Saving Youth | A Personal Finance Blog For The Young

Guess Who's Back...

2012-06-21T13:14:00.002-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted on here in foreverrr but things are about to change! I finish college (UK college) in 2 weeks and have 8-9 weeks off so I will be back to my money making ways! I'll update you soon.

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I'm Back!

2012-05-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, I haven't posted in a while but I am hoping to be back soon, my eBay selling as took a slump but hopefully things will pick up.

I only saved £0.50 last week so that will be added to the fund.

Fund Total: £119.16

See you soon, dont forget to share :)

Finance for Youth

2012-05-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here in the UK we have a lot of youth unemployment and personal debt, These 2 problems mostly run along side each other. Teenagers when they leave school dont know the true meaning of money, they dont know the minimum wage, the way banks run and other basic things.

The key to solving this problem is too teach personal finance at schools, we learn things that enable us to make money in the future but we dont teach what money is, does and how the industry works (e.g. stock market, currencies etc)
The result is that when kids leave school at 16 and go into work/college/sixth form they all have different experiences/situations in their relationships with money. If a youth goes into full time work there are two options for them:

Blow the money on the latest phone, game console and clothes
Save money responsibly, and look into options of investment etc

Now how many kids do you know that take the second option, not many. Now if we were to encourage teenagers and children to learn about money and for schools to provide it as an option or compulsary lesson, then maybe kids will see the problems, they'll see the different types of debt e.g. university fee's and credit card debt.

I just hope people feel the same way, as I have gone through the same education system as them and in some key areas it is failing.

Dont forget to follow me and feel free to DM me with your opinion :)

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Weekly Update 7th - 14th May 2012

2012-05-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Monday

£0.00

Tuesday

£0.00

Wednesday

£1.20

Thursday

£0.00

Friday

£0.00

Saturday

£0.00

Sunday

£2.00

Total Fund: £119.16

Not the highest earning week there but still some money, the £2.00 on sunday was profit from the Zippo Pouch which sold on eBay for £7.00 when I picked it up for £1. I spend £5.00 altogether on sunday.

I do have a lot of inventory to sell and hopefully this will bump up my eBay sales.

Have a good day and dont forget to share and like/follow :)

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Car Boot Items

2012-05-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Bought 3 items from a car boot today (garage sale) just to get some inventory together, this is what I got:

Echt Leder Zippo Leather Pouch - £1

Wii Steering Wheels - bought 2 for £4

I assure you that I dont have a fetish for gaming steering wheels :)

I will be uploading them to eBay soon and wil keep you updated, dont forget to follow me :)

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DTAMP Interview

2012-05-12T06:19:00.005-07:00

Hello, today I bring you an interview from DTAMP (Doulbe To A Million Plan) you can check his fantastic blog here: DTAMP

1.Why Did You Start Your Blog?

The main purpose of the Blog was to keep track of the progress of the Double to a Million Plan. In addition it was a way to communicate that progress to other Doublers. We could see how each person was doing and it helped to inspire one another to keep going. As time progressed I found the Blog was a great outlet for being creative, with writing, graphic artworks and other artistic expressions. The Blog also began bringing in

additional funds to help the project grow through advertising and various financial sources which I had hoped for when starting it.

2.Did You See Yourself Getting To Where You are Now?

I had hoped I would be much further along than I presently am but when I first started it was difficult to visualize myself getting this far. The "How To Double Your Way To A Million in 28 Steps" report suggests looking at getting to Million in bite-sized steps. As you progress through the 28 steps, at first you find it difficult to focus just on the step you are on, especially when that step only requires finding or gaining a few cents. Your mind wanders to many steps ahead. Staying focused on the moment and on the step you are on requires retraining your mind. Each time you look ahead you need pull yourself back to what you are working on. Discipline is the key to staying in the present step and accomplishing the present goal. After a while it comes naturally to stay focused and to not even think about the future steps.

3.Did You Know That The Stock Market Would Be Such A Big Source of Income?

Before the Double To A Million Plan I had traded equities so I knew there was a potential there to use it as a tool to reach the million dollars. But I have found that trading stocks has cost DTAMP almost as much as it has made. It has great potential for good gains but also there are huge risks and usually those risks will get you sooner or later resulting in significant loses. Trading equities is a hard and volatile way to work the Double To A Million Plan. The stress is greater and the mistakes are easier to make.

4.I Was Amazed At How Many People Donate To Your Fund, Why Do You Think So Many Do?

It is amazing how much help I have received from some very generous friends towards DTAMP. There are some generous people out there that, I think, genuinely want me to succeed and as a result help as they are able. I think people want to encourage someone that struggles their way up from the bottom, with a plan, and climbs toward a goal despite the setbacks that come. Through the Blog others are able to see my victories and defeats and I think they can identify with the struggle of one person to reach the final set goal. Of course no one can make it alone and the helping hand of

others not only helps toward that success but makes each person that helped part of that success and therefore a success themselves.

5.Do You Have Any Tips For Any Potential Start up Bloggers?

