youngandthrifty.ca » yakezie

Yakezie Carnival- Yakezies Unite for Japan Edition

young — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:20:29 +0000

It’s my turn to host the Yakezie Carnival today (in case you don’t know, it’s a collection of the best personal finance blogs on this planet, basically), and given the current events in Japan, I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but wanted to encourage everyone to think about Japan today and consider donating to the red cross. It’s the least we can do. Rachelle from Landlord Rescue has a very creative way of determining how much you should donate (e.g. if you have ever eaten sushi, donate $5; if you own a Sony, donate $5…)

In Canada you can text ASIA to 30333 to donate $5 (will show up on your cell phone bill)

If you live in the US, you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 (will show up on your cell phone bill)

I’m not sure what the difference in dollar amounts of set donation amounts say about us in Canada (that we are cheap?) but if you want to donate more, you can go directly to the redcross website (Canada and US) to donate more.

Now on to the Yakezie Carnival:

This week, it’s my turn to host and I have the honor of receiving the torch from last week’s host, Dr. Dean! Next week, it’ll be Control your Cash who will be hosting the Yakezie Carnival, so be sure to tune in and follow the Yakezie torch

My Personal Finance Journey discusses about Why A Credit Score Boost Is Necessary For Most Consumers. Jacob looks at the various factors that go in to calculating your specific credit score and a reminder of the benefits of keeping it as high as you possibly can.
Squirrelers has a light-hearted blog post, a post looking at some Crazy Keywords. He says “it’s often funny to see the keywords people use to find their way to your blog. Someone came to my blog looking to find out about humans
exterminating alligators!” Hmm I wonder what that post that was referring to?
Kevin over at Invest it Wisely has a great post I found very useful as a first time home buyer- called “Don’t Get Suckered by the Banks: How Much Can You *Really* Afford to Spend on a New Home?” In this post he proposes spending no more than 33% of your net worth on ALL housing costs including mortgage, utilites, taxes, etc.
Dr. Dean over at the Millionaire Nurse Blog has a great post too, titled “Buy and Hold: Is It Dead?“ Buy and Hold as an investing strategy has been declared dead by many. In the post are his thoughts this and a poem to boot, too! (Dr. Dean sure is a creative cat!)
Don at Money Reasons has a creative post (all these creative cats in the Yakezie, I tell ya!) “Best Way to Crush Aluminum Cans“. The article is about how his son’s aluminum can recycling experiment has accumulated in the garage and how Money Reasons discovered an easier way to crush the cans to make the process much quicker.
Krantcents has a great article I really enjoyed myself, called The Emotional Side of Retirement. Planning retirement is more than just savings, what are you going to do?
Bucksome Boomer talks about how to dispute a credit card charge
Joe from Retireby40 blog discusses who really loses in a short sale
A Yakezie challenger, the Ultimate Juggle reveals how you can work remotely (one of my ultimate dreams). In this post, ultimate juggle talks about the adjustment she had to make when she started telecommuting into work. She still drives to work a few days a week and that’s a piece of cake. But with a baby at home, working remotely required an adjustment period. She hopes this helps other that are following a similar path!
Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff gives you the low down on how to buy a car.

That’s it for the yakezie carnival this week, folks! Please tune in to next week’s host, Control your Cash as he catches the torch and passes the Yakezie light on.

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

youngandthrifty.ca Blogiversary Bonanza! $250+ in Prizes

young — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:29:02 +0000

In about two weeks, it will be officially ONE YEAR since I wrote my first post (you can see it here. As you can see, I was likely the only one who read that post lol). I can’t believe that I have survived a year! It’s been great and I have learned so much (you can read me yammering on about how much youngandthrifty.ca’s grown with respect to what I have learned this first year of blogging on the actual blogiversary post in two weeks).

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the wonderful personal finance bloggers over at Yakezie (who are youngandthrifty’s heart and soul!) have generously donated some wonderful books and gift cards to celebrate this first year blogiversary (and hopefully not last, lol!). I will be throwing in a VISA gift card as a first prize, too (just to show how much I appreciate you as a reader!).

How much do all these prizes add up to? Over $250+ in prizes to be won!!

