I had a great vacation in Bali (definitely got my dose of Vitamin D…probably enough to last me a year lol).

Bali was absolutely beautiful… everything about it was beautiful.  I have never seen any place so lush and fertile before.  The people were amazingly friendly, accommodating, and honest.  Most people we met were genuine, friendly, humble, and SO laid back.  Since everyone else was so laid back and the scenery was so serene, the normally frantic me was forced to chill out a bit.  Which is a good thing…haha.

I can see why Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat Pray Love fame “found” herself in Bali.  It’s just so beautiful.  Speaking of Eat Pray Love, I had to visit Ketut Liyer in Ubud.  He was depicted just like the movie and the book, he even pulled out his medicine book like he supposedly did all the time in the movie!

Of course I had to see what he had to say about my future.  Unfortunately because of the massive fame that has become of him, the local Balinese say he has memorized the English phrases and fortune telling and therefore he says the same thing to each tourist.  He told me that I was very verrrrry pret-ty, that my cheeks were good which made him hap-py, and that my lips were sweet like suuuu-gar.  He also said the exact same thing to every other English speaking tourist coming to see him.  It was a little disappointing but still a tourist novelty and a pretty cool experience.  His wife didn’t tell me to find a good man, but she did hustle and bustle about preparing dinner.  She also had a disgruntled look on her face like she meant business LOL.  Ketut is certainly doing very well for himself and has become a little bit of a business tycoon!

PF Blog Love

• My Wife Quit Her Job shows us how to start and find products to sell online
  

  Breakfast in Bali

• Free From Broke shows us how to Hedge against inflation with education
• The Wealthy Turtle shows us 7 mothers day presents that will land you a night on the couch
• Planting Money Seeds shares 5 of the biggest lies freelancing clients could be telling you
• Out Of Your Rut talks about going global with an online business.
• Stupid Cents reminds us that there are opportunities online but watch out for scammers
• Balance Junkie shows us the purpose and the pessimism of no
• My University Money explains lifestyle inflation
• Financial Highway is GIVING AWAY $500 for sharing you best money saving tip
• Bible Money Matters shows us 50 Easy Ways To Save Money Every Month

 Carnival Fun

• Self Directed Investing For Retirement Carnival – Socialism is Winning Edition
• Festival of Frugality #336 – Bee In Your Bonnet Edition
• Totally Money Blog Carnival #65 – Success, Wealth & Happiness Edition

Others can offer you tips on how to make $10,000 in 4 hours a week online (most likely it’s by showing others how to make $10,000 in 4 hours a week online), and I have to admit that my advice pales in comparison to these promised riches. I can tell you that my method for how to become an online freelancer is fairly easily to reproduce, and nearly anyone can do it. It is always interesting to me how many good writers I see trying to make a living on the internet, yet failing miserably. In many ways, they have become the victims of cheap English content outsourcing. If you want to make money by freelancing online you have to find a way to stick out from the crowd, otherwise you will simply be competing for $3 per 500 words and giving yourself carpal tunnel for peanuts.

Make Money Online – The Pot of Gold At The End of The Rainbow

So, you’ve heard there is a big need for writing online, and you have no interest in doing any of that crazy coding or website building stuff. How do you go about finding a gig? Well I would recommend becoming great friends with a guy who does that crazy coding stuff and then go from there;) Barring that, here is how you stand out from the crowd – you create a blog. I know this seems ridiculous, you want to write for others and get paid for it, not sink time into the black hole of time that is blogging. Here is the thing, building a blog is the perfect way to showcase a portfolio of writing. I might even argue that if you have two or three passions that you like writing about, it would be to your advantage to create more than one blog. This is also where, with a small amount of seed money, you can make this whole outsourcing thing work for you. If you head on over to Elance or Odesk you will find a bevy of people who can set you up a pretty decent blog for like $25. Heck, you could probably even find someone on Fiverr to do it for you. WordPress makes blogging so easy, that even I can do it, and the whole process can be outsourced for very cheap. I’m not saying you’ll get a gorgeous world-beating blog out there this way, but you could find something workable. Another option is to use a ready-made blogging platform at a place like blogspot. These platforms are extremely simple, they just aren’t ideal for generating revenue, or presenting yourself as unique.

