Category Archives for Blogging
Ask the Readers – Opinions on the Recent Netflix Pricing Change and Gas Price Level Needed for Behavior Change?
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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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It’s been a while since I did an “Ask the Readers” post here on My Personal Finance Journey. In fact, the last one I did was all the way back on January 1st of this year when I asked if everyone was being patient about investing in their 2011 Roth IRA or if they were already contributing money to it (like I excitedly was).
Needless to say, it’s been too long! To make up for this, I’ve got a double-feature “Ask the Readers” post for you all today!
Ask the Readers Question # 1: How Has the Recent Netflix Pricing Program Change Affected You?
Netflix is often regarded among frugal living fanatics as a safe-haven or oasis where we can obtain our DVD, movie, Blue-Ray, and TV series entertainment fix for much less than it costs for monthly cable television. Indeed, I am no exception to this rule, being a loyal Netflix user myself.
Because many of their subscribers are very dedicated practitioners of frugal living, it’s no surprise that there has been a significant outcry against the recent increase in pricing of their monthly DVD and instant streaming program options.
As I was putting together the information for this post, I was searching around Netflix’s home page and was somewhat alarmed to see that they don’t clearly list their new prices for their different rental programs. The only way to clearly find this information is to be logged in to your account. In order to shed more light on the new prices, I’ve attached a screen-shot of the different pricing programs at the end of this post. From what I can tell, it appears that they have increased their prices by around 33%.
Ask the Readers Question: How has the change in Netflix’s prices affected you? Did you downgrade rental programs or pay the added costs to keep the same program?
Personally, I have been on the 2 DVD’s out-at-a-time unlimited rental + unlimited instant movie streaming for $15 per month for the past 2 years. When I was informed of the recent increase in the price of this program to $20 per month, I simply told myself that the extra $5 per month isn’t worth it to watch instant streaming movies/TV series. Therefore, I downgraded to the $11.99 per month 2 DVD’s at-a-time program.
Thanks Netflix! You now receive $4 less per month from me! Way to go! However, overall, I am still a big Netflix fan. I believe they still provide a better service than BlockBuster.com and is MUCH MUCH of a better deal for me than paying for cable each month.
Ask the Readers Question # 2: At What Price Does Gasoline Have to Increase to In Order for You to Change Your Everyday Driving Behavior?
According to GasBuddy.com, the current average price per gallon of gas in the United States is $3.69.
Many of my friends drive almost 40 miles to and from work. At a total of 80 miles and figuring 20 mpg average fuel consumption, this adds up to almost $14.76 expenditure in gas per day. Assuming that they make approximately $30 per hour in their job (before tax), the means that they work 30 minutes per day just paying for gas. If you think about it, this type of expenditure can be become very significant over the long term.
Ask the Readers Question: At what price would gas need to rise to in order for you to change your everyday driving behavior?
Personally, I think that my absolute breaking point for when I would definitely have to change my driving situation is if I was having to work 1 hour per day to pay for the gas to get me to my job. If that was the case, I would try to figure out some way to either carpool or move closer to where I work in order to reduce the expenditure. However, I would most likely try carpooling before it got to the 1 hour per day level.
I look forward to hearing everyone’s take on these two topics!
Reference Figure – Netflix Rental Program Prices (not easy to find unless you are signed in and are a current subscriber)
7 Reasons Why Being a Financial Blogger Could Be Better Than Being A Financial Professional
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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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One comment/question I get asked about once per month is something along the lines of the following:
I enjoy reading your blog! It seems like you’ve got a pretty good base of knowledge about personal finance. Have you ever thought about working the financial industry?
It’s a very interesting question and one that I have given some thought to from time to time because I really do enjoy learning about personal finance. In fact, it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to switch careers because I did get an undergraduate degree in finance as well as engineering. However, my answer is always pretty quickly generated as a firm, “No.”
