Talk About Debt

I recently received an email from Matt, the editor of TalkAboutDebt, bringing my attention to a UK based website call www.TalkAboutDebt.co.uk. I like the title as it encourage people who are in the debt to start talking about their problems. So I had a better look at it.

TalkAboutDebt is run by a group of bloggers who have, in the past, been in debt and are able to provide some dialogue about their debt experience.

It is good to talk about your problems as it allow the problems to be acknowledge and then for it to be tackled. TalkAboutDebt provides a forum, in their "Questions and Answers" page, which your debt problems can be discussed. By using the forum for the discussions, your anonymity is retained.

The thing to watch out for with TalkAboutDebt is that the advice provide is generally only useful for UK based debt.

It has a page where it lists a range of companies that are able to provide you with profession advice on getting out of debt. Most of the companies feature provide a free financial planning service to help you get out debt.

As with most information on the internet, beware of the information that you received, and double check it against another source. However, from what I can read information on TalkAboutDebt, it appears to be sensible and logical.

In summary, TalkAboutDebt provides another source of information, however, just beaware of the information that you received or read on it.

Where to go for the freebies?

What could be better than getting something for free? I would certainly would want it, but where do you find all these free things? Doing a Google search with the keyword freebie brings up 7.9million hits.I have come cross three place that. Some of the hits only provide links to promotions like "get a Free iPod if you click on this advert, and then only if you and then of your fiends sign up for an online survey and ....blah blah..", I think you know what I mean.

Having said that, I have three sites that are has quite reliable information about freebies, what to do and where to go etc.

The Freebies Blog - This is my favourite in getting what is going for free. What I like about it is that it also has pictures of the freebies received.
BuckScoop Forum - BuckScoop has a forum for freebies. This is good as it is a forum and many users would provide feedback on how good the freebie is. This Crispy Creme freebie is a good one, stirs out the patriotic blood. :-)
Whirlpool Forum - Whirlpool also has a forum of freebies. Similar to the BuckScoop foum, it has reader feedback, however it does not appear to as active as BuckScoop's forum.

The two forum sites are mainly focused on Australian Freebies, while The Freebies Blog are mainly Australian and American.

Does anyone else know anymore of these sites?

CoPF #161 up at The Budgeting Babe.

The 161st edition of Carnival of Personal Finance has just been hosted by the Budgeting Babe. My entry on the rental crisis was also selected for publication.

Some of the articles that caught my eyes were.

1. Sallie's Niece on how she spent $900 on Gyros.
2. Money Ning on adjusting your invesment contribution.
3. Our Four Pence Worth has some wise advice on splurging on that next purchase.

There are many other great articles at the carnival. Get over there and take a look.

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CoPF #147 - Q1 financial advice edition

CoPF #146 - Online Broker Tip edition

CoPF #147 - Q1 financial advice edition

Carnival of Personal Finance #147 is up at MoneyNing. Many great articles, some of the ones that caught my eye were...

• Wide Open Wallet - The pawn shop are thriving. This article gave a scary thought of pawning items that are financed. I guess when folks are desperate, crazy things are done to get money.
• You might as well burning $5! - The $37 Latte. This a great article on keep track of you finances.
• On Financial Success - Can we afford college? A good range of tips on how to go about getting a university/college fund ready for your kids.

My recent article on you are only worth at market value was also included. Many thanks to MonyNing. Happy reading!

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If you enjoy this post, you may also enjoy the following post:

CoPF #146 - Online Broker Tip edition

CoPF #146 - Online Broker Tip edition

The 146th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up over at Stock Trading To Go. I was fortunate enough for my post on revisiting my superannuation to be included among the many fine articles.

A selection of the articles are:

Dreaming of Ferraris - Personal Benefit of Savings
Blunt Money - The high cost of inertia
The personal financier - How to make sure that this is your dream home: 7 Practical tips
Smart Easy Money - If you build it, they will come
Mommy gets paid - Friends and Money

These are only a small selection of the many articles being hosted. Go and check them out.

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To be sure at the CoPF, to be sure...

To be sure at the CoPF, to be sure...

I could almost brew a keg of green beer after being included in the St. Patrick's edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance #144 over at beingfrugal.net. Lynnae did a fantastic job collating all the blog posts and hosting them.

Some of my favourites are

• Know The Ledge - 10 ways to find more money. I especially like the wise and 'fun' advice in tip#10.
• The Dough Roller - 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards: The 10 Commandments of Responsible Borrowing.
• Online Savings Blog - How to Get a Raise at Your Job

Thanks to Lynnae for including my post on How will my financials change when No.2 arrives.

