To add to all of this drama in my personal life, Joe and I have formed a partnership and opened a bank account. We’ve decided we want to experiment and test the waters of affiliate marketing. We created a company called MBT Media and began studying the various ins and outs of the industry. It appears to be a very lucrative one to some people and we are hoping that sometime in the future, maybe we can join in and become profitable in this industry as well. Joe and I have started yet another blog to discuss the details of our affiliate marketing journey. If you have any interest at all in affiliate marketing or want to learn more about it, please check out our blog at mbtmedia.com.

I want to thank everyone who still subscribes to my rss feed and to all the people that are still on the mailing list. I know I haven’t been giving you guys much but I promise to get back in to this real soon. Things look to be calming down in my life. Once school is done, I am back full time.

              The biggest topic on most American’s minds these days is the state of the current economy. The economy is in very bad shape right now. The housing market is declining at a more rapid rate than it has in history. The unemployment rate is around seven percent, which is the worst it has been since the early nineteen-eighties. The stock market has not declined as rapidly as it has been over the last couple of years since the nineteen-seventies. Times are looking grim and people are socking away more and more money. Savings have increased over the last several years. People are pulling their money out of investments and holding on to it for fear of losing their nest egg. The largest concern over the declining economy is the rate at which the decline is taking place. The economy is in a nose dive and, at this pace; it is on course for depression levels.

            There are many theories and many facts about how the economy has reached the level that it is at. One major factor that there is very little dispute over is the mess that the banks caused through sub-prime lending. The banks lent money for the purchase of homes to borrowers who could not really afford to purchase homes. Banks offered low introductory rates and claimed that people could refinance before the rates adjusted. The housing market declined and refinancing became less and less of an option for people. When interest rates adjusted, hundreds of thousands of homeowners where left in situations where their mortgage was more than they could afford. This led to foreclosures and the lending banks taking loses on homes. Banks became less liquid and stricter on their lending policies. People found it harder to get loans on homes. The supply of homes went up while the demand went down.

            The decline of the housing market caused a ripple effect throughout the rest of the economy. Demand for homes where low and construction and home building declined. This caused many other industries, tied to the housing market to decline. The farther down the line the effects were felt, the more jobs were lost. People became nervous about the economy and consumer spending declined. This affected pretty much any other industry that was not directly tied to the housing market. Necessities became luxuries and people cut back. Businesses began to struggle and fears lead to people cashing out there investments, favoring cash to interest baring securities.

            The United States has a new face. A new president was elected by promises of change. He claimed he could turn the economy around and put the country back on track. The people elected him based on the hope of a brighter future and an end to the economic bleeding. He took over a country with a rapidly inclining unemployment rate and rapidly declining housing and stock markets.

            Within the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama pushed for and signed in to law The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The act was designed to address and redirect the economy in the right direction. The largest portion of the act is designed to give tax relief to most people. The act also puts more money towards unemployment benefits, healthcare, education and towards industries that are geared towards clean energy technology.

The most dominant portion of the act, consisting of two-hundred-thirty-seven-billion dollars, provides tax relief for individuals. Each worker will receive a four-hundred dollar credit on their taxes in 2009 and 2010. The floor was raised for the alternative minimum tax, allowing a larger portion of the population to be exempt from the tax. The child tax credit was expanded, giving a one-thousand dollar tax credit to more families. The college credit was expanded, giving a twenty-five-hundred dollar tax credit to students for tuition and college expenses. The first time homebuyer credit was expanded from seventy-five-hundred dollars to eight-thousand dollars and the repayment was repealed if the homeowner stays in the home for more than three years. The first twenty-four-hundred dollars that a person received in unemployment benefits are now excluded from taxation. Several tax cuts have been made for companies as well. The largest advantage is that companies can use current year losses to offset profits from the previous five years, allowing companies to actually receive tax returns.

Depending on who you ask, some people believe that the plan will turn the economy around and many believe that it will only make things worse. The major goal in this whole process is to leave people with more money in their pocket after tax season. With more money in their pockets, people will feel confident in spending again. People start spending, jobs start coming back, spending is increased even further and, once again, we have a domino effect and the economy starts cranking along again. This sounds great but the uncertainty comes with what the people intend to do with their money. If people receive these tax credits and these lesser tax burdens, are they going to sock the money away and refuse to spend it or are they going to turn around and infuse it back in to the economy by spending again? That is the big unknown at this point. The result will probably be mixed. Some will sit on their money and some will spend. The next question is whether or not the amount coming back to people is going to be enough. An extra four hundred dollars for a year is not very much for someone to really want to go out and make some big purchases. People are probably going to need a little more of a push to really feel comfortable spending again.

