Money Relationship » Random

Where to Go From Here

Adam — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:00:12 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about writing lately and wanted to propose a slight change to some of the posts. I want to keep writing about money and debt but I also want to being to write about improving ones life and just winning in general. I don’t really want to push you away from the site so I want to leave it up to you. PLEASE answer the quick question(s) below and give me your feedback. You all are the reason I continue to blog and your opinion matters greatly to me.

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Where to Go From Here

I’m Still Here….

Adam — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:30:11 +0000

Just wanted to give you a quick shout out and let you know that I am still alive. It’s been pretty hectic for me the past few weeks. I moved back to Maryland, started my new position and visited family in PA (twice). So, needless to say, the blog has taken a back seat.

Our debt repayment is still going strong and we should have a pretty good tally at the end of the month.

I hope to get some posts up starting next week as things are finally starting to settle down a bit. I have a few good posts up my sleeve about budgeting and financial things you still need to do even if you are in debt. In the meantime, check out the post I had over at Frugal Dad last week.

Don’t Become a Financial Bully

Have a great weekend!

I’m Still Here….

Miss Me?

Adam — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I’m alive and well. Over the past few weeks, not much has happened in our financial lives so I figured I wouldn’t bore you with random posts. I typically just sit here in my home away from home and talk to my wife via Skype. Not much excitement there! Obviously, we are still paying off debt but I don’t really feel like writing a post titled “I paid $100 on our personal loan today!”

I could write some more basic things if that is what you are looking for. Any thoughts? Do you want more posts on “how to budget” or “why you need to save”? I just feel like so many other bloggers are writing about that stuff and you are probably getting tired of it. So many other bloggers are beginning to “write for the search engines” and I just don’t want to do that. I feel like I would alienate you.

So, I am reaching out to you, my readers. What do you want to see here on the site? I definitely want to stick with the idea of transparency in our financial life. So, is there something that you want to know about us?

Miss Me?

Big Changes and an Even Bigger Confession

Adam — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:00:18 +0000

Happy holidays everyone! If you are viewing this post on the site, you may notice a big change. I’ve changed the header, updated all pages and made the site easier to navigate. If you are viewing this in a reader or via email, click here to get to the site. I’ve made these changes for reasons that you will find out below.

The Big Confession

As you know, someone by the name of Chris has been posting on the site about his debt. Well, I am here to confess that I am Chris. When I first started blogging, I wanted to share our journey out of debt. However, my wife felt a little different about that. So, I thought I would create a pen name (Chris) to blog under. Did I get ya? Did you know it was me?

Lately, I have been talking to my wife about coming clean and she agreed that it was time. We have had great support from the readers here and over at Frugal Dad (where I am contributing weekly). We now want to share with you our journey out of debt on a more personal level. I think it makes it much easier to follow someone on this type of journey if you can connect with them. That’s why I now have my picture (and my wife’s picture) on the new about page. We want to get to know you and support you in getting debt free just like you will support us. Transparency is our new goal.

The Big Changes

I have also decided to change the way I blog. Long gone are the days where I talked about lipper fund averages and what the best reward credit card is. There are just too many bloggers doing that today. All future posts will be about our journey out of debt and how we live our life while in debt. If you read the about page, my wife and I want to continue to live a somewhat normal life while in debt. We won’t be eating beans and rice. We won’t be making our own deodorant. You never know when something will happen in your life and we don’t want to sacrifice everything to get out of debt 12 months faster.

I am going to try desperately to stick to a schedule. I want to post three times a week here (a post on Monday, a post on Wednesday, and a roundup on Friday). I will also continue to have a weekly post on Frugal Dad (every Friday). The posts will hopefully be a little bit meatier than in the past. I want to put out some quality things that will cause some great discussion here on the site.

Here are some other things that are changing:

I want to include many more guest posts.
I have removed all Google Adsense for regular readers. As long as you visit the site once every six months, they will not show for you.
Advertising will be limited to a single page and will not clutter the sidebar.
I want to include much more discussion.
I will be creating a free eBook sometime in early 2010.

These are just a few things that will be changing around here. Be sure to comment below about the new design, me being Chris, or suggestions that you want to see in upcoming posts.

Have a great holiday!

