Cash Money Life» Announcements

Win a Flip Video Camcorder

Ryan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:29:38 +0000

Tomorrow is the end of the tax season, which means unless you filed an extension on your taxes or decided to chance fate and not file taxes this year, it’s time to celebrate! And to celebrate the end of tax season, I will be hosting a giveaway for a Flip Camcorder, similar to the one pictured at right. This giveaway is sponsored by eBillme and TigerDirect.

About the Flip Camcorder

If you haven’t seen one of these bad boys in action, you are missing out. These little camcorders are probably the coolest little video cameras on the market. They are about the size of a cell phone and are designed to record video for web use. They are very popular with people of all ages and backgrounds because they are extremely easy to use (just point and click), and record high quality video. The best part is – you can upload your videos directly to video sharing sites like You Tube!

About eBillme

eBillme is a website that allows users to pay their bills and make free online payments to select merchants. To use their service, visit select stores or their new Debt Free Mall, make a purchase, and choose eBillme as your payment option. You will then receive your bill via e-mail, and you can pay it via online bill pay through your bank. Just send the money to eBillme, and they pay the merchant. Shopping through eBillme is a great option for people who don’t like to share their credit card information online, or who prefer not to use credit cards. Safe, fast, convenient. Nice combination.

The Debt Free Mall currently has dozens of stores and is adding new stores all the time. You can also find more information about money saving tips at the eBillme blog, deals and savings on the Debt Free Mall Blog, and they are on twitter: @shopdebtfree.

About TigerDirect

TigerDirect is one of my favorite discount electronics stores. I’ve been shopping there for computer parts for a few years now and have nothing but good things to say about their service (I’ve written about them on this site before). I’m a big fan of saving money with refurbished electronics, and you can always find a great deal on those kinds of items at Tiger Direct. Not everything is refurbished though – there are plenty of new and top of the line items to choose from!

How to enter the Flip Camcorder giveaway

Entry is free and easy.* All you will need to do is a leave a comment that answers the following question:

What do you plan on doing with your tax return if you are receiving one, or how much did you owe on your taxes this year? (You can answer in general terms if you prefer anonymity; this is only for fun!).

If you are like me and you are going to file an extension on your taxes this year, you are not eligible to participate. Just kidding! Just leave a comment saying you are filing an extension. If you want to, you can share why. In my case, my small business taxes were more complicated than I thought they would be and I decided it would be better if I paid a professional to do it!

Rules. Giveaway starts upon publication of this article and ends at Saturday, April 18, 2009 at midnight. Winners will be announced on the site on Sunday. The winner will be chosen via a random drawing. I am the sole judge of eligible entries, and the Flip Camcorder will be awarded by eBillme.

*Void where prohibited, one entry per person, and standard disclaimers apply. Good luck to everyone!

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This article written by Ryan Guina. Ryan is the founder and editor of this site. He is a writer, small business owner, entrepreneur, and professional in the corporate world. He served over 6 years in the USAF and also writes about military money topics at Military Finance Network.

All content copyright Cash Money Life.

Announcing the TurboTax And Book Giveaway Winners

Ryan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:18:10 +0000

Last week I held two giveaways here at Cash Money Life. The first was in honor of the 2 year anniversary of this site, and the prizes were 5 personal finance books and a NURU personal finance system. The other giveaway was two key codes for TurboTax Premier Online.

The drawing was supposed to end Thursday, but I decided to keep it open through Saturday afternoon when I had some time to set up the drawing and notify the winners. The drawing was done randomly via Random.org. I made a spreadsheet with the names of all eligible entrants, entered it into the form and clicked the button – quick and easy! Here are the winners:

TurboTax winners:

Mike
Henry

Book Giveaway winners (and the book they won):

Elizabeth: Does Your Bag Have Holes?.
Olivia: Thrift A Cyclopedia.
Jason: The Cure for Money Madness.
RC: Millionaire by Thirty.
Mindy: Nuru Personal Finance System. (Originally won by Lynnae, who graciously offered the prize to the next person in line).
Kyle: An American Hedge Fund. (originally won by Pinyo, who graciously offered the prize to the next person in line).

Congrats to all the winners and thanks for reading!

~$~

Cash Money Life 2 Year Anniversary Giveaway!

Ryan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:38:52 +0000

Cash Money Life is celebrating it’s two year anniversary today! It’s hard to believe I started this little website two years ago – time flies! Over the last two years I have learned a lot about blogging, personal finance, running a small business, and many other related topics. More importantly, I’ve met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun. You all make blogging a very rewarding “job” for me, which is why I want to say thanks with a little giveaway.