The portion of the new tax plan that will probably help to stimulate the economy is the changes made to the housing credit. The new plan gives first time homebuyers an eight thousand dollar credit on their tax return. Furthermore, this credit does not need to be paid back if the homeowner stays in the house for over three years. The old plan gave seventy-five-hundred dollars back to homeowners on their taxes and the credit actually had to be repaid, regardless of how long someone stayed in the house. This new program could stimulate the economy in two ways. First, it gives encouragement to people that have jobs and have money to go out and finally make a home purchase. With more people entering the housing market, demand can begin to rise and the housing market can start to recover. Homes can begin to appreciate again as supply declines and demand increases. Jobs surrounding the housing market will begin to recover as new home construction will increase again and people will purchase and remodel older homes. The second way that this plan could help to stimulate the economy is that it gives eight-thousand dollars back to the homeowners. This money seems like a much better sum to really encourage people to begin spending again. New homeowners can use their credit towards home remodeling or towards new appliances or electronic goods. The point is that eight-thousand dollars is enough money to get people to start spending and infusing money in to the economy.

The plan does not really do enough to benefit businesses. There are some points within the plan that will allow businesses to use current losses to offset gains made in previous years and credits to businesses who use renewable energy sources. The plan really does not do enough though. The economy is suffering from a rapidly increasing unemployment rate. Making larger efforts to help build businesses back up could do wonders for stimulating the economy. Businesses create jobs and the easier the government makes things for business owners, the more likely it is that businesses will succeed and jobs will be created. People are not spending money and the country’s businesses are feeling it. Companies are laying off large amounts of employees to stay in business and some businesses have not been so lucky. Some businesses have had to close. If the government did more to really help stimulate businesses, the economy would probably greatly feel the effects.

The plan to increase unemployment benefits really misses the mark as well. The plan allows for twenty-four-hundred dollars of unemployment benefits to be tax free. The plan also increases benefits by twenty-five dollars per week and extends the length of time that they can be received. This plan certainly makes unemployment seem more appealing. The idea behind the plan is good. Unemployment is rapidly increasing, if more people are unemployed, the government should make their lives easier. The problem is that the plan promotes staying unemployed. The plan extends the length of time and the amount of money received. It is almost as if the plan encourages people to stay home and not find jobs. If the amount of money being received is enough for an individual to live on, an individual may be compelled to stay unemployed as long as possible. This part of the plan does nothing to reduce the rate of unemployment.

Other than tax relief, the act makes many investments in various other industries. Almost eighty-seven-billion dollars of the bill is going towards funding Medicaid so the lower income individuals can have healthcare. Forty-five-billion dollars is going to school districts to prevent layoffs and cut backs. The funds can also be used towards school maintenance and repairs. Twenty-eight-billion dollars is going towards highway and bridge construction projects. Eight-billion dollars is going towards public rail transportation. A lot of the money will be divided up in to even more projects such as green energy projects, scientific research and development, complete broadband internet and helping fund various government agencies.

Most of the various projects that the money is going to be invested in will help ease unemployment issues. Money going towards schools will insure that teachers are not put out of work and that students receive the education that they need. All of the various other projects that are receiving funding require manpower. These projects are not only an investment in the particular project but they are investments in the labor force behind the projects. It is a way of getting more of the funding in to the American people’s hands. As mentioned before, if the unemployment is reduced, the spending will increase and the economy will begin its recovery.

The act does quite a bit in an attempt to reduce unemployment. It also has areas that may counteract that reduction. There is probably more good that is going to come from this act in the way of reducing unemployment than bad. As long as people want to constantly better themselves and their way of life, they will do whatever they have to in order to avoid unemployment.

One effect that has come from the sub-prime lending problem and from the credit crunch is that the stock market has taken a huge hit. People have had to deal with losing houses and losing jobs. To top it off, people are seeing their nest egg, invested in the stock market and various mutual funds, drop out as well. The new plan does not really address this. The plan offers minor tax relief to businesses and offers credits on personal taxes which might stimulate spending and help increase the bottom line of companies but it’s not enough for investors to really recover. 