Big Changes and an Even Bigger Confession

Multiplication Made Easy

Adam — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:06 +0000

Sometimes when I am out with friends and family, a medium sized multiplication problem comes about. For some reason, I can do these types of problems in my head fast. I’m not sure where I learned this trick, but I am going to share it with you.

Third Grade Math

I remember back in third grade when we used to play multiplication games. We would compete with other students in the class to see who could learn the basic multiplication tables first. We started with the 2′s (2 x 2 all the way to 2 x 9) and then moved onto the 3′s, 4′s, all the way to the 9′s. The tip that I am going to show you assumes that you already know this basic math.

Multiples of Ten

The process that I use for multiplication involves breaking the problem down into two parts. The first part is a multiple of 10 and the other is the basic math explained above. Let’s look at an example:

17 x 6 =

When faced with a problem like this, I first break down the larger number in my head as a multiple of 10. So, I take 10 out of the 17 and it leaves me with 10 x 6. You can do that in your head and get 60. I then take the remainder of 7 and multiply it by 6. That is a problem from the basic section and it gives me 42. All you need to do then is add the 60 and the 42 and it gives 102. Isn’t that a lot easier to do in your head? Here’s another example just to be sure you got it:

16 x 8 =

First, break the larger number down into a multiple of 10. That will give you 10 x 8 which equals 80. Then take the remainder of 6 and multiply it by the 8. That gives you 48. Add the 80 and the 48 and you get your answer of 128.

What do you think? Easy? Will it be useful to you?

photo by: Sagolla

Multiplication Made Easy

Great News! We’re Back In Business!

Adam — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:20 +0000

Woohoo!!! The time has come! After a long hiatus, I have finally been granted permission to continue the site. I thought this day was never going to come! Well, it’s here now and I cannot wait to get going again.

Look for some new material next week from Chris and I. He has been stockpiling articles and I will release them in a somewhat methodical way. They are great and I know you will enjoy them. His story is one that I hear frequently and I hope his journey can help each and every one of you. I will be posting too, but probably not as frequently as him. I will be focusing on getting posts ready for the upcoming tax season. I hope to give you a one-stop site for all of your tax questions for next filing season over at The Simple Tax.

Finally, I want to thank you for sticking with me and remaining a subscriber (if your not one, shame on you ).

Great News! We’re Back In Business!

Be Back Soon (Hopefully)!

Adam — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I just wanted to give you a quick status update from my world. Here is what happened in the past 4 weeks:

I got married to a beautiful woman
We went to Jamaica for our honeymoon
We moved into a larger apartment in the same complex
I started my new job and I am currently in Cincinnati for training

There you have it. Can you see why I wasn’t blogging? Well, there is another reason I wasn’t blogging either. This site may cause a conflict of interest with my new job. Therefore, I need to file certain forms to see if I can continue this site. I hope everything will work out and I will be able to get back to blogging by the end of next week.

So, I want to apologize to all of you readers for not having content that I know you are dying to read. I also want to apologize to Chris. Actually, I have been apologizing to him behind the scenes but I thought this was appropriate as well. He has been sending me plenty of articles but because of the new job, I have been unable to publish them. I hope to get them going again too as soon as I am back in business.

Anyway, I hope you continue to stick around!

Be Back Soon (Hopefully)!

New Blogger Coming to The Site!

Adam — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:00:24 +0000

Well, I am glad to announce that we are getting a new contributor on the site. As I mentioned the other day, I will be very inactive over the next few weeks due to some personal events. Because of that, I am looking for guest posts from other bloggers (and readers).

The other day, I received an email from a frequent reader named Chris. He is a twenty-something married man who is living a life in debt. He wanted to do a guest post, but after finding out more about him, I realized his quest to become debt-free will be a great addition to this site. As you obviously know, I do not blog about my finances very much as they are not that exciting. In order to get you readers some additional topics, I asked Chris if he would like to contribute to the blog on a weekly basis. Thankfully, he accepted and you can expect to see about 2 posts from him each week. Also, starting in August, you can expect him to show you his budget and net worth statement.

I will continue to post about various personal finance topics that motivate, educate and stimulate your financial minds. Chris will be more of a personal touch to the blog and you can follow him in his quest to become debt-free. Chris will basically be starting from scratch so you can expect posts on budgets, debt reduction methods, spending methods, etc. Anyway, wish Chris luck! You should see his first post on Wednesday of this week. Also, I am still looking for guest posts to fill in the gaps. Make sure you contact me to get your post included!

New Blogger Coming to The Site!

Looking For Guest Bloggers!

Adam — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:12:55 +0000

I need your help! I want to keep good content on the site over the next few weeks but I am going to be extremely busy. First, I’m starting a new job August 3rd and there are a lot of things that I need to complete to get ready. Second, our wedding is less than a month away and the future Mrs is asking for my help with various small things. Third, we will be traveling to Jamaica for a week after the wedding. Fourth, we are moving as soon as we get back. Sound crazy? Yeah, that’s what I thought!

So, with all of that going on, I will obviously be posting less and less frequently. To fill in some of the gaps, I would like to insert some guest posts. If I had to pick, I would say that I need some posts on debt reduction, charity, personal stories, frugal tips, family, etc. I typically do not blog about those things so it would be nice for readers to get a good dose of them.

Please contact me if you would like to be featured as a guest contributor. You do not have to be a blogger in order to be featured. So, if you have a unique story that you would like to share, please let me know. Obviously, if you are a blogger, your posts will be accepted as well and you have a great chance to expose the YMR readers to your blog.

Looking For Guest Bloggers!

Subscriber Swap Saturday – No Debt Plan

Adam — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:00:04 +0000

No Debt Plan is about getting and staying out of debt with a plan. Kevin, the author, is passionate about budgeting, saving for the future, and using goals to reach financial freedom. You can subscribe to his blog by RSS or email.

This interview is part of a feature he’s developed called Subscriber Swap Saturday. The basic idea is to get the subscribers of one blog to subscribe to the other blog for at least a week, just to try it out. After a week if you don’t find that blogger’s content enticing, drop it. The hope is that over time you will find several writers that you weren’t familiar with who provide meaningful content to you. You can read more about Subscriber Swap Saturday at his get out of debt blog, as well as his interview with me. Here are my questions to Kevin:

YMR: Did you have any formal personal finance training in high school or college?

Kevin: I took a corporate finance course as part of my management degree. In the class the professor touched on some of the basics. Everything else has come from my own reading (magazines and online primarily). We may have touched on the basics — like balancing a checkbook — in high school, but that was about it.

YMR: Do you think we need to be teaching personal finance to our younger generations?

Kevin: Anything would be an improvement in my eyes. Let’s show them how deadly — and useful — credit cards can be. Let’s show them how a 30-year mortgage really works and how you shouldn’t buy a house unless you really, really plan to stay in it for a while. How investing early means you don’t necessarily have to invest as much. I could go on and on for days, but those are some highlights.

YMR: What was the best advice that your family gave you about money?

Kevin: Save 10% of everything you make and spend less than you earn. I don’t remember any significant “sit down talks” about money, but these stick out to me. In fact I think 10% isn’t even close to what we all need to be saving, but it’s a start in the right direction.

YMR: What has your family or friends taught you about what NOT to do with your money (i.e. what made you say, “now that was a dumb financial move”)?

Kevin: Hmm… interesting question. My parents, unfortunately, don’t have nearly enough saved for retirement. However they get the luxury of social security, something I feel our generation will likely do without. I try to spread the financial gospel as far as I can, and I can’t think of any major financial problems friends have made. We made the “mistake” of buying a house we love then realizing we probably weren’t going to live in this city for 5-7 years to make our money back, but we’re not underwater or anything like that.

YMR: How would you describe your site to my readers in five words or less?

Kevin: Debt to wealth through planning.

YMR: Do you ever think that there will be too many financial blogs on the internet? Why or why not?

Kevin: Ehhhh… yes and no. A lot of what you read is the same old stuff being rehashed — don’t use credit cards, save money, etc. It’s tough to remain interesting to a large audience. But I think those that can differentiate themselves or settle into a solid niche will enjoy success. I hope you and I are among them!

YMR: What has been your favorite post to write and why?

Kevin: I’m somewhat proud of my No Debt Plan (the actual plan behind the blog). Other than that I can’t think of one post that really just makes me go wow, I did a great job there. Not sure if that means all my posts are merely okay, or if everything I write is Pulitzer-worthy…

Subscriber Swap Saturday – No Debt Plan