Who else is tired of the Winter weather? If you live anywhere near me (east), then you’re probably also over all this snow and cold that just continues to dump on us every day. We were watching the news and they mentioned that at this time last year it was 70 degrees outside! Can you believe that? I don’t need it to be 70, but I would like it be just a little more spring-like. This weekend we’ll be getting things ready for Easter and taking our daughter out for her birthday. I also plan to start reading my new book, The A to Z of Saving Money. This is a new ebook collaboration among several personal finance bloggers, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it for a while. If you’d like to enter a contest for your chance to win a … [Read more...] about Tired of Winter, The A to Z of Saving Money, and a Giveaway
Lifestyle
Where’s Da Money? – Rethinking My Online Income System
Where IS all the money at? Lately what’s been on my mind is all the whirlwind of activity within the personal finance blogging world. We’ve got 1) Google threatening more algorithm updates, 2) some big sites losing their PR, and 3) sites being sold off. With all of this hoopla, it makes me wonder if I need to rethink my online income system for making money off my blog. Going forward, what IS the marketing plan for My Money Design? … [Read more...] about Where’s Da Money? – Rethinking My Online Income System
The New Oz Movie and Some Blog Updates
This weekend we plan to take the kids to go see the new Oz movie. It looks pretty good; and kind of very similar to the recent Alice in Wonderland. The kids have been eating up all of the commercials and teasing to go see it since they first started advertising for it. Funny story: A few months ago my son watched the original Wizard of Oz for the first time on TV. Somewhere during the middle, I asked him how he liked it. He said it was really good, but that you could tell it was REALLY old. I was a little puzzled and asked him how he knew that. He said “because they keep on singing everything”. :) … [Read more...] about The New Oz Movie and Some Blog Updates
How to Reverse Lifestyle Inflation
The following post is a contribution from Tony at We Only Do This Once. Tony is a trombone player who has performed with major symphony orchestra, on Broadway in NYC, and in recordings and movie soundtracks. He blogs about simplifying your life through downsizing and becoming financially fit. One of the best and worst things that ever happened to me was that I had a five year stretch of massive raises in income. During this time, I chose to not live off of my old income, and instead buy a ton of stuff. A year and a half ago, I found myself with debt up to my eyeballs (about $120,000 including my car loans, student loans, and credit card debt), and I decided that enough was enough. I am only a few short months from paying it all … [Read more...] about How to Reverse Lifestyle Inflation
Our Vacation Dilemma – Plus Blog Updates and a Giveaway
Here is our vacation dilemma: For a few weeks now, we’ve been planning on booking a trip to Disney World. We took the kids years ago when they were really young and we’ve wanted to go back before they get too old to really get into it. But I started checking into the price … Holy cow! It’s looking like $4500 to $5000 for a 5 or 6 night package! … [Read more...] about Our Vacation Dilemma – Plus Blog Updates and a Giveaway
My Income Taxes are Done – Plus Blog Updates
How good does it feel to finally say you’re done with your income taxes and they are turned in? I’ll be honest: I wasn’t looking forward to it this year. We had a lot of activity in the MMD household last year: Selling stocks, earning dividends, and the biggest one – having blog income to report. I thought for sure I was going to have to finally pay to have someone else figure all this out for me and prepare my taxes. … [Read more...] about My Income Taxes are Done – Plus Blog Updates
Love Day Dinner – Plus Blog Updates
I hope everyone had a fun Valentine ’s Day. Anytime a holiday happens during the week (like Halloween), I feel it really takes something out of it when you have to go work / school. Regardless, we still had our annual “Love Day” dinner (as the kids call it) of spaghetti, meat sauce, and bread. Mrs MMD did outstanding as always and it was all very delicious. Now that it has came and went we can look forward to March coming around the corner and with it the first signs of somewhat warmer weather. … [Read more...] about Love Day Dinner – Plus Blog Updates
My Awesome Birthday Weekend and Finally a Google PageRank Increase!
Did I happen to mention I’ve got the best wife ever? Monday was my birthday, and in celebration, Mrs MMD surprised me last weekend with a surprise trip to a bed and breakfast along the Michigan coast. What a great gift! It was a beautiful little place with a fireplace, hot-tub, champagne, and – of course - oven cooked French toast in the morning! Needless to say, I had a great birthday weekend and really enjoyed this getaway. Here are a few pictures if anyone would like to check it out: … [Read more...] about My Awesome Birthday Weekend and Finally a Google PageRank Increase!