One idea to motivate people to invest in the stock market again is remove the tax on capital gains. This could stimulate the economy by encouraging investors in to the market with no tax implications on their gains. This idea has been thrown around for a while and would probably only be a temporary tax relief but it could be a big benefit to get investors back in to the market. This will allow firms to raise working capital through the use of equity as opposed to debt. The overuse of debt is what got the economy in to its current mess. Give investors an incentive to want to invest, companies can rely on debt financing less and there will be a reduction in the cause that got our economy in the position that it is in today.

Overall the American Recovery and Reinvestment act has some great points and some flawed points. The plan also leaves out some vital points. Our economy relies heavily on the housing market. If the plan can begin to turn the housing market around, the wheels will start turning again on the rest of the economy. Unemployment should not be encouraged. However, the various projects that the plan is investing in should help to reduce the unemployment. The plan should do more to focus on boosting businesses and encouraging investors. If the businesses are thriving, there will be plenty of jobs to be had. If people have jobs, people will spend money. The economy is cyclical. If one facet of the economy starts working like it is supposed to, everything else begins to follow suit. It all comes down to getting people to spend more. Spend more money, businesses thrive, businesses create jobs, people with jobs spend more money.

A lot has changed since my last post. My girlfriend of five years and I have gotten engaged. We are getting married in May of next year. I plan to discuss the financial implications of getting married along with my personal circumstances and experiences. Since we’ve become engaged, my fiance and I have been actively house hunting and talking with a mortgage broker. The time seems right for first time homebuyers and I definitely want to go in to more details on this later. I am nine classes in to my crazy, non-stop, class schedule and I’ve got about nine to go. My posts may not be as frequent as they once were but I do plan to get back in the game.

I’m still knee deep in school work and I’m really trying to use my time wisely. Once our other projects are unveiled, this site will probably act as more of a journal of the progress we are making. I am so thankful of all the readers and all of the people that have supported this website. This website, along with Be Healthy and Relax, has provided the finances needed to really get things moving on those other projects. Please stick around. You won’t want to miss what we have in store with these new projects!

I will admit that life has been a little hectic lately. I put in about sixty hours per week at work and I’m in charge of about thirty employees. I’m on an accelerated learning course at my college in which I take one class per month. I have either lectures or assignments every single night of the week. I have an exam every Saturday with a final on the last weekend of every month. It is a lot of studying and it’s been a bit crazy. It’s only my first month and I’ve got about seventeen more to go. Finishing a higher education is one the steps on my path to wealth. I must make it one of my biggest priorities. Often times it is very hard to keep up with everything going on in life.

Over the last six months my favorite blog has been Zen Habits. It is a great site that offers so much advice on how to keep your head in the right place when life gets hectic. It also offers up some advice on how to keep certain aspects of life from getting too hectic. I’ve adopted a lot of Leo’s philosophies and my life has been a lot less stressful because of it. I’m not sure what specific posts some of these ideas came from but they are various ideas that I’ve adopted that have really cut down on my stress.

Prioritize the things that are important and cut out the things that aren’t.
This is basically the theme of the entire Zen Habits website. The things that are important in my life are my family, my girlfriend, my education and my job. I also love my blog but, in reality, it is just a hobby. I will always update it when I feel compelled to write. I love sharing my personal goals, my financial goals and the journey that I’ve embarked upon. It will always be here for me to vent and for me to give and receive advice. I love it, it is an outlet and I will never let it die. It may slow down when my priorities need more attention but I will never let it go to waste.

Take time in silence to reflect and listen to your thoughts.
I basically wrote an entire post on this subject over at Lazy Man and Money. Sometimes you just need to take some time and relax in silence. Let ideas run through your head and see what comes out. This concept has a few benefits. You get to relax your body. You can find a comfortable quiet spot, kick off your shoes and just relax. You may be a genius and not even realize it. Who knows what kind of ideas will pop in to your head while you are relaxing. I do this for a little bit every afternoon. It is kind of my post-work/pre-school ritual.

Keep organized.
The biggest lifestyle change that I have made since I’ve begun blogging is the organizational habits that I have adopted. I’ve gotten in the habit of always keeping everything clean and organized all of the time. It’s not like I’m constantly cleaning either. I clean up as I go. I make sure anything I take out, I put it away immediately after using it. Every morning when I wake up, I do a real quick room cleaning. It takes me about two minutes. You have no idea how much stress this relieves. Being clean and organized feels so good and I always know where everything is. I’ve adopted the same philosophy at the office and I’m more productive because of it.