I do not know much about professional blogging but for the average person I would suggest you start a blog about something you have a strong interest about, something that you are inspired about. To be able to keep the blog going you will need to really love the topic or interest of your blog. Use the blog to express your creativity in various ways, for me this helps me to keep producing the next post. More than likely you will need to be a person who enjoys writing, but even if you enjoy it, set up your blog to be able to enter posts easily and to manage the blog quickly as well. If you have to put a lot of work into it constantly to maintain things that can drain time and energy and cause you to avoid updating the blog.

6.Anything Else You Would Like To Add?

Thank you for the interview and I wish you success on your Blog.

Hope you enjoyed it guys, visit his blog here DTAMP and dont forget to follow :)

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Count Up

2012-05-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

I counted my change and added it to my PayPal earnings with a grand total of *drum roll* ........

£117.16

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Needed Equipment

2012-05-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

When I have raised some capitol for my blog (through blog ads and eBay) I will be looking to buy equipment to further my blog and eBay income.

I have 3 major options and 1 minor option:

Digital Scales - These will be useful for helping to calculate eBay postage costs, this will in turn save me time/money and will be able to offer the customer a better deal.

Smartphone - A smartphone woud be extremely helpful (with big internet contract) to answer on the go email/update twitter and other social networks. I can also use the camera too take eBay images and also youtube videos. The only drawback is the £40+ contract every month.

Digital Camera - This will take high quality images for eBay and the blog, also be able to record in HD for youtube.

Business Cards - This will help add traffic to the blog by putting them in the eBay packages etc.

All of these will be needed in the end but we will see which ones come first, I'll keep you comfortable.

Dont forget to share/like/follow me :)

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Twitter Goal Finished

2012-05-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I reached my 2nd Twitter goal a few days ago, the goal was to reach 20 followers which I have done. I now sit on 28 followers :)

Please follow and share :)

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Weekly Roundup 30th -7th May 2012

2012-05-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Monday
£0.20
Tuesday
£0.00
Wednesday
£2.65
Thursday
£0.00
Friday
£1.35
Saturday
£5.00
Sunday
£13.20

Weekly Total
£23.40

Fund Total
£100.86

A very good week indeed for me, I have managed to save a lot of money through saving on lunch money etc, the £5.00 on Saturday was from the sale of my Victorian style door handles, and the £13.20 was a combination of savings and a gift from my mother (bless).

This will be a hard week to improve upon but I have my other set of door handles on eBay so we will see where that takes us.

I will do a count up to see whether I have actually surpassed the £100 mark soon :)

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eBay Sales

2012-05-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Have a few items on eBay and all have been sold will keep you posted on the outcome in my weekly report tomorrow.

I have also got some other odds and ends saved up :)

P.S feel free to bid this up Victorian Style Door Handles

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eBay Items

2012-05-04T06:53:00.001-07:00

Currently got my door handles on eBay again check them out here: Wickes Victorian Style Door Handles

Want to try and earn some money through Fiverr, I have got a gig at the moment here: my gig

I made my own blog header for this site which gives you some insight into my work :)

If your interested order on Fiverr or comment.

P.S I've saved quite a few pennies recently

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DTAMP Interview...

2012-05-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

I will hopefully be doing an interview with the owner of DTAMP (Double To A Million Plan) check it out here: DTAMP

If you have any questions you'd like me to ask feel free to comment :)

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Goals

2012-05-02T06:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody, A few weeks ago I wrote a up a few goals that I would hope to achieve through this blog. I noticed alot of other personal finance blogs are doing it e.g. No More Spending and Give Me Back My 5 Bucks both blogs that I follow and enjoy.

Blog Goals:

Earn Money Off of Blog - I have achieved this by succesfully signing up to GoogleAdsense and I hope some money will be coming my way soon.

Start YouTube Channel - I see a lot of personal finance blog's but not many YouTube channels where you actually follow their story, so I intend to in the future start up a weekly/monthly channel.

Start Facebook Page - At the moment I am putting all of my networking effort into Twitter because I find it more interactive, A Facebook page will be up in the future!

Finance Goals:

Reach £100 - I am very close to this achievement and hope to have a YouTube channel ready, so I can upload reaching the £100 milestone

I have loads of other financial goals all the way upto £1000, so you get the idea. By the way I'm not stopping at £1000 just thats my goal for the forseable future.

Twitter Goals:

Reach 10 Followers - I have finally got my 10 followers! I am currently at 15, help me out by following me here Follow @savingyouth1

My main goal for twitter is to get to 100 followers.

Well that pretty much somes up my goal list , do you have similar targets or set yourself regular goals?

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Weekly Update 23rd - 30th April 2012

2012-04-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

Monday

£0.45

Tuesday

£0.00

Wednesday

£0.30

Thursday

£0.05

Friday

£0.00

Saturday

£0.00

Sunday

£0.00

Not much happening this week, poor eBay sales but I sold my chinos today which will be included in next weeks update.

Funds Added:£0.80

Total Fund: £77.46 (Need to do a count up again)

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eBay items

2012-04-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I've got two items currently on eBay which are...

H&M Grey Chinos 30R-32R this is a fantastic deal, there in great condition.

