Well another week has gone by, and there were many great articles I read out in the blogosphere.  Here’s the highlights!

189th Carnival of Personal Finance:  Super Bowl Edition 

My article proclaiming that it’s never too late for New Years Resolutions was selected as part of the 189th Carnival of Personal Finance:  Super Bowl Edition!  Thanks to Emily Starbuck Gerson and her crew at creditcards.com for adding my article.  Drop by and check out the Carnival!

My Top Picks This Week

Got Jobs?

PT at PrimeTime Money put together a great list with the help of his Twitter followers of 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.  There’s always a way to come up with some cash.  Nice work, PT!

Christian PF found that even though the economy is tough, many companies are still hiring.  With these and others hiring, you can help avoid the 10 ways to become or stay poor.

Once you find a job to apply for, Squawkfox gives you tips on the 6 words that make your resume suck.  I’ve gotta say, I’m guilty of a few of these!  This is a great reference tool that I’ll return to and access from time to time.

Hopefully the job you apply for is better than MoneyMateKate’s list of the weirdest jobs she’s ever done.  You have to see these!

Parents & Children

FrugalDad writes an excellent article on contributing to a Roth IRA for teenagers.  It is never too early to use the power of compound interest.

Get Rich Slowly invites us to try out the Young Money Stock Market Game.

Finally, prayers go out to Paid Twice and his family, as he lost his father this month.  Remarkably with all that’s going on with taking care of his mother and family in this unfortunate time, he’s found time to compile a list of things he’s learned losing a parent. 

This list is a must for every family to complete so the financial and procedural details don’t add to your stress and time of grief.

Have a great weekend!

Photo by Lauren Nelson

Links O' The Week Carnival of Personal Finance, games, income, jobs, new years resolutions, resume, Roth IRA

To Be or Not To Be — What kind of question is that?

I hope to make this a recurring segment for controversial personal finance issues that come up from time to time; some serious, some not so serious.

The first up is relevant to me because tomorrow, along with the Lovely Miss H, I’m heading to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for a 4-night getaway.  So the question before us:  is it worth it to go to an all-inclusive resort?

TBONTB:  All-Inclusive Resorts

For those not sure, all-inclusive resorts typically include all your meals, entertainment, and drinks for free, except specialty entertainment, such as parasailing, or spa treatments, etc.

To Be:

All is included for one set price, so you don’t have to worry about bringing your wallet everywhere.  You don’t like the drink they just served you?  Give it back and order another one without worrying about dropping another $10 for that fruit-flavored, tasty alcoholic treat.  Want to eat a snack?  Head over to the snack hut or the buffet for a mini-meal and don’t worry about extra costs.  All your worries are left on the mainland as you chill by the beach, sipping on a margarita, catching some rays, enjoying the surf, without a care in the world.

Also, there’s usually a variety of meal options available.  Total costs for all-inclusives are not super high either, once the services, food, entertainment, and convenience options are factored in.  The one all-inclusive resort I stayed at previously (Sandals in St. Lucia), the personal service was tremendous.

Not To Be:

Regardless of the services that are ‘included’, what you are paying for is the extra convenience.  If you correctly plan out your vacation, you can get just as memorable of a trip at a fraction of the cost.  Many all-inclusive complaints from patrons are for having bland and lukewarm buffet-style food.  If you choose a non-inclusive resort, you can enjoy the cuisine on a more local level at a restaurant, and avoid the generic “touristy” option that all-inclusives provide.

Bottom line, for a more genuine experience, the non-inclusive resorts allow and encourage you to delve into the local culture and scenery more than what the all-inclusive does.

Let Us Discuss:

Well, in this instance I think it depends on what you are looking for (cop-out, I know!).  If all you want is to lounge around the beach for a few days and unwind without a care in the world, the all-inclusive might be your best bet.

If you want to have a more “active” vacation and check out more of the local cuisine, and spend much of your time away from the resort in the local town, then a non-inclusive is probably for you.

Another factor — type of all-inclusive.  I’ve been to a Sandals resort, and thought it was top-of-the-line with service, food, amenities, and entertainment.  NO regrets, but pricey.  So pricey that we also went to another off-brand all-inclusive for the first half of our trip.  It was nice to relax, but the quality of food, amenities, and entertainment was lacking compared to the pricier Sandals.

