Sometimes life gets busy and you just don’t have time to get everything done.  I’ve felt that way a lot lately, but it’s hopefully coming to an end soon (I’ll post more soon).  Anyway, I haven’t been devoting enough time to this blog, been relying a lot on guest posts…and haven’t been reading up and networking with fellow bloggers either.  So to start getting back in the swing of things I’d like to shares some of the best posts I’ve read recently.

In a great post, Evan from My Journey to Millions asks “What do you do at night?“  Sounds random, but he makes a great point about finding the time in his busy schedule to work on his sites and make money.  It’s a challenge I face myself too with 3 little ones at home, so I really identified with this post.

A great post at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff debunks some lottery myths.  I hate the lottery, so I enjoyed this one as well.

Some other good reads…

Financial Samurai asks why the average 401k balance is so low.

Sam wrote another great post on Yakezie.com wondering why so many people hate their job.

A neat guest post on Buy Like Buffett reminds us that dividend stocks aren’t a sure thing.

The Financial Blogger shares his latest online income report.  Can’t say I’m not a bit jealous!

Couple Money offers some tips to help you save on renters insurance.

Len Penzo offers 9 money tips every dad should teach his kids.

This guest post was written by Jason, the proprietor of Live Real, Now, a blog focused on spending–and saving–in the real world. It was written for a blog swap run by the Yakezie personal finance blog network to answer the question “What is your best day to day money saving tip?“

There I was, minding my own business, when suddenly, Sumdood came out came out of nowhere and forced me to buy a new flat-panel TV, a time share in St. Thomas a join one of those overpriced underwear-of-the-month clubs. Talk about a bad day, rivaled only by the day the odd, lacy package gets delivered on the first of the month.

No, really, as I go about my business each day, the temptation to spend my money can be almost irresistible. Yet somehow, I manage. Is it because I have superhuman willpower? I don’t. Is it because I’m chased by a leather-clad, sjambok-wielding pixie who chastises me for every unbudgeted purchase? That’s not it either, but it makes for a fun picture.

What’s my secret?

I follow a principle I like to call “Don’t buy that!” Don’t buy that! is a simple plan that is surprisingly hard to implement, mostly because following the plan means delaying gratification for a while. Delayed gratification is never as much fun as instantly indulging every whim.

I can hear your shouts of protest. If it’s so hard, how can I expect you to do it? Easy. Just follow the rules. There are a few things you can do to make Don’t buy that! a realistic plan of action for you.

1. Find a slap-me-upside-the-head buddy. I use my wife. It works for me and she tends to enjoy it. If I’m in a store and I get tempted to buy something awesome, I call her for a reality check. Sometimes, it’s as straight-forward as my calling her and saying “Honey, tell me ‘no’.” Other times, she actually has to talk me down using–horror of horrors–logic and reasoning. Usually, she just invokes rule #2.

2. If you have to check if you can afford it, you can’t. If I’m not immediately sure that we have the money to buy something, it is far too big of a purchase to buy on an impulse. Big purchases need to be planned. “Honey, I found this great TV on sale!” “Can we afford it?” “I don’t know, let me che…crap. Nevermind.”

3. You can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything. We could afford a fancy vacation in Paris every year, but not if we also pay for extended super-cable, Netflix, dinner out every night, and a new car every three years. Expenses need to be prioritized.

4. The little things can ruin you. There’s a story about a nail missing from a horse’s shoe, which lamed the horse, which made the knight miss a battle, which was lost, which led to the loss of the war, which led to the loss of the kingdom. For want of a single nail, a nation fell. If I buy a new book or movie every week, will I end up short on my mortgage payment? It’s far easier to pick up some of the little things after the necessities are met than it is to try to pay the mortgage after squandering your paycheck on lottery tickets and Mad Dog. Handle your needs before you worry about your wants. Sometimes, that means putting off the things you want, but having the things you need makes it worthwhile.

5. Remember the past. When I bought a bunch of movies a few months ago, I was happy. New movies go great the the movie screen and projector in my living room. Want to take a guess at how many of those movies I’ve taken the time to watch? I certainly enjoyed the act of buying the movies and the anticipation of watching them far more than I’ve enjoyed seeing them site on the shelf, unopened. What a waste. It happens regularly. Often, we get far more enjoyment out of the idea of doing something that the actual doing. If I can remember that the anticipation is better than the act, before I buy whatever is tempting me, I can usually avoid buying it.

These 5 rules have helped me to follow my master plan of Don’t buy that! That plan is the single most useful thing I have ever used to save money.

