Small time investing

And I do mean small. I have a stock account but not a lot of money to put in it. I have a few hundred dollars right now but not enough to really invest in a big company. I want my money to really work for me though so I've been looking into Penny stocks as a small piece of my portfolio pie. I know they can be risky but they can also be very rewarding.

I did my homework on a penny stock before and I would have made a tidy sum had I invested when I wanted to. Instead I waited and the stock shot up beyond my purchase limit. And that's what most people don't realize. A penny stock should be researched before you sink your money into it.

Me personally, I always research as much as I can before I lay my money out. But I see another good buy, I'll be ready to pounce.

I hate when I have to compete with friends for something

Especially a job like I'm doing right now. There are 3 people from my area and 1 person from down the hall that all had interviews for 1 job. The question though is how do they decide between the 4 of us? We all have similar skills and similar backgrounds. Although I know that I have a skill set that 2 of them don't have and I know the other candidate is really strong in a area where the 3 of us lack.

I haven't even considered that they still have more people to interview. The next few weeks should be very interesting to say the least.

Grandma

Thanks for the guest post by Donn Schroeder

I have finally talked my grandmother into entering the world of technology! She is the lady that still pays her bill by writing a check and mailing them in through snail mail! The idea of using email is truly foreign to her. But, she said she would try it if I helped her get everything all hooked up. Thankfully, I found some great Wildblue packages to get internet hooked up in her house. Next was setting up an email account for her. I was bummed when groovygrandma@yahoo was taken as a username! We settled for GroovyGma. Now that I got her account set up and she is emailing, she is loving it! She is so sweet. Her emails are always like a novel and basically just consist of her typing out all of her thoughts. I also think it is hilarious how quickly she responds to my emails that I send her. I mean, how many times a day is she checking her email? It is nice though because I can easily email her and make sure that she is okay. Now, it is time to get her on Facebook!

Debating between investing or buying an ipod

I know it sounds like a slam dunk right? Of course I should invest the money and not worry about the ipod. But I'm really torn. I want to diversify into precious metals. I'm thinking of small graded coins instead of bullion or jewelry. Not a lot, just one or two pieces.

On the other hand, I've been coveting the ipod for almost a year and I'm ready to pull the trigger. As of today, I have $175 in gift certificates with another $25 to be added within the next couple of weeks. Maybe I'll wait until I have enough to totally cover the ipod purchase and make my decision from there.

That gives me at least until April or May to make a definitive decision.

I'm not getting my ipod this year

I have the money but I'm just not ready to spend it. I have over half of the money in gift certificates and the rest in cash. I've been eyeing some other purchases though so I haven't pulled the trigger. Besides that I'm just really cheap and I don't want to spend the money right now so I haven't.

I know I can do a lot of other stuff on the ipod but I'm just not ready to get it. I'm sure by the time I actually buy it, a new model will get released because that's just my luck.

Doing Work

Guest post from: Kent Lara

When I found out the price of electricity per kilowatt hour in my area I just about had a stroke – how could I be paying that much for energy? I did some shopping and found the cheapest provider and that sent me off on a tangent – I had to find a way to save where I could. Anyway, I’ve gotten my water bill down as well as my cable and I think I’m on my way to really streamlining my household bills. I think it’s important to know what you’re paying when and at the end of the day I want to be financially responsible, not beholden to anyone (or any bank) because I can’t afford what I’m buying each and every month. I’m even thinking of cancelling my credit card to avoid charging things I don’t need to – there’s no sense in living outside your means and I’m working hard to become the most frugal person on my block. That’s a title you can be proud of!

I almost have enough for my Ipod

I've been coveting a Ipod Touch for a while now. They come in 3 sizes, an 8gig, 32 gig and 64 gig models. I want the one right in the middle. It's 32 gigs and $280 with the accessories that I want, I'll end up spending $295 which includes free shipping.

