BluePop13

I was just over at Site Sketch 101 reading about how to blog as a newbie which is a guest post from Jen Smith about some things that are important when writing and maintaining a good blog. She hit a lot of good key points and something came to mind while reading what she had to write: passion. Do you have it and how do you know if you do?

Love To Write

I write about what’s going on in my life or at least that’s what I started writing when I first started my blog. I won’t go into detail there… Some of it wasn’t pretty and I’d rather not remember or go back to those times… Extremely hurtful.

I like to write though. I like writing about what I learn and sharing it with other people who are also interested in what I write about. I don’t have a niche and that’s fine with me. I talk about blogging and success and whatever is on my mind at the time. I do know the importance of finding a niche and talking about that in order to really create something great with my blog. Bottom line though, I love to write in general and it’s what keeps me going.

Content Flows In Like Waves

I do have writer’s blog sometimes but life experiences and just feeling calm once in a while and taking things slowly helps content flow in easily. Sometimes I even have so much info flowing into my brain that I feel like I couldn’t type it fast enough let alone write it on paper. Who can honestly type slower than writing things down anyway?

When content keeps flowing in and one of those days just happens to be great where you can think of a bazillion things to write about, figure something out and get those ideas out some how. They’ll help for later on.

There’s Never Enough Time

Even with great ideas coming in sometimes it doesn’t feel like there’s enough time in the day to get all those out and some ideas are then lost. They may return but you won’t know unless you had some way to remember what that idea was that you previously lost. Use your time wisely and try to get everything you can down if it’s important enough. There’s no time like the now.

Money… What’s That?

When you’re passionate about it you just won’t care if you make money or not. Sure it’d be nice to make money with what you love writing and doing but you won’t get burned out and get frustrated as much (or at all) if you truly love what you’re talking about or doing. Money will come when things are ready and for now you just love to write.

Butterflies And Maybe A Dollar

When you write, sometimes you may get butterflies because of how great something you wrote turned out. It’s a wonderful feeling I think every blogger has at some point or another. It’s enough to make you want to make money because you feel you could easily do it for the rest of your life but if you never make money you just don’t mind either.

Forever…?

Things change and you may not be a blogger for the rest of your life. You may never live off your blog or you may be able to by tomorrow, depending on how far along your blog is. Either way, are you crazy enough about your content to do what you’re doing for as long as you can dream and imagine doing this?

What are you passionate about that you could just do and keep learning more about in order to get out there and share your love for your topic with the world?

This happens to me from time to time as I read great blog posts by people who I visit on a regular basis. I just got the idea from this post from Karen over at ameaningfulexistence.com when she said, “The money isn’t important, it’s what you can do with the money that is important, namely to have freedom.”

That’s exactly what this blog post is all about: the fact that no one actually wants money at all… They really want what they can DO with the money that they get. At least, that’s what I personally “want” money for.

If you don’t agree with me that’s fine but I’m not entirely sure why you wouldn’t. We all want to have more money so we can do do more in our life and be more… Or do we?

The Million, Billion And Beyond

Can I see myself as a millionaire? Not entirely but that’s because I don’t have a vision of it or have it written down on paper and have no plan of action on how I would go about obtaining that much money in my life. I just might become one but at this state I have no idea if I will or not. The question still remains, however, what I would choose to do with the money once I got it.

Buy a nice brand new luxuries home?

Invest it to make even more money?

Save it for a rainy day… Seriously?!

Give half away and be crazy generous?

The amount of things you could do with even a million dollars is more than I could probably even write a book about. In fact, if someone did write a book about a million things you could do with a million dollars they could probably just about make that much money with the book itself. That’s actually a good idea now that I think about it…

The bottom line here and the reason this post doesn’t have to be so long (probably a good thing as long posts aren’t so popularly looked up, but who cares, right?) is that we don’t just all want money but we want to have enough to be able to do something different than what amount of money we currently have is letting us do.

Some of us would rather not do certain things and aren’t too worried about making a ton of money, and that’s fine. But if you’re in the crowd who really wants a lot more money and you have no clue or plan on what you’re going to do with it or at least not taking some form of thought about finding out what exactly you could be doing with it, it’s basically a waste of your time.

Be the person who has a plan. Be the person who wants so much money to do certain things for them. Don’t be the person who just wants more and more money. And don’t be the person who says they never have enough money. Money is simply endless and never ends at the same time. You will always have money and always want more… Just have a reason for wanting more and be smart about it.

