So today, I finally decided that I plan on investing about $50 a month in a mutual fund. I am looking for an alternative energy/renewable fuels fund with companies like First Solar and BP. I need the fund to be mid growth and medium risk. I’m somewhat of a conservative when it comes to stock and funds.

I’m not sure yet if I plan to have this fund as part of my Roth IRA or possibly just as a regular mutual fund. I know the tax rate is a lot better if you have it in a Roth IRA due to the penalties if withdrawal.

I like a lot of the Vanguard Medium Growth funds that have all the oil companies in them, obviously.

I’m heading over to thestreet.com right now to check out the mutual funds. I anyone knows any good ones, let me know.

By the way, if anyone could look into WPKS.PK, The World Poker Store, I’d love your advice on that stock.

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Alright, so I’ve started using ebay to buy/bid on some clothing, and the first thing I did was start looking at more expensive brands – brands that I wouldn’t normally buy, such as Armani. However, I quickly noticed that were some large discrepancies in prices.

There was an auction for an “Armani” shirt ending in 15 minutes, and the bid was at only $15, which instantly triggered an alarm bell in my head. So I starting reading some reviews and articles that noted specific things to look for when trying to determine if an article of clothing is authentic or not. Good thing I did. It wasn’t long before I could immediately pick out the obvious fakes. Still, it’s a bit disconcerting to know that more than half of the listings are for fake products. I don’t care so much about whether it’s fake or not, but I do care about the quality of workmanship that goes into each article. If somebody is going to make a cheap knockoff, they’re not going to use high quality materials.

Good thing I read these guides, because they allowed me to separate the fake from the real and let me bid with confidence.

That was my first observation. My second observation was that I wasn’t really saving money on clothing, but I was buying high quality clothing for the same price at which normal clothing retails. So I propose this question to the readers: Am I being frugal if I spend the same amount but receive more in return?

I don’t think I’m being frugal by doing this. Although I’m receiving more in return, I am still spending the same amount which does not allow me to save or invest anything else. If I had been buying the same clothing before switching to ebay, then yes, I would be exercising frugality.

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As I previously wrote about my new venture which is called GreenLive365.com, it is an energy and alternative fuel news website. It hasn’t launched yet and I have some terrible layout uploaded on the website so please ignore that, it will be changed soon.

But I need your help! Help me pick a logo for my new website. Below is a thread in which I started a contest with the prize being $30 to the winner of the best logo.

Here is the link for the contest:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=866335

I want to know what you think and need help picking a logo because there are tons of good logo’s in this contest.

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Alright I’m ashamed to admit it but I did not have an ebay account before today. I have used it a couple times in the past with somebody else’s account, but never on my own. Thats about to change. I signed up for my own account and I’m going to try and buy all my clothing online for a while. 

The prices are lower then retail, but there is an increased risk is other areas. Such as fake brands, never receiving the item (relatively low risk) or not getting the right size. However I think those risks are manageable and thus I’m going to attempt to  reduce my clothing bill by purchasing everything online.

Before this I have bought an mp3 player online and couple small things, but there was no chance of wrong sizes. This will definitely be an interesting experience, but if I can keep the money spending low it will be worth it. 

I’m not getting a full load of hours at work, so I’m trying to save money in other areas to compensate.

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Okay, so I told all of you I am an entrepreneur. That’s true and I have officially purchased the domain name to my latest internet venture. The venture is similar to DrudgeReport but with all green/wind/solar and all other alternative energy news. Phase 1 which is purchasing the domain is complete. I am going to keep the domain secret until I launch the website because right now its a Godaddy parked domain page.

The next step is to develop the website. With the purchasing of web hosting, I’ll be ready to develop the content of the website which will be updated periodically throughout the day. I will have my friend helping with updating and such.

My main forms of advertisement will be Google’s Adsense and CPM banner ads, similar to what is show on DrudgeReport. I am looking to for at least $0.60-4.00 CPM for the banner ads.

Once the website is developed, I am planning on sending a lot of backlinks to the domain and help it’s pagerank with Google the same as I did for this blog.

Updates to come….

Have a good week/weekend everyone!

