Last month was actually the third anniversary of this site. On some occasions, it seems like I’ve been blogging forever, while on other days, it feels like it was just yesterday when I began doing this as a hobby. The past year seemed to fly by pretty fast!

Well, to mark the occasion, which also appears to have coincided with our three millionth visitor to the site(!), I’d like to host a giveaway of my favorite budgeting tool: YNAB (You Need A Budget) personal budget software. I’ve mentioned this desktop software package a few times on this site and it’s no secret that I like what it has to offer. While free budgeting tools seem to be the rage these days, those of you who feel more comfortable about doing your money management in your own secure desktop environment will appreciate a tool like YNAB, which has proven to be a great alternative to the more popular Quicken and the now defunct MS Money.

YNAB Pro Download Giveaway Details

YNAB’s current version is called YNAB Pro, and it’s typically available for download at a regular price of $49.95 (you can get it for a 10% discount by using this link and applying the coupon code “digerati” when you order). However, today, I will be giving away free copies of YNAB plus a few other items:

1. A copy of YNAB Pro software (for 2 recipients). Note that YNAB Pro doesn’t run on the Mac though a future version of YNAB to be released shortly, will be. Winners will receive a free upgrade to YNAB 3 when it comes out.

2. One Lending Club t-shirt (size L) bundled with one financial book (for 3 recipients).

As a blogger, I receive a lot of books to give away. So for this opportunity, I’ll be sending out the following books: Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Killing Sacred Cows and 10,0001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget to three readers. Each book will come with a t-shirt from Lending Club, a top peer to peer lending network. For more information on both Lending Club and YNAB, you can check out this article.

How To Join Our Giveaway

Here are some (hopefully) simple instructions for participating in this giveaway:

1. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my feed here via RSS or email.

2. You’ll find a special code at the bottom of the articles that you’ll start receiving from the feed.

3. Leave me a comment below with your email address and that code, and they’ll count as 2 entries to the giveaway (you won’t see these comments published here, but I will be counting them).

4. Existing subscribers will find that code already at the bottom of each new post received through the feed, so you can just enter a comment here with that code.

5. Alternatively, you can leave a comment below (this post) that discusses your best tip to manage your budget during the holiday season. This comment will garner you 1 entry to the giveaway.

6. I’ll run the giveaway for a few days, then I’ll announce the winners and contact them personally for shipping information (U.S. residents only).

My Big Thanks

Thanks again to everyone for helping this blog make it through yet another year in the personal finance online universe . A heartfelt thanks to all you awesome readers, subscribers, visitors, commentators, fellow bloggers and advertisers for all your support! I hope that I, as well as wonderful guest writers who’ve published their work through this site, have been able to contribute something positive to your personal finance journey.

YNAB Pro Download Giveaway at The Digerati Life!

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Here’s a reminder to those of you who’ve been contemplating on getting your finances in order. Ramit Sethi, the blogger and New York best selling author behind “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” is offering a personal finance boot camp — or interactive online course, if you will — that will run from November 9 through December 20. It will cover all topics from debt and credit management, to budgeting, saving, investing and entrepreneurship, and promises to help you get yourself financially organized.

I’ve written about this boot camp in detail here, so if you’re thinking of registering, November 6 is the final day to get signed up. The regular cost is $199, but I am offering a $50 rebate if you complete the course and register through this link. To those who’ve already signed up, this offer extends to you as well.

Personal Finance Boot Camp: Last Call To Register

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Did you love the book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”? Even if you haven’t had a chance to read it, I’m hoping that you’ll find this post helpful.

This is a time sensitive post and you’ll know why in a second. You may have noticed the new prominent banner I have on my sidebar, advertising the first of its kind personal finance boot camp. This interesting online course is courtesy of Ramit Sethi, the top financial blogger behind the blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com.

Well here’s what this is about. I’m one of several bloggers who’s helping Ramit get the word out on an interactive online personal finance course which will be offered from November 9 through December 20. You can consider it to be the natural offshoot of his New York best selling book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”, where he covers a lot of ground on key topics such as banking, saving, budgeting, investing and earning more. Here are some particulars about the boot camp:

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp Details

Who: Ramit Sethi will be hosting and will be guiding you to take action on your finances. He will be answering your questions over the course of the event.
What: 6-week online boot camp to help people take ACTION and manage their money. Includes coursework on credit cards, debt, automating money, picking the right accounts, investments, and day-to-day money questions.
Guest speakers: Also includes guest speakers who are tops in their respective fields (online marketing, entrepreneurship, financial services, job coaching). They’ll be speaking about entrepreneurship, earning more, finding a mentor, landing your dream job, etc.
Cost: $199 $149 only after $50 rebate
No Risk: There’s a 30 day money back guarantee associated with this program, no questions asked.