FIRST PRIZE:

A $100 VISA Gift Card courtesy of moi!

This gift card should be able to be used in the United States, but will be $100 in Canadian funds (which works out to be about the same now anyway ) So my American friends please enter this contest too!

BOOK PRIZES:

Couple Money is generously donating a subscription to Kiplinger’s personal finance magazine ($36 value cover price)

Elle has been blogging over at Couple Money on how she and her family handles their finances while building mobile income based on their passions. She’s a really nice person to boot! One of my fave posts is 11 ways to save money at the grocery store.

Budgeting the Fun Stuff is donating a copy of The Simple Dollar by Trent Hamm ($19.99 value)

Crystal over at Budgeting the Fun Stuff sees money as a tool that is used to provide for our needs, our future, and the fun stuff in between. She also has an allergy ridden pug too- which automatically deserves big props as I have one too.

Suba at Wealth Informatics is donating a copy of Your Money: The Missing Manual
by J.D. Roth (a $21.99 value)

Suba strives to provide Information empowering debt reduction, financial planning, informed consumerism, savvy investing, fun & frugal living leading to financial freedom. She also is a big fan of paying yourself first

Invest It Wisely is donating a copy of The Elements of Investing by Burton G. Makiel ($20 value)

Invest it Wisely is a both great Canadian and Yakezie read, one of his most popular posts is what you need to do to get out of the rat race and achieve financial freedom

Jesse from PF Firewall will giveaway a copy of I Will Teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi ($13.95 value)

PF Firewall will be used to track everything going in or out of his personal finance and he will try and provide any ways he has found to patch breaches in my personal finance firewall (awesome analogy!)

Evan from My Journey to Millions is donating a book from “The Skinny On..” series ($14.95 value)

Evan, a lawyer, dad, husband to The Wife and personal finance blogger has great posts, including an explanation on our mutual love, dividends.

Sam from Financial Samurai is donating “How Rich People Think” by Steve Siebold ($16.99 value)

Sam is the guru behind the Yakezie and a fantastic writer with posts that are always thought-provoking. I have a ton of favourite posts from him, two being: his Samurai finance rules and How to Get your Super Motivated Boyfriend to Marry You

GIFT CERTIFICATES/ CASH PRIZES:

Maximizing Money is giving away $25 via paypal

Maximizing Money runs my kind of blog- a blog focusing on financial tips on how to save money and earn extra cash be reaping the benefits of reward credit cards.

Frugal Zeitgeist is donating a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon

Frugal Zeitgeist lives my ultimate fantasy- living in Cairo, Egypt. One of his popular articles is how to simply your life

Bucksome Boomer is donating a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon

Bucksome is a personal finance blogger writing from a boomer perspective. She shares with us how her budget has changed over the last 12 years (us young’uns can learn from her experience)

Squirrelers is donating a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon

Squirrelers was launched to help Mr. Squirrel himself and others share thoughts on money, and help us reach our financial goals – while having fun doing it. He has a fun series called “Squirreling gone wild”, in which the most recent edition was about The Extractor

KNS Financial is donating a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon

Khaleef combines faith and finances is a fantastic and introspective personal finance blog. He also helps people out in real life with budgeting assistance.

Here’s how to Enter in the youngandthrifty.ca Blogiversary Bonanza:

1 ENTRY: Subscribe by RSS (please comment below to show you have entered so I can get your email address- don’t worry it won’t be shared) or email subscription. If you’ve already subscribed (thank you!) just comment below.

1 EXTRA ENTRY: Follow youngandthrifty on twitter and tweet:

youngandthrifty.ca BLOGIVERSARY GIVEAWAY thanks #Yakezie $250+ to be won! http://bit.ly/9KIwpc (via @youngandthrifty)

Contest ends Sunday November 28, 2010 at midnight PST. Winners announced on Monday November 29.

The twelve winners will be picked by random.org (13! Good odds!)

One winner per prize (so you can’t win a $100 Visa Gift card AND a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate, sorry!)

Good Luck and thanks for reading!

Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Groupon Ban Edition

young — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:59:55 +0000

About youngandthrifty’s Groupon Ban:

Hi, my name is youngandthrifty and I suffer from Daily Deal Site Addiction, otherwise known as DDSA. I am here today to share my story…

As everyone knows, these daily deal sites are seriously addictive. These daily deal sites send you updates, your friends sign up and tell you to sign up, you want to sign up, you DO sign up, you print out your coupon… and it sits there. It sits there and stares at you taunting you because you have already paid for it but you haven’t used it yet.

They’re cropping up everywhere because they use the power of impulse buying and peer pressure. You have a short time to complete the transaction. Your friends tell you to get it. You see that 543 other people got the same coupon too.

After much stress from accumulation of printed Groupon’s, TeamBuy, and Indulge Living coupons…

see my wondrous collection below:

Art Gallery tickets
a doggy day care coupon
a restaurant coupon
a facial Groupon (I have made an appt to use this already)
a one month yoga pass

I officially decided to unsubscribe myself from Groupon’s daily deals…at least until this backlog of coupon accumulation decreases. I still have Teambuy or Indulge Living sending me daily deals, but somehow their deals don’t seem as tempting as Groupon’s. I will ban myself from signing up or purchasing more daily deal coupons until the above daily deal coupons are used…you heard it here!

Readers, do you find these daily deal sites addictive? Do you just automatically delete to avoid temptation of impulsive buying online like I do? Are you collecting these print-outs too, or are you better at using them than I am?

Here are some links for the weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

PS there is an EXCITING announcement pertaining to a blogiversary (yes, it’s officially been a year since I’ve been blogging) on Monday- so please stay tuned!!

PPS If you haven’t signed up already for the RESP Book Giveaway, do it here because it ends on November 14!

Yakezie Lovage:

Financial Samurai asks how do we decide who we accept money from
Frugal Zeitgeist shares some wacky wedding venues (like a work wedding.. wtf?!)
Bucksome invites you to her Thanksgiving table (yum!)
My Journey to Millions celebrates his 29th birthday (happy birthday!)
Invest it Wisely talks about GOOOOOLLLD baby
Money Reasons clarifies that he’s not all just about focusing on war on debt
Squirrelers has a HUGE $400+ Thanksgiving contest (which I am contributing to yay! )
Little House moved! So exciting

Canadian PF Bloggers Lovage:

Money Smarts Blog has a fantabulous Online Stock Brokerage Company Comparison
Million Dollar Journey has yet another super useful post- TFSA or RRSP with a defined government pension
Boomer and Echo defines some online marketing lingo
Fabulously Broke analyzes women on TV and the industries they work in
How to Save Money has a new Canadian Weekly deals post
Ending the Rat Race is joining the Questrade boat!

Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Lists Galore Edition

young — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:38:41 +0000

Lists lists.. I love lists. I use lists to get my work done. I know there are list apps on the phone but I like the traditional pen and paper. I make a list and I cross off the item when I get it done. I enjoy crossing things off my list so much that you would almost think I get a high from it. Nope, no drugs for me. Just completing my to-do lists is fine.

Speaking of lists, there are a few other lists not involving to-do lists, but instead, lists of the top personal finance blogs.

Andrew over at Money Crashers has a new list of Personal Finance Blogs- it’s like Wisebread’s list on SPEED. Not just Alexa rank, it has a unique algorithm that calculates based on your feedburner subscribers, twitter followers, alexa rank, Page rank.. etc.! My current ranking is at 224 so now there’s something else other than Alexa rank to work on!

Not only do we have a Wisebread list and a Money Crashers List, not sure if you’re aware, we also have an official Yakezie list too, that shows the top personal finance sites in the Yakezie network. Be sure to check it out to get all your personal finance fill for the day. I’m number 24 on this list.