We will be staying at an Iberostar property.  Certainly not as well-known as Sandals resorts, so I’ll report back on my findings.  Financially, we feel that we found a good deal and most importantly from a personal finance point of view, we paid cash for it.  This trip’s cost won’t be coming home with us

But as it stands, when we get away to a beach, we want to relax and not think about the details.  The convenience of not having to worry about bar tabs and restaurant bills is definitely worth the couple hundred bucks you would “save” by going the non-inclusive route.

My Verdict:

For now, I’ll side with All-Inclusive firmly in the “To Be” category.  The financial savings simply do not outweigh the convenience.

Others have a different take on the All-Inclusive debate.  What do you say?  Is an all-inclusive resort worth it to you?  What factors do you consider in making  your decision?

Photo by Battle Group, Mar Hotels, Majestic-Resorts

To Be or Not To Be all inclusive, Mexico, Vacation

U.S. House Passes One-Sided Economic Stimulus Bill

Yesterday, the House Democrats passed an $819 billion Economic Stimulus Bill.  Despite lobbying by President Obama for bi-partisanship & House Democrat leaders insistence on following party line, no Republicans joined in support of the bill, while 11 Democrats voiced opposition to their party’s wishes.  The final vote on H.R. 1 was 244-188.  A parallel bill is now in the Senate, which is expected to increase the size of the stimulus bill, which will already be the biggest federal expenditure in history upon passage.  In the 10-year plan, nearly two-thirds of the stimulus money will be injected within the first 18 months.

Highlights of the bill include:

• $90 billion for construction projects (roads & infrastructure)
• $142 billion to rebuild public schools (no money given to private schools)
• $54 billion for renewable energy
• Boost Medicaid & state law enforcement — $91 billion
• Extend unemployment benefits, and increase COBRA, WIC, and school lunch programs — $102 billion
• Tax cuts of $500/$1,000 per year for individuals/couples (capped at incomes exceeding $75k single/$150k couple); total cost $145 billion
• Increase to $250k the amount a small business can write off; estimated up to $17 billion savings

Okay, I’ve got to admit — I’m a political junkie.  It runs in my veins, and even when I’m not politically active, my political brain is always running on the back-burner.  First off, I have had a tough time digesting the rate at which our congress has spent money.  Increased revenues & the War on Terror notwithstanding, we have spent way to much over the last decade.

How Would YOU Diversify This Portfolio?

Currently, here’s how the House’s Stimulus Bill portfolio is diversified.  Click on each respective picture to enlarge:

(in $ billions)

(by percentage)

Balancing Act

If a stimulus package is needed, government should use our money to create an environment where dependency is not further created on the government for more public jobs.  Rather, more of the stimulus money should be invested in private businesses, which can regenerate the money and use the free market to grow and expand upon ideas and serving their clientele.  Government construction projects seem like a one-time fix; yet another patch job on a huge problem.

While it is good to invest in public works and extend support to those currently feeling the economy’s effects, perhaps this stimulus bill needs to properly diversified between direct spending (safety net programs), public investment (federal & state spending), and private investment (individual & business tax policy).

Nearly 60% is projected to be invested on federal & state public works (not long-term jobs), 14.6% on safety net programs, and 26% spent on private-sector investments.  Just as if I were analyzing an investment portfolio, I would say too many eggs are in one basket, and that this stimulus bill needs to be re-balanced a bit.

How about you?  Would you “re-balance” the Economic Stimulus Bill?

Politics COBRA, congress, construction, democrat, economic, economy, Energy, medicaid, Obama, Politics, renewable, republican, school lunch, small business, stimulus, tax cuts, taxes, unemployment, WIC

Goodbye, 20s…

Well, I officially only have a few hours left as a twenty-something, and while age (feeling old or young) hasn’t ever really bothered me, it gives one pause and provides time to reflect on the past decade of my life.  I don’t know about you, but my 20s have been very action-packed, and a whirlwind time in my life.  There was simply so much going on!  Here’s a sampling of life events to take place in the last ten years:

