Archive for March, 2008
-
Cruises, a Frugal Vacation?
When I got married last year, I had this brilliant plan for a honeymoon - a cruise. It simply couldn’t miss - seven days of all inclusive lodging and food for $542 a person. While we could have looked at more expensive cruises. However, the bargain cruise included everything we were looking for - transportation to the following islands: St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbados, Antigua, and St. Lucia.
Is it really that cheap? Yes!
I could eat $400 or more alone of food alone in 7 days at a restaurant. While the lodging was small and […] -
Weekend Links: The Next Generation of Personal Finance Tools
Friday was a highlight in my personal finance writing career. NetworthIQ and Expensr hosted a meeting in San Francisco. I got to meet Flexo, Jim, SVB, J.D. and his wife, Cap, Sam, John, Jeffrey, and James. The idea was to brainstorm about the next generation of personal finance tools. If you want a good recap, I suggest these article from Get Rich Slowly and The Digerati Life. I find it funny that I just finished writing that personal finance isn’t about the tools and here I am consulting on them. Perhaps soon, I’ll detail how […]
-
Mailbag: Hacking your credit score, Too Much P2P, and Giving Away $150
One of my favorite sports writers, Bill Simmons blends humor, pop-culture, and sports into a very successful column for ESPN. My favorite column of his is the mailbag. He publicly answers select questions from his readers. Many times the readers set him up with a punch line joke, the way that Joey set up Chandler on Friends for a number of years. This has to be one of his easiest columns to write.
I get piles of mail, but too often it’s from public relation firms trying to get me to post the latest press release from […] -
The Future of P2P Lending - Dusting Off My Crystal Ball
Remember the good old days of 1998? The Internet was going to change everything. Analysts predicted that we were going to buy our books, music, pet supplies, and groceries over the Internet. It’s ten years later and the analysts were right about the first two and wrong about the last two. (Sure you can buy pet supplies and groceries over the Internet, but do you know anyone who actually does?) Over the last two years, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has taken off. I’ve written extensively about Prosper and Lending Club. Though I initially wrote […]
-
StickK to Your Goals
Have you ever made a goal and resolution only to fall short? Come on, admit it, we all have. I’m way behind on my goal to complete a Personal MBA this year. Motivation is the main reason why we don’t finish what we start. In my case, I am struggling with sitting and reading anything longer than a web page - a requirement to complete the Personal MBA. I lack the motivation.
Now I have a solution. A website called StickK allows you to “put a contract on yourself.” Here’s how it works…
You set […]