PF BLog Love

Couple Money has some ideas for starting your own online business
Canadian Finance Blog shares the top 15 credit card blunders
Little House revisits whether she would like to buy or rent
Money Reasons has another comic out (so cute!!)
My Journey to Millions says its your responsibility to get off your ass and follow through with your business idea
In celebration of Blog Action Day, Bucksome Boomer gives you 7 ways to conserve water
Money Smarts Blog celebrates his first RESP book review! (I’ll be adding mine to that very soon! Can’t wait to read it)
Boomer and Echo (Boomer in this case) shares with us how the best laid plans sometimes don’t work out
Invest it Wisely reviews Barbara Friedberg’s 20 minute Guide to Investing
27 and Frugal shares what it’s like in working for a call centre from her friends perspective
Million Dollar Journey has a guest post telling us the 4 Critical Mistakes NOT to make in Retirement Planning

Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Bikes & Yakezie Love Edition

young — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:36:06 +0000

Sorry guys, nothing really much to update you guys on this week in my personal life. I biked around a lot this week, and got my bike tuned up (the brakes feel even nicer now). I promised myself that if I were to go somewhere less then say… four kilometres, then I would take my bike vs the car. It’s been quite muggy lately and sitting in the car is like… akin to sitting in a sauna on full blast, so it has been quite refreshing to use the bicycle instead of the car. Good for the environment, good for me. I think that bike was the best $350 I spent, ever. I was hesitant at first to spend so much on a bicycle, but little did I know when we were bicycle shopping that they usually go for $500+, and even $1000+ if you get a road bike (those sexy bikes with curved handles and really thin wheels). Krystalatwork, who writes a fun PF blog, recently got a bike and got $300 back from the Scrap-It program (if you send in your beat-up old car, they give you $300 for a bike!). It’s worth looking into in your city or town.

I thought I would include some select Yakezie links this week because a) I haven’t done so for a long time b) I love my Yakezies and c) we’re going to take over the PF blogging world (insert sinister laughter).

Yakezie

Financial Samurai tells you whether its better to rent to females or males (I say females! but alas, I am biased)
Early Retirement Extreme shares what cycling has taught him about personal finance (hey great minds think alike, we both have cycling on our minds)
Len Penzo tells you what the 10 most economical sandwiches are (PB and J?)
Canadian Finance Blog ponders: You can afford retirement, but can you afford retirement care?
My Dollar Plan sounds like he has the same compulsive coupon obsession like me
My Journey to Millions celebrates 2 years of blogging (and more!)
Not Made of Money shares with you ways to save when buying a Nintendo Wii
Little House in the Valley celebrates her one year blogiversary!!
Money Beagle says whatever you do, don’t buy designer sunglasses

Hope you enjoy these posts this weekend and have a great first full weekend in August!

The aurora borealis are supposed to show up in the Vancouver area and much of southern Ontario in the next few days (or maybe it’s passed), so I’ll hope to keep an eye out for them. Have you seen them?

The Yakezie Challenge Carnival

young — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:39:14 +0000

As some of you may know, I wouldn’t be where I am today without having joined the Yakezie group, started by natural born leader and Yakezie mastermind Financial Samurai. I have learned so much and am forever grateful for the connections I have made with other personal finance bloggers. Members of the Yakezie have a chance to host the Yakezie carnival, so it’s my turn today! I’m going to start from the bottom up- Bottoms up! (Just went to a wedding yesterday night, so don’t mind my references to alcohol)

Here it is for some fun sunny summery Sunday reading! (Can you say that three times fast?)

PS HAPPY SUMMER! I hope everyone is as excited about summer as I am. =)

PPS Happy Father’s Day to all the fantastic, dedicated, hard-working dads out there!

Readers, what has your father taught you about personal finance that really ‘stuck’? Please share!

My father has taught me so much about being an entrepreneur, and owning your own business. He never really worked for anyone and always had many businesses going on, yet he still had time to go on month long trips with us in the summer. He also taught me that cash flow from real estate properties is a good thing. He was always so hard working, a real ‘do-it-yourself-er’. …I really admire him when it comes to personal finance (among other things, of course). Happy father’s day, dad!