• Met the Lovely Miss H through a friend of a friend just after I turned 20.  That means I’ve known her for a third of my life now.  Wow!
• Moved away from home and went away to college.  I enjoyed the small, liberal-arts atmosphere, and met some great people there.
• Worked for a politician who is now a United States Congressman.
• Became an uncle.
• Graduated college.
• Experienced the death of my grandmother to cancer, and the untimely death of my childhood best friend to a car accident.
• Moved to San Diego for a job on campus where I wanted to go to graduate school.  I was accepted & attended a year later.
• Traveled the world:  Mexico, Canada, Korea & Japan.
• Studied abroad in grad school for 10 weeks in Western Europe.
• Married the Lovely Miss H in a hot but beautiful lakeside mountain resort with 200 of our closest friends & family in attendance.
• Honeymooned on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
• Bought a house and moved from California to Texas.  Picked up 3 dogs, great new friends, and countless memories in the process.
• Finished grad school and am still trying to figure out this whole career thing

To me it has seemed so action-packed.  A lot of moving, new friendships, loads of travel, numerous smiles, a few tears, and ever-increasing responsibility with each year!

Hello, 30s!

A new decade of my life makes me take a step back and ponder where my life has been and where it is going.  I do value all those experiences and events in my life listed above.  I value all the friendships I’ve developed, all the advice I’ve received, and all the opportunities to give back. 

Regrets? Nah.  My twenties were a wonderful adventure.  But to use some bowling terminology, there’s certainly been some strikes & gutters, ups & downs.

Strikes

Personally, I really hit the jackpot with the Lovely Miss H.  I could go on for days about it, but just know that she’s everything I could’ve hoped for in a wife, and more.

Financially, I’m pleased that the personal finance bug has bitten me.  We went from wandering in the wilderness to pretty much on the same page together with a plan to pay off our debts and build wealth.

Gutters

Personally & Professionally, I’d say my biggest gutterball is not figuring out what I want to do when I grow up   I have many interests and skills, but have yet to find my niche I guess.  For one that has always thrived on stability, it sure has been an unstable development of a career path for me.  Funny how life teaches you those lessons, eh?  I am looking forward to the continued adventure, however — and now I’ll get to write about it for the world to see!

What about you??

Have you taken the opportunity to reflect personally or financially lately?  What are your “strikes & gutters”?

Photo by clairity & tsschuel

Personal Finance birthday, career, The Big Picture

WHAT’S ON TAP THIS WEEK?

I’m in the middle of a very busy stretch of life these days, some of it planned & some of it not!  Here’s a few QuickHits to give you an idea of what’s on my mind, and what I plan on blogging about this week.  Take a look and enjoy!

Pet Insurance

As I wrote about last week, one of my dogs swallowed an entire sock, had to have surgery to remove it, and may force the use of our emergency fund this week.  While I was at the vet spending my future kids’ college fund to save my dog’s life, I picked up some brochures on pet insurance.

So to briefly continue my pet-related theme here at MyMoneyMinute, I’d like to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of purchasing pet insurance vs. self-insuring through these times of calamity with our furry loved ones.  I guess that’s the beauty of blogging — you never know what life will throw at you (or in this case, what it will swallow).  So you get to adapt with me in these quick changes in life!  A scripted life would be quite boring anyway, wouldn’t it?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wednesday is a landmark day in the MyMoneyMinute household, as I hit the big 3-0.  That’s right, I’ll be turning 30!  I’m sure I’ll provide some obvious self-reflection on that day, and somehow I’ll shoehorn in something that’s money-themed with it.  This may fall under the “and all that implies” part of MyMoneyMinute.  We’ll see.

Vacation to Mexico

It has been quite a while since we have been able to take a vacation that didn’t involve flying home to see family.  Don’t get me wrong, I love our families, but it will be nice for the two of us to just get away and recharge the batteries without any other responsibilities or obligations.  We’re flying off to Riviera Maya, near Cancun, on Saturday!  Four nights of all-inclusive resort bliss.  Expect a vacation-related post this week.

New Edition on Website — Find Cheap Gas!

All right, I guess I’m misleading you a bit here.  I am not interviewing New Edition, the pop group from the ’80s.  But I do have a new addition to my website.  Available on the tabs at the top of my page is a link that allows you to search for the lowest gas prices in your area, courtesy of gasbuddy.com! I’ll probably post a QuickHit on this later in the week, but feel free to navigate over and see where the lowest gas prices are in your city.

That’s about it for now.  I’m looking forward to this week’s batch of posts.  Here’s hoping it all goes according to schedule!