For those interested, you can only register between now and Saturday, November 7 at 12 AM PST. Also, attendance is limited and may close prior to Friday once the boot camp fills up.

Why I Think This Boot Camp Rocks

Ramit is a highly visible blogger and writer in the personal finance space. He’s highly regarded in the financial blogosphere and has written a New York Times best selling book on finance (you can check it out here). He’s a pretty energetic and passionate guy who’d like to see you achieve results. I actually find his energy (and conviction) contagious: you can see him in action in this video, where he dishes out some financial tips on how to get paid what you’re worth:

As for the boot camp, here’s one simple reason for attending it: maybe it’s not enough that we simply read about what to do through blogs, books and newsletters. If you’d like to give your finances higher priority, then why not take action and start making things happen? You can do this in the context of a guided process in a peer setting, where you’ll be in the company of some strong financial advocates.

I think that the $199 cost of the program will pay for itself many times over when you realize that by its end, you’ll have applied certain tips and put financial plans in action (finally) that you wouldn’t have done otherwise. Remember that time is money, so the sooner you implement your financial plans and take control of your money, the better off you’ll be.

Personal Finance Boot Camp Agenda and Schedule

As far as what you can expect from the boot camp, let me try to list them here. Here is the course schedule:

And if you’re curious about how a sample week will run, here is a course outline for Week 1, where you’ll be focusing on how to optimize the use of your credit cards:

• Homework Assignment: Make a list of credit cards, balances, interest rates. (This will be collected and checked off by IWT assistants.)
• Group and Forum Discussion Topics with Support Materials: Six Commandments of Credit Cards, Common Mistakes to Avoid, Credit Card Tips, Card Negotiation Scripts
• Ramit’s Tuesday Live Cast: Ramit talks about big wins with your credit cards, how to find the best deals and takes member’s questions.
• Live Guest Speaker Thursday: Andy Jolls from VideoCreditScore.com talks about easy ways to improve your credit score and answers member’s questions.
• Check Lists: Find out your credit score and check your credit report, set up your credit cards, make sure you’re handling your card effectively, develop a debt plan.

As you can see, it’s a pretty comprehensive course and so there is one thing that this boot camp will require of you: a time commitment. Since it will be running for 6 weeks, with each week dedicated to a given financial topic, you’ll need to set aside some time to tackle this. The estimated amount of time you’ll need to get the most out of this program? Around 5 to 10 hours per week.

Final Words

A lot of us have been harping about the fact that “personal finance is not being taught in high schooI”. Well if we missed the boat on finance during our school days, then perhaps a crash course may help spur us on the right track or may serve as a reality check to help validate the financial moves we’ve been making. I really think that this boot camp is pretty valuable. It’s something that I wish had been available to me when I was in my 20’s; while there’s no substitute for experience, I do think that something like this would have helped expedite my learning and would have confirmed whether I was on the right track. If I had this kind of opportunity back then, I believe that I could have avoided some missteps that ended up costing me big in my earlier years.

Not only do I expect this boot camp to be inspiring as you work with others who can serve as mentors, but it’s also a program that promises you results — if you do the work involved. It’s one that will make you accountable, which will work especially well in a group setting. There won’t be any excuses this time, right?

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp: Improve Your Financial IQ

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

This gave me the giggles, especially since this dance style seems so utterly familiar (I know too many people who move this way…. ). The music used in the video was playing non-stop at my kids’ school yesterday, where I spent a lot of the afternoon, attending their Halloween party. So now it’s engraved in my head (arrrgh).

Have a great Halloween! I’m going to be manning the house today, handing out the treats while the rest of the family goes on the prowl with the rest of the neighborhood.

 
By the way, it’s too late for this year, but I’m getting this bubble fogger machine for next year’s occasion. It’s easily the most awesome Halloween item (toy?) I’ve seen in action in a while. It works like a bubble machine, except when the opaque bubbles burst, they release a mist.

Happy Halloween! This Pumpkin Dance Is Classic

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Going on a very short break with some family and friends.