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Often when your going to a store you’ll the classic student discount. Maybe its an extra dollar off a burger or maybe you save some money on transit. Its often there, and well students do use the student discount when they see it they don’t go hunting for it. There are a lot of opportunities out there for students, more then they realize. 

For example I’m planning to attend a Technology Startup conference in September called TechCrunch50.com. Regular attendees are paying upwards of $2,000 for a ticket, which is quite unreasonable for a student. However the student ticket is only $150, which is just insane, less then 10% of the regular ticket. 

I’m also attending a seminar on financing your own company in June, student price is $180, regular price is $300. And yet for some reason I don’t expect to see the place full of students. For some reason college kids aren’t taking advantage of these opportunities that are in front of them. It may be because they are unsure of what they want to do with their lives, it may be because they let apathy follow them around every where, but whatever it is it doesn’t make sense.

Why do you think students aren’t taking up the opportunities in front of them?

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Filed under: Frugal, Saving | 3 Comments

As one famous economic theory would state, as the amount of one thing decreases, another increases. As the amount of drivers on the road here in the states decreases, the inventory of unleaded gasoline will increase, therefore obviously leading to a small fractional drop in the price of a gallon. It is simple economics as crude and brent crude drop as the inventories of one country increase and they get stockpiled. Also, the price of light sweet crude closed at $128 a barrel today, down $7 from it’s high of $135 a few days ago.

According to an article on CNN, over the past month of March, American’s drove 11 Billion fewer miles or a 4.3% decrease in the consumption of unleaded gasoline. I am a part of that statistic as I drive about 25% less than I typically do once unleaded gas passed $3.50 per gallon. On CNN’s article, they state that “according to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day.”

It’ simple economics and I guarentee that as the price of unleaded gas goes higher, the number of gallons in our inventory will continue to stockpile.

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$300 is a nice portion of money and would’ve come in handy a few months ago had this administration and congress had seen the warnings from many economists. Regardless, we received over $180 billion in cash from the government which is a nice treat considering crude oil is off the charts.

Most people will use this check for necessities such as gas, food, medicines, and utility bills. Hopefully, those who are in some amount of debt will pay off some of their overdue bills. However, some will be sucked in by all of the ads all over the tv and newspapers and will probably go out an buy some DVD’s and computer games since Best Buy advertised they were having an “Amazing” sale.

Pay off your bills people. It’s the most obvious path to getting out of debt. A few months ago when you were ingoring the credit card companies calls and I told you the government would give you $300-600 and pay off your debt you’d be all smiles. Now, you see it as a free check and think you can spend your income on paying off your debt while you spend the stimulus check on unnecessary goods.

What have you spent your stimulus check on?

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We would like to apologize to everyone who tried to access the blog over the last couple of days. There was an error with connecting the wordpress software to the database. It occurred during a routine upgrade. 

So if you were worried that we had disappeared you can be rest assured that we are still here. We appreciate your patience. 

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Becoming wealthy and successful isn’t just about knowing how to invest, there is more to it. A lot has been said about the power of positive thinking and underestimating its impact and influence is a mistake I want nobody to make. By constantly thinking about your goals and how you will accomplish them it forces your mind to create opportunity. The only way to focus on accomplishing your goals is by having a positive outlook. If you are always negative your doing what opposite, your focusing on failure and who wants that?

The next step to thinking wealthy is to surround yourself with positive like minded peers. These people need to be supportive, if you are hanging out people who are always negative you need to find new friends. The people don’t have to already be successful, but they should share some of your ambitions. Work is always easier with more people involved, the same can be said for becoming wealthy. Each person brings their own set of contacts, their own experiences and their own creativity. All three of these things make wealth creation so much easier.

Once you have focused on your goals with a positive mindset and built yourself a strong group of helpful peers there is only 1 thing separating  you from your dreams. That 1 thing is work, no matter how positive you are or how supportive your friends are you will still need to go and get the work done. Whether that work is getting into your first rental property, starting your own business or going after a new job, it needs to be done. So instead of watching spending an hour in front of the TV over the next couple days, make an action plan. Show what you are going to do and how your going to do it and soon enough, you’ll find the success that you desire.

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Filed under: Personal Development | 2 Comments