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
Finally a Safe Savings Rate for Your Retirement Formula
One of the biggest mysteries the average working adult faces when it comes to their personal finances is knowing what the right answer is when it comes to the question of HOW much they should be saving every paycheck for retirement? We’ve all seen generic articles that say to save 10% or whatever, but how do we know that percentage is really the right number to plug into our personal retirement formula? Even if you did take the time to figure out how much money you’d need and what size nest egg to save for, how do you know what chances your savings target would have of surviving another economic downturn like we had this past decade? What confidence do you have that the number you pick will result in your savings being able to last … [Read more...] about Finally a Safe Savings Rate for Your Retirement Formula
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
Types of Investment Funds – Open-End and Closed-End Funds
The following post is a contribution from Gary, a personal finance blogger who focuses on investing, saving, real estate, credit and debt, career and education advice, budgeting, and insurance at Gajizmo.com. Gary has worked at an internet company on their M&A team, as well as two private equity firms, and has a Real Estate Broker’s License. Investment funds allow small and large investors to pool capital together and enjoy higher investment returns with lower risks than private brokerage accounts. Mutual funds offer many benefits, such as easy diversification of securities, professional management, lower trading fees and costs, and increased liquidity. However, investing in these funds requires research. The type of fund an investor … [Read more...] about Types of Investment Funds – Open-End and Closed-End Funds
Niche Website Project Part 2 – The Unveiling
Thank you for being patient with me and returning this week to see the unveiling of my niche site. If you’re just now joining me, then you should know that last week I talked about how I was finally going to get to work on the next of my extra income ideas, and that idea was to create a niche website (a smaller and more concentrated website that is built around a very specific keyword). If you follow the blog carnivals, then chances are you may have come across it already. But in case you haven’t, without any further ado, here is a snapshot of my niche site project: … [Read more...] about Niche Website Project Part 2 – The Unveiling
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
The Roth IRA Basics and What You Need to Know to Get Started Today!
Allow me to be your Dad for a minute and tell you that if you haven’t setup a Roth IRA yet, then what are you doing?! Seriously, if you’re trying to figure out what to do differently with your money this year, how about putting in something that will grow tax free! Whether you know much about investing or money, read on as I explain all the essential Roth IRA basics and what you need to know to make the most of them. … [Read more...] about The Roth IRA Basics and What You Need to Know to Get Started Today!
Starting the Next of My Extra Income Ideas – Building a Niche Website
With P2P investing off the table as one of my extra income ideas, I got right back on the horse and turned my attention towards a new type of side project: Building a niche website. For those of you who are not familiar with what a niche site is, it’s generally a smaller type of website that focuses on a very specific topic. If its full of good content, then they can be of great value to readers who are interested in that subject. Chances are that you’ve probably typed a very detailed search term into Google and one of the first results that you’ve clicked on was a niche site that someone created. … [Read more...] about Starting the Next of My Extra Income Ideas – Building a Niche Website
