Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

Heyy, I've been away from The Long Road to Financial Freedom, so that I could devote more of my time to my family over the holidays. I would like to say merry belated Christmas to you, and in a few days, HAPPY NEWYEAR!!

For now, I will be posting a little big irregularly, but come the New Year, I will resume my daily postings for you. I have come up with quite a few ideas for future posts. Among them, are 2 postings that I think you may find especially interesting. The first, I believe I spoke about in an earlier post, is to give a daily update on my battle to become smoke free in the coming New Year. The second one I think you may like more. In one of my earliest posts, I spoke about ways for college kids to make money. What I plan on doing, is to take a practical look into these money-making ways by showing exactly how much money I have made so far from these different ways.

I plan to touch base with you before the New Year, but JUST in case I don't, HAPPY NEW YEAR

Frank

Experiment #1: Analysis

Ok, it's been a while since i've been on here. Thankfully, finals are over and I can continue posting. I just added up everything and put them into categories. I broke it into needs/wants, and then from there, I broke the categories down further into sub categories. Here is my finding

Needs- $181.95
- Gas- $50.50
- Other Expenses- $131.45

Wants- $110.08
- Cigarettes- $32.50
- Coffee- $9.41
- Food- $21.19
- Fun/Going out- $46.98

Looking at this, I spent a total of $292.03. Below is the percentage make-up of needs/wants

Needs- 62.31%
Wants- 37.69%
Total- 100%

When I was looking at different budgets, I decided that I don't want my wants to be any more than 30% of my total check. I'm not too far off, only 7.69% off. Out of the wants, I am looking at what I can cut out of my budget, so that my wants will only be between 25%-30%

My most costly want is obviously smoking. I am taking a big step to quitting. Recently at my doctors, I received a prescription for a drug called Chantix. The purpose of it is to reduce the physical side-effects of smoking cessation. I've planned to start taking that and quit for my new years resolution.

If I remove smoking from the list, my wants would be reduced to $77.58, which would make my wants only be 26.57%.

Conclusion- I will be able to meet my goal of spending under 30% of my budget on wants by quitting smoking. Considering smoking is related to my finances, I have decided to post about the progress I will have made quitting smoking. These posts will begin in the new year.

I highly recommend you to try this experiment if you have not already done so. I have become a lot more aware of my spending habits through tracking my weekly spending.

Experiment #1 Day #7

Expenditures for Day #7 12/11/08

12:00 - Doctor Co-Pay - $10.00
12:45 - Prescription Co-Pay - $10.00
14:20 - Gas - $15
19:30 - Coors Light Thirty Rack - $24.99
19:35 - Wendy's Dollar Menu Items - $3.15

Total - $63.14
Total So Far - $299.16

Experiment #1 Day#6

Hey, I've been MIA for a few days. I decided to head home for the weekend to relax before finals this week. I have two tests tomorrow (Monday), and then one on Wednesday & Thursday. So I may not be posting too much between now and Thursday. I have decided to cut the length that I track my spending to 7 days. By the weekend, I will have analyzed the data and I will put it up in a post for you.

Expenditures for Day#6 12/10/08

16:40 - Dunkin Donuts Large Coffee - $2.15
20:15 - Cigarettes - $6.50
20:15 - Amp Energy Drink + Large DD coffee - $4.60

Total - $13.25
Total So Far - $236.55

Experiment #1 Day #5

Expenditures for Day#5 12/09/08

12:40 - Dunkin Donut's Large Hot Coffee - $2.15
16:50 - Dunkin Donut's Large Hot Coffee - $.96 (she charged for me a donut! =))
16:50 - Amp Energy Drink - $2.25
21:05 - Cigarettes - $6.50

Total - $ 11.86
Total So Far -$ 223.30

***Today I received $15 Dollars, via paypal, from completed surveys***

IF YOU STUMBLED UPON THIS EXPERIMENT RECENTLY, YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE PAGE THAT INTRODUCES THIS EXPERIMENT HERE

ING Direct: The Orange Savings Review

You've heard of ING Direct. You may not have an account there for many reasons. I will be giving an in-depth review of the online Savings Account, the "Orange Savings," that ING Direct offers.

ING Direct is a subsidiary of the dutch based ING Group. ING Direct first opened for business in Canada in 1997. Soon after, in 2000, ING Direct made its way to the U.S.

I opened my own "Orange Savings" about a year ago. I decided to give it a try after being bombarded by ING Direct advertising. They had a very aggressive advertising campaign, and I wanted to try them out, to see if they are everything they claim to be.

Signing up was extremely straight forward. They ask the basic info required to open any bank, Name, DOB, SS#, and a few other things. However, the whole website is EXTREMELY user-friendly.

After my account was opened, it had to be linked to one of my other banking accounts, via a check link. All that you have to do it to give the bank account # and the check routing # to ING Direct. Soon, they will deposit 2 small amounts into your checking. You just have to confirm the 2 small amounts and then your all set!

BENEFITS OF THE ORANGE SAVINGS ACCOUNT

High Interest.

Compare for yourself.

• ING Orange Savings - 2.75% apy
• Citizens Bank - 0.25% apy
• Eastern Bank - 0.25% apy
• Sovereign Bank - 0.25% apy
• Rockland Trust - 0.25% apy
• Bank Of America Savings - 0.20% apy
• Century Bank - 0.10% apy

NO FEES. - (Minimum balance fee, hidden fees, etc)

ING Offers many other services.

