Lazy Man and Money

The Best Money Blog You Aren’t Reading

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I’m even Lazier than usual today. Rather than write some article that blows, I’m going to introduce you to a site that I know you’ll love: The Smart Passive Income Blog. Why will you love it? Because it’s what I wanted Lazy Man and Money to be when I started it. Somewhere along the line, I got lost and never got there.

Pat Flynn (who doesn’t know I’m writing this) writes about how he makes passive income. Each month, he gives the details on how much he made (just as I do). He also breaks down the sources of his income (something I don’t do). The majority of his passive income comes from an eBook he sells at In The Leed.com. I don’t know what the LEED is, but that’s really not the point. He’s created a product and does well with it.

Smart Passive Income has become daily reading for me. Each article is, well, smart. There are a lot of sites that give out general information – stuff like “Save Money, Spend Less than You Earn, etc…” Smart Passive Income isn’t one of those sites. It’s got specific, actionable information. You read about Pat’s experiment making money with eHow. You read about the process of how he started his own company. He’s got a great site design and does something that I haven’t been willing to do – put his name and face out there.

I could continue gushing over his site, but I should mention that it’s not perfect. I noticed a couple of months ago Pat put up a picture of himself in an LaDainian Tomlinson shirt. When you bleed Patriot Nation blood as I do, that’s simply inexcusable ;-).

Genius Types: A Site I Think You Will Like

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If you are a regular reader you know I don’t usually write reviews of other sites. I also don’t accept payment for reviews, so this is review is completely “unsponsored.” I’ve never corresponded with the site’s owner, Brian Lee and he has no knowledge that I am writing this review.

The site I’d like you to visit today is Genius Types. I don’t know how I have missed the site for so long, but it’s a natural fit for readers of Lazy Man and Money. He discusses his Passive Income, which is much like my alternative income. He is clear to make the point that his passive income is not completely passive, so one can do an apples to apples comparison between the two. As a bonus, he breaks his passive income sources down, while I’ve been a little secretive about my sources to date.

The more I read his writing the more I find we have in common. As an example, I wrote, Fifteen Things I’d like to say to High School Lazy Man and he wrote, What I’d Tell Myself if I Were 18 Again. I actually enjoyed his post more than my own. His ideas are much more general and applicable to his readers.

He’s got some great unique ways to make relatively impressive passive income. I particularly enjoy passive income with Revver and his candy machine money.

It’s not a place where you’ll learn about investing, Roth IRA’s and 401Ks, but I imagine it will be very helpful for those that enjoy the alternative income side of Lazy Man and Money.

Quicken Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth? Try a Mint.

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When I started Lazy Man and Money, I didn’t think I’d ever have more than 15 people a day come to the site. Surprising I’m 30 times more successful than I thought I would be. However, there’s a hidden benefit that I never dreamed of. It has opened doors for me professionally. This is especially amazing to me because with the exception of a few people out there I’m anonymous.

Yesterday, I got to meet with Noah Kagan from MyMint.com. You may know him from OkDork.com. I don’t know why, but I was expecting 2-3 people in a small room coding away. Instead they actually had office space – and good office space at that. They even had the requisite Red Bull there.

While there I got a tour of the Mint application and while I’d like to go into it in detail, I’ve promised to keep the details under wraps until they are ready let the word out. The only thing that I can say is pretty much what you’d figure out from reading their website and blog. (The blog is well worth the read… there are a some solid interviews with personal finance bloggers and other folks in there.) Back on the topic, Mint can be thought of a simple budgeting tool. In my tour of the application, I played with it for over 15 minutes and missed the biggest feature behind Mint. Once I figured it out, a light went off in my head, and I thought, “I will have to recommend this to my readers.” I wish I could say what it was, but that would give away too much.

The day would have perfect if I hadn’t gotten hit by car while stopped at red light less than 10 minutes after leaving the office. There was only minor cosmetic damage to my car and no injuries. It just means that I deal with auto insurance adjusters now.

My Five Favorite Personal Finance Bloggers

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I realize that I’ve been blogging for some time and with the exception of a few quick mentions, I never mention who I read everyday and why. Today, I’m going to fix that. Here are my 5 favorite personal finance bloggers in no particular order:

  • Boston Gal’s Open Wallet – Jane Dough was the first personal finance blog that I’ve read. I didn’t even know there were such things as personal finance blogs at the time. It was shocking to me that people would list their net worth online. She keeps me on top of every important finance news story
  • Blueprint for Financial Prosperity – Don’t let the URL fool you, there are no “bargain earrings” on this site. Jim has everything else though. He’s been a great help to Lazy Man and Money. One of his recent themes has been Devil’s Advocate posts – you can’t miss them.
  • The Simple Dollar – Trent has only been blogging about personal finance for 4 months now, but you wouldn’t know it. Another blogger has described him as The Bionic Blogger – a reference to what seems to be 30 posts per day. You’d think with such quantity of posts, the quality would suffer. Trent defies all with great writing and presentation. To top it off, he reads and blogs about a new book each week. I don’t read a book a year.
  • Consumerism Commentary – It’s a great site, but the author deserves special mention here. Flexo not only runs this successful site, but also the Pfblogs.org Aggregator. You can learn an amazing amount by heading to the popular posts each day. Like Jim, he has so much experience. Lazy Man and Money can attribute a lot of it’s success to Flexo.

A Word about Advertising

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I’m going to step out of character for a minute and write about advertisements on Lazy Man and Money. Some people are anti-advertisement, but I always thought it could be slightly hypocritical for me to talk about my financial journey and leaving money on the table.

That said, I’ve been occasionally disappointed with some of the third party contextual advertisements on Lazy Man and Money. At times, I’ll find an advertisement that is contrary to my philosophy. For those readers who are observant, you’ll notice a new sponsor today, Finweb.com. As I started to learn more about their website, I was impressed. There is a treasure trove of content that is extremely well-organized and direct to the point. I’m sure my frugal readers will be pleased to know that all of this is free, just like Lazy Man and Money. Like many users, I often surf the web with advertisement blinders on. I probably missed Finweb’s advertisements elsewhere on the web. What other great sites have I missed with my advertisement blinders.

Full Disclosure: This post was NOT part of the terms of the sponsorship. I’m just hoping that my readers give it a look, because there’s a lot to learn.