Check out the other great articles there when you get a chance.

1. Become debt-free (except house) - Met in February
2. Celebrate becoming debt-free - On track for March
3. Emergency fund with 4 months of expenses - On track to start in March
4. Increase retirement savings to 10% of gross income - At 7% plus company match
5. Increase college savings - No update
6. Start a new house fund - No update
7. Earn $5,000 outside of my day job - Still in the red here, but having fun

I hope you have had success this year with your goals. If not, you’ve still got 10 months to turn it around, so don’t give up.

Check it out at www.givemeblog.com

• $10 giveaway when this site reaches 100 subscribers
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The prize will be delivered by your choice of PayPal or Amazon gift certificate. To enter, leave a comment on this post with the subject “I want paypal cash” if you wish to receive via paypal or “I want amazon cash” if you wish to receive an Amazon gift certificate. (You must use a valid email when you comment. One entry per person.)

By the way, this is way more than I earn from this site. In the future, I’ll have more prizes, bigger prizes, and spontaneous games. I hope it’s fun for all of us.

No purchase necessary. Odds of winning are 1/# of comments on this post. Each comment has a number, the winner will be selected with the Random Integer Generator from random.org. The winner will be announced in a post on this blog, and will have 30 days to claim the prize or a new drawing will be held.

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Being in the ROTC program, I knew that I needed to develop more confidence speaking in public. My father is a public figure who speaks regularly, so I asked him for advice. These 2 tips have stuck with me the last 10 years.

• Your audience wants you to succeed. It’s called empathy. People can imagine being up there themselves (even if they never have been) and they wish you the best.
• The more you speak, the more comfortable you will be

Now, I lead meetings daily, and have given countless planned and impromptu speeches-albeit mostly to small audiences. Trent’s article made me think. First, I wondered what in the world this had to do with personal finance. Then, I figured it out, and it’s not just about getting a raise or a higher paying job.

Personal finance is about applying money to your life in a way that enriches your life, enhances your enjoyment, and makes you more comfortable. Trent’s Investing in Yourself series is about the same thing. By investing time to improve your skills, you have created value in your life. Even if you never earn more money due to that skill, you will still be more comfortable giving a speech. You’ve reached the goal: being comfortable and improving your overall happiness.
Trent has many more insights into public speaking. I recommend you read his article here. While you’re there, check out some of his other great posts.

1. They make investing easier. With target funds, you don’t have to choose which mutual funds you will invest in and what percentage of your investment you’ll make in each. Instead, you simply choose the fund with a target date closest to your estimated retirement date.
2. They are relatively maintenance-free. The annual rebalancing is done for you. You don’t have to track which funds are overweight and transfer money to the underweight funds.
3. You don’t have many choices. Once you’ve picked the fund, the only choices you have to make are to buy and to sell. Like index funds help us stop chasing performance, target funds take all investor psychology problems off the table. Just set it and forget it.
4. You won’t be in a riskier portfolio than you should be. As recent market turbulence has proven, you shouldn’t have money that you need soon invested in stocks or stock mutual funds. With a target fund, your money is moved to bonds as you age, so that a market downturn won’t wipe you out 6 months before retirement.
5. They give you time. You don’t have to spend time selecting your investments, rebalancing your portfolio, and researching new funds. You can spend your time the way you want to.

Target funds are an enticing option, even for those of us who think financial chores are fun. Do you invest in them?

The Financial Blogger included my article about Tax Rebate Confusion in the 140th carnival of personal finance.

In fact, I started feeling more control as soon as I set myself toward this financial goal. Even though I had to send checks to the creditors every month, I felt power over them because I was enacting a plan that would kick them out of my life. All they could do was charge a little interest along the way. Ha! They were the ones who were powerless, not me.

In the past, when I needed to feel control over my money, I would spend some. This bought a few minutes of relief, but the sense of powerlessness returned along with an increased credit card bill later in the month. Now, when I start to feel a loss of control over my money (yes, it still happens), I look at my goals, I look at my account balances, then I get back to my life.

My relationship with money is similar to a manager-subordinate relationship. I tell my money where to go and what to do, and it produces for me. The great thing is that money will never do anything I don’t tell it to. Of course, there are outside factors that will cost me-hospital visits and house repairs are a part of life-but now I can pay for them and smile as I continue working toward my goals.

You can feel this way too. All you have to do is remind yourself that you are in control. I feel there is no better way than to say to yourself, “I will get rid of my debt so I can decide where my money will go instead of paying off where it went.” Set a timeline, make a budget, write out your goals for the money you’ll free up when you have no debt payments, then tell your money to go to work so you can get back to your life.

• While you’re there, check out her great article “A Key to Saving Money: Know Yourself”

Madison hosted the 139th carnival of personal finance and included my discussion of over-lending.

• She has a nice article about time management. I always track my progress towards financial goals, but it was eye-opening to look at my life and see if I was spending my time in accordance with my goals and values.