Use The Voice Young Padawan

Blogging is a great way to sharpen your writing skills and develop this mythical “voice” you keep hearing about. Basically, your “voice” is just something distinct about your writing. It’s tough to teach, but it’s kind of like allowing your unique personality to shine through your writing (when you have a sort of stale personality like mine, your “voice” is to try a little too hard to act cool in order to cover that reality up). You don’t need to be a perfect grammatical writer to write online (at least I hope not, or I am screwed), but you do have to be proficient. If you’re worried about your ability to communicate effectively because of technical writing-related problems, hiring someone online to check out your writing and give you a few pointers is much more cost-efficient than taking a writing course from some pretentious hipster who is a failed writer at a university or college.

To Be an Online Freelancer Go Online!

Once you have identified your passions, become a decent writer, and figured out how to set up a basic blog, start building that online portfolio. I know it seems dumb because you aren’t making any money on these articles and you could be making $5-$10 a piece somewhere else, but trust me, this will pay off in the long run. After you have a solid base, like say 25-30 articles, start “building a presence within your online community.” I know this sounds like I copied-and-pasted that line right out of some guru’s overpriced eBook, but it is true nonetheless. The blogging world is not exactly rocket science. Get out there and “meet” people. Instead of shaking hands and exchanging names that you will forget as soon as you walk away, leave an intelligent comment that is actually relevant to the information presented (don’t be that guy/gal that leaves 11-word comments everywhere in a bid to get recognized). After people interact with you for a little while, you can offer to do a guest post for them, or some other favour. Make sure and remind people you are another personal finance blogger. PF bloggers get so many requests for garbage guest posts all the time,  you have to make us understand you’re cooler than that drivel. I also recommend checking out any ready-made blogging networks and meeting people through the respective forums and online chats for your preferred niche. Again, I know this all sounds like a lot of effort, and a lot like doing all the dirty work to build a blog, but I honestly believe this is the way to actually get paid what you are worth as a writer. Keep lists of all the contacts you make, and always promptly return emails and other communication from them, these contacts will be essential.

Becoming an Online Freelancer vs Owning a Blog

If you don’t plan on making a ton of money off of your blog, you can take your foot off of the pedal a little at this point, and just make sure to make high quality posts. Ignore all these geniuses that tell you to focus on picking keywords, and making sure you post every single day, while reading a million pages on what SEO means. That’s irrelevant to your mission of simply earning a steady cash flow by writing for other people.

So many bloggers crash and burn because they start a blog to interact with others, write about something their passionate about and maybe earn a little money on the side – only to find out there is so much more to it. While some of the dudes/dudettes that own blogging empires might scoff at the idea of specializing in staff writing, I think it has a ton of advantages:

• You get to focus solely on writing – which is what most bloggers wish they could do.
• Immediate compensation – no waiting for ads, or shivering at the thought of the next Google slap.
• Flexible hours that you can work from home.
• Built in vacations whenever you want them.
• Tons of free links and networks if you change your mind about wanting to make a real go of your blog.
• No 6 month delay where you are blogging into nothing wondering if you will even make enough money to cover your small fees associated with running a blog.

