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365 Days of Statistics On My Finances, My Blog Stats, And My Revenue Here @ The MiB

hank — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:23:10 +0000

I’m a fan of numbers, but I try not to get too wrapped up in them. They’re good markers, but the main point is to drive through with them and continue improving them. They can go up and down and really frustrate you if you let them.

I’ve more than paid for my site but people like to read and learn about how everyone is doing it, so I’m happy to share the past years traffic numbers (and some financials as well)…

MY Personal Finance Numbers

My 401k Through T-Rowe Price

I’m not immune to the stock market diving by any stretch of the imagination but that doesn’t mean I’m keeping my money out of it. It’s an opportune time to buy right now and you’re getting stocks/bonds/mutual funds at all-time historic lows.

I can see Carl’s point when he says: “You all want to leave your retirement money in the stock market right now? Are you insane? I’m 31 years old, self-employed, and all I have (had) so far is $8200.00 to put into a ROTH-IRA. This was 4 months ago. Since then, I’ve lost $2200.00 and the bottom is STILL dropping out.

You expect me to ride this nonsense out? If this continues and I lose almost 2-5% of my money almost every day, I won’t have anything left to bounce back with. I’ll gladly take the $500.00 penalty for early withdrawal before i have nothing left to withdraw.

I’m probably the least savvy when it comes to managing finances but I’d rather bank on the guarantee that if I have the money physically in my hands, nobody, no bank and no government can find a way to molest me. I’m furious about all of this and I don’t know what else to do.”

But the problem I see with the numbers there is that he is only 31 years old. You’re in a ROTH IRA and the point and benefit of a ROTH is for long term investing. You’re not taking that out for almost 30 more years! The stock market is risky, that’s part of the game, but if you’re confident in your fund choices, you should know that you’ll need to occasionally ride out a storm as your money isn’t always going to be headed in the black.

In the past 365 days my 401k has dropped 23.00% [see screenshot1]

My ROTH IRA Through Charles Schwab and Edward Jones

The ROTH IRA funds haven’t been without bumps in the road either. I’ve stopped contributing to my Edward Jones “B” shares ROTH contribution this year and have put it all to my Charles Schwab fund SWEGX.

I am still on pace to contribute the $5000 and max out my ROTH contributions for the 2008 year, however, like my 401k they have taken a beating. An upside to the downside of the market is that I made a good choice stopping contributing to my Edward Jones ROTH IRA as it has dropped over 1/3 its price in the last year (-36.87%) while SWEGX in my Schwab account has “only” dropped (-32.45%).

But Hank, you just lost 1/3rd of your retirement in both your long term retirement accounts! Why are you still in it?

Like I said about my 401k above, and Carl’s comment., I’m only 30 years old.

I’ve got at LEAST 30 more before I plan on taking that money out.

I look at it with a “glass half full mentality”, I’m BUYING funds now for 1/3rd of the cost I was previously paying for them.

I may have lost a good chunk of the capital in there, and that’s demoralizing, but know the game and how it is played and you’ll fair better.

In the past 365 days my cumulative ROTH IRA has dropped 34.66% [see screenshots 2, and 3 above]

My Day-Job Salary

My day-job salary has been the one thing that has kept me in the stock market. Yes, if my salary had dropped or I lost my job I’d certainly have cut contributions to my 401k and ROTH, but it hasn’t, so I’m not.

My salary since Oct 2007 has had a promotion and cost of living increase added to it to help pad the long-term investments a bit more while they’re cheap.

Additionally, my online income has increased from $0.00 in Oct 2007 to… well, that’s in the next section. This is for salary.

In the past 365 days my salary has increase 36.11%

Website Numbers @ The MiB

Top Referrers

I’m happy to have a strong referral base to complement the big dogs (Google/Yahoo) driving traffic. Clearly social networking plays a HUGE role in the success of the blogs MiB not withstanding, and I encourage you all to check out each and every one of them on my Where Am I page. Feel free to “friend” me in each of the respective sites.

These social powerhouses drive thousands of visitors to my site each month and are a staple if you plan on sticking it out for a year or more!

However, without the people in the blogosphere sending folks my way, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Furthermore, without the constant participation and idea brainstorming at the other sites that link to me, I’d probably have stopped in the first month or 2.

Seeing as though this is the year long compilation of stats, I figured I’d bump it up from the standard top 10 referrals to the top 20 shout out to my referrers. Without you guys, nobody would ever find me.

The top referrer to my site in the year was…

1. FrugaHacks.com – it’s strange because I’m buried deep in the pile, but apparently people check it out enough to dig deep! Thank you very much FrugalHacks!

The rest o’ the pack; all with at least 100 people sent my way – thank you all for your support!

2. BibleMoneyMatters.com – (a close second actually – thanks Pete!)
3. Moolanomy.com
4. RemodelingThisLife.com
5. pfblogs.org
6. MoneyLifeNetwork.com
7. FreeFromBroke.com
8. SenseToSave.com
9. FrugalDad.com
10. PFBuzz.com
11. PTMoney.com
12. TheWildInvestor.com
13. TheDigeratiLife.com
14. BeingFrugal.net
15. GatherLittleByLittle.com
16. FreeMoneyFinance.com
17. Finwikian.com
18. MoneyHackers.net
19. MoneySmartLife.com
20. MyDollarPlan.com

Total Traffic

This one can be summed up with the combo of Google Analytics and WordPress Dashboard charts to the right and above. I’d say no counter is perfect, but I’d imagine that

combining both and taking an average should be close to around 125,000-ish viewers this year! Hopefully some of you will stick around, eh? It’s funny to watch the spikes in the big traffic drives you see over the year.