Don’t carry things around on you.
This is one of the little tips that Leo suggested in one of his older posts. It seems like a small thing but it feels so liberating to never have anything in your pockets. Everyday when I arrive at work; I take my wallet, my keys and my cell phone out of my pocket and throw them in my desk drawer. I’m not sitting on a lump all day, I don’t have bulges in my pocket and I’m not concerned with who’s calling me in the middle of the day. Whoever it is, it can wait until after work. It’s a great little liberating, productivity-boosting tip.

Always be positive.
I am going to finish with this tip but I believe it is the most powerful. I have made a real conscious effort to be positive about everything. Even when things get stressful or deadlines get tight, I honestly try to stay positive. Sometimes it’s hard but it makes people like to be around me more, it helps others around me stay positive and with a can-do attitude, things get done. If you believe in the “law of attraction” type stuff (like I do), there are only benefits to always being positive. Good things come to people who are positive and never lose focus. I see nothing but good things in my future.

Photo Credit: ajusticenetwork

By the way, I want to congratulate Leo from Zen Habits on making the leap in to Professional Blogger. It’s what all of us bloggers strive for one day and it is awesome to see the success that he has made for himself in so little time. It is a great achievement.

In light of the fact that I have started back to school, I’ve decided to post my technique for studying for tests. Over the course of my entire college career, I have had a 3.5 GPA. That’s despite working full time. My technique works for almost any class and practically no free time is lost.

Buy a Digital Audio Recorder.
I went and purchased an audio recorder that can easily be connected to my computer. The one that I purchased is very similar to This One. A good one is around $50.

Record Your Class Lectures.
Take your new tape recorder to class and tape the entire lecture. If the professor does not allow tape recorders in class, take good notes and record the lecture with your own voice later.

Move The Lecture to a Computer and Burn a CD.
The next thing I do is move the lecture on to my computer using the USB. If you are audio-savvy, like me, you can use a program like Sound Forge to edit the lecture. Cut out all of the filler that has nothing to do with the topic and adjust the volume. Burn the audio file to a CD.

Listen Back To Your Lecture While Driving.
After burning my lecture to a CD, I would drive around listening to the lecture. I spent so much time in my car that I practically had the previous lecture memorized by the time the next class session rolled around. You aren’t wasting any time because you are multi-tasking. You are studying while you are driving.

Using this technique, I was always the first one done with tests and I almost always got an A. I still remember information from lectures that I had three years ago. It’s a great technique to, not only memorize the information, but to really learn the subject matter as well.

Photo Credit: Shaylor

My grandpa sent this e-mail to me a few days ago. It looks like he got it from the PC World website.

Sell Your Old PC (or Other Devices) to Costco

You have an old PC in the closet? Here’s a way to get rid of it: Sell it to Costco.

Costco, the big-box retailer, has contracted with Greensight to recondition or recycle your old, but still working, PC. They’ll pick up the tab on shipping the PC to them and pay you for the computer. [Thanks to Brad from Atlanta for this amazingly good tip.]

It gets better: They’ll also take notebooks, MP3 players, LCD monitors, camcorders, digital cameras, game consoles, and phones.

It’s gets better yet: There’s no trade-in value, but if you have an old CRT, printer, or fax machine, Greensight will recycle it for you and pay to ship the item to them.

The catch: You get “paid” with a Costco cash card. If you’re not a Costco member, you can use the cash card towards the membership fee; members can use the card to buy merchandise.

I’m taking my wife out to lunch
The Details
Choose the device you want to trade in and answer their questions on an online form. Providing details about the device takes about five minutes. At the end of the process, Greensight will tell you how much the trade-in is worth.

Of course, there’s a good chance you won’t remember the exact components or CPU speed, so the amount may change once the machine is inspected. If you’re not happy, the company will return the PC to you at no charge.

I have to tell you, you’re not going to get rich. I priced a 1.2GHz Pentium III with a 40GB drive and 1GB of RAM and picked up $18. But hey, that pays for a lunch and I didn’t have to schlep to a city-run electronics recycling center.

Greenlight promises they’ll either recondition and sell the entire PC (or just hand-picked parts), or recycle the good parts into raw material. Nothing, they say, will end up in a landfill.

You can read through their FAQ for more details.

This sounds like a great idea to me. I have tons of old computer stuff laying around. I might as well make money of off it.

Photo Credit: Cote

Personal Goals

• Complete all of my Christmas shopping within a budget of $500
  Success. I think I spent a total of $350. I’m not sure the exact number but it is in that range.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I failed here. I never got around to getting to the bank to set up an account.
  

Blogging Goals

• Post 5 blog posts per week
  I failed here too. I only posted 15 blogs posts for the entire month of December.
  