Other than those articles mentioned, there are plenty more quality articles at the carnival.

If you are a PF blogger, consider submitting an article into the carnival at Carnival of Personal Finance.

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Homeless at the carnival
Carnival of Personal Finance #140 - Prison Break Edition

Homeless at the carnival.

CoPF #142 is up over at The Bag Lady. The bag lady chose a very tough theme, the homeless.

Some of my childhood was spent growing up in Malaysia. Back then, Malaysia was a third world country pretending to be a country in the same company as Australia or England, pseudo wealthy. One of the most striking images while I was growing up was seeing the many homeless people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Typically, when my parents drove through the city at night on our way home from the market, I would frequently see many people bedding down to sleep in cardboard boxes as their makeshift homes. I would also see many people begging in the streets, searching for food among the street rubbish bins or trying to keep dry during the monsoonal rain storms. Those images has certainly stayed with me for many years, and always reminded how fortunate I am to have the life that I am living.

Some picks from the among the many good articles from the carnival are:

Canadian Dream asks How Can A Person be 'Debt Free' with a 300K mortgage? I sort of agree with this article, but only if the discussion is limited to mortgages. There is such a thing as good debt, just ask any business starting up.

DebtBeater talks about his moment of truth in My Financial Epiphany. It is a great article and reminds us of a time when we thought that things will never go bad.

The Digerati Life gives some wise warnings in They Want To Make Money Fast.

A big thanks to The Bag Lady for including my discussion article on Would you miss a meal to pay your rent?

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If you enjoy this post, you may also enjoy the following post:

Carnival of Personal Finance #140 - Prison Break Edition

Carnival of Personal Finance #140 - Prison Break Edition

Oops, it appears I totally forgot that the Carnival of Personal Finance #140 went up over at The Financial Blogger

Some of my picks are

Move-to-Portugal is talking about Re-mortgaging

The Great Money Challenge provides the top 10 things to he does to save money

Finance Blog gives a list of 10 Financial products to avoid.

I was fortunate enough for The Financial Blogger to include my update on fixing the home loan interest rate.

Share your support and visit The Financial Blogger for more fantastic PF articles.

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Carnival of Personal Finance, #139 - Valentine's edition
Carnival of Personal Finance, #121

Link building meme....

I just got tagged in a link building meme Diet Debter.

Simple but strangely addictive. I tagged 5 randomly chosen blogs, write an article about it. If you are one of the five that I tagged, I hope that you shall on-tagged five more randomly chosen blogs, writing an article, and so on and so on. I think you get the idea.

However, in your article you have to include all the links here and add to the five blogs that you were part of.

The Strategist Notebook ~ Link Addiction ~ Ardour of the Heart ~ When Life Becomes a Book ~ The Malaysian Life ~ Yogatta.com ~ What goes under the sun ~ Roshidan's Cyber Station ~ Sasha says ~ Arts of Physics ~ And the legend lives ~ My View, My Life ~ A Simple Life ~ Juliana RW ~ Mom Knows Everything ~ Beth & Cory's Mom ~ A Mind Forever Voyaging~ enjoying the ride ~ Jennifer's thoughts ~ Mom of 3 Girls ~ Amanda ~ Don't Make Me Get The Flying Monkeys ~ ExPat Mom ~ Just Jessie ~ Wilson Six ~Krisitn ~ Nuttier Than You ~ Shonnte ~ Summer's Nook ~ Laura Williams Musings ~ Melissa's Idea Garden ~ Confessions of an Everyday Housewife ~ Blah Blah Blog ~ Stop the Ride! ~Soap, Blings & Girly Things ~ It's All for the Best ~ Keeping Feet ~ Junky Love in Freehand ~ Getting Out of Debt ~ Free From Broke ~ Money Matters ~ Arohan's Investing Life ~ My Investing Blog ~ Finance and Fat ~ Iowahippiechick ~ MakingMoneyJournal ~ Cathlawson.com ~ Life Liberty & The Pursuit Of Money ~ Making Cents Of Debt ~ DebtDiet ~ My Journey to Eliminate Debt ~ Ugly Debty ~ Last In Line ~ Give Me Back My Five Bucks ~ Cheap As Chips

I feel like I am part of the chain tag, sort of using something evil for the something good!

All right, I am going to tag the following blogs

• Embedded in Cork
• Lazy Man and Money
  
• ScottBerkun.com
• Plonkee Money
• Poorer Than You

Quick hot Sunday night post

Just a quick sunday night post to give a shout out to Louise at My Journey to Eliminate Debt where she is running a contest to write the winner a kick-ass resume and a job-wining cover letter. (OK, those were my adjectives not Louise's).