What is your reason for wanting more money? This could be even one hundred dollars more to pay off debt you might have or pay off your car for the very last time after paying on it for years now.

Everyone has a reason (hopefully! ). What’s yours?

This post is a big deal to me. In fact, this post is so important and it is so true and I will admit that I got my inspiration from a couple of places I would like to mention here.

I was reading Rob Sutton’s Secret to Success – One Step Process and it was just about what I thought it would be. Why is this good? Because it goes to show that my mind is on the right track and I am thinking the right things.

My other source came from a very familiar site which is over at TheInfoPreneur.net. It was actually a guest post there that brought about this thought though. Check out If You’re A Consistent Blogger, You’re Dead.

Now on to my post.

You have heard about taking action and if you haven’t then I’m not sure where you’ve been and I’m also not sure I want to be where you’ve been hiding. Action is huge. The right kind of action is even bigger than huge. And it’s not complicated. Taking action is better than taking no action at all and taking the right action comes from learning from mistakes we make and correcting those mistakes for the next time around.

See? Simple.

The finest things in life really are just simple and the reason they’re over looked. We are the ones who make things so damn complicated that we scare ourselves into thinking that we can’t do anything about anything.

Fear

Everyone gets scared but the best part about this is that usually what you fear the most will help you get past what you need to in order to get you one step ahead in life. You need to use fear as a motivator to get past all the fluff and all the feel good crap.

Feeling good is not crap but if it’s not helping you get through tough times or helping you get to the next level of your life then it’s not doing you any favors. Use fear to get you there. THEN feel good. The further you get, the better the feeling good part will get. Don’t believe me? That’s fine but you’ll never know until you give this a shot.

Comfort

We know we all want this. In order to get this you have to go through a bit of fear every now and again and the reason is because it is what makes you better and gets you through life. Everyone fears and those who take action and plunge through it are the ones who get comfort at the end of the road or success. Both comfort and success are very different though used here are very much the same thing.

Use comfort as a means of getting through the fear and where you exactly want to be. Example: You are terrified for whatever reason of getting this new job because you are so used to working where you currently are at for so long. This would be fear obviously. You really want more money and have a written down plan for what you’re going to do. You are excited and can just see a clear picture of what is going to happen once you land the job. It’s not the job itself that is such a great opportunity but what you are going to be able to do and have planned by getting the job that is such a great thing. This would definitely be comfort.

So the next time you’re worried about something, ask yourself just how happy you are with your current results. Then, think of what you could do even more of if you took the step into your fear and what could come out of it. Use that one thing, the step, to drive you towards what you could do if you succeeded.

Last but not least I want to just touch on failure.

If you take that step and have a great idea all planned out and maybe even written down (great!) and end up not getting through that step. I can now think of two things that are going to happen.

1. You are going to be upset for not getting through the step of fear and get down on yourself. This isn’t bad because you can just go back and look at what went wrong and go for it again, using a different method if you’re really serious about getting through it.
2. You are terrified that you’re going to have to go through it again and you may just need an extra shove in the right direction and made a revised plan just in case something goes wrong again. This is the part where you need to learn to have a plan B. In fact, and this is a quote from my favorite author, the only time you don’t need a plan B is when you already have one.

So there you have it.

This didn’t go into great detail about taking action but I hit things how I thought necessary. But what exactly do you do to get yourself through rough times and back into being comfortable after achieving great accomplishment with yourself? Key word, yourself. Do things for yourself yet serve others well.

So I’m asking a couple questions here:

What steps do you take to get yourself through the times of tragedy and back to being comfortable?

How do you keep yourself going?

Do you always have a plan B?

If you do end up “failing” do you just give up or how do you get yourself back on the right path and go after it again and how do you know when you’ve learned from your mistakes?

Please leave a comment below. Thank you.

My girlfriend and I both have been customers of Verizon Wireless here in Iowa where we live and we both like the service quite a lot. She had a prepaid phone when we first started dating a few years ago and her family had Verizon. I came from US Cellular which I still miss a bit but over all Verizon isn’t too bad.

A few weeks ago my girlfriend’s cell phone broke in half after flipping it open. This was a manufacturers defect but because of how long she’d had the phone they wouldn’t do anything about fixing it. I not only went to a service center but also called the company several times and explained the situation in hope that there was something they could do to take care of this for us. Nothing.

They recommended we just buy a new phone but we have no money for that. They said we could file some kind of thing with insurance but we’re already paying six dollars a month, per phone, for insurance – and we have to pay around forty dollars to have this fixed?! Hell no!

