Have no fear, I know how to fix the economy. Better yet, I know who can fix the economy.
It’s not the President, Congress, or Oprah. And no it isn’t Superman, Wonder Woman, or even Chuck Norris (who of course is in a league of his own).
The person who is going to help fix the economy is….(wait for it)….(drum roll)…
YOU!
That’s not a typo. You can help the economy (and you can prevent forest fires as well just so you know).
Sure the economy is in rough shape because of a variety of different factors but if you and I each figured out how to handle our money better, maybe, just maybe, things would begin to improve. So where do you go to find the knowledge that you need?
We’re launching a brand new site to help students find the answers they’re looking for regarding savings, investing, personal finance, and all things money. Each day, we’ll be answering a different question submitted by a student on subjects such as budgets, scholarships, credit cards, debt, insurance, living on your own, taxes, and so much more.
Three Competing Goals with Finances – Where do you focus when you need to build your emergency fund, pay off debt, and invest for retirement? Jeremy over at Gen X Finance gives some perspective.
Where’s George – If you haven’t seen this, you need to play with it sometime. You can basically track individual dollar bills by their serial number and see where money goes. Very fascinating how money travels…
GradeFund – Basically a community-based site where you can get people to sponsor you to get good grades. Interesting concept…
Here’s your weekly dose of interesting websites, blog posts, and articles for you to check out…
Websites:
Pandora - I may be late to the party on using this service, but it is a sweet internet radio program. You can basically create customized radio stations based on artists or songs you like. And best of all…it’s FREE! It doesn’t hurt that there is an iPhone app as well.
Fonolo – Ever had this experience…you need to call customer service about something but you play this game: Press 2…hold…Press 5….hold…Press 1….hold…ok, you get the idea. This service lets you not only bypass the “phone tree” of several major customer service 800 numbers, but they also get them on the phone for you.
Rescue Time – I just started using this, so I’m interested to see if it’s valuable. I spend the bulk of my day on my computer and occasionally my ADD creeps up, and I start drifting away to other programs or applications. This free service tracks what programs you spend your time on and gives you feedback about where you’re wasting time.
CreditKarma – This is the first actual free service that you can see a ballpark figure of your credit score. Most “free” services get you your credit score for free after you pay for their program. With CreditKarma, you don’t enter any credit card info, and it’s totally free. I knew my credit score and tried this for comparison, and it was actually pretty accurate.
The Credit Crisis – Visualized – This is a short, animated video that does a great job walking through why we’re in the economic situation that we’re in.
How To Manage Job Burnout – We all have ups and downs at work, but this is a very solid overview of how to handle that potential burnout from the blog, The Digerati Life.
Tax Prep Checklist – If you haven’t started your taxes yet, here is a good checklist of all the paperwork you need to gather up (from Prime Time Money).
Here’s your weekly dose of interesting websites, blog posts, and articles for you to check out…
Websites:
HeyJosh.com – This site is from a speaker friend of mine, Josh Shipp. Josh is the “Dear Abby” of the digital generation, so if you’re a student looking for advice, go check out this site right now. Do not pass go. And if you collect $200, give it to me.
OwnerIQ.net – You know those stacks of old user’s manuals you have for every product under the sun. This site catalogs and categorizes user manuals for just about any product.
Taking Apart The Stimulus Package – This is a break down from the Washington Post of the original $819 Billion stimulus package (although it has since been modified) and how the money will be spent.
Here’s your weekly dose of interesting websites, blog posts, and articles for you to check out…
Websites:
Google Earth 5.0 – If you haven’t fiddled with Google Earth before, you’re missing out. But a few weeks ago, they came out with the latest edition, which has some incredible features such as historical imagery from around the globe, ocean floor images, and audio touring of various locations.
LeechBlock – This is a Firefox add-on that helps block you from distracting websites while you’re trying to work. If you’re even remotely ADD (like me), this will help you stay focused.
KeepMeOut – Same idea as the Firefox add-on above.
Carbonite – This is the online tool I use to backup all my computer files. I know there are plenty of choices out there but this is my program of choice.
