Have something interesting to say having to do with young professionals or finance? I'm looking for more young professionals to write an article for Young Professional Finance Blog.

We're one of Google's top 10 finance blogs and you'll have thousands of people reading your stuff! I'm open to lots of topics. The rule is pretty much: whatever you write about should be interesting to young professionals in their 20s or 30s.

Just contact me with an idea or an article!

Sometimes I wonder how other people manage their money. I figured I would throw my own way out into the wild and see how it compares to your way. Below I have listed the various ways I deal with earning money and spending money.

Paychecks

I have a percentage of my paycheck directly deposited into my checking account. I have the remaining percentage directly deposited into my high interest savings account at ING DIRECT.

Retirement

401k doesn't have matching so I don't contribute to it. Instead, I have a Roth IRA at Fidelity which pulls a fixed amount from my checking account once a month. For tax reasons it doesn't make sense for me to contribute to my old Traditional IRA.

Other Income

I continually work to figure out ways to diversify my income streams. Two years ago I had no idea how to make money from anything, but a paycheck and some small dividend and interest income. Side work, web site ads, etc. are some of the ways I've found and I try to keep this money separated from my normal day job income. I like to think of it as a bonus and try to save it in a separate savings account and watch it grow. (Of course, it also helps at the end of the year when I figure out taxes which, by the way, are way too high. Sure would love a consumption tax)

Continue reading "How Do I Manage My Money?"

A while ago I started a list of movies related to money and success. There's no way to remember them all, but I thought I'd get the list started and let all of you remind me of any I forgot.

Money Movie 1: Wall Street
Who can forget the ultra 80s, go-getter hair and greedy style of Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in Wall Street. When you want to earn insane amounts of money in the market and impress those at the top what better way than a little insider information?

Money Movie 2: Boiler Room
In this great movie that shows how people make very risky decisions without enough information when under pressure and persuasion Seth Davis shows us one way of stealing money. Who can't help but get a kick out of Vin Diesel in an Armani suit selling stocks.

Money Movie 3: Trading Places
One of the best movies about betting money, Trading Places is about two old rich guys that make a bet they can turn a bum into a corporate snob and a corporate snob into a bum.

Money Movie 4: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
A dead man reveals his secret of hidden treasure-- half the directions to one person, half to another, and a third person is hunting them down for it too. Love the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

Money Movie 5: American Psycho
A movie so serious and insane it can cause you to laugh it shows the success-focused narcissistic culture of 80s big business. Patrick Bateman, an executive banker on the edge of a hidden insanity starts falling further down the rabbit hole.

Continue reading "Top 10 Money Related Movies"

I am now a featured contributor on Qvisory.com, a new nonprofit online advocacy and service organization that supports the health, financial well-being, and career goals of young adults from 18 to 34 years old.

They just posted my first exclusive article encouraging their readers and all people in their 20s and 30s to join a young professional organization today! Here's a sample of the article:

...I first discovered young professional organizations existed about 2 years ago after moving away from my friends and family in Metro Detroit to start a job in a new place. After searching the Internet and local newspapers, I found a group in Lansing, MI called Grand River Connection. I began meeting new people—making friends, getting dates, and even interacting with local politicians. I was having a great time.
Read more of Connect With Young Professionals [Qvisory]

Discover Card currently has two promos going that can get you up to $150. It's pretty easy:

Step 1. Earn $50 just by signing up and starting to use the card:



Step 2. Earn a $20 gift card each time you spend $200 at a Mall.

Discover will let you earn up to 5 gift cards for a total of $100. If you sign up, please help support Young Professional Finance Blog by clicking the link below:

Get $50 Cash Back Bonus with the Discover® More Card!

I decided to throw together a quick list for people to save money on computer and technology operating expenses. Take a look below for a couple areas in computers where you might be spending too much money.

Operating Systems

For those of you trying to watch your tech budget don't forget there are much less expensive (or free!) options other than Microsoft or Apple. I've been a computer user for a long time and a unix/linux user for at least 10 years as well. If you haven't heard of Ubuntu linux check it out. You can download it free and can even just check it out by burning a bootable Ubuntu CD. Don't want to waste your own CD? They'll send you a physical CD in the mail for free, also! I installed Ubuntu earlier this year and was very pleased with how easy it was to install and how clean the interface felt. Being both a Windows and Mac OS X user I can say Ubuntu is at least as easy as each of it's competitors.