Take Action

I called and called and called the company until I finally got someone who would listen to our situation and actually wanted to help us out with our problem. She said there were phones that have discounts and because my line had an annual upgrade they could send us a free phone to replace the one that broke. Then when her line is ready for an upgrade I could get a new phone if I wanted to.

Great! Finally someone who actually gives a damn about their customers. Personally I have not had the best luck with Verizon Wireless but there are a few times when they DO do something worth your while. Am I complaining about the company? Not necessarily. Every company has its policies but when it conflicts with the customer’s best interest I have a hard time liking that.

I do admit that I haven’t had much trouble with Verizon since getting the phone I currently have (the same phone that broke for my girlfriend – the one I’m linking to is actually the newer model from the one I still have) which is the LG VX8360 and had nothing BUT trouble with the Razr phone. I just don’t recommend the Razr but now our roommate has it and is doing just fine.

Conclusion

This isn’t a very long update but after speaking with the customer representative over the phone and her helping me like she did I gave her my blog address and said I would post an update before the end of January about the great service they’d done for my girlfriend and myself.

We haven’t got the new phone yet but it should be here by morning. Let’s hope so!

What do you expect and look forward to when purchasing a new cell phone or just buying something at a store and they say they can’t do something because it’s policy even though you know you’re not the only customer who’s suffering because of their “policy”?

You probably know that a lot of blogs and websites you find online talk about how to make money or how to be more successful. I have my own opinion of this and I will warn you that some people will love it and some of you will not like it at all.

All those websites are right AND wrong. Why? Because reading and learning what to do to further yourself in where you want to be IS actually taking action. You’re learning something new. Taking further action is required, however, in order to make anything happen based on what information you’ve gained.

I want to point out to you a few ideas here that I believe will help you understand where I’m coming from as I’m sure a lot of you are probably not in agreement with me. If you are however, great!

Why Learn Anything New?

This should be obvious but apparently it isn’t for a lot of people. The world is always changing. It always has been and always will be. The Internet is no different. You need to keep up with what’s going on however you can in order to understand the game of life and in order to actually ‘get there’. Not knowing what’s happening will leave you in the dust and if you’re not talking to people and figuring out what’s going on, that’s where you’ll end up.

What’s The Point, Anyway?

This is a question only you can answer. If there’s not a reason that’s strong enough to keep you going at this then you’re going to find yourself giving up and calling it quits just like that. Having a why is huge when it comes to doing anything in life where you want to improve yourself. Blogging is no different.

My Reason Why: To better the lives of everyone I possibly can as fast as possible and help them succeed and achieve what exactly they’re after in life. Bottom line here is to have fun doing it because life is too short not to.

Why You Should Strive To Make MisTAkeS?

What? Who wants to make mistakes? I do and I highly recommend you join the club. If you don’t allow yourself to make mistakes and instead run from them all and hide, you’ll never learn anything. I’m not saying you should WANT to mess up and keep messing up. I’m saying mistakes are what show us how we can do better the next time. Go for that. Because you’re going to make mistakes whether you want to or not so look forward to them and look even more forward to the lessons you’ll learn and then fix them fast.

Be You.

Everyone wants a part of the Internet and wants a list and relationships and money and an amazing design for their blog and wants to be known for quality content. Sound familiar? It should because it’s the truth. Bottom line here is to just be yourself. Give all of what you are to the world. Be smart about it, of course. But give yourself to other people and let them know who you are and you’ll get a lot further a lot faster.

Forget About Your Crazy Blog. WHAT?!

Ok, don’t go all ballistic on me about this. Let me explain. This is what I’m seeing all over the Internet and it’s quite sad if you ask me. We’re all in this to win this. There’s too many people who are trying to sell something that have no business selling anything. It’s probably because they’re not looking at the bigger picture and instead just wanting money. Why aren’t they getting rich? Getting rich is all they care about.

This one is going to be a bit longer than the rest.

I’m not going to ramble on to the point of confusing you so I will get to the point here as this is part of what I’m talking about in the first place. Everyone wants to be accepted in the world. We all are looking to find ways to better ourselves and want to know what other people think about us as well as stand for something and not be pushed around. And that’s all great stuff, it really is.

Here’s the problem. Your blog is your home online where it all starts. It’s your face to the rest of the world over this virtual thing we have called the Internet for years now. Unless you have the money to travel and actually meet people who you connect with online, in person, you’ve got to make yourself known for the right things on your blog every time without question.

I think people have forgotten this because even though things are always going to change and ways of communication are always going in different directions faster and faster, it comes down to the same things as anything else does in life.

