Your Credit Age?

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]
Jan 30, 2009: Today while browsing the web, we found a cool Web 2.0 site which measures our age in credit years. This site is powered by SpendOnLife.com. The user interface has cool AJAX features which make it a pleasure to play the "credit age" game. 

They have designed a fun credit quiz which asks us 8

40% OFF - WinkFlash Coupon Codes

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]Winkflash is offering 40% OFF all gift items as a Valentine's Day Special. Without much ado, here are the coupon codes:6 cent Prints - Print your holiday photos for lessCOUPON CODE: ONLY6CENTS50 4X6 FREE Prints - Print your holiday photos for lessCOUPON CODE: WF95WF27# All 50 prints must be redeemed as one

60% OFF + 4 weeks FREE Trial - Financial Times Subscription Discount Coupon

At present, Financial Times is offering a superb discount which enables you to try the Financial Times risk free for 4 weeks i.e. 24 issues totally FREE of cost! If you feel that you are gaining from Financial Times, you can continue your one year subscription for just $299, which offers a saving of up to 60% off the regular cover price.

Get the Financial Times Risk Free for 4 weeks + Save 60%

Microsoft to Cut 5000 Jobs

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]Microsoft, the software giant which has never laid off people till date, has announced that they are going to cut 5000 jobs over the next 18 months, including 1400 immediately. The job cuts will take place in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and information

Marcus Evans Congress

Jan 23, 2009: Today one of our friends mentioned about his forthcoming trip to Poland in about a fortnight. Curious to know more, we asked him about the details. It seems it's a business trip for a Marcus Evans PharmTech Congress. Since he was very excited about attending such a premier congress in Europe, and we were clueless about what a Marcus Evans Congress meant, we pressed on.

He went on

10% Cash Back - AT&T Universal Rewards Card from Citi

If you are using AT&T's phone, internet (DSL) or cellular products and services then Citi has a cool deal for you. Citi's AT&T Universal Rewards Card is offering a superb 10% cash back for first 12 months and 5% thereafter on each dollar that we spend on AT&T products and services that matches the amount we spend on other purchases.
There is a 1% cash back on non AT&T purchases. This

Jan09 - Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]The LATEST RANKINGS are available HERE.Updated on Jan 22, 2009: We wish you a great new year ahead :). Welcome back to our rankings of personal finance (pf) blogs for January 2009 based on traffic data of December 2008.Jan 24, 2009 (4:00 am): We had to publish this month's rankings three times due to

Upromise College Scholarship Increased to $500,000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]UPromise is Giving Away 500,000 for College Scholarships this year!This move is a part of their mission to make college more accessible. So they've gone ahead and increased their scholarship fund to $500,000, which is twice that of 2008. It implies that 200 of the best and brightest students will receive

Top Ten Paid Survey Sites to Make Extra Money

Whenever we get some free time or short breaks we use it to earn some extra money by doing paid surveys. This helps us to donate more money to our favorite charities. Last year we earned around $127 by doing paid surveys from Pine Cone Research. So we thought of expanding our paid survey portfolio to other paid survey sites as well.

We've centered our research on paid survey sites which

Circuit City Closing Shop, Going Out Of Business

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]Circuit City, one of our favorite retailers for electronics goods, is going out of business. They are closing 567 of their remaining US stores and slashing 30,000 jobs. Circuit City had filed Chapter 11 of bankruptcy in Nov 2008, but had to take this drastic step since they could not work out a sale of the

FREE - Suze Orman's Latest Book - Download Now

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]New York Times Best Selling Author, Suze Orman, needs no introduction. If you want to see what personal finance advice she has up her sleeves for 2009, you can download her latest book Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan - Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound, for FREE, right now until 11:59 p.m. CT on Thursday,

Free Download - Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009

Microsoft, the software giant is offering a FREE Download for Microsoft Accounting Express 2009. For those of us who are new to Accounting Express, it is a free but ad supported version of Microsoft's Office Accounting Professional 2009.

Microsoft's Office Accounting Express 2009 FREE Edition is targeted towards small businesses, start ups and home-based companies. It can do common personal

Investing Tips From Warren Buffett

MSNBC recently ran an article on 10 investing basics from Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett is becoming one of my favorite people. He is rich but he became rich by being smart about his money and listening to his gut. I want to start investing once my debt is gone and possibly buy some investment properties. Just basically make sure that I can retire by 50, 23 years from now. If I could retire earlier from working for someone else and work for myself that would be great, that’s my goal!