Photos by:

COmfH & Toots Fontaine

What's On Tap Energy, Gas, Pets, Travel, Vacation

I read a ton of blogs each week.  So many inspiring stories and wonderful ideas come from the people on the ‘Net.  Here’s a few that caught my eye:

Education

The Wisdom Journal posted 10 Ways College Made Him Rich & 10 Ways College Made Him Poor.  This is a great read for those at or near college age.

The Degerati Life had a guest post by Studenomics on How To Work Full Time While In College.  I wish I would’ve taken some of this advice!

Vehicles

PT @ Prime Time Money paid off his car last week!  Now what does he do? If there’s ca$h burnin’ a hole in your pocket, PT, you can certainly send some dough to my student loan accounts

Clever Dude posted an article on which model automobiles receive the most speeding tickets.

Get Rich Slowly explains to us all why he drives a 13 year old car!  I don’t think I could rock a Geo like that (I’ve got long legs, for one thing), but a fascinating personal finance story and analysis on vehicle expense.

The Big Picture

Christian Personal Finance posted on becoming richer than Rockefeller, and how our standard of living today blows away the richest man in the world’s living standards from 100 years ago.  This is an older post, but I surfed across it this week and thought it was important to share.

That’s it for today, folks.  Enjoy those links.  I’ve got a few news articles that caught my eye, but I’ll probably cover those in posts next week.

Have a great weekend!

photo by brandi666

Links O' The Week Cars, Education, The Big Picture

Pet Emergency

Odie, a 2 year-old runt of a mutt, is our youngest of three dogs.  Earlier this week, he began to refuse food and not hold it down when he did manage to eat a bit.  Tuesday’s trip to the vet resulted in a few prescriptions, but not any diagnosis of the problem.

Yesterday, with Odie still rarely eating, and having dropped about 5 of his 33 pounds, we took a 2nd trip to the vet.  Bloodwork was done that eliminated pancreatitis.  Then, after two x-rays, they found an obstruction in his intestine.  The vet said it was probably a hard piece of plastic, or possibly a piece of metal.  Odie had swallowed the object, it had traveled through the stomach, but was lodged in the intestine on the way out.  The only way to retrieve the obstruction was to perform a surgery called a gastrotomy.

Odie’s gastrotomy surgery was yesterday afternoon.  The vet said it went well.  Oh, and the obstruction blocking his intestine?  A SOCK.  Not a hard plastic, not a piece of metal, a SOCK; apparently one that’s 12-18 inches long too!  I guess our lovable mutt skipped over the smaller ankle socks and went straight for the quality threads.

Odie is staying the night at the vet, resting comfortably, and we hope he makes a speedy recovery without any complications.

Life Happens

All this stress with Odie reminds me that life happens, and we can’t control when we will have emergencies.  Kids break arms, cars break down, and funerals happen three states away.

While we can’t prevent emergencies, we can do our part to plan for them.  WHEN (not IF) emergencies will happen, we need to be prepared.  An adequate Emergency Fund has 3 to 6 month’s worth of your household expenses.  We all know this is a down economy and we’re battling through a recession.  But even if you don’t yet have an adequately-funded Emergency Fund, anything is better than nothing!  It’s never too late to start — do what you can to put aside some money to help WHEN the bad times strike.  This will help you avoid credit card debt or medical bills, which drag you down with monthly payments.

Diversifying our Emergency Portfolio

Luckily in our situation, we have a few options to help cover the costs of Odie’s sock surgery:

• Any extra money remaining at the end of the month that would have been applied to our debt snowball.
• A line-item in our monthly budget for our dogs’ medical care.  Any remaining balance each month carries over to the next (kind of like cell phone “rollover” minutes), which helps us build a dog medical fund for annual check-ups and emergencies like this one.
• Stopping our debt snowball payment for a month and applying it to our vet bill.
• A $1,000 “baby” Emergency Fund.

Do you have a crazy pet story?

What options do you use to prevent debt accumulation when emergencies happen?

Pets, emergency fund baby emergency fund, Budget, debt snowball, emergency fund, Pets

It’s never too late to be who you might have been.

George Eliot – English novelist (1819 – 1880)

The New Year has come and gone.  The world keeps on moving.  Headlines depict stories of airplanes landing in the Hudson and presidential inaugurations, and they provide us with fuzzy memories of those resolutions we vowed to uphold oh so long ago.  What, if anything, can we do about it?  Here are some tips & thoughts on New Years Resolutions.