Yakezie Carnival

Smart on Money gives us ten great tips on how to save money on a tight budget
Miss Thrifty searches for Yorkshire’s Thriftiest Granny
Wealth Informatics says it’s Christmas Time
Chasing Prosperity is baaaack!! (in April)
Retirement Investing Today talks about UK Rates and Mortgage Approvals
The Wealth Artisan thinks that fun shouldn’t cost a fortune
More Style Than Cash tells you the key people that you should call for back up when the sh*t hits the fan
Darwin’s Money rounds up his favourite posts, and apologizes for apologizing to BP
Digging Out from Our Mess gives a word of caution to us young’uns
Smarter Spend is moving so he’s taking a little break from blogging
Invest it Wisely talks about opening up new frontiers (hi ho hi ho!)
Frugal Confessions lets us in on her Frugal Confessions Friday
Downturn Living discusses whether being completely Vegan is really that much more beneficial for the planet
Dividend Monk talks about constant income amidst falling value
Narrow Bridge Adventures talks about how the final stage of the credit card act will affect you
Car Negotiation Coach talks about flying cars! (yes you read that right!)
Financial Poor rounds up his Friday Night Likes
My Money Minute counts down to the end of the Federal Housing Tax Credit expiry in April
Single Guy Money warns you not to buy the new car!
Stay at Home Mom CFO tells you how you can get $75 back if you bought a lawnmower in the last 16 years
The Saved Quarter shares their passion for fresh fruits and veggies
Bible Debt talks about being faithfully rich
Watson Inc. talks about how you shouldn’t let your dream (home) become a nightmare
Foreigner’s Finance explains why you need an emergency fund
Peak Personal Finance teaches you how to automate your banking
Clarifinancial teaches you how to tell between a true quote or a fake insurance quote
BarbaraFreidberg Personal Finance tells you how trading in a car every 2 years makes financial sense
Money Beagle asks you homeowners if you’re treading water (gulp! I hope I won’t have to ever be in that position)
151 Days Off Prays 2.0
Christian Common Sense reviews the book Control your Cash
Girl With the Red Balloon helps you answer whether you need life insurance
Zach Younkin lets you know the options for College Financial Aid
PF Firewall tells you 60 ways you can feel rich without the price tag
CJBowker talks about how you only get one chance at it, so make it good!
My Financial Objectives got nominated for a top 50 Financial Mentors award (me too!)
Redeeming Riches tells you why making more money isn’t the answer (I concur!!)
The Amateur Financier gives us his thoughts on tipping
Beating Broke got nominated for the same award too! (yay Yakezie!)
Evolution of Wealth explains what sole proprietorship means
MillionaireNurse rounds up great nurse blogs of the week
Money Help for Christians shares his free download spreadsheet tool that can help you pay off your debt
The Centsible Life lets us know who won her Father’s Day Giveaway (darn I didn’t win the dremmel tool!)
Couple Money reviews E3 (sounds fun!)
Cool to be Frugal shares with us her net worth and blogging goals
Little House gives us the range of the rent across the nation (OMG New York is that expensive?)
Engineer your Finances reviews the book Enjoy your Money (I reviewed it too- it’s good!)
20′s Money asks you what you are pursuing
Fiscal Fizzle updates us on his blog sabbatical (come baccccckkk, Wojo!)
Out of Debt Again shares with us her Friday Finds
Budgeting the Fun Stuff shares with us her weekly favourites, too
Consumer Boomer reviews Ally Bank
Personal Finance By the Book shares with us his father’s day =) (what a cute drawing)
Bucksome Boomer shares with us some sweet memories of her father, in honour of fathers day
Frugal Zeitgeist shows you that shopping for car insurance is really easy, if you follow his steps
Joe Taxpayer calculates the math of refinancing
One Money Design helps you decide whether you should transfer the balance to another credit card
Saving Money Today shares us his lesson on trying to remember to think before you speak (I need help on that one big time!! you’re not alone)
Money Reasons is reading The Snowball ( I want to read that too!) and learns that Warren Buffett was a renter
Rainy Day Saver shares her Fix it Friday, learn how to put in a tree flowerbed (cute!)
Not Made of Money shares some money saving coupon deals
PunchDebt helps a reader decide whether to be a whore to money or not
Deliver Away Debt updates us on the state of the blog
My Journey to Millions shares with us a quote from the Fountainhead
Monevator rounds up weekly posts and comments on England and the World Cup
Ultimate Money Blog reviews WTDirect
Sweating the Big Stuff went to bank heaven (can I go too?)
Money Funk teaches you how to set up a spending plan
Wealth Pilgrim gives us his fave links for the week, and tells us about Moolanomy’s new forum
Len Penzo gives us his fave links for the week too
Canadian Finance Blog gives us his fave links too, from a Canadiana perspective
Early Retirement Extreme talks about how it might be the death of the buy and hold strategy as we know it
Planting Dollars talks about financial baby steps
Free from Broke asks whether the first time home buyer tax credit should be extended
Eliminate the Muda gives us an example of the 5S strategy in action
Consumerism Commentary gives us an update on the Smithee Debt
Credit Card Chaser explains what a reloadable credit card is
Financial Samurai tells us that the reply button is there for a reason (hint- it’s not to ignore it for emails!)