• Sharebuilder
• Electric Orange Checking Account
• Orange CDs
• Orange Mortgage Accounts
• Orange Home Equity Loans
• Orange Investment Mutual Fund Accounts
• Orange Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

Great way for Impulsive Spenders to Save.

It takes a few days, from the time you request funds, until the time they are available to use. This helps cut down on those pesky impulsive purchases!

Offers Direct-Deposit.

You can submit a Direct-Deposit form, to your employer, so you can automatically have a percentage of your paycheck automatically deposited into your Orange Savings Account.

Ability to create Sub-Accounts + Name them

Overall, I would recommend this as your sole savings account. It is definitely mine. If anyone is interested in opening an account AND receiving $25 dollars for opening that account. Email me and I can refer to the site!

Experiment #1 Day #4

Expenditures for Day #4 12/08/09

Just two bags of Doritos Chips - $2.00

Total - $2.00
Total so far - $211.44

Experiment #1 Day#3

Expenditures for Day #3 12/7/08

18:00 - Stamp - $.45

Total - $.45
Total So Far - $209.44

Experiment #1 Day #2

Expenditures for Day #2 12/6/08

13:30 - Atm Fee - $2.00
13:45 - Contact Lenses - $95.00
20:00 - Marlboro Menthol Lights - $6.50

Total Spent on 12/6/08 - $103.50
Total So Far - $208.99

It is only the second day and I'm starting to get a little worried. Out of my $270 check, I only have $61.01 remaining. I'm going to have to conserve a LOT! Luckily, thanks to some surveys I've recently redeemed, I will have around $15.00 dollars coming in before the end of the week.

Experiment #1 Day #1

Below are the expenditures on 12/05/08

11:15 - Medium Coffee from Dunkin Donuts - $2.00
11:15 - Marlboro Menthol Lights - $6.50
11:30 - Gas - $35.50
11:30 - Coca-Cola - $1.75
11:15 - ATM Fee - $3.00
12:52 - McDonalds - $5.00
15:30 - Haircut + Tip - $16.00
18:30 - Atm Fee - $1.75
18:30 - 375 mL Smirnoff Vodka - $6.99
18:30 - 2 Red Bulls - $5.50
18:30 - Coors Light 18pk - $15.00
21:00 - Marlboro Menthol Lights - $6.50

Total for 9/5/08 - 105.49

Experiment #1 (Continued)

Tomorrow is coming upon us fast. I can't wait until after it is over, so I can find out what I waste my money on. Also, one thing I might change is instead of tracking my money for one week, I will track it for two weeks. I figure this is more practical considering I get paid every two weeks. I received my bi-weekly pay-stub yesterday, even though my direct deposit does not credit until tomorrow morning. I will have 275 to last me two weeks. I'm really hoping I can make it stretch.

My Published Article In Associated Content!

I know this does not really have much to do with the theme of this blog, I'm really excited that my article was published. Here is my article. Let me know what you think.

Experiment #1: Tracking & Analyzing My Expenses (12/5/08 -2/ 12/108)

Every single paycheck I receive, it is almost a guarantee that, in total, about $30 to $40 Dollars is spent, but unaccounted for. I'm going to use the scientific method to answer why this happens

Question: See Above /\

Background Research: I've learned that this happens to many people. The answer to this, that comes up most, is to faithfully track ones spending for a week straight, and then analyze what you have spent and what can be cut out.

Hypothesis: I believe that by diligently tracking my expenditures, I will be able to find where that extra $30 to $40 dollars goes.

The Experiment!: My experiment will be to track my spending, beginning on my next pay day, which is December 5th. Each night I will report my spending in a posting. Finally, on Sunday December 13th, I will analyze my expenditures.

Analyze Data: On that Sunday, I will analyze the data, and draw a conclusion.

I've tried to track my spending in the past, but I always end up forgetting to record on some days. Perhaps since I committed to it on here, I may feel more compelled to be more aware of my spending. We will see this Friday!

The Art of the Profitable Party

There is such a small difference between a good party, and an awesome party. Throughout my years in college, I’ve narrowed it down to two major differences. The first difference is the amount of planning that goes into a party. The second difference is the level of structure, during the party. When there is a party, that has had proper planning, and is executed with structure, it transcends the whole idea of what a “college party” is, and introduces a whole new level of excitement and fun. The question that is then posed, how come everyone, who had parties at their house, doesn’t do this? In my years of experience, I believe it comes down to both, the apathy, and laziness of many college students these days.

I’ll explain, in depth, the steps that are involved with executing an extremely profitable party, using last years Halloween party that I facilitated, as an example.

When I first came up with the idea to have an organized, well run party for Halloween 2007, I had a hard time getting permission to execute it, from my fraternity brothers who lived in the house. Understandably, they were apprehensive at having way more people at the house, than has ever been there. What I did to calm their nerves was to type up a formal outline, of exactly what would occur, how, and why.

My first task was to decide the parameters of the party. To satisfy the house owners, I made it a basement only party. By gauging previous parties, I decided that 75-90 people would be the max capacity. From here, I used simple math to decide how much alcohol would be needed to support 90 people. Knowing that there are some people who can drink a lot, and some that can drink just a little, I came down to an average of 5 beers per person. This seems low, but when you take into account the people who come late, and the people who BYOB, it equals out