Russian River, Sonoma. Image by Ingrid Taylar

The next few days, I’m taking a short family break and will be away from the office (and computer!) for a bit. With the new school year just around the corner, the kids will be back in school soon enough, so we’re hopping on the opportunity to have that last bit of summer fun. I don’t remember summers flying by as quickly as this one has! Anyway, I’ll try to keep it moving along here on the site as best as I can, but there may be just a slight interruption in the post schedule for a few days. Or maybe not. We’ll see (there’s always the laptop which I find cumbersome to use, so I’ll play it by ear).

We’re going to visit the Russian River and just hang out with friends and family. We may do some kayaking (maybe — we’ve got our life vests!), nature walks and hopefully a few rounds of fierce Settlers of Catan game play. Oh yeah, we’re having Cap from Stop Buying Crap along on this family trip.

Nothing better than to have a fellow financial blogger along on a vacation.

Visiting The Russian River With Family and Friends

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Last week, I announced a money giveaway offered by BillShrink, where a randomly selected commenter would be awarded $250 in cash. I requested for you to help name BillShrink’s website model and to check out their tools, which aim to help you save money on your gas bills, cell phone plans and credit card payments.

Not an accurate representation of the actual prize, but close enough.

Well, the time has finally come for the winner to be announced! My random pick is comment #16, by “jen”, who supplied four interesting names for the model, funny enough! But out of the four names (Billie, Penny, Dolores N. Cents, Payshence Saves ), I guess I’d like to settle on the conventional name “Penny”. It’s simple and fits the “pretty penny” mold, which is what BillShrink helps you save. So I’ll be getting in touch with jen soon to send her the $250 prize.

And for all those of you who joined our giveaway, I would like to say a heartfelt thanks for taking the time to check out BillShrink and for leaving us a comment. I hope to get the opportunity to hold more giveaways like this in the future!

Let’s now check on this week’s great bunch of reads from some of my favorite financial talking heads. As always, it’s a list I enjoyed putting together:

Personal Finance Articles

• The Wallet: Why We Love — and Love to Hate — Fads
• Free Money Finance: Does a Pleasant Attitude/Personality Help You Succeed?
• Bad Money Advice: A Principal Protected Free Lunch?
• Almost Frugal: 7 Easy Tips to Sleep Better Frugally
• Ask Mr. Credit Card: Which Delta SkyMiles Credit Card To Get?
• Lazy Man and Money: How I Saved Hundreds in a Half Hour
• Frugal Dad: Create a “Dream Budget” for Extra Motivation
• Brip Blap: It’s Not Just You
• Intelligent Speculator: Why Viral Buzz Is Priceless…
• One Mint: Will I be sued for credit card default?
• Budgetpulse: Americans are Starting to Save More…
• Dividend Tree: Building Core Competency for Long Term Survival

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Personal Finance: I was extremely honored that Kelly from AlmostFrugal selected my article on savings account rates to make the grade as one of her top picks.
• Money Hacks Carnival: I was once more thrilled to make the Editor’s Pick at Personal Finance By The Book, a new site I’m getting to know. Thanks to Joe for giving my post on how to improve your credit score, his nod.
• Carnival of Money Stories
• Carnival of Debt Reduction
• Festival of Frugality

BillShrink $250 Cash Giveaway Winner Announced!

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Having Citi card as one of the cards we cover on this blog, I was happy to hear about Citibank’s great new promotion, which sounds like something to take advantage of if you’re a Citi card holder or account owner. During the months of July and August, those who own a Citi debit card, credit card or bank account can visit the Citi Private Pass (citiprivatepass.com) site in order to receive an access code that allows you to purchase $5 tickets to some awesome concerts by well known bands.

The Citi Private Pass program is another benefit that Citi cardmembers can enjoy apart from the well-known ThankYou Points network rewards program. You’ll find that the Private Pass program is geared towards events; they offer a lot of great deals for dining, shopping, sports events and concerts. And right now, Citi and Live Nation are working together to promote lawn concert tours for just $5 per ticket through the Summer of Savings promotion. There are over 600 scheduled shows that will be running all the way through October which include bands such as Depeche Mode, Nickelback, Crue Fest 2 and blink-182.

For a taste of what you may get to watch in these lawn concerts, check out one of my favorite bands ever, Depeche Mode, doing their thing.

 
Ah memories! Hope that concert video got you in the mood to pick up some tickets! Make sure you check out the many other chart topping artists on the Summer Concert list.

How To Get Your Tickets

1. Visit this Citi Private Pass link.

2. Enter the promotional code “CITI” followed by the first two digits of your Citi debit or credit card.

3. Proceed with your order.

4. Tickets will be available from July 1 through August 31, 2009.

Alternatively, you can visit Citi Private Pass directly and do a search for concerts you’re interested in. You can then order your lawn tickets this way. Finally, if you’re not a Citi cardmember and want to be one, you can check out this list of Citi cards for your review.