Mid-week Round Up

young — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:02:18 +0000

Howdy folks!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Seeing as I haven’t done any links for a while (trust me, it’s hard to work on your blog when you are overseas in an internet cafe with sketchy internet access!), here are some interesting fellow Yakezie reads if you need to have a small distraction from work =) (Who’s really productive at work, anyway? kidding!).

As some of you may know (if you were following my random tweets on twitter), I was away in Nepal for a few weeks. It was an amazing trip- Nepal is beautiful! Next year (2011) is their “Year of Tourism” so if you’ve gotten a visa before, next year you won’t have to pay the visa fee (it costs about USD $100 for a 90 day visa, FYI).

I will promise to add some photos of my trip and any tips on saving money while traveling in that corner of the world once I become less zombie-like from sleep deprivation and time zone changes.

With the recent European crisis, let’s just say I am glad I set some stop losses and preserved some of my gains with my stocks before I left!

Financial Samurai has a great post on what to do during the bad times (aka markets crashing again)
Fiscal Fizzle (Wojo) is going on a blog sabbatical until mid August =( Will miss him, but hope he has a good break- well deserved.
Early Retirement Extreme also talks about the Latte Factor and kicks is up a notch with the idea of brewing your own coffee.
Canadian Finance Blog gives us 5 tips for Getting Back on the Credit Card Ladder (if you’ve fallen off with the current economic crunch)
Money Funk has a fun post on not getting tricked by Infomercials (yes, the “STOP HAIR LOSS” products)
Money Reasons has a very thought provoking post on how High Personal Integrity can harm you
Little House talks about how She was Rich Last Sunday until life took over! =(
Simple Life in France also has a thought provoking post questioning whether Technology and Entertainment is making us Unhappy
Rainy Day Saver gives a personal example about the Importance of Health Insurance

Hope you enjoyed those good reads and have a great rest of the week!

Yakezie Challenge Mid-Week Round Up Volume 2

young — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:49:41 +0000

Happy hump day! Hopefully perusing these links will help you get past the rest of the work week and onto the weekend!

Last week, I briefly rounded up the wonderful Yakezie Challenge members and their associated posts, but didn’t have enough time to add the Yakezie members who were ranked in the top 50,000 of the Alexa rankings. As promised, I hope to do that this week… don’t want to leave anyone out! This will probably be the last “regular” volume of my mid-week round up, I might feature some favourite blog posts from Yakezie members instead. So enjoy my completely non-condensed version (read: took hours compiling!) while you can!

As you may already know, the Yakezie Challenge was envisioned by our leader Financial Samurai (lol, do we sound like a cult?). I’ll go by the rankings of the Yakezie Challenge, which is hosted by Ryan on Planting Dollars’ site this week. The order is from the lowest ranked Yakezie to the highest.

Happy Wednesday!

The 200,000 Club

Girl with the Red Balloon talks about her Debt Snowball: Student Loan Style

Saving Money Today blogs about joining the Yakezie Challenge- welcome!!

Mike at Personal Finance Ninja (hiiiyaaaa!! sorry had to put that one in there) blogs about Life Style Inflation: Why your Savings is Not Growing as Fast as Your Income. Awesome term to describe what we gen-y-ers suffer from- life style inflation!

Beating Broke doesn’t think “Life’s Better Here” and talks about how Innovis Healthcare Stinks.

