goes out to everyone that has participated in the Stages and to the hundreds of voters who have stopped by to support their favorite authors/articles.
Later this week, I’ll write up a Tour de Personal Finance recap, post-race show, and awards ceremony to talk about what happened this year and how I envision the event growing in the coming years. But, that’s enough of that commentary for now!
Without further ado, let’s continue on with the final, 18th Stage (the final championship sprint) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
As I mentioned in the introduction post for the 2012 Tour de PF, I have reserved the reader portion of my 10% monthly blog income give back event for both June and July as prize money to the Yellow Jersey winner and runner-up/second place podium finisher. The Yellow Jersey winner will also select a charity of their choice to receive the charity portion of the 10% monthly blog income give back.
At the time that I mentioned these prizes, I did not yet know the exact quantities that they would be. However, I now have everything calculated, and the prizes will be as follows:
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
There are only 2 blogs/posts remaining in the 2012 Tour, so the competition should be quite interesting in this Stage! To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket
Going along with Tour de France cycling tradition, I’ve listed each competition within each stage as an “intermediate sprint” (one post versus another) along with the description provided by the blog author when the post was submitted.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as the competition.
How to Vote
Intermediate Sprint # 1
- Should You Charge Your Boomerang Kids Rent? (Boomerang): It’s no longer a given that kids will move out on their own when college ends. In fact, there’s a term for this group – Boomerang Kids. Should you charge rent to these boomerang kids?
- Money For All Seasons I: Income, Spending, and Age (Seasons): Using the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – as a metaphor for the four different stages in our lives, I have set out some age related expectations regarding income, expenditure, investments and cash-flow. It is a common sense way to illustrate how our financial situation today carries into our future and that it is never late to change one’s financial trajectory.
Tour de France Daily Recap
Wiggins took the race lead by doing a consistent ride throughout the high mountain stages and then throwing down the gauntlet with two STELLAR individual time trials to take the yellow jersey over his main rivals! The second place rider in the race is over 3 minutes behind him overall and is his own teamate! Cadel Evans, the pre-race favorite, finishes almost 15 minutes down! Quite a collapse!
George Hincapie looks set to finish his 18th ever Tour de France, which I believe is a world record for most Tour finishes. Peter Sagan has pretty much clinched the green jersey competition, and Thomas Voeckler is ten points ahead of his nearest rival in the King of the Mountains competitions. So, those jerseys are pretty much wrapped up, and there shouldn’t be too many surprises on today’s Stage.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/59920447@N04/7616350830/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Easy Like Sunday Morning Recap and Roundup – # 8 – July 22nd, 2012
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Each time, the purpose of the Easy Like Sunday Morning Recap and Roundup series is the same – for me to be able to connect with you, the readers, on a more personal (non personal finance informational transmission only) level, encourage community, and also to give back to the other bloggers around the blogosphere who have mentioned My Personal Finance Journey throughout the past few weeks or so. It’s been about a month since the last roundup, so we definitely have some catching up to do!
As far as the theme goes, the title of the roundup gives it away. The roundup theme is named after the Lionel Richie song, Easy Like Sunday Morning (which I play once each time I put this together), to remind us of the importance of slowing down at least every once in a while to take appreciation for that which transpired over the past few days.
So, without further ado, let’s get started with this edition’s roundup!
Updates from Jacob’s Personal Finance Journey and Life
- As far as my life in general, the month of July has been fairly easy-going and has not brought too many drastic changes.
- Mainly, I have been running Alzheimer’s disease experiments in the lab and staying in town for the most part on the weekends. I’ve also been getting out and riding my road bicycle for exercise, since it’s far too hot these days to run! haha
- This past weekend, I had my parents come in to town from Arkansas and my sister come in from North Carolina, so it was nice to enjoy some of the local cuisine, breweries, and hiking areas along with them.
- Also, at the beginning of July, my girlfriend and I saw some really nice fireworks at a local park here in Virginia. Below is my favorite picture I took during the event! Enjoy!
