tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57784873166214006112024-02-07T20:43:41.864+11:00Your Financial Independenceditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-20920351415092899012016-04-19T22:58:00.000+10:002016-04-19T22:58:07.987+10:00Top 4 benefits of investing in shares<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Investing in shares can be quite a rewarding experience. There are plenty of risks, however the benefits outweigh the risks if you do your homework.<br />
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Following are my top 4 benefits of investing in shares<br />
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<b>Capital growth</b> - Capital growth occurs when the value of your investment increases. Many people invest for capital growth to build their wealth and protect themselves against inflation.<br />
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People invest in shares because they offer the possibility that their price will rise. Owning shares in a company with a rising share price is one way to achieve capital growth.<br />
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Capital growth is essential to investors as long as there is inflation. Inflation is a measure of the rise in the price of goods. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) aims to keep inflation within a range of 2-3%. With no capital growth, your money will buy less in the future than it does now.<br />
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<b>Income</b> - A dividend is the distribution of a company's net profit to shareholders. Dividend yields vary greatly from company to company. It is not compulsory for a company to pay a dividend.<br />
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For Australian investors, dividends are often worth more than the cash payment they receive. This is because a company can also distribute franking credits for any company tax it has paid.<br />
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Franked dividends carry imputation credits, which entitle shareholders to a tax offset or a reduction in the amount of tax to be paid. If your marginal rate of tax is lower than the company tax rate, the excess franking rebate can be used to reduce the tax payable on other sources of income.<br />
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In addition to rising share prices, dividend re-investment plans (DRP) can multiply the capital growth effect of a share investment. DRP is an alternative to cash dividends, allowing shareholders to purchase new shares instead of receiving a cash dividend. These shares are often issued at a discount to the current market price and no brokerage is paid.<br />
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<b>Capital gains tax (CGT)</b> - Shares enjoy good taxation benefits in comparison to most other investments. You realize a capital gain whenever you sell shares and the consideration received (sale price less related costs such as brokerage) is more than the cost base (purchase price plus related costs).<br />
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If the shares were acquired on or after 20 September 1985, the capital gain must be included as assessable income in your tax return and is subject to CGT. CGT is payable at your marginal tax rate in the year in which you sell the shares.<br />
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For shares acquired on or after 21 September 1999 and sold 12 months or more after the date of acquisition, capital gains may be discounted by 50%; meaning only half of the capital gains must be included in your assessable income.<br />
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<b>Financial control</b> - Shares' flexibility and liquidity are key advantages. In particular, the ease and low cost involved in buying and selling relatively small amounts and the control that gives you; whether to free up some cash, re balance your portfolio or simply realize a profit.<br />
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Many people appreciate how easy it is to invest in shares. There is no conveyancing cost, stamp duty or ongoing expenses. You can do everything over the internet if you wish, and brokerage fees are much lower than typical real estate agent fees. So you can start small, buying companies you know, and take the time to learn as you go.<br />
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Please note that this is an Australian website. Laws and regulations will differ in different countries. It is of vital importance that you check your tax laws before investing in shares.<br />
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This article is based on the ASX share course, version 3 2008, course 3. (http://www.asx.com.au).ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-68662864684339768802012-06-12T22:30:00.000+10:002012-06-12T22:34:23.034+10:00How to pay off your credit card debt quicker<div>
<a href="http://personalfinance.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/How-to-Pay-Off-Credit-Card-Debt-440x250.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" id="il_fi" src="http://personalfinance.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/How-to-Pay-Off-Credit-Card-Debt-440x250.png" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="200" /></a>It is important to get on top of your credit card debt because it has the potential to completely destroy your life and lead you to bankruptcy. I know it sounds a little dramatic, but that is the way like to address this kind of debt.<br />
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Say that you have 50k in credit card debt and that your minimum monthly payment is $1500 a month. If you only pay the minimum amount every month it will take 42 years to pay off the entire amount. <br />
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What happens if your circumstances change and you can no longer afford to pay the minimum monthly payments?<br />
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The quickest way to pay off your credit card debt is to make extra payments. There is a catch though. If you are now paying $1500 a month, the catch is to continue to pay this amount even when your minimum required payment goes down. If you consistently pay $1500 a month using this strategy, you will finish paying your debt in less than 5 years.<br />
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More often than not, people make the mistake to pay only the minimum amount and continue paying only the minimum amount even as the required amount reduces every month. That is the mistake. The trick is to start paying the minimum amount but, as the principal goes down and the required minimum monthly payment reduces, you need to continue paying the higher amount.<br />
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There you have it, a simple way of paying off your credit card debt much, much faster.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Click <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/softwared0e-20" target="_blank">here</a> for great resources on becoming financially independent.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>For more information on how to eliminate unsecured debt refer to the following articles:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/personal-finances-management-for-when.html">Personal finances management for when you are broke</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-10-money-tips-to-become-debt-free.html">Top 10 money tips to become debt free</a></i></span></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-46285883975853870692011-02-06T22:50:00.001+11:002011-02-06T22:50:49.985+11:00Financial Independence Compilation<!--
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Get our top recommended IRA companies and additional IRA investment advice." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>BC Russell</b> presents <a href="http://www.carefulcash.com/mlm-money-compare-with-these-5-alternatives/">MLM Money - Compare With These 5 Alternatives</a> posted at <a href="http://www.CarefulCash.com">Internet Marketing... while being careful with your cash.</a>, saying, "It's about what the alternatives are..." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>debt kid</b> presents <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/will-that-be-cash-or-credit">Will That Be Cash or Credit</a> posted at <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/">Debt Kid</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Pinyo</b> presents <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/4055/how-to-avoid-student-loan-debt/">How to Avoid Student Loan Debt</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com">Moolanomy</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Unbalanced Passions</b> presents <a href="http://www.unbalancedpassions.com/2010/11/26/why-i-stayed-home-on-black-friday.html">Black Friday is For the Dumb Yuppies and the Stupid.Slaves Who Are Funding There Own Enslavement Buying Junk From China.</a> posted at <a href="http://www.unbalancedpassions.com">Unblancedpassions</a>, saying, "Personally every time I had to work on Black Friday. The most stupid yuppies are out in force. They do not know how to drive. They are rude and absent minded of the most. These are the ones who drive in cars and minivans so ugly to show how pathetic they are as people. I am not going to get up at midnight or 4am to save a dollar at a big box stores selling that junk from China." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Rosette</b> presents <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/college/personal-finance/best-instant-access-savings-accounts.html">Best Instant Access Savings Accounts</a> posted at <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/">Stock Tips</a>, saying, "Learn how to protect your savings and money by using instant access savings accounts. 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Now, you need to do the paperwork. There are so many ways to form your business, it can get confusing." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ann Douglas</b> presents <a href="http://blog.doorfly.com/articles/2011/abcs-for-first-time-home-buyers/">ABC?s for First Time Home Buyers</a> posted at <a href="http://blog.doorfly.com">DoorFly.com</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tax Debt Help</b> presents <a href="http://www.taxdebthelp.com/blog/ways-get-prior-year-tax-or-past-tax-return-information-irs">Ways To Get Prior Tax or Past Tax Return Information From The IRS</a> posted at <a href="http://www.taxdebthelp.com/blog">Tax Debt Help Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Pinyo</b> presents <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/4250/how-to-become-a-millionaire-mmarquit01/">How to Become a Millionaire</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com">Moolanomy</a>, saying, "Becoming a millionaire is a popular dream amongst Americans. This article discusses the strategies on how you might become one, and the pitfalls that you will want to avoid." </p> <h2>money and finance</h2> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2010/11/a-bank-with-a-great-dividend/">A Bank With A Great Dividend</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "This bank has been a solid stock performer for years and has gone largely unnoticed by Wall Street." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>CreditShout Kevin</b> presents <a href="http://creditshout.com/does-budget-software-really-help-you-get-out-of-debt/">Does Budget Software Really Help You Get Out of Debt?</a> posted at <a href="http://creditshout.com">CreditShout</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2010/11/investing-in-fixed-and-variable-annuities/">Investing In Fixed and Variable Annuities</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "Annuities are a popular product in the financial world as investors love the prospect of a guaranteed income stream for life." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Sun</b> presents <a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/personal-finance/10-reasons-pay-attention-finances/">10 Reasons Why You Should Pay Attention to Your Finances</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com">The Sun’s Financial Diary</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/citi-forward-rewards-card/">Citibank Forward: Best Rewards Credit Card For Urbanites</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "The Citi Forward is quite possibly the hands-down winner of best rewards credit card for city-dwellers." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>David de Souza</b> presents <a href="http://taxfix.co.uk/blog/?p=170">The Top 10 Things To Know About Income Tax When Leaving The UK</a> posted at <a href="http://taxfix.co.uk/blog">UK Tax Blog</a>, saying, "Guide to the 10 things you need to know about paying tax when you leave the UK to live or work overseas" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Randall Davidson</b> presents <a href="http://www.audiotranscription.org/how-to-save-money/">277 Ways to Save Money</a> posted at <a href="http://www.audiotranscription.org">Transcription Blog</a>, saying, "In order to achieve financial independence, most people must put money into savings at every possible opportunity. To that end, here is a very comprehensive array of 277 ways to save money, spanning everything from how to save money on groceries to how to travel frugally." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Jessica Bosari</b> presents <a href="http://billeater.com/tips/debt-free-with-no-clue-how-manage-your-new-found-freedom">Debt Free with No Clue? How to Manage Your New Found Freedom | billeater.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.billeater.com">Billeater</a>, saying, "Finally debt free? How to stay that way." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Clair Schwan</b> presents <a href="http://www.self-reliance-works.com/2010/11/whats-your-definition-of-retirement-have-you-been-fooled-by-a-false-belief/">What’s Your Definition of Retirement – Have You Been Fooled by a False Belief?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.self-reliance-works.com">SELF RELIANCE WORKS</a>, saying, "This article questions the long held belief of the mainstream worker - work hard all your life and then retire. If we start to think outside of this belief, then we realize that we can define financial freedom as we'd like to and live a life that doesn't require a "job" or compliance with what most people see as the road to success. The key is to know what you're shooting for, and position yourself through your own initiatives so you can accomplish goals that you think are important - no matter what others are doing." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2006/12/05/mad-gift-giving-guide/">Mad Gift Giving Guide</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Chris Tompson</b> presents <a href="http://www.inspirest.com/tech/3-ways-to-make-money-online/">3 Ways To Make Money Online</a> posted at <a href="http://www.inspirest.com">Inspirest - Inspiring Entrepreneurship</a>, saying, "Three great techniques for making money online.The benefit of making money via the internet is that you can work from anywhere in the world and while you sleep." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Mike Piper</b> presents <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/annuity-payouts/">Annuity Payouts: Why Are They Higher than Bond Rates?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com">The Oblivious Investor</a>, saying, "Want to spend other people's money? Annuities let you do exactly that. (Sometimes.)" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Robert Moore</b> presents <a href="http://2011tax.org/2010/12/08/roth-ira-reach-retirement-bliss/">Roth IRA: Reach Retirement Bliss</a> posted at <a href="http://2011tax.org">2011 Tax</a>, saying, "The Roth IRA has many benefits over other retirement investment plans." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Jeff Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/savings-with-a-0-balance-transfer-for-24-months/">Savings with a 0% Balance Transfer for 24 Months</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "An examination of how much can be saved by consumers with various interest rates and credit card debt levels on a balance transfer that lasts 24 months. Thanks for the inclusion." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Neal Frankle</b> presents <a href="http://wealthpilgrim.com/financial-tax-planning-tips/">Financial Tax Planning Tips To Save You Money</a> posted at <a href="http://wealthpilgrim.com">Wealth Pilgrim: Money Management Advice, Financial Stess Management, Addiction Recovery Plan & Resources</a>, saying, "Here’s a few important financial tax planning tips (and an important warning) if you’re an investor... especially if you own ETF’s or mutual funds." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Patty Pedersen</b> presents <a href="http://www.alphaprofit.com/Money/Contrarian-Investors-Best-Stock-Investment-1.html">Contrarian Investors: Best Stock Investment</a> posted at <a href="http://www.alphaprofit.com/investing-blog-investment-stocks-money.html">AlphaProfit MoneyMatters - Investing Blog</a>, saying, "With 2010 drawing to a close, beaten down stocks are likely to come under more pressure from investors selling these names to recognize losses for tax purposes. The article discusses opportunities in one of the most ‘unloved’ groups in the stock market today." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Alexander Peter</b> presents <a href="http://utr.org.uk/maxed-out-review.html">Maxed Out Review</a> posted at <a href="http://utr.org.uk">UTR.org.uk</a>, saying, "A review of the award winning documentary 'Maxed Out' which helps to explain the reason behind the global credit crisis." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Kimberly Cole</b> presents <a href="http://education.cardhub.com/new-to-credit-guide/">New To Credit Guide</a> posted at <a href="http://www.cardhub.com">Credit Card Hub</a>, saying, "Hey John, I hope all is well! I think your readers will really enjoy my submission because it will educate those who are new to credit by answering frequently asked questions and by making them more aware of certain pitfalls so they can start building their credit and become financially independent." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Thursday Bram</b> presents <a href="http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/money/article/the-dropping-cost-of-entrepreneurship-thursday-bram">The Dropping Cost of Entrepreneurship</a> posted at <a href="http://www.openforum.com">OPEN Forum</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Thursday Bram</b> presents <a href="https://getcurrency.com/blog/are-you-a-cheapskate-or-just-frugal">Are You a Cheapskate, or Just Frugal?</a> posted at <a href="https://getcurrency.com">Currency</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Steve Zussino</b> presents <a href="http://www.groceryalerts.ca/reasons-to-not-spend-money-on-gift-cards">Reasons to not spend money on gift cards</a> posted at <a href="http://www.groceryalerts.ca">Grocery Deals in Canada</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Michael Pruser</b> presents <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/credit-cards/chase-freedom-visa-100-cash-back-credit-card-bonus/">Chase Freedom® Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doughroller.net">The Dough Roller</a>, saying, "Chase has reduced the spend amount required to earn the $100 cash bonus, making this our favorite credit card." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Michael</b> presents <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/the-best-small-business-credit-cards/">The Best Small Business Credit Cards, December 2010</a> posted at <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com">Consumerism Commentary</a>, saying, "Any small business in need of credit might want to consider a small business credit card." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/year-end-tax-planning-services/">Why You Should Seek Year-End Tax Planning Services</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com">Prime Time Money</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Robert Moore</b> presents <a href="http://2011tax.org/2010/12/10/tips-on-inheritance-planning/">Tips On Inheritance Planning</a> posted at <a href="http://2011tax.org">2011 Tax</a>, saying, "Arranging for a bequest is a chief way to be responsible with your new found money." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Boomer</b> presents <a href="http://www.boomerandecho.com/2010/10/retirement-income/">Retirement Income | Boomer & Echo</a> posted at <a href="http://www.boomerandecho.com">Boomer & Echo</a>, saying, "You see, I was a late starter. Like most young people of my generation who listened to song lyrics that stated, “hope I die before I get old”" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2010/12/qualified-dividends/">Qualified Dividends</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "Qualified dividends are currently a subject of frequent discussion in the national news media, especially in relation to the future status of US federal government tax cuts." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/citi-rewards-thankyou-premier-thankyou-preferred/">New Citibank ThankYou Rewards Cards: Premier vs Preferred</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Citi has revamped their reward credit card offerings by rolling out two new cards – the Citi ThankYou Premier and the Citi ThankYou Preferred." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2008/03/31/yet-another-tax-humor-piece-interactive-taxes/">Yet Another Tax Humor Piece: Interactive Taxes</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Neal Frankle</b> presents <a href="http://wealthpilgrim.com/3-weekend-jobs-that-pay-50-an-hour/">3 Weekend Jobs that Pay $50 an Hour</a> posted at <a href="http://wealthpilgrim.com">Wealth Pilgrim: Money Management Advice, Financial Stess Management, Addiction Recovery Plan & Resources</a>, saying, "If you want to earn some extra serious cabbage and don’t have a lot of time to do it, I have 3 ideas you’ll be interested in learning more about." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Kimberly Cole</b> presents <a href="http://education.cardhub.com/how-to-get-a-higher-credit-limit/">How to Get a Higher Credit Limit</a> posted at <a href="http://www.cardhub.com">Credit Card Hub</a>, saying, "Hey John, I hope all is well! I think your readers will really enjoy my submission this week because it answers a frequently asked question concerning credit cards. There are a number of factors that can affect your credit line, and depending on your situation, there are a few steps you can take to try to raise it." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Andrea</b> presents <a href="http://savingsscoop.com/road-financial-freedom">The Road to Financial Freedom</a> posted at <a href="http://savingsscoop.com">Savings Scoop</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2010/12/18/office-party-haiku/">Holiday Office Party Haiku</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Cerise</b> presents <a href="http://www.money-on-line.org/2010/12/effortless-web-cash-formula-review.html">Effortless Web- Cash Formula Review</a> posted at <a href="http://www.money-on-line.org/">Ways to make the little extra online</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/buy-gas-cards-or-discount-stations/">Best Way To Buy Gas ? Gas Credit Cards or Discount Stations?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Figuring out how you can score the cheapest gas can get complicated." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Highest CD Rates</b> presents <a href="http://www.highestcdratesinfo.com/what-is-a-jumbo-cd/">What is a Jumbo CD?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.highestcdratesinfo.com">Highest CD Rates Info</a>, saying, "A jumbo CD can be a safe place to store a sum of money and earn some interest while you are at it." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2010/12/27/greedy-limerick-2/">Limerick Ode To Greed</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2010/12/kellogg%E2%80%99s-consistent-dividend-k/">Kellogg’s Consistent Dividend</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "Kellogg’s stock pays a dividend of $1.62 which equates to a dividend yield of 3.20%. This yield is slightly higher than the historical yield of 2.60%" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ramsay</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2010/12/supplemental-income-ideas-for-2011/">Supplemental Income Ideas For 2011</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "The idea of earning more implies that you are truly taking charge of your income – and taking responsibility for actively improving your financial situation." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/chase-freedom-offering-150-signup-version/">Chase Freedom - Comparing The Versions</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Chase has a few versions of the Freedom card available. In situations like this, we like to put together tables to make your life easier!" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2011/01/05/cancelled-wedding-lawsuit/">Wedded Bliss Interruptus</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Jessica Bosari</b> presents <a href="http://billeater.com/tips/resolved-organize-your-finances-how-make-it-work">Resolved to Organize your Finances? How to Make it Work | billeater.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.billeater.com">Billeater</a>, saying, "How to stick to your financial resolution of getting organized." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/card-with-0-balance-transfer-and-no-transfer-fee/">Finally, a Card With a 0% Balance Transfer APR & No Transfer Fee</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "When it comes to balance transfer credit cards, you usually can’t have your cake and eat it too. But Discover has now come awfully close." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2011/01/find-a-stock-broker-to-meet-your-needs/">Find A Stock Broker To Meet Your Needs</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "Look for a broker that meshes perfectly with your investment strategy and goals. One of the best ways to find the right broker is by comparing their services and making sure that they are in line with your financial goals." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2010/12/how-to-increase-your-salary/">How To Increase Your Salary</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "If you have worked hard, improved the business, demonstrated value and helped your coworkers then you are ready to ask for a raise. But what if the boss says no?" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/the-ten-best-part-time-jobs-with-benefits/">The Ten Best Part-Time Jobs With Benefits</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com">Prime Time Money</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Craig/FFB</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2010/12/lending-club-peer-to-peer-lending-for-investors-and-borrowers-review.html">Lending Club Peer to Peer Lending for Investors and Borrowers – Review</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "Lending Club offers up an alternative to traditional stock investing where lenders pool funds to invest on borrowers notes." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Mark De Pecol</b> presents <a href="http://www.realty-capital.us/3/post/2011/01/mainphpmaking-money-investing-in-land1.html">Making money investing in land.</a> posted at <a href="http://www.realty-capital.us/blog.html">Realty Capital LLC Land Experts</a>, saying, "Make a fortune investing in land" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ray A Johnson</b> presents <a href="http://www.thedebtcrisis.net/2011/01/13/understanding-our-economy/">Understanding Our Economy</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thedebtcrisis.net">The Debt Crisis</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Craig/FFB</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2011/01/free-online-checking-accounts.html">Free Online Checking Accounts</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "With the fees that traditional banks have been adding to checking accounts lately, we need an alternative. Check out some free online checking accounts and the benefits they provide." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/capital-one-credit-cards/">Capital One Credit Cards: Which is Right for You?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Capital One is one of the largest credit card issuers in the US, so it stands to reason that they offer a little something for everyone." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2011/01/start-your-own-freelancing-business/">Start Your Own Freelancing Business</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "A freelancer performs work for individual clients on an as-needed basis. Although many freelancers accrue long-term clients and projects, the bread and butter of any freelancer is the once-off project." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/discount-brokers-vs-mutual-fund-companies/">Discount Brokers vs. Mutual Fund Companies</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com">Prime Time Money</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Hank</b> presents <a href="http://moneyqanda.com/benefits-drawbacks-money-market-funds/">Benefits And Drawbacks Of Money Market Funds</a> posted at <a href="http://moneyqanda.com">Money Q&A</a>, saying, "Understanding the benefits and potential downfalls of money market funds." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Robert Alan</b> presents <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com/balancetransfer/creditcards.html">Top Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers</a> posted at <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com">Credit Card Assist</a>, saying, "Often villified, but totally understood, some of the top balance transfer credit cards, offer 0% interest for up to 24 months right now. Card issuers are being more aggressive than ever about the length of their introductory offers." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Craig/FFB</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2011/01/turbotax-online-tax-preparation-software-2010-review.html">TurboTax Online Tax Software 2010 Review</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "TurboTax proves they are the industry standard in tax preparation software. See how TurboTax can benefit you." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/nerdwallets-best-rewards-credit-cards/">NerdWallet's Best Rewards Card Roundup, Winter 2011 Edition</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "At NerdWallet, we don’t believe that credit cards are one-size-fits-all. Even if a credit card advertises big rewards rates, signup bonuses, and bonus categories, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to take advantage of them." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Saymour Hodge</b> presents <a href="http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/frugal-car-shopping-tips.html">How To Be Frugal: Frugal Car Shopping Tips</a> posted at <a href="http://allthingsfrugal.com/">All Things Frugal</a>, saying, "Shopping for a car can be an anxiety-inducing experience. It’s a major expense and a purchase most people usually only make once every handful of years. The goal in shopping for a car is to walk away feeling good about your purchase. Follow these tips to achieve that goal" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Craig/FFB</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2011/01/the-best-travel-rewards-credit-cards.html">The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "Finding the best credit card to fit your particular traveling needs is a great way to maximize your credit card and your spending. You can earn airline miles, hotel bonuses, flight bonuses, as well as rewards points and more." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/continental-united50000-mile-credit-card/">Continental 50,000 Mile Credit Card Sign Up Bonus (United Too!)</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Continental and United are merging their mile programs at the end of 2011, as part of their recent merger, so users of both mile programs should take note of this huge sign up bonus offer." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2011/01/6-actionable-ways-to-make-extra-money-using-your-writing-skills/">6 Actionable Ways To Make Extra Money Using Your Writing Skills</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "There are ways that you can build up your bottom line using your writing skills." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Warren Stephen</b> presents <a href="http://www.fastpaydaycashadvanceloans.com/blog/payday-loans/does-a-401k-distribution-count-as-income-for-a-payday-loan-2/">Does a 401K Distribution Count as Income for a Payday Loan?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.fastpaydaycashadvanceloans.com/blog">FastPaydayCashAdvanceLoans.com - Payday Cash Advance Resources</a>, saying, "The main thing that payday loan lenders care about is your ability to repay the money they loan to you. You can borrow as much as $1500 from a lender but they will not give you a dime if they do not think you will be able to pay it back." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>David de Souza</b> presents <a href="http://www.taxfix.co.uk/forum/articles/record-numbers-of-people-submit-tax-return-online.html">Record numbers of people submit tax return online</a> posted at <a href="http://www.taxfix.co.uk">Tax Return Blog</a>, saying, "Guide to submitting a tax return online and avoiding the penalty for filing your tax return late" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Jessica Bosari</b> presents <a href="http://billeater.com/tips/credit-repair-after-divorce">Credit Repair after Divorce | billeater.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.billeater.com">Billeater</a>, saying, "Rebuilding your credit after divorce." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Judith Leeson</b> presents <a href="http://www.lawdegree.net/lending-money-to-friends-heres-what-you-should-know/">Lending Money to Friends? Here’s what you should know!</a> posted at <a href="http://www.lawdegree.net">Law Degree</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ophelia Pierce</b> presents <a href="http://www.onlinebusinesseducation.net/how-to-save-money-through-simple-changes/">How to Save Money through Simple Changes</a> posted at <a href="http://www.onlinebusinesseducation.net">Online Business Education</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Lee Phillips</b> presents <a href="http://www.llcwizard.com/blog">LLC Formation | How to Form an LLC | Forming an LLC | LLC Forms Blog</a> posted at <a href="http://www.llcwizard.com">LLC Wizard</a>, saying, "Your LLC is a business vehicle. It should get you asset protection, tax benefits, and business protection. You get your articles of organization filed (some people call the operating agreement an “LLC company agreement”), and technically you have an LLC." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Brian @ BeBetterNow</b> presents <a href="http://www.bebetternow.org/money-spend-less-than-you-earn/">Money?s Golden Rule: Spend Less Than You Earn</a> posted at <a href="http://www.bebetternow.org">Be Better Now</a>, saying, "Thank you for your consideration" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Patty Pedersen</b> presents <a href="http://www.alphaprofit.com/Money/Best-Oil-ETFs-Looking-Beyond-Energy-Select-SPDR-XLE-1.html">Best Oil ETFs: Looking Beyond Energy Select SPDR XLE</a> posted at <a href="http://www.alphaprofit.com/investing-blog-investment-stocks-money.html">AlphaProfit MoneyMatters - Investing Blog</a>, saying, "Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF wins the contest among oil ETFs when it comes to popularity. This ETF however wasn’t the best performing ETF in this category in 2010. This article analyzes different energy ETFs and explains why energy service and natural gas ETFs have the potential to be top performers in 2011." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>CreditCardGuru</b> presents <a href="http://creditcardforum.com/blog/chase-ultimate-rewards-mall/">Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall</a> posted at <a href="http://creditcardforum.com/blog">credit card forum [the blog]</a>, saying, "An in-depth look at the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and how to get the most bang for your buck when using it." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Aussie Investor</b> presents <a href="http://australian-investing.blogspot.com/2011/01/investing-in-shares-or-property-which.html">Investing In Shares Or Property - Which Is Better?</a> posted at <a href="http://australian-investing.blogspot.com/">Australian Investing</a>, saying, "This is a question which can almost cause good friends to come to blows. It seems that investing in residential property is such an emotional issue for some people. Well to add fuel to the fire I found the results of a study published last year found that investing in shares produced a better after tax return than investing in property." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Jeffrey Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/2011/01/discover-no-fee-balance-transfer-24-month-credit-cards/">Discover No Fee Balance Transfer & 24 Month 0% Credit Cards</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "A comparison of two limited time credit card offers from Discover aimed at consumers looking to save money via balance transfers." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>MoneyNing</b> presents <a href="http://moneyning.com/money-management/what-would-you-do-with-a-million-dollars/">What Would You Do with a Million Dollars?</a> posted at <a href="http://moneyning.com">Money Ning</a>, saying, "I know what I would do with a million dollars. How about you?" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Joe Morgan</b> presents <a href="http://simpledebtfreefinance.com/is-gen-y-irresponsible-or-is-it-a-matter-of-perspective/">Is Gen Y Irresponsible, Or Is It A Matter Of Perspective?</a> posted at <a href="http://simpledebtfreefinance.com">Simple Debt-Free Finance</a>, saying, "Is Generation Y really just a bunch of selfish, entitled ne're do wells, or is it a generational misunderstanding?" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Nesher</b> presents <a href="http://internet-traders.blogspot.com/2011/02/coffee-commodity-trading-basics.html">Coffee Commodity Trading Basics</a> posted at <a href="http://internet-traders.blogspot.com/">Internet Stock Trading for Beginners</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ryan Hudson</b> presents <a href="http://bestcreditcardsiq.com/stay-out-of-credit-card-debt/">10 Terrific Tips to Help You Stay Out of Credit Card Debt</a> posted at <a href="http://bestcreditcardsiq.com">Best Credit Cards IQ</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>CreditShout Kevin</b> presents <a href="http://creditshout.com/how-accurate-are-non-fico-credit-scores/">How Accurate Are Non-FICO Credit Scores?</a> posted at <a href="http://creditshout.com">CreditShout</a>. </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Judy Blackburn</b> presents <a href="http://debt-consolidation-2u.com/2011/02/eliminating-debt-understanding-your-options/">Eliminating Debt: Understanding Your Options</a> posted at <a href="http://debt-consolidation-2u.com">Debt Consolidation</a>, saying, "Becoming financially independent requires the elimination of all bad debt and thus an improvement in invest-able income." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Craig/FFB</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2011/02/irs-tax-filing-date-changed-to-february-14-for-some-tax-filers.html">Love and Taxes – Tax Filing Date Changed to February 14 For Some Tax Filers</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "For some who file one of three particular IRS claims on their taxes, the first day to file your taxes is delayed. See if this affects you." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2011/02/save-up-for-college-by-earning-extra-money/">Save Up For College By Earning Extra Money</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "Whether you plan to foot the entire bill, or whether you plan to just help out in some specific areas, chances are that you will need to save up some money to help pay for kids’ college" </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/best-travel-rewards-credit-cards/">The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com">Prime Time Money</a>, saying, "PT Money walks you through which credit cards offer the best travel rewards." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Robert Moore</b> presents <a href="http://2011tax.org/2011/02/05/best-use-of-the-tax-refund/">Best Use of the Tax Refund</a> posted at <a href="http://2011tax.org">2011 Tax</a>, saying, "Spending your tax refund wisely starts with planning ahead." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Arjun Rudra</b> presents <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/equities/on-a-quest-to-turn-3000-into-100000-with-trader-mark-li-dms/">On A Quest To Turn $3000 Into $100000 With Trader Mark Li, DMS</a> posted at <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com">Investing Thesis</a>, saying, "An interview with a equity and currency trader attempting to turn $3000 Into $100000." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>BankMan</b> presents <a href="http://highyieldsavingsaccounts.net/simplify-you-banking-and-financial-needs/">Simplify You Banking and Financial Needs</a> posted at <a href="http://highyieldsavingsaccounts.net">High Yield Savings Accounts</a>, saying, "Simplifying your finances can go a long way toward making your life easier and reducing your financial stress. Find out the benefits of consolidating your financial accounts." </p> <!-- Carnival Submission --> <p> <b>Ryan @ MFN</b> presents <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com/thrift-savings-plan-tax-exempt-contributions-and-withdrawals/">Understanding Tax Exempt Contributions and Withdrawals to the TSP</a> posted at <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com">The Military Wallet</a>, saying, "The Thrift Savings Plan (Govt. version of a 401k) allows military members to make tax exempt contributions when they are deployed to tax free combat zones." </p> <!-- EDIT THIS: the conclusion begins with this paragraph: --> <p>That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of <b>financial independence</b> using our <a target="_blank" title="Submit an entry to “financial independence”" href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_10481.html">carnival submission form</a>. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our <a target="_blank" title="Blog Carnival index for “financial independence”" href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_10481.html"> blog carnival index page</a>.</p> <!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"> <a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=blogcarnival" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a> <span class="addthis_separator">|</span> <a class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a class="addthis_button_myspace"></a> <a class="addthis_button_google"></a> <a class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=blogcarnival"></script> <!-- AddThis Button END --> <p> Technorati tags: <!-- add your technorati tags here! --> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/blog+carnival" rel="tag">blog carnival</a>. </p> <div style="clear: right"></div> </div> ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-43503944728945073402011-02-01T08:02:00.001+11:002011-02-01T08:02:50.248+11:00Taking control of your finances<p> </p> <p>It is a good time now to start to take control of your finances. We are after all all worried about <a href="<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">" target="_blank">money</a> and if the news are true we continue to borrow more and more.</p> <p>In order to avoid financial disaster, it is important to take control of your finances. The following 3 points will give you a good start towards taking control of your finances and achieving your financial objectives.</p> <ol> <li><strong><em>Have a plan</em></strong><br><br>It is important to have a plan in order to achieve your financial objectives. Just like any project you may be part of at work, if you don’t plan you are more likely to fail.<br><br>Make a plan for your personal finances, have achievable milestones along the way to help you to stay motivated and keep your eye on achieving your objective.<br><br>It helps you to stay motivated and the achievable milestones, if you achieve them, will slowly take you closer to achieving your financial objectives.<br></li> <li><strong><em>Cut discretionary income as much as possible<br></em></strong><br>With personal finances it is easy to get carried away and spend a little more. Little expenses done often add up to an incredible amount.<br><br>A working person who eats out every day is likely to spend about $100 every week on lunch alone.<br><br>Watch every little expense and cut as much as possible. It will help you to stay on track towards achieving your financial objectives.<br></li> <li><strong><em>Keep track of your expenses<br></em></strong><br>It is very little to loose track of where your <a href="<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">" target="_blank">money</a> is going. Little expenses that you don’t pay too much attention to are likely to be dragging you down.<br><br>The best way to keep track of your expenses is by having a budget, following it and keeping it up to date with the latest expenses, no matter how little they are.<br><br>After a while it is actually enjoyable to take control of your expenses, get rid of debt and invest your cash.<br><br>It feels much much better than being caught up in large monthly credit card or other unnecessary bills.</li></ol> <p><strong><em>Related links</em></strong></p> <p><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-create-budget-and-stick-to-it.html" target="_blank">How to create a budget and stick to it</a></p> <p><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-20-personal-finance-tips.html" target="_blank">Top 20 personal finance tips</a></p> <p><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-make-some-extra-money.html" target="_blank">How to make some extra cash</a></p> ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-78641002157178694452010-12-07T17:00:00.001+11:002010-12-07T17:29:18.623+11:00Five tips for a healthier life style and money in the bankLately, I have been thinking about mine and my family’s eating habits. I have come to realise that our lifestyle is making us unhealthy and costing us a lot of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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I should have realised this sooner but better late than never.<br />
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For the past 2 years I have put on a bit of weight and so did other members of my family. If I look at our lifestyle critically, it is very clear that we are sedentary people who like to stay indoors. The kids are a little different, they have lots of energy and are always running around.Whilst they eat a lot, and boy they don’t stop eating, because they are always active doing something they don’t put on a lot of weight. Having said that, if they continue with the habit of eating a lot and they change their lifestyle as they get older, they will certainly put on a lot of weight very quickly.<br />
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So I researched the web and came up with 5 tips for a healthier lifestyle and, at the same time, to save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> as you go.<br />
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<b>1 – Eat at home</b><br />
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This one is a bit obvious, as life is very busy and we have less and less time to cook at home we have a tendency to stop by the fast food shop and get a quick bite. As a matter of fact, for the past two years, we have eaten out almost every Sunday. If the average cost of the Sunday take out is $20 and we ate out, say 40 out of 52 weeks of the year, in 2 years we have spent $1600 (that’s 80 times $20).<br />
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Wow that hurts even to write it down.<br />
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If we stop, or at least reduce the amount of Sunday’s take out, we can not only save <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> but also get healthier. This is because the take outs are full of fat. All of the fat is transformed into energy which is never burnt, because of the sedentary lifestyle, and tuned into fat. That simple!<br />
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<b>2 – Change your shopping list</b><br />
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Children are amazing, we love them to bits and always want to do something nice for them. That includes buying things in the supermarket that they like. Ice creams, chocolates and many other things.<br />
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You know, the funny thing is that we are eating those things with the children. We often catch ourselves eating the children’s ice cream once they have gone to bed.<br />
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That is really bad. The answer is obviously, stop eating that stuff and buy only the amount that kids will eat in one go. Perhaps give them to the kids as a treat only on the groceries day. This should help us to stop eating them and to reduce the amount of unhealthy things the kids eat.<br />
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On the other hand, if we reduce the amount of packaged food that we buy we can also save lots of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on the way. It is important to note that these packaged sweet things we buy for the kids are not only unhealthy but also very expensive. So there is an opportunity to save <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> by buying different treats that are healthier and cheaper.<br />
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<b>3 – Stop dieting</b><br />
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Are you spending your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on expensive shakes or dieting programs? If you are then I encourage you to take a look at their effectiveness. Are they really working?<br />
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These diet programs often encourage you to eat healthier in order to <i>help</i> the effectiveness of the program. If you put in practice the first two tips it is likely that you can ditch the diet, save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> and continue to loose weight.<br />
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<b>4 – Stop going to the gym.</b><br />
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Gym is very, very expensive. Not to mention that many people have gym membership but don’t go to the gym as often as they should.<br />