• Citi Forward Card
• Citi Forward Card for College Students
• Citi Platinum Select MasterCard
• Citi® mtvU™ Platinum Select® Visa® Card
• Citi PremierPass Elite Level

Summer Concert Tours To Enjoy: Get $5 Lawn Concert Tickets!

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

You might be waiting in vain for yet another stimulus check from the government. Well, if the recession is getting you down, maybe we can offer a financial lift for one lucky reader out there. BillShrink.com is offering one Digerati Life reader a chance to write their own stimulus check, worth $250. So even if you may not get it from Congress, you might just be able to win some cash to make things a little bit easier during this downturn.

Join BillShrink’s $250 Money Giveaway

1. Visit BillShrink (www.billshrink.com) and help rename their spokesmodel who’s currently known as “Freckles”. Can you come up with something clever or creative perhaps?

2. Leave a comment with the name you come up with, in our comment section below. Explanations for the name are optional . You can simply write “Her name should be Samantha” or something along those lines.

3. That’s it!

Please note that the contest is only limited to one entry per person, and kindly submit a valid contact email address when you leave your comment. Limited only to US residents and those of legal age (sorry!), void where prohibited. One random lucky winner will be selected within the week.

Hope you get a chance to try out and visit BillShrink, to check out their tools and utilities and get to know a useful site that will help you cut costs and shrink your budget! Here’s a little bit more on them:

If you aren’t yet familiar with BillShrink, I’d like to encourage you to get acquainted with it because as its name promises, it aims to help you save money on your daily bills. You may have heard of them mentioned or shown in those Catherine Zeta-Jones’ T-Mobile commercials on television, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Here is the concept behind BillShrink: by trying out their comparison tools, you’ll potentially save thousands on your credit card bills, phone plans and gas bills. Another selling point? Their average user saves $1,500. Sounds good? Then hike on over to their site and start saving!

Money Giveaway From BillShrink! Win $250 In Cash

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Lots of stuff going on for us these past few days now that school is winding down for us and our kids are getting set for the start of summer. As a kid, I looked forward to the summer break as the fun part of the year where I could relax and “chill”. As a parent, summer is when you go around worrying about what to preoccupy your youngsters with so that they don’t bore themselves silly or wreck your house being bored silly.

This week and next, you’ll find me in a few end of year school activities and picnics while my spouse jets off to Australia to visit relatives (he’s finally figured out how to travel with money). I’ll try my best to keep things updated on this blog over this period, but it’ll be a challenge in time management, for sure.

Now here’s something else to keep some of you busy: a developer contest! Shifting gears a little, I’m guessing that there are a few coders and developers among you who are reading this site. Well here’s a chance for you to win some money.

Will Code For Green: Win Cash Rewards At Bing’s Developer Contest!

This message is for those of you who would like to join an interesting coding contest being sponsored by the new Bing (formerly Live Search) community. I received notice of this from Betsy Aoki, Bing’s community manager, and she told me to spread the word. So do check out this developer contest they are sponsoring called “Code for Green”, which has the following theme:

Beginning June 1, developers will be able to submit URLS for their contest entries at Will Code For Green. These Web-based applications must use the Live Search APIs (which are free) but can also use any other technology platform or programming language in order to accomplish their ultimate purpose:

1) To help people deal with the worsening global economy (Economy category)
2) To help people improve the ecology of the planet Earth (Ecology category)

You can vote for your favorite Web applications until Aug 12th at this site, and review the details of the contest in this blog post. Winners and finalists will receive hefty cash rewards so do check out this opportunity if you’ve got programming skills!

Now it’s time to check out what’s hot in the financial blogosphere:

Personal Finance Articles

• The Simple Dollar: Spending Your Discretionary Money on Things that Rise in Value
• Loose Change: Has The Crisis Made Gen Y Market-Shy?
• The Money Maniac: Disadvantages of Commodity Business
• Lazy Man and Money: Unbroke: What You Need to Know About Money
• Generation X Finance: Don’t Wait for Things to Get Back to Normal…
• The Sun’s Financial Diary: A Brief History of General Motor
• My Dollar Plan: Going to Court, Debt, and Investing
• Frugal Dad: Gift of Equity
• One Mint: The Right Way to Look at Risk and Reward
• Master Your Card: Why Do We Settle For Less Than We Want?
• The Financial Blogger: Survive Getting An MBA With Your Family
• Frugal For Life: Getting Started with Paid Online Opinion Surveys

Recent Carnivals

There’s a new carnival in town! Free Money Finance has launched the Best of Money Carnival, which shares the top 10 personal finance articles for the week. I was greatly pleased to have been counted down to #1 in this debut edition for my post on How To Avoid Foreclosure. I’m truly honored to be the winner this week! I also look forward to being a host sometime down the road. Many thanks to FMF for this fresh new carnival.