• Get to 200 subscribers
  Failed. I maxed out at 135 subscribers. This is probably due to my lack of posting for the month.
• At least 2 carnivals per week
  Failed. I think I participated in 4 carnivals all month.
  
• Break $150 total money made
  Success! This was actually the first month I started to see a little bit of blogging income. The blog made $75 for the month. That puts my total income as a blogger at $197.14 (Over a 6 month period).
  
• At least 2 guest posts on other (more popular) blogs
  Failed. I only managed one guest post this month. You can read it over at Lazy Man and Money.

January Goals:
For January I’m going to tone down my goals a little as far as blogging goes. I start back to school on Monday and I have a feeling that it’s going to consume a whole lot of my time. Blogging is very important to me because I love sharing my goals and being held accountable when I fail (kind of like this month). I do think pursuing my degree in finance will fuel my blog; I just know that my free time is going to be harder to come by. With that being said…

Personal Goals

• Complete my first month of school (without going insane)
  Work is hectic enough. I’m starting back to school on an accelerated program. I will be completing one class per month for the next seventeen months. I will attend class three times a week for four hours per session. It is going to be intense.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I’m going to try to squeeze it in somewhere this month.

Blogging Goals

• Post at least 4 blog posts per week
  I’m going to shoot for five posts per week but I’m being realistic. Four is probably much more obtainable.

That’s about it. I’m not setting too many goals for myself until I see what my new life is going to be like. Next month, once I have a better feel for how hectic my school schedule is really going to be, I’ll set some more ambitious goals. For now, I’m just hoping to make it through my first class.

Thank Yous
I’ve never really had the StumpleUpon effect before December. For some reason, my site got stumpled like crazy though. That was the number one source of traffic for this month. Here are the blogs that sent me the most traffic in December.

1. Lazy Man and Money
2. Get Rich Slowly
3. Cash Money Life
4. Brip Blap
5. Plonkee Money
6. Consumerism Commentary
7. Stock Trading To Go
8. Moolanomy
9. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already
10. Be Healthy and Relax

Thanks so much to everyone who reads my blog and to all the other bloggers who support and help my blog. I appreciate it so much.

I’m back. I was sick for a couple days, I rested and took a lot of medicine and then I went to Las Vegas for New Years. It’s kind of a tradition to do New Years in Vegas for us. I think this is the last year that we are going to do it. Everything is getting too expensive. They raise the prices on everything. The buffets are $30 per person, the rooms cost over a $100 per night, the drinks are more expensive and it gets more and more crowded every single year. It is definitely losing its appeal. I’ve adopted a more frugal lifestyle and spending that much on New Years just does not fit in anymore.

I do have some tips that I can offer up.

Lower Your Room Prices
If you’ve booked your room quite a bit in advance (like we did), you can usually call a day or two before you leave and ask if the rates have lowered at all. We booked our room about three months in advance. Two days before we left, we called the hotel and asked if any of the rates have changed. Sure enough, we got our room costs down by over $50 per night. This is the second year in a row that this has happened. It may not always work like this but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.

Get The Player’s Club Cards
Even if you don’t gamble, it’s still a good idea to sign up for the various player’s club cards at the various casinos. The card itself almost always comes with a book or a sheet of coupons. We signed up for a card at the Tropicana and received a two-for-one coupon at the buffet. A couple years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere and received free passes to go up in to the tower. It’s worth it to sign up for a card. I just give them a junk e-mail address that I hardly ever check and decline to give them my phone number.

Free Drinks in Las Vegas
If you are like me and like to have a drink now and then, you can’t beat the drink prices in Vegas. I like to go to the penny machines, put a dollar in and barely touch the machine until a server comes around. They comp me a free drink for gambling and I cash out and walk away. It’s the Vegas way…

Take Advantage of the Free Shows
Vegas has so many things to do that don’t cost any money. It’s fun to just walk up and down the strip and see what you can see. The Bellagio has the water show (See the end of Ocean’s 11). The Mirage has an “active” volcano out front. Treasure Island has a pirate show. The hotels themselves are just cool to see anyway. The Venetian re-creates the Venice Canal inside, Caesar’s Palace has Roman statues that move and talk, MGM grand has a large lion habitat, and the Mirage has white tigers. There are some very cool things to see and do, absolutely free, in Vegas.

If you’re ever in Vegas, follow some of those tips. My only other piece of advice is to stay the heck away for New Years. It’s too crowded and too expensive.