Change

The Times are Changing

The Times are Changing

photo credit: ryanmilani I think that the times are changing, and as a result, so is the focus of this blog.  When I first started this blog back in 2008, I really wanted to obtain financial freedom, and I still do.  We still have a lot of debt (mostly as a mortgage and student loans, although we do have credit card debt as well), but I guess that over the past year I started to have an awakening of sorts. We are very fortunate to have saved up some money (almost entirely in a 401k and Roth IRAs), but...

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Get a free digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative

Get a free digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative

photo credit: inoc Wow – it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s free!  Treat yourself to a one year digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative. All you need to do is pick your magazine and enter your e-mail address. Then, sign up for an account with Zinio, which provides sales and distribution of digital content.  When I signed up for my Zinio account, all I had to do was provide an e-mail address and create a password (no physical address or credit card information was required). Being a personal finance geek, I picked Kiplinger’s for my free magazine, but...

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Using Mint.com to cut through the financial static

Using Mint.com to cut through the financial static

photo credit: ArtemFinland As the year comes to a close, it is always nice to take a look at the finances.  Although I love tracking our finances using Microsoft Money, the level of detail doesn’t always provide a clear look at the underlying picture. For example, our net worth is approximately the same as last year, but this is due to losses in our retirement accounts, which I am not overly concerned about.  Since we are in our early 30′s, we make regular contributions and reallocate our holdings twice a year.  It’s pretty much on auto-pilot. But what about...

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Spending quality holiday time with family – fun and frugal ideas

Spending quality holiday time with family – fun and frugal ideas

photo credit: naviniea Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Our little one is almost 3 years old, and he’s going nuts with all the Christmas lights around town. He’s been asking about a “Kees-mas tee” all week long, and today is the big day! Since all of our Christmas shopping is done, it’s going to be a very relaxing holiday season. Here are some of the things we plan on doing as a family this year. Some do cost money, but we feel they are well worth it! 1. Cut your own Christmas tree –...

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Keeping our heads up in today’s economy

Everything seems to be in the crapper.  With election politics heating up (and not necessarily in a good way), an economic bailout that I am pretty sure no one has a real clue about, and the American dream becoming less achievable for many, things seem to be “not so great”. Or is it?  I think that perhaps we’re really at a turning point — a sort of reality check where those that have not been realistic about what they cannot afford need to come to terms with the consequences.  While this is happening at a personal level, I am...

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Are you registered to vote?

***Note:  Now that the election is over, the voteforchange.com site is no longer available, so I removed the links.*** Even though I voted in the primaries, I am always nervous about whether I am registered to vote or not.  I received an e-mail today from a friend, who sent me a link to the site (it is from the Obama campaign, but anyone can use it) called voteforchange.com.  It only took me about 90 seconds to confirm that I had registered to vote.  You can also use this site to register to vote absentee, as well as locate your...

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Getting involved with your charity

I hope that everyone out there has a special cause that they are involved with. For us, we give monthly to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. I used to work with a pediatric neurosurgeon, and although the thought of a sick child is heartbreaking, seeing how they are still able to be themselves despite their illness is absolutely miraculous – there aren’t even words to describe some of the adversity these kids are able to overcome (sometimes against all odds). Although we believe wholeheartedly in St. Jude’s cause, it is difficult for us to become more directly involved with them...

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Back from camping

We’re back from a weekend camping trip. It was a lot of fun, even though we got rained on for a whole night and part of a day. Trying to keep a 2-year-old contained in a tent while waiting for a storm to pass was challenging, but somewhat manageable. I have made a mental note to bring more books/toys in the event of rain (we try to keep it simple, but in this case having more than a dump truck and 2 books would have made life better)! In general, I love camping because it is so simple, and...

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Get 350 pounds of carbon offset in your name

If you’re a blogger, offset some of your carbon footprint by visiting Brighter Planet’s 350 blogger challenge and putting a badge on your site.  Even though their initial goal of 350 bloggers has been met, they will still make contributions for new additions. It took them a little over 24 hours to verify this site and send me my credit.  If you’ve got the time and the inclination, won’t you consider doing the same?

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Recycle your old technotrash

I feel pretty guilty about throwing things away.  We’ve been trying to get rid of the things that we don’t need anymore, and the next thing on the list is VCR tapes and coasters (CD/DVD discs that did not burn correctly). Even though it costs money, Green Disk seems like a good option for us. Here is a list of some of the things that they will take for recycling (from their website): All forms of electronic media and their cases: diskettes, zip disks, CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs et al, video tape (i.e. VHS), audio tape, game cartridges, DAT,...

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