The reason for this is because while I enjoy learning about finance (and personal finance in particular) as a hobby, being involved in science as my primary career has always been more fulfilling at the end of the day. However, if I were to be in the financial industry, I would probably want to do one of the jobs below (the 2nd one listed would be my first choice actually):
- Work at Vanguard assisting with index mutual funds and trying to make them more competitive by decreasing expense ratios.
- Work as a fee-based financial planner, helping individuals and families get out of debt and save for retirement.
Because I want to make a science-based job my primary career and do personal finance as a hobby, blogging is a perfect fit for me!
And, the other day, I was doing some brainstorming and thought it would be fun to share 7 reasons that I came up with why being a financial blogger might actually be better than being a financial professional. I’ve listed these below. Enjoy!
7. Thoughts of financial bloggers can be conveyed 24 hours a day.
Unlike financial professionals who have to meet with clients to share their ideas, all of the advice and ideas a blogger has to offer is splayed out on a website which can be accessed even when he or she is sleeping. This is one of the cool things that attracted me to start blogging!
6. Bloggers don’t have to answer to clients asking why their investment account balance went down.
From what I’ve read, financial advisers who work with wealthy clients especially have a lot of pressure placed on them whenever their managed account balances go down. Naturally, bloggers don’t have to worry about this.
5. You can have international clients and an international audience.
Blogging enables you to set up your little corner of the Internet and make your ideas accessible to anyone in the world at a computer. Furthermore, you can have clients (advertisers) from all over the world and execute business remotely.
4. Financial bloggers can blog from anywhere in the world.
With blogging, you don’t have to work in a busy office building or a crowded stock trading floor. You can work from the comfort of your own office or home from any location.
3. With financial blogging, you don’t need a finance degree or any special financial certification.
One of the great things about financial blogging is that it is open to anyone who has an interest in it and can generate good conversation, opinions, and logical thoughts. In fact, many of the financial bloggers I know come from diverse backgrounds, and many are engineers.
2. Bloggers do not have to worry about conflicts of interest in what we write about.
For example, investment advisers at a firm like Edward Jones get paid based on commission when you trade stock. So, they get paid only when you buy/sell stock. In other words, growing your account balances isn’t their number one goal because it is not based on how they are paid.
This, in my mind, creates a severe conflict of interest which bloggers do not have to worry about.
1. Financial blogging is not official financial advice.
This is my personal favorite for why financial blogging could be better than being a financial professional, as it relates to the very nature of what financial blogging is.
The purpose of financial blogging is to create discussion and give people ideas to research further. It is not to be used for direct financial advice, as the advice is that comes from a financial professional. However, just between you and me, the advice of some of the good bloggers out there is probably worth every bit as much as the advice from financial professionals.
For example, the disclaimer that is on the bottom of every page of My Personal Finance Journey is shown below – “The information provided on this site is not financial advice, and I am not a financial professional. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities, or to invest in any specific product. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. Thanks for visiting!”
Note: if you’re a financial professional, please realize this list is meant only for fun (not an attack on the financial industry) and that I admire you all very much for what you do.
How about you all? What do you feel would be some of the advantages of being a financial blogger over a financial professional? What are some of the disadvantages?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=blogger#
Tour de Personal Finance 2011 – Final Championship Sprint on the "Parisian Champs-Élysées" of Personal Finance
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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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The 2011 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, 17th Stage (the final championship sprint) of the 2011 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).
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
You can vote for the one article (since there’s only one intermediate sprint today) 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 is today’s competitions:
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This isn’t your grandparents’ recession (Grandparents):
Ever since the recession began I think there’s WAY too much blaming of the victims. I’m good and sick of hearing pundits grumble about how lazy and soft Americans have become, and how we ought to take a few lessons from the Great Depression. Here’s the thing: The world was a different place back then. Heaven knows I’m no apologist for slackers, credit-card spendthrifts or people who won’t take anything but the “right” job, but a lot of the advice our elders offered/modeled isn’t relevant today. Plenty of folks are in big trouble not because they’re lazy, but because of complex personal, local, national and global economic issues.