- As far as my personal finances and blog go, the months of June and July have treated me pretty well.
- Blogging income was very strong for the month of June, so that has helped me to make significant progress towards maxing out my Roth IRA for the 2012 year. As of today, I only have $300 left to go! I’m pretty excited to get this knocked out for the year.
- It is also helping to have my girlfriend contributing $300 towards the monthly housing expenses, which helps with the HOA fee and miscellaneous utilities.
- One thing that was a little difficult financially and emotionally was that in late June/early July, we almost lost one of our greyhounds, Charlie, to a strange stomach problem. What was happening was that he was continuously throwing up weird white foam after eating or drinking anything. However, it now appears that he recovered from it.
- Because of this problem and some other knee problems Charlie has had along with miscellaneous other expenses, my girlfriend and I have now paid about $600 since the beginning of June on dog-related expenses.
- Hopefully, we won’t have any major medical problems for a couple months at least now.
- However, to account for dog-related expenses, my girlfriend and I are both saving up a “doggie emergency fund” so that we never have to take out credit to pay for pet care.
- As far as the blog goes, as you’ve probably noticed, I have mainly been busy running the Tour de Personal Finance. We’re currently down to only 4 posts competing, and I’ve really enjoyed hosting this event once again this year!
Guest Posts from Personal Finance Bloggers on My Personal Finance Journey
Since the last roundup, there were three guest post here at My Personal Finance Journey.
-Daniel from Smarter Finance Today discusses how to refinance your home mortgage properly.
-Karl from Wise Stock Buyer discusses the benefits and pitfalls of index funds vs. individual stocks.
If you would like to guest post on my site, please click here to read more details about how to kick off the guest posting process. I’d love to hear from you!
Blasts From the Past
For the first 6 months after I started this blog, I pretty much “blogged in a cave.” What I mean by this is that I cranked out over 200 very good blog articles in this time period, but since I didn’t know any better, I didn’t reach out to other bloggers, get involved with the online community through commenting on other sites, or do any kind of site promotion at all. As you can imagine, some of the articles written during this time period didn’t get the attention that I think they deserved corresponding to the content contained.
The Blast from the Past section will feature one old My Personal Finance Journey article each roundup that I feel is high quality, but was published prior to my blog having any sort of real readership. This week’s article is listed below:
What Would I Do if I Inherited $1 Million? – In this post, I detail how I would allocate money to various places if I inherited $1,000,000. I discuss how a certain portion of it would go to taxes, play money, charity donations, and then that the remainder would be used to help me achieve my Purpose Focused Financial Plan.
Personal Finance “Mad Props” of the Week Award
Every once in a while, when I’m reading an article or site in the personal finance blogosphere, I’ll be so impressed in hearing about what a person did or wrote about, that all I can say to myself is WOW! This section of the roundup will serve as a running “home” for recognizing outstanding achievement.
If you know of someone in the PF blogging world that is really doing amazing things, feel free to send me an email for consideration in future roundups.
Giveaways
- The College Investor is giving away an iPad until July 31st.
If you’re hosting a giveaway and it’s not listed above, please send me an email to let me know, and I’ll get it included in next week’s roundup!
Blog Carnivals Featuring My Personal Finance Journey Articles
SEVERAL POSTS I’VE ENJOYED READING SINCE THE LAST ROUNDUP
Top 10 Referring Sites to My Personal Finance Journey Since the Last Roundup
- Surviving and Thriving
- Yakezie
- The Money Principle
- Free Money Finance
- Mortgage Free in Three
- Wise Bread
- So Over Debt
- Carnival of Passive Investing
- Tight Fisted Miser
- See Debt Run
Top 5 My Personal Finance Journey Commenters Since the Last Roundup
- Krantcents
- Jon @ Free Money Wisdom
- Evolving PF
- Making Sense of Cents
- Frugal Beautiful
Best Reader Submitted Question Since the Last Roundup
My Other Sites
However, I have several other domain names purchased, and I am currently learning WordPress Self-Hosted to get these sites live as soon as time allows! I’ll be sure to keep you all updated on progress.