I started off somehow managing 2 and 3 thousand in the first few months, but then I had almost 40k in February/March when StumbleUpon came to be.

It tapered off, but it has been a pretty good boost for all bloggers to have it around I’m sure.

Additionally, I’d mentioned prior that I’d gotten drop from PR4 to PR2 from Google, but my Alexa score has hopped several hundred thousand (125,602 on 10/7/2008) and I’m approaching the top 100k of all sites. We’ll see how it looks in year 2.

Total Posts/Comments

I’ve changed up my posting routine a lot in the past year for multiple times per day, to once daily, to once every other day, but haven’t missed 2 posts a week.

I like the change and it gives me some freedom to step away from they keyboard, but the thing I’ve learned in the past year is that you don’t need to post daily to get the readership you want.

Sometimes writing daily is too much for people to keep up with. Personally, I’m not able to keep up with the 100+ feeds I’m subscribed to and will likely give the reader a once over every week and pick my favorite articles that jump out at me to read/comment on.

I wish I could get to them, but I really just don’t have the time to do so!

I’d like to say I’m extremely happy with Akismet, and rightfully so, they’ve saved me from almost 6,000 spams.

However, I dug around a bit in the past few weeks and had to manually release maybe 20-30 valid comments I’d previously just deleted. Sorry if you were actually one of “the missing” in there folks and dumped you!

But all things considered, I’d rather release 20-30 than block 6000. So I’ll keep my thanks there.

As for the comments, they speak for themselves (literally). People have been very gracious in stopping by and leaving their thoughts, and it is a driving factor to keep going. People clearly find value in some of the things I write – Specifically, people have been interested enough to sign up for the feed! Thanks to all of you as well!

MiB SiteStock Traffic/Growth

In August I was pretty excited to start my first app that I coded in PHP.

I had no prior experience in PHP but had enough to get me started with what I wanted to do.

Basically the goal was to find a way to consolidate all these types of stats on this post into one number. One dollar value metric, and I did that with SiteStock.

I’ve got tracking numbers detailing when it was used and the numbers of queries run against it in the past 2 months but unfortunately aside from guessing don’t have the number of folks actually using it.

However, in the past 2 months, I’ve seen 3,542 queries looking as to how their sites rank against the rest of the folks on the internet!

I hope that number will grow and I’m completely open to feedback on ways to improve/advance it. Thanks to all for using it!

Website Revenue For The MiB

Google Ads

It’s been the steady horse here over the past year. Slowly increase month over month from less than $10 the first month to $250 last month. I can’t actually post numbers and/or click through rates without breaking the Google Policy, but I can say that my best day was Saturday, August 9, 2008 when I made $41.15 that day.

A tip to Google Adsense implementers – Use AdsBlacklist, seriously. Or else you’ll never make more than pennies from Adsense. It takes 2 minutes to sign up and makes a world of difference. It’s free, fairly easy to use, and I’m happy to say dumps the low paying clicks from your site.

In the past 365 days my Google Adsense revenue has produced $1,320.28

Individual Link/Banner Sales

I’ve had good and bad things to say about these. I like that they pay well (between $150-400 per 6 month contract) but they’ll certainly slap your Google PR rank. I was up to a Google PR4 for a while and am sitting at PR2 now. My advertisers page states that I can change the nofollow tag at will, but haven’t seen a decrease in Google traffic since the downgrade to PR2.

We’ll see how this one flies in the coming weeks/months.

In the past 365 days my Individual Link/Banner revenue has produced $1,200.00

“The Rest”

I’ve written about it in the past that I’ve experimented with a couple of different money makers to no avail. Either they were far too intrustive (Kontera $0.02 in 1 day) to the reading or they just didn’t produce (JobsThread – $3.12 in 5 months) in addition to Amazon Affiliates that took up too much space ($8.29 in 1 month) on the site.

I’ve been experimenting with Microsoft Ads ($44.20 in 3 months) and the previously unenchanted Forbes Ad Network ($34.21 in 4 months). With those numbers though, I may fall back into disenchantment shortly.

However all the prior are better than Performancing Ads ($0.00 in 2 months) and Commission Junction ($0.00 in 3 months AND over 40,000 impressions).

Conclusion

You can put a number on pretty much any metric. As you can see through this post, I’ve tried. But can you really put a value on what you’ve learned over the past year? Or how about the relationships you’ve made? I get some pretty solid feedback from a handful of close “associates” I keep close to the hip.

From Blogging Tips to Joint Giveways; from Writing Improvement to Wordless Wednesdays – I find that the monetary value of the site is climbing fast indeed, but not nearly as fast as the relationship/networking potential that this site has given me.

Thanks to you all for a great year!

Things I’ve Learned In The Past Year – Tell Me YOURS And Be In The $300+ Prize Drawing (Hanks Holiday Handout #4)

hank — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:01:30 +0000

So we’re crossing the year long milestone here @ the MiB and celebrating in style! Giving away our fourth contest pushing the total amount given away this year close to $1,000! Thanks to everyone for making it worthwhile and I’m happy to craft up this one giving away more than any prior contest! Coincidentally fellow MoneyLifeNetwork writers FreeFromBroke and SenseToSave are in the same boat! Happy Anniversary guys!