The Bad News

Resolutions alone do not work!

All a “resolution” does is merely promise to do something.  It is a declaration of intent; or a statement that you resolve to act upon something.   Especially when coupled with the New Year, resolutions are almost wishful thinking from the start if you examine a person’s attitudes — and I’m as guilty as the next guy!  Here’s some typical New Years resolutions (with their corresponding underlying motivation included):

• I really should quit smoking; I know it’s bad for my health.
• I need to lose some weight and eat healthier.
• I need to start working out.
• I gotta get a handle on these bills and start saving for retirement.
• I’d like to spend less time at work & more time with my family.

The Good News

You will succeed if you create a Plan to follow through with your resolution.

A resolution identifies your wishes.   A plan adds integrity to your words by providing a detailed course of action.  A good plan will keep you on track and give you a sense of purpose.

Tips for Setting Goals

Like others, I advocate setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, where your goals are:

• Specific — be particular about what exactly you want to accomplish
  
• Measurable — make it something that you can tangibly evaluate.  Give yourself check-points or building blocks that you can use as markers of success.
  
• Attainable — (see below)
  
• Realistic — similar to Attainable, make it something within reach.  If a goal is too lofty to begin with, you will quit because you don’t give yourself the psychological boost of accomplishment.
  
• Time-based — set a time by which you accomplish your goal; a goal with an open-ended time frame will put you back at “resolution” status.
  

However, I would alter the “A” to stand for Accountability.  When setting goals, accountability is key.  If you’re married, a spouse is the perfect accountability partner for your household finances.  Working out with a buddy is a great way to stick with your fitness goals.

My Financial Goals for 2009

In discussing this year’s overall financial outlook with The Lovely Miss H, we’ve come up with a few financial goals we hope to attain and we have a plan for success:

1.  Pay off H’s Car Loan

Back in 2006, we bought a 2004 Saab 9-3 on eBay (a post for another day!).  With an expected bonus, the remainder of this note will be paid off no later than February!  This is personally exciting to me, because this will be the final consumer debt remaining on our snowball.  Only student loans to go!

S.M.A.R.T. approved

2.  Pay off My Bar Study Loan

Balance-wise, it is a very small educational loan.  But we want to just pay it off to use the extra $50/month to add to our snowball!  Plan is to have done by February as well.

S.M.A.R.T. approved

3.  Establish a “tweener” Emergency Fund

If you are extremely focused and intent on paying off your debt in an 18-24 month period, Dave Ramsey recommends a “baby” Emergency Fund of $1,000 to protect you from falling off the wagon back into credit card debt.  Once this is paid off, you then fully fund your Emergency Fund with 3 to 6 months expenses.

Since our student loans are a little more long-term than the consumer debt we’re about to pay off, we want to establish a “tweener” Emergency Fund of $10,000 by July.  This would give us a little more cushion so we can begin to attack & pay down our student loans.

S.M.A.R.T. approved

4.  Pay off H’s Parent Plus Loan from College

A moderately-sized loan in our world, we took this loan back over from H’s parents after getting jobs.  We just thought it was the right thing to do.  We believe it is attainable to knock this out in the 2nd half of the year, and have it paid off by December.

S.M.A.R.T. approved

5.  Begin saving for future car

I drive a 2001 Nissan Maxima with 180,000 miles on it.  It’s been a decent car for me, but eventually we will need to replace it.  In order to avoid getting back into car payments, we need to start saving.  Unfortunately, this remains in the “resolution” department, because no specific time-frame has been put on this goal.  Just proves that even us cool kids on the Internet aren’t perfect either!

NOT S.M.A.R.T. approved

It’s Never Too Late!

The beauty of the New Year is that it makes a great marker on the calendar to begin anew.  But like the quote above says, it is never too late to get started!  If you have a Plan that puts integrity to your Resolution, any day is a great day to start!
What are your experiences with New Years Resolutions?