What’s your best tip to save money?

Jason runs the blog, Live Real, Now. Please take a moment to go over there and check him out. Thanks!

It’s a frigid Sunday morning and I’m getting ready to take my daughters to play soccer, and then it’s time to watch some football (go Steelers and Packers!).

Here are some excellent articles I’ve read recently…

10 Old Wives’ Tales Masquerading As Financial Rules of Thumb

Blogging: A Demanding Task with Few Rewards?

5 Ways Facebook is Costing You Money

The True Cost of Expired Milk – How Does it Impact Your Finances?

Why Leave A Six Figure Corporate Job For Internet Entrepreneurship?

And a few contests my fellow bloggers are holding (hope I win!)

Read My Drivel, Win A Kindle

Win An iPad, Amazon Gift Cards, And A Starbucks Gift Card!!

Finally, here are some Carnivals that Saving Money Today has been featured in…

Totally Money Blog Carnival – Inaugural Edition!!!

Carnival of Money Stories #89 Happy Birthday Dr. King Edition

Festival of Frugality – Spend It Edition

Totally Money Blog Carnival #2

The following is a guest post from Squirrelers, a personal finance blog about squirreling away money, living well, and giving generously. The post is part of a Yakezie Blog Swap, where each participating blog hosts a guest post that answers the question: “What is the single best financial tool/advice you were ever given or found”  [You can read my post over at LiveRealnow.net]

Do you remember the song “Parents Just Don’t Understand”?

It was a song from DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, back in the day. A long time ago, to be sure, but for me it brings back memories of a lesson from my father from a few years later.  At the time, I was thinking that he just didn’t get it.

Later, I would come to realize that he did get it. Some parents do understand!

The lesson, as you might have guessed, involved money. You see, my father was telling me that when I work, I should be sure to save at least 20% of my income, so I could eventually retire well.

“Why?” I asked. “Isn’t social security for old people’s retirement? Besides, isn’t that way more than most people would save anyway?”

I remember him looking at me quizzically at first, then he smiled, and told me that I’ll be on my own for retirement and that nobody can take care of me but myself. Of course, I wondered what social security is for in that case, but he told me not to count on it. Rather, he said to try to take responsibility for myself.

I remember asking him an interesting question: what if I’m married and my wife likes to spend lots of money? (Keep in mind I was much younger then, before getting offendedJ  Besides, the same can hold true of a husband who likes to spend a lot as well).

His answer:  have it automatically taken out of your paycheck.

That way, when you’re at home, you learn to live on what you have. It becomes habit. Saving extra can happen, but it’s a bit easier to psychologically rationalize saving a little bit than saving a lot. If you like to spend, you won’t feel like you’re depriving yourself. Save automatically, and neither of you won’t notice it. It will be for your family’s future.

Keep in mind, his main point was not about how to manage finances with your spouse. That’s a whole new topic, and it became a part of this due to my question to him. Rather, his lesson was to:

1. Not to rely on assistance, rely on yourself

2. Don’t spend all your money; rather, save 20% at the minimum, right off the bat

3. Do it automatically, so you learn to live without it

At first, when younger, I did not really follow this advice. With my first job, I didn’t immediately set up a 401(k) plan when eligible. I didn’t realize compounding was so important, and I didn’t make much anyway – so I didn’t think I could save much. Later, after realizing how hard it could be to make a living, I decided that I didn’t want to be working until I was super old unless I had to.

Eventually, I decided to start saving automatically, and then became a big believer.  I wish it all came together for me earlier, but hey – sometimes when younger, we think that parents just don’t understand.

But many do. I’m glad I eventually listened, even if it took me until adulthood to do so. 

Thanksgiving is almost here and that means it is time to show a little gratitude for the good things we have in life. Personally, I’m thankful for my health, my family, and friends.  I’m thankful I have a job when many of my friends have been laid off.  And I’m thankful I inherited my father’s entrepreneurial spirit, and that I’ve used it to build a nice little side income online.

I’m also very grateful that I’ve made some good friends by blogging.  Here are just a few of them and some great articles to read…

Financial Samurai has some ideas for fixing the airline industry.

FreeFromBroke wonders if it ever makes sense to rent furniture.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff suggests it might be time for mozRank to replace PageRank.

MJTM worries he is spending too much time thinking about money.

EverydayTips shares a delicious recipe for sweet potato casserole.

Get Rich Slowly offers some great tips for getting good deals on wine.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Hope you all get a chance to enjoy some deep fried turkey!