Think smart about and remember what it is exactly that you want from others and in return give it to them, first.

You want to find out useful information from someone you feel you can trust on a personal and professional level. Ok, be that person first.

You want to be told the truth and you value honesty from others and want them to understand and respect who you are. Ok, again, do that first.

You want to buy an awesome product from someone who isn’t going to rip you off and who stands behind their words all the way. Great, create your own product and do just that for someone else.

You want other people to like you for who you are and build a lasting and meaningful relationship with them. Wonderful. Put in the time and effort and go out there and be discovered.

We can all do this and we all should do this but too many of us choose not to because we’ve been told by those who aren’t even people we respect or would want to be like that there’s another way. A secret. And for X amount of $ we can have that secret.

Here’s a secret for you and this one is for free so I don’t expect you to take it seriously (though I wish you would because this one actually works).

Be you.

Be nice to others.

Help others whenever you possibly can as fast as you can and with all you have to give them.

Do the small things in life that count.

If it looks too good to be true, it isn’t probably, it just is. Why even waste your time on this one?

Love.

Read.

Embrace new ideas and possibilities and then go for it!

Have fun.

So why should you listen to me when I haven’t made a single penny on the Internet yet and there’s others who are making a complete full time living doing just this? Reread everything I just said and if you still question this then I don’t feel you’re ready for what it really means to be successful with yourself.

I want to help you by giving you what information I have and what advice I have. I want to help you get there and in return I’ll get there. Money is something that will come as I keep doing what I do and time takes its toll. I’m always open to any suggestions you have as you’re helping me then and I can’t thank you enough for that.

What do you feel taking action is all about? Do you think success is about helping others or about money or about having fun living your life the way you dream of it? Do you think taking action is where it starts and ends and everything else is just a result?

I find myself stuck looking around for all sorts of new information all the time when it comes to learning how to become a professional blogger. I wish there was actually an easy way to get better but like everything else in life it takes work and a lot of work at that.

Ever feel like there’s too much information out there, whether organized to your liking or not, about how to make money on line and how to become a pro blogger and tips and tricks and all sorts of ways to improve your blog and earn money? I feel like that all the time because there is too much information out there considering just about everyone who knows how to write wants to start a blog and share what knowledge they have about making money on line.

Well, there are a lot of things to consider when working your way up the ladder. I know I’m doing the exact same thing myself.

One thing I believe I have learned that I’m certain will help you as well is to keep at it ultimately. Consistency is key over all and great targeted content is as well. But I believe I have found a little secret of my own that just might come in handy when trying to figure out where all the actual information is that will really help you get yourself out there to becoming as successful as you desire.

Here is what I have discovered with my hard work and would like to share with you now.

Look around and find blogs that are popular and successful. Try all of the techniques that they use as that’s what got them there in the first place.

Read their blogs, comment on their posting, check out the blogs of other people who comment and leave comments on their bogs as well and so on. Keep track of all of this to a point.

But here’s where I have discovered the secret beyond all secrets that should work and I’m doing it so we’ll see how well it does work. If you read just about the same thing all over the Internet on a ton of free blogs and websites about how to become successful in this business then that’s the truth and the real information.

I have read a lot of different blogs about how to make money and how to improve your blog. Well, I have no money and have no intention of sharing my money with just anyone who promises they have ANY answer to how to go about doing this.

I have a reason for that.

There’s a billion different ways of doing anything. If ten blogs say basically the same thing and they’re all very well known then the information they have must be accurate to a point. I’ll use that (for free) and see where I get. If I get somewhere then those particular blogs will have earned some of my trust and are more entitled to make money from me. That’s a BIG key in my opinion.

Of course every blog is different and what works for one may not work for another. That being said, there are still key elements to getting your blog out there and getting noticed. Here is what I believe it takes just to start off with… Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I’m sure you do.

Write original killer articles aimed at a target audience.

Read and learn all you can from a hand full of blogs you visit on a daily basis.

Leave useful comments about what you just read.

(This is where you start building a relationship with people – extremely important)

Read other comments and visit those blogs if their comments were useful to you and leave comments on their blogs as well. And so on…

Be consistent about all of this.

Try new things and be open to new ideas and experiment.

Most of all – have fun. If you hate doing this then you shouldn’t do this so just quit and find something else you would rather do.

I’m sure you have your own thoughts and suggestions about this.

What is your real secret or key to success when it comes to improving your blog and earning money from it?