Two year anniversary Giveaway!

I will be giving away the following books and financial products through a random drawing. Entry is free and easy, and more details are below the prize descriptions.

Signed copy of Does Your Bag Have Holes. The subtitle to this book is 24 Truths That Lead to Financial and Spiritual Freedom. This is an excellent book and one that I highly recommend. This book does not tell which stocks to buy, how to maximize your cash flow, or other standard investment advice. Instead, this book uses personal anecdotes, parables, scripture, and other resources to share stories and examples of how to live a financially and spiritually free life. The book is steeped in Christian principles, but this is the type of book that anyone can benefit from reading, regardless of faith. Read more about Does Your Bag Have holes at Amazon.

Thrift A Cyclopedia. I received a copy of this book from the folks at BringBackThriftWeek.org. This David Blankenhorn book is an excellent look at the history of thrift in the United States. National Thrift Week was a national event celebrating responsible living that ran from 1916 through 1966. The goal of BringBackThriftWeek.org is to resurrect a National Thrift Week, and bring back the three 3 pillars of thrift: industry, frugality, and trusteeship. Thrift A Cyclopedia was commissioned as part of the push to bring back Thrift Week. You can read more about thrift at the BringBackThriftWeek.org website, and you can read more about Thrift A Cyclopedia at Amazon.

The Cure for Money Madness. Break Your Bad Money Habits, Live Without Financial Stress – and Make More Money! The tagline of this book sums up everything I try to do in my life and everything I try to share with you through this website. Spencer Sherman was a financial manager who one day realized he suffered from Money Madness. The Cure for Money Madness is a book about how he realized he needed to make some changes in his life, and how he made them. Sherman challenges some of the” conventional financial principles” that are oft repeated without regard to their application in today’s economic climate. Sherman goes over how you can change your view of money and what is important to you – ultimately leading to a greater wealth and life balance. You can read more about The Cure for Money Madness at Amazon.

Millionaire by Thirty. The tagline for this book is The Quickest Path to Early Financial Independence. This book is about two young brothers who started off earning $30,000 per year at age 21, and ended up with a net worth of over $1 million by age 30. How? Primarily by buying real estate and using the rents and appraised value to leverage their property to purchase new properties. This is certainly not the path for everyone, but if you are interested in real estate investing, this may have some good information for you. You can read more about Millionaire by Thirty at Amazon.

Nuru Personal Finance System. The NURU Personal Finance is a deck of 30 “ultra-thin, waterproof, and durable pocket-sized plastic cards” with personal finance information. Personal finance topics on the cards include: investing, loans, credit, insurance, retirement vehicles, and more. Nuru also offers other top level views of topics such as Golf, Auto Maintenance, Emergency First Aid, and Exercise/Nutrition. You can read more about the different information systems at Nuruplanet.com.

Signed copy of An American Hedge Fund. Timothy Sykes turned $12,000 into $2 million in 4 years and then created a hedge fund – all before the age of 26. American Hedge Fund is his story. You can read more about Timothy Sykes’ story and his investment strategies at his website TimothySykes.com. You can read more about An American Hedge fund at Amazon.

Stay up to date with free updates from Cash Money Life

If you are not a subscriber to Cash Money Life, I encourage you to do so. I provide free daily articles on money management, personal finance, small business, career and education topics, and more. I also have giveaways from time to time, and I think I will be giving away a couple copies of TurboTax soon. Stay updated for more information!

How to subscribe. You can get free updates with my RSS feed via a feedreader, or subscribe via e-mail. You can also follow me on twitter:@cashmoneylife. You can usually find me online in the mornings and evenings and my tweets are usually something about money or music – two passions of mine!

Giveaway rules

Giveaway entry is free and easy (up to 2 entries per person):

Entry method 1. All you need to do is leave a comment in this article (only one comment entry per person please).
Entry method 2. Send me an e-mail with the secret phrase you will find at the bottom of all my articles over the next week. The secret phrase will only be visible to Cash Money Life subscribers! (send e-mail to Ryan @ this domain, or use my contact form)
All winners must be of legal age — usually, 18 years of age or older.
This contest is open to participants in the U.S. and Canada only, and is void where prohibited by law.
No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
I will choose the winners from the qualified participants. I am the sole judge of adding entries to the list.
In order to award the prizes, I have to be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment. Your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
Prizes will be awarded and shipped by me. Winners will be required to submit a physical address where I can ship the prizes. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at my discretion.
Winners will be chosen at random, and entries end on March 26, 2009 at midnight EST.