So Buffett’s tips are:

Be Frugal- Buffett lives in the same small three-bedroom house in Omaha, Neb., that he bought more than five decades ago. He drives his own car. He owns the world's largest private jet company, but he flies commercial.

Wait for the 'fat pitch'- Resist the itch to constantly buy or sell stocks. Have the patience to wait a long time until some market turbulence brings the "fat pitch," as Buffett calls it, or stocks of great companies trading at really cheap valuations.

Be a contrarian- A great way to make money is to go against the crowd. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful"

Stick with what you know- If you don't understand a company's product or how it makes money, avoid it.

Don't depend on others to say you're right- If you are in need of constant affirmation about your investment decisions, particularly from the stock market, you won't be able to invest like Buffett.

Buy companies cheap- The key throughout this analysis is to look back over five years or more. Buffett wants to see a consistent operating history; he's not into startup companies. He also prefers to gauge how well a company does in different kinds of markets, not just the good times or the latest quarter.

Look for companies with economic moats- A key characteristic supporting the consistent operating history is a sustainable competitive advantage. In other words, a company should have a barrier to entry -- or a kind of moat -- that keeps potential competitors at bay.

Buy big, concentrated positions- Most professional money managers protect against risk by diversifying. Buffett goes against the crowd here, too. When he finds a company he likes, he piles into it big time.

Hold for life- Embedded in this concept are two key Buffett tenets I've already alluded to. First, it's only worth investing in companies that are good enough to outperform for decades. Next, you have to think on your own and avoid the madness of the crowd.

Believe in America- Buffett doesn't tweak his portfolio depending on which party is coming into office or where we are in the economic cycle. This may make him seen naive. But it also has him putting money to work now, when many others have lost faith in the U.S. economic system. It's a move that will likely make him a winner down the road, yet once again.

These tips seem pretty basic, for the most part. So why aren’t more people following them?



http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/10-investing-basics-from-Buffett.aspx

Is Higher Education Really Worth It?

Recent college graduates are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. After graduation, potential employers are passing up these recent grads because they lack relevant work experience. Having a Masters degree at 24 is a major accomplishment to everyone except employers, unless you have 3+ years of experience also. In my case, I didn’t have any “real” work experience. I had worked for about 8 months at a research firm and a year at my schools center for social science research, both calling people and administering questionnaires. That wasn’t enough or the right kinds of research experience to even get a job at the research firm I had worked the 8 months. I went from interview to interview hearing that I didn’t have enough experience OR for jobs outside of research I had too much education and the company was afraid I wouldn’t stay long.

Unless recent college grads found someway to get the experience needed with out amassing huge amounts of student loan debt, even the jobs they get don’t really amount to much. Student loan payments make me wish I never went to grad school, I can’t even afford to pay them. The job I have is extremely boring and not even close to what I would love to be doing with myself but the pay is decent. The pay is the only reason I am still here. I can’t afford to work in a field that makes me happy, I mean after all I have to pay for the education I can’t even use.

With college costs raising more and more college graduates are finding themselves in the same situation. Is the education really worth it? How is the experience gained? In my case, I probably could have done more to prepare myself in college but I didn’t have anyone giving me advice on what I should do. My only concerns were playing basketball, working my work study job, and keeping up with my always full load of classes. There wasn’t much time for anything else. Whenever I talk to anyone who is about to graduate or deciding to go to grad school I always try to encourage them to make sure they are studying exactly what they want and to take all the opportunities available to them to get as much experience towards their future career as possible. Maybe I was just hard headed growing up but I really don’t remember hearing anyone giving me such wise words.

So I guess my words of wisdom are:

Try to get as much experience in the field you want to work in BEFORE you graduate OR have a really great back up plan.

Rule of Thumb for Investing

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]2008 was one of the most challenging years for young investors like us. Our portfolio went down by nearly 35%! That's not fun. Now we are in the process of re-evaluating our strategies and risk taking capacities to set forth on a new direction with renewed vigor. In the process of doing so we were

Dean Graziosi’s Real Estate Investor Network

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]Jan 05, 2009: Dean Graziosi (pronounced as say Gra-zee-oh-see) is a real estate investing expert who teaches people how to earn money in real estate by quick and easy identification of cycles in the real estate market. Buying and selling automobiles he became a successful investor when he was just 16. Then

Custom Logo Design with LogoBang

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]Jan 03, 2009: The present times demand companies to have sleek Web 2.0 designs with media rich websites and fashionable logos for credibility. A new company with a good product might not gain much popularity and trust if its website and presentation are crappy. In short, we have to create a fantastic brand

Weekend Review #1 - From a Ponzi Stock Market to Eating Healthy Without Being Wealthy