Competing With Fiverr Is For Suckers

You can try and build up a following on a freelance website, but the bottom line is that there are a lot of talented writers out there that will be driving down the market through competition. Not just that, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of decent-if-not-great writers willing to write not-terrible content for almost nothing. I don’t recommend competing with them. Instead, use an easy blogging platform to become a somewhat-known and provable authority in your field. Once you snap up a couple of staff writing assignments, I suggest your pour your energy into these. If you do a great job, others will notice and you will have more offers than you know what to do with. Once you have a couple people that trust you with their blog, they will likely recommend you to others and you’re off to the races. You will have a hard time finding places to pay you $20-$30 per post on any freelance site (especially without writing hundreds of articles to build up ranking and testimonials). I have gotten close to a dozen offers like this in the past few months that I’ve had to turn down just due to time constraints. If I wasn’t concentrating on building up my own blogs, I could easily be making $500 bucks a month on the side doing staff writing gigs, and much more if I tried to make a full-time go of freelance work. Word of mouth is so much easier than trying to build a ranking on those big freelance sites. This is a tried and true method, and I guarantee that if you are talented enough you will get noticed if you do things in this manner.

Who knows, one day you might even wind up buying the site you’re staff writing for

Hello loyal readers of the incomparable Young and Thrifty blog. I know some of you are already deleting this site off of your “favourites” list and tsk tsking at the thought that you won’t get to see as much of one of your favourite personal finance bloggers going forward. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame you. I’ve watched a ton of bloggers decide that the demanding schedule that blogging can take up is just too much for them at a certain point in their life, and decided to let their blogs go for one reason or another. Few blogs are ever the same after the initial author leaves, and I won’t guarantee that this one will be exactly as you remember it. For this I am sorry, yet upfront and honest.

WAIT, Come Back!

All of that being said, it’s not like I’m some stranger guys/gals! You’ve seen me around here for almost a year now as a staff writer and serial commenter, so I think I have somewhat of a grasp for what you peeps want to see written about. I’ve also read enough of the original Y&T’s work that I am familiar with it, and I hope to try and deliver the same high-quality content that we all know and are accustomed to. I’m not exactly new to this whole personal finance thing. I have written over 200 articles over at My University Money, and am a consistent staff writer at Canadian Personal Finance Blog, Sustainable Personal Finance, and Invest It Wisely. I promise that I will put my fill effort into making sure that Y&T continues to give readers great value every time they stop by, even if you do notice subtle changes.

Who We Are

“So who is this guy?” you might be wondering. Well it’s actually guy(s) – plural. My mother always said that it takes at least two capable gentlemen to do what a woman does, and in this case she is proven right! My pen name is Teacher Man (TM) and my co-pilot is JB. You can learn a little more about us here. The current plan is for JB to keep his role as the mastermind behind the scenes, and for yours truly to do the bulk of the writing here at Young and Thrifty. I’ve enjoyed interacting with everyone on this site as a staff writer over the last year and I’m looking forward to doing this on a permanent basis. I don’t know how Y&T did everything here on her own, and I know that I definitely enjoy the tag team approach that JB and I bring to the table.

Don’t Call It A Comeback – ‘Cuz She Never Left!

The best part of this whole transition thing for you guys and gals is that the incomparable original author you’ve grown used to reading is sticking around! As you can read about in her “stepping back” post, she will still be a steady voice on the site for the foreseeable future, and I’m very grateful that she is sticking around since I’m a fan as well as an associate!

A Perfect Fit

Some other questions many of you might have are why us? Why do we want this blog, and how did this all happen? Well… it’s kind of a unique story. JB and I weren’t really in the market to be buying a blog. We’re not big businessman and we had never bought a blog before; however, when Y&T came to us saying she was looking to sell, it just made sense on so many levels. I like writing about personal finance topics for a broad demographic, and some of my preferred topics weren’t fitting in perfectly with our original site that was built primarily to help students. While the student population is a broad spectrum, this blog represents a great opportunity to explore personal finance for young adults, in a broader, more general sense, and I am extremely happy for the opportunity to do that. There was a neat sort of poetic symmetry to the idea we proposed as well. The original Y&T and I would essentially switch writing roles, and this site makes a perfect companion to a site that gives out tips primarily aimed at young students. Basically, we can now help you out as you prepare for post-secondary education or the workforce, then help you when you begin that journey, and finally, Young and Thrifty covers topics all through adulthood!

