by Chris on September 15, 2008
Usually I don’t pay too much attention to what’s happening on Wall St. My investing strategy, outlined in my Investing for Beginners piece, is to buy quality low cost highly diversified index funds and hold them for the long term.
However, it was hard not to pay attention today when Lehman Brothers announced they were filing bankruptcy. This is the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history even surpassing that of Worldcom & Enron and spells the end of 150+ year old company. Other major news of the day was that Bank of America was acquiring Merrill Lynch and that AIG was also in major financial trouble. The result of all this bad news was a 500 point drop in the DOW, the largest since the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.
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by Chris on September 14, 2008
There are a lot of things that go in to building a quality website that will continually bring in traffic and eventually produce income for you. This blog is just now approaching its two month anniversary so I don’t presume to know everything but before jumping into this project I did do some preliminary planning and looked at a lot of different blogs that have become popular.
The single most important thing has always been and remains content. If you publish quality content, people who share your interests will eventually find you. The next thing that seem to recurring on successful blogs, was top-notch design and presentation. A professionally designed blog does a lot for your credibility and if you are using a theme that automatically optimizes your content for Search Engines, those interested parties will only find you faster.
That brings me to the topic of today’s post. Chris Pearson over at DIYThemes just released the third major update to his popular Thesis Wordpress Theme. The Thesis theme is the theme I chose to use here on SeekingFF.com and it offers unparalleled design options for its users without any of the difficult coding that is usually associated with building a professional looking blog. The best thing about Thesis is that it automatically optimizes your content for the search engines. Chris also had the foresight to add a support forum for the theme so if you need help, you can get it from him or one of the other 1500+ thesis users active in the forum.
If you’ve been reading this blog thus far, you already know that one of the things I write about is how you can use the internet to make extra money and that process starts with building a website that you can later monetize. The Thesis Theme is one tool you can use to do that. So if you haven’t yet checked it out, browse on over to the DIYThemes and see what Thesis can do for you and your blog and stay tuned to SeekingFF.com for more information on how to build and monetize a website that will pay recurring dividends as you travel down to the road to financial freedom.
by Chris on September 8, 2008
I am a week late getting the August 2008 Month in Review out due to a week vacation at the end of July and a family reunion this past weekend but anyway, here it is.
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by Chris on August 23, 2008
Starting out, picking the right investments can seem overwhelming. There are just so many choices out there, stocks, mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), etc., etc.
This blog isn’t going to tell you specific investments to put your money in, but I can give you some general guidance on where to start. First of all, let me share my investing strategy with you.
I’ve read a lot of books on investing and a common view of many authors and one that I also subscribe to is that, the average investor cannot beat the stock market long term.
There are few that can. So while I do have some play money in my Zecco (read my Zecco review) account where I do pick individual stocks and try to beat the market, the bulk of my holdings are in passive index funds.
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by Chris on August 19, 2008
If you’ve ever searched the web looking for some ways to make some extra money, you’ve probably come across some paid survey sites. There are a ton of these sites out there and most of them are complete junk full of false promises. If you see one of these sites and are tempted to join, just remember the old saying, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. You simply aren’t going to get rich sitting on your couch taking a few surveys every evening. Just like anything else, making money online takes a lot of time and a lot of time.
That being said, not all Survey Sites are complete junk. If you find a good program and you can set aside a couple hours a week just for taking surveys, it is possible to make a couple hundred dollars a month. The trick of course is finding a good program that deals with good advertisers. At the end of this post, I’ll tell you about a good survey program I actually use and have had good luck with. First though, I want to tell you something very important.
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by Chris on August 17, 2008
If you haven’t noticed, Blogging has become very popular over the last few years. As of today, Technorati is currently tracking approximately 113 million, yes million, blogs worldwide!
One big reason contributing to the popularity of blogging is because unlike a traditional website, a blog makes it very easy to interact with your readers and it is also very easy for your readers to interact with you and the other readers via comments. As a blog becomes popular, more and more readers find their way to that site. More readers generally means more comments and eventually you’ll find that people are coming back to your site to read other comments and interact with each other just as much as they are to read your new content.
When a blog develops a strong following, it can become a major income producing asset. Introduce a few tasteful ads on your sidebars and you’ll start to see some real results. This is why blogging can be so fun and addicting!
Not only are you writing about something that you enjoy talking about and getting the opportunity to discuss your topics with readers who share your interests, you are actually receiving some monetary gain on the side!