So FreeFromBroke and I decided to merge forces with this contest and offer you more than 1 way to enter and win during the dual-contest offering! So after reading and commenting on this one, buzz over to FreeFromBroke.com to see the flip-side of our question coin and toss your name in the hat for another chance to win!

The Prizes

The last 3 promotions (Contest1, Contest2, Contest3) the rules seemed to work very well and rewarded everyone accordingly. Ergo, there are a total of thirteen (13) prizes worth over $300 that will be given away! I have been given several books and an interesting piece of software in the past year, so I figured it best to give back to the site what was given to me. Feel free to trade or sell them yourself if you’d like once you win!

Q: Can you win more than one prize?
A: Indeed! In theory, one person COULD win them all if they had all 100 entries and luck of the draw was on their side! but the last 3 contests had separate winners, but this contest has more prizes than ever before!

How to Finance Your Invention or Great Idea by Jack Lander

$19.95
—

The Boss’s Survival Guide by Rosner, Halcrow, and Levins

$18.95
—

1001 Ways To Take Initiative At Work by Bob Nelson -

$10.95
—

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change (Hardcover) by Mohamed El-Erian

$27.95
—

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

$16.95
—

Financial GPS Software

$39.99
—

FIVE (5) $25 Prizes in Cold Hard Cash - $125.00 (American Express Gift Card or direct pay via PayPal.com

***NEW***Top Commenter for the month (next 3 weeks) gets $50 – no drawing, just a giveback to the folks that are regulars, but newcomers are welcome to give it a whirl (includes new comments on past articles also but comments need to be relevant)! – $50.00 (American Express Gift Card or direct pay via PayPal.com

Total Contest Value = $309.74

The Question

So the question each person needs to answer is:

What is the single most important thing you’ve learned over the past year?
(It can be ANYTHING you’ve learned, no holds barred here!)

My Answer(s) To The Question

There are a handful of ways this can go because there really is something new you learn every day, or so they say. To get the creative juices flowing, I’d provide you with a few of my most lessons learned in the past 365 days:

1. Planning ahead. Whether it is for work or play, putting in the extra time will save you more than just time.
2. Adobe Photoshop – I’ve gotten pretty good at Photoshop over the past year and I’ve started to cook up a few pretty nice prints as of recent.
3. Google Adsense – it really does matter where you put your ads if you want people to click them.
4. Ads Blacklist for Google Adsense – You’re not going to make ANYTHING if you don’t filter who you’re allowing to advertise.
5. Internet friends are good to have – I didn’t think that I’d be able to connect with people on this site as well as I have and I’ve actually built a pretty good network of friends.
6. Money isn’t everything – I turned down a job or 2 this year and I’m not upset about it because it doesn’t drive your workload.
7. My 3 and 4 year old daughters will eat anything if you offer them one chocolate chip afterwards.
8. The New England Patriots aren’t unstoppable.
9. People seem to be divided 50/50 on going to Iraq to take a job.
10. Spongebob Squarepants birthday is July 14, 1986.
11. Daily blogging isn’t needed to keep a reader base. If you write good content, people won’t ditch you by posting less frequently.

The Entries

There are actually 100 possible entries you can have if you use all the options, so read these rules closely!

1. Leave a relevant comment based on the question above (5 entries)
2. “Favoritize” this page through your choice of preferred methods: Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon / Technorati / PFBuzz . After linking, use the contact page to shoot me an email to which page you’ve submitted (5 entries)
3. Add me to your BlogRoll (5 entries)
4. Comment on FreeFromBroke‘s co-op page to the contest! (10 entries) [contact me to have your entries added!]
5. Sign up for FreeFromBroke’s RSS feed! [Trust me, if you like my content, you'll LOVE his! ] (10 entries)
6. Sign up for The Money Life Network RSS Feed. Worry not, MLN won’t bite. (10 entries) [if already signed up, to enter you must contact to have your entries added]
7. Sign up for my RSS feed (10 entries) [if already signed up, to enter you must contact me to have your entries added]
8. Provide a writeup based on the question above on your own blog and link back to this post (10 entries)
9. Review MiB Smarter Money on your website (10 entries)
10. Add my MiB SiteStock widget to your site (25 entries) [if you already have it, contact me to have your entries added!]

The Rules

This giveaway is all in good fun.
There is no purchase necessary and it won’t improve your chances to win, but I’m always up for free $ if you’d like to send me some.
If it works as planned, I’m happy to offer more giveaways in the future.
The winners will be selected by random number generator.
The winners will be chosen on October 15, 2008 @ 12pm Pacific Standard Time(PST).
Anyone of any age can enter unless it is illegal in your area.
The winners will be contacted via email, SO LEAVE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS IF YOU WANT TO BE CONTACTED! I promise I will NEVER use your email address for evil purposes. Just to contact you to tell you that you’ve won. You don’t even need to leave a real name if you don’t want, just a valid email address (and home address if you win). If the email address isn’t valid, I’ll use the random number generator to pick another name.
All prizes are provided “as is”.
If you want to host my next giveaway, I’m happy to consider your offer. Contact me.
The odds of winning depend on how many people are involved. I can’t give you this info now, but I can assure you, it’s easier to win than the standard lottery.
By getting in on this you allow MyInvestingBlog to republish what you write either on this blog or other spots.
I am the judge and jury as to what is a “relevant” post. If you’re following the rules above, you’re most likely a valid post; but I reserve the right to delete your post if I feel it isn’t relevant to this blog. For example, if you write something like: “I really like giftcards, and I really really like free gift certificates!” You’ll probably not get in. Please make it a valid post!