Business Software

If you need business software try Open Office (also free, of course). It can read and write in popular formats like Microsoft Office's Word or Excel. You can even run it on not only Linux, but Windows, Mac OS, and others.

Other Free Software

There are lots of programmers and organizations creating numerous open source applications that are equal or better in performing the same tasks as expensive non-open source software. Sites like SourceForge or Download.com are a good place to start.

I noticed the most traffic I get to the site from Google is the search term "finance blog". I'm happy to say YPFB is coming up #11, right at the top of the second page!



If you have a chance, spread the word and let your friends know about the site. Maybe we can get it up one on the first page.

UPDATE 11/11/08: We're #10 on Google today and on the first page!


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Does it seem to anyone else that the massive amounts of debt caused by our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of the War on Terror is similar to the massive amounts of debt Soviet Russia went into during their Coldwar build up of nuclear arms? I mean, if you were Bin Laden or someone else who wanted to destroy the most successful and prosperous country in the world where would you hit them? Exactly where it matters to Capitalists-- in the checkbook.

Now, of course there are other economic factors at play here and we are by no means ready to fall and be conquered. However, it's better we deal with the outrageous spending and debt occurring in the U.S. now then weaken our position more. Yeah, this economy sucks right now and it's going to take some years to recover. Good to recover than fall, though.

Anyway, just something that's been on my mind and thought I'd try to stir up some discussion on.

I was recently asked to write a guest post by fellow Brazen Careerist writer Dorie Morgan. I decided to explore and write about what a yuppie is, am I one, and what does it mean if I am!

I’ve heard people use the word ‘yuppie’ referring to other people, sometimes referring to me. I’ve heard it used with both negative and positive connotations, too. I set out to determine what a yuppie really is today and if I am one.

From Wikipedia: The term yuppie (short for “young urban professional” or “young upwardly-mobile professional”) refers to self-reliant, financially secure individualists, particularly from the upper-middle class.

Am I a Yuppie?

Read more on Dorie Morgan's Rising Up

Don't you hate it when you're down to that last pair of old underwear that just doesn't feel right? While putting a reminder on my task list to do laundry is easy it doesn't accomplish the task. Some electronic calendars or task lists will even remind you to do what you need to do (although, it's easy to just ignore the reminders). You bet I'm more inclined to do laundry when I've got to use my old underwear, though. I don't have to spend time trying to remember to do laundry at that point-- I'm reminded of it every time I get up from my desk or walk around and feel that oh so constricting waist band!

Many times there's no need to put things on a task list because you can naturally remind yourself. Other times, it's helpful to add things to a task list or even set them up so they automatically happen. And finally, in some cases it just makes sense to do things when you think of them the first time. In this article I'll explain the idea of including graceful degradation in your life to manage the tasks that you don't do right away, but shouldn't have to waste time on to add to a task list or calendar.

Graceful Degradation

Sometimes there seem to be two types of people: those who create organized tasks lists because they never get around to doing anything and those who get around to doing things but never have them organized because they don't have a task list. In other words, it takes time to stay organized, but there's a cost to doing so. If you spend too much time planning, you don't do anything. But if you don't spend some time planning, you may not do everything you need to at the right times. What if there were a more natural way to remember to do things, but without as much overhead as keeping a list or calendar of them? Thus my idea of living a gracefully degrading life!

What do I mean by graceful degradation? Wikipedia defines graceful degradation as "the property that enables a system ... to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of ... some of its components". In reality, the system (your life) keeps going even if you don't complete all the tasks you need to, but you notice a reduced quality of life. It's this reduced quality of life that reminds you of what you need to do, but it's more gradual and perhaps natural. Task lists and calendars aren't as natural. The concept of time is really a man-made invention or model anyway. Does your alarm clock really know when you should wake up better than your body?

Continue reading "Managing Life Like You're Out Of Underwear"

I have flown over 30 flights in the first 8 months of this year, have over 120,000 frequent flyer miles on Northwest Airlines alone, and have been to cities across the U.S. I do all this travel as part of my job in working with broadcasters to get their streaming media online and it's a great time in my life to do it! However, it's also an ideal time to make sure my finances are in line so the next 30 or 40 years lead to good growth and income. It can be challenging when you're putting so much focus into helping Oprah put on her first webcast or Barack Obama streaming his acceptance speech for the democratic presidential nomination in HD. In this article I discuss methods for keeping personal finances in order while doing a lot of travel for work.
Continue reading "Keeping Finances on Track While Jet Setting"