JB and myself are really excited to take on a major challenge in keeping up such a high class blog, we hope you’ll give us a shot before changing channels. We think we’re pretty young, and pretty thrifty, and with the original Y&T around to keep us in line I really like our chances going forward. I love hearing what an audience wants to read so please don’t be shy in emailing or commenting and letting us know what’s up. As a little celebration and a way to make a good first impression, we figured it never hurts to give away free swag, so please stay tuned for a fairly epic (by personal finance standards anyway), giveaway in the next couple weeks.

So with the new federal budget the Canadian government decided that the penny is useless and that the Royal Canadian Mint will stop producing pennies.  Hence the “a nickel for your thoughts” edition, because pretty soon, there won’t be any more pennies!

In addition, the federal government plans to cut a lot of public sector jobs and increase the age of OAS payments from 65 to 67.  I think there are probably going to be a lot of pissed off seniors out there!

Short rambling for me today but I hope y’all enjoy your weekend!  Anything planned?  I might watch Hunger Games this weekend- anyone seen it yet? Good or bad?

PF Blog Love (Canuck Edition in light of the Federal Budget)

• Invest it Wisely is celebrating 2 years as a PF blogger and is giving away an iPad 3 (sponsored in part by yours truly!  I wonder if I can enter the contest too?)
• Boomer and Echo shares his thoughts on a lifetime plan for managing your money
• A Loonie Bin had a great post on why man can’t invest by yield alone.  Except I think he means man and woman (sorry, feminist inside me roaring)
• Sustainable Personal Finance writes about how playing games taught him about personal finance
• Million Dollar Journey shares 10 ways to save money on groceries without having to resort to coupons
• Dividend Ninja had a post by Teacher Man on should you invest in Dividend Stocks or ETFs?  (I KNOW its better to invest in ETFs but I can’t help myself with dividend stocks!)
• My Own Advisor explains what it means to pay yourself first
• Canadian Finance Blog shares 6 Ways to save thousands on your next mortgage
• Modest Money talks about starting a side business
• Fabulously Frugirl shares her PF Confession and Teenager jobs (inspired by a post of mine!)

Carnival Love (to me)

• Carnival of Personal Finance
• Totally Money Blog Carnival
• Carnival of Financial Camraderie

Young people are reckless.

It doesn’t matter if you’re part of the current generation Y or if you are a millennial, or if you are a baby boomer reminiscing about the days you did LSD.  Part of being young is about experimenting, testing your limits, and seeing for yourself.  Young people are less risk averse than older people, but probably because older people have been there, done that, and they have too much on the line (e.g. a family to raise, a caring spouse, a mortgage payment etc!).

Young people take risks without thinking about the consequences, either due to being over confident, or just plain arrogance.

What does this mean?

This means that young people are more likely to drink and drive, drive while high on weed (um, is this a Vancouver thing again?), and drive over the speeding limits.  Young’uns test out their limits and unfortunately only learn when they fail.

Failure is sometimes needed to learn, and learn the lesson the hard way.  Action to change previous risky behaviors is better than no action and complacency.

However, this should not be the case where there is risk to life or risk for serious harm, and even risk for having to pay out huge sums of money for the damage the young person has caused.  Or even risk increased premiums for car insurance.  Or risk having your car suspended.

What can young people do instead?

I think the public is doing a good job of teaching young people to think about the consequences when they get behind the wheel and want to “race” their car or drink and drive (MADD does a good job), but I think that parents should also teach their children about the consequences.  Don’t give your child a nice car to start with, heck don’t give your child a car, period.  What does them turning 16 make them instantly eligible for a car?

Instead of movies and video games glamorizing speeding(um, Need for Speed, the Fast and the Furious I-X?), more movies should be made about the consequences of speeding and reckless driving.  What about movies about people becoming quadraplegic or paraplegic from reckless driving?  I wonder why those movies aren’t out in the mass media.

