Tag Archives: everythingelse

Uncategorized

The Carnival of 20 Something Finances: The Anti Daylight Savings Time Edition

1 Comment

How did it get to be Monday, March 10th already?

Since I’m a half-asleep victim of yesterday’s daylight savings time hour loss, I think I’ll dedicate this Carnival of 20-Something Finances to sleep. It’s one of those truly wonderful, amazing and luxurious things in life that is actually free.

This is my first official “Carnival” posting, so bear with me. 🙂

I got over 50 submissions. I read each and every one. This is an incomplete carnival, I need to finish it up tonight (sorry, I must work so I can make money and it’s been an unexpectedly busy weekend). I don’t want to keep you guys waiting, so here’s the 1st half of the carnival. Check back late tonight to read the rest!

Here are a few of the highlights:

Sleep, Not Spend! (Personal Finance Stories and Trends)

Ryan Taylor at Millionaire Money Habits tells of his financial upbringing and how his family taught him about finance with poor financial habits.

Curious what the Top 10 Reasons You’ll Spend Too Much This Weekend are? Money Under Thirty seems to think it has an awful lot to do with Tequila.

Antishay writes about her “financial epiphany” in 2005 and asks readers when they realized that they ought to get a hold of their finances and save.

Free Offers and Easy Money Making (for those who prefer to sleep instead of work)

The Freebie Diva has a list of freebie offers for you, including a sports bra and a gallon of ice cream on your birthday!

Campus Grotto seems to have a thorough list of where to sell your used and no-longer needed textbooks online.

Credit and Loan Debt (Growing While You Sleep)

Do you need to consolidate your credit cards? Then Money Blue Book has an extremely helpful list for you — that is, a list of 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers.

Pinching Copper is In No Hurry To Pay Off His Student Loans. Find out why he and his with, with $40,000 in student debt, are taking their time paying off these loans.

A Home You Can Sleep In

Schaefer’s Blog ponders how to figure out How Much House You Can Afford in 2008.

Sleep Your Way to Millions (AKA Work Hard and Earn Interest While You Sleep)

Want to become a millionaire? Debt Free posts on why it’s not as hard as you think. The concepts provided are not new (spend less than you earn, start investing early, etc) but the post itself is an inspiring reminder that you don’t need to be worth a fortune in your 20s to be rich later in life, as long as you remember to save and invest wisely.

The Bulter Project interviews a millionaire furniture store owner in Salt Lake City (named “MR”) who got started with his business while he was in his twenties.

Living Off Dividends passed $2000 in passive income last month. That makes my $50 in AdSense revenue that I was bragging about the other day seem so much less impressive. Congrats Living Off Dividends! I think we all have something we can learn from you.

The Sleepy Stock Market

Living Off Dividends also offers up a post on why you should consider investing in gold and it’s risks.

There’s a great overview for beginning investors on how to invest for dividend yield (something I’ve been wondering myself) over at Stock Marketing Investing for Beginners. The post highlights how to calculate dividend yield, how to calculate dividend yield in your stock market analysis, and a bunch of other nifty information on dividend investing.

Think all mutual funds are managed by people who know what they’re doing? My Simple Trading system highlights the poor performing American Century Ultra Fund, and why it has gone down the tubes.

Sleepy Geeky, And The Rest

Need something odd to inspire you to save? How about this post over at Monevator on “Who’s Your Star Wars money hero?“

$ucessful Footsteps has a list of 10 Tips to Stay in Contact With Friends. Since networking is paramount in one’s future success, a friend today could be a business partner or job lead tomorrow. Building a network of “friends” is more important than ever. $ucessful Footsteps also posts on why it’s better to be optimistic than pessimistic, and how your positive or negative view on life effects success.

Uncategorized

The Best Things in Life Are Free

2 Comments

There’s a song from the musical Good News that goes “the moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free.” That’s absolutely true.

I spent today rollerblading on a paved path by a beautiful reservoir. My skates cost me a pretty penny once upon a time (and they’re about ready for an upgrade), but other than once pricey cost of my blades, the lovely outdoor excursion was entirely free.

