Welcome to the January 20, 2009 edition of road to financial independence.
Beating Inflation
Joe Manausa presents REAL ESTATE TRENDS WORTH WATCHING | Tallahassee Real Estate Blog posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, "The MLS is the only source of information that directly ties supply to demand, so I find that it is important to keep an eye on this set of information on a daily basis. The most important information is new listings, new sales, new failures, and new pendings (homes put under contract), and track these as an “average” or trend over time."
Frugal Living
Wenchypoo presents Update: From TV (or Christmas Tree) to Yard Sale in Six Months posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.
Dollar Frugal presents Ix-Nay on The Christmas Cards posted at Dollar Frugal.
Julie Guarnizo presents Beef Up Your Piggy: Recycle a Different Way - Think Green $ posted at Beef Up Your Piggy.
MWM presents 8 Ways to Prevent Financial Insanity. posted at Pizza For A Dream, saying, "Avoiding "insanity" in one's finances."
Buck Weber presents Coupons! posted at THE BUCK LIST, saying, "My wife and I have been coupon users as long as we can remember. This post is about how we use coupons to save money both online and off."
Rob presents Negotiating Car Purchases posted at Negotiation Training Info, saying, "Please email if more info is needed."
Richer Richard presents Make The Switch! Save Money Going Green by Buying Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL) posted at Richer Richard, saying, "A detailed calculation of how much money I would save a year if I switched every incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) and how it betters the environment consequently."
MoneyNing presents 5 Surefire Ways to Stop Thinking Your Paycheck is Never Enough posted at Money Ning, saying, "Why can so many families live below $50,000 a year while others earning 4 times in the same country still feel poor? If you are wondering the answer to this question yourself, or if you feel like the paycheck is never enough, here are 5 suggestions for you."
Ray K presents Save Money By Always Being In A Contract posted at JustSaver.com, saying, "Article is about how to save money with utilities. Thank you for considering my article. :)"
Roshawn Watson presents Thrift Paradox - Is Frugality Hurting Economy? posted at Watson Inc, saying, "Many "families hope their new found frugality will see them through the economic downturn. But this same thriftiness, embraced by families across the U.S., is also a major reason the downturn may not soon end""
presents How to Make Your Own Valentines Day Card posted at Home Life Weekly, saying, "Make your own free valentines day printable card download the design of you choice then print and fold."
Lazy Man and Money presents Save Money on Your Landline Phone posted at Lazy Man and Money.
The Smarter Wallet presents A Look At Costco, Sam's Club and Other Wholesale Shopping Clubs posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, "Thank you!"
Passive Income
Tristan presents How To Make Money In Your Spare Time posted at Find Financial Freedom, saying, "An interesting look at making extra money in your spare time through passive income opportunities like blogging and other internet businesses."
Doug Ragan presents How YOU Can Help Save The Economy posted at I'm A Pundit Too, saying, "Who’s going to save us from our failing economy? Do you really think that Congress can save both big business and you at the same time? It is obvious to everyone that the economy is in big time trouble. But what everyone doesn’t understand is how to put it back together. There is much debate about fixing the economy, bank bailouts (thanks Paulson), auto manufacturer bailouts (thanks Bush), freezing foreclosures (thanks Fannie), expansion of government programs that take jobs from the private sector(thanks Obama), the list goes on. One of the interesting things about this very long list is that it mostly seems to be about what the government can do to fix the economy, instead of what the individual can do. The government has a habit of trying to tell business what to do, then trying to prop business up to keep it from failing. This has created problems that won’t be fixed by more of the same. If you really want to talk about “Change” then you need to talk about what individuals can do to put the US economy back on track instead of what the government is going to attempt to do."
Patrick Coyne presents New Year's Resolution - Get Rich Slowly posted at Self Development and Financial Development, saying, "Get Rich Slowly with steady saving and investing into a 401K plan."
passive family income presents Build Passive Income Streams from eHow posted at Passive Family Income, saying, "Using sites like eHow to create passive income."