Car insurance or motorbike insurance are one of those things that young people think they don’t need (well, it’s against the law in Canada not to have basic insurance), and when they do get it, they only get the minimum coverage.  However, when you hurt someone or you hurt a friend because of your reckless driving, you’ll wish you weren’t so reckless and you’ll wish you had more coverage.  Confidence in your driving abilities is useless here, unfortunately.

My experience

I didn’t have a personal experience but one of my good friends in high school was seriously injured in a car accident.  My boyfriend (yes, I dated him briefly in high school, how sweet!) and a bunch of my guy friends were pretending to be all machismo in that high school adolescence sort of way, and they were racing their cars down this long stretch of road.  Something happened and one of the cars caught itself on the gravel at the side of the road, swerved, and hit a lamppost.  Not only did they damage public property, my friend seriously hurt himself, he fractured his thigh bone and police said he was lucky to be alive.  The police said if he drove a Honda Civic he would have been toast (those Japanese cars are nice and light but probably aren’t so good for safety).  He went through a long recovery and he’s about 95% back to normal 10+ years later, but he still can’t do high impact sports like snowboarding.  I’m thankful nothing more serious happened to him.

Readers, what do you think it is about the need for speed that intrigues us?  Or if you don’t mind sharing, have you or a friend/acquaintance had an experience with reckless driving?

youngandthrifty.ca was recently tagged by Echo from Boomer and Echo (Thanks Echo!) to participate in the “My 7 Links Project”.  This project got started by Katie from Trip Base.  The purpose of it is to get the blogger to reflect upon some posts (aka dig up posts from the past) so they can see the light of day again.  Then the blogger is to nominate 5 other bloggers to participate.  The good deed is then carried forward

So without further delay here are the posts that come to mind when I think of these seven categories.  Rambling and Ruminations at its best!

Your Most Beautiful Post

Personal finance isn’t really beautiful, unfortunately.  The most beautiful post that comes to mind wasn’t even really my post, but a video within a post of mine.  It was in one of my Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog love posts: the Finding Balance Edition.  I can’t stop looking at the video- every time I look at the video, I feel at peace with myself and become content with the world.  I attribute this feeling to the HD graphics in the video.

Your Most Popular Post

Just like Boomer and Echo, I’m not sure if they define the most popular post as is the most number of comments, or most popular as in most traffic.  If it is asking for the post with the most traffic, that would be my post on the daily deals websites (like Groupon, Living Social, Yippit etc.). I guess in blogging terminology, you could call this a “pillar post”?  I enjoy seeing all the spammy type comments at the end of people sharing their newest daily deals website they have created.  There are definitely more and more daily deals websites- it’s certainly hard to keep up.  I was reading in the Globe and Mail the other day that they even have a website where you can SELL your daily deals coupons that leave you with buyers remorse.  I wonder what’s next….

Your Most Controversial Post

My most controversial post to date is undoubtly the post where I shared that I was putting an end to home envy and taking the plunge to buy real estate in Vancouver.  It got everybody’s panties in a bunch.  There were 65 comments and everyone was all fired up.  I even found that this blog page was referenced on the ultimate trolling/”no way jose” to Canadian real estate website, The Greater Fool, where they were blatantly criticizing and judging my decision to purchase real estate over there.  It certainly wasn’t a good feeling- it felt as if i was being gossiped about on another blog.  On the other hand, some great fellow bloggers told me to buck up and realize that if my blog was peanuts and garbage, no one would be talking about me. Ha! So did I have the last laugh??

Your Most Helpful Post

I’d like to think that most of my posts are helpful (right??? right??).  However, I think that my most favourite “how to” post is the post on how to negotiate your cell phone contract (namely with the big three, Rogers, Bell and Telus).  I think this was one of the posts that inspired me to create this blog in the first place.  I actually referenced it myself a few times to look for the numbers to call in order to negotiate.  I hope I’ve saved some people some money on their contracts!

A Post Whose Success Surprised You

A post that people actually like reading and thought was unique (unique enough to land it in the Globe and Mail reader by Rob Carrick!) was my post on How Yoga Relates to Personal Finance.  I wrote that post after spending a month doing some intensive yoga (I used a daily deal “groupon” of course) and felt some creative juices flowing.  Some people of course, did not see the parallel with personal finance or yoga, or saw the parallel with many different activities which do not necessarily include yoga, which is understandable.

A Post you Feel Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved

Hmm how about all the posts I wrote in my first six months of blogging?   If I had to pick one, it would be the post on why, in my opinion, Generation Y isn’t saving any money.  I even spent the time to draw a piggy bank on microsoft Paint (I think that in itself makes this post worthwhile, that I spent the time to actually attempt to draw on the computer and make my own picture).  It had 1 comment (from Studenomics who I linked to in the post).  I thought it was insightful and poignant, relating the reason us 20-somethings are so broke to instant gratification and our “now now now” culture.  But I’m sure others beg to differ.

The Post that You are Most Proud of

I would say I am proud of most of my posts (who wouldn’t be if they spend hours writing a post, I suppose).  I think the posts that I am most proud of are the financial cleanse series that I wrote.  I felt that I was being clever using the word “financial” and “cleanse” together.  Like a personal finance detox!  The Financial Cleanse series consists of the three aspects of personal finance I think everyone should start with.  These are 1) write down what you spend your money on 2) making your savings automatic and of course 3) getting rid of junk.

Umm….Tag, you’re it!

Part of the rules of the My 7 Links project is to tag 5 other bloggers that you think should share some links.

Here are the blogs that I nominate- should you choose to accept, I would love to read your links!:

1. Krystal from Give Me Back My Five Bucks
2. Nelson Smith from Financial Uproar
3. Sam from Financial Samurai (hmm I think it would be hard to decide which of your posts is the Most Controversial, Sam!)
4. RB 40 from Retireby40
5. Sandy from Yes I am Cheap

Readers, thank you so so so so much for reading.  You don’t know how much I appreciate it.  Thanks for the inspiration and please feel free to comment on any posts you would be interested in to read on youngandthrifty.ca in the future.  Give me more inspiration, folks!

Thanks again to Boomer and Echo for nominating me!

Money 411 is a personal finance blog provided free from AccountNow prepaid credit cards. Money 411 offers information and advice on credit repair, saving money, banking alternatives and more. To read
more articles from Money 411, visit AccountNow at www.accountnow.com.

Chexsytems is a database that tracks individuals’ banking habits. Banks add information and check the system before approving new accounts. In this economy, banks are stricter than ever about approving accounts. If a report shows that you have overdrawn accounts or some other negative banking history,
that person will probably be denied for new accounts.

Avoid getting a negative Chexsytems report by being a smart consumer. It is important never to write checks for money that is not yet in the bank. Checks today can be submitted electronically and cleared immediately and your deposit may be held for several days before it is available.

The best tip to avoid overdrafts is to keep track of your deposits and spending on a checkbook register.  Remember that your balance online or at the ATM may not reflect all outstanding charges or deposits. For those who prefer not to track every purchase, one possibility is to keep a buffer of extra
money in the checking account to cover accidental overspending. Another option is to transfer set
amount money onto a prepaid debit card. The prepaid debit card can be used for daily spending without
needing to keep track of a checking account balance.

Avoiding Chexstems is important in order to maintain a bank account for direct deposit and free check
cashing as well as to have a place to safely put savings. By being cautious about your bank account, you
won’t just avoid problems down the road, but also avoid unnecessary bank fees.

Youngandthrifty’s Take: Wow, I didn’t even know what a ChexSystem was until this guest post.  Apparently 80% of banks in the United States and Canada use ChexSystems.  So if you have ever been denied when opening up a bank account, then you know that there was a ChexSystem report done on you.  It seems that not only do you have to worry about your credit card spending, you have to worry about your debit card spending!  Life ain’t always easy, is it?  I think that Money411′s example of accidentally writing a cheque for money that isn’t in the bank account happens more often than we think (I think I’ve done it in the past and kicked myself for being so silly to do such a thing)- you have to pay for a bounced cheque AND you get ChexSystem’s elephant-memory laced tentacles on you.  One way to avoid this is to keep a minimum balance in your bank account.  In order for my bank not to charge me $8.50 per month for bank fees, I have to keep a minimum of $2000 in my chequing account.  I think this helps me keep a buffer in case I were to accidentally write a cheque and have it bounce.  Although having $2000 sit there and look pretty (whilst earning 0.05% interest) isn’t ideal because you’re not really saving any money, it is better than not having any money in chequing for fast access at all…and later on pay the price of not being approved to open a bank account!

How about you, readers? Have you had the experience of accidentally writing a cheque when there wasn’t enough money in the bank account?  What are your ways to prevent this from happening?

Thanks to this blog, I’m learning more and more about the wild wild world of financial products which I previously knew very little about.  One of these is the concept of “structured settlement”.  A structured settlement is a financial or insurance arrangement in which you get paid over a period of time instead of getting paid as a lump sum…think: “Set for Life” scratch-and-win lottery ticket where you get $1000 a week for the next 25 years vs. winning the lotto max lottery where you get a lump sum instead.  Or it would be like regularly harvesting a small money tree plant every year or deciding to harvest a field of money tree plants only once.  Because a structured settlement is technically your money, you can decide to sell your structured settlement and cash it out to get a lump sum.  The following is a guest post by Jason, from JG Wentworth which pays people cash now for money that was meant to be paid over a long period of time.  They are known for their really funny commercial with that catchy tune.  Jason gives some tips on how to take the emotion out of structured settlement decisions.

Selling months or years of your structured settlement income into one huge lump-sum payoff doesn’t have to cause stress or anxiety. When mixing money with emotions, a clear head is achieved by having a positive picture as to what a new home, paid off debt or funding another’s education can do to improve your financial life and the loved ones that surround you. Here’s how to feel more secure when selling your structured settlement:

Keep your business cap on. You might have a passion for fashion. Thorough research over what it takes to run a clothing boutique will make you all the more confident about using your lump-sum settlement cash as seed money. Keeping a strong mix of raw data and big dreams close to your heart creates the kind of confidence needed when expanding your capital.

Prioritize your financial needs. If you have accounted for how your direst financial responsibilities – or the bills – will be paid into a workable monthly budget, you can avoid a lot of financial mystery when mobilizing your structured settlement. Your time can then be better spent distributing exactly where and how you’d like your lump-sum payout to be used.

Relief is one emotion you want to feel. If you’re using your structured settlement money to pay off debt, the last thing you want to do is enter into another financial situation that makes you feel helpless. If credit cards were used to make ends meet because you were overburdened with medical bills or college costs, the one emotion you are encouraged to experience when paying them off is relief. Knowing your lump-sum payment for selling a structured settlement takes debt weight off your shoulders.

Unexpected issues cannot derail you. Uncontrollable challenges – from natural disasters to unforeseen college expenses – don’t have to cause roadblocks to your structured settlement investments. If you figure out ahead of time what you will do if things don’t go as planned and have alternative options in place, your inheritance won’t take a financial blow but instead, be a savior to the situation.

Think with wisdom, not with worry. To worry is natural, but there is no need to do too much of it if the company you are working with makes selling your structured settlement easy, stress-free and full of benefits – not constraints. Remind yourself with the above four steps to deal – and not just feel – where this next financial chapter of your life can take you.