So if you are currently looking for a job and have posted on Louise's blog previously, do yourself a favour by reading her excellent Successful Job Application series of articles, and enter her competition.

Carnival of Personal Finance, #139 - Valentine's edition

The CoPF #139 is up and having a jolly good time over at My Dollar Plan. The theme of St. Valentine's Day was nicely worked into the list of great articles as well.

I was fortunate enough that my article on interest free period was chosen.

1. One Girl's Quest has a nice spin on setting goals and how to work towards reaching the goals.
2. Chance Favors talks about early termination of mobile phones.
3. Moolanomy has a great article on how to deal when a goal is missed.

These are my top 3 articles from the compilations, but there many more articles available on a variety of money subjects. Go check it out!

top 3 referrals

I have just signed up to Google Analytics, mostly as to see what they are about. My previous way, and very simple way, of analysing any traffic into my blog is via sitemeter, and I initially used sitemeter as a glorify hit counter.

So what has Google Analytics told me. It told me that my top three source of traffic are crazyjimsmith.blogspot.com, eliminate-my-debt.blogspot.com and debtdieter.blogspot.com.

Let's have quick tour of these three sites.

crazyjimsmith.blogspot.com

crazyjimsmith.blogspot.com can best be summed by its by-line on the blog. It quotes...

This blog provides commentary on stocks listed on the ASX, most things to do with investing in the sharemarket, politics, the economy, and anything else that may take my fancy or infuriate me!

This blog has plenty of comment and analysis on various stocks listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Personally, I am not interested in stocks, only as a casual bystander. However, if I was, I would be very active reader and participation of the blog and its accompanying forum.

eliminate-my-debt.blogspot.com

eliminate-my-debt.blogspot.com is a PF blog. The by-line on the blog reads..

My goal is to pay my $152,377 mortgage in 5 years: 30th June 2012. I started this blog to stay motivated and I would love to hear from other pf bloggers out there!

It is certainly provides an insight into an average Australian family on their day-to-day living, particularly from a personal finance perspective. I especially like her articles on money and relationships. Some of her comments are very enlightening.

debtdieter.blogspot.com

debdieter.blogspot.com is a blog about the reduction of a debt, and the juggles of a hectic city lifestyle. The byline of the blog quotes..

Working hard to eliminate $56,722 of consumer debt and become debt free by May 2010...

The series of articles on her work perks are a fantastic read. It definitely shows what, and how work can be used not only to produce an income, but also use to reduce spending. The recent article on work assisted education is a great article, and instigated some thoughts on how my work can assist in my education.

Carnival of Personal Finance, #121

I should have shared the love a few days ago when the CoPF #121 was published, but I was traveling last week and has not managed to catch up. So, lets cut to the chase,

The CoPF #121 was hosted by Ask Mr. Credit Card. There is the Columbus day edition, and there is also an editor's choice edition.

Some of my favourite articles from the CoPF are:

Exjackly has a great article on How to live on minimum wage.

Mortgage Blog has the top 7 tips for using credit cards .

Rather-be-shopping.com tells us about what I learned from my dad about money and finances .

I hope that you enjoy these articles as much as I do.

7 random things about me

Thanks plonkee.

 

plonkee recently tagged me to write 7 random items about me. Well, here goes.

1. The first car that I ever drove is a 1970 toyota carolla. It is green, and my family first car in Australia.
2. Although I don't actively follow any team, my favourite football league in Europe is the Italian Series A, as oppose to everyone's favourite the English Premier League.
3. I prefer to write with a fountain pen instead of a ball point pen.
4. Every time I visit a South East Asian country, I look forward to eating some durian (if they are in season), or mangosteen .
5. My favourite sound in the world is the laughter of my son and my wife.
6. When I was 25, I backpacked around Tasmania for three weeks and it kick start my love of nature.
7. My splin on my legs are bowed.

To keep the tagging going foward, I have tagged the following five fantastic blogs, (not necessary of the PF nature).

The Happy Rock

The Digerati Life

My Journey to Eliminate Debt

Nerd Guru

Money Learner

 

 

Free to a good home...

As I have been writing this blog over the last few months, and reading the other PF blogs. It appears that one of the easiest way of getting ahead in your finances are to save your money by minimising spending. Well, I was thinking about the flip side of this concept, the concept of giving away things. From year to year, I would typically move through various items, in particular mobile phones, clothes and kitchen items.

