Category: Blog

To all you moms out there: Happy Mother’s Day!

There is no more important job in the world than that of being a mother. I’ve been blessed with a great Mom, a beautiful soul, and the hardest working person I know. Work? Nothing comes close to the work a mother puts in to raising her family. Remember to appreciate your mom’s, respect them for who they are, and cherish every moment you have with them, both the good and the bad, because how you look and what you are deep down inside has a lot to do with your mom. As a son to a proud mother, I’ve learned to look past what I see as criticism, and as I continue to evolve as an adult, I’m understating more so than ever that I’m loved more than I can imagine, even though I may not fully understand this love until I become a parent one day.

Let us stop and give thanks to the special people we call. . . Mom!!

In spirit of Mother’s Day I’d like to share a video called, “Reflections of Motherhood”, a video made by Canadian Marketing company Un-Marketing. Enjoy.

 

Here’s this week’s great reads from around the personal finance blogosphere.

GMBMFBWhy Quebec students need to stop striking is a very well complied post by Krystal which came under some heat, and rather turned into a personal argument. People, it’s just an opinion of one person, no need to get all personal.

Bargain Moose -  Need a mother’s gift, but on a tight budget? Here are 7 frugal mother’s day gift ideas.

Untemplater – Sam is taking a sabbatical and possibly never coming back! One of his biggest fears is looking back on life and regretting not taking more chances.  So, he’s thinking of not going back to work and rather continuing to work for himself by continuing to build his online empire and consulting services.

20′s Finances – Summer is coming and the months of hot temperatures and increasing electricity use are nearly here, so here’s a great post on how to lower your electric bill.

Modest Money – Summer is around the corner, and there’s not better time to earn some cash on the side. Here’s a post on  5 wacky ways to earn side income during the summer.

Sustainable PF – A neat post and I learned what crowd funding is and how it works. For all you small business owners, make sure you read this post, it may be worthwhile benefit for your small business in the future.

The Financial Blogger – How important is job security for you? Job security when you are young is not all that it’s made up to be, because staying in your job too long and getting  4% raises per year wont get you ahead. So, do you care about job security?

Yes, I’m Cheap – Sandy writes a post on Spirit Airlines charging $100 baggage fees. That’s high anyway you slice it, and a total highway robbery. Earlier in the year I wrote about how airlines charge to check bags =  one big cash grab.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Enjoy this special day with your Mom, and again Happy Mother’s Day 2012.

Finance Fox feature’s and mentions:

One Smart DollarCarnival of Financial Camaraderie – Mother’s Day Edition

Passive Cleaning IncomeYour tax options for going into business for your self

cinco de mayo,  mexico, mexican luchador

Cinco de Mayo translates to “fifth of May” in Spanish, which marks Mexico’s independence from Spain. What began as a local holiday that   celebrated Mexico’s defeat of the French Army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, has become a national holiday in Mexico, and a very recognized celebration in the western hemisphere.  Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France during the Franco-Mexican War between 1861 and 1867. Although it wasn’t a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, the Mexican army’s’ success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement. Six years later, thanks in part to military support and political pressure from the United States, which was finally in a position to aid its besieged neighbor after the end of the Civil War – France withdrew and the rest is history.

So, that was this weekend’s little history for you. Hope you enjoyed that little piece. :)

Let’s get into what we’re  all here for, Sunday Link Charity #22 featuring some exciting pieces from the world of personal finance.

Bargain Moose – Looking for some fresh ways to save money? Look no more! Read 7 clever ways to save more money.

Financial Samurai – Earlier this week I wrote an interesting post called, “Money will change you“, and in response to my post, Sam wrote a post called – Making Money Too Fast Destroys You And Everything Around You. Check out the response post and the interesting commentary that ensued. Thanks for a great response post Sam.

Dividend Ninja – As investors, many would never have consider gold stocks as a possible investment for their portfolio, but it’s hard to ignore investing in gold as it just keeps going up and up, and despite being off 7% from the March record high, investing in gold still looks attractive. So, should you invest in gold? How much are gold stocks? Are gold stocks cheap? This post has all your answers.