How To Live Frugally Where YOU Call Home!

hank — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:36:29 +0000

The MoneyLifeNetwork, cooked up some good money saving frugal visiting tips this month on how to stretch YOUR dime this summer!

But we are not satisfied. We want more! Send us your tips from where YOU live and be included! We will add you to the SWEET map that shows each location, as well as your very own backlink for participating in our party!

We are already getting folks from around the world (yes, world!) and this is going to be an amazing resource for travelers every where! Take a look, what are you waiting for

Here is the compilation of articles done by The MoneyLifeNetwork folks:

Frugal Things To Do In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Sense To Save
Frugal Things To Do In St. Augustine, Florida – Remodeling This Life
Frugal Things To Do In Washington, D.C. – Milk Your Money
Frugal Things To Do And See In New York City – Free From Broke
Frugal Things To Do In Dallas, Texas – Prime Time Money
Frugal things to do when you’re in Minneapolis, Minnesota – Bible Money Matters
Frugal Things To Do When Your In The Greater Seattle, Washington Area – My Investing Blog

If you have any suggestions for one of us, please feel free to let us know. And don’t forget to get your city on this list by submitting to anyone of us! We will update shortly.

Frugal Things To Do When You’re In The Greater Seattle Washington Area

hank — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:01:13 +0000

This post is a part of the Money Life Network “Frugal Things To Do In… ” writing project. Visit the “Frugal Things To Do In…” main page to see what other cities we’re writing about! Want to write your own “Frugal Things To Do In”? Join us!

Seattle, Washington

Such a huge city and so many things to do and see that this post really needed to be trimmed down about 15 times I think to fit it in to something people could get through, but I think I wrangled up the best of the best frugal ideas and places to check out in the area!

Getting Around

People associate Seattle a lot with the monorail that twists and turns through the downtown area. It departs every 10 minutes from the station at Seattle Center, (across from the Space Needle) and from Westlake Center Mall, at Fifth and Pine Street. Each trip takes two minutes to cover the 1 mile route (See the map for the exact starts and stops) Each train can carry up to 200 passengers per trip. That all being said, the major piece is the “1 mile route”. It’s not much of a transportation monster, but a slick sightseeing stop when visiting.

It’s only $4 to ride for adults and $1.50 for kids; you get to see the downtown area and it starts and stops in good locations for shopping, so I’d still recommend it.

However a better way to get around is via bus. They’re cooked up pretty much all around the city heading as far north, south, east, and west as you’ll need to go and are very cost effective as well ($.75 for kids and $1.50 for adults one-way).

Major Attractions

The Space Needle ($16.00 for adults). It’s actually not as expensive as you’d think it was to get up to the top and see the city; it gets pricier if you’re looking to eat up there though (I’d recommend bringing a lunch).
Pike Place Market (Free) is an open-air shopping haven and Seattle institution. It gets busy during the summer time as everyone and their mother stops in to see the fish being tossed and the fresh fruits, veggies, and flowers you’ll find here. This has been a favorite Seattle attraction for many years, and will likely continue to be as it is right in downtown and near a lot of the special places to go!
Mount Rainier – ($15 per carload) – It’s a way to get out in the great Pacific Northwest and see what is happening! Learn about glaciers. Discover life in a rainforest. Hike the Wonderland Trail. Explore subalpine ecology. Watch clouds shroud the mountain and disappear. Visit a rustic historic building. Dream about climbing to the summit. Study geology. Experience a mountain meadow. Listen to a glacier crack.

Sports and Recreation

Seahawks, Mariners, and Supersonics Stadiums – The first 2 are probably going to be around for a while. Football has caught on a lot more lately since the ‘hawks have been routine contenders in the past few years and even thought the M’s are struggling, people are still riding the wave of success they had eariler this decade! As for the Supersonics, you better hurry and catch them before they move to Oklahoma City!

Parks and Scenery

Seattle actually has a TON of parks with good views and kids toys all throughout the area. Being right on the water leads way to plenty of ocean views and lakes alike, all of which cost $0.00 to visit. Here are some of my favorites:

Alki Beach – (Free)Best view of the city by far! It’s right on the other side of downtown Seattle and offers a pretty amazing view of the architecture (including the Space Needle) as well as a good place for kids to play in the water. Beach volleyball is another popular activity down on the white sand (yes, Seattle has some). And the food along the water is 2nd to none!
Marymoor Park – ($1.00) It’s a huge place to take the dog for a walk. My kids have the best time there because it’s got so many dogs to pet and play with, they’re all very nice as mean dogs don’t get to have fun apparently.
Matthew’s Beach Park (Free) – This is a big park with views of Lake Washington, kids toys, bike paths, you name it. It is conveniently hidden in a short entrance, so not many people know about this gem, but I recommend it!