- If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Go Into Debt (Debt): What would I do if I won a million dollars? This post describes how I’d invest every last penny, scrutinizing tax benefits, risk, returns, real estate, and why I would go into debt — yes, I would go into debt — if I were a millionaire. And don’t just take my word for it: Einstein backs me up, and so does third-world poverty theory. Read this post to find out more.
Barring a major accident out on the open road, the Australian, Cadel Evans, will end the day as the overall winner of the 2011 race.
Cadel took the race lead by doing a consistent ride throughout the high mountain stages and then throwing down the gauntlet with a STELLAR final time trial yesterday in Grenoble to take the yellow jersey only the day before Paris!
Alberto Contador, the all-around favorite for overall victory this year, came up lacking in the final mountain stages of this year’s race. In my opinion, Contador most likely was the best rider in this year’s Tour de France, but since he doesn’t focus his training solely for victory in the Tour (he wants to win races in May and September as well), he wasn’t in peak form. This just makes me realize and appreciate how hard and rare it is to find a rider such as Lance Armstrong who can win the biggest bike race in the world for 7 years IN A ROW without making a single mistake. It really is a testament to Lance’s ability as a rider.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/petitbrun/5664890889/lightbox/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 16, 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 16th Stage (the first and only Stage of the 5th round of competition) of the 2011 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).
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
You can vote for the one article (since there’s only one intermediate sprint today) 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 is today’s competitions:
- Getting Started With Your Money Idea (Idea): Don’t know where to start or how to promote yourself? This article gives you the starting steps as well as a stack of ways to advertise and promote for free or very cheap. It is also an excerpt of my book 365 Ways To Make Money.
- This isn’t your grandparents’ recession (Grandparents):
Ever since the recession began I think there’s WAY too much blaming of the victims. I’m good and sick of hearing pundits grumble about how lazy and soft Americans have become, and how we ought to take a few lessons from the Great Depression. Here’s the thing: The world was a different place back then. Heaven knows I’m no apologist for slackers, credit-card spendthrifts or people who won’t take anything but the “right” job, but a lot of the advice our elders offered/modeled isn’t relevant today. Plenty of folks are in big trouble not because they’re lazy, but because of complex personal, local, national and global economic issues.
It appears that the Tour organizers are trying to deliberately keep the race as close as possible as long as possible.
Tomorrow and the next day are uphill finishes, and there is a 41 km individual time trial the day before the race finishes in Paris. These challenging Stages should put a positive ID on a winner! My money is on Alberto Contador for taking out the win at the end!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettlider/211108923/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 15, Round 4 – Posts 33-46
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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 a due, let’s continue on with the 15th Stage (the second Stage of the 4th round of competition) of the 2011 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).
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
You can vote for the one article (since there’s only one intermediate sprint today) 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 is today’s competitions:
- If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Go Into Debt (Debt): What would I do if I won a million dollars? This post describes how I’d invest every last penny, scrutinizing tax benefits, risk, returns, real estate, and why I would go into debt — yes, I would go into debt — if I were a millionaire. And don’t just take my word for it: Einstein backs me up, and so does third-world poverty theory. Read this post to find out more.
- What The Piano Tuner Taught Me (Piano): You can learn a lot from a person by their chosen profession even if that profession is not something you fully understand or are familiar with. Their passion, their spirit, their seemingly perfect fit with the intricate details involved – these things are clear when someone truly loves what they do. That and much more is what I learned from Howard the piano tuner. Read this article to learn more!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner/2410906296/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Carnival of Wealth #47 – July 17 2011 Edition
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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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Welcome to the 47th edition of the Carnival of Wealth! We at My Personal Finance Journey are very excited to be hosting the carnival again. The last time we hosted was the December 26th Fantabolous YouTube Christmas videos edition, and we very much enjoyed reading all of the articles.
If you haven’t been by our site in a while, be sure to check out our big project for the month of July – The Tour de Personal Finance (a competition for personal finance blog articles). The event is currently in the 4th Round (Stage 14), and there are only 6 blogs/posts left. Be sure to stop by and cast your vote for your favorite article by clicking here.