GMBMFB – As another wedding seasons approaches, Krystal gives us her thoughts on weddings and marriage.

Modest MoneyPartying Philosophy 101: Why You Shouldn’t Be Generous, Even If You’re Filthy Rich. I really liked this post, as I dispise those playas who show off with them poppin bottles.

Mo Money Mo HousesHow to save a thousand dollars by going to sleep at a reasonable hour. I’m so guilty of hitting the snooze button at 6am, and looking half-ass for work. That’s why I keep some personal toiletries at work.  A guy’s gotta look presentable.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

Finance Fox mention’s this week:
The Passive Income EarnerWeekly Blog Round: Tax Time

Happy weekend y’all.

After another crazy busy week, the weekend is here and I couldn’t be more glad to have some down time. This also happens to be the last weekend as the month of April slowly comes to an end. Never the less it was a successful month for me because a lot happened. Most of the things that occurred I didn’t write about here, for many reasons which I’m not going to get into now, but let’s just say that I’m a fairly humble kinda guy and never been the one to brag.

Despite being humble kinda guy,  I’ll highlight a few things that touched my life this month. Some of these I’ll write about in the near future, so stay tuned. Here are the highlights from April 2012.

1. Champion

Yup, you read that right…I’m the champ. I’m sure I mentioned somewhere through my writing that I play soccer, and for three different teams. On Monday I played in the championship game with my co-ed team. And after a tough back and forth game, we came on top winning the game 2-1. Congrats to “Wii Not Fit” on a great season and winning the championship. For those of you on the team and reading this, didn’t I promise to write about the win? Congrats guys!

2. Became a BMW owner

Yes, you read that correctly – I bought a new car. Actually it’s not a brand new car, but it’s new to me. I ended up purchasing a 2008 BMW. I know I didn’t talk about my purchase, mostly because I don’t like to brag. However, I’ll write a series of posts that will talk about my purchasing, financing, negotiating the purchase, car insurance and moving to a premium brand vehicle.

3. I finished reading ‘Millionaire Teacher’

I think that I broke my own reading record time. I finished reading ‘Millionaire Teacher’ in five weeks. Sure, you may be thinking “That doesn’t sound fast”, but trust me for me its astonishing time. I’d like thank Andrew Hallam (author of Millionaire Teacher) for getting in touch and sending out some FREE copies. That means there will be an upcoming giveaway………as in next week with multiple copies of  the book Millionaire Teacher. Look for it y’all.

4. Sold my old car

Three weeks after the purchase of my new car, I ended up selling my old car. I’ll talk about this more in greater detail in one of my car purchasing posts. Overall I was happy with sales price, and glad I didn’t give the car in on trade to the dealer. They were only offering $500 – no thanks!

5. Crazy writer

I also became the crazy writer in April, and I can honestly say that in my short blogging career that April 2012 set the record for the amount of blog posts I wrote. Between Finance Fox, my other blog and freelance writing, I wrote in total 31 posts. This version of Sunday Link Charity happens to be the 32nd post. That works out to 1.06 posts per day. Initially it may not sound like a lot, but any writer will tell you that it’s very easy to burn out with writing.

OK! Enough about me now, let’s look what we are all here – to read some solid blog posts across the PF blogosphere.

Afford Anything – You think the job market is tough? Maybe, but moping about it won’t help. Start by reading Paula’s post, this is an oldie but a goodie – Stop crying that there are no job. Create one.

Barbara Friedberg PF – I really liked Barbara’s post from last week, it’s a thinker and a guide in one. Make sure you read 50 habits to Increase Wealth.

Thousandaire – Kevin has been diagnosed with the travel bug. He just spent a week in Las Vegas and is now heading to Mexico. He’s a pretty frugal guy, so he shares with us how to save money on vacation.