Museums and Things

The Children’s Museum ($7.50) – For $7.50 the kids really get a kick out of this place and will certainly get themselves tired out enough for a nap afterwards!
Experience Music Project – (Free to get in) – an architectural unique building that is worth your time to see what’s Experience Music Project (EMP) is dedicated to the exploration of creativity and innovation in popular music.
Seattle Art Museum – It’s not the MET, but it’s not a bad place to check out for a weekend jaunt! SAM is one museum in three locations: Seattle Art Museum downtown, Seattle Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the downtown waterfront. SAM collects, preserves and exhibits objects from across time and across cultures, exploring the dynamic connections between past and present.
Museum of Flight – The Museum of Flight exists to acquire, preserve and exhibit historically significant air and space artifacts that provide a foundation for scholarly research and lifelong learning programs inspiring an interest in and understanding of science, technology and the humanities.
Woodland Park Zoo – We always hit up the zoo at least 2 or 3 times a year, the kids always get a kick out of it, but the price is getting steeper, but I still continue to pay it apparently…

Random

Tillicum Village – The Tillicum experience is a 4-hour excursion that features a spectacular combination of award-winning fire-roasted salmon, an intriguing cultural arts dance performance, magnificent scenery, and a relaxing cruise across Elliott Bay.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park – This national park is really a free museum that documents Seattle history, from the fire that burned it down to the gold rush that helped build it up.
Hiram M. Chittenden Locks – Even if you’ve been to a working lock before, this one is especially interesting because you get to see both boats and the salmon swimming upstream, plus the sea lions swimming around in the lock, waiting for whichever salmon try to bypass the ladders and swim right into their pampered little paws.
Pioneer Square – Pioneer Square Park, topped by an ornate pergola, is the site of the city’s oldest settlement.

Final Comments

Seattle is a pretty good city to be in. There have been (and still are) a lot of rich money that make up a lot of the city, and therefore have a few places that certainly cater to the larger check book, but you can most certainly make it around the city in a week on a smaller budget if you watch where you’re spending it!

Seattle has been around for a while, and likely won’t be going anywhere soon! If you’re in the area, enjoy what is has to offer, and don’t believe what you hear about it raining all the time here, from May-September it’s amazing weather and the best time to visit!

A Month of Quintessential Savings Tips!

hank — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:01:27 +0000

Well, the Summer Savings Series over at The Money Life Network wrapped up this week and thousands of people saw some very good ideas to cut costs for the summer!

Congratulations to Klaus Scharpf for taking home the $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com! In case you didn’t make it to each and every post, here’s a recap that will hopefully whet your appetite until The Money Life Network cooks up July’s group project!

photo by: hank (Cancun 2006)

The Money Life Network Expands!

hank — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:01:58 +0000

It’s with great pleasure that I announce the newest members of The Money Life Network! Emily from RemodelingThisLife.com and Kacie from SenseToSave.com have taken positions on the board! They’ve both got very good writing and give The Money Life Network a female perspective that wasn’t there in the past. With their subscriptions we’re nearing 2000 RSS subscribers for the MLN feed and delivering the best Personal Finance info right to our readers from all 7 of our unique perspectives!

Sense To Save

On Kacie’s “About Me” page she states:
“I write about how to live a frugal lifestyle. I’ve always been somewhat of a tightwad, but I’ve found that thanks to a few key books (The Complete Tightwad Gazette) and the frugal blogosphere, I’ve found an incredible amount of resources and support. My second blog, affectionately called “Other Blog,” is about everything else. I haven’t written much on it yet, but it will probably be about my personal life and other things that don’t fit on my main blog.

I have a writing background, and most of my experience is in journalism. These days, I’m a homemaker and freelance writer. So far, it’s been a lot of fun!“

A few articles I found VERY worth reading from Kacie @ SenseToSave.com

Remodeling This Life

Emily states on her About page that she is a “29 year old stay at home mom to 2 great kids, my 3 year old princess little girl Drew and 1 year old son, Eli. I’m a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a runner, a remodeler, a decorator among many other things.

2 years ago, my husband and I and our then 1 year old daughter sold our house 1500 miles away and moved to Florida where we decided to change our life and our ways. We bought a 60s “cottage” and have spent the last 2 years on our labor of love, remodeling it into a cozy little home that we love, on a dime. Along the way, we’ve had lots of ups and a few downs.

I’m a growing, changing, learning woman. Our huge life change 2 years ago has taught me so many things, but most of all that a simple, small, frugal life is a fabulous life. I have learned what I really need in life vs. what I simply want in life and through that, my needs have become pretty much my only wants. I have learned to live in the moment, enjoy the mundane and find beauty in the little things.”

A few articles I found VERY worth reading from Emily @ RemodelingThisLife.com

Conclusion

You’re going to be seeing a lot of these young ladies on The Money Life Network in the future and you should get in while the getting is good! They’re absolutely fabulous additions to the team and will bring a good presence to the already dynamic Money Life Network! Welcome to the team Kacie and Emily!

Speaking of MLN, there is still time to get into the Summer Savings Series $100 giveaway going on! It’s easy to get in and free to play! Why not?