Well, that wraps up this edition of the round-up. If you have any suggestions or recommendations for things you’d like to see in this roundup, just let me know by sending me an email!
As always, thanks to all the readers for creating such a great community here at My Personal Finance Journey. Your interaction is what keeps me going on this blog!
Until next time – Jacob
How about you all?
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 17, Round 5 – Posts 1-32
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 17th Stage (the first of 5th Round of competition! There are only 4 blogs/articles left in the Tour!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the one article (one from the one intermediate sprint in the case of today’s Stage) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions:
Voting will continue until July 21th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
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Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest– The Complete Guide (Mortgage): Should I pay off my mortgage early or invest? Forget the dangerous half-truths and over-simplified conventional wisdom about getting out of debt. Instead, learn the many dimensions to paying off your mortgage early in this complete guide so you can make a smart financial decision that perfectly fits your personal situation.
- Should You Charge Your Boomerang Kids Rent? (Boomerang): It’s no longer a given that kids will move out on their own when college ends. In fact, there’s a term for this group – Boomerang Kids. Should you charge rent to these boomerang kids?
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/7448869@N03/4117029583/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 16, Round 4 – Posts 33-52
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 16th Stage (the last of the 4th Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the one article (one from the one intermediate sprint in the case of today’s Stage) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions:
Voting will continue until July 20th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
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Money For All Seasons I: Income, Spending, and Age (Seasons): Using the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – as a metaphor for the four different stages in our lives, I have set out some age related expectations regarding income, expenditure, investments and cash-flow. It is a common sense way to illustrate how our financial situation today carries into our future and that it is never late to change one’s financial trajectory.
- Realising the Sacrifices Our Parents Made (Parents): Recently, when I saw a hitch hiker, I remembered my dad hitch hiking to work practically every day. I thought it was normal, but now realise that no, my parents sacrificed a lot for us kids. There is so much we can learn from how frugally they lived, although I couldn’t hitch hike!
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon. The stage is going on right now, so I’ll be sure to bring an update on the result when the other intermediate sprints go live later today.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/yannickcarer/4805698261/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 15, Round 4 – Posts 1-32
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 15th Stage (the first Stage of the 4th Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions:
Voting will continue until July 18th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
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Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest– The Complete Guide (Mortgage): Should I pay off my mortgage early or invest? Forget the dangerous half-truths and over-simplified conventional wisdom about getting out of debt. Instead, learn the many dimensions to paying off your mortgage early in this complete guide so you can make a smart financial decision that perfectly fits your personal situation.
- 7 Financial Advisors I Would Like to Punch in the Face (Punch): There are plenty of financial advisors in my industry that give financial planning a bad name (Madoff anyone?), and unfortunately they’re everywhere. I’ve been in the business for almost 10 years, and I’ve had countless run-ins with these types of advisors and despite my laid back personality, I would like nothing more than to punch them in the face, seriously. Here are some financial advisor horror stories that other clients have shared with me, the lessons learned, and let’s just see if you would want to pull a Rocky Balboa on their face, too.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 2
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Should You Charge Your Boomerang Kids Rent? (Boomerang): It’s no longer a given that kids will move out on their own when college ends. In fact, there’s a term for this group – Boomerang Kids. Should you charge rent to these boomerang kids?
- Online Poker: Is It as Legit as Stock Picking? (Poker): There are those that believe stock picking is a lot like gambling — and those that believe online poker is a safer bet than stock picking. Could online poker be as legit as picking stocks?
