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Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 6

Raymond — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:44:15 +0000

Since it’s a lazy weekend afternoon for me, here are some finance and frugality reading material I thought you all might enjoy. There are so many exceptional new and old personal finance bloggers on the web today. I would like to share some of their blogging work with my readers here. During the last few weeks I also participated in numerous blog carnivals that I am finally getting around to linking back to. Yes I know, I can be a big procrastinator sometimes (I suck). Here they are:

Personal Finance Blogger Friends:

Mrs Micah answers a few Personal Finance and Non Finance Related Questions
The Digerati Life talks about How To Keep Your Wedding Costs Under Control
My Money Blog talks about How To Maximize Your Business Mileage Tax Deduction
Might Bargain Hunter talks about Why Frugality Is Less Sexy Than Debt Reduction
Being Frugal answers questions about How To Eat Healthy On A Budget

Carnival of Personal Finance:

Money Under 30 featured Warren Buffett’s Single Most Important Piece of Advice For Stock Market Investors

Carnival Of Debt Reduction:

Blunt Money featured Pay Off Credit Card Debt With Low Interest Balance Transfers

Carnival of Money Hacks:

My Investing Blog featured 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Carnival Of Money Stories:

The Dividend Guy featured Do Credit Cards and Stocks Make Up Your Emergency Fund?
Bible Money Matters featured Citi Thank You Credit Card Rewards

Carnival of Twenty Something Finances:

Poorer Than You featured College Students and Student Credit Cards

Carnival Of Tips:

Tip Diva featured Free Citibank promotion Codes

Festival of Frugality:

Out of Debt Again featured Dealing With A Car Breakdown and Paying Rip Off Repair Shop Prices
Money Ning featured I Purposely Drive In Heavy Rain To Get A Free Car Wash
No Debt Plan featured Find Ebay Bargains With Typos and Spelling Mistakes
Funny About Money featured Paid Online Surveys (Editor’s Pick)
Financial Blogger featured How To Apply For Instant Approval Credit Cards
Four Pillars featured The Best Airline Miles Credit Cards

Finance Fiesta:

Master Your Card featured How Long Does A Bankruptcy Filing Stay On Your Credit Report?

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 6

Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 5

Raymond — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:19:49 +0000

Here are select blog carnivals and blog festivals I participated in over the last few weeks. Apologies for the delay in getting these out (extra curricular duties have been occupying most of my free time). Other than my own article submissions, there are definitively a lot of good finance and frugality articles in the mix worth reading as well. I’ve listed the website links where the carnivals were hosted and the articles I’ve mine that were submitted. At least one was selected as an Editor’s Pick. Take a look!

Carnival of Personal Finance

Alpha Consumer featured How To Make Money From Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Lazy Man and Money featured Arguments For And Against Using Multiple Reward Credit Cards
The Happy Rock featured Using Form 1040X To Correct A Tax Mistake or Error
Gather Little By Little featured The 6 Best Credit Cards According to CNN Money

Carnival Of Debt Reduction

Broke Grad Student featured How To Get A Free Fico Credit Score

Carnival Of Money Stories

Free From Broke featured Get Free Extended Service Warranty By Purchasing With A Credit Card

Festival of Frugality

Sound Money Matters featured One Great Potential Benefit Of Higher Gas Prices – Less Traffic! (Editor’s pick)
Rather Be Shopping featured Always Pay By Credit Card To Protect Against Airline Travel Bankruptcy

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 5

Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 4

Raymond — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:50:51 +0000

The last few weeks I participated in several editions of the Carnival of Personal Finance that I would like to mention here. I wish to thank the carnival hosts for organizing and compiling articles to share with readers. I know hosting the carnival is time consuming and I wish to give these personal finance bloggers some recognition:

Money Ning featured my article on Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits and Income Phase Outs.

Stock Trading To Go featured my article on Paying Income Tax On Ebay Sales.

Being Frugal featured my article on Late Night Infomercials Selling Get Rich Scams.

Four Pillars featured my article on Answers To Common Tax Rebate Questions.

I also participated in the Carnival of Taxes and appreciate the inclusion of my submission:

Don’t Mess With Taxes included my article on Adjusted Gross Income and Modified Adjusted Gross Income.