Rainy Day Saver gives tips about how to Prepare your Finances for Vacation.

One Money Design gives you the how to on Adjusting your Income Tax Withholding Allowances (US taxes)

Bytta at 151 Days Off asks Where Do You Draw Inspiration?

Foreigners Finances gets you to take the Entrepreneur Test- how well do YOU score? Yay! I think I’m a natural entrepreneur (though I certainly don’t feel like it sometimes!)

My Money Minute has joins the 200,000 mile club (no, not the mile high club, get that mind out of the gutter!) because he has done 200,000 clicks on his Nissan! That’s really really impressive. He must have maintained that car very well!

Stay at Home Mom CFO talks about the things you need to think about when choosing Maternity Coverage

Elle at Couple Money reviews the book Unautomate Your Finances. Interesting, I myself prefer to automate my finances. =)

The Amateur Financier was featured in MSN Money this week AND shares with us Learning Financial Lessions from Aesop’s Fables

Engineer Your Finances talks about the Financial Lessons Learned from Engineering and how financial literacy and education trumps all!

Downturn Living discusses How Green is Your Sex Life? (yes, you read that right! =P )

Little House in the Valley shares some tips on how to make over a “fixer upper” house and make it your home.

Redeeming Riches gives 10 great money saving tips on how to save $10K, one of my favourites is to pack your lunch.

Single Guy Money talks about how to make money off of Craigslist (great tips! One of my mini goals is to sell unwanted stuff on Craigslist)

Clarifinancial tells us a secret from the Life Insurance Industry… SHHH… Life Insurance Doesn’t last your Whole Life!

CJ Bowker hosts the Yakezie Challenge Carnival (yeahhh!)

Frugalzeitgeist ponders about whether trading your car for a horse will be cheaper. Dang, so many creative PF bloggers out there! LOVE it! AND he’s good on the computer…he created a widget of recent Yakezie posts.

Money Reasons discusses whether you Can really Trust People Asking for Handouts when they are Dressed Better than You?

Well Heeled asks you How Much Would You Spend on a Mattress? (the picture on her post looks sooo comfy- I want that bed!)

Wealth Pilgrim wants you to make sure that your IRA Beneficiary Gets their Money when You Go.

Evolution of Wealth shares with us the Hidden Gems of Life Insurance Policies

Money Funk fills us in on her new business proposition… hint: it’s a friggin’ great idea!! PS: congrats on hitting the 200,000 mark!

Punch Debt in the Face also hits the 200,000 mark (yeehaw!) and asks you what hobbies you spend your big buckeroos on

The 100,000 club

Ulitimate Money Blog invites us to be French by practising the same frugal habits… mmm baguette, anyone?

Deliver Away Debt advises you to Do Not Get into Any Debt!

My Journey to Millions shares with us his net worth update

Enemy of Debt talks about his challenge: Manage Your Money Week 2: Teamwork, Accountability, and Kids

Early Retirement Extreme talks about the idea of a Downsizing Party (dang- that’s a good idea.. I need that pronto!)

David @ MBA Briefs tells us that the Not So Bad News, is Good News

Wojo @ FiscalFizzle pleads for someone to take his money, he just wants that darned space heater!

Monevator asks you to decide whether Cash is King or Cash is Trash in this crazy market.

Suburban Dollar updates us on the Wealthy Bloggers of the PF world for the month of March (see which PF bloggers walk the talk!)

CreditCardChaser talks about Warren Buffets $50 Million GEICO Credit Card Business Loss

20′s Money wonders why Consumer Discretionary Stocks are Soaring

Sweating the Big Stuff interviews Monevator!

Canadian Finance Blog has a guest post on Frugal Getaways: 5 Ways to Treat Yourself with a Frugal Vacation

Planting Dollars interviews Daniel of Sweating the Big Stuff (hey! It’s like an Interview love triangle!!)

Fiscal Geek talks about the Single Most Important Step to mastering your personal finances.

The 50,000 Club

LeanLifeCoach at Eliminate the Muda asks you think think whether you’re Earning a Living or Living an Earning?