Isaac Yassar presents Why You Should Never Join MLM posted at Isaac Yassar's Overture, saying, "Most people want fast and passive money, and that's why they join MLM companies. However, they do not notice that according to statistics, most of MLM are scam-ful, and most of those who joined, end up scammed. Bill Gates successfully made Windows the most popular operating system in the world because he did not sell it through MLM. Would you like to know more?"
Heidi presents Freebie Friday - $75 for Free! posted at Little People Wealth.
Viraj Sawant presents When and How to add “Donate” Button posted at New-web-business.com.
Reducing Expenses
Robert Hazlewood presents A Survival Guide For The Economic Times posted at Ways to Survive Life.
Charles Chua C K presents All About Living with Life: Reduce Your Expenses posted at All About Living with Life.
Lauren Rose presents Secrets of Keeping to the Family Budget posted at No Debt Anymore .org, saying, "Making your money work for you is the ultimate goal of any budget. Financial problems usually arise due to lack of proper budgeting skills, or failure to keep to the proposed budget."
nemesis presents How to save more money posted at Wealth Gears.
FIRE Getters presents Advantages of Online Banking posted at FIRE Finance.
Ariel Bravy presents What Is Abundance? | You Are Truly Loved posted at You Are Truly Loved, saying, "Let's expand our definition of 'abundance' and allow it to flow in in more ways."
David presents Debt Management posted at Personal Finance Ology, saying, "Having excessive debt causes increased worry and stress. Learn to manage your debt and take back control of your life."
Abigail Perry presents Marketing logic posted at i pick up pennies, saying, "The biggest challenge to living frugally? Marketers' own specialized brand of logic, telling us we need everything. If you can keep your head in the face of their insistence that convenience equals necessity, you'll keep a lot more money in your pocket."
Stock Investments
Investing School presents 9 Terrific Investing Websites That is Sure to Suck Up Your Time posted at Investing School, saying, "If you are into investing at all, you need to take a look at these great websites for your research needs!"
Ripe Trade presents Breakout trade posted at Ripe Trade, saying, "This post explains a systematic approach to finding stocks in a tight range that are about to expand in volatility. This strategy has a win rate of 51%, 277 wins out of 539 trades since 1990. There were only on average 29 trades per year and the average length of each trade was 2 days. 100 dollars would have grown to 7,800 dollars which is a return of 7,738% and 26% annualized with a maximum drawdown of -38%. The average winning trade made 4.4% and the average losing trade lost -2.7%. The biggest win was a gain of 30% and the biggest loss was -14%. As a comparison a buy and hold in the Nasdaq 100 over the same period would have turned $100 into $255 for an annualized return of 5.25% with a maximum drawdown of -83%."
The Investor presents The simplest, most effective investment decision you will ever make posted at Monevator.com, saying, "The quickest and cheapest way to invest in the stock market is through an index fund. This post explains why you shouldn't waste your money on active mutual funds or your time and effort trying to beat the market with your stock picks."
Dave presents 2009 Economic Outlook posted at Cheapo Groovo.
Nesher presents 20 Basic Rules for Beginner Online Stock Trader posted at Internet Stock Trading for Beginners.
FMF presents Free Money Finance: Frugal Millionaires on Investing and Mortgages posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "How millionaires invest."
Silicon Valley Blogger presents Best Online Stock Brokers For Cheap Stock Trades posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Thank you!"
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of road to financial independence using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
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is similar to the comparative review of the Garmin Streetpilot series GPS we did a while back.
adds Lifetime Traffic and Hands Free Calling to the base feature set in the 
while the 
, a 
and a few other new models in the 
in the latter half of 2010. The LM, LT, and LMT in select models in this release feature Lifetime Maps, Lifetime Traffic, and Lifetime Maps & Traffic respectively. These features are quite useful and valuable - they used to be sold on subscription basis previously.
version has lifetime traffic for ~$20 more which is a great value!