Youngandthrifty’s thoughts: One common scenario where a structured settlement would exist is if you (knock on wood) were to be injured in a car accident.  The person who hurt you is ordered to pay you for the next 10 years $200 a month for your back pain.  You can decide whether you want the $200 a month tax free, or if you want sell it to a company like JG Wentworth for a lump sum instead.  The PROS of a structured settlement is that you can get tax free cash every month.  It would be a nice cash flow, especially if you’re one to have issues with managing your money.  The major CON of a structured settlement is that sometimes you need cash now and not later, because you’re in debt, want to go back to school, or want to put a large down payment on a house.  If you’re really good at investing and managing your money, a lump sum would be good for investing.  If you decide to sell your settlement, you should be aware that it is adjusted for inflation,  federal and state/provincial taxes, etc.  In the end, it is your money and you can choose what you want to do with it.

What do you think?  Have you ever had a structured settlement?  Would you choose to sell it and get a lump sum, or would you want to have regular payments for a period of time?

Last weekend BF and I went to the PNE. The Pacific National Exhibition is this fair in Vancouver that runs for two weeks every year at the end of August. This year is the 100th anniversary celebration, so I suppose the line ups were extra long, but the cotton candy, candy apples, mini-donuts was extra delicious.  They even had the Beach Boys, Kevin Costner, and Bryan Adams  playing at the PNE this year.

I used a promo code (yes, I heart promo codes) I found online and saved us $5 each for admission (usually $20- prices have gone way up!), though if we got our butts together and left early in the morning, there was free admission from 9-12pm. But alas, that didn’t happen.  We decided against spending the extra cash to go on the rides this year- the extra long line ups aren’t worth it, IMO.

We checked out a pig race, some cows, a marketplace (which ended up being every infomercial you can imagine- but LIVE), and the carnival games.  Oh the carnival games.  They are so so good at suckering you in to plunk your money down and try again to no avail.  BF was so intent on winning something with the basketball hoop game and he tried a few times with no luck.  Then I stumbled on this post by John Chow.  Guess we weren’t the only ones who thought that game was ridiculously impossible.

Carnival games are like casinos, but instead of money, you get an ugly stuffed animal that you would likely never use.  They get them young.  Now I realize how much money I spent when I was a kid, trying so desperately to get those prizes.  I suppose there are some very good lessons parents can teach their children whilst letting them gamble at the carnival games.  Like: know your limit, stay within it.

PF Blog Love:

• Invest It Wisely gives a few tips on healthy living, eating, and exercise
• Boomer and Echo has 10 tips on saving money on auto insurance
• Tiny Potato has great tips on what NOT to do when opening a discount brokerage
• The Passive Income Earner asks what is a real estate bubble and how is it defined?
• Financial Samurai talks about how small business owners are encouraged to sack their employees before tax hikes
• Bucksome Boomer wonders whether we should be eating our eggs, given all the contamination scare
• Money Reasons shares with us how he supports his local community
• Monevator asks whether you consider yourself richer than  your kids, or poorer than your grandchildren
• My Journey to Millions asks whether Gen Y’ers follow stereotypes (I think we do)
• Canadian Finance Blog talks about my dream- retiring abroad

Readers, did you ever get suckered into playing the carnival games? Did you ever win something really good?

Quick and short post:

The winner of the 2010 Miss Universe pageant is…

Oh sorry, I meant to say, the winner of the youngandthrifty Book Giveaway of Your Money Ratios (hardback cover by the way- more bang for your buck), is…

Little House!
There were 12 entries, and random.org generated #7, which happened to be Little House in my spreadsheet.

Congratulations!

I’ll be sending the book over today, once I get your address =)

Thanks to everyone for entering!

PS The heatwave here in Vancouver is friggin’ amaaaazing!  Taking advantage of the extremely good weather, but have a feeling I won’t be able to sleep these next few days due to the heat.  Hear that it’s 10x hotter out East.  Are y’all sleeping alright without the AC on?