But, enough of that for now! Let’s get to the Carnival. Listed below are the top 3 editor’s picks for this week’s edition.
Top 3 Editor’s Picks
1. Glen Craig presents What is a Credit Card Number? It’s Far From Random posted at Free From Broke.
2. Kathryn C presents What commitment phobes and investment phobes have in common posted at Kathryn’s Conversations, saying, “What do you think the similarities are between being paranoid about getting married and being paranoid about investing? I’ll tell you! So which one are you? or both?”
3. Neal Frankle presents Bear Market Withdrawal Strategies For Retirees posted at Wealth Pilgrim, saying, “If you are retired and taking withdrawals from your investments, you’re likely very concerned when the market isn’t doing well.”
Congrats to this week’s three winners! The rest of the submissions for this week are listed below.
Credit and Debt
Crystal presents Guide to Debt Prevention posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.
Philip presents How to Pay for College Without Loans posted at Deliver Away Debt.
Jon the Saver presents Is Free Score Any Good? posted at Free Money Wisdom.
Entrepreneurship
Kyle Taylor presents 2012 Elections: How to Profit from Them posted at The Penny Hoarder.
BWL presents 7 Habits of Successful Bloggers posted at Blogging Your Passion, saying, “If you want to be successful with your blogging these are a few of the common characteristics that most successful bloggers share…”
Jason presents Making Extra Money: Niche Selection posted at Live Real Now.
Family
Before You Invest presents How to Teach Kids To Invest posted at Before You Invest, saying, “With so many young people graduating without knowing how to manage their money it is vital that we teach our children how to be smart with their personal finances.”
Investing
Control Your Cash presents This is Enough to Make Anyone a Red Sox Fan posted at Control Your Cash.
Boomer presents Should You Sell The Family Home? posted at Boomer & Echo.
Outlaw presents Can You Contribute to a Roth IRA and a 401K? posted at Outlaw Finance.
Philip Taylor presents Pay Cash or Finance a Car? posted at PT Money Personal Finance.
Maxim Kazawy presents Stocks that are Raising Dividends – July 2011 Edition posted at Best Dividend Stocks, saying, “Most retirees & Income investors know the value of stocks that are raising their dividends gradually over time. Dividend growth can make low yielding dividend stocks in to high yield dividend stocks over time because of the growth of dividends.”
MM presents Volume Indicator Experiment posted at black swans & white crows.
Lifestyle
Eirini H. presents More money will only make you more of what you already are posted at Ask your Dreams for Ideas, saying, “Money is not the solution to any of our problems,financial or otherwise!
Don’t pray for more money. Pray for more wisdom first”
Kevin presents Savings=Freedom posted at Invest It Wisely.
Money Cone presents Focus on Recurring Expenses to Improve Savings posted at Money Cone.
Brian presents Money Saving Tips for Gamers posted at Wallet Watcher.
Money Spending Mommy presents How Giving Up Expensive Habits Can Save You Lots of Money posted at Money Spending Mommy.
Personal Finance
Bob presents 5 Overseas Travel Credit Card Tips posted at Christian Personal Finance.
The Family Wallet presents Five Ways to Deal with Financial Stress posted at The Family Wallet.
Investor Junkie presents Just Starting Up: Loan or Investment posted at Investor Junkie.
Sustainable PF presents My Take on the Emergency Fund posted at Sustainable Personal Finance.
Matt presents What to Do When Your Income Drops posted at Living in Financial Excellence.
Kelly presents Let the Dark Knight Guide Your Finances posted at Frugal Living.
Miss T presents Christmas in July posted at Prairie Eco Thrifter.
FMF presents Six Steps to Financial Independence posted at Free Money Finance.
Melissa presents Ways to Find Free Gifts – A Lesson I Learned from My Son posted at Mom’s Plans.