Money Hacks Carnival #18 — The History Of Money!

hank — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:12:29 +0000

So I did some deep undercover investigation for this weeks carnival digging back in time to bring you The History of Money! Did you know that China was the first to use paper money around the year 1000. It was made from the bar of mulberry trees. Leaves from these trees, you may recall, are feed to caterpillars to produce silk. I honestly don’t know the last time I used paper money – I stick to plastic. Without further adieu…

The Editors Picks – Series 1934 Gold Certificates Go To:

The largest denomination of currency ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was the $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate featuring the portrait of President Wilson. These notes were printed from December 18, 1934 through January 9, 1935 and were issued by the Treasurer of the United States to Federal Reserve Banks only against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Treasury Department. The notes were used only for official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks and were not circulated among the general public.

A lot of good submissions this week, but the Series 1934 Gold Certificates go to:

Dorian Wales presents The Importance of Learning to Let Go posted at The Personal Financier. I grew up in a family that had a tough time letting go of a lot of things. Maybe it was because we were so frugal with everything, but we did and this post hit home.

Aryn presents Avoid Baggage Fees: How to Pack a Suitcase posted at Sound Money Matters. It’s a lost art, but I lived by it when I got out of school and went traveling – if you don’t know how to do this, you best stay home.

Livingalmostlarge presents Investment Mistakes a Couple Makes posted at LivingAlmostLarge. I’ve made a few mistakes on that front, and it’s a list that you don’t see often, but it is DEFINITELY worth reading.

Broke Grad Student presents 9 Simple Ways To Save Money On Gas posted at Broke Grad Student. With gas where it is now, this is always something people are interested in. The tips may “seem” small, but when we’re looking at where gas is headed, every penny counts!

Big Bills, Big Dreams

On July 14, 1969, David M. Kennedy, the 60th Secretary of the Treasury, and officials at the Federal Reserve Board announced that they would immediately stop distributing currency in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. Production of these denominations stopped during World War II. Their main purpose was for bank transfer payments. With the arrival of more secure transfer technologies, however, they were no longer needed for that purpose. While these notes are legal tender and may still be found in circulation today, the Federal Reserve Banks remove them from circulation and destroy them as they are received.

Hilary Green presents When is Leasing Not For You? | Cars for Girls posted at Cars for Girls.

Ybother presents 10 Ways To Get The Best Price For Your Car posted at www.ZhouWenhan.com.

Dividends4Life presents The Will to Win posted at Dividends4Life.

jim presents Advanta Business Card for Bloggers, eBay, PPC posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Unique Money Uses

The $2 bill has not been removed from circulation and is still a circulating denomination of United States paper currency. The Federal Reserve System does not, however, request the printing of that denomination as often as the others.

The Series 2003 $2 bill was the last printed and bears the names of former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow and Treasurer Rosario Marin. As of April 30, 2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide.

Joy Harrison presents Reduce your debt load: 9 proven techniques posted at Money Sense.

The Happy Rock presents Sometimes You Just Don’t Feel Like Saving Money posted at The Happy Rock.

FMF presents A Real-Life Example of How to Save $1,300 in Less than Two Hours by Shopping Around for Car Insurance posted at Free Money Finance.

Mark Runta presents Seeking Therapy for Debt Management posted at investing lessons.

NtJS presents Do You Trust Trans Union? posted at not the jet set.

Steve Faber presents - Top Debt Consolidation Loans – How to Get the Best Debt Consolidation Loan posted at Debt Free.

passive family income presents Creating a monthly family budget to track income and expenses. | Passive Family Income posted at Passive Family Income.

MrsMoney presents Does it Make Sense to Drive Farther to get a Lower Price on Gas? posted at The Ultimate Money Blog.

Brice Hogan presents How to Radically Save Money posted at Financialzip.com.

Saving Money Tips

On March 10, 1862 the first United States paper money was issued. The denominations were $5, $10, and $20. They became legal tender by Act of March 17, 1862.

The inclusion of “In God We Trust” on all currency was required by law in 1955. The national motto first appeared on paper money in 1957 on $1 Silver Certificates, and on all Federal Reserve Notes beginning with Series 1963.

retirehappy presents Rules on Claiming Dependents posted at My Retirement Blog.

RothIRA presents Graduation Gift Idea: Roth IRA posted at Roth IRA Explained.

DMH presents Best Gas Credit Cards posted at Daily Money Hack.

FFB presents Customer Service Done Right 1800Contacts.com posted at Free From Broke.

PT presents Credit Card Rewards – Are They Really Worth It? posted at Prime Time Money.

Joe Manausa presents Property Flipping Re-Energized? posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

Helen Anderson presents 8 Tips for Saving Money and Your Life posted at Bankaholic.

Mrs. Common Cents presents 8 Tips to reduce your medical spending posted at Our Common Cents.

J. Savings presents Save $10 bucks and wash that sexy car of yours. posted at Budgets are Sexy.

Chief Family Officer presents Lesson: Always track Amazon’s prices posted at Chief Family Officer.

Joy Harrison presents Cash-out refinance loan? is it a good choice for extra cash? posted at Money Sense.

Coupon Artist presents How Couponing Changes Your Outlook on Life posted at artofthecoupon.com.

Kaye presents Savannah Family Fun – The Intro posted at Mrs Nespy’s Frugal World.

Heather Allen presents Where There’s a Will… posted at The DebtFree Playbook Blog.

Bill D presents 13 Lucky Tips to Save on Life Insurance posted at The Wealth Hunter.

