No Rush To Pay Off My Student Loans

By MoneyBlueBook

This is my first entry about my student loans. For starters, I think I am very lucky compared to some people. As of today, I only have about $30,000 in student loans left from my college and graduate school days. Aside from the prestige or other benefits of attending more expensive private schools, I feel fortunate to have stuck with more affordable state schools for my undergraduate and graduate education. As a result, I'm not living a life of student loan servitude like many of the people I am reading about in the news, and personally am in no particular rush or hurry to quickly pay off my student loans.

Student Loan Debt Is A Massive Burden To Many

Student loans never go away and can't even be discharged through bankruptcy. The student loan creditors will essentially come after you until you eventually pay it off, a sobering reality that many students don't fully comprehend or realize until they've graduated. I truly sympathize with their burden and know how much of a shackle it can be. I have friends who graduated from law school and medical school carrying tremendous six figure student loans. Even with their advanced degree education, in today's market, there is no easy guarantee that they will have a breezy way of paying it off.

But I Am Taking My Time Paying Off My Loans Thanks To Low Interest Consolidation

I am fortunate to have consolidated my student loans at the lowest rate seen in the last decade or so. I

By MoneyBlueBook

I don't do it as much as I used to but back in college and for a few years after I used to sell products on eBayas part of my experiment in running a part time online business. It was more of a hobby than anything else so I never quite grew it into something big. But I did learn a thing or two about online selling during that time.

When I was an active seller, I focused primarily on electronics and gadgets that I liked and that were must-haves at the time. One rudimentary search of eBay's auctions reveals the obvious - consumer electronics was and is still in great demand and there is fierce competition for steep discounted prices for such products. EBay consumers have grown accustomed to paying discounted prices for their electronics and this has made it more difficult for sellers today to profit from their sales.

Selling Electronics Is Tough

New eBay sellers will come to discover that consumer electronics is the toughest category to compete in. This is due to the slim margins for consumer electronics. Even Powersellers in this category often times only break even. The key to profiting from sales of consumer electronics is the bundling of products with value added accessories.

Successful eBay sellers make their money with accessories, or create packages that include items that have higher profit margins such as earphones, or padded protectors. This allows sellers to avoid competing on price alone. Profiting from the addition of accessories works because as a general psychological matter,

By MoneyBlueBook

Tired of spam? Want to get paid for reading them? That's the idea behind sites like MyPoints, a company that's been around forever, first emerging during the dot com era and later undergoing some improvements over the years. Their website offers many ways to earn points and pass the time if you're bored.

After signing up with them, you can accumulate points by shopping through their portal, similar to Ebates, Jellyfishor Fatwallet, except you get reward points rather than cash. There are other ways to get points through them such as by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or signing up for trial offers. I don't recommend the last one unless you really are interested in the offers. But if the underlying product or service is something you would be interested in, then by all means go for it since you'll get reward points for participating. But for most people, I suggest that you just stick with the e-mail reading and surveys. When you have earned and accumulated enough points, they can be redeemed for gift cards from a vast array of online stores.

You can always unsubscribe if you no longer want to receive SurveyMail or BonusMail offers from MyPoints. It's just one of the many Fun Money programs I use to kill time during football commercials or when I'm experiencing some downtime at work.

By MoneyBlueBook

I've been having the worst server reliability issues with my current host provider, HostMonster. After several months of complaining and pleading with them to fix the problem permanently, I have given up. In the next few weeks I will slowly be transferring my websites to DreamHost. I'll write a more in-depth rant of my HostMonster experience sometime later in the future. I've been swamped with work these days so I'm a bit pressed for time right now. Suffice to say, I'm disappointed in the way HostMonster makes continued excuses for their persistent server downtime and their lack of proper and prompt customer attention. When I indicated to them that I was contemplating changing host providers, rather than try to convince me to stay or offer me a retention deal, they simply asked for my credit card number so they could cancel my account. Boooo! Two thumbs down! :(

DreamHostis currently running a great promotion. I don't get any referral for this, but I must share it because it's such a great limited time deal. If you sign up with them today and prepay for a year or more of service using the promo code 10ten10diez10dix10dieci10shi (yes, that entire crazy long thing), they will give you a discount of off your bill! Only the first 1010 customers can qualify so you might want to get on board while you can.

By MoneyBlueBook

I spend a great deal of time browsing the internet looking for bargains and discounts. While some people like to play video games or watch television at home, or do crossword puzzles and Sudoku at work, I prefer to look for deals. I even like to spend a few extra minutes here and there filling out online paid surveys to make a few extra dollars. I don't consider it a waste of time at all because I enjoy it - it's my hobby. Over the years, I've made and saved a respectable amount of money by following through on these money making and saving opportunities whenever possible. I've made bargain hunting and being a savvy consumer an integral part of my life. As long as it is reasonably time and effort efficient to do so, I don't mind taking the extra few steps to maximize my money further.

Some People Just Aren't Into It

But I've noticed that there are many people that simply aren't interested in these deals. Oftentimes, they consider it too much trouble or too much of a hassle to bother with. Some are even peculiarly worried that they might contract a computer virus or spyware by participating in these money saving solutions. I could explain the procedure and method in great simplistic detail and yet some would still prefer to shrug off the money saving opportunity.

I always try to take advantage of special online promotions. Some promotions are just so easy and simple to apply for that it boggles my mind

By MoneyBlueBook

The newest trend among expecting parents is to choose a name for their kid that hasn't yet been registered as a domain. Parents today want to give their children a head start by jump starting their future digital identity as early as possible. These days with prices of domain registration falling to only $9 a year, it is very easy to run a quick domain availability search and reserve it before someone else does. Some older parents might not see the wisdom of having your own custom domain, but I assure you, your future tech savvy children will thank you for having the foresight.

Celebrities Think Ahead

Just look at actress Angelina Jolie. When she and Brad Pitt had their baby daughter Shiloh Nouvel last year, Angelina immediately reserved over 24 variations of her daughter's name. Internet registration files show the web addresses "shilohjolie," "shilohpitt," "shilohjoliepitt," "shilohnouveljolie," "shilohnouvelpitt" and "shilohnouveljoliepitt" - with the extensions ".com," ".org," ".net" and ".info" - were all reserved as of May 27, 2006 the baby's birthday.

Domains I Would Have Wanted Have Already Been Taken

I wish the internet was around during my parent's time, but then again, I doubt they would have had the technological foresight to reserve my name. Unfortunately, my full name, and its myriad of combinations have all already been taken by others. This is also true for popular e-mail services such as Yahoo Mail and Gmail. Simple and common names just as mine have already been taken. The only choice left is my name followed by