I’ve been busy trying to clean out and spruce up my father-in-law’s house so we can put it up on the market.  Plus I’ve been trying to keep my yard from getting completely buried by leaves while still having time for my kids!  So, I’ve fallen a little behind on reading some of my favorite blogs.  I’m trying to catch up…and here are some of the cool article’s I’ve read…

Check out the first official Yakezie Scholarship!  High schoolers and younger are eligible, so if you know someone who meets the criteria have them enter for a chance to win a scholarship to be used for educational purposes such as books, supplies, projects, tuition, field trips, equipment and other school related expenses.  And make sure you subscribe to the Yakezie RSS feed so you can be the first to learn about future scholarship opportunities.

Redeeming Riches asks is your car a necessity or a luxury?

Richly Reasonable had a cool post discussing 10 websites for saving.

My Journey to Millions had a great post about dividends. And don’t forget to check out Evan’s new site where you can organize your own online pregnancy pool.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff offers a great post 5 fast growing careers.

Roshawn Watson asks what are your financial regrets?

We interrupt this broadcast with an important announcement…Saving Money Today has broken the infamous 100,000 Alexa barrier!

Way back on March 8th of this year I posted that I was joining the Yakezie Challenge, which started out as a simple challenge to improve Alexa Rankings but has grown into a close-knit network consisting of some of the best personal finance blogs on the interwebs.

My initial goal was to break into the top 200,000 sites as ranked by Alexa.  I actually cracked that pretty quickly but then stalled just shy of the 100,000 barrier.   But I’ve continued to plug away and as of this morning my rank is 98,869!

That’s just outstanding!  75,000 here I come!

Some other tidbits…

Saving Money Today is currently listed at #67 on Wisebread’s list of the top 100 most popular personal finance blogs.

SMT is also #201 on the new Money Crashers list of the top PF blogs.  (their algorithm is pretty comprehensive so I have my work cut out for me!)

Of course I’d be ranked higher if Google would roll out a new PageRank update already.  I’m currently a PR2 but I think I’ll get boosted to a 3 (or hopefully a 4) with the next Google pagerank update.

Odds and Ends…

I’ve been trying to expand my reach a bit and part of that is writing guest posts on other blogs.  Please go check out Ideas for Starting Your Own Home Business at CoupleMoney and Finding Money to Invest at Invest With Passion.

I’d also like to shout out to my friend Aloysa from AloysasKitchenSink.com for switching from free hosting with WordPress.com to self-hosting that uses WordPress.  It may sound the same but there’s a world of difference as I’ll discuss in an upcoming post.

Finally, Barb Friedberg is giving away a free report titled the 20 Minute guide to Investing.  It’s a great report that is filled with useful information so make sure you download your free copy.

I think that’s it for today folks.  Stay tuned for our regularly scheduled program.

Welcome to the carnival folks!  The Yakezie Carnival that is!

For those of you who don’t recognize the name, the Yakezie is a network of personal finance bloggers that I joined some time ago.  It started out as a simple challenge created by Financial Samurai to improve Alexa rankings and it has taken on a life all its own.

There are about 100 of us now working together and devoted to the principles of publishing quality content and selflessly helping others.

This week I’m proud to host the Yakezie Carnival which highlights posts written by some of our members.   So grab yourself some funnel cake and cotton candy and make sure you have enough tickets to enjoy the rides!

Crystal of Budgeting in the Fun Stuff talks about her adventures in blogging and announces the launching of 2 new blogs.

My Journey to Millions offers up a guest post by another Yakezie member who offers advice on choosing dividend paying stocks.

Eric from Narrow Bridge explains how student loan payments work.

Money Green Life suggests you learn about bankruptcy before filing for chapter 7 or 13.

Dr Dean discusses a recent NY Times headline in  Poverty Level Is 14%: What Say You?

Craig of Money Help for Christians reviews the Moneydance personal finance program.

Kevin from Finacially Poor offers advice on how to spot online money making scams.

Ray from Squirrelers wants to know what you think of China’s emergence as an economic power.

Bucksome Boomer asks is the NFL elitist?

Barb Friedberg shares the secret to amazing life success.

Beating Broke wonders if FICO scores should be regulated.

Free From Broke mentions that myFICO Offers Credit Score With Free Trial of Score Watch.

Frugal Zeitgeist discusses jobs that no longer exist in 2010.

Financial Samurai shares the secret to early retirement.

Khaleef at KNS Financial offers tips on how to create a budget.

The Saved Quarter list the top 5 worst baby shower gifts.

