Oct

29

vote for me, vote for me

Filed Under links | 2 Comments

Millionaire mommy next door is hosting the carnival of personal finance and this week there’s a competition.

I submitted dave ramsey gives bad advice and it’s in the investing part one poll. Vote for me :) !

Now onto the proper business of the carnival, my picks this week are:

There’s a whole host of other great posts so go and investigate.  Also, just to let you know that the m-network are going to posting about buying, using or giving up cars in a couple of weeks (from the 12th of November). I’m looking forward to reading what everyone else says.

Oct

29

working towards my dream life

Filed Under plonkee | 25 Comments

I’ve noticed that in my normal life, most of my stories start the same way, and it’s the way this story is going to begin.

I was in the pub the other day…

I was in the pub the other day with a friend, when he asked me what my realistic dream life would look like. I think he was looking for reassurance since his dream life is apparently nothing like his actual life. He didn’t get any. My dream life is pretty much the same as my life now, except that I work four days a week instead of five, my blog is more successful, my house is in better condition and location and I take more trips abroad. Possibly I’d be living in the Netherlands. It did get me thinking though. It was pretty easy for me to enunciate my dream life and I’m part of the way there already, it seems silly not to make my dream life part of my goals.

working four days a week

Working four days a week, rather than five would mean earning less money. I’ve calculated that if I could do it right away, I’d be taking home £250 less a month, with a reduction of about £350 in retirement contributions as well. I can’t afford this at the moment, but if I earned a bit more, and I was more frugal, this could become possible. My immediate goals are a promotion at work and maintaining my existing spending (incorporating some inflation) when I get a pay rise - almost certainly in April.

a more successful blog

What I mean by success for this blog, is in fact more commentators. I love getting feedback from people and interacting. I like both agreements and disagreements. My immediate goal is to double the number of comments that I receive on average per post.

my house in better condition

My house needs work doing to improve its condition, when I had the survey done the surveyor said that it was in typical condition for its age (it’s about 100) and gave a list of jobs that need doing. My ongoing goal is to complete these jobs (which include redecorating the interior and putting in a new bathroom and kitchen).

travelling

Travelling means happiness to me. There are so many countries that I want to go to, and so many things that I want to see. I’ve got a list of places to visit and my ongoing goal is going to be to travel to every single one.

Now that I’ve defined my goals, I need to work out next actions to be associated with pushing each one forward. That’ll require some brainstorming.

Oct

27

focus on the m-network

Filed Under links | 13 Comments

m-network_feedI’m going to take some time in the coming few weeks to lead you on a tour of my blogroll, starting with the most important people, the motley collection of personal finance bloggers known as the m-network.

being frugal

Lynnae is trying to get herself and her family out of debt, predominantly by being frugal, hence the name. At the moment, they’re going through a rough patch since her husband lost his job, but they (and I) are sure that the best days are still around the corner. Some of the best of being frugal:

This week’s selection

christian finance

You might be forgiven for thinking that Bob’s religious themed blog would have a limited appeal. You’d be dead wrong. Christian finance concentrates on sensible financial tips, hints and suggestions with a thoughtful Christian perspective. Some of my favourite posts include:

This week’s star post

debt-free revolution

Ana is as you may have guessed another debt-free wannabe with a vociferous dislike of debt of all kinds. She’s turned her hand to pizza delivery to bring in extra cash, whilst simultaneously supporting her army husband, studying organic chemistry and managing her kids. Her best posts include:

From the last seven days:

gather little by little

Another Christian blogger and debt-free wannabe, I first encountered glblguy when he wrote a post commenting on why religion is an important part of personal finance. He hasn’t left my feed reader since although I’m always amazed at how he keeps it going as well as running around after six kids. Anyway, some of glblguy’s best posts:

In the past week:

I’ve paid for this twice already…

Taekwondo blackbelt Jaimie has already paid out a lot of money to her credit companies, and is now working on her plan to never need to do so again. She also writes like a fiend and has excellent guest posts everywhere as well as writing on her own blog.

This week’s offering:

moolanomy

In the tradition of Shakespeare, Pinyo, the founder of the m-network, invented the word moolanomy to describe the science of money. He’s a regular guy, originally from Thailand, but now resides in Queens where his wife is expecting their first child. Pinyo is hot on investing as well as all general finance stuff. Some of his best posts are:

In the last week:

my two dollars

Simultaneously the newest member and the longest running blog in the m-network, on top of providing great personal finance posts, david also has another blog, the good human, where he writes about sustainability, progressive politics and environmental issues [subscribe here]. A few of the best of my two dollars:

From the past week:

single guy money

The clue is in the name, the author of this blog is a single guy that talks about money. He’s been working hard to get his debt down over the last year and is writing a little about his endeavours in rental properties as well as keeping us up to date on his debt free quest. My favourites from single guy money include:

From the last week:

the dough roller

A much valued member of the m-network, dough roller is on his way to achieving that elusive goal, financial independence. He has reached through a more challenging financial background to teach us more about how we can all improve our finances. Some of my favourites are:

And from the last 7 days:

m-network

If you liked this tour of the m-network, then subscribe to our new feed. It was updated recently to a genuinely new and improved product, with the same old excellent articles. Unfortunately, if you have been subscribing, you’ll need to switch over manually but I can promise you that it’ll be worth it.

Edited to Add: I can’t believe I missed the dough roller out. Rest assured it’s purely an oversight on my part and the dough roller is a great blog and made an excellent recent host for the carnival of personal finance.

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