Your comments matter to me so make them because they should matter to you too. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

I launched bluepop13 2.0 today and wanted to write about that since it’s getting closer and closer to the end of this year and the beginning of a brand new wonderful year with 2010 on its way. With my brand new website I will be much more active and I am very proud of the layout and design, which I must say is actually much like the old one, however with new colors and a much nicer style.

If you decide to visit my site please let me know what you think or what you would recommend by emailing me at eric@bluepop13.com.

Also with Christmas coming up soon everyone needs a budget because families want to know they have enough money to buy presents for their kids and other families. People are getting laid off every where and money is definitely tight.

You can always start your own budget with a pen and a piece of paper but if you’re on the computer a lot and if you’re looking for a new way to manage your money this Christmas you should check out a nice little piece of software (I have been using this for a year and couldn’t be happier with it) called YNAB.

I won’t go into much detail about YNAB here but I will let you know that if you decide (after visiting my site and YNAB’s site as well) to purchase this software why not save yourself even more money by using my coupon code (you can find it on my site) before even starting your own budget? It only makes sense. You need to get your finances in order, you like YNAB and want to give it a go. Well, save yourself some more money by using my coupon code and think of it as my gift to you this holiday season.

What better way to start off the new year? I can’t think of any besides spending much quality time with friends and family.

You might also be wondering why I’m offering you a nice gift like this. You can find all of that information on my site as well. Everything is there and if you have any questions please drop me a line at eric@bluepop13.com.

Last but not least if you have any questions or concerns with YNAB (I know I have had) you will find a very active community in the forums full of very useful information from a lot of friendly people who are more than willing to help you out.

Check it all out here: www.bluepop13.com.

What do you think of my website and my gift to you? Leave your comments below.

Thanks.

Eric

bluepop13.com

Our brain is the most powerful tool in the world we have to work with. You will often hear people talk about how the sky is the limit. Well, there really is no limit. In fact, new “limits” are being introduced into the world everywhere every day. It’s simply amazing.

I just made a decision using my brain that I believe for me was one of the best amount of money I have ever spent. I’m not going to share with you how much I spent because that’s really not important here. I’ll just say that it was a very inexpensive purchase. And a very good purchase in my opinion.

I have talked about how people spend countless hours on the Internet looking for a way to make money online. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Everyday.

If you read my post on the simplicity to growing your invisible blog I share with you a few blogs which are very informative and are what I believe to be highly content rich if you’re looking to make money with your blog or online at all.

Unfortunately it seems that everywhere you look there are websites built that have all the same old information to share with everyone and they call it the new stuff. It’s really hard to believe when something is legit because people use the same old tacticts and words and phrases that we all just want to hear.

You Can Make Money Today!

Work From Home

How You Can Make X Amount Of $$$ In A Week

And More.

They all usually have the same extremely long page with NO way to contact them and a fake address and will happily ask for your credit/debit card information and people actually give this to them.

How smart are these people?

Well, as smart as anyone who unfortunately falls for this stuff. I’ve seen it before myself and almost went for it but as anything in life that sounds too good to be true, it was and still is.

Okay. So can you honestly, seriously, without-a-doubt actually make money online? Decide for yourself by clicking here and joining the niche profit classroom. I will let it speak for itself but I will say that it will give you all the information you REALLY need to know in order to actually build a site, build the traffic you want to have, and make money by doing so.

You’re probably wondering why this is different than anything else out there I just mentioned that you were already well aware of, right?

I understand and it would be down right criminal not to at least share with you what benefits I’M getting out of it as a member before you even consider looking into it for yourself.

No problem.

NicheProfitClassroom is a place where you get all of the information you need in one nice little area with very helpful support over all. The benefit of this is that you’re spending some money (you know that was coming, right?) on a very successful product that works and saving you hours, days, weeks, even months or maybe even years of work.

Think about that for a minute. Does it actually cost more to buy this or does it REALLY cost more to pay nothing and struggle and possibly give up on yourself because you just can’t find the answer to make business work for you?

Only you can answer that question.

I can honestly say I have much more time than I do money right now and I still believe that the NicheProfitClassroom allows me to save my time.

Check it out for yourself: Niche Profit Classroom

What are your thoughts on all of this? What do you think about making money online and delivering quality content to your readers? I encourage and welcome you to share your thoughts below.

Thanks.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the web lately about making money online and Internet advertisement and I started thinking about how a lot of people wonder if you really can make money online.

Well, I myself haven’t at this point. I believe in what I have been reading about, which is to deliver good content to a focused group of people who are wanting what I specifically have to offer.