Good luck everyone, and thanks for helping make Cash Money Life so rewarding for me to run!

~$~

YNAB Pro Giveaway Winner

Ryan — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:03:47 +0000

Last week I wrote a review of You Need a Budget, one of the most popular budgeting software programs on the market. When I wrote the review, the folks over at YNAB were kind enough to give away a copy of YNAB Pro to one lucky Cash Money Life reader.

The YNAB Pro Giveaway

Over 40 people entered the YNAB PRo Giveaway, which is pretty decent odds! The winners were selected with a random number generator from the website Psychic Science. Each valid entry was entered into an Excel spreadsheet and assigned a number. Then I used the random number generator to randomly select from the numbers in the list.

And the winner is…

Mike, who left the 18th comment.

Congratulations, Mike!

I will e-mail you with information about how to receive the copy of YNAB Pro. If you didn’t win, you can still purchase a copy of YNAB Pro from the You Need a Budget website.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks for reading Cash Money Life!

Want more deals and giveaways?

If you missed out on this giveaway, there are plenty more ways you can make free money, get freebies and discounts, and otherwise save money.

$25 ING referrals. I recently updated the referrals on my ING $25 Bonus Referrals page. There should be about 8 fresh referral links available for anyone to grab.
e-file taxes for free. You can e-file your federal taxes free.
Free Money page. I keep a current list of bank bonuses, credit card bonuses, and other offers on the free money page.
Money Saving Deals. You can visit my Money Saving Deals page for more offers.

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Weekly Roundup – Super Bowl Edition

Ryan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:56:24 +0000

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and you know what that means – lot’s of food, football, and fun! My wife and I are planning a low key Super Bowl Sunday… the two of us are planning on going to church in the morning, then relaxing at home until the big game. We’ll probably make some nachos and settle in to watch the Super Bowl and the commercials (the only time of the year I don’t flip the channel during commercial breaks!). If you are planning on watching the game, I hope you have a fun and safe time!

This week’s carnivals

The Carnival of twenty something finances – January 26, 2009 edition was hosted at Good Financial Cents.
162nd edition of the Festival of Frugality was held at Gather Little by Little.
Carnival of Money Stories No. 94 was held at The Sun’s Financial Diary.
Carnival of Net Worth #11 was held at Llama Money.
MoneyHacks Carnival–Frugalista Style! was hosted at Little Miss Know it All.
Comics and Cents Carnival: Baby Come Back was held at The Writer’s Coin.
Rich Life Carnival #30 was hosted at Rich Life Carnival.

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Happy New Year!!!

Ryan — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:52:11 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s to your health, wealth, and overall prosperity in 2009!

photo credit: G i O

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Ryan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:22:02 +0000

I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday, and I hope you are able to spend time with your loved ones. As the year comes to a close I hope you can take time to reflect on those things that are important to you – like spending time with your friends and family, and taking time off to enjoy the things you like to do.

The focus of Cash Money Life is how to earn and save money and how to improve your career. But money is not the most important thing in life, it only makes life a little easier. The most important aspects of life are your friends and family and the relationships you have with them. As the year comes to a close I can’t help but reflect upon this past year and think about my goals for the coming year – and I have big plans. But for now, I am am putting those plans on hold for a few days so I can spend some time with my family. I hope you are able to do the same.

The best to you and yours this Holiday Season!

~$~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ryan — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:03:36 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and thank you for helping make this year so wonderful for my family and I. This little blog has grown into much more than I ever thought it would and I have you, the readers, and other bloggers to thank. Thanks.

This year has been a great year in many regards and there are many other things I am thankful for.

Family. The most important thing in life is family, and I have been lucky to spend a lot of time with my family this year (I live over a thousand miles away from my brothers and parents).

I went to see my sister graduate high school earlier this year, and we had a memorable afternoon when we all went skydiving to celebrate. It was a blast! I also had the opportunity to take my wife on a hot air balloon ride this summer, which was a wonderful experience. My wife and I also took several visits to her parents and other relatives this year, and recently returned from a vacation.

Friends. Just like family, the friends you have make life much more enjoyable. I have met many wonderful people this past year – both in real life and through my website. Thanks to all of you for being who you are.

Career. I resigned from my old job this year. It was bringing me down and was not an enjoyable place to work. The new job I accepted not only resulted in a higher salary, but is a much better environment and I am much happier there than my previous job.

In the end, it all about the memories you make, and in this regard, my wife and I have been blessed. My parents and sister are here for Thanksgiving, so I’m off to visit. I wish you all the best.

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