Joining the Yakezie Challenge

Today I have decided to join the Financial Samurai‘s Yakezie Challenge. The goal of the Yakezie Challenge is to use networking and lots of promotion to raise the Alexa ranking of participating personal finance blogs to under 200,000. Of course, more popular sites that have a ranking already under the goal benefit too as their ranking increases as well.

Currently, our ranking is 795,000 for the past 3 months but a stronger 404,000 for the past 1 month. Of course, this is still way below the goal, but we have a few months to reach and hopefully surpass it.  Read more...

5 of the Best and Worst Stock Picks for Spring 2010

Every quarter, we release the best and the worst stock picks for the next 3 months based on market analysis, economic data, and trend indicators. We have compiled a great list for our spring collection.

If you think there are other must buy/ must drop picks, let us know.

Top 5 Best Picks for Spring 2010

1) WellCare Health Plans (WCG) – One of the most successful companies coming out of the health care reform bill. WellCare was able to successfully maneuver itself to be a mediator between the government and large health care companies. With over $1.2 billion in assets and no debt, it looks like one of the strongest non – pharmaceutical companies.  Read more...

7 Fastest Growing Health Care Careers

It’s no secret that health care professions are the fastest growing and steadiest career sector in the United States and probably the entire world.

In the past few years, while manufacturing, construction, and finance were hit hard, with jobs in production dropping by almost 15% and finance by 33%, health care professions maintained there steady baby-boomer generation propelled growth.

Every year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports their projected fastest growing  jobs. It was no surprise that this year, most of the fastest growing jobs were in health care. In this article, I will go over the fastest growing health care professions, their education requirement and expected salary, personal feedback on them as a health career student, and summary of the job outlook.  Read more...

How to Finance Your Graduate School Education without Loans

Know your options before you take out a loan.

Everyone knows that Bachelor degrees don’t carry the same weight they did 10 years ago and entry level professionals in today’s economy are urged more and more to have some kind of graduate degree to be seen as competitive job applicants.  Read more...

The High Cost of Profit: Consuming Kids Documentary

This is my first ever review on SmarterSpend and it came about rather spontaneously.

Today, I saw a documentary about advertising and marketing that really got me thinking about the mentality behind businesses today in the United States. The name of the documentary is “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” and brings to light the very troubling tactics employed by huge corporations to market their products to young children.

Consuming Kids is one of the most amazing documentaries I have ever seen.  Read more...

10 Ways to Raise Your Credit Score

A good credit score can be a very important factor for success. It shows lenders that you are a trustworthy borrower and that you will repay back your loans. Without a good credit score, you won’t be able to borrow a car, a house, or even start a new

A good credit score is considered something over 720 and an excellent score is around 780 – 800 and above. However, a credit score under 600 is considered poor.  Read more...

Tips on Saving Money on Your Las Vegas Vacation

Why Las Vegas?

Las Vegas is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world – attracting over 40 million tourists a year from every country. Each tourist spends, on average, about $1000 dollars each visit, a whopping sum that contributes to the many high rise casino hotels in the city. Las Vegas is a capitalist bastion. Around every corner, large advertisements beckon and people try selling you things you don’t need.

When traveling to Vegas, it often feels like money is wasted left and right. However, if you plan ahead of time, have a well – defined itinerary, and follow some of these steps, you can save a lot of money.  Read more...

Save Money at Home: Part 4 – Save Money on Clothes

This is the fourth installment in our “Save Money at Home” series. Refer back to the other posts for more ways to save money at home.

This series consists of the 4 posts below:

Part I- Save Money on Electronic Bills
Part II – Save Money on General Utilities
Part III- Save Money on Groceries
Part IV- Save Money on Clothes

Save Money on Clothes

I have made a habit of beginning these articles with the amount the average household spends on the topic being discussed and this article will be no exception. The average family of four spends $187 a month on clothing – a significant investment for items that could last many years.  Read more...

Save Money at Home: Part 3 – Save Money on Groceries

This is the third installment in our “Save Money at Home” series. Refer back to the other posts for more ways to save money at home.

This series consists of the 4 posts below:

Part I- Save Money on Electronic Bills
Part II – Save Money on General Utilities
Part III- Save Money on Groceries
Part IV- Save Money on Clothes

Save Money On Groceries

The average family of four spends $244 a week on groceries. This translates to over $1,000 a month – a large expense for Americans that can become a very heavy burden if the times are tight. However, the good news is that wherever the spending is high, the saving potential is high too.  Read more...

Save Money at Home: Part 2 – Save Money on General Utilities

This is the second installment in our “Save Money at Home” Series. Please refer back to the other posts for more ways to save money at home:

Part I- Save Money on Electronic Bills
Part II – Save Money on General Utilities
Part III- Save Money on Groceries
Part IV- Save Money on Clothes

Save Money on General Utilities

In our previous post, we highlighted 5 ways you could save on your electronic bills and came up with an average savings of almost $150 a month. In this article, I will show you how to save money on your general utility bills.  Read more...