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For about two years my wife and I had a gym membership that was only used about once or twice a month. As we got towards the end of the second year of our membership we decided to stop and replace it we walking three times a week (that was before we had kids).<br />
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We saved a lot of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> and lost more weight because we were walking more often than before.<br />
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The gym was a waste of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> and was not delivering the expected results. Having said that, if you use your gym as often as you should, it can be a great tools to help you to get fit, loose weight and live a healthier life style. The trick is in taking a critical look at how often you use your gym and evaluate that against the membership cost and the results you are getting.<br />
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<b>5 – Quit bad habits</b><br />
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We are living today in a very stressful world. Credit cad debts, the threat of unemployment, financial crises, unemployment for some of us and, if you are in Australia, the increase in interest rates and the cost of living.<br />
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As a result of all of those stresses, we may have some habits to help us to relax. they may be smoking, drinking or any other form of activity to take our minds out of those things that stress or upset us.<br />
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Trying to deal with some situations once and for all will not only help us so solve our problems but will also save us lots of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. Cigarettes and alcoholic beverages are very expensive and could be costing you thousands of dollars every year. not to mention that they don’t actually help you to solve the problems you are trying to solve.<br />
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<b>In conclusion</b><br />
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Taking a critical look at your financial situation and habits is the first step for a a better life style and some extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> in the bank. It doesn’t take long for you to review your shopping list, or to calculate how often you spend on take outs.<br />
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Give it a go, you may get a pleasant surprise.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:1fb0ecc6-c94f-4940-9378-27252a2deb69" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health" rel="tag">health</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-3316263721093257652010-12-06T17:00:00.002+11:002010-12-06T17:00:01.073+11:00Financial Independence Compilation, make money blogging and passive income opportunities<div><div style="float: right;"><script src="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/logolink_40858.js" type="text/javascript">
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Welcome to the December 6, 2010 edition of financial independence. <br />
<b>Your Financial Independence Articles</b><br />
<h5><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-money-blogging-diaries-of.html"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470616342&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Making money blogging: diaries of a beginner blogger entry 2–should I give up?</a> - <span style="font-weight: normal;">Back in September 10 I posted an entry entitled </span><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/09/blogging-diaries-from-beginner-blogger.html"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Diaries from a beginner blogger entry 1</span></a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. In that post I explained why I started this blog and, in summary, what I wanted to achieve.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Just to recap, I made the f</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ollowing points…</span></h5><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/12/passive-income-opportunities.html"><b>Passive income opportunities</b></a> - This post is a bit of dummy spit from me. Not a nice start, I apologise for that. I get very annoyed by the main stream financial advice available in personal finances magazine or even on TV. The main advice you get from the experts is to cur your expenses,save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a>, put it into your superannuation, or 401K if you are in the USA and have an emergency fund.<br />
Whilst they are not wrong I believe they are missing the point. Think about the following scenario…<br />
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<b><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-ten-savings-tips.html">Top ten saving tips</a> - </b>Want to save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a> but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps you are have already gone through the process of cutting your expenses but it has not been enough?<br />
Whatever your circumstances, I have compiled ten easy ways save on your daily expenses.<br />
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<b>Reader’s Articles</b><br />
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<b>Rich D</b> presents <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/college/penny-stocks/where-to-buy-penny-stocks.html">Where to Buy Penny Stocks</a> posted at <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/">Stock Tips</a>, saying, "Buying penny stocks can be confusing for many investors. Learn how and where to buy penny stocks and what to look for when choosing which penny stocks to buy."<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0981893546&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Pinyo</b> presents <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/3985/how-to-protect-yourself-from-debit-card-overdrafts-ttolar/">How to Protect Yourself from Debit Card Overdrafts</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/">Moolanomy</a>.<br />
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<b>Colin Robertson</b> presents <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutcreditcards.com/what-credit-score-do-you-start-with/">What Credit Score Do You Start With?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutcreditcards.com/">The Truth About Credit Cards.com</a>, saying, "If your one account is in good standing, meaning you’ve made payments regularly and kept the balance low (credit utilization), you should have a good credit score."<br />
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<b>BC Russell</b> presents <a href="http://www.carefulcash.com/free-mlm-leads/">Free MLM Leads</a> posted at <a href="http://www.carefulcash.com/">Internet Marketing... while being careful with your cash.</a>, saying, "That can’t be a real offer, can it? Well sort of. Here are 3 ways you can generate MLM leads free, if you understand the downsides."<br />
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<b>Everything Finance</b> presents <a href="http://freesmallbusinessresource.com/how-to-manage-customer-reviews-online">How to Manage Customer Reviews Online</a> posted at <a href="http://freesmallbusinessresource.com/">Small Business Resource</a>, saying, "For small business owners, word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective ways to draw new customers."<br />
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<b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/rewards-showdown-chase-sapphire-vs-capital-one-venture/">Rewards Showdown - Chase Sapphire vs Capital One Venture</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "The Chase Sapphire and the Capital One Venture Rewards cards seem pretty similar, and even their signup bonuses and rewards programs overlap. But when you really look at the numbers, some glaring differences appear."<br />
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<b>Madeleine Begun Kane</b> presents <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2010/11/30/travel-marriage-humor/">Trippy Limerick</a> posted at <a href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog">Mad Kane's Humor Blog</a>.<br />
<br />
<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470769262&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Thursday Bram</b> presents <a href="https://getcurrency.com/blog/doing-what-you-love-and-deciding-never-to-retire">Doing What You Love, and Deciding Never to Retire</a> posted at <a href="https://getcurrency.com/">Currency</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Thursday Bram</b> presents <a href="https://getcurrency.com/blog/how-much-should-you-spend-on-having-fun">How Much Should You Spend On Having Fun?</a> posted at <a href="https://getcurrency.com/">Currency</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Jeff Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/discover-more-card-review/">Discover More Card Review Who Benefits with this Credit Card</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "The Discover More card is a good credit card for people who want good customer service and fair treatment."<br />
<br />
<b>Chizoba Morah</b> presents <a href="http://www.coursesathome.org/blog/your-personal-finance-journey/">Your Personal Finance Journey | Information Gallery</a> posted at <a href="http://www.coursesathome.org/blog">Information Gallery</a>.<br />
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<b>Chizoba Morah</b> presents <a href="http://www.dollarsinline.com/Blog/?p=235">Tips for Taxpayers Who Owe Money to the IRS | Bookkeeping Tips</a> posted at <a href="http://blog.dollarsinline.com/">Bookkeeping Tips</a>.<br />
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<b>Barb Friedberg</b> presents <a href="http://barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com/how-to-prepare-for-the-coming-inflation/">How to Prepare for the Coming Inflation</a> posted at <a href="http://barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com/">Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance</a>, saying, "Get ready to fight inflation with these tips. Your shopping trips are going to cost more soon!"<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Faber</b> presents <a href="http://www.lucky-lotto-numbers.com/how-to-win-the-lottery/how-to-use-the-law-of-attraction-to-win-the-lottery.php">How to Use the Law of Attraction to Win the Lottery | lucky-lotto-numbers.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.lucky-lotto-numbers.com/">Lucky Lotto Numbers</a>, saying, "Thousands of people ask this question every day. Have any of them really thought about how this could happen? Apparently not! Here is what they're missing, and it's as plain as the nose on Cyrano's face."<br />
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<b>BWL</b> presents <a href="http://christianpf.com/save-money-christmas-shopping/">8 Ways To Save Money On Your Christmas Shopping</a> posted at <a href="http://christianpf.com/">Christian Personal Finance</a>, saying, "This article looks at 8 simple ways you can save money on your christmas shopping this year..."<br />
<br />
<b>Michael Pruser</b> presents <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/investing/understanding-the-value-of-a-good-pe-ratio/">Understanding the Value of a Good P/E Ratio</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/">The Dough Roller</a>, saying, "Knowing the value of a good P/E ratio could be the edge you need in the stock market."<br />
<br />
<b>Michael</b> presents <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/sony-card-from-capital-one-50-gift-card/">Sony Card From Capital One $50 Gift Card</a> posted at <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/">Consumerism Commentary</a>, saying, "A credit card for anyone loyal to the Sony brand, or who has a big electronics purchase looming."<br />
<br />
<b>Praveen</b> presents <a href="http://simple-trading-system.blogspot.com/2010/12/two-stock-ideas-netc-and-rpm.html">Two Stock Ideas: NETC and RPM</a> posted at <a href="http://simple-trading-system.blogspot.com/">My Simple Trading System</a>.<br />
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<b>Odysseas</b> presents <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/2010/11/credit-card-debt/">Five Ways You Can Turn Your Debt-inspired Frown Upside Down</a> posted at <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/">Wallet Blog</a>, saying, "I think your readers will enjoy my submission this week because it shows them that debt does not have to be such a heavy burden. Anyone can take control of their financial future by making a few lifestyle changes."<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1427796726&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>MoneyThinking</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneythinking.com/2010/12/03/holiday-hosting-on-a-budget/">Holiday Hosting on a Budget</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneythinking.com/">Money Thinking</a>, saying, "I realized the other day that I’m going to have three or four get-togethers at my house in the next month. First off, I wondered what I was thinking. Secondly, I realized that this could get really expensive! Luckily, I have experience with keeping things cheap but fun… and as always, I’m going to help you, the readers, do the same! Hosting a holiday party this year? Then check out these quick tips!"<br />
<br />
<b>freefrombroke</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2010/12/life-screwing-up-budgets.html">LIFE Has A Way Of Screwing Up Budgets</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "You try to do the right thing and make a budget. But you find that your cash flow still doesn't work out. What's happening? LIFE!"<br />
<br />
<b>Ken</b> presents <a href="http://spruceupyourfinances.com/the-tax-benefits-of-running-a-home-based-business-part-2/">How a Home-based Business Helps You Reduce Taxes Even More – Part 2: Business Losses</a> posted at <a href="http://spruceupyourfinances.com/">Spruce Up Your Finances</a>.<br />
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<b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/home-office-insurance/">Do You Need Home Office Insurance?</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com/">Prime Time Money</a>, saying, "Does your small home business need insurance?"<br />
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<b>DoubleMyNet</b> presents <a href="http://www.doublemynetworth.com/2010/buy-my-truck-for-900-per-month/">Buy My Truck For $900 Per Month</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doublemynetworth.com/">Double My Net Worth</a>, saying, "How would you like to buy a USED truck for 900 U.S. dollars a month? That's a terrific steal. Better than 1500 a month, don't you think?"<br />
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<b>Silicon Valley Blogger</b> presents <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/brokerage-account-transfer-switch-brokers/">Transferring Your Brokerage Account? Switch Brokers With Ease</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog">The Digerati Life</a>, saying, "Thank you!"<br />
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<b>Darren</b> presents <a href="http://morethanfinances.com/social-security-spouse-benefits/">Social Security Benefits for your Spouse</a> posted at <a href="http://morethanfinances.com/">MORE than Finances</a>, saying, "You may know about receiving social security benefits for yourself when you retire. But did you know that when you retire, your spouse also receives benefits?"<br />
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<b>Erin Pavlina</b> presents <a href="http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/2010/02/how-i-got-every-job-i-ever-wanted/">How I Got Every Job I Ever Wanted</a> posted at <a href="http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/">Erin Pavlina - Spiritual Wisdom for Conscious People</a>, saying, "When I was 17 my father told me I could work for him during the summer for $3.00/hour or I could go out into the “real world” and get a job that earned minimum wage, which at the time was $5/hour. I thought this was a very clever deal since he was offering me the..." <br />
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That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of <b>financial independence</b> using our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Submit an entry to “financial independence”">carnival submission form</a>. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Blog Carnival index for “financial independence”">blog carnival index page</a>.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:6104bebc-c493-4b6b-aa53-f36fb061df0e" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br />
Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Financial+independence" rel="tag">Financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">make money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/blogging" rel="tag">blogging</a></div><div style="clear: right;"></div></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-66231106484925041412010-12-03T01:00:00.001+11:002010-12-03T01:00:09.777+11:00Making money blogging: diaries of a beginner blogger entry 2–should I give up?Back in September 10 I posted an entry entitled <a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/09/blogging-diaries-from-beginner-blogger.html">Diaries from a beginner blogger entry 1</a>. In that post I explained why I started this blog and, in summary, what I wanted to achieve.<br />
Just to recap, I made the following points:<br />
<ol><li>I started this blog to learn about personal finances management.<br />
</li>
<li>Another reason that motivated me to start this blog was to learn about starting a micro online business.<br />
</li>
<li>To make some <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on the side.</li>
</ol><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470431962&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>I guess I am naive enough to keep on reading successful stories about people that are making <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> online. I say I am naive because I am probably at this point loosing motivation because of the low page hits and virtually no income at all produced by this blog. When compared to effort devoted into this site, this is a colossal waste of my time.<br />
Let’s review each point I made in the first diary entry against how I am going:<br />
<ol><li>Learning about personal finances management – I must say that each day when I post a new entry and each week when I post the personal finances compilations I learn a lot about personal finances. From this perspective researching and posting has helped me to learn and to take control of my finances.<br />
</li>
<li>To learn about starting a micro online business - This has also been very interesting. I must say that I have read a lot about online businesses, traffic generation, SEO optimisation and all the rest.<br />
<br />
With regards to optimising the business, I am still using blogger to host the site which means no expenses at all. Nevertheless I am certainly missing an opportunity to optimise the site to attract more traffic and generate more <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> because blogger does not give me many options to fully optimise the site.<br />
<br />
I often think about registering my own domain and moving my site to an independent host where I will have more control and will probably be able to increase page hits and to generate more traffic.<br />
<br />
Having said all of that I am pretty determined not to use any of my <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on it so when I have cash coming from it I will use it to pay for the domain registration and hosting costs.<br />
<br />
I am probably making a mistake, because if I do go ahead with a separate host and my own domain name I will probably make some <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> and get more traffic but I will try to <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">make money</a> from it in order to cover for those costs. <br />
<br />
<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470633956&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>I am interested in your thoughts about this. Should I cover the expenses to register the domain and the hosting because of the potential to generate more traffic and in turn more </b><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank"><b>money</b></a><b>? I would appreciate your views on this point.</b><br />
<br />
With regards to traffic, following are my monthly page views:<br />
<br />
- July: 616<br />
- August: 1514<br />
- September: 1022<br />
- October: 1655<br />
- November: 2532<br />
<br />
You can probably understand my frustration as the numbers above are quite depressing.<br />
</li>
<li>Make some <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on the site. I have only a couple of monetisation strategies on this site. AdSense and Amazon.<br />
<br />
With regards to Adsense, there are a few adds on the site. the total income from it for the past 5 months has been about $30. Again not much at all.<br />
<br />
On the amazon front I started an online shop and I often place adds on the posts. The income from them has been about $6.</li>
</ol>So the conclusion, in my opinion, is that this blog is a colossal waste of my time. Although traffic is constantly increasing, it is very low overall and I virtually make no <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> whatsoever from it.<br />
<br />
I have been thinking that I can continue to research and learn about personal finances without spending the time to publish posts on this blog and to continually think of ways to improve its layout and how the information is published.<br />
<br />
With regards to making <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>, I can certainly find a second job to boost my income in a more effective and efficient way.<br />
<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0446509361&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Considering that I have made about $36 in 5 months, If I spent about 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, then I have made about $0.03 per hour worked. That is embarrassing.<br />
<br />
Having said that I still think that if I push on with this, the potential of generating long term income is far greater than what I can get by finding a temporary second job to boost my income. <br />
<br />
In conclusion, I have learned a lot about personal finances and starting micro online business. The traffic and income produced by this blog have been depressing and as a consequence I am thinking of dedicating my time to producing income from more effective and efficient ways (I can certainly make more than 3 cents per hour if I have another job or search for other income generating sources). Nevertheless I am pretty determined to continue with this blog for a few months to see where I get to.<br />
<br />
Regardless of all of the above, I can’t help thinking that this is a colossal waste of my time and effort.<br />
<br />
Would love to know your thoughts about it! <br />
<br />
<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:12acb566-fe25-498f-a989-2b8602f8a83f" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/making+money+blogging" rel="tag">making money blogging</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/blogging" rel="tag">blogging</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/making+money" rel="tag">making money</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-50889138236632858732010-12-02T01:00:00.000+11:002010-12-02T01:00:03.352+11:00Passive income opportunitiesThis post is a bit of dummy spit from me. Not a nice start, I apologise for that. I get very annoyed by the main stream financial advice available in personal finances magazine or even on TV. The main advice you get from the experts is to cur your expenses,save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>, put it into your superannuation, or 401K if you are in the USA and have an emergency fund.<br />
<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470616342&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Whilst they are not wrong I believe they are missing the point. Think about the following scenario:<br />
<br />
A family of 4 with two children children and both working parents. They earn the average family income of about $80 000. They are trying to save as much as possible to go on holidays, to build an emergency fund<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank"></a> or to save for the children's college fund. Nevertheless with the increase in the cost of living they are finding hard to find ways to save more.<br />
<br />
As the interest rates keep on going up, in Australia anyway, they continually struggle to pay for all the bills on time and afford the mortgage payment and they are doing all that they can to keep their house.<br />
<br />
As mentioned above thy have already cur their expenses as much as possible. So what now?<br />
<br />
Their income barely meets their expenses and they have already cut as many expenses as they can. So the advice they get from the main stream media is not achievable. One of the parents can find a weekend job but the pay will not make much difference.<br />
<br />
In this case they need to make more <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>, Not through extra employment or short term solutions. they need a long term solution to increase their income so they can achieve their financial dreams.<br />
<br />