Money Beagle presents I’d Rather Be Safe Than Sorry posted at Money Beagle.
Paula @ AffordAnything.org presents Property and the Pursuit of Happiness posted at AffordAnything.org.
Dr. Dean presents Cable TV: Can The Cord Be Cut? posted at The Millionaire Nurse Blog.
Tim Chen presents With a Good City Credit Card, It’s Okay to Eat Out posted at NerdWallet Blog – Credit Card Watch, saying, “There’s a thousand credit cards for suburbanites, but a true city credit card appreciates fine dining, entertainment and shopping, preferably all three.”
Alex Young presents 5 Ways To Turn Ambition Into Results posted at Yell0BrickRd, saying, “Ambition isn’t really a valuable commodity at all. Have you stopped to ask yourself how you are different? Why will you be the one to achieve your ambitions rather than the person next to you? There are many people who have ideas on how to make a lot of money, but knowing how to turn ambition into results is the key. Here are 5 keys that can help”
Moneyedup presents Building Wealth Instead of Clipping Coupons posted at MoneyedUP, saying, “One of the big fads right now is extreme couponing. While there is nothing wrong with extreme savings, and many people can save a great deal of money clipping coupons, there might be another way to use your time and get even better results.”
Teacher Man presents Debt Consolidation posted at My University Money, saying, “A good way to beat that 18% interest rate on your credit card is to look into some debt consolidation.”
Taxes
Mike Piper presents What’s My Cost Basis for Inherited Property? posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “For inherited property, what cost basis should be used for the purpose of calculating capital gains/losses?”
Other
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/203777564/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 14, 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 a due, let’s continue on with the 14th Stage (the first Stage of the 4th round of competition) of the 2011 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).
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
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 is today’s competitions:
- Getting Started With Your Money Idea (Idea): Don’t know where to start or how to promote yourself? This article gives you the starting steps as well as a stack of ways to advertise and promote for free or very cheap. It is also an excerpt of my book 365 Ways To Make Money.
- Bicycle In The City (Bicycle): This article was produced out of both frustration at city traffic congestion, and with optimism for real alternatives to the car. Cars are stressful, from financing the purchase to filling the tank. There must be a better way. Cities that integrate the bicycle and support carless lifestyles are the way forward.
- This isn’t your grandparents’ recession (Grandparents):
Ever since the recession began I think there’s WAY too much blaming of the victims. I’m good and sick of hearing pundits grumble about how lazy and soft Americans have become, and how we ought to take a few lessons from the Great Depression. Here’s the thing: The world was a different place back then. Heaven knows I’m no apologist for slackers, credit-card spendthrifts or people who won’t take anything but the “right” job, but a lot of the advice our elders offered/modeled isn’t relevant today. Plenty of folks are in big trouble not because they’re lazy, but because of complex personal, local, national and global economic issues.
- THE Top 10 Bad Financial Lists (Lists): I grow weary and tired of bloggers putting out Top 5, 10, and 20 lists of various financial things that would make our lives better. So, I have devised a most nefarious, ugly, and downright useless list of financial lists (there is the twist) that could ever be published and still be labeled as SFW (Suitable for Work). Careful reading this, you may find yourself suddenly wanting to write a similar list mocking other bloggers.
Against all odds, Thomas Voeckler is still in the yellow jersey after the first big showdown in the Pyrenees Mountains. However, the overall standings should get sorted out for good this coming week when the race goes through the Alps. One of the showpiece stages is a mountain top finish on Alpe D’Huez (I was actually lucky enough to be able to climb this mountain on a bike in 2008, and let me tell you – it is HARD!).
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/puliarfanita/3311290609/
July Blogging Goals Update
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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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In January of this year, I wrote a post detailing some of my blogging goals, targets, and dreams for the year of 2011. When I did this, I also added a reminder on my Outlook calendar to track our progress pertaining to these goals each month.
I have been sort of bad in that while I have been tracking these goals offline, I have not published an update on my blog since April (only so many hours in the day, right?!).