Wickes Victorian Scroll Style Polished Door Handles not even opened them.

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eBay: The Basics

2012-04-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

eBay has been around for years and i'm sure practically everybody reading this will have heard of it, For those who haven't heard of it I shall explain, eBay is an auction site where users buy and sell items across the interwebs.

Now the question is how do I start well firstly you create your eBay ID, this allows you to buy and sell items. The second step is to setup a PayPal account this is the most common way to pay for products on eBay, It is a secure website where you can link your credit/debit card too or deposit funds into your PayPal account.

Buying on eBay - to buy on eBay you have to bid on items (unless the buy it now option is available) each item has a time until the auction finishes e.g. a week. If you really want an item just click add to watch list (this will watch the item until the auction runs out) and wait for the time to near its end, this is the best way to buy because bidding early on items raises the price if there are more than one interested eBayers. All searches on eBay can be refined using the left hand side toolbar where you can change the maximum price of the product displayed etc.

Selling on eBay - this is what most people are interested in, making money. You have to make sure that you have a good quality item you're willing to sell, whether this be found in your house or bought from a garage sale (car boot sale for UK’ers) you need to make sure that the item is wanted.

How do I know if item will sell?
This is the most commonly asked question, to find out search the product you're going to sell. e.g. dog chew toy and select the completed listings option located on the left hand side toolbar, this will show you the recently ended listings, if the price is coloured red then the item hasn't sold if its green than it has. Now there may be a lot of unsold listings don't worry about this can be due too a lot of different factors for example postage costs, too expensive, damage etc. Always check the listing for any of these signs that put buyers off.

Selling Rules:

List items professionally - no spelling mistakes or bad pictures.
ALWAYS include a picture, people don't tend to buy things they can't see.
Start the bidding low - if you're selling an iPad and list it at £0.99/$0.99 it's going to catch peoples eyes.

P.S I will do future eBay tips and tricks (just the basics for the moment)

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Weekly Roundup 16th - 22nd April 2012

2012-04-23T11:26:00.008-07:00

Monday

£0.40

Tuesday

£0.80

Wednesday

£0.00

Thursday

£0.00

Friday

£0.50

Saturday

£0.10

Sunday

£21.00

This week has been good to me, with spare change being thrown in over the week and then on sunday my eBay item (Xbox 360 Steering Wheel) sold for £21.00 when I bought it for £12.00 thus giving me a profit of £9.00. I also had £4.81 left over in my PayPal account so I will contribute that to the fund.

Total: £14.41

P.S I will change the fund picture on the right hand side monthly :D

Please follow me on twitter

Door Handles

2012-04-21T05:26:00.003-07:00

I have now got some victorian style door handles on eBay check them out here Victorian Door Handles

P.S the xbox 360 steering wheel ends tommorow :)

WorkFlowy

2012-04-17T12:59:00.002-07:00

This is a fantastic tool for organising things, so simple and clear.

I found it out from Mo' Money Mo' Houses article

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Bet & eBay

2012-04-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

I finally had my winnings come through all of £3.25 so that puts my losses at £6.75, I've added £1.20 so that puts the stake at £44.70 due too the purchase of the steering wheel which cost £12.00.

The Xbox steering wheel is on eBay here: Official MicroCon Xbox 360 Steering Wheel with Pedals

Profits:

£3.25 (bet)

£1.20 (change)

Losses:

£6.75 (bet)

£12.00 (Investment Item)

Follow Me On Twitter (it helps me considerably)

Xbox 360 Steering Wheel

2012-04-15T14:58:00.002-07:00

Its upon eBay please check it out :)

eBay Link

Investment

2012-04-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

I have taken a bit of time to try and earn some more money off of the money I already have collected. I 'invested' £10 into the Grand National which for those who aren't familiar with it is a very popular horse race held at Aintree.

I bet on 5 Horses (all each way):

Seabass
Becauseicouldntsee
Shakalakboomboom
Midnight Haze
Swing Bill

I put a £1 on each horse and with the bet being each way it doubled it too £2 a horse.

I should get some return because Seabass finished in 3rd place but other than that no winners :(

I also went to a car boot sale today and bought an Xbox MicroCon Steering Wheel for £12 heres a picture...

This will be going on eBay soon so heres a link to my eBay account and if your interested check in the next couple of days.

Ebay

Lil' Contribution

2012-04-13T11:24:00.004-07:00

Firstly I apologize for the blog title sounding a bit like an American rapper, anyways I have added £1.45 to the fund from change I found around the house.

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Annoying Traffic

2012-04-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

I have realised how hard it is to have people browse at your blog, I have tried to boost traffic by making a twitter account which, so far has been a disaster because of my lack of followers. Traffic is more like a marathon than a sprint and I hope to get gradual increase in visitors and followers soon.

There are 3 ways to improve traffic:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) this is a way of optimizing your position when searched for on a search engine, a blogger can improve this by writing more content, back-linking etc.

Social Networking this is very good at spreading the word and the best social networks have to be Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Word of Mouth, probably the most simple technique is just to tell everybody about it.