Weekly Roundup – A New Member, A Milestone, and Free Stuff!

A New Member in the M-Network. This past week, the M-Network welcomed Mrs. Micah to join our ranks. Mrs. Micah has a great blog, is a very active participant in the personal finance blogging community, and recently created the Finwikian, a wiki for the personal finance blogging community. Be sure to check out her blog if you have not already done so. Welcome Mrs. Micah!

A Milestone. This last week, my blog registered its 100,000th visitor! I am very proud of this milestone and realize it never would have happened without you readers stopping by! I appreciate everyone who visits, and I hope you will come back for more!

Also, Cash Money Life will celebrate its one year anniversary soon. I don’t have anything major planned, but I’ll be sure to give away a couple books I have lying around!

Free Stuff. This past week, I compiled several articles with announcements about free money from sign up bonuses and more. I made a permanent page in the navigation bar, titled free money, for readers to reference. I plan on updating this page with new offers as I become aware of them. So be sure to check back!

Blog Reviews at Visionary Blogging. Last week my blog received some tips from Easton Ellsworth, the founder of Visionary Blogging. He made a lot of great recommendations for layout and structure, and I plan on making some changes soon. If you are a blogger, I recommend checking out Visionary Blogging to see what improvements you might be able to make! By the way, the service is free.

Thanks, Easton!

Here are my favorite articles this week from the M-Network and around the personal finance blogosphere:

• Being Frugal – How to Make a Budget That Works. Now the issue is sticking to said budget!
• Gather Little by Little - 1 marshmallow or 2? A study on the benefits of delayed gratification. I’m definitely a 2 marshmallow person – I have no problem with delayed gratification.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… My Dumbest Purchase Ever – It’s a Mindset. Wow, I’ve always thought there was somehting up with Bath and Body works. It turns out they have a great marketing scheme.
• Moolanomy - 40 Alternative Income Ideas and Resources. I love alternate sources of income. The more ways you have to earn money, the better off you can be financially.
• Mrs. Micah - The Finwikian: Your Two Cents on Personal Finance — a new personal finance wiki). This is a very ambitious project! Good luck with it!
• My Two Dollars - Paypal Locked Me Out Of My Own Account. Ohhh… I would be very upset! I only keep them minimum in my PayPal account. The rest goes into my bank account.
• Plonkee Money - expat finances – National Insurance and State Pensions. This article covers qualifying for state run pensions and eligibility based on number of years worked – whether or not they worked in the same country their entire career. The world is growing smaller… People are moving abroad much more often than they used to, and this will affect many more people in the future than it currently affects.
• Single Guy Money - More Rental Property Issues. The joys of being a landlord canquickly revert to the pains of being a landlord. Howeve, having a steady stream of income would be a nice thing to have.
• The Dough Roller – 5 Steps To Conquering a Debilitating Fear of Change. Change starts within. 1 step. Just kidding! This is a great article. Check it out!
• Million Dollar Journey – 30 Personal Finance Rules of Thumb. Lots of great personal finance tips.
• My Dollar Plan – Reverse Strategy: Decreasing Contribution Percent. invest more when you are younger, because compound interest will work its magic over time. If you invest a larger amount when you are young, you can contribute less in later years.

This week’s Carnivals and Festivals:

• The Carnival of Financial Goals IV – Investing Video Edition was hosted at The Dividend Guy. My article, March Goal – Fully Funding Our Roth IRAs, was included.
• The Carnival of Personal Finance #142 – The Homeless Edition was hosted at The Bag Lady. My article, Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, was included.
• The Festival of Frugality #115 was hosted at Broke Grad Student. My article, Refund Anticipation Loans Suck, was included.
• The Carnival of Peer 2 Peer Lending #5 was hosted at The Amatureist Financial Journey. My article, Are Person to Person Loans Guaranteed?, was included.
• Money Hacks Carnival #2 – Gardening Edition was hosted at Being Frugal. My article, Salary Negotiation Tactics, was included.
• The Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance was hosted at Money And Values. My article, The Choice of What is Right, and What is Easy, was included and selected as an editor’s choice!

Thanks for stopping by everyone!