Personal Finance consumer debt, debt, emergency fund, goals, new year, resolution, S.M.A.R.T., student loan

Welcome to MyMoneyMinute.com, and thanks for stopping by to check out my site!  To a certain extent, my personal finance journey reminds me of our presidential election and the upcoming inauguration day.  Here are some parallels between the two that are at most funny, at least light-hearted and amusing, and no matter what, a little cheesy

THE CAMPAIGN

A presidential campaign has become a long and drawn-out process, hasn’t it?  Dozens of months before the actual election, politicians come out of the woodworks to test the waters.  They form their exploratory committees.  Pollsters are put to work and seed money is raised.  You take a trip or ten to New Hampshire to gain popularity with those voting in the “First in the Nation” primary in hopes your campaign gains traction.  Finally you declare your candidacy, attend debates, shake hands, and kiss babies. Other candidates drop out and your platform takes you to the top.  You win your primary, continue to campaign, and victory in the general election is in sight!

My Personal Finance Journey
Likewise, my personal finance journey has been a long, drawn-out process.  This quest and awareness really began about two years ago, and I’ve been soaking up knowledge and fundamentals on personal finance ever since.  I realized our family had too much debt, and wanted to right the ship before ten or twenty years went by and we can’t figure out where our money went and why we’re not achieving our financial goals.  This awareness hit me on many different levels, including family relationships, spiritually, and career-wise.  So I started to test the waters.  At first it was casually mentioning to friends about books I read or segments of radio shows like Dave Ramsey’s that I had heard.  Most importantly, my exploratory committee (aka my wife!) was on board with the campaign to get on track with our finances.

While I didn’t make any trips to New Hampshire, there are certainly many opponents faced in my journey.  But because our family has chosen to establish and execute a plan, we’ve been able to defeat our primary opponents that can prohibit financial growth – opponents like unemployment, income fluctuations, and consumer debt.

While the debt dragon is far from slain (pesky student loans!!), I’m on an established track that will lead to financial success, which in turn, bleeds into all areas of my life.  I have gained traction.  There are plenty of obstacles still to overcome, but we have won a significant victory in that our habits and mindset have changed.

Whether Republican or Democrat, both presidential candidates campaigned on change.  And in our finances, we voted for change – a change in the way we think, act, and relate to our finances.

THE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Victory has been achieved!  The podium is yours.  Cheesy music like “Simply the Best” or “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” plays in the background as you enter the stage.

The candidate appears to the people (in Obama’s case, perhaps a million or more in person!), thanks supporters, remains gracious to opponents, and promises all constituents the best leadership and representation possible.

My Personal Finance Journey

***I enter the stage.  My political music of choice?  Let’s go with “Only in America” by Brooks & Dunn.  It’s Patriotic, inspiring, with just enough of a cheesy country music twist to be appropriate for a victory speech.  A country group may not do well with the East Coast demographic, so I’ll have to double-check with my pollsters.***

First off, special thanks particularly goes to my buddy PT from Prime Time Money, who has provided me tons of information and strategy on how to start a personal finance blog.  I also want to give a big shout out to Lance, Chief Creative PixelMonkey at PixelPops.com, a great friend who has helped me with domain names and server setup.  And of course, my wife, The Lovely Miss H, who is with me on this fun choose-your-own adventure we call life.

I want to thank all of my readers, because without you, none of this is possible!  I hope you find it helpful, at least slightly entertaining, and something you can relate to.  Money and Personal Finance touch on almost every area of our lives, and I hope the chronicles of my ups & downs help increase your financial awareness in a positive direction.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS
After being sworn in, the new president begins his honeymoon phase where he settles into his new role.  Current issues such as unemployment, the credit crunch, and on-going War on Terror are on the people’s minds.  However, it is in these first 100 days where the president sets the agenda for the foreseeable future of his administration.  New and incomprehensible issues can and will pop up, but the tone and fundamentals of the administration begin to be set.

My Personal Finance Journey
Similarly, we do not know what will happen with any of our personal finances, including my own.  New issues can, and are as we speak, popping up that change parts of the equation.  However, there will always be fundamental personal finance issues we all deal with.  I have many post ideas and I look forward to setting the tone of this blog with these fundamental posts.  However, I also plan to give flexibility to this site’s path to allow for changes in my life and the readers desires.

MyMoneyMinute.com is a reflection of my personal finance passion, and I plan on following where it leads.  I look forward to interacting with many of you who join me for the ride!

I am Jason (at) MyMoneyMinute (dot) com, and I approve this message.

Baby photo by alopezc72

Brooks & Dunn photo by sergio_leenen

Personal Finance campaign, credit, debt, election, inauguration, mymoneyminute.com, Obama