Why should you give your items away? Let see,

1. No good sitting in your shed or cupboard - The items are probably sitting in your shed or the cupboard gathering dust. Someone else might as well get some use out of it.
2. Help others - There are plenty of others out in the community could benefit from our items that are not used. If I coupled that mobile phone sitting the cupboard with a pre-paid SIM, it could be a very useful item.
3. Society is too cash driven - Our society is very much cash/money driven. I believe that our society would be better if we less cash dependent and return to a society that is closer to our agriculture background.

I wrote about Freecycle in one of my first post, and it is a really good resource for advertising what you want to give away. I believe that craig list is also a very spot for free giveaways, although I haven't use it yet. You can also do the following.

1. Donate it - Your local church group or charity that runs a opportunity shop would gladly take what you have. Be aware that some won't accept electrical items as they don't want the public liability of selling faulty electrical items at their shops.
2. Post a notice at work - Your workmates will more likely to take these items off your hands as there is a certain level of trust they have of you and your items.
   
3. Leave it on your nature strip with a "FREE" sign - you will be surprise how fast the items will disappear. We left a roll of chicken wire and some sheets of roofing covers in the morning on our nature strip and it disappear that evening!

Go on, give it away...You will feel better for it.

24th Carnival of Money Stories

I was part of the 24th carnival of money stories, which was hosted at Enough Wealth just recently. My entry about small expenses leading up to a large expense was included.

Two articles that caught my attention were:-

Money and Such - The most expensive loan in history

teaspoonfinance.com - Solving Our Savings and Budget Issues - The No-Budget Budget Way

There are also plenty of other money stories that has personal spin to it as well. Happy reading.

1K readers!

This morning, sitemeter just told me that I have made it to 1024 readers! This is a huge milestone for me.

Thanks to all that had read my articles and left comments, I hope that the readers have gain some positive insights to my articles.

I would especially like to thank a couple of the sites that regularly sents me some traffic.

My Journey to Eliminate Debt

The Happy Rock

Apologies for the lack of the articles in the last few days. We are currently shifting houses, and there have been some health problems in the family.

Things that money can't buy

Story girl over at My money and my life posted article Money and happiness. She challenge us to list down what is it that we would like to do more that does not cost much money. Thinking through the challenge, it could be quite difficult to come up with a list. There are a lot of things that cost money, either directly or in-directly. Having said that, there are also many things you could do without any money, or with a small amount of money.

My list would be something like this. Remember that these are things that would be bring happiness.

Taking the time to read a book with my son, and listen to him trying copy me reading the words.

Send a SMS to my wonderful wife during the day to say that I miss her and can't wait to see her after work.

Spending hours in a bookshop, just browsing. I love books and the information that it contains.

Hike through the forest in the nearby Victorian Alps during spring time, and smell the wild flowers blooming.

Talk with my wife about what our future holds, I really enjoy this as she is such a positive person and always gives a positive spin on what our future holds.

Making a nice hot cup of home brewed coffee and enjoy it with a slice of banana cake.

I want to be able to help at least five people every day. Simple things like picking up rubbish that someone else has dropped to going to beyond the call of duty at my work.

What would your list be?

Carnival of Personal Finance #110

The 110th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up over at Fat Pitch Financials .

My article on advice is also part of the carnival.

There are some very nice articles in this edition. My highlights from the carnival are

Does Achieving Wealth Make You "Upper Class"? Facts About Class - The Digerati Life discusses wealth and social class.

10 tips on saving money on a family trip. - Frugal finance has some fantastic tips for trips.

10 credit card practices that he disapproves, - Mr. Credit Card tells us 10 of his most hated credit card practices. Some of them are down right sneaky.

costs of cable and TV - The Happy Rock talks about how the cost of cable and TV.

how to avoid losing more things - MoneyNing has a great article on how NOT to loose things.

personal finance junkie - A humorous article at My Weath Builder.

Another Australian PF blogger.

I recently came across My Journey to Eliminate Debt, a blog run by Louise.

Louise uses her blog as a way of giving herself focus on eliminating her debt, in particular her mortgage. This is a very fantastic target to aim for. I came across her article about the medical issues that her dad is in and the tough decision she has to make in order to support him. I can relate to her as my family has suffered in similar circumstances. The stresses that the family had to bear is not only financial, but also emotional as well. Our mental health also took a battering.

I wish Louise all the best in her quest of eliminating her debt, and spending many days with her love ones.

It is also great to see that another Australian is also blogging away on personal finance.