Finally, I wish to thank April Fool’s prankster Flexo for organizing the Festival of Frugality and including my submission:

Consumerism Commentary included my article on How To Repair Your Car With Used Auto Junkyard Parts.

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 4

Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 3

Raymond — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:00:30 +0000

This week I participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance at The BagLady where my article about choosing the right Roth IRA broker was included.

Here are a few other personal finance and frugality articles around the blogosphere that I enjoyed reading this week. Please have a look:

Paid Twice – shares the unfortunate mindset that she used to have that led to her string of “dumb purchases”.

Moolanomy - provides a very practical list of 40 Alternative Income Ideas and Resources. Most are common-sensical, but those type of money making ideas are usually the easiest and quickest to implement for the average person.

Cash Money Life – is offering a nice compilation eBook for download based on the pooled online written work of a number of personal finance bloggers. The book contains useful financial commentary, categorized according to different stages in life.

The Simple Dollar – is running a popular Ask Me Anything segment in which you can ask Trent the PF blogger any question imaginable. Some of the question comments are personal finance based, while others are just plain philosophical or goofy. I submitted a few questions in the comment section but I highly doubt he’ll respond to mine – I asked a few pretty controversial ones.

Free Money Finance – is refereeing a March Madness style matchup of personal finance articles. I didn’t submit an entry but you can still go vote for your favorite articles.

Clever Dude – shares his decision making process in regards to a recent decision of whether he should quit his full time job to take a lucrative independent contractor position. He ultimately chose to stay with the more stable gig, at least until a more suitable opportunity came along. Unlike him, I chose the contract lifestyle and enjoy the flexibility it currently affords me.

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 3

Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 2

Raymond — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:50:14 +0000

Let’s take a walk around the the personal finance blogosphere. Here are a few blog posts that I found interesting and worth reading during the last few weeks. Feel free to check them out:

Frugal For Life shares a tragic story involving love and finance with gold diggers C.C. and Bill.
Money Smart Life shares a few tips about finding deals during the shopping off season.
Single Guy Money hands over the arduous task of ironing his shirt and pants to his female friend in a modern day example of bartering. Personally, I think he should stick with buying only wrinkle free clothing like I do.
Mrs. Micah shares her thoughts on living in the ghetto. I can relate to her ghetto housing experiences as I used to live in Baltimore City a while back as a student. Drug dealers, trauma helicopters, and gang members were common sights.
Mighty Bargain Hunter talks about the ramifications of when bargain hunting zeal treads into addiction territory. I knew I was personally pushing the envelope a bit when I would order things online to save a measly 50 cents.
I’m a big fan of using reward credit cards to maximize purchasing power, but The Digerati Life reveals a list of common ways that people can get themselves into credit card trouble.
Wise Bread is trying to promote their new personal finance forum and is literally giving away $20 Amazon gift certificates each day to those who participate in the new Wise Bread forums. So far I’ve already won two of them!
Money Ning has too much money and is giving his wealth away to appease the masses. Either that, or he intends to actually make a profit from his accumulation of wedding gifts.
Lazy Man and Money is starting a new profile series on celebrities and their money. Oddly, of all the celebrities out there, his first series post will be about Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Millionaire Mommy Next Door talks about how she chooses to live the good life, rather than the goods life.
Five Cent Nickel muses about the disappearance of traveler’s checks. I didn’t even think people used them anymore but I guess at least a few older people still occasionally buy them before they travel. I personally stick with reward credit cards exclusively nowadays.

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 2

Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 1

Raymond — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:32:16 +0000

Drum roll please…presenting my very first edition of Money Blue Book’s Weekend Roundup, where I showcase some of the interesting personal finance blog articles I’ve come across during the week and days before. I always appreciate frequent commentators so I will try to make an extra effort to share some of the interesting tips they have to offer. I encourage readers to browse around the blogosphere. There’s a lot of good financial, frugality, and investment advice out there!

One of my favorite personal finance bloggers, My Money Blog, shares some short, easy to understand insights into what the planned federal economic stimulus package will mean for you and I.

If you’re addicted to coffee and think the new Starbucks unlimited refill $1 coffee is a great deal, the Mighty Bargain Hunter will show you why an inexpensive habit is still a habit that deserves to be kicked.