College Degress with the Highest ROI – This is an article from Yahoo that gives you the top 5 college degrees that will get you the most bang for your buck.
Here’s your weekly dose of interesting websites, blog posts, and articles for you to check out…
Websites:
• PayScale.com – Get salary reports based on your location, job, and experience…are you getting paid what you’re worth? Mint.com – I’ve played some in the past with this site but just started using it again. It is considered one of the best online personal money management tools on the internet. Best part…it’s FREE! Picasa – This is Google’s digital photo tool. I used it this week to back up all the digital pictures on my computer. Like most Google products, it’s simple to use, easy to figure out, and free.
Blog Posts/Articles:
• Top 10 Social Networks for Gen-Y – Interesting list that doesn’t show the typical sites you would think of like Facebook or MySpace. More individual sites where Gen-Y is meeting at… The Best Colleges For Making Money – Article from Smart Money…good comparison of public vs private schools. I referenced this article in my post this week, “3 Things You Must Know About Your College Tuition Investment…” Finding Balance – This was an article in the FFA Horizons magazines where they interviewed me about students and life balance. Pretty cool! Speed Reading Successfully – One of the things on my CHANGES list for 2009 is to learn to speed read. I read a lot so I figure: Learn to speed read = More books I can get through. 7 Hours For Healthier Finances – We’re just over a month into the new year so stop now and get your finances in order. Good place to start… The Key To Success: Define Your Strengths – I think it’s critically important for people to take the time to determine where they excel and also figure out where they suck. The 20 Worst Supermarket Foods – My mom got us a book from this series for Christmas, and it is really fascinating. These books identify actual products in stores/restaurants and not some generic category of food you should eat or avoid. Bigger Numbers Trick Your Mind Into Buying – A summary of a study for why we would buy something at $.99 but our brain isn’t interested if it’s $1.00. Interesting…
Writing, reading, and following blogs has quickly become one of the best ways to get information and content not only from the internet, but through all forms of media.
Blogs give everyone the opportunity to be an expert, and we all have the chance to display that expertise to a virtual audience on the world wide web.
So first of all, if you’re not reading blogs, you’re really missing out on some valuable content that may exist for your industry or your interests. But for the sake of today’s post, I’m going to assume you already know what a blog is and that you keep tabs on a handful of the ones that exist out there.
You’re probably finding that going back to those sites on a regular basis, just to see if they have any new posts can get a little old and tedious. So I want to walk you through how to organize your blogs with an RSS Reader.
A what? (Is that similar to a bird feeder?)
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a way to gather new content from blogs or other websites without having to continue checking that site for updates. You’ve probably seen the symbol at the top of this post before which is the RSS logo. If you see this on a website, it is telling you…”if you want to know when we add anything new to this site, we can keep you updated so you don’t have to keep coming here.”
That’s my interpretation of course.
In order to do that, you need some kind of RSS Reader, of which there are several. I just converted to Google Reader from Bloglines, but there are also sites like Yahoo, AOL, MSN, or NewsGator.
Once you set up an account with one of these services (all free), you can go around to the blogs that you’re interested in (such as this one – wink, wink), click the RSS logo and add the blog feed into your RSS reader. Then instead of going to each individual blog on a daily basis, you go to one site (your RSS Reader) which will automatically collect anything new and have it ready for you to read.
One of the cool things about RSS is more and more types of websites provide an RSS feed, so you can keep up on updates as they happen. For example, my wife and I have a little field trip to Maui coming up, so we’ve been on the look out for bargains and deals for while we’re out there. I have an RSS feed on Craiglist-Maui-Tickets, so that any time anyone posts anything new in that category, I know about it immediately.
So what do you need to do now? Follow these 3 simple steps…
Set up a free account with an RSS Reader (I recommend Google Reader)
Add the links/feeds of your favorite blogs and websites to your Reader.
3. Add in Grant Baldwin’s Blog. At the top of the right column, you can subscribe to this blog with one click or you can receive email updates for the blog (sorry I couldn’t help myself).