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
Samatan – Pau. At the finish, breakaway rider, Pierrick Fedrigo of France took out the win. Bradley Wiggins finished safely in the pack, and so holds on to his yellow jersey going in to this coming week’s mountain stages and final time trial. Should be interesting to see if he can hold on. I think he will!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamtraveller/3378064901/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 14, Round 3 – Posts 41-52
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 14th Stage (the last Stage of the 3rd Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the one article (one from the one intermediate sprint in the case of today’s Stage) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which is your favorite. In today’s Stage, we have a three way sprint, instead of the normal two-way sprint, so be sure to note that difference.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of the set of three! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions:
Voting will continue until July 17th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
-
Money For All Seasons I: Income, Spending, and Age (Seasons): Using the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – as a metaphor for the four different stages in our lives, I have set out some age related expectations regarding income, expenditure, investments and cash-flow. It is a common sense way to illustrate how our financial situation today carries into our future and that it is never late to change one’s financial trajectory.
- What If You Find Out Your Co-Workers Are Making More Money Than You (Co-workers): A discussion with some co-workers led me to discovering that I was underpaid for doing the same job. I handled the situation by doing my research, building a game plan, and confronting my boss. This is the story of how it all went down.
- How I Save $828 Dollars A Year On My Phone Bill (Phone): As an addict to savings, my phone bill was an obvious place to do some digging. What I found was a lot of extra money in my pocket, and that good things get better. These are 4 of the biggest Moola Savings Tips to save on that ugly phone bill.
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinedwards/197396700/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 13, Round 3 – Posts 33-40
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 13th Stage (the 3rd Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the one article (one from the one intermediate sprint in the case of today’s Stage) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions:
Voting will continue until July 16th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
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The Value of Work (Work): You won’t get the same props (or paycheck) for vacuuming an apartment building as you would for performing open-heart surgery. But, that doesn’t mean a janitorial job is demeaning. It just means we don’t have the sense to appreciate it.
- Realising the Sacrifices Our Parents Made (Parents): Recently, when I saw a hitch hiker, I remembered my dad hitch hiking to work practically every day. I thought it was normal, but now realise that no, my parents sacrificed a lot for us kids. There is so much we can learn from how frugally they lived, although I couldn’t hitch hike!
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/37117644@N00/1126323036/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 12, Round 3 – Posts 17-32
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 12th Stage (the first Stage of the 3rd Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions (Sprints 1 and 2 of Stage 12 went live earlier today, so be sure to cast your vote for that as well!):
Voting will continue until July 15th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 3
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How Far Would You Go To Pick Up a Penny? (Penny): Most of us love free money, but how far would you go to pick some up? Would it matter who you were around, or how dirty the coins/dollars were? What if they were on the bathroom floor? These are all questions I pondered at a bachelor party recently… figured better that than some other things 😉
- Should You Charge Your Boomerang Kids Rent? (Boomerang): It’s no longer a given that kids will move out on their own when college ends. In fact, there’s a term for this group – Boomerang Kids. Should you charge rent to these boomerang kids?
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 4
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Online Poker: Is It as Legit as Stock Picking? (Poker): There are those that believe stock picking is a lot like gambling — and those that believe online poker is a safer bet than stock picking. Could online poker be as legit as picking stocks?
- Key to Saving Money is Controlling Impulse Spending (Spending): Have you gone to the grocery store for milk and eggs and come home with steak and eggs? Have you ever been tempted to buy something just because it was on sale? Impulse spending can wreck your finances and is a major reason why most people have difficulty saving money. Learning why you buy on impulse can be the key to saving more money.
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
In the finish, British rider, David Millar, took out the sprint ahead of the breakaway. This was his 4th career Stage win in the Tour de France. All of the contenders for overall victory finished together in the main pack, so there were no changes to the overall standings. British rider, Bradley Wiggins remains in the yellow jersey.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/3530836012/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 12, Round 3 – Posts 1-16
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 12th Stage (the first Stage of the 3rd Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the two articles (one from each intermediate sprint) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual; Sprint 2: 401k, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions (Sprints 3 and 4 of Stage 12 will go live later today, so be sure to cast your vote for that as well!):
Voting will continue until July 15th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 1
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Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest– The Complete Guide (Mortgage): Should I pay off my mortgage early or invest? Forget the dangerous half-truths and over-simplified conventional wisdom about getting out of debt. Instead, learn the many dimensions to paying off your mortgage early in this complete guide so you can make a smart financial decision that perfectly fits your personal situation.