The view, fresh air, and overall good vibe created by other walkers, bladers and bikers was much more valuable than any “paid” activity I could have chosen to do for the day.

While the cost of living in The Bay Area is ridiculously high, when I actually get outdoors and experience the beauty of my town and the surrounding area, I am quickly reminded why living here is worth every penny.

Uncategorized

Should I Splurge on an Air Conditioner?

11 Comments

The past two summers in my Silicon Valley studio sans air conditioning have been painful. I can’t sleep when it’s hot in my room, and boy did it get hot in my room. But, being frugal as I am, I sucked it up and dealt with the heat, only to be consoled by two fans that just blew more hot air in my face.

Every summer I put off buying an air conditioner until it’s too late — all the stores have sold out of the ones that I’d want.

Reasons I Should Buy An Air Conditioner

– It gets so hot in my apartment that I have trouble sleeping in the spring/summertime.
– In my current apartment, my electricity bill is included in my rent, and I don’t think there is any rule against using an air conditioner (though they can bill you for “excess electricity usage” whatever that means).
– I work from home 2-3 days a week, and it’s difficult to focus when it’s so hot.
– Every summer by the time August rolls around I am desperate for an air conditioner, but all the good ones are sold out.

Reasons I Shouldn’t Buy An Air Conditioner

– Air conditioners are expensive
– In my current apartment I’d have to get a portable air conditioner since I don’t have the right kind of windows for a window air conditioner, and those are even more expensive
– Next year I might move out of this apartment, and likely the next place I get will not be “utilities included” so my electricity bill will go up greatly in the summer, if I move.
– So many people live without air conditioners, even in hotter climates. Do I really need an air conditioner?
– I have no idea what air conditioner I should get, as there are many options and they all seem to be imperfect. The window air conditioners would be nice as they’re cheaper, but my windows won’t hold them. The portable air conditioners are gigantic and ugly, AND expensive. Like $500 for the cheaper ones.

So… tell me my readers, should I buy an air conditioner for this summer?

Uncategorized

Making Money with Blog Advertising

3 Comments

… I’m not going to give you a list of “how to make money on your blog” here. Apparently, AdSense is not really working for me. It seems the more quality clicks I get on my site, the less likely someone is to click on an AdSense link. Which is perfectly fine, but kind of defeats the purpose of AdSense.

I’ll keep the ads on my page for now, since I take in maybe $1-$2 a month (that’d be 1-3 clicks a month), but what surprises me most is how in the last few weeks my blog traffic has gone up substantially and consistently (yeay!), but my AdSense earnings have not reflected my increase in popularity.

Meanwhile, the one ad I sold on my site made more money than I’ve made on AdSense to date, and I bet that ad gets more clicks too (though I have no way of measuring that). People are just so numb to AdSense these days that anyone who actually reads blogs on a regular basis will very, very rarely click on an ad. Sometimes I’ll click on ads other’s blogs because either I’m interested in the advertisement or I just want to help the blogger out a bit. But most of the time I forget to do this.

I’m running a poll right now on the left side of my page about AdSense, where I’m asking you, the reader, if you ever click on AdSense ads (not just on my site, but on any site.) If you haven’t voted yet, take a second to pop in your opinion. I’ll post the results at the beginning of next month.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying watching my readership grow. It’s a slow, sloooow process, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right? I look at some of the PF blogs out there that have over ten thousand feed subscribers and I wonder how they did that! I have 28 right now (I gained a few and lost one thanks to that vibrator post, heh) and that’s the highest it’s been yet. It’s exciting to know that people out there in cyberland can relate to my financial experiences. I’m ever-so grateful for all the advice my readers have given me to date.

So even if I won’t make more than a buck or two a month by writing in this blog, I make a lot from getting to meet great people (albeit anonymously) and learning more and more about how on earth I should manage my out-of-control budget and investing experiments.

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to my RSS feed.