I believe that when you build a relationship with those people you are more likely to earn money because they will then purchase what you are offering them. Not until.

What I’ve found is that the Internet is huge. Wait, I just figured that out?

No.

I, like yourself, have known that for years because it’s true that the Internet is growing rapidly every day.

The problem I have found is that a lot of websites out there are full of nothing but a waste of time. That’s a huge problem for some people because not everyone knows how to spot a website that’s not going to help them get anywhere.

So when this happens what do you do?

Well, you can keep searching around for some good content that will actually work. And of course the only way to find out if this stuff works is by doing it yourself and watching to see what happens with your website or blog.

Or, you can start catching onto websites that do provide good content and actually visit them on a regular basis, get to know people who visit them like you, interact with them, learn from them, and discover more websites and blogs through them.

Okay. That seems simple, right?

But where do you go? What websites are there that have this extremely useful information that will help you succeed on the Internet without giving you a load of useless drivel that is just going to waste your time?

entrepreneurs-journey.com

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com is a very informative and useful website. It offers great advice for anyone who is wanting to start making money by creating a blog. It has great business advice and tips and tricks that will help you succeed online without too much detail that’s going to throw you off course. I recommend this website to anyone who is completely new to blogging and has no idea where to start. I visit this website several times a day to see what all it has to offer.

becomeablogger.com

BecomeABlogger is a great website to use if you want to get serious about blogging and you want to use wordpress to do so. It has ten free videos that walk you through step-by-step and show you exactly how to set up your very own wordpress blog (mine is coming soon and I will let you know more detail as it comes about) on your own server. It’s not hard and these videos make it extremely easy to do. If you really want to make an impression you should definitely check out this website. I went here to learn how to do it myself and you will see what I mean when my new blog is up and running.

dailyblogtips.com

I really get a kick out of DailyBlogTips. I’m not even making fun of it either. This website is amazing. I have found a lot of really fun articles to read on here that really make sense to me and some of the stuff I actually had never thought to use for myself. Very helpful and fun things to learn. If you want new tips and tricks each new day to help you with your blog and are not interested in long boring pages of content, definitely check this website out. I also visit this on a daily basis, hence the name.

problogger.net

ProBlogger is an extremely informative website and a lot of fun to visit. I like this site especially because everything is even more interactive. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy visiting all of the websites/blogs mentioned above and problogger is no different. Here you will find videos mostly… Along with some writing. That’s why I like it. It’s with the new age and brings you even closer to the author which makes it more informative and realistic as you’re the audience.

These are just a few blogs and websites I have discovered online that are tremendously helping me out and to be honest, mostly just a lot of fun to read and implement the ideas from.

You’re not going to make money right away unless you know some kind of trick and if you haven’t figured it out yet then you might just be on the wrong track. Check out these sites and see what they can do for you. At most, you will gain a lot of information and after some time, who knows, you might even start seeing cash flowing into your life.

What are your thoughts about starting an online business and Internet marketing and such? What information did you attain from the sites mentioned above?

Please leave your comments below. I look forward to talking with you.

Getting and staying out of debt is a great way to spend the holidays, especially Christmas. Why not get your finances in order like you probably have been meaning to do all year but just didn’t know where to look. YNAB can help.

YNAB (You Need A Budget), as I mentioned in another blog post recently and a rather long one at that, is software that lets you manage your money with four rules that make cash flow simple to follow and help you by showing you what you really spend your money on.

1) Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Almost everyone I know still lives this way and it surprises me greatly. When you are living on last month’s income you really do have peace of mind because if you miss a paycheck for whatever reason you are still doing good.

2) Give every dollar a job. When you assign every single dollar that comes into your life a job you are taking control of your money and not letting your money take control of you. This way, you know exactly what every single dollar’s job is and it does it as it should.

3) Save for a rainy day. Everyone knows that little things in life pop up. Hospital bills are pretty much the number one reason for debt in America. Credit cards are after that. Forget the credit cards and start using cash. Don’t worry about those little or big things in life that come up and be prepared for them instead.

4) Roll with the punches. Sometimes we all make a mistake and overspend just a bit. It’s natural and only human of us. Instead of throwing away the budget and letting those negative thoughts enter your mind saying you can’t do this, take control. Let ynab make a small adjustment for you and start off the next month with a clean slate. This is my favourite rule and who knows, you might love it too!

Those are the rules. Check out ynab.com for more information and when you order your copy of the software use the coupon code: “bluepop” (without the “”) and get 15% off! Go check it out.

Eric
www.bluepop13.com