- How to Retire Early (Retire): Here are the core principles and action items that can help you become financially successful, and retire sooner. I know, because I became financially independent and retired at age 50. I found that financial success is made up of one part family support, one part career choices, one part money management, and one part personal habits and attitudes. It’s not a quick or easy process, but there are definitely things you can do to accelerate your progress….”
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 2
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How to Be a Conservative Investor (Investor): In a volatile stock market, people are always looking for ways to protect their money. Unfortunately, that often means getting too conservative and letting it sit in the bank earning little or no interest. Instead, I’ll show you how to be a true conservative investor and make real money, safely, in even a difficult economy.
- 7 Financial Advisors I Would Like to Punch in the Face (Punch): There are plenty of financial advisors in my industry that give financial planning a bad name (Madoff anyone?), and unfortunately they’re everywhere. I’ve been in the business for almost 10 years, and I’ve had countless run-ins with these types of advisors and despite my laid back personality, I would like nothing more than to punch them in the face, seriously. Here are some financial advisor horror stories that other clients have shared with me, the lessons learned, and let’s just see if you would want to pull a Rocky Balboa on their face, too.
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/ichihara-hanpu/3884392776/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 11, Round 2 – Posts 49-52
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Without further ado, let’s continue on with the 11th Stage (the last Stage of the 2nd Round of competition!) of the 2012 My Personal Finance Journey Tour de Personal Finance (to follow all of the action, click on the Tour de Personal Finance category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject).
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON PRIZES FOR THE COMPETITION
- Prize to Yellow Jersey Winner – $75.00
- Amount that will be given to a charity chosen by the Yellow Jersey Winner – $123.05
- Prize to 2nd place podium finisher – $50.00
To view the most up-to-date brackets of the competition, click the following link – 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
Also, if applicable, I will give a brief description of the stage of the Tour de France that took place the same day as (or that has happened since the previous Stage of) the competition.
HOW TO VOTE
You can vote for the one articles (one from the single intermediate sprint in this case) you’d like to see proceed in the Tour by commenting in the comments section below and telling which are your favorites.
I’ve listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Sprint 1: Mutual, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two! Criteria for the best article is completely up to you, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) post of your favorite blogger, 2) most interesting post, 3) most thought-provoking post, 4) most unique post, or 5) most actionable post.
Here are today’s competitions (Sprints 1-2 of Stage 11 went live earlier today, so be sure to cast your vote for those as well!):
Voting will continue until July 14th for this Stage!
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT # 3
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Are You Living Within Your Means? (Living): Do you constantly find yourself using your credit card to pay for basic expenses? Do you ever tell yourself “no” before making a purchase? These are classic signs of living outside of your means. In recent years, many of us have had to learn the hard way, there always comes a time when debt catches up with us. A good way to avoid debt overload is to live within your means. Simply put, you purchase things you can afford based on your current income. Read this post to learn the signs of living outside of your means and ways to get on the right financial path!
- How I Save $828 Dollars A Year On My Phone Bill (Phone): As an addict to savings, my phone bill was an obvious place to do some digging. What I found was a lot of extra money in my pocket, and that good things get better. These are 4 of the biggest Moola Savings Tips to save on that ugly phone bill.
TOUR DE FRANCE DAILY RECAP
In the finish, the amazing young Frenchmen, Pierre Roland, took out the win after launching a decisive breakaway 11 km out on the last climb of the day. Cadel Evans really cracked on the final climb, and is now down to 4th overall. Bradley Wiggins remains in the yellow jersey. My money is on him to take out the overall win in Paris.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/troye/6219621253/sizes/l/in/photostream/