Worldly Money Influence

Reserves were formerly held only in gold, as official gold reserves. Under the Bretton Woods system, the United States pegged the dollar to gold, and allowed convertibility of dollars

to gold. This effectively made dollars appear as good as gold. In 1971, however, the U.S. abandoned the convertibility of dollars to gold, and the dollar became a fiat currency.

Since then, all major currencies have removed convertibility to gold, resulting in a general devaluation of world currencies over time. The dollar has remained the most significant reserve currency, though central banks now typically hold large amounts of multiple currencies in reserve.

Foxie presents The Latest Object of My Affection posted at Dreaming of Ferraris.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Managing All My Money Is Futile: Outsourcing My Finances posted at The Digerati Life.

Will presents Prepaid Visa Travel Cards posted at Your Finish Rich Plan – A Personal Finance Blog.

GBlogger presents Market Plummeting! Recession! Plague! posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Interesting Hack (Facts) About The $100 Bill

The vignette on the back of the $100 note is Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There are three people depicted in the engraving. Two (a man and a woman) are in front of the hall close to the building; the third person is a man pictured looking toward the building. There is no record that the man and woman are embracing.

The hands of the clock are set at approximately 4:10. Although the time is not readily identifiable to the naked eye, it may be verified if examined under twenty-fold magnification. There are no records explaining why that particular time was chosen.

Lisa Spinelli presents The Dope On Stagflation posted at Greener Pastures.

Ryan Taylor presents What are the Risks of Shorting Stocks? posted at Millionaire Money Habits.

The Shark Investor presents No Buzz = No Business posted at The Shark Investor.

MoneyKing presents Real Estate Profits And Losses: Burn, baby. Burn!!!!. Scenario 39. posted at The Money Kings – RULE your money at home, at work, and at play!.

CreditAddict presents Amex Delta SkyMiles Cardholders Can Pay With Miles posted at Credit Card Addict.

nickel presents Four Financial Tips for Recent Graduates posted at fivecentnickel.com.

mbhunter presents Why are some gift cards more “expensive” at MyPoints? posted at mbhunter.

Kay Bell presents Tax help for summer camp costs posted at Don’t Mess With Taxes.

Madison presents What is Credit Card Arbitrage? posted at My Dollar Plan.

Brooke presents Six Flags and Other Theme Park Details posted at Dollar Frugal.

Ray presents Best 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards posted at Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog.

Bryce presents Perot Charts posted at Save and Conquer.

Pamela Grundy presents Recession Monday: Do Vegetarians Save More Money? | Personal Finance Analyst posted at Personal Finance Analyst

Amanda Milne presents Show Me The Coupons! posted at Value For Your Life.

RC presents 7 Reasons You May Not Have Received Your Economic Stimulus Rebate Yet posted at Think Your Way to Wealth.

Kevin Fleming presents Netflix 30 Days Free Coupon – Satellite TV Guru posted at Satellite TV Guru.

Thanks to everyone for participating! Keep an eye out next week over at SoundMoneyMatters as the carnival heads that way!

“Summer Savings Series” Tip #13 – Don’t Drive 10 Miles Out Of Your Way To Save $0.20 On Gas! Use GasBuddy!

hank — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:01:55 +0000

By the time you get back, in traffic, you’re looking at stop and go driving for that 10 miles, you’re likely to burn that $3 you’re saving on the 15 gallon tank. It’s not worth the time or the hassle. There are several places online that will show you were to go for the best gas prices; if you can find any of those on your current commute, I say to hit them up!

In continuing with the “Summer Savings Series” from The Money Life Network, we’re already to post #13! Get in to win the $100 Amazon card before it is too late! It is VERY easy to enter! Head over and toss your hat in the ring!

GasBuddy.com has a pretty large database and following that can show you just what you’re looking for and where the cheapest gas is located in your city! Here’s the latest chart [click the chart to enlarge] for what they’ve got available in Seattle. Oddly enough, I’ve used that exact gas station for quite a few years before I moved from the area. $4.19 sounds ridiculous, but maybe it won’t in another 6 months.

If these gas stations are on your way to or from work, I’d hit them up but there really is no good reason to travel out of the way to get the gas from them.

Yes, I’m in the same boat of not enjoying the prices going up. Some people are trying to prey on it, and some people are trying to take advantage of it. No qualms, just fact.

I’m all for turning/saving a dollar when I can, but there’s no “good” answer in site. We’ve still got trillions of dollars of oil bubbling around underground and it is still “black gold” that people are going to continue to use, and pay for; just don’t think you need to get the best bang for your gas buck by driving across the city to do so, because it’s likely just going to be a wash anyway.

Sometimes Money DOES Grow On Trees; You Just Need To Know Where To Look

hank — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:22:17 +0000

Most things where you get thrown in a pot to have a chance at winning usually cost something, or aren’t worth your time anyway. But knowing that you’re spending your time reading this blog make me think that a chance at a few extra $ carries some weight; that being said, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars out there that you can take a pretty decent stab at…

Before I get started, I’m not undermining our own efforts over at The Money Life Network to cook up a FREE $100 Amazon gift card; I’m just making you aware of everything ELSE out there that you could be getting for free by “tossing your hat in the ring“.