My goal for today’s post is to rectify this!
By tracking blogging goals, I am hoping that it provides us with more accountability and visibility to what we are doing and where we want to go with this community/blog.
So, here goes! The blog goals for 2011 are as follows, with progress updates given in bold type, current as of July 2011.
- Obtain Alexa ranking of 200k or less. Dream goal = 100k. Currently, we are at 91,000. We were cruising along pretty steadily at 110,000. However, we have since dropped due to some good visits as a result of our Lost Decade guest post at Yakezie.com as well starting up the Tour de Personal Finance.
- Read and interact with (comment) 5 partner blogs per day. Currently below this average, but hope to improve. However, we have been doing well these past few months at reading through every post submitted to the blog carnivals that we’ve hosted..
- Continue active participation as a proud Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network member. On track. Have posted a total of 1437 comments on the Yakezie Forums advising, learning, and interacting with others. Also, I have now coordinated ~8 advertising campaigns, bringing in a total of >$5000 revenue (and counting!) to partner blogs and have hosted the 4th Yakezie Blog Swap. I also helped to screen part of the ~1049 essays submitted to the 2nd Yakezie Writing Contest.
- Publish 3-5 blog posts per week. On target for this average currently. I’m very proud that I’ve kept up the consistency! I think I’ve found my “comfort zone” in posting frequency with posting one post per day Mon-Fri (with the exception of holidays). Having a break from posting on the weekends really gives me a chance to sit down with some quiet time and write good content!
- Obtain 200 unique visitors per day average by end of 2011. Currently averaging 203 per day. I was up to 307 average per day back in March before I had to focus more time in to my graduate program’s classes. I’ve heard from some of my blogging friends that traffic levels are very seasonal, with big drops happening in the summer. So, it will be interesting to see if traffic picks up in the fall/winter months when people are more often around their computers!
- Host all personal finance blog carnivals (Festival of Frugality, Best of Money, Tax Carnival, Carnival of Personal Finance, etc). Have hosted all blog carnivals that have allowed me! If any one out there needs a host in the future, just send me an email!
- Grow Carnival of Passive Investing to point where someone would be proud to host it. Have now had 7 editions of the carnival. Three were hosted by me, and the last four were hosted by Canadian Finance Blog, A Rich Life, Free Money Wisdom, and The College Investor. The top articles in the last two editions (May and June) were selected by two passive investing book authors – Larry Swedroe and Rick Ferri. We were very honored to have their help! The July carnival will be hosted by Wealth Informatics. Submit your passive investing posts by clicking here.
- My next moves for the Carnival are to a) continue getting passive investing authors involved and b) start reaching out to financial journalists (maybe from Kiplinger’s or Money Magazine, etc) and/or financial reports on TV. We’ll see how it goes!
- Continue to spread word about benefits of passive investing over active investing. Get involved in BogleHeads forums as well. Need to do this more. I have done a good job organizing the Carnival of Passive Investing, but have neglected visiting the BogleHeads forums. However, I just placed an automatic weekly recurring reminder on my Outlook calendar to try to increase my participation.
- Write and publish 1 guest post for another blog per month. On target with this goal. Have guest posted once this year on Free Money Finance, twice on InvestorJunkie.com (a review of Sharebuilder and a review of Vanguard), once on Yakezie.com, once on Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, and guest posted a total of five times during the 2nd-6th Yakezie Blog Swaps.
- Create an eBook on one of the following topics – a) Ways to be Frugal b) Investing Strategy c) Steps to Buying a Home. Ongoing, but have not yet started.
- Possibly transfer blog to WordPress hosting???? This is still a maybe. I am leaning more towards not going to WordPress. I know that it limits me from doing some things, but with weekly manual backups, I feel safe using Blogger for now.
- Create newsletter – “X Number of Weeks to a Frugal Lifestyle”. Ongoing, but have not yet started.