<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0071508570&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>The answer is in passive income</b>. Passive income is income earned without someone having to work for it. Once the passive income stream is setup all you need to do is sit back and watch the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> come in.<br />
<br />
It is not very easy to acquire passive income, that is why not many people have passive income sources. Nevertheless with the right education, time and persistence, anyone can have a few sources of passive income that bring in a few hundred dollars, or even thousands every month.<br />
<br />
The first step towards having passive income is learning about it. The following articles will give you an introduction of what passive income is and how to setup different streams of passive income:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/06/basic-accounting-principles-start-to.html">Basic Accounting Principles - The start to financial </a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/05/generating-passive-income.html">Generating Passive Income<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-turn-income-into-wealth.html">How to turn income into wealth</a>.<br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-10-money-tips-to-become-debt-free.html">Top ten money tips to become debt free</a></li>
<li> <h5><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-get-rich-how-do-you-generate.html"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How to get rich. How do you generate passive income?</span></a></h5></li>
<li> <h5><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/10/first-step-towards-financial-freedom.html"><span style="font-weight: normal;">First step towards financial freedom – create your personal financial statement</span></a></h5></li>
</ul><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ad620f87-5063-4f29-83b3-0eb9ca0c86c0" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/passive+income" rel="tag">passive income</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-25069916496138688592010-12-01T01:00:00.001+11:002010-12-01T01:00:02.491+11:00Top ten savings tipsWant to save your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps you are have already gone through the process of cutting your expenses but it has not been enough?<br />
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Whatever your circumstances, I have compiled ten easy ways save on your daily expenses.<br />
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1 – The first tip to me is the most important and it is key to achieving your financial goals. If you have a partner, wife or husband, make sure that both of you agree with the financial decisions you make and that you are both committed to achieving the same goal.<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=widgetsamazon-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1427796726&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>2 - Establish a budget, then set up your pay so it automatically goes into separate accounts. You can have different accounts for different purposes, home loan, savings or anything can helps you to keep your finances in control.<br />
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3 - Keep a record of all spending. This way you know where your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> is going and you can find more ways to cut your expenses. Reconcile your expenses with your budget as often as you need to keep your finances in control.<br />
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4 - Write down your goals and place this somewhere you can be always reminded of them. Commit them to memory and when you are considering spending your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> weight the expense against your goal. This can help you to keep motivated and to make decisions that you won’t regret in the future.<br />
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5 - Take 10 minutes to consider your meals for the week and plan your grocery list. It curbs 'impulse' buys and throwing away unused food!<br />
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6 – Your weekly groceries can sometimes be a bit of a surprise unless you walk around the supermarket with a calculator adding up everything that goes into the trolley. Doing your groceries online helps you stick to your budget by checking the total cost prior to purchasing.<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=widgetsamazon-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470506938&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>7 – Eating out can add up quite quickly. Have breakfast at home and bring your lunch to work. As a reward budget yourself to buy lunch once a week. I am always appalled when I have breakfast out and pay almost $20 buckets for a fried egg and a cup of coffee. No more!<br />
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8 – Never pay your bills late. Set reminders 1 month before a bill is due – this should give you time to arrange your budget and make payments on time.<br />
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9 - Work out how much you want to spend for next Christmas, open a separate account and auto deposit over the year. This way you avoid doing your Christmas shopping on credit and working half of the year to pay that off, or even longer depending on your circumstances.<br />
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10 - Don't deprive yourself completely. Factor in the odd treat, otherwise you may never stick to your budget.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:62f50fbb-ea82-437c-902b-06875ac02345" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/saving+money" rel="tag">saving money</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-11997629915819510112010-11-29T01:00:00.001+11:002010-11-29T01:00:05.694+11:00Financial independence compilation, habits of successful people, get rid of debt and make money<div><div style="float: right;"><script src="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/logolink_40750.js" type="text/javascript">
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Welcome to the November 29, 2010 edition of financial independence.<br />
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<b><i>Your Financial Independence Articles</i></b><br />
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<b><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/ten-habits-of-highly-successful-people.html"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0743269519&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Ten habits of highly successful people</a> - </b>There are many different sayings that reinforce the importance of learning from others with more experience than ourselves. This can save a lot trouble and can help us to achieve our objectives faster.<br />
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I have compiled a list of 10 habits, or qualities, of highly successful people. I honestly believe that anyone can develop these habits and progress to achieve anything in life.<br />
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Maybe I am a little naive but hey, it worked for them so it will probably work for me as well.<br />
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<b><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-make-some-extra-money.html">How to make some extra money</a> - </b>I have read quite a few articles about how to make some extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a>. There is a wide range of advice that goes from saving, to keep the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a> in your pocket, to using your credit card to <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">make money</a> through rewards.<br />
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Here are a few of my favorite tips.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/personal-finances-management-for-when.html"><b>Personal finances management for when you are broke, debt consolidation home equity loans</b></a> - It can be very difficult to budget when you are under financial stress. The following tips are aimed to us to budget when lacking a bit of cash.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/reasons-to-say-no-to-credit.html"><b>Reasons to say NO to credit</b></a> - It is very easy to get credit these days. Many credit card companies offer introductory rates that are very attractive, combine it with a culture that encourages to spend <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a> then there is potential for a personal finances disaster.<br />
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Our society seems to place value on the things we have and not who we actually are. I observe this whenever I go. People compare the cars they drive, the school the kids go to or the clothes they wear. It is ridiculous. This encourages people to purchase stuff using credit.<br />
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Here are a few reasons why you should say no to credit.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/videos-on-how-to-be-successful.html"><b>Videos on how to be successful</b></a> - The following videos provide quick and valuable tips on how to be successful.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0452295823&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Reader’s Articles</b><br />
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<b>Jason Vincion</b> presents <a href="http://www.jasonvincion.com/blog/2010/11/how-to-invest.html">How to Invest</a> posted at <a href="http://www.jasonvincion.com/blog/index.html">For the Love of Creativity</a>, saying, "A blog post that offers suggestions on how to find sound investments that accrue interest over the rate of inflation."<br />
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<b>Rosetta</b> presents <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/college/Advanced-Trading/cash-flow-notes.html">Cash Flow Notes</a> posted at <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/">Stock Tips</a>, saying, "Cash flow notes are similar to an IOU for debts that can either be purchased or sold. Get some investment tips if you wish to have smooth transactions with potential note buyers."<br />
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<b>Everything Finance</b> presents <a href="http://freesmallbusinessresource.com/the-top-3-ways-to-entertain-your-business-clients">The Top 3 Ways to Entertain your Business Clients</a> posted at <a href="http://freesmallbusinessresource.com/">Small Business Resource</a>, saying, "When it comes to business, it is vital that companies form good working relationships with their clients. Trust is invaluable to fostering a successful partnership; socialising with your contacts outside of the office environment can be a great way to build it. If your clients are based far away from you and you only have the opportunity to meet every so often, you need to make the most of this time in order to get to know each other."<br />
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<b>Silicon Valley Blogger</b> presents <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/penfed-credit-union-penfed-credit-cards-review/">PenFed Credit Union Credit Cards Review</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog">The Digerati Life</a>, saying, "Have you thought about getting a credit card from a credit union? Here's a review of cards from PenFed."<br />
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<b>Ryan @ MFN</b> presents <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com/find-unclaimed-property-money/">How to Find Unclaimed Property and Money</a> posted at <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com/">The Military Wallet</a>, saying, "Tips on how to search state records for free to find missing money, such as paychecks, tax refunds, and other money you are owed."<br />
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<b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/100-american-express-blue-sky-preferred/">Get $100 With the New American Express Blue Sky Preferred</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "American Express just rolled out a spanking new offer, introducing the Blue Sky Preferred credit card, and they’re giving away $100 to boot."<br />
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<b>Ray @ Financial Highway</b> presents <a href="http://financialhighway.com/car-maintenance-8-tips-to-cut-down-on-costs/">Car Maintenance: 8 Tips to Cut Down on Costs</a> posted at <a href="http://financialhighway.com/">Financial Highway</a>, saying, "Maintaining a car can take up a large chunk of your income, here are 8 tips to help you cut down on your expenses."<br />
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<b>Highest CD Rates</b> presents <a href="http://www.highestcdratesinfo.com/choosing-the-best-cd-for-you/">Choosing the Best CD for You</a> posted at <a href="http://www.highestcdratesinfo.com/">Highest CD Rates Info</a>, saying, "A certificate of deposit can be a low risk part of any investment portfolio."<br />
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<b>Odysseas</b> presents <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/2010/09/securing-financial-future/">‘Money is Not Easy, but It’s Simple’</a> posted at <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/">Wallet Blog</a>, saying, "Hey, taking control of you financial future takes patience, but it does not have to be complicated when you set appropriate goals and know what your priorities should be."<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0981893546&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Jeff Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/review-of-citi-platinum-select-mastercard/">Who Can and Can't Benefit from the Citi Platinum Card</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "The Citi Platinum select card is good for consumers who can benefit from low rates, but not ideal for those who pay their balances every month and could realize greater benefits with a rewards credit card."<br />
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<b>Andrea McDougal</b> presents <a href="http://mastersinprojectmanagement.com/follow-the-money12-big-public-works-projects-funded-by-us-stimulus-money/">Follow the Money:12 Big Public Works Projects Funded by US Stimulus Money</a> posted at <a href="http://mastersinprojectmanagement.com/">Masters in Project Management</a>, saying, "Big public works are being funded by US stimulus money. These things range from major road and public transportation revamping to smart grid projects throughout the country."<br />
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<b>BWL</b> presents <a href="http://christianpf.com/is-it-smart-to-borrow-money-to-invest/">Is it Smart To Borrow Money To Invest?</a> posted at <a href="http://christianpf.com/">Christian Personal Finance</a>, saying, "A look at whether or not investors should be borrowing more money to invest..."<br />
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<b>Mitch Archuleta</b> presents <a href="http://www.rothira.com/blog/roth-ira-cd-laddering/">Roth IRA CD Laddering</a> posted at <a href="http://www.rothira.com/blog/">RothIRA.com's Retirement Planning Blog</a>.<br />
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<b>Michael Pruser</b> presents <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/credit-cards/citi-50-cash-back-student-holiday-offer/">Citi $50 Cash Back Student Holiday Offer</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/">The Dough Roller</a>, saying, "thanks for the inclusion"<br />
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<b>Michael</b> presents <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/christmas-gift-ideas/">20+ Christmas Gift Ideas Under $100</a> posted at <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/">Consumerism Commentary</a>, saying, "A great list of Christmas gift ideas"<br />
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<b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/federal-income-tax-brackets/">2010 Tax Brackets: What Is My Tax Bracket?</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com/">Prime Time Money</a>, saying, "Know your brackets and know how to plan to pay fewer taxes."<br />
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<b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2010/11/a-defensive-stock-with-a-generous-yield/">A Defensive Stock With A Generous Yield</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "Value investors looking for a long term stock with a dividend that is likely to increase over the next few years should turn their attention to Lockheed Martin."<br />
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<b>Moneyedup</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/2010/11/what-about-savings-bonds/">What About Savings Bonds?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneyedup.com/">MoneyedUP</a>, saying, "These investments are perfect for everyone from infants to the elderly. Savings bonds have been around forever and are still as popular as ever."<br />
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<b>freefrombroke</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2010/11/building-credit-from-scratch-are-young-adults-doomed-for-financial-failure.html">Building Credit From Scratch – Are Young Adults Doomed for Financial Failure?</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "Do young adults have the cards stacked against them as they try to build up new credit? Temptation and student loans make it difficult for young adults to get ahead."<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0814409954&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Ryan @ CML</b> presents <a href="http://cashmoneylife.com/2010/11/23/calculate-yield-on-cost-of-dividend-stock/">How to Calculate the Yield on Cost of a Dividend Stock</a> posted at <a href="http://cashmoneylife.com/">Cash Money Life</a>, saying, "Tips on calculating the yield on cost of a dividend stock, an important indicator of how your dividend portfolio is performing."<br />
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<b>Ryan @ MFN</b> presents <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com/when-should-you-take-social-security-benefits/">When Should You Start Receiving Social Security Benefits?</a> posted at <a href="http://themilitarywallet.com/">The Military Wallet</a>, saying, "Choosing to delay receiving Social Security Benefits can increase the amount you receive. These tips can help you maximize your Social Security Benefits."<br />
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<b>Stretching the One Income Dollar</b> presents <a href="http://www.oneincomedollar.com/2010/08/10-no-money-down-ways-to-buy-real.html">Stretching the One Income Dollar: 10 No Money Down Ways to Buy Real Estate</a> posted at <a href="http://www.oneincomedollar.com/">Stretching the One Income Dollar</a>, saying, "Thank you for consideration of my article."<br />
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<b>MoneyNing</b> presents <a href="http://moneyning.com/kids-and-money/how-to-teach-your-kids-to-budget/">How To Teach Your Kids To Budget</a> posted at <a href="http://moneyning.com/">Money Ning</a>, saying, "How would you teach your kids how to budget? Do you think it's important?"<br />
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<b>Arjun Rudra</b> presents <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/interviews/investing-professionals/discussing-the-investment-case-for-kinross-gold-ktsx-with-bruce-campbell-of-campbell-lee-investment-management/">Discussing the investment case for Kinross Gold (K:TSX) with Bruce Campbell of Campbell & Lee Investment Management</a> posted at <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/">Investing Thesis</a>, saying, "While many have argued that gold will continue to outperform going forward, there are equally as many who argue against an investment in gold , including the Oracle of Omaha. While there are valid points on either side of the argument it is you who has to judge on which side of the debate you fall. Having said that, if you happen to fall on the side that calls for an investment in gold , you’ll likely enjoy the following interview."<br />
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<b>Money Crashers</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneycrashers.com/what-is-divorce-insurance-coverage/">» What Is Divorce Insurance Coverage?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneycrashers.com/">Money Crashers</a>, saying, "One of the latest products to be rolled out by the insurance industry is divorce insurance. Yes, you heard me correctly, divorce insurance. The question is, what exactly is it and should you consider it?"<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/2010/11/quick-sameday-advance.html">Quick sameday advance</a> posted at <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/">Pay Day Loans For You Today!</a>.<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/2010/11/payday-loans-online-and-how-they-work.html">Payday loans online and how they work</a> posted at <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/">Quick and easy payday loan!</a>.<br />
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That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of <b>financial independence</b> using our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Submit an entry to “financial independence”">carnival submission form</a>. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Blog Carnival index for “financial independence”">blog carnival index page</a>.<a class="addthis_button_facebook" href=""></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href=""></a><br />
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Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/habits+of+successful+people" rel="tag">habits of successful people</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">make money</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-78056798662008520522010-11-27T01:00:00.003+11:002010-11-27T01:00:07.355+11:00Videos on how to be successfulThe following videos provide quick and valuable tips on how to be successful.<br />
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<b>Stephen Covey on setting priorities video</b><br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:250fb575-2370-4558-af0d-5238f699eb60" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="8d643904-d194-49d6-aa20-282072c93540" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8LM4C1l70U&feature=related" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('8d643904-d194-49d6-aa20-282072c93540'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"328\" height=\"184\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/U8LM4C1l70U?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/U8LM4C1l70U?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"328\" height=\"184\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF43UU-_DAjNKoHBRwqENxrEJbkuy6D1PelIIqnObPwH2wm7AwiGDbCtGQhjPiyXqIZOHI45487JFEBT7Qx0qqchU8w4ZU77sER9gO1HQMdWZzJEkbEUGScopWOSWnk72YS_HY7cTGmKM/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 328px;">Setting priorities</div></div><h3> <b>Quest for success: get very clear on how you intend to live your life</b></h3><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:12c621a8-4959-43f0-9c25-6d1895af1692" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="27f8e65e-f670-47bc-9d25-d09021cb0b74" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0kKZOaUDA&NR=1" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('27f8e65e-f670-47bc-9d25-d09021cb0b74'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"324\" height=\"182\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/Rb0kKZOaUDA?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/Rb0kKZOaUDA?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"324\" height=\"182\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJVdWNQehk9tXPfts38gXK3xujr1wtZz5eYH7lTl2bRKLSYVbUqCIJ0mLllWMEuw3Zq1JFEDAnu7VrJrMKdgPjPGv5cNgvmeyMf0Ir4YEkOYPcKY6ISXh8sDCvh475R74DdtrzDloed0/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 324px;">Quest for success</div></div><br />
<b>The 4 Disciplines of Execution</b><br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:2041ff00-8eb5-403a-af9f-9d2cf4594999" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="3430eb50-4e77-4f20-a4e1-702f94bd59ae" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-r5ZrO6DU&feature=related" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('3430eb50-4e77-4f20-a4e1-702f94bd59ae'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"326\" height=\"183\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/em-r5ZrO6DU?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/em-r5ZrO6DU?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"326\" height=\"183\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWXNoMWgngw48CoGqXkUSSC75o5bEkKDiGhgtUqkGSiQcHOnVFwUP0QcZEW3kdsFualoPNIDcx4roSHyLs3BGsKf-TtdF2T87AflBfgYhjCxzFcm0Vu873s6QyDYLcADIN9Y3fjE74v8I/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div></div><br />
<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:eeaee6c0-20b1-4a27-82ca-640890678de4" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/successful+people" rel="tag">successful people</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-54260857188687692202010-11-26T01:00:00.000+11:002016-04-11T18:48:03.719+10:00Ten habits of highly successful peopleThere are many different sayings that reinforce the importance of learning from others. It can save a lot trouble and can help you to achieve your objectives faster.<br />
<br />
I have compiled a list of 10 habits, or qualities, of highly successful people.<br />
<br /><br />
<b>1. Successful people look to see opportunities where others see nothing</b><br />