I've been saving my money and slowing adding it to my fund. Right now I have $180 saved with another $15 to go in the account leaving me $100 short. I'm so close but so far. I wanted to get the ipod for myself for Christmas but I won't have the money until the middle of January. I'll be like a kid in a candy store when I finally get it. Once I have the ipod paid off, then I'll start saving in my itunes account.

I can't wait!

Cleaning out my teenage daughter's closet

Guest post written by Shirley Cobb

My daughter is just as bad as I am about hoarding clothes that she's never going to wear again. Each time that I try to convince her to let me clean out her closet, she doesn't let me take away any fo her clothes. Even any of the stuff that she hasn't worn in years. But then again, I'm the same way. However, I can at least try to convince her differently and maybe I'll do the same with my closet.

I went online to see if I could find some cool way to organize her closet that would appeal to her. When I was doing that, I ran across the website http://www.cleartvbundle.com and after I looked through ti a little bit I decided to change over our home internet service to one of the packages that I saw on there.

It was a little hard convincing her to go through with the closet cleaning, but I was able to make it happen. It also motivated me to do the same with my own lcoset. I think that I may need some bet organizational stuff for my closet though.

I won at the casino

I know I shouldn't gamble because it's a long shot and believe me, I'm not one of those people that has a "system" but I did win at the casino last week. I won over $300 which is pretty cool. I have a few things that I want to buy so I have to whittle down my list to see what's the most important.

I don't know whether to make the list from most expensive to least expensive or from the item I want or need the most to the least. Either way, I'm going to knock at least one or two cool things off of my list just in time for the holidays.

I can't wait for my cell phone contract to expire

Ugh I feel like they're gouging me. They have a new plan that I can't switch to because you don't get the equipment discount that I get now. Since I got a new phone last year and added my niece to my plan this year, also getting her a phone, I have to wait until next year before my contract is up. Technically it won't be up but if you're within 5 months of your contract ending, they don't hit you with a early termination fee.

Once my contract ends, I'm going with a plan that is a little cheaper than I pay now. I'll save about $35 per month if not more. As far as phones go, I can always grab a cheap phone from somewhere. I do love my phone but I can get by with anything similar, I don't need the newest model.

Hopefully these next few months will fly by and I'll have a newer, less expensive plan before I know it.

Living Together

Thanks to Roman May

I love living together more than I ever thought possible but to be honest, it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I can’t imagine why people act like this is the easiest thing in the world but to be honest, it’s nearly broken us up a few times! I love my boyfriend to death but he’s got some really annoying habits I just can’t seem to break him of and geez if I can’t get past them all. We get into little arguments about the stupidest things like the Alarm System and the dog’s walking schedule and all kinds of things like that. I know it’s dumb but sometimes it’s just really tough getting rid of all the things you pick up living alone for so long and we’re just having a hard time getting adjusted to each other. There’s nothing like being able to adapt to living with another person successfully and we’re going to get to that point one of these days, I just know it!

I'm almost halfway there

With my house savings account that is. I need $2k and I have $890 in the account. I should have more than $110 go in by the end of this month so I will definitely have 1/2 of my goal.

Just for clarity, I will have more than the total of $4k when I'm ready to buy my house. It's just for this particular program, they require that you save $2k. I chose to save over a one year period. The program allows you to save up to 3 years and then you have another 2 years to use the money. I wanted to get my savings out of the way instead of dragging it out.

It feels good knowing that I'm almost there.

Lawsuits don't always make it better

There is a school of thought that thinks that getting money is always a good thing. They don't care or even stop to consider where the money may come from. It could be a car accident, a slip and fall or a Actos lawsuit. While an Actos lawsuit may seem harmless it's really not.

Actos is a medication used to treat diabetes. The problem is that it can lead to serious complications such as heart attacks, heart failure and even an increase in bladder cancer. Of course all of these things can lead to an Actos Lawsuit. If you see the medication, Pioglitazone, just know that it is the chemical name for Actos and was sold under the trade names Actos, ActoplusMet, Competact and Duetact.

Knowledge is power.