Money Ning shares how his valiant fiance saved them money by speaking up and standing for what’s right regarding a botched wedding fee. He’s a lucky man.

A favorite personal finance blogger of mine, Mrs. Micah discusses practical and realistic ways to view your tax rebate check. She’s right – it’s not really a windfall since the money was yours all along. The government was just holding onto it for you interest-free.

If you’re into investing in China and the Asian stock market boom as I am, then check out Sun’s Financial Diary as he writes about ways to short the recent Chinese bear market. He always has some great investment ideas.

The Honest Dollar honestly discusses what the recent 75 basis point rate drop by the Federal Reserve means to regular folks like you and I in the short and long term.

Source URL: Money Blue Book Weekend Roundup – 1

Review – Trading Eminis With Trading Concepts Inc.

Raymond — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:00:55 +0000

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For those curious or willing to take on the challenge of learning a new investment methodology, Trading Concepts Inc offers a home study package on how to trade Emini futures.

Eminis are electronically traded futures that are much smaller than existing futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The claimed advantages to trading Emini contracts include greater liquidity and flexibility. The most popular Eminis are those that track popular stock indexes such as the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq 100.

The home study Emini Trading System course provides a wide assortment of preparatory material, including a 250+ page comprehensive manual, 4 professionally shot video tapes (50+ page manual), 3 hours of professionally recorded audio cd’s (50+ page manual), unlimited phone/e-mail consultation, free unlimited access into the members area, and a free day of market training.

It Does Take Personal Effort and There Are Risks

Trading Concepts Inc. claims that the average student will take roughly one to two months provided they are prepared to spend between five and eight study hours on the course a week, to learn and actually begin using and profiting from Emini trading.

The company’s website does acknowledge that while futures and options trading offer potentially significant rewards, day trading does involve high risks and you can lose a lot of money. As always, please do very thorough research, and be careful.

Source URL: Review – Trading Eminis With Trading Concepts Inc.

7 Random Things About Me

Raymond — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:00:45 +0000

Okay, it’s time I joined the personal finance blogging community. I’ve been writing and posting quietly to myself like a hermit in my cave and I think it’s time I shared more about myself.

I’ve been tagged by Pinyo at Moolanomy to reveal 7 random things about myself. I’m not sure what people would want to know about me so I decided to include a wide assortment.

I have a bachelor’s in finance and a J.D. degree – This means I’m an attorney with a business background. My current full time job is only partially related to the legal field however.
I look very young – I am in my late 20’s but can easily pass for a college student. I’m not joking. I get still get carded sometimes.
I’m a big Redskins and Wizards fan – Got to support the local teams. My Skins are looking good this year!
I used to be a huge computer gamer – I started with computer role playing games and graduated into Starcraft. I still have fond memories of playing until the wee morning hours and somehow still making it to class.
I own a parrot – I’ve had my parrot for many years now since college (yes he talks and whistles). I remember sneaking his cage into the dorms during college and pulling it off for a whole school year. I wasn’t busted until the last week of school. Good times.
I play the drums – I used to play the drums in my church’s praise band until recently. I’ve taken a few months off but might return in the future.
I’m a runner – I ran cross country during high school and I still run today. I’ve ran half marathons before but haven’t attempted to challenge myself by running a full 26 mile marathon yet. I plan on doing that one day.

That’s about it for now!

Um…I looked around and I think nearly everyone has already been tagged at least once. Please let me know if you haven’t so I can tag you. Like a hot potato, I’ve got to pass it on!

Source URL: 7 Random Things About Me

Carnival of Everything Finance

Raymond — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:01:22 +0000

Well it looks like the Carnival of Everything Finance is up and they included our article on The Best Reward Credit Cards.

A carnival is a type of blog event where different blogs get together to share and post articles on a particular topic. Usually there is one blog that will organize and host the event by aggregating the submitted articles and publishing them on his or her blog. As the host blog changes, the carnival will travel and appear on a different blog each time.

This was my first article submitted to a carnival but I hope to participate even more in the future. I encourage you to visit the host sites to learn more about various interesting finance related topics.

Source URL: Carnival of Everything Finance