Modest MoneyThank you for irresponsible credit card use is a well written post by Jeremy, sadly only the people who are not in credit card debt are will read it, as the plastic abusers are in denial.

Dividend NinjaShould you take a bite into Apple? A question that many investors are asking them selves. In usual Avrom style, he exemplifies why Apple stock may be how now, but without a company without it’s visionary, it’s very hard to predict where it’ll go, despite strong sales of iPhones and iPads.

 

Finance Fox was also mentioned here:

 Yakezie CarnivalEarth Day 2012 Edition

PCIHome Office Ideas – 10 Tips to Make Working From Home Easier

I’m certain that a lot of you didn’t know that I’m a bowling fanatic, and against all odds I became the bowling champ this weekend. On Friday I got together with some friends for some good ole fashion bowling. Nothing beats good bowling and cold beer on a Friday night…..yeah right…but seriously though bowling is a fun time all around. What made this bowling trip different from the rest is that I simply couldn’t lose. The more fun I had with it, the better I was getting…or maybe it was just the beer. I even tried sandbagging, and I still managed to score a pretty good game. We bowled five games and out of the five games bowled I manged to go five for five in the win column, and in the process demolished the five bowlers that tagged along with me. On average I scored 190 points out of a possible 300 points per game – which by the way is a perfect game in bowling. 

For those of you who are bowling fanatics like me, here are a few funny bowling slogans:

“No splits too wide if you got the balls”

“Bowlers keep your minds out of the gutter”

“Bowling – Where you get 3 strikes and you’re still not out”

“Bowlers proudly do it in alleys”

“I’m right up your alley….”

“That’s how I roll…”

And for the gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to….drum roll please…….”Bikini  Bowling”….enjoy! :)

biking-bowling, bikini, babes, bowling, blondie, blonde bikini, babes, bowling, brunette, woman, sexy

bikini bolwing, babes, bowling, blondie, sexy, blonde

And now for this week’s edition of Sunday Link Charity……and as always….some solidly written pieces by some solid personal finance bloggers….enjoy! :)

My University Money – For those of you looking to spice up (improve) your finances and financial tracking, please read this Mint Review to get your 101 on Mint.

20s Finances – With summer just around the corner, most of you guys are planning a vacation of some sort. I hope you planned for it financially and not by swiping your credit-card. And if you didn’t budget for your vacation, it’s never to late, so start by reading this post: How to budget for vacations.

Add Vodka – Couple and money is a never ending story and the number one thing couples argue about. Here’s a real-life reaction of a woman to her boyfriends money stupidity in a post called – What’s your deal breaker?

Krant Cents – Generally an investment strategy consist of set of rules, behaviors and procedures we follow to guide our investment portfolios to higher grounds. KC believes in multiple income streams and assets or as called by most – diversification. In his post “A Different Investment Strategy” he talks about where he invests his money and why. Good job KC!

Sustainable Personal Finance – Everyone is talking about bubbles. Bubbles bursting, the real-estate bubble, the oil bubble, the debt bubble and so on. Techerman touches on a pretty good bubble in a post called:  Public Service Compensation – The Next Bubble?

My Own Advisor – BTW…he’s not my advisor…I inquired and he said I can’t afford his services! :) …Anyways….Mark does write a really good post on tax refunds and how to spend them – How we spent our tax refund this year. And as I write this post he’s tweeting “2-0 Sens!!!! Spezza!!!!” …..I do own a TV, watch TV and follow NHL playoffs, but I didn’t know the Sens were in the playoffs. :)

Dividend Ninja – Mr. Ninja wrote an interesting post on why dividend cuts are a good thing. And after reading the post I can say that he makes a pretty good argument.

 

Finance Fox was also included in the following…

Totally Money Blog Carnival – April 23rd Edition

Money Counselor - Tweets & Links

Yakezie Carnival 4.22.12 Edition

Toughest Part of Being an Entrepreneur

Is a Commercial Cleaning Franchise Right For You?

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Eddie