• Carnival of Debt Reduction: Thanks for the Editor’s Pick! Debt Sucks hosted a great carnival this week.
• Money Hacks Carnival
• Carnival of Personal Finance

Will Code For Green: Win Cash Rewards At Bing’s Developer Contest!

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

I’d like to announce the creation of a new financial blog network called The Money Tips Network, which is comprised of 13 blogs I’ve grown to know and love in the personal finance blogosphere. I am happy to say that I’ve become part of this new network of money saving maniacs (mavens?) and am truly honored to get to join it with some of the people I respect and enjoy in this space.

So what’s the Money Tips Network about? It’s one that shares a passion for finance as well as commits to sharing diverse money management views and tips with all of you. The Money Tips Network (MTN) blogs collectively reach over 5 million visitors a month and over 200,000 subscribers altogether. So it’s a solid group that I’m very proud to be a part of, just as I’m proud to belong to The Money Writers Network, the original personal finance network I had joined some time ago with a group of blogger friends.

The Money Tips Network

In no particular order, let me introduce to you the blogs behind this new group!

1. Squawkfox – Making frugal living sexy, delicious, and fun. “Fox” has a new book coming out in 3 weeks! 397 Ways to Save Money will help you spend smarter and live well on less.

2. Stop Buying Crap – Despite the title, Cap doesn’t preach being cheap. Stop Buying Crap is about understanding your unlimited wants and how you may fulfill it with your limited resources.

3. The Frugal Duchess – Miami Herald columnist Sharon Harvey Rosenberg offers a fun, frugal and fashionable way to save money & live well.

4. The Simple Dollar – Trent Hamm is arguably the most respected personal finance blogger today. There’s a great new article on The Simple Dollar everyday, and Trent’s book reviews are legendary. Get a copy of his recently published book, 365 Ways to Live Cheap: Your Everyday Guide to Saving Money, that helps you save money every day of the year.

5. Bargaineering – Written by Jim Wang, Bargaineering is a blog that chronicles his personal finance life. Jim is co-host of the Personal Finance Hour podcast with JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly.

6. Consumerism Commentary – Created in 2003 by Flexo, Consumerism Commentary has been honored by Kiplinger as a must-read blog and named as one of Yahoo’s “Ten Money Blogs Everyone Should Read”. Flexo runs the original (and still the best) PF blog aggregator pfblogs.org, and recently started the Consumerism Commentary Podcast.

7. Wise Bread – A community dedicated to helping each other live large on a small budget.

8. Five Cent Nickel – Written by a man who has been meticulously recording his finances since 1997 (stored in Quicken), Five Cent Nickel is one of the oldest and most respected blogs around.

9. Free Money Finance – This site is about one simple thing: growing your net worth. The 5 Principles of Free Money Finance is a PF blog classic. Business Week says Free Money Finance “offers an inspiring mix of timeless investing wisdom and money-making ideas”.

10. No Credit Needed – NCN started this blog in 2005 to track his debt reduction efforts, and has since been inspiring others in their debt reduction efforts. In addition to the blog, check out the No Credit Needed Network and the No Credit Needed Podcast.

11. Generation X Finance – Jeremy Vohwinkle is the blogger behind Gen X Finance, a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and the editor of About.com’s Financial Planning section.

12. Get Rich Slowly – Get Rich Slowly, recently named “most inspiring money blog” by Money magazine, is devoted to sensible personal finance. JD Roth is the other half of the Personal Finance Hour podcast.

13. The Digerati Life – Well you know who we are.

For more on this network, you can visit the Money Tips Network homepage where you’ll find all the latest posts from the MTN blogs aggregated in one place, as well as the profiles of all the members. If you have a moment, please consider subscribing to the Money Tips Network feed via RSS or email. And if you’re a blogger, you may also want to check out the Wise Bread forums and their Bloggers Corner, where you’ll find bloggers congregating around the virtual water cooler.

The MTN promises to have a lot more in store for you in the coming months. It should be fun.

The Money Tips Network Launches

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci