Too funny!

Thirteen Things about PERSONAL FINANCE

I’ve been working on my personal finance situation a lot lately! Here are several tools and tips that I’ve come to depend on!

1. PearBudget: I know I’ve talked about this before, but I just have to put one more plug in. Everyone needs a budget, at least when they’re first getting started with personal finance management, and PearBudget is a great program that is free, super easy, and will keep you using it! I’ve been on it for more than 2 months now, which is a HUGE achievement, LOL!

2. Next, you need a way to keep up with your accounts. There’s the old paper and pencil checkbook ledger, but we’re on our computers for everything else, why not managing our finances! I’ve used both Microsoft Money and Quicken Personal Finance, and they are both great tools!

3. Almost any personal finance site that you read tells you that you need to have an emergency savings fund, just in case something happens like you have to go to the hospital, or you get laid off. The amount that goes in this fund varies - a great place to start is $1000, and many sites recommend you keep 3-6 months worth of living expenses. The most common complaint: I can’t afford to put money into an emergency savings fund! The most common reply: You can’t afford NOT to do this. I’ve got 2 that I’m working on right now. My immediate emergency savings fund is through my bank, and I’m currently building a long-term (the 3-6 months one) emergency savings fund in a high-interest savings account. The immediate one is in case I need the money RIGHT NOW - I can get it from an ATM. The long-term one is accessible within a few days, and it will grow because of the interest! Free money!

4. High-interest savings account? How do I get one of those? I’m currently setting up accounts through ING Direct, and I’m LOVING it so far. The interest rate is 4.4% - how crazy is that?! Accounts like these are run through the internet - there is no physical bank, and you don’t get checks. They’re just savings accounts. There are many other financial institutions, but ING allows you to set up sub accounts, which is too cool! I have sub-accounts for my emergency fund, travel fund, medical expenses fund, etc. And all are gonna earn 4.4% interest!

5. I Will Teach You To Be Rich - I’ve blogged about it before, but again, I have to mention it. There are so many different concepts, ideas, and terms that I am so clueless on, and this site explains them in a simple, no nonsense way that will make things clear! Amazing.

6. Don’t want to wade through all the personal finance sites? Then just get the goodies through the Carnival of Personal Finance every week! You’ll find topics about EVERYTHING, and there are three or four sites that I’ve found through reading the carnival that I’ve stuck with.

7. Get an Entertainment Book. They only cost about $20, but there are hundreds (probably thousands) of great coupons and savings in the book. Well worth the money spent!

8. Invest. There are many different kinds of investments (see my #5, he explains them all), but make sure that you are investing. The type of fund that I keep seeing more and more recommendations for is a Roth IRA, which I am still learning about. It involves investing your money and paying the taxes now, and then when you withdraw it, it will be tax-free (no matter how much more taxes are at the time).

9. Another great way to invest - the stock market. Ahhh, don’t be scared. If you read up on what to do, and find a great place to invest with, then you’ll do fine. And the place I’ve seen mentioned over and over again is ShareBuilder. As soon as I start to receive a regular income (aka, when I get out of grad school), I will be investing with ShareBuilder - the fees aren’t bad, and they’re not gonna try to trip you up because you have no idea what you’re doing.

10. Shop at discount stores and buy in bulk! You’ll be amazed at how much you can save at places like Costco and Sam’s Club! However, be wary . . . pay attention to the costs, and divide by how many you’re getting. Are you really saving? Discount stores can be great as long as you play it smart!

11. Take advantage of websites that offer promotions. For example: you need to buy a book for your Bible study in two weeks, and there was a CD you were wanting to get. You could go to Barnes and Noble or Borders that is right by your house . . . or you could go online and get them from Amazon.com for cheaper. And if you spend $25, it’s free shipping, so it’s like you bought it in person. You just have to wait a few days. So why not go for the discount? Or, even better! Do you buy books/DVDs/CDs/software/toys/groceries a lot? Do you shop on Amazon.com A LOT?! Then become a prime member. For a reasonable fee you get free 2 day shipping and significantly discounted overnight shipping. I was offered a free 3 month trial, and I loved it so much that I paid the fee. Now I NEVER buy these things from expensive stores in person! Click here for details!!!

12. Cook at home - don’t eat out, don’t go to fast food restaurants. I’ve been experimenting with my spending lately, and it’s AMAZING how much I’ve saved in food costs!

13. Want a great new opportunity to save HUGE on virtually anything you can buy online? I’m an IBO member, and we sell everything - we have our own product lines as well as partnerships for huge discounts on stores like Barnes and Noble, Office Depot, Dell, Things Remembered, Shop.com, Joann’s Fabrics, and SOOOOO many more! We run the business through Quixtar. The discounts alone are worth it, but if you’re a member, you get a check back based on your purchases and the purchases of your customers. Take a look, and if you’re interested in buying something, let me know! I can set you up as a client with ZERO obligation. Or, if you want to take a great opportunity and are interested in making some money, let me know, and we’ll discuss!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thirteen Things about LINDSEY

A bit of an intro here, LOL! So many people responded to my Firefox Extentions post and my Why I Love Blogging post about technical ineptitude that I decided to make up this post about helpful blogging tech-y things. Please note that this only barely scratches the surface (mostly because I am very novice at all this)! If you want clarification on these things, ask! If I don’t have a clue about what you are curious about, I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction ;-)!

1. Get the right blogging platform. Robin over at PENSIEVE writes “I’m technically deficient, but I wanna pursue learning more about that side of blogging…any suggestions where to begin? (You said “ask away” in your profile page, so I’m a askin’ ).” The beginning seems like a good place to start, LOL! And in my opinion, the first technical thing you need to get straight is your blogging platform.

I personally prefer WordPress. I started off using Blogger, but I felt too restricted - the upload time is aweful, the spam is horrendous, and there are so few things you can do with the layout. I wanted a blog that was an expression of me, not me confined within someone else’s restrictions.

WordPress also has a VERY easy importing tool, so if you’re using Blogger, Textpattern, Dotclear, Movable Type, or LiveJournal, you can have your entire blog transferred in a few short steps. Importing from other platforms may be a little trickier, but it can be done. You can also import from an RSS feed very easily (more on that in a minute).

2. Find an affordable host. A lot of people are using Blogger because it is free. I understand - as a graduate student with no income, money’s pretty tight around here too! However, switching to WordPress doesn’t need to be difficult OR expensive! The actual WordPress install is free - you can go download it right now if you want. But without somewhere to host it, that’s not much help. There are lots of great, affordable hosts out there. But I have to put in a glowing recommendation for LDM Hosting. I have been hosted by LDM Hosting for almost 2 years, and I’ve sent several friends over there as well. The prices are ridiculously low, yet the support and customer service is impeccable. There are many great hosting packages that would allow you to host multiple websites off of one package (I host six on mine!), but the golden ticket is the blogger’s package. This package gives you 50MB of space, 1 GIG of bandwidth, 10 email accounts @ your domain (which they’ll help you set up if you need help), and one-click WordPress install - PERFECT for the blogger. How much does this little ray of sunshine cost? $2 per month, for a grand total of $24 per year. Would you pay $24 a YEAR to get rid of all frusterations of Blogger and gain the freedom of WordPress? That’s what I thought ;-)! If you want more info, let me know - or go visit LDM Hosting’s website.

3. Pick a theme you love! Now that you’ve got your blog with all your posts, you want it to look good. After all, the default theme that comes with WordPress is kind of . . . boring. You can try to build your own, but this gets difficult and confusing very quickly, especially if you are knew to blog design. You’ve got 2 options - either find a free theme for download, or have someone design a theme for you! There are hundreds of free themes online (check here for starters), and this is a great way to go, especially if you’re just starting out. However, some people really want their blog to be an expression of their personalities and interests. If this sounds like you, and you can’t find the perfect thing for free, then go to the professionals. I HIGHLY recommend E. Webscapes. They’ve made three awesome themes for me (see the theme switcher in my sidebar), and they’re working on a fourth for me right now! They have extremely talented designers, and they’re used to working with newbies!

4. Make your email address available, but safe. OK, you’ve got a great looking blog with your posts. What about all the mumbo jumbo in the side? First things first - people want to be able to get in touch with you. But you don’t want to just put your email address on there for all the spambots to take, do you? I’ll let you in on a secret - click on my sidebar where it says “Contact Me.” It opened up an email addressed to me, right? However, I don’t actually have my email address on my website. I’ve used a really neat program called ECloaker to encode my email address! That sounds really complicated, but I promise you it’s not. You download the program, and all you have to do is open it up, input your email address and what you want the text to be (in my case, “Contact Me”), and click “Make Code.” The code it creates will look like a bunch of gobbeldy gook - letters and numbers and #s. You take this, copy and paste it where you want your email address on your blog, and BAM! It looks just like it does on my blog. Pretty sweet, huh?

5. What the heck is an RSS feed? This was the question I heard the most last week, LOL! It took me a while to catch on too, but now that I’ve got this little gem figured out, I’m ADDICTED. You know how lots of websites and blogs have a way for you to subscribe to updates via email? An RSS feed is sort of like this. Here’s the Wikipedia explaination. This is how I understand RSS (and keep in mind - this is MY understanding, not the true technical definition). Every time that I publish a post, the post is sent to my RSS feed for my site. The address for my RSS feed is: http://www.mysuspensionofdisbelief.com/?feed=rss2 If you click on this link, you’ll see all the post info from my site, but it isn’t very visually pleasing. That’s just fine. People don’t read RSS feeds in this format. Instead, they read them in a feed reader.

There are many different types of feed readers. Different web browsers have them integrated - there are extensions for Firefox and for the new Internet Explorer 7. There are web based feed readers such as NewsGator and Feedster. And there are programs you can download to your computer, such as FeedReader (the one I use) and Pluck.

A feed reader works like an email program. For example, let’s say that I want to know when Suspension of Disbelief updates. I could either check the site every day to see if there is an update, or I could subscribe to the feed, and every time that a new post is made, my feed reader gets the new feed . . . like you’d get an email update. I can read the post in my feed reader, or I can click the link to read it on the web. The key is that I don’t have to go check the site every day. This can be VERY helpful if you have lots of blogs that you like to read. I have different folders in my feed reader for blogs of my friends, business blogs, tech blogs, etc. I can read so much more because I don’t have to keep checking the sites!

6. RSS sounds neat! How can I make one for my blog? If you have WordPress, you’re in luck! All WordPress blogs have an RSS feed! Just make sure that you put a link or a button or something on your blog so that people can have the link!

If you’re on a blogging platform that doesn’t have an RSS feed already, then you need to make one. I’m sure there are several services, but the one I am familiar with is FeedBurner. If you go to their website, they’ll talk you through setting up a feed for your blog and how to display it on your site. Reeeeally user-friendly!

And why should you do this? You WILL increase your readership. There are some people (like myself) who find blogs they really like, but they know that they don’t have time to go and check them out all the time! If the site has an RSS feed, then I get the link, add it to my feed reader, and the blog has a new reader. If I can’t find an RSS feed, then I feel sad that I won’t be able to keep up with the blog, and I hope that I stumble back there in the future (and that they’ll have gotten an RSS feed by then).

7. You mentioned that there is a Firefox extention for RSS feeds. What exactly is
? This was the second most addressed issue of last week! Probably because I posted my thirteen favorite Firefox extensions! Firefox is . . . amazing. It’s a web browser, like Internet Explorer, yet soooooooooo much better. You can customize it to your little heart’s desire. There are different themes to change the look of the browser, and you can download extensions, which work as little add-ons for your browser. It’s really easy to switch over from Internet Explorer (when you download it, it asks if you want to do that).

Aside from customization, why should you switch? Firefox is a safer browser - your chances of becoming the victim of malware and spyware are SIGNIFICANTLY decreased. Pop-ups are a thing of the past. It’s very easy to use, and it’s a standards-compliant browser!!!

8. What does standards-compliant mean? What is “valid XHTML”?

From Wikipedia:

“The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same expressive possibilities as HTML, but a stricter syntax.”

Huh? Basically XHTML is code for building websites that is more standardized than HTML. While right now this is just a good practice and it creates a “universal language” for websites, in the future sites that don’t use valid XHTML may not work. At the moment, you’ll notice websites that aren’t in standard might look wierd - look at some of the sites you like in Internet Explorer, then look at them in Firefox. Or, better yet, look at your own site. It might not look as cool as you thought . . . Sites that are XHTML complaint should look great in all browsers (though there’s always a chance that they might not).

The good news? WordPress is valid, and many of the themes that you can find for download are compliant as well. And if you get a theme made for you, request that the designer make it compliant - they usually do that anyways!

9. Whoa, how did you make that little box with the quote from Wikipedia?! I don’t know about other blogging platforms, but in WordPress, you just add a little bit of code! If I wanted to make a box with the word “Blogging” in it, I would write this: and it will show up like this:

Blogging

10. What is the little checker thing under your posts? What’s del.icio.us? del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Basically you open an account, and then, instead of adding sites you like to your browser bookmarks, you can add them to your del.icio.us account. When you add them, you can tag them so that you can search through them easier. Also, you can view other peoples’ bookmarks, to see other things you might like. And best of all, since it’s web-based, you can view your bookmarks from any computer. So click on that little checkered thing, it’ll add that post to your del.icio.us account! If you want to add this feature to your WordPress blog, let me know, I’ll tell you what to do!

11. Why does everyone “tag” their blogs? Tags are really helpful when you use a tool called Technorati. Most all the blogs in the blogosphere are logged on here (if you haven’t claimed your blog, go do it)! You can search for blogs, you can search for subjects, you can look up statistics about blogs, all sorts of goodies! Again, if you want to add this feature to your WordPress blog, let me know, I’ll tell you what to do!

12. What’s the deal with the Rent My Blog thing? One more great blog networking tool is to link link link! And what better way to do it than to feature a different blog every week? Rent My Blog is run by BlogExplosion, and it’s basically a “blog of the week” type feature. Run over and check it out for details!

13. Where do you find out all this stuff? I read a lot of technical blogs and websites, LOL! Many of them are listed in my sidebar, so go take a look! You can also receive RSS feeds from newspapers and news sites, so I subscribe to CNN Technology and New York Times Technology Section. You can find out anything on the internet! I also learn a lot from reading other peoples blogs and asking questions ;-)!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Leave me a comment and I’ll give you a shout out!

Seriously? January 2007? This is ridiculous . . .

Links for details:
Windows Vista release delayed
When do Vista delays become disdain for the customer?
Microsoft Shares Slip 3 Percent on Delays
Microsoft Delays Vista - Again