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by Chris on August 16, 2008
On the road to financial freedom, cutting costs can be just as important as finding ways to increase your income. If you’re the outdoors type, one great way to entertain yourself for a day at a minimal cost is to take advantage of local parks. You can easily spend a whole day hiking and biking with friends and family for less than the cost of dinner and movie. Another benefit is that you get some exercise and as I’ve mentioned about in other Healthly Lifestyle posts, maintaining your physical health is just as important as building your financial health.
Today I spent the day at Turkey Run State Park here in Indiana. The weather was great, the trails were awesome, and my family and I had a great time spending the day together. The cost for this fun-filled day was just a $4 entrace fee per vehicle, the lunch we packed, and of course of cost of gas to get us there and back. For 6 people and a dog, we probably spent less than $50 for the whole day.
So if you’re looking for something fund to do on a weekend, like the outdoors, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, a day at a local state or national park is a great way to do all that. If you enjoy camping, you can turn a trip like this into an entire weekend getaway and spend a lot less than you would going to a hotel and eating out every meal.
If you’ve visited some of parks in the Midwest, feel free to leave a comment or a review. I’ve been to a lot but I still have a lot to see and would love to hear from some of the readers or their parks’ experiences.
by Chris on August 13, 2008
As we travel down the road to financial together on this blog, I’ll cover a lot of different financial topics. We’ll talk about investing, insurance, banking, purchasing a home, purchasing a vehicle, and so on and more importantly, we’ll talk about how to do these things in the most financially efficient way as possible. However, like many things, a person’s financial position is only as strong as its foundation. So today I want to talk about what many financial gurus consider the foundation of a person or family’s financial position. The topic today is “The Importance of an Emergency Fund.” You’ve probably heard this term before and hopefully you already have one set up, but because an emergency fund is so important, I think it would be doing the readers of SeekingFF a great disservice by not devoting at least one post to this topic. So, with that being said, let’s explore exactly what an emergency fund, why you need one, and how big of a fund you need.
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by Chris on August 11, 2008
Towards the end of July I wrote a review on the people-to-people lending marketplace known as Prosper.com. If you missed it, you can read it here. The basic idea though is this, people lend money to each other and both sides benefit. The borrower gets a loan at a lower rate then they have with their credit cards or could get at a bank and you the lender gets a rate better than they would get just keeping their money in a savings account or even better than the market (this year for example).
Anyway, its a good service and I’ve been using it since mid 2006 and have been quite pleased with my returns (averaging around 12%). Now let’s get to the purpose of this post.
Get $25 just for signing as a Prosper lender.
If you’re thinking about joining me on Prosper, now is a great time to get started. Prosper has a referral program that will give you $25 just for signing up as a lender and making 1 loan. Here’s the catch. You have to be referred by another Prosper member to get the $25. If you just head over to Prosper.com and sign up, you will not receive the signup bonus.
Luckily though, me being a fellow Prosper member, I’d be happy to refer you. Simply sign up using my referral link, fund a loan, and you’ll automatically receive a $25 credit to your account. Prosper is one simple and fun way to make some extra money online. If you’d like to join me and receive the $25 credit for becoming a lender, simply signup using my referral link below. Just so you know, I also will be receiving $25 for each new member I refer. Check out the rest of this post though to see how you can start doing the same once you join!
My Referral Link
http://www.prosper.com/join/cg924
Make $25 or $50 for your referrals
The nice thing about the referral program, is that the actual referrer also receives a credit. If you refer another borrow you’ll receive $50 and if you refer another lender, you’ll both receive $25. So once you join Prosper and get a feel for it, check out the referral program link on their site and refer a few friends and family and place a link on your website. A few referrals a month plus the extra interest income you’ll be making on your loans could really add up!
Want to know more about Prosper?
Check out my review. As always and questions or comments are welcome! Just leave a comment and I’d be happy to answer.
by Chris on August 9, 2008
Life Insurance is a topic that a lot of people really would prefer not to think about and it is understandable why. I mean, I don’t want to think about what would happen to my loved ones if I died, but nevertheless, it is something you should include in your financial plan in case the unthinkable were to happen.
This is a fairly in-dept post covering Who Needs Life Insurance, What are the Different Types of Life Insurance, How Much do you Need, How Much Does it Cost, and How to Pick the Right Company. If you’d like to read it in its entirity, just click on the continue link below.
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