It was only a month ago that Mrs MMD finally decided after all this time to get a smart phone with a data plan and the whole nine yards. So we signed up for a new plan from Sprint and things were going good. Then out of nowhere this week, she’s no longer able to make or receive calls anymore. So twice I had to call, do the whole pull the battery out and put it back in, and waste a few hours talking with tech support. The end result: The phone still doesn’t work!
As if one phone problem wasn’t enough, then our Vonage router started giving us problems. So I devoted yet another hour on the phone with the Vonage tech support going through their motions as well – pushing the reset button, unhooking cables, etc. Why does it always seem like everything breaks at the same time?
Blog News:
Well, I’m not sure how I’m doing it, but my Alexa ranking has just suddenly dropped about 10,000 points over the last two weeks. Am I finally receiving international recognition? Or could it be because I finally downloaded the Alexa toolbar for my Google Chrome browser? Must be the international fame thing …
In the queue this week, we’re going to start off with a fun post about my favorite two people in the world – my two kids. This is a cute story about how my son decided to snub his chores and start his own business – a garage sale. Stop back on Monday to read more!
Later in the week I’ll have my first income report from my dividend stocks. Ironically I was already set to publish this post even before I did the other post this week about dividends. I hope I don’t overload everyone with too much talk about stocks.
I’m also very excited to announce that I’ll be having a guest post over at Club Thrifty sometime soon! More details to follow.
Link Love – Blogs You Should Check Out:
In case you missed them, here are a few great stories you should check out this weekend:
- We’ve got a double-feature from Shilpan this week! From Street Smart Finance, read about The Salary You Want for Your Happiness and ask yourself how much money you’d need to make to feel like you’ve made it! If that’s not enough, you can also check out the re-launch of his first blog Success Soul. Read the re-post of the famous article Warren Buffett’s 7 Secrets for Living A Happy and Simple Life.
- Do you think that being an introvert is keeping you from being successful? Sydney from Untemplater doesn’t think so, and I can fully attest to this! Read Can Introverts Succeed As Leaders And Entrepreneurs: YES!
- Sometimes I’m lucky enough to learn about other blogs from the comments I get, which is how I found out about S.B. at Save Invest Give. Even though he’s been blogging a lot longer than I have, it sounds like he’s had a few rough patches of writers block. I think we’ve all been there. Read How I Got My Blogging Groove Back.
- Are you cheap or frugal? Yes there is a difference, and Jeremy from Modest Money explains them in Guilt Induced Frugality.
- Why don’t we use our vacation time in America? CF from the Outlier Model writes I CAN HAZ VACATION?
Carnivals:
MyMoneyDesign was featured in the following personal finance carnivals this week:
- Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Back in the Swing of Things Edition
- Yakezie Carnival -The Fincon12 Edition
- Mortgage Rates Are Low and a Personal Finance Carnival
- Lifestyle Carnival 19th Edition
Thanks again to all my new and returning visitors. I really appreciate your support and hope you continue to enjoy my site!
Posts This Week:
1) Practicing Entrepreneurship the Fraidy-Cat Way – Using Your Job
2) Why Dividends Are the Cream of Passive Income
3) Social Security Spousal Benefits – Hook Me Up Elderly Sugar Momma!
4) Citibank Checking Account $100, $300 Gift Card Offer
Photo Credit: Unknown
Lance @ Money Life and More says
Having the Alexa toolbar downloaded yourself is always nice. Just wondering if you noticed… did you know the Meta box is still on your sidebar? Should be an easy removal and I don’t know that anyone but you needs it.
MMD says
Having the Meta box on the side doesn’t really bother me. It is so far down that I doubt it hinders anything. Occasionally my computer will log me out and I have found this to be a convenient way to log back in quickly. It also helps me to gain access from other terminals if I am traveling or at remote locations.
Shilpan says
Thanks for the double mention, MMD! I cherish your friendship and friendship with other bloggers more than anything as a blogger. I will wait to read story about your two favorite people on Monday. 🙂
MMD says
Don’t mention it Shilpan! I know how much the re-launch of Success Soul means to you, and I wanted to help promote it with you. I hope you enjoy Monday’s post!
Nurse Frugal says
That’s one of my least favorite things to do: wait on hold to get something done. Booooo! Good for you for getting your Alexa score down again….Are you still averaging 200 hits a day? Has that changed! Keep up the great work!
MMD says
Thanks! I’m drifting somewhere between 150 and 200 hits per day. I think I need to try some different things to build that number up.
Matthew Allen says
I think having the Alexa toolbar installed is actually pretty important. The way I understood it a year ago, when I first learned of this Alexa ranking system, is that Alexa can only count from other users who have the toolbar installed. Doesn’t really make sense to me because I didn’t think very many people (who don’t care about rankings) would have it installed. Maybe I’m wrong, but that is how I originally understood it.
MMD says
It’s kind of a dumb system – who do you know besides other bloggers that really have the toolbar installed? I had it installed in my IE, but was being lazy about putting it in my Chrome. Now that I’ve downloaded it, that probably has been helping out my rank considering how many times a day I visit my own site.
[email protected] says
Same thing when we recently bought our house. We spent 5 hours on the home inspection, thought everything was good. When we moved in we had plumbing, leaks, power outages, and broken fans. Its always that way when something breaks, they all break.
MMD says
Pain in the butt, isn’t it! It would just be too much to ask for all the problems to spread themselves out.
femmefrugality says
Ugh, Sprint is the absolute worst. Make sure you check your bill every month! They WILL charge you for random things that you NEVER used! We just switched away from them. It was getting ridiculous. When we signed up they told us we could send pic mail without having a data plan. Then they charged us for data every month. So I had to learn a special way to send pictures. I did it, and then they still charged me for going on the internet. Plus some random mystery charges. Good luck.
Thanks for all the great reading this week!
MMD says
Wow, what have I gotten into! Thanks for the tips; I have to look out for those extra charges!
Modest Money says
Thanks for the mention MMD. I’m sure installing the alexa toolbar helped, but I suspect you’ve also just been getting more traffic from demographics who use the toolbar a lot such as advertisers and marketing companies.
MMD says
I did not consider that! Making money and getting a better ranking – I like this arrangement …
Untemplater says
Thanks for the mention! I had to get a replacement iphone twice because of all sorts of hardware issues. It’s a bummer when we have to deal with so many things that break.
The phone I have now finally seems to be a non-lemon though!
MMD says
You’re welcome! I was ready to throw that thing out the window! I don’t even want to tell everyone what the problem finally ended up being …