Amanda from Frugal Confessions offers how to make free donations, part II

B Simple asks can you live without these in order to simplify your lifestyle.

Kris at Everyday Tips and Thoughts asks what will happen when kids have to live in the real world?

Mrs Money at The Ultimate Money Blog offers some useful tips for calculating home values.

Next week’s carnival will be hosted by Personal Finance by the Book.

Well it’s been about 4 and a half months since I joined the Yakezie challenge and it seems my Alexa rank has stalled just a whisker shy of my goal.  I have been hovering around the 100,000 barrier for weeks but just can’t seem to break it!

Still, I’m a lot better now then when I started!  My Alexa then was over 1.6 million, and I felt like I was talking to myself.

But thanks to Sam’s challenge I’ve gotten to know a couple of fellow bloggers, written a handful of guest posts at FreeFromBroke and Money Beagle and gotten listed on the Wisebread list of the top 100 personal finance bloggers.  Plus I’m actually making some money!

Blogging can be tough when you’re first starting out, but it helps to have specific goals and a way to track them.  Sam’s challenge kept me motivated when it would have been easy to throw in the towel, and for that I owe him a great big thank you.

Thanks Sam!

Here are a few recent posts that got my attention…

Evan from My Journey to Millions stirred up a little controversy with his post about why teachers anger him.

Frugal Dad discusses his secret to getting out of debt.

Mrs Money wonders if it’s cheaper to have a baby when you’re younger or older.

Free Money Finance shares 13 finance tips from the bible.

Financial Samurai gives us an inside look at the Yakezie .

Len Penzo discusses his shock when he received a cell phone bill for over $1000!

The Digerati Life stresses the importance of developing multiple streams of income.

The Wealth Pilgrim shares some tips on how to make your small business more successful.

Money Beagle asks do any of us have a chance in the stock market?

Saving Money Today was featured in the following carnivals…

http://funny-about-money.com/2010/07/11/carnival-of-personal-finance-2

http://www.wealthjunkies.com/money/festival-of-frugality-238/

This article is for those of you with your own blogs…if you’re not a blogger you can just skip this post and wait for the next one where we’ll be back to talking about personal finance.

I’ve been participating in the Yakezie challenge which is basically a friendly competition among personal finance bloggers to see how high we can increase our alexa web rankings. 

Now I know the Alexa ranking system is flawed and in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t mean much.  But despite its flaws, a high Alexa ranking can open doors that are otherwise closed to bloggers.  Achieving a ranking in the top 100,000 or so can go a long way toward building your credibility.  Top bloggers may actually notice you and welcome you into their secret societies, and advertisers will be more likely to place ads on your site. 

In other words a high Alexa rank may help you increase your revenue substantially. 

How to Increase Your Alexa Ranking

Obviously, the best way to increase your Alexa rank, Google Page Rank, and web traffic in general is to provide high-quality content that is unique and useful to your readers.  If you provide valuable content then people will keep coming back for more. 

But creating quality content takes time.  I’ve only been blogging for a few months so it’s difficult for me to compete with bloggers that already have hundreds or even thousands of posts in the can.  (Don’t worry…I’ll get there, but it will take a little time to catch up )

So while I plug away like the little engine that could, it’s helpful to look for a few shortcuts to help speed my journey.  The tips listed below are simple ways to improve Alexa rankings quickly.  (In just 2 weeks I’ve leapfrogged over 1 million sites and continue to improve daily.)

1.  Install the Alexa toolbar and visit your site daily.  This is pretty obvious really.

2.  Get together with a few friends and form an informal network of bloggers that visits each other’s sites each day.

3.  Encourage others to download and install the Alexa toolbar.  The more people visiting your site with the toolbar installed the higher your rankings will go.

4.  Participate in webmaster forums like WarriorForum, SitePoint, and DigitalPoint.  A high percentage of users there will have the Alexa toolbar installed so if they visit your site you’ll get a boost.

5.  Write articles that teach how to improve Alexa ranking.  People searching for that topic will likely have the toolbar installed so you’ll get another boost when they visit your site.

6.  Take advantage of social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.  These sites can send a boatload of traffic to your blog and improve your Alexa ranking. 

7.  Pay for it.  If you create a page targeting webmasters you can drive traffic to it via PPC and get loads of traffic. 

Now I don’t think it’s a very smart idea to pay for Alexa rankings when you can do it yourself for free, but it is an option. 

Well there you have it.  Seven easy tips for quickly increasing Alexa rankings. 

What are your thoughts?  Do you have any tips to share?