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Successful people are always looking for opportunities. They don’t listen to the people that discourage them. They objectively look at every business opportunity even when others see nothing.<br />
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That does not mean that their ideas always work out. However they are willing to think outside the box and to try things out.<br />
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You may start thinking that you are just an ordinary person that doesn’t know how to think outside the box or that everyone else is more clever than you. Don’t think that way. Looking for opportunities is a skill that you should practice and learn with experience.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Look for opportunities to make extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. It can be through opening a small online business, a blog or many other ways.<br />
<br />
The following articles show you a few ideas ion how to make extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-make-money-blogging-videos.html" target="_blank">How to make money blogging videos</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/07/few-strategies-to-make-some-extra-money.html" target="_blank">A few strategies to make some extra money</a><b></b></li>
</ul>
<b>2. Successful people are solutions focused</b><br />
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Successful people are always trying to find solutions to problems. They don’t dwell on the problem, they understand it and look for ways to solve the problem.<br />
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<u><i>Personal finances application:</i></u> Do you have financial problems? Maybe you have a bit of debt that you want to get rid of or you struggle to follow your budget. Stop focusing on the problem, stop saying to yourself that you have a problem and make a list of possible solutions.<br />
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Once you have that list prioritise it and work you way through your ideas in order to find solutions to your problems.<br />
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<b>3. Successful people create their own success</b><br />
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This is key to anyone that wants to achieve anything in life. Success won’t come your way, you need to chase it, to create your own success.<br />
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What that means is that you will not wait without action to achieve your dreams. Successful people are action oriented, they look for opportunities and they take action. This way you will attract success towards you.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Define what financial success means to you and write it down. make this list your objective and work hard towards achieving it.<br />
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The following articles contain great tips on how to pursue your own success.<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/07/science-of-getting-rich-how-riches-come.html" target="_blank">The science of getting rich - how riches come to you</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/07/science-of-getting-rich-increasing-life.html" target="_blank">The science of getting rich - increasing life</a></li>
</ul>
<b>4. Successful people are fearful but they take action anyway</b><br />
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Successful people are just like you. They think about the things that can go wrong and they are fearful of them. However they are not controlled by their fears. Being brave is taking action despite fears. That is exactly what successful do.<br />
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Now, don’t go crazy on this. You need to evaluate your actions and risks involved. Look at reach potential risk and think about ways to remedy those risks if they ever evaluate. Once you do this you are ready to take action.<br />
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With a bit of planning and risk assessment you can take action despite your fears.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Are you afraid of starting your own business, maybe a blog to start with? Maybe you are afraid that your action won’t bring the results you expect.<br />
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If you have made a list of potential solutions to your financial problems (from item 2 above) then evaluate the possible outcome of each option and think about ways to remedy those risks if they ever eventuate.<br />
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Once you have done that you are ready for action.<br />
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The following article relates to risk taking when investing in shares:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/07/risks-and-benefits-of-investing-in.html">The risks and benefits of investing in shares</a></li>
</ul>
<b>5. Successful people take responsibility for their actions and outcomes</b><br />
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Successful people take responsibility for their actions. If they are responsible for the action of others such as their employees for example, they also take responsibility for those.<br />
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They don’t blame anyone else. If you want to be successful you need to take a critical look at your actions and their outcomes and take responsibility for them.<br />
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If you stop blaming you open doors to start learning. Once you say that something is your responsibility you are ready to evaluate what happened and learn from it.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Can you think of anything you have done in the pats to address your financial issues and the outcome wasn’t quite what you expected? Maybe you blamed somebody else, the world economy, the customers that didn’t buy your product of the investment that didn’t go quite right.<br />
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Look at what happened and take responsibility for the outcome. You step is t them look at what happened and learn from it.<br />
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The following article discusses the topic of taking responsibility for your personal finances:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/10-tips-for-financial-security.html" target="_blank">10 tips for financial security</a></li>
</ul>
<b>6. Successful people look for ways of maximizing their potential</b><br />
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Successful people know they shortcomings and the areas that they need to improve. They know that they are as talented as anyone else and that there is lots of potential for improvement.<br />
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If you want to be successful you need to recognize the areas that you need to improve and work on them. Successful people are always improving themselves in whatever field they are involved in.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i><b> </b>Take a critical look at your financial skills. Can you see any areas that need improvement? Maybe you want to learn more about basic accounting or real estate investment.<br />
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Focus on the fact that you know that you can address those areas and start working on it.<br />
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The following link takes you t an article about basic accounting. Anyone on the road to financial independence needs to control basic accounting principles and know how to apply them in real life.<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/06/basic-accounting-principles-start-to.html" target="_blank">Basic Accounting Principles - The start to financial</a> </li>
</ul>
<b>7. Successful people are productive </b><br />
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Successful people are always busy. They are always doing something. They don’t sit around doing nothing. They are focussed on their objectives and they work hard towards achieving it.<br />
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It is very important to live a balanced life as well. If you have a family it is important to spend time with them. Being focused and action oriented does not mean that it is the only thing you do in life. it means that when it is time for work you are doing something and working hard towards achieving your objectives.<br />
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It is important to take breaks and to live a balanced life so you can enjoy all areas of your life.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u> </i>Create a action calendar. Mark the days and the time where you will be working towards achieving your financial objectives and stick to it.<br />
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Be flexible and adapt your calendar to suit all aspects of your life including the time you spend at work and with your family.<br />
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The following article discusses the topic of taking action in order to achieve your objectives:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/08/science-of-getting-rich-efficient.html" target="_blank">The science of getting rich - efficient action</a><b></b></li>
</ul>
<b>8. Successful people develop relationships with like-minded people</b><br />
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Successful people relate to people that are like-minded and that will encourage them to achieve their objectives.<br />
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Look for people that want to achieve the same objectives as you and develop and relationship with them.<br />
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This does not mean that you will be calling a few people and then to be your friend. That would be pathetic. You can do this by looking for like minded people on the internet and read about what they do and if possible communicate with them.<br />
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This can be done by following the blogs of like minded people, following them on twitter and facebook. It may not look like you are developing relationships with them but you are. You are listening to what they have to say, you are commenting on their blogs and exchanging ideas. That is developing a relationship.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Do you want to be financially independent one day? If yes them follow me on this blog, twitter and facebook. Comment on the articles on this blog and I will make sure to reply to your comments as quickly as I can.<br />
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The following links will take you to my twitter and facebook accounts:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/ditchtheboss1" title="http://twitter.com/#!/ditchtheboss1">http://twitter.com/#!/ditchtheboss1</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/profile.php?id=100001919528590&v=wall" target="_blank">facebook</a></li>
</ul>
The following links will take you to some other blogs about personal finances. If you like what the other authors say then follow them or comment on their blog posts.<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.knsfinancial.com/" target="_blank">http://www.knsfinancial.com</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.getrichslowly.org/" title="http://www.getrichslowly.org">http://www.getrichslowly.org</a></li>
</ul>
<b>9. Successful people innovate rather than imitate</b><br />
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Successful people don’t copy what other people do, they innovate, they look for opportunities and improve on what others do.<br />
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Microsoft for example, they keep on buying other companies and they improve their software and make tons of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> by improving them.<br />
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Look for ideas of what other people have done and look for opportunities to improve or innovate what others have done.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Look for small business opportunities. Maybe you can teach someone or provide a service. Look at what other people are doing and improve on it. Innovate. You can teach using a different, improved technique or resources.<br />
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<b>10. Successful people have a clear vision for what they want for their lives and work towards achieving it.</b><br />
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If you want to achieve anything in life, the first step is knowing what you want to achieve.<br />
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Write down your dreams and objectives clearly and concisely. Then visualise them, memorise them and focus on the fact that you know that you can achieve it.<br />
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<i><u>Personal finances application:</u></i> Write down your personal finances objectives. Make that your master list, perhaps set yourself some dates and work towards achieving them.<br />
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Make the list a dynamic one that changes as you achieve your objectives or that changes as your life changes.<br />
Include long term and short term objectives and have an action plan.<br />
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The most important of it all is knowing what to achieve and to take action towards achieving your financial objectives.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:de40a3bd-eef0-4543-aa75-e5239997d6af" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">make money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/successful+people" rel="tag">successful people</a></div>
ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-8584046382073412122010-11-25T01:00:00.001+11:002010-11-25T01:00:02.276+11:00How to make some extra moneyI have read quite a few articles about how to make some extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. There is a wide range of advice that goes from saving, to keep the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> in your pocket, to using your credit card to <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">make money</a> through rewards.<br />
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Here are a few of my favorite tips.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1600377068&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Create ad supported websites or blogs</b><br />
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This can be a bit time consuming and it can take a while to give you the return you want. Nevertheless there is a lot of potential for long term, enjoyable earnings.<br />
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An easy way to start is by using the Google’s blogger site. It will take literally a few minutes to setup a blog, and then you can add a variety of monetisation strategies including <a href="http://www.google.com/adsense" target="_blank">adsense</a>, <a href="http://chitika.com/" target="_blank">chitika ads</a> and more.<br />
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<b>Sell your old stuff</b><br />
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A garage sale can put some <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> in your pocket and, at the same time, help you to get rid of your old stuff.<br />
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My neighbor does at least 2 garage sales a year and often makes more than $1000 from them.<br />
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The kids also like to join in the fun and sometimes they sell drinks for $.50c.<br />
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It is great fun!<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0977240630&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Resell items</b><br />
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Do a little research online and find which items are on demand and how much you can get by selling them online. Once you have your little list go shopping. Buy those items in garage sales or cheap shops and resell them online for a profit.<br />
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Don’t forget to including postage when you calculate how much you need to charge for your items.<br />
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<b>Offer your service to others</b><br />
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There are many people that need different types of services. Lawn mowing, pet sitting, grocery shopping and more. Try offering your services through your local paper and you can probably make a few bucks from it.<br />
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<b>Use your current job skills</b><br />
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Take what you do in your current job and consider offering the same service to others during the weekend or night time. A similar option is to teach what you know to others.<br />
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<b>Telecommute, car pooling</b><br />
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<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">Make money</a> by saving the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> you spend in gas. Speak to your employer about the possibility of telecommuting or speak to your colleagues about car pooling.<br />
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<b>Flip websites</b><br />
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If you have the technical skills then create websites with traffic and income potential and flip it. Have a look at <a href="https://flippa.com/" target="_blank">flippa.com</a> for a few ideas.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0046ZS37C&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Sell photos online</b><br />
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Anyone cam get out there in the great outdoors and take some good quality pictures. During the weekend take your camera with you, take a few pics and sell them online.<br />
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Before you go out taking the pictures do a little research online to find out the topics that are in demand. This can help you to take targeted pictures which will improve your sales potential.<br />
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<b>Take a real estate course and become a real </b><b>estate agent</b><br />
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I know this sounds a little wild but it is definitely an idea with huge earning potential. if you are a stay at home mum talk to your partner about take weekend courses on real estate selling and get yourself licensed.<br />
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Once you do that you can start an online real estate agency which has less overheads to you and therefore you charge a little les commission from your customers every time you sell.<br />
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People already do that on eBay. There is nothing preventing you from creating an online shop to sell, well to sell properties.<br />
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If you do that make sure you do your research to get yourself insured and make sure that you follow all of the required legal obligations.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:b6b7baab-98e9-465f-b6b9-90f8e5393a37" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/adsense" rel="tag">adsense</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/chitika" rel="tag">chitika</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/ebay" rel="tag">ebay</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-89893992637586587772010-11-24T01:00:00.001+11:002010-11-24T01:00:10.685+11:00Reasons to say NO to credit<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0981893546&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>It is very easy to get credit these days. Many credit card companies offer introductory rates that are very attractive, combine it with a culture that encourages to spend <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> then there is potential for a personal finances disaster.<br />
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Our society seems to place value on the things we have and not who we actually are. I observe this whenever I go. People compare the cars they drive, the school the kids go to or the clothes they wear. It is ridiculous. This encourages people to purchase stuff using credit.<br />
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Here are a few reasons why you should say no to credit.<br />
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<b>Self Control</b><br />
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Lack of self control when dealing with your finances can end up in financial disaster. Exercising self control in financial matters can help you to achieve other things in life such as weight loss or the endurance to achieve very difficult goals.<br />
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Having self control is very important because it can help us to achieve or dreams. Financial self control can help us to buy a house, to go on holidays (fully paid with cash of course) and to stay out of trouble that can come from unsecured debt.<br />
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<b>Using credit means you are not following your budget</b><br />
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Budgeting does not need to be complex. All you need is to do some simple planning and track your expenses. If you are using your credit card to finance everyday purchases then you are not following your budget.<br />
If you are using your credit card to help with your cash flow then it is likely that you are spending more than what you earn.<br />
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Get those expenses under control, find other streams of income and get your budget on the black.<br />
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Whatever you do avoid using credit to finance everyday purchases.<br />
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If you want to learn how to create a budget and stick to it then click <a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-create-budget-and-stick-to-it.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0132254581&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Credit card interest rates are very high</b><br />
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The average credit card will charge over 20% pa interest. That means that if you owe $5000 over the course of one year you will pay $1000 in interest. That is almost $100 a month just for interest. Again just for the interest.<br />
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These days $5000 in a credit card balance is low. Creditcards.com says that average credit card debt per household is $15,788. If you are paying 20% interest on that, it is an amazing $3157 per year. Imagine what you could do with all of that <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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<b>Poor financial habits can impact your personal relationships</b><br />
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<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">Money</a> is often the reason that couples fight. it is a very touchy subject especially if the couple is not working together. Budgeting for the family should be done with the family. If one person tries to enforce a budget the chances of success are very low.<br />
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<b>Using credit cards can lead to bankruptcy</b><br />
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In the worst case scenario, if you spend too much and then cannot repay it you may have to declare bankruptcy which can affect your credit rating for up to 10 years. Prevention is better than cure.<br />
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<b>Debt free brings peace of mind</b><br />
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Being in debt is very stressful. You are constantly worrying about your cash flow, making your payments and when you will be debt free,<br />
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Not having any debt brings an amazing peace of mind because you don’t have to worry about paying interest and you are in control of your cash flow. being debt free lets you worry about other things such as when you go to the beach next or how you are going to achieve your next financial objective ( not with credit please).<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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Credit card can be useful in case you are caught in a emergency situation without an emergency fund. Apart from that there are plenty of reasons for staying away from debt.<br />
<br />
If you cannot afford to buy something with cash then you cannot afford to buy it with credit, then just don’t buy it. <a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/09/credit-card-debt-how-to-avoid-it.html" target="_blank">This article provides a few tips on how to avoid credit card debt.</a><br />
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Become your own financial hero by staying away from debt.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:c12a5b23-b7e9-45ed-a728-957c505b76a6" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/credit+card" rel="tag">credit card</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/debt" rel="tag">debt</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-37946632488922591692010-11-23T01:00:00.009+11:002010-11-23T01:00:02.770+11:00Personal finances management for when you are broke, debt consolidation home equity loansIt can be very difficult to budget when you are under financial stress. The following tips are aimed to us to budget when lacking a bit of cash.<br />
<br />
<b>Avoid getting evicted</b><br />
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It is very important to address immediate issues such as rental or mortgage payments.<br />
if you are short on cash to pay for these bills then take a look at other bills you have to pay, such as electricity and mobile phone, and try to call the other companies and delay the payment of those bills in order to pay for your mortgage or rent.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0132353776&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Review your credit cards</b><br />
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Take a look at your credit cards and their due dates. A few months ago I was paying my credit card every time I got paid and I couldn’t figure out why I was short of cash before the next pay came. On top of that I couldn’t figure out why my credit card debt was not going down.<br />
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Turns out that I was putting too much cash into the credit cards and when I ran out of cash at the end of the pay period I used the credit cards again and the debt was never paid off and I was always running out of cash.<br />
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Now that was stupid. Take a look at the due dates of your credit cards and ensure that they are paid on time but, depending upon your circumstances you may be able to reschedule the dates you pay your credit cards in order to free up some cash for other obligations.<br />
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Just make sure you pay at least the minimum amount by the due date.<br />
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An couple of options to help you to pay off your credit card debt is debt consolidation and home equity loans.<br />
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With debt consolidation you can consolidate all of your unsecured debts into one payment that should be easier to afford.<br />
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If you have enough home equity you can also look at taking that equity out and use it to pay off your credit card debts. This is often a good idea because mortgage interest rates are much lower then credit card rates.<br />
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There are a few options to help you, do your research and take action.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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<b>Prioritise your bills</b><br />
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Take a look at you bills and prioritise them. Figure out which ones can be delayed to free up some cash for other obligations.<br />
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Call the companies you need to pay and negotiate with them. They prefer you talk to them and negotiate your payments rather than not paying your bills at all.<br />
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<b>Ignore the 10% savings rule for now</b><br />
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If save <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> every pay check it may be a good idea to stop that for the time being and use the cash to pay for your bills. You will have to starve your piggy bank until you get back into the black.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1427796726&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Review your recent expenses</b><br />
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Use online banking and personal finances software to review your expenses in order to find places where you can cut. Tale a thorough look and don’t forget to include expenses you incurred using your credit cards.<br />
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<b>Eliminate unnecessary expenses</b><br />
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Take a look at the list your compiled from the advice above and eliminate expenses that are not necessary.<br />
I was able to save about $80 a week when I stopped buying lunch and coffee at work and start taking lunch from home. Food from home is also probably healthier from the one you buy so there are potential health benefits there as well.<br />
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<b>Negotiate credit card interest rates</b><br />
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If you have good credit call your credit card companies and be honest with them. Say that you are struggling at the moment and try to negotiate lower interest rates for your cards. They prefer that you continue to be a customer rather than cancel your cards and transfer the balance to another company with lower rates.<br />
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<b>Monitor your progress</b><br />
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Once you adjusted your bills and create your budget then monitor your progress. If you are really concerned about you may do this on a daily basis.<br />
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Take a close look at how you are tracking and adjust your plan as you go.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1598698850&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Make more money</b><br />
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If you are short on cash then the answer is actually simple. Make more <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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Many people review their finances, try to reduce their expenses but because of excessive debt they find difficult to meet all of their obligations.<br />
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Well the answer is painfully simple. Make more <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
<br />
Get an extra job, sell some of your stuff on eBay, work overtime or even seek a higher paying job.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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I know by experience that living from pay check to pay check and juggling bills and credit card payments is very stressful. The answer is doing something about it. Take control of your finances and correct the situation.<br />
Do something about it, your finances are not going to correct themselves.<br />
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Taking small steps can be the difference between financial disaster and financial success.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:e9cd6e70-8a8c-4664-b38f-c7820b97b1a5" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/budgeting" rel="tag">budgeting</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/home+equity" rel="tag">home equity</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/debt+consolidation" rel="tag">debt consolidation</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-38766332748191488192010-11-22T01:00:00.001+11:002010-11-22T01:00:05.835+11:00Your Financial Independence Compilation, investing, personal finances and more<div><div style="float: right;"><script src="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/logolink_40563.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></div><br />
Welcome to the November 22, 2010 edition of financial independence.<br />
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<b>Your Financial Independence Articles</b><br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-make-money-blogging-videos.html" target="_blank"><b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470616342&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>How to make money blogging videos</b></a><br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-tips-for-last-minute-christmas.html" target="_blank"><b>Best tips for last minute Christmas shopping.</b></a> It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Shopping centres a decorated, Santa is around to take photos with the children, shops are playing carols and more…<br />
I do think it is a little early to have all of that. I’d prefer they started at the beginning of December. But hey, it is not about the real meaning of Christmas, it is all about <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a>. Oh, sorry about that, my cynicism is starting to show.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/few-habits-that-are-keeping-you-in-debt.html" target="_blank"><b>A few habits that are keeping you in debt.</b></a> There are certain habits that we may have that unconsciously prevent us from paying off our debt and getting ahead.<br />
Following are seven habits that may be holding us back from paying off debt and getting back into the black. Remember debt matters, it is important to get ahead in order to turbo charge you journey into financial independence.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/save-your-money-shopping-online.html" target="_blank"><b>Save you money shopping online.</b></a> Online retailers are able to offer you more discounts than the normal shop because they don’t have the overheads of paying for rent and other expenses related to having a physical building.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-turn-income-into-wealth.html" target="_blank"><b>How to turn income into wealth.</b></a> The secret to financial independence is to turn your income into wealth. In other words, in order to be wealthy you need to take what you earn and make it work for you instead of you constantly working for <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a>.<br />
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<b><i>Reader's Articles</i></b><br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0452295823&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Rosa Wilson</b> presents <a href="http://www.changeofaddress.org/blog/2010/10-ways-to-save-money-on-your-grocery-bill/">Change of Address: 10 Ways to Save Money On Your Grocery Bill</a> posted at <a href="http://www.changeofaddress.org/blog/">Change of Address</a>.<br />
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<b>Rosetta</b> presents <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/college/retirement-investing/interest-rates-for-ira.html">Interest Rates for IRA</a> posted at <a href="http://www.qwoter.com/">Stock Tips</a>, saying, "Finding the best IRA interest rates available today is a good way to protect your retirement portfolio. Learn how to calculate the interest rates for IRA to help get you better returns."<br />
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<b>debt kid</b> presents <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/are-you-too-comfortable">Are You Too Comfortable?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/">DebtKid</a>.<br />
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<b>Mark Aucamp</b> presents <a href="http://talkmoneyblog.co.uk/will-the-buy-to-let-market-damage-the-housing-market/">Will the Buy-to-let market damage the housing market?</a> posted at <a href="http://talkmoneyblog.co.uk/">Money Saving Tips, Consumer Finance, Expert, Advice and Help | Talk Money Blog</a>, saying, "Interesting view point"<br />
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<b>Sun</b> presents <a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/shopping/treasure-hunt-outing-discounts/">Treasure Hunt for Outing Discounts</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/">The Sun’s Financial Diary</a>.<br />
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<b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/walmart-moneycard-vs-western-union-moneywise-prepaid-debit-card/">WalMart MoneyCard vs Western Union MoneyWise: Prepaid Debit Card Showdown</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "You’ve probably seen the WalMart MoneyCard at your local WalMart, offered in partnership with Green Dot Financial. While it’s definitely one of the better deals out there, it’s not the best deal."<br />
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<b>FIRE Getters</b> presents <a href="http://firefinance.blogspot.com/2006/12/tools-firesafe-your-personal-finance.html">Tools - FireSafe Your Personal Finance Documents!</a> posted at <a href="http://firefinance.blogspot.com/">FIRE Finance</a>, saying, "It's a nice idea to keep our important personal finance stuff in such a way that we can grab hold of it and leave at a moment's notice. In case we cannot do so, it'd be great to have a back-up at a safe place with an easy access in case of natural calamities or unforeseen disasters ...."<br />
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<b>Steve Smith</b> presents <a href="http://forextradingsystemcentral.com/2010/11/several-reasons-why-you-should-learn-currency-trading/">Several Reasons Why You Should Learn Currency Trading</a> posted at <a href="http://forextradingsystemcentral.com/">Forex Trading System Central</a>, saying, "Trading currencies can produce income that you need to support yourself and your family in these difficult times."<br />
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<b>Cynthia Merritt</b> presents <a href="http://www.collegecrunch.org/money/10-things-college-students-should-know-about-credit-cards/">10 Things College Students Should Know About Credit Cards</a> posted at <a href="http://www.collegecrunch.org/">College Crunch</a>.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=096941949X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Jessica Bosari</b> presents <a href="http://billeater.com/tips/investing-your-retirement-it-time-get-back-game">Investing for Your Retirement: Is it Time to Get Back in the Game? | billeater.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.billeater.com/">Billeater</a>, saying, "Is it time to start investing again?"<br />
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<b>Jane Sanders</b> presents <a href="http://www.debtmanagement.net/how-to-get-debt-collectors-to-leave-you-alone/">How to Get Debt Collectors to Leave You Alone</a> posted at <a href="http://www.debtmanagement.net/">Debt Management</a>.<br />
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<b>Alexander Peter</b> presents <a href="http://utr.org.uk/do-students-need-a-utr-number.html">Do Students Need A UTR Number?</a> posted at <a href="http://utr.org.uk/">UTR.org.uk</a>, saying, "If you are self employed student you may need to apply for a UTR number to pay your taxes."<br />
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<b>Charles Chua C K</b> presents <a href="http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.com/2010/11/effective-personal-budget-for-financial.html">Effective Personal Budget for Financial Freedom</a> posted at <a href="http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.com/">All About Living with Life</a>.<br />
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<b>David de Souza</b> presents <a href="http://taxfix.co.uk/blog/?p=167">4 Things Everyone Should Know About Inheritance Tax</a> posted at <a href="http://taxfix.co.uk/blog">UK Tax Blog</a>, saying, "Guide to inheritance tax, how it works and what tax allowances you can claim"<br />
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<b>Jessica Bosari</b> presents <a href="http://billeater.com/tips/five-financial-problems-women-face-and-how-manage-them">Five Financial Problems Women Face and How to Manage Them | billeater.com</a> posted at <a href="http://www.billeater.com/">Billeater</a>, saying, "Women's financial concerns"<br />
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<b>Arjun Rudra</b> presents <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/interviews/investing-professionals/discussing-investing-in-income-producing-assets-like-bonds-and-dividend-stocks-with-benoit-poliquin-cfa-of-pallas-athena/">Discussing Investing In Income Producing Assets Like Bonds And Dividend Stocks with Benoit Poliquin, CFA of Pallas Athena</a> posted at <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/">Investing Thesis</a>, saying, "Discussing income investing using preferred shares and dividend stocks."<br />
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<b>Alex Deeds</b> presents <a href="http://www.associatedegree.com/top-50-blogs-for-yard-sale-aficionados">Top 50 Blogs for Yard Sale Aficionados</a> posted at <a href="http://www.associatedegree.com/">Associate Degree</a>, saying, "If you’re wondering what people did before eBay, the short answer is yard sales. The practice of putting ones old or unused items up for sale to the public can be found in just about every neighborhood on any weekend of the year."<br />
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<b>Stephen Kavita</b> presents <a href="http://onlineselfimprovement.blogspot.com/2010/02/personal-finance-tips-that-ensure-you.html">Personal Finance Tips That Ensure You Generate Wealth And Achieve Financial Freedom</a> posted at <a href="http://onlineselfimprovement.blogspot.com/">Self Improvement Tips</a>, saying, "Financial discipline and delayed gratification can be achieved through a system of rewards and punishments to yourself."<br />
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<b>Mike Piper</b> presents <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/international-bond-funds/">International Bond ETFs and Funds: Should You Own Them?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/">The Oblivious Investor</a>, saying, "Does it make sense for U.S. investors to own international bond ETFs or funds?"<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1592578470&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Jeff Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/2010/11/capital-one-venture-card-review-good-miles-card/">Capital One Venture Card Review</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "The Capital One Venture card is good for consumers who don't carry credit card debt from month to month, but not the best option for people who don't spend heavily and pay their bills in full every month."<br />
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<b>CreditShout Kevin</b> presents <a href="http://creditshout.com/how-to-develop-a-customized-debt-payoff-plan/">How To Develop a Customized Debt Payoff Plan</a> posted at <a href="http://creditshout.com/">CreditShout</a>.<br />
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<b>BWL</b> presents <a href="http://christianpf.com/amazon-subscribe-and-save-review/">Amazon Subscribe & Save: Save Hundreds & Automate Your Shopping</a> posted at <a href="http://christianpf.com/">Christian Personal Finance</a>, saying, "A look at a little known subscription program that can help you save money on items you buy each month and simplify your life in the process..."<br />
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<b>Robert Alan</b> presents <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com/blog/5-secrets-a-credit-card-company-would-never-reveal/">5 Secrets a Credit Card Company Would Never Reveal</a> posted at <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com/blog">Credit Cards Blog | CreditCardAssist.com</a>, saying, "Here are 5 secrets credit card companies know but wouldn’t likely reveal to it’s customers"<br />
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<b>Tom Tessin</b> presents <a href="http://www.findsecuredcards.com/blog/10-identity-theft-facts-to-know/">10 Identity Theft Facts to Know</a> posted at <a href="http://www.findsecuredcards.com/blog">FSC Blog</a>, saying, "Identity theft effects a lot of us, and you need to learn on how to fight it, as well as know how many people become a victim."<br />
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<b>Michael Pruser</b> presents <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/credit-cards/ink-bold-with-ultimate-rewards-100-bonus-cash-back/">Ink Bold℠ with Ultimate Rewards℠ – $100 Bonus Cash Back</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/">The Dough Roller</a>, saying, "thanks for the inclusion"<br />
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<b>Michael</b> presents <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/new-jersey-ranks-fourth-for-innovative-companies/">New Jersey Ranks Fourth for Innovative Companies</a> posted at <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/">Consumerism Commentary</a>, saying, "thanks for the consideration"<br />
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<b>Odysseas</b> presents <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/2010/09/improving-bad-credit/">Recovering Your Credit After the Great Recession</a> posted at <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/">Wallet Blog</a>, saying, "Hey, I think your readers will enjoy our submission this week because it shows people one main option for improving their bad credit. You are not alone if you are suffering from bad credit. Luckily, we have one solution that can help."<br />
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<b>freefrombroke</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2010/11/increase-improve-build-credit-score-without-credit-card.html">Ways To Increase and Improve Your Credit Score Without a Credit Card</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "Fixing credit card habits isn't the only way to build up your credit score. There are also a couple of ways to build credit without a credit card."<br />
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<b>Jane Chin</b> presents <a href="http://backtothenest.com/wealth-building-is-about-mastering-impulses">Wealth Building 101 » Wealth Building is about Mastering Impulses</a> posted at <a href="http://backtothenest.com/">Wealth Building 101</a>, saying, "Wealth building is one of those things where You get a lot of people telling you how you “should” do it, how they would do it, why you’re doing it wrong and you should do what they say, which of course, would be “right”."<br />
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<b>Silicon Valley Blogger</b> presents <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/american-express-delta-credit-cards-flight-miles-rewards/">American Express Delta Credit Cards For Flight & Miles Rewards</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog">The Digerati Life</a>, saying, "Here's a review of a credit card for those who travel often!"<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0976079119&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Judy Blackburn</b> presents <a href="http://debt-consolidation-2u.com/2010/11/what-sets-christian-debt-relief-apart-from-others/">What Sets Christian Debt Relief Apart From Others</a> posted at <a href="http://debt-consolidation-2u.com/">Debt Consolidation</a>, saying, "Is there a difference between Christian debt relief and the run-of-the-mill debt relief service."<br />
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<b>PT</b> presents <a href="http://ptmoney.com/2010/11/17/which-debt-to-pay-down-first/">Which Debt Do You Pay Down First?</a> posted at <a href="http://ptmoney.com/">Prime Time Money</a>.<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/2010/11/quick-same-day-advance-loans.html">Quick same day advance loans</a> posted at <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/">Quick and easy payday loan!</a>.<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/2010/11/advance-cash-loans.html">Advance cash loans</a> posted at <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/">Pay Day Loans For You Today!</a>.<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/2010/11/bad-credit-payday-loans-apply-now.html">Bad credit payday loans, apply now!</a> posted at <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/">Quick and easy payday loan!</a>. <br />
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of <b>financial independence</b> using our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Submit an entry to “financial independence”">carnival submission form</a>. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Blog Carnival index for “financial independence”">blog carnival index page</a>.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:f0f87e1c-d74d-4cba-8363-9f36e93aebad" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+advice" rel="tag">financial advice</a></div><div style="clear: right;"></div></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-54054064264880513142010-11-21T21:03:00.000+11:002010-11-21T21:03:17.172+11:00How to make money blogging videosAre you looking into blogs as a way to make some extra <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>? These video will give you a quick introduction on how to turn your blog into a stream of income.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:b8a2a09f-8d4a-47e5-b194-3f6ac6d2e872" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="af4f401f-bc59-486b-9d89-609a72f702ed" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVgrb4mMNnw" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" height="176" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('af4f401f-bc59-486b-9d89-609a72f702ed'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/qVgrb4mMNnw?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/qVgrb4mMNnw?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX4VZSdbW9R4t86BYCl8A8TgPCUKodyKfHw4IissQ42L3za1tNvJ0EwBKxcNV_ZOGdCr5dbt14aEM0h6kgdFVpDEhB3SMF5ONbT6It3HtkcbNRZrwVuO_n4mgT7YlnN33hZSxVpE4LABk/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 448px;">How to make money blogging</div></div><br />
<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:25713199-f264-4285-80dd-322ae3066c38" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="e5e4b7a3-2e94-4aa0-97b9-7ea114b0b55f" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YduUoS-pS3s" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" height="180" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('e5e4b7a3-2e94-4aa0-97b9-7ea114b0b55f'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/YduUoS-pS3s?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/YduUoS-pS3s?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vkbMyXau9RBBp6gnIo2pEH9d9nLe7ISXfMVnismB3l7jOmt_HstZTn9i3KpsDRe5AD8K_izc9ue1pn_xuDrPnAi053HhppgKEloUlCJrvljDKw87PhzPaA4bSo5OrFKG6W3irh7PzcE/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" width="320" /></a></div></div></div><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:03b73e47-d106-4e86-9ddd-857fcd77ab24" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br />
Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/blogging" rel="tag">blogging</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-56637025262668496722010-11-19T01:00:00.001+11:002010-11-19T01:00:10.942+11:00Best tips for last minute Christmas shopping<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0044EZRGU&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Shopping centres a decorated, Santa is around to take photos with the children, shops are playing carols and more…<br />
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I do think it is a little early to have all of that. I’d prefer they started at the beginning of December. But hey, it is not about the real meaning of Christmas, it is all about <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. Oh, sorry about that, my cynicism is starting to show.<br />
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Here are a few tips to help you with your Christmas shopping if you are a little unprepared.<br />
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<b>Make a list</b><br />
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First first thing to do is to determine how much you can realistically spend on your Christmas shopping overall. Be realistic.<br />
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Once you have done that then list all of the names of family and friends to whom you will give presents to and assign an amount to each person. This bit can be a bit of fun…<br />
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When you finish with the list make sure you are not overspending. Adjust the list until you are happy with it and within budget.<br />
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<b>Do not go over budget</b><br />
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Don’t let your emotions run over you. If you are following your budget you cannot let your emotions run over you. I know this does not sound very nice but it is a fact.<br />
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Overspending will break your budget, get you into credit card debt, if you are using your credit card, and create a precedent. Your friends and family will expect expensive gifts from you every time.<br />
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<b>Pay it all with cash</b><br />
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One way to increase your chances of following your budget is to carry only cash with you. Don’t go shopping with your credit cards, leave all of your cards at home.<br />
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Every time you go shopping know which presents you are buying, know how much you are going to spend and take the exact cash you need.<br />
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This way you will follow your budget and you will not regret it later on.<br />
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<b>Shop by yourself</b><br />
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There is research that indicates that people who shop alone have a tendency to spend less. Needless to say, go shopping alone.<br />
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Your family or friends will distract you and potentially influence you to buy something that is not in your budget.<br />
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<b>Don’t buy presents for yourself</b><br />
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When you go to the shops you will certainly see stuff that you like. Don’t fall into the temptation of spending your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> on the things you want. If you family and friends ask what you want for Christmas, get them to buy the things for you. Al so remind yourself that this is the season for giving, not getting.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B003NFM3JK&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Be creative</b><br />
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If you are really low in cash, or just want to do something different, search on the internet about do it yourself Christmas gifts. This will cost you only a fraction of what you would spend on the shops and, to me anyway, are much more valuable than just stuff from the shops.<br />
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Gifts you make will have your own personal touch and you can make them to suit to person receiving the gift. There is no shame in that!<br />
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I think that the main idea is for you to enjoy the season and bring a smile on the faces of the ones you love. This does not need to come from expensive gifts. Something you make to suit the person will have a much more long lasting impression than something that will be used a couple of times and thrown away.<br />
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Don’t make Christmas shopping a torture, don’t break the bank and make it part of a wonderful festive season.<br />
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Have a great time!<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:11784d81-266b-4d80-977b-dd9a6fe6b72c" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/christmas" rel="tag">christmas</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-62916898810323797232010-11-18T01:00:00.002+11:002010-11-18T01:00:05.950+11:00A few habits that are keeping you in debt<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMwTimbk1MRsskOO28QQzVdVPPoRO7r-JeSXhgzKXEW1b9pKVKXDoa9UqtnQ1Sm8AXTyEocyxYDLk3688XNtAJxdqQqJoEtAj39H31tiJCKUX2lu4kB15JZxq50p25rmcDmI2uNPnPmA/s1600-h/habits%5B2%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="habits" border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NRlvNGkUhLWhVuRxfhyzvCgp2JBaYw6wXkOI_YMmXKBDAw_8s_uPet5wFSLIG0qVr_8FkDo5tqx6lImiatA7kcfcJHYkEDooCza8EmBDpQz3a-e513yeKhChkYdpZl_nNcJWMgbX3rA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px none; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="habits" width="244" /></a>There are certain habits that we may have that unconsciously prevent us from paying off our debt and getting ahead.<br />
Following are seven habits that may be holding us back from paying off debt and getting back into the black. Remember debt matters, it is important to get ahead in order to turbo charge you journey into financial independence.<br />
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<b>Not knowing your account balance</b><br />
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It is very important to keep track of the balance in your bank account. This is especially true is you know that the balance is a little low.<br />
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Banks will allow you to overdraft on your bank account but they will charge you very, very high overdraft fees.<br />
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It is therefore very important to watch your account balance and ensure that it remains in the black to avoid hefty fees.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/10/organise-your-finances-with-online.html" target="_blank">Click here learn more on how to organise your finances with online banking.</a><br />
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<b>Paying too much in fees</b><br />
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Fees, fees, fees. Banks charge us lots of fees to access our own <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. That makes very little sense to me. If you have several different accounts, consider consolidating them into one, this could save you lots of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> in fees.<br />
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Nowadays many banks advertise accounts with no fees. You have to be very clear because most of the time there are conditions attached to a no fee account. These condition could include a minimum monthly deposit amount r a maximum number of monthly transactions.<br />
The key is in researching the various options and organising your bank accounts in a certain way to save your own <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470910321&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Paying only the minimum amount</b><br />
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If you have credit card debt, the only way to pay it off quickly, and to save lots of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> in interest, is to pay more than the minimum monthly payment amount.<br />
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The banks are not interest in you paying off your debt. That is why they only want you to pay the minimum payment amount. They will keep on increasing your credit limit so long as you can afford to pay the minimum amount.<br />
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Don’t fall into this trap, do all that you can to pay more and reduce that credit card balance as soon as you can.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/09/credit-card-debt-how-to-avoid-it.html" target="_blank">Click here to learn how to avoid credit card debt.</a><br />
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<b>Taking credit card cash advances</b><br />
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We all know that getting a cash advance in our credit cards is a really bad idea.<br />
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When you do a cash advance you not only pay a lot more interest on it but you also start paying that interest from day one. The banks usually don’t give you interest-free periods for cash advances.<br />
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Conclusion, avoid cash advances as much as possible.<br />
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<b>Not bargaining for the best deal</b><br />
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This can be a bit tricky but it has the potential of saving you quite a bit of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>. Call your debtors and ask them to lower your interest rate. The banks want your business and with the increase in competition amongst the banks it is likely that you can succeed in negotiating a better deal with your current bank.<br />
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Ask for options. These days many banks offer credit cards with a set period of very low, or no interest at all.<br />
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There are credit cards now that offer you the first 6 months interest free for balance transfers. This can be a great help to turbo charge you payments and get the most out of your own <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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One word of warning. If you are looking at these credit cards look at the conditions and at the interest rate you will pay once the initial period of low interest rate is over. Some of them will charge a much higher interest rate than other cards so do your research before signing on the dotted line.<br />
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<b>Not knowing where your </b><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank"><b>money</b></a><b> is going</b><br />
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One of the biggest mistakes one can make in personal finances is not knowing where your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> is going.<br />
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Get a budget going, use your online banking to export your transactions into a spreadsheet or a personal finances software and ensure to track where your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> is going.<br />
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Set goals to pay off your debt and track your progress against your goals.<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-create-budget-and-stick-to-it.html" target="_blank">Click here to learn how to create a budget and stick to it.</a><br />
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It may feel like debt is here to stay for a long time. This does not need to be true. The biggest mistake you can make is complacency. Take control of your finances so you can be out of debt as soon as possible,<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:31c9eb9b-2f9e-4087-9053-1e5ee6df0d1d" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/debt" rel="tag">debt</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/money" rel="tag">money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/credit+card" rel="tag">credit card</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-66920864285364247622010-11-17T01:00:00.000+11:002010-11-17T01:00:08.049+11:00Save your money shopping online<p> </p> <p>Online retailers are able to offer you more discounts than the normal shop because they don’t have the overheads of paying for rent and other expenses related to having a physical building.</p> <p><strong>Compare prices and reviews</strong></p> <p>It is very easy to compare prices online. You get to figure out where the best deals are from the comfort of your home. There are websites that can help you with comparing prices.</p> <p>The internet also gives you the ability to look at product reviews before you go ahead with the purchase. It can be very helpful to find out what the others are saying about the product you are planning to buy.</p> <p><strong>Free shipping</strong></p> <p>Online shopping not only saves you the <a href="<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">" target="_blank">money</a> you would pay for the petrol to get to a from the shops, some retailers also offer free shipping depending upon what you are purchasing. Make sure the price of the item has not been inflated to cover the costs.</p> <p><strong>Look for discount codes</strong></p> <p>Up until a few months ago I did not know about the huge amount of discount codes available on the internet. Look for coupons from the retailers you are likely to buy from. This can also save you a bit more on top of the other saving you are making if you shop online.</p> <p><strong>Buy bulk and save</strong></p> <p>Many online retailers offer you extra savings if you buy in bulk. Think about any future use of the product you are buying and consider making extra savings buy bulk buying. Many online shops offer you free shipping if you buy more than a certain quantity of the product. Do the numbers, consider your needs and save!</p> <p><strong>Auction</strong></p> <p>You probably know eBay. There are other online auction sites that offer you the possibility of bidding for a particular item. Online auctions offer you the potential to save lots of <a href="<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/make+money" rel="tag">" target="_blank">money</a> through the bidding process. Just make sure you don’t get caught up in the process and end up paying too much for the item you are looking for.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>If you are still hesitant with online shopping, start using the internet as a way to research and compare prices. You will probably be shopping online, and saving your cash, sooner than you think.</p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:d66bc20d-7acd-421a-9abc-110a5bef1282" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/online+shopping" rel="tag">online shopping</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+finances" rel="tag">personal finances</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/save+money" rel="tag">save money</a></div> ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-50711351320491508882010-11-16T01:00:00.000+11:002010-11-16T01:00:11.891+11:00How to turn income into wealth<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bbCNINFud2-EYqiyRSguHiaXWY41Xh2DPfsZlyj0JCrvIt-j-3y6rjbZSsrJKP24mRvZC0Ko-871mu5wo4zx6qohPWzXufvOS-DvI6wOTFYcd4eLfMe-_Bw1hsMi4F_gGBQ7kOCZqVE/s1600-h/moneypuzzle%5B2%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="moneypuzzle" border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjakMCfaUPfLrLGyIYbRNMufz-9PNS3DPxv_aWntdV-uVAy6q4nvmr0vmJSjtHIdx8T2r_JpfuGz_htu2ahdFZO2BI5nxXuR4A6iKYRwro-6KX6ADVcL1zzqrCmWo6vnIXQPoe0drVsDyk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px none; display: inline; float: left; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="moneypuzzle" width="229" /></a>The secret to financial independence is to turn your income into wealth. In other words, in order to be wealthy you need to take what you earn and make it work for you instead of you constantly working for <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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This short blog post will give you just an overview of the topic, you need to research and learn more about it. As you research you will continually find different ways of making your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> work for you.<br />
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Here is how it works. Earned income from your job (whatever is left after your expenses) is saved and then invested into assets which then gives you passive or portfolio income. Passive income is income you get from rental properties or <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> you earn without having to work for it. Portfolio is the kind of income from earn from paper assets as dividends paid to you.<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0743287002&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Once you earn the passive income, you invest it into assets which buy you more assets. As you accumulate enough passive income you then use it to pay for your lifestyle expenses such as big TVs, vacations, etc…<br />
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The best part of having passive and portfolio income is that your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> is working for you so you don’t have to go to work to earn the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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Each month your assets pay for your bills and buy you more assets therefore increasing your wealth even further.<br />
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That is the key to wealth, use your earned income to buy assets and then income form the assets to buy more assets. Each of your assets function as a stream of income that keeps on generating you more and more wealth.<br />
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</div><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:29c202fe-6d76-43ef-b12a-0e75076df1a3" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/finance" rel="tag">finance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/money" rel="tag">money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/real+estate" rel="tag">real estate</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/business" rel="tag">business</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-77181714627916837582010-11-15T01:00:00.009+11:002010-11-15T01:00:01.136+11:00Financial Independence Compilation, investing money, financial independence and more<div><div style="float: right;"><script src="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/logolink_40434.js" type="text/javascript">
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Welcome to the November 15, 2010 edition of financial independence.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Your Financial Independence Articles</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"></span></b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470506938&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-20-personal-finance-tips.html" target="_blank">Top 20 Personal Financial Tips</a> - If you are like me, you have never had any formal training on managing personal finances. You may have read books and researched the topic on the internet, however you probably don’t have any formal training on the subject …<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/10-tips-for-financial-security.html" target="_blank">10 Tips for Financial Security</a> - Many people strive to achieve financial security. It is however very difficult to deal with the pressures and expenses of the normal daily life and at the same time try to achieve financial independence…<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-it-possible-to-live-without-credit.html" target="_blank">Is it possible to live without a credit card?</a> - During the weekend I read an article on the newspaper about how hard it can be to live without a <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/credit+card">credit card</a>. Our society pushes us into debt. Marketing campaigns, online marketing, junk mails and other strategies are all designed to lure us into acquiring stuff that we don’t need…<br />
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<a href="http://ditchtheboss.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-5-millionaire-habits-that-can-make.html" target="_blank">Top 5 millionaire habits that can make you rich</a> - Do you ever catch yourself thinking how you would manage your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a> if you were a millionaire? Do they even care, they have so much <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E">money</a> that they probably don’t even care about it?…<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Reader’s Articles</span></b><br />
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<b>Molly Cunningham</b> presents <a href="http://www.businessadministrationdegree.com/the-top-50-real-estate-blogs">The Top 50 Real Estate Blogs</a> posted at <a href="http://www.businessadministrationdegree.com/">Business Administration Degree</a>, saying, "Real estate can still be a good investment, even though the housing bubble’s collapse has had a disastrous effect on the economy. Real estate newbies and experienced professionals can all get excellent real estate news, information, and commentary thanks to some very dedicated bloggers."<br />
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<b>Mike McFate</b> presents <a href="http://companyinvest.com/2010/11/08/mutual-funds-or-exchange-traded-funds-etfs-which-is-best/">Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)? Which is Best?</a> posted at <a href="http://companyinvest.com/">CompanyInvest.com</a>, saying, "The tips in this article can save readers thousands over time."<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/2010/11/apply-now-for-unsecured-personal-payday.html">Apply now for a unsecured personal payday advance loan</a> posted at <a href="http://youdondour-quickandeasypaydayloan.blogspot.com/">Quick and easy payday loan!</a>.<br />
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<b>Medhat Youssef</b> presents <a href="http://forextradingonline.biz/blog/?p=377">Prophet1 EA</a> posted at <a href="http://forextradingonline.biz/blog/">Forex Trading Online</a>, saying, "The popular Expert Advisor for automatically trading the currency market is being reviewed heavily on the web. See what traders think about it."<br />
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<b>Youdondour torres</b> presents <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/2010/11/using-cash-in-advance-loans.html">Using cash in advance loans</a> posted at <a href="http://easypaydayloansin1hour.blogspot.com/">Pay Day Loans For You Today!</a>.<br />
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<b>Andrew Yeung</b> presents <a href="http://blog.comboink.com/2010/11/saving-money-tips-for-this-holiday.html">Saving Money Tips For This Holiday Season</a> posted at <a href="http://blog.comboink.com/">ComboInk Blog</a>, saying, "If you are looking for meaningful and enjoyable holiday season, then here you can find some saving money tips for this holiday season."<br />
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<b>Shaheen E Lakhan</b> presents <a href="http://brainblogger.com/2010/09/25/the-price-of-happiness/">The Price of Happiness</a> posted at <a href="http://brainblogger.com/">Brain Blogger</a>, saying, "An analysis of income and happiness in the United States reveals that a salary of $75,000 does, in fact, buy happiness."<br />
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<b>Silicon Valley Blogger</b> presents <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/get-low-cost-life-insurance/">Should You Get Low Cost Life Insurance?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog">The Digerati Life</a>, saying, "Thoughts on life insurance."<br />
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<b>Moolanomy</b> presents <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/3948/4-things-you-should-know-about-retailers-before-the-holiday-shopping-season-ttolar/">4 Things You Should Know About Retailers Before the Holiday Shopping Season</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moolanomy.com/">Moolanomy</a>.<br />
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<b>debt kid</b> presents <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/getting-that-home-stretch-feeling">Getting That Home-Stretch Feeling</a> posted at <a href="http://www.debtkid.com/">DebtKid</a>. <br />
<h2><b></b></h2><b>Tim Chen</b> presents <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/charge-card-affect-credit-score/">How Will a Charge Card Affect My Credit Score?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog">NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch</a>, saying, "Charge cards function a bit differently than a standard credit card, in that you are required to pay your bill off each month; there’s no revolving credit line. So if you can’t carry a balance, and you don’t have a credit limit, what does this mean for your credit score?"<br />
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<b>Robert Alan</b> presents <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com/blog/tips-and-advice-on-how-to-dispute-an-erroneous-charge/">Tips and Advice on How To Dispute An Erroneous Charge</a> posted at <a href="http://www.creditcardassist.com/blog">Credit Cards<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1905641451&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> Blog | CreditCardAssist.com</a>, saying, "How to dispute erroneous charges on your credit card."<br />
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<b>Michael Pruser</b> presents <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/credit-cards/ink-plus-with-ultimate-rewards-100-bonus-cash-back/">Ink Plus with Ultimate Rewards - $100 Bonus Cash Back</a> posted at <a href="http://www.doughroller.net/">The Dough Roller</a>, saying, "thanks for the inclusion"<br />
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<b>Michael</b> presents <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/recent-changes-in-my-personal-finance-plan/">Recent Changes in My Personal Finance Plan</a> posted at <a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/">Consumerism Commentary</a>, saying, "thanks for the inclusion"<br />
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<b>MoneyThinking</b> presents <a href="http://www.moneythinking.com/2010/11/08/diversify-my-portfolio-why/">Diversify my portfolio? Why?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.moneythinking.com/">Money Thinking</a>, saying, "If you listen to professionals (which I usually do, they’re called professionals for a reason), they tell you not to “put all your eggs in one basket” and only get one type of stock or mutual fund from one place. Diversification is the best way to success. But why? Why is it less risky to distribute the $10k that you’re..."<br />
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<b>Alexander Peter</b> presents <a href="http://utr.org.uk/lost-your-utr-number.html">Lost your UTR Number?</a> posted at <a href="http://utr.org.uk/">UTR.org.uk</a>, saying, "Get organized before tax season. If you are self employed and have lost your UTR number this article will show you how to get a replacement."<br />
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<b>Buck Weber</b> presents <a href="http://thebucklist.blogspot.com/2010/11/ten-tips-to-stop-living-paycheck-to.html">Ten Tips to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck</a> posted at <a href="http://thebucklist.blogspot.com/">THE BUCK LIST</a>, saying, "The figures are startling to say the least – over 70 percent of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck. By the time pay day comes around, they’re broke and waiting to get their hands on the money that is due them. It’s a vicious cycle that they cannot seem to break; it becomes a habit that is hard to get rid of; in short, it’s like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off."<br />
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<b>Susan Howe</b> presents <a href="http://blog.insure.com/2010/11/03/10-home-repairs-you-shouldn%E2%80%99t-ignore">10 Home Repairs You Shouldn’t Ignore</a> posted at <a href="http://blog.insure.com/">Welcome to the Insure.com Insurance Blog: Life Insurance, Health Insurance and Car Insurance news and opinions</a>, saying, "Failing to maintain your home can cause you home insurance problems. Here are 10 home repairs you can't ignore."<br />
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<b>HomeList</b> presents <a href="http://www.homelist.org/the-basics-of-real-estate-negotiation/">The Basics of Real Estate Negotiation</a> posted at <a href="http://www.homelist.org/">HomeList</a>.<br />
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<b>Mike Piper</b> presents <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/shopping-for-fixed-immediate-annuities/">Buying Fixed Immediate Annuities</a> posted at <a href="http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/">The Oblivious Investor</a>, saying, "Tips on shopping for a fixed immediate annuity for investors in or nearing retirement."<br />
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<b>FMF</b> presents <a href="http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2010/11/digital-moonlighting-the-best-ways-to-earn-a-little-money-online.html">Digital Moonlighting: The Best Ways to Earn a Little Money Online</a> posted at <a href="http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/">Free Money Finance</a>, saying, "How to earn some extra income online."<br />
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<b>Jim Nariel</b> presents <a href="http://pointandclickprogram.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-affiliates-that-make-money-online.html">How affiliates that make money online by using powerful keywords</a> posted at <a href="http://pointandclickprogram.blogspot.com/">Point and Click Program Revealed</a>, saying, "How to get great keywords for ranking up the search engines"<br />
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<b>Arjun Rudra</b> presents <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/interviews/investing-professionals/how-to-manage-risk-increase-income-and-maximize-returns-with-mohsin-bashir-cfa-of-highwater-capital-management/">How To Manage Risk, Increase Income and Maximize Returns With Mohsin Bashir, CFA Of Highwater Capital Management</a> posted at <a href="http://www.investingthesis.com/">Investing Thesis</a>, saying, "How To Manage Risk, Increase Income and Maximize Returns With Mohsin Bashir, CFA Of Highwater Capital Management"<br />
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<b>Miranda</b> presents <a href="http://moneyning.com/money-beliefs/how-much-do-your-friends-and-family-know-about-your-finances/">How Much Do Your Friends and Family Know About Your Finances?</a> posted at <a href="http://moneyning.com/">Money Ning</a>.<br />
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<b>BWL</b> presents <a href="http://christianpf.com/why-refinance-a-car-to-save-money/">Why Refinance A Car?</a> posted at <a href="http://christianpf.com/">Christian Personal Finance</a>, saying, "A look at why you may or may not want to refinance your car loan..."<br />
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<b>Jeff Weber</b> presents <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog/2010/11/american-express-blue-cash-is-dangerous-credit-card-review/">American Express Blue Cash is a Dangerous Credit Card</a> posted at <a href="http://www.smartbalancetransfers.com/">Smart Balance Transfers</a>, saying, "The Blue Cash card is a dangerous piece of plastic. Anyone who doesn't read the fine print and pay their balances in full every month could end up spending a fortune on interest while earning much less cash back than they might otherwise be led to believe."<br />
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<b>nissim ziv</b> presents <a href="http://www.job-interview-site.com/what-is-your-definition-of-success-at-work.html">Success Definition: What Is Your Definition of Success at Work?</a> posted at <a href="http://www.job-interview-site.com/">Job Interview Guide</a>, saying, "This question can be asked by an interviewer in your upcoming job interview or either can be asked in many other occasions."<br />
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<b>Odysseas</b> presents <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/2010/06/credit-cards-for-your-business/">Make Your Credit Cards Work for Your Business</a> posted at <a href="http://www.walletblog.com/">Wallet Blog</a>, saying, "Hey, I think your readers will enjoy our submission this week because it illustrates when to use a business credit card as well as a personal credit card for financing your business. For your convenience, I have prepared a short summary of the article: "Business credit cards, despite their name, are actually not the best choice for financing your business."<br />
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<b>Sunil</b> presents <a href="http://easyextramoneyonline.com/blog/2010/10/why-even-little-passive-income-is-worth-more-than-you-think/">Why Even Little Passive Income is Worth More Than You Think</a> posted at <a href="http://easyextramoneyonline.com/blog">Sunil from The Extra Money Blog</a>, saying, "What’s the big deal about a blog making only $50 per month? Plenty! Passive income is worth a ton more than you think, and it increases your effective hourly wage from your job. Consider a side business the generates residual income streams from Google Adsense, rents, royalties, etc."<br />
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<b>Joe Morgan</b> presents <a href="http://simpledebtfreefinance.com/how-amazon-com-lost-me-as-a-customer/">How Amazon.com Lost Me as a Customer.</a> posted at <a href="http://simpledebtfreefinance.com/">Simple Debt-Free Finance</a>, saying, "Here's a case study from one of how one of the world's largest retailers made a costly and avoidable mistake. Entrepreneurs take note!"<br />
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<b>Zarathustra W.</b> presents <a href="http://www.alsosprachanalyst.com/2010/10/five-criteria-to-identify-asset-bubbles.html">Five criteria to identify asset bubbles - Also sprach Analyst</a> posted at <a href="http://www.alsosprachanalyst.com/">Also sprach Analyst</a>, saying, "Five criteria to identify asset bubbles"<br />
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<b>Alexander</b> presents <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/2010/11/blackrock-equity-dividend-fund/">Blackrock Equity Dividend Fund</a> posted at <a href="http://www.dividendstocksonline.com/">Dividend Stocks</a>, saying, "Learn how the Blackrock Equity Dividend fund can produce high yields for your portfolio."<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0060594896&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Stretching the One Income Dollar</b> presents <a href="http://www.oneincomedollar.com/2010/11/3-ways-to-earn-money-on-cruise-ship.html">3 Ways to Earn Money on a Cruise Ship</a> posted at <a href="http://www.oneincomedollar.com/">Stretching the One Income Dollar</a>.<br />
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<b>Rick Schiano</b> presents <a href="http://www.tastingvictory.net/blog/?p=919">Biblical Prosperity</a> posted at <a href="http://www.tastingvictory.net/blog">Ricks Victory Blog</a>.<br />
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<b>freefrombroke</b> presents <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/2010/11/charge-cards-credit-cards-understanding-difference.html">Charge Cards Are Not Credit Cards – Understanding the Difference</a> posted at <a href="http://freefrombroke.com/">Free From Broke</a>, saying, "Credit cards and charge cards are often confused but they are, in fact, two different credit tools that consumers should understand."<br />
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That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of <b>financial independence</b> using our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Submit an entry to “financial independence”">carnival submission form</a>. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_10481.html" target="_blank" title="Blog Carnival index for “financial independence”">blog carnival index page</a>.<br />
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Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/passive+income" rel="tag">passive income</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/debt" rel="tag">debt</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/money" rel="tag">money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/rich" rel="tag">rich</a></div><div style="clear: right;"></div></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-38853431072766736452010-11-14T01:00:00.002+11:002010-11-14T01:00:02.183+11:00A couple of funny videos to relax on the weekend<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000JBXHVO&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Here are a few funny videos to help you to relax on the weekend. Nothing like being refreshed for the a new week. So sit back and enjoy these short movies.<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:2d339d5b-abfa-4b6a-81e3-822f1f64b084" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="9fe79ebc-ab12-4e6c-8403-4aedbed2f390" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('9fe79ebc-ab12-4e6c-8403-4aedbed2f390'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/dMH0bHeiRNg?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/dMH0bHeiRNg?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVsxD-Z6iSwYuTVSGmuw4I4oAcc1xb15iGwMx9Xx9zm4lETuKfGLqR0Vv6wJG_hL9yhHKi0IYwyLsB__ckoSHyvnf69ra3XVdzRxM3v7TJn3PrkbArwha50hcXqYaCDUW1xTvFOojD0Ks/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 448px;">Evolution of dance - By Judson Laipply<br />
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</div></div><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:cd9763ba-f1e9-48c4-bf77-cecbe304a563" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="f62ccb80-611a-4d39-a6e6-9666336c9356" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAL8GaxD2RY" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('f62ccb80-611a-4d39-a6e6-9666336c9356'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/jAL8GaxD2RY?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/jAL8GaxD2RY?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihN4zfilipeYhY92lXz7n7Ix5xd-7RWiCkHaAdHY8NmMkXsnsEyw3Zrc01E6ceKrKq17MGJjukVfhgzqB6qn2m8cbT5Zw5r7aTFi2IhSpUkoMjwWCASeERVjx4z8K_rSvdVCgdnXC7u2c/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 448px;">Top 100 most popular videos of all time</div></div><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:3e6b7dcc-b14e-40f6-93fb-b5e9a4ed92e1" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/funny+videos" rel="tag">funny videos</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-82481573246564725042010-11-13T01:00:00.002+11:002010-11-13T01:00:00.972+11:00Time to relax with the best of the three stoogesIt is time to relax here on Your Financial independence. Managing finances and paying off debt can be very stressful. Time a few minutes to watch a couple of funny movies and relax.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:9e374a60-1f85-4a1c-9e10-82e08cf693f2" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="6d0ca1d9-556c-4f68-b0c8-602988510a1d" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfGWPpPy0uw" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('6d0ca1d9-556c-4f68-b0c8-602988510a1d'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/XfGWPpPy0uw?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/XfGWPpPy0uw?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5COZ7t7PyFJgDwhCMUNeiKl9DI8c9Zs-MhTHtQj1GgcpgxsR0v-cdWYQrAVgFrTF03kfaJCN-UU1vJ-qu1KiLz0MGBrUcd5V1KkUhu_0o8-tlpc9UZXNLL-bkITGeALe-YP-Jf1cxFE/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none;" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; font-size: 0.8em; width: 448px;">The best of three stooges<br />
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<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:723f4ef4-423e-4716-8e45-9e067233d4e6" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/stooges" rel="tag">stooges</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/funny+videos" rel="tag">funny videos</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778487316621400611.post-56537870936926792652010-11-12T01:00:00.007+11:002010-11-12T01:00:11.625+11:00Top 20 Personal Finance Tips<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCo3-v2DzM-hbbRbbIIr3cxkl4xmkg3vQfAmYbx1jeHvrgnJJg15fcMy1jUv0XVw-BZiWjqeNu0GzByEy6vAcBHnTEYp4cVv0_5PK9BIXT4KXGymf8o7ASHOZgrafpOklpcha7NOy2FE/s1600-h/financialtips%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="financialtips" border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT8dJH-E0I7JHL4iYxmZ1xpA_3MT0lG3RKAaIb3uqgXNlbKluRNFseSclHIABIHIbiLRrDKjglXGp32ooywL98car82RZKXYULimaxQTEG4mpxHK1NU_dKUOpiF4L-9-SPNG_bYcUMxWo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px none; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="financialtips" width="135" /></a>If you are like me, you have never had any formal training on managing personal finances. You may have read books and researched the topic on the internet, however you probably don’t have any formal training on the subject.<br />
It amazes ma that personal finances is not included in our school curriculum. It is such an important part of our lives however, our education system does not address.<br />
It is time that we all take control of our personal finances, learn about the topic and take control of our personal finances. Following are 20 tips to give you a head start on the topic.<br />
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<b>1 – Pay yourself first. </b>Try to save a fixed percentage of your income every time you get paid. Don’t leave the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">cash</a> in your day-to-day savings account because you will probably end up spending it. Transfer the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> to a different account in order to increase the chances of actually saving it.<br />
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<b>2 – Spend less than you earn.</b> This is basic in personal finances. You need to take control of your cash flow and ensure that you spend less than what you earn. Make sure you don’t use your credit card to improve your cash flow, this is a common mistake.<br />
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<b>3 – Have an emergency fund. </b>If you are living within your means but you don’t have much left at the end of the pay week then it is important for you to have an emergency fund. That is to cover for emergencies so you don’t have to use your credit card if something happens. If you are trying to pay off debt save about $1000 and put all your efforts to pay off the debt. If you don’t have any debt then try to save somewhere between 3 to 6 months of living expenses.<br />
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<b>4 – Se goals. </b>If you have some financial goals that you want to achieve then make sure that you write them down, set a clear date and work towards achieving those goals. You have much more chance of achieving them if they are written down and if you constantly revise your progress against your target timeframe.<br />
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<b>5 – Have a budget. </b>In order to take control of your cash flow and ensure that you spend less that what you earn, make a budget and stick to it.<br />
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<b><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=softwared0e-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0470506938&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>6 – Avoid going into debt. </b>Debt is unfortunately a necessary part of our lives. Avoid getting debt to pay for lifestyle purchases, only go into debt to purchase assets or to finances education that can take you forward in your career or in your road to financial independence.<br />
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<b>7 – Pay off your credit card debt. </b>Credit card debt is the most evil kind of debt. If you have any credit card debt put all your efforts towards paying it off.<br />
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<b>8 – Don’t use your credit cards for cash advances.</b> Some people use their credit cards for cash advances in order to bump up their cash flow. This usually attracts a much higher interest rate.<br />
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<b>9 – Don’t buy a new car. </b>I love cars myself but avoid buying brand new cards, you literally loose <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> as you drive out of the dealership. It is much cheaper to buy a 2 or 3 years old car, often with factory warranty, than to buy a brand new one. Let someone else make the mistake, not you.<br />
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<b>10 – Don’t buy gadgets.</b> It is amazing how many useless gadgets are available today. From phones with a compass to iPads. With a great risk to my blog I will heavily criticise the iPad. I don’t understand its purpose. To me it is a very expensive piece of technology and when I compare it to a similarly priced laptop you can do less with an iPad than you what you can do with a laptop. What is the point of it? If someone has a good reason to buy an iPad as opposed to a similarly prices laptop please leave a comment here. Gadgets will take a lot of <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> from you and you will probably stop using them after a couple of months anyways so don’t waste your <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>.<br />
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<b>11 – Eat at home. </b>Going out for dinner is very expensive. Don’t do it too often.<br />
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<b>12 – Change your cell phone plan. </b>Shop around for a cheaper cell phone plan. A couple of years ago I change our cell phone plans and we are saving about $20 a month now. Love that!<br />
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<b>13 – Review your insurance policies. </b>Review your insurance policies to ensure that you an not over insured. Trim down to the absolutely necessary whilst ensuring that you have covered all basis.<br />
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<b>14 – Don’t try to pick stocks. </b>Picking stocks is very hard for a beginner investor. Only do it if you really know what you are doing.<br />
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<b>15 – Invest for the long term. </b>There is no such a thing as a get rich scheme. When you invest go for the long haul. Be careful and patient. It pays off in the long term.<br />
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<b>16 – Pay off high interest debts before start saving. </b>Again, pay off debt that is taking <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> from your pocket as you sleep. you literally loose <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a>, as interest charges, as you sleep. Put all your efforts to pay those debts off as soon as possible. Make sure you have about $1000 as an emergency fund in case something happens.<br />
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<b>17 – Set up an automatic savings plan.</b> Use the functionality available through your bank and setup an automatic savings plan. Transfer the <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> from your bank account as soon as you earn it and forget about it.<br />
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<b>18 – Get a second job.</b> The quickest way to bump up your income is to get a second job.<br />
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<b>19 – Learn about and setup sources of passive income. </b>Passive income sources are sources of income that keep on giving you <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> without you having to work for them. These include positive rental properties, bonds, shares and many more. This is the key to getting rich, passive income. Research, invest your time and set up various sources of passive income.<br />
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<b>20 – Relax and have fun. </b>I say this for my own experience. If you have debts and you are working hard towards reducing them and trying to keep a positive cash flow you are probably under a bit of stress. This is not good for you as you are your most important financial asset. Try to relax and spend time with your family and friends. <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> isn’t everything, your health, happiness and the happiness of those around you are important as well. <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://technorati.com/tags/make+money%22%20rel=%22tag%22%3E" target="_blank">money</a> will not buy the love of those around you. If you have a family spend time with them. Create memories that you will never forget. This could actually help you to relax and achieve your goals more effectively and efficiently.<br />
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All the best!<br />
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</div><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:53c05786-ffd3-4ad4-9433-ced05c1045c6" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/financial+independence" rel="tag">financial independence</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/passive+income" rel="tag">passive income</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/debt" rel="tag">debt</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/asset" rel="tag">asset</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cash+flow" rel="tag">cash flow</a></div>ditchthebosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681198778252960079noreply@blogger.com0Sydney New South Wales, Australia-33.8599722 151.2111111-34.4301497 150.2772731 -33.2897947 152.14494910000002