Yes, the lottery has been referred to as “voluntary tax on the ignorant“, and I’m agreeing with D4L there; but I’m still a sucker for getting into contests that don’t cost me anything. Leaving a comment, joining an RSS feed, posting about a contest is worth it I think to get a shot at getting some free $ (or something I can sell for $).

I’m sure that some of them are rigged and/or don’t pay our so I am wary about contests that are on obscure blogs/sites. I enter my gmail address with a +contest at the end of the address and have it route directly to a “contest” folder to keep my standard email safe (Thanks for the tip MrsMicah ).

Other Free Money Across the Land

1. JonathanVolk.com is cooking up a contest giving away:
1st Place – $200 Amex Gift Card AND Flip Video Camera!
2nd Place – Ipod Touch!
3rd Place – Market Leverage USB Flash Drive Pen

2. Gadget5 is giving away Digital Photo Keychains.

3. NetFool is giving away a Brand New Flip Video Mino and $50 MLRewards Card!

4. How about going so far as to offer $20,000 to Innovative Moms? Whirlpool isn’t a blog, but it’s still free to enter.

5. Bloggernoob is giving away a 4gb Ipod Nano(plays video), 2gb USB pen, Flip video camera, $50 American Express Card.

6. How about an Eee PC laptop, a Shoplet.com gift certificate for $100.00, or a Shoplet.com gift certificate for $50.00? OfficeSummerFest is cooking this one up.

7. Cook up something in our realm, US Savings Bonds! Join the Proud to be an American Photo Contest:

8. Gas is pricey these days – how about a $25 gift card for gas?

9. OpMom is giving away a whole slew of treats here:
1 GRAND PRIZE:
(1) $250 Zappos.com Gift Card
(14) Books from the Hachette Book Group
(1) Set of Eco-tool Brushes
(1) Thymes Sweet Leaf Baby Collection

1 FIRST PRIZE:
(1) $100 Lands’ End Gift Card
(1) $50 Earth Mama Angel Baby Gift Card
(14) Books from the Hachette Book Group

8 SECOND PRIZES:
(14) Books from the Hachette Book Group

10. FrankTownRocks has a laundry list of prizes they’re also giving away! See the page for more details.

Sites That’ll Do The Work For You

Conclusion

The list really can go on and on and these are just a taste of the many contests going on all the time. Even do a search in Google if you want to see what’s cooking because there are dozens running every day giving stuff away to sign up, comment, participate, join a revolution, etc that’ll certainly be happy you stopped by.

It’s kinda like buying friends, even if it is for a short while, I’ve done it myself twice (1,2) and the friends I’ve bought have been pretty worth while thus far.

photos by: /brookenovak/ /eelssej/ /timusan/

“Summer Savings Series” Tip #8 – Watch Movies And Play Video Games For Free!

hank — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:10:20 +0000

No, I’m not talking about the stuff that’s going to get your thrown in the slammer for pirating videos and games, but there are several resources out there that will let you take the edge off without dumping the ridiculous $3 or $4 dollars at the rental store, or more outrageous $10 or $12 at the movie theatre…

This is part #8 of 25 of the Summer Savings Series at The Money Life Network!

There are several sites out there today that allow you to skip the pricey movie theatres and video rental stores; streaming video has really become pretty advanced these days and if you know how to connect your computer to your TV and surround system, you may not need to visit the movie store any time soon!

You May Already Have These

If you’ve got Comcast, you’d be surprised to see what they have to offer on the On Demand side. The rewind and fast forward functions have been slow for me in the past, but they really don’t have a bad selection of quasi-new releases. They have a selection of what is cooking now that can be found here.

Again if you’re already paying for Netflix, they offer streaming movies online now as well. They’ve got the newer ones you’re probably looking for that outrank the Comcast setup, but again, it’ll cost you a few bucks if you’re not subscribed to it yet. See how it works here.

Network’d TV

Most of the major channels actually offer their sitcoms via their websites as well. They play with a bit of commercial interruption, but they’re getting the hang of it and realizing that the world is turning to the computer for a lot of entertainment these days. CBS / ABC / NBC / FOX

I’m a big fan of the Discovery Channel, but I’m not a big fan of the viewer you have to download to watch their full episodes. I downloaded it, but I still don’t like having to download something to watch content.

Free-er” Content

I’ve ran across onlinemovieforum.com before and have seen a few flicks that they offer. They have a lot of the stuff that’s filmed on the video camera at the movie theatre, but if you’re chomping at the bit, but not willing to pay for it, rumor has it that it’ll do.

In the same venue, Joox.net has similar content on their site. It’s a bit slower, and I haven’t had as good of luck with it, but it’s had some good reviews from across the land, but has seen some legal issues come their way in recent months.

Play Games

I’ve never been a big fan of the newer gaming systems. The last system I played religiously was the Nintendo. Yes, straight Nintendo. And magically most of those games can be played at virtualNES.com for no charge.

Yahoo! Games has more games than I’ll ever be able to begin to play, but it has a lot of the classic board and card games that I enjoyed playing at one time until I discovered blogging.

If you’re looking to play something on the fly with pretty good accuracy check out TopRankedGames.com courtesy of DavidMakesCents.com. David has crafted up a pretty ingenious setup over there and has some very interesting games that can be easily integrated into your own website. I couldn’t find Global Thermo Nuclear War, but I’ve always been a big fan of chess. Want to play?

photo by: /joemad/