Free From Broke asks you to ponder whether it’s Okay to Be Allowed to Copy Children’s DVD’s?

PT Money discusses Easy Money: Some Good and Not So Great Ways to get Money Fast

Budgets Are Sexy graciously compiled a list of the 20 best money websites

Debt Free Adventures tells us how he saved $41,123.16 with just one phone call.‘

And finally, our Yakezie leader is on top!

Financial Samurai talks about the Mental to Physical Connection for a Healthier Lifestyle

Yakezie Challenge Mid-week Round-Up

young — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:13:11 +0000

The Yakezie Challenge is an idea created by Financial Samurai, a highly entertaining personal finance blogger. It facilitates a sense of community in the personal finance world by encouraging us to work together to help increase each other’s Alexa rankings. Alexa, in case you don’t know, is the website that lets you know where your website ranks in the web world. LOL How many times did I use the word “web” in there?

Inspired by Deliver Away Debt’s awesome weekend links of Yakezie group members- he stayed up until 2-3am to write it, thought I’d do the same for mid-week (but try not to stay up too late past my bed time!). Anyway, here are some great links to lighten up your work week. Maybe you can peruse them at work if you’re not busy or if you’re having a bad Wednesday (hey look on the brighter side, you’re on hump day! Just two more days until the weekend).

I’m only going to post up the Yakezie members who are above the 200,000 goal for July 4, 2010 because I am falling asleep on my laptop as we speak… (My sincerest apologies to all you high ranked Alexa personal finance bloggers!)

Enjoy! Happy Wednesday!

Rainy Day Saver has a new webpage design- go check it out here!

Stay at Home Mom CFO writes about how she received a credit from the IRS (wow since WHEN did the government gladly give US money? =P )

My Money Minute enlightens us on the $40,000 video game… and how old stuff may actually be worth preserving- after reading that post I ransacked my old video game collection but alas, did not find any gems that were worth $40,000.

Chasing Prosperity talks about Lessons learned from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (Having experienced the Olympics here in Vancouver, I learned that 6 hour line ups all over the place kind of suck! And that trying to get into Heineken House three times and getting rejected three times hurts your feelings! And that Vancouver is really in the lime light now!)

151 Days Off has a picture that will surely excite your boring ol’ Wednesday–> Check out what they did at the Sydney Opera House.

Foreigner’s Finances talks about how to save money for retirement while working abroad. He’s teaching English in Japan right now- and while you don’t have to pay your home country’s tax, you also don’t get access to all the retirement planning!

Little House in the Valley also changed her theme- it’s really cool- check it out here!

The Amateur Finacier shares his Net Worth AND talks about how he jumped 100,000 spots on the Alexa Ranking- woo hoo!

Elle @ Couple Money also shares her Net Worth for last month

Downturn Living talks about the Price of Fame, a Story about Pre-Planning.

CJ Bowker explains to us what his response is when someone asks “What do you Do?”

Clarifinancial interviews Elle from Couple Money on his Fresh Perspective post =)

Money Reasons shares with us the Important Financial Lessons his Son Learned Today

Blog Income Life talks about Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff

Deliver Away Debt shares with us his Net Worth too!

WellHeeledBlog talks about Eat Pray Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book about her and her ex husbands relationship with money.

Evolution of Wealth defines Financial Planning, and what it REALLY means.

Money Funk also shares her family’s Net Worth. Check it out. She has automated most of her bills- good tip!

Wealth Pilgrim gives you the “in” on How You Know if You Are Saving enough for Retirement.

Ultimate Money Blog shares with us how she makes Embroidery Wall Hoops for her home. Cute!

Punch Debt in the Face justifies how he is planning to spend $4000 on his honeymoon (I say go for it!! People have to live their lives somehow. We need to be saving for the sake of enjoying aspects of life, not just for saving!) P.S. the picture associated with the post is hilarious. It could be on one of those Carlton cards!

My Journey to Millions talks about how cool the Yakezie Group is. It’s cool. Get in on the action!

Early Retirement Extreme talks about how you should Never Do Things for Their own Sake.

Enemy of Debt encourages us to Live Life to the Fullest by Getting Out of Debt.