- Two free giveaways / contests during 2011. Have hosted 4 giveaways so far this year – a $25 Amazon gift card to the best cheapskate story, a $25 Wal-Mart gift card for the best passive investing article from the March 31st Carnival of Passive Investing, an H&R Block At Home giveaway of 5 tax software codes, and 3 sets of 500 free business cards from Allbusinesscards.com.
- Put together material to present to groups and or classes on personal finance. Ongoing, have not done yet.
- Attend blogging, marketing, finance, or real estate classes at local community college or nearby conference locations. Need to search for seminars. Found classes offered at local community college in blogging and marketing. Have not made any progress on this yet.
- (New as of July, 2011) Submit blog posts to 5 blog carnivals each week to expose my blog to new audiences and build links. Have been doing well at this for the past 3 months or so. Hope to continue!
- (New as of July, 2011) Successfully execute Tour de Personal Finance in July this year and each July in the future. For 2012, plan further ahead of time to gather more entries (max = 64) and get some sponsors involved. If get sponsors, donate 50% of the earnings of the event to a charity chosen by the yellow jersey winner of the event. 1st round of Tour de Personal Finance going on right now!
How about you all? What goals did you set for 2011? How are you progressing in achieving them?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4207563765_954cd50863.jpg
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 13, Round 3 – Posts 1-8 & 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 a due, let’s continue on with the 13th Stage (the fourth and final Stage of the 3rd round of competition) of the 2011 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).
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
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 is today’s competitions:
- How to feed a family of 6 on roughly $200 per week (Family): Groceries account for one of the highest household expenses. However, it is also a variable cost that we can all budget for. Nikki Holloway, a Canadian mother from Arrowwood, AB, who feeds 6 on roughly $200/week, has provided her top 11 tips to putting the money back in your bank account and not on your plate.
- Getting Stated With Your Money Idea (Idea): Don’t know where to start or how to promote yourself? This article gives you the starting steps as well as a stack of ways to advertise and promote for free or very cheap. It is also an excerpt of my book 365 Ways To Make Money.
- If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Go Into Debt (Debt): What would I do if I won a million dollars? This post describes how I’d invest every last penny, scrutinizing tax benefits, risk, returns, real estate, and why I would go into debt — yes, I would go into debt — if I were a millionaire. And don’t just take my word for it: Einstein backs me up, and so does third-world poverty theory. Read this post to find out more.
- I Refused To Pay Someone What I Was Charged (Refused): What do you do when the value of a service or product doesn’t match the price you were charged? In this personal finance story, you’ll find out how my situation played out (it may not be what you think) and what you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/petitbrun/5809291874/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance, Stage 12, Round 3 – Posts 9-16 & 41-48
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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!
————————————————————————————————————————
Without further a due, let’s continue on with the 12th Stage (the third Stage of the 3rd round of competition) of the 2011 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).
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
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 is today’s competition:
- Bicycle In The City (Bicycle): This article was produced out of both frustration at city traffic congestion, and with optimism for real alternatives to the car. Cars are stressful, from financing the purchase to filling the tank. There must be a better way. Cities that integrate the bicycle and support carless lifestyles are the way forward.
- An Argument for Privatizing Social Security (Argument): Just as our country’s finances reach a critical point, Social Security is set to start failing. Social Security makes up 1/5 of our federal budget and is facing a huge deficit if changes aren’t made quickly. This article argues that privatizing Social Security could be a permanent and sustainable solution.
- What The Piano Tuner Taught Me (Piano): You can learn a lot from a person by their chosen profession even if that profession is not something you fully understand or are familiar with. Their passion, their spirit, their seemingly perfect fit with the intricate details involved – these things are clear when someone truly loves what they do. That and much more is what I learned from Howard the piano tuner. Read this article to learn more!
- How I Went From 30K To 100K in 5 Years (100K) I went from an admin clerk making 30K to a financial professional making over 100K in only 5 years. That’s the equivalent of getting annualized raises of 27% per year. How did I go from 30k to a 6 figure income in 5 years? Here’s my story!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamtraveller/3921094904/