Money Blog Site

Adding your site to different blog directories can easily increase your blog traffic. It is a good way to get links to your site, and for people to see information on your site. While Blog Directories that focus on the topic of your blog will probably bring more traffic, any Blog Directory is better than no Blog Directory.

I have found some Blog Directories to be good, and some not so. PFBlogs.com provides me with the best amount of traffic. I usually get about 5 visits per post. As opposed to PFBlogs.org, where I have gotten less than 5 visits in my last 10 posts. The other directories I belong to only bring 2 or 3 visits a week, but I keep those up there for the rankings mainly. But remember, 2 or 3 visits a week is better than nothing.

Traffic is all about getting your site out to a number of different places. It is also about getting your link in front of as many different faces as possible. Any kind of Link Directory will do this.

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Here is a list of 60 Personal Finance Blogs based on Alexa (not in any order). Thanks to Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for the list. I took some out because of lack of posting and lack of personal finance content. Thanks to The Sun’s Financial Diary for another list of the top Personal Finance blogs.

1. The Simple Dollar
2. I Will Teach You To Be Rich
3. Get Rich Slowly
4. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
5. PF Advice
6. My Money Blog
7. Wise Bread
8. Consumerism Commentary
9. Five Cent Nickel
10. Free Money Finance
11. All Financial Matters
12. Pro Bargain Hunter
13. Lazy Man and Money
14. Mighty Bargain Hunter
15. Boston Gal’s Open Wallet
16. Binary Dollar
17. My 1st Million at 33
18. 2million
19. The Digerati Life
20. Blogging Away Debt
21. No Credit Needed
22. Stop Buying Crap
23. The Suns Financial Diary
24. Finandom
25. Money, Matter, and More Musings
26. Clever Dude
27. No Limits Ladies
28. Make Love, Not Debt
29. Money Musings
30. My Two Dollars
31. Its Just Money
32. GenX Finance
33. My Open Wallet
34. Tired But Happy
35. Young and Broke
36. Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
37. The Frugal Duchess
38. The Finance Journey
39. Queer Cents
40. Getting Green
41. Hustler Money Blog
42. Blunt Money
43. My Money Forest
44. Not Made of Money
45. Canadian Capitalist
46. The Dividend Guy
47. My Finance Journey
48. Get Rich Slick
49. My Retirement Blog
50. Becoming & Staying Debt Free
51. Rate Ladder
52. Punny Money
53. Money Smart Life
54. Money and Values
55. Don’t Mess With Taxes
56. Money Walks
57. Added: Millionster
58. Added: Divorce to Financial Freedom
59. Added: My Wealth Builder
60. Added: We’re In Debt
61. Added: Fire Finance
62. Added: Penny Foolish
63. Added: A Penny Saved
64. Added: Making Our Way

These were removed only because higher ranked blogs were found:

• The Weight of Money
• One Frugal Girl
• Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist

This is the list so far. If anyone has any objections, or blogs they think should be on the list, let me know. I will give everyone until Friday to object to this list, then it will be final.

So far the rules and format are not set in stone, but I will post them when they are.

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Since I watched the Nascar race this weekend, I figured I would have a race theme for the 2nd edition of the Carnival of Credit Report Stories. Congratulations to Matt Kenseth for winning the Auto Club 500.

Racers

Here are the articles for this week’s Carnival:

• Matthew Paulson presents Don’t Go In Debt To Improve Your Credit Score! posted at Getting Green.
• David E. presents Debt – A Personal Finance Crisis Emerges posted at Worldwide Success.
• Lua Augustin presents 5.9% balance transfers posted at Save Money.

Black-Flagged

Since I am hosting the Carnival, I figured I should not have any entries. But since there weren’t that many, I added a shameless plug. I wrote a post called Beware: 0% APR Game about watching your credit score when you apply for a bunch of credit cards.

Did Not Qualify

Here are submissions that were not on topic with the Carnival, but since there were not that many submissions, I added them in.

• David E. presents 10 Simple Ideas to Save Thousands of Dollars per Year posted at Worldwide Success.
• Praveen presents Review of “The Rich Jerk” - Get It Free, Plus $1 posted at My Simple Trading System.

That is the Carnival for this week. Next week will be hosted at Millionster. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Credit Report Stories using the carnival submission form.

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I upgraded to Wordpress 2.1 two nights ago, and ever since, my links widget has not worked. I have finally figured out a solution:

In Tiga.php under wp-content\themes\tiga-06:

andromeda strain the dvd
• The House Bunny buy

Change Function tiga_link_widget to:

function tiga_links_widget($args)
{
global $wpdb;
extract($args);/* Links from the 'Links Manager' */
$link_cats = $wpdb->get_results('SELECT cat_id, cat_name FROM ' . $wpdb->categories . ' WHERE link_count > 0');
foreach ($link_cats as $link_cat)
{echo '<li class="left-wp-widget %2$s">' .
$before_title . $link_cat->cat_name . $after_title .
'<ul>';
wp_get_links($link_cat->cat_id);
echo '</ul>'.
$after_widget;}
}

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If it may seem like I write a lot of banks, it’s because I have the worst luck with them. I just received a letter in the mail from Chase stating that my funds from my last two deposits are on hold. The reason, and I quote, “the deposited check(s) is/are not consistent with the account’s normal deposit activity”. Well, since these deposits were the FIRST TWO deposits I made, I would hope they are not part of the normal deposit activity. I DON’T HAVE A NORMAL DEPOSIT ACTIVITY, IT’S A NEW ACCOUNT.

Another thing that happened yesterday was that my neighbor knocked on the door and said Hi. He also said that Fifth Third called his house about us. He didn’t say what they told him, but he brought over the contact information for the lady that called. He said it sounded like the lady knew us, and that she didn’t say who she was until the call was almost over. My wife called the lady back, and if you know my wife, she was P.O.ed. The lady said that she called our neighbors because she could not get a hold of us. Well, I have talked to someone from Fifth Third the past three days in a row. My wife has talked to someone from Fifth Third two of the past three days. My wife has decided to go tomorrow to the bank with all the account information from her account, and try to resolve it. Basically she is going to have to pay it off because Fifth Third only cares about the money and not about customer service.

A Third thing that happened was that I found out that the iGoBanking account I signed up for was denied. Basically they could not confirm her credit (probably because I put in her new last name, and she has not changed it yet). Well, I applied over two weeks ago for the bank account, and I didn’t even find out, my wife got an email about it. You would think they would email me about it. I got an email saying my wife completed her part of the joint account, but it never said anything about her being denied. This is just a hassle as I applied twice for the bank, so that is two soft credit pulls. If I apply again, that is three.

Some day when it comes to banks …

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A book I recently read was Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. This book was a personal finance book that was more on the beginner level. Like all the other books I read, this book was for people just starting to get their finances in order. While this book seemed to be geared towards couples, I am sure single people could get some use out of it.

This book did have some good information, like my post on Researching Investments Online. Other than a few good websites with good information on investing and finance, this book did not have too much other useful information that I did not get in the other books I read. One of only things I pulled from this book was where he says you should think about your values before you think about money. Make sure your money is working towards your values in all the areas of finance like retirement and dreams. If one of your values is family, then make sure when you retire you will be close enough to your kids to spend time with them.

There were nine chapters/steps to this book:

1. Learn the Facts and Myths About Couples and Money
2. Determine the True Purpose of Money in Your Life
3. Plan Together…Win Together
4. The Couples’ Latte Factor
5. Build Your Retirement Basket
6. Build Your Security Basket
7. Build Your Dream Basket
8. Learn to Avoid the Ten Biggest Financial Mistakes Couples Make
9. Increase Your Income by 10 Percent in Nine Weeks

While the last two chapters look very enticing, these are the chapters of the book that I skipped through. His ten biggest mistakes couples make are things HE does not like to do. One example is getting a 30 year mortgage. He then goes on to say 30 year mortgages are ok if you pay them off before the 30 years. Another example is not signing a pre-nup. While this may be good advice for rich older men marrying younger woman, I can guarantee a pre-nup for my poor wife and I would have made no sense. His ideas on big mistakes did not have any relevance to the audience of his book.

The last chapter I thought would have great tips on how to increase your wealth. It was about how to get a raise at work. He starts off saying that everyone is under paid and everyone deserves a raise. While he may think this is true, and you make think the same thing, in reality, only about 20% of people are underpaid. The rest of the people just think they are underpaid. I did not read this chapter as I just got a raise, but after I read that all people deserve a raise, I just closed the book.

Overall, I would say read this book, but try not to buy it. It was a good book with decent information, but you can just write down the information (or visit this blog) and keep it. It is an entry-level finance book with no real advanced information. It had some good places to start researching on investments, but other than that the decent information was few and far between.

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This is the Package Progress for my new UpConverting DVD Player with HDMI capability being shipped UPS.

For those of you who do not know, Jeffersonville (where I live and where the package is heading) is right across the Ohio River from Louisville. I literally live 5 miles from Louisville and a good 100+ from Indianapolis. They could have thrown the package out the window on the way from Louisville to Indianapolis.

This is not the first time this has happened, and it makes me wonder what software they use to find the best routes. I really don’t mind other than the fact I could have gotten my package today instead of tomorrow.  This may not be too funny for those of you out there, but I find it funny when companies like this are so off in their calculations.

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I have seen this on a lot of blogs lately and a lot of carnivals. Bloggers going around telling readers to not pay off their student loans. While this is not the dumbest thing I have ever seen from a personal finance blog, it ranks pretty high. I am also the type of person who hates to have debt, so why would you want that debt sitting around there while you deliberately ignore it?

I have seen bloggers say don’t pay it off because if you die, the debt goes away. While I do not believe this to be true if you are married or have children, this is just plain bad thinking. First off, if you don’t think you will live to be 55 (out of school by 25, 30 years to pay off debt), then you shouldn’t really care about money to begin with. If you really want to be retired and still have that student loan hanging around, then that is your prerogative. I am sure that whatever company issued you the loan is not going to sit back after you retire or die and forgot about their money.

Another big thing is that people say Student Loan interest is tax-deductible. That is correct, up to $500. My wife and I had over $800 in student loan interest last year, and we didn’t make too many payments on her private loans (the ones with the huge interest rate). If we just sit back and make scheduled payments and not pay extra principal, we will get hammered on the extra interest rate payments we make. Any money that would be made with alternative investments is gone due to the extra interest payments we make.

Finally, this is another case of people looking short-term and not long-term. Yes you can save that money that would be used to pay extra principal and do whatever with it. But what about your credit and credit score. Creditors will see those loans lingering out there and wonder why you don’t have it payed off, but you want to buy this nice new house. It will also reflect on your credit score as you will have those monthly payments out there, and you won’t be able to borrow as much, or the interest rate on the loan you get will be higher.

Bottom line: There is nothing good about loans and debt. I think readers should be weary when reading articles that say don’t pay back loans or debt. I think they should also take a look at the kind of people writing them. I know I steer clear of those sites because if they tell me that dying is a good way to get rid of a loan, then I don’t want any finance advice from them.

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Sorry for the absence, but one of the reasons why is because I bought a HANNspree Xv 37 inch Widescreen LCD HDTV from Buy.com. While there were not a lot of reviews of there, I took a gamble, and it paid off big time. This TV is AMAZING. I paid $899.99, but I already mailed in the $200 rebate. (Side note: I photo-copied everything including the UPC as I have gotten burned before from not doing so.)

When first watching this TV with an S-Video cord hooked up, it was good. But after ordering an HDMI cord from HandHeldItems.com for $7.84 shipped (use coupon code “hdmihdmi”), this TV has the best picture I have ever seen. With a little tweaking on the cable box to get the 1080i reception, I am in love. Even Spongebob Squarepants in 480i looks great. I only get the local channels in High-Def, but I am am very tempted to spend the $7.95 a month for the rest of the channels.

I have already ordered a new UpConverting DVD Player with HDMI output from Walmart.com. I also had to order another HDMI cord from HandHeldItems. I can’t wait to watch all my DVDs on this TV.

The one downfall I see from this TV is that I am having to spend more money for “accessories”. The DVD Player is an example, even though the family badly needed a new one as we were using a portable one. We will also need a new Audio Receiver as the one we had does not work with this TV and the HDMI connections. I will have to buy a Receiver that can connect HDMI (this will probably run $600 or so). I am also thinking about a PS3, another $600. I think I will get to get the Receiver first, but I can’t wait to see Madden in 1080i High-Def.

All-in-all, though I spent $700 for the TV, I am very happy with the purchase. Some people may see it as unnecessary, but those people have obviously never seen this TV in action.

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The wife and I opened a new Checking Account at Chase yesterday. We just got their free checking with no fees and a debit card. We really did not need anything else. Interest would have been nice, but the 46 cents a year we were getting before was easily sacrificed. We liked it because it was a bigger bank so when we travel they will have some in the area. They have a branch by both of our parents’ homes. We also liked it because of the $75 sign-up bonus for using Direct Deposit.

We switched from Fifth Third because of the horrible customer service. It is easily the worst bank I have ever had to deal with. The worst part of all is when you have to call and talk to a Customer Service rep. These people are all idiots, and I feel bad for anyone who has to deal with them. Most of the time the person said they would transfer my call, then they hung up on me.

On top of this was the fact they charged my wife $131 because of a fraudulent charge made to her Debit Card. Someone at Vermont Teddy Bear put in too many numbers for the credit card number, and my wife’s card got charged. They refunded the money, but after my wife closed the account, they wanted the money back. Needless to say in having to deal with Customer Service to resolve this issue, it never got resolved.

Once we get our tax refund, we will be closing our accounts at Fifth Third and never looking back. We only opened a checking account at Chase because I did not want to be transferring money back and forth all the time like I did with the old accounts. I have a High-Yield Savings Account that I will be using for my savings. I think I will open another High-Yield account and have one for our emergency fund and one for our “New House” fund. I want to buy a $200,000 house by the time my daughter goes to 1st grade (4 years), so I will need to save $40,000.

Moral of this story is to steer clear of Fifth Third. My wife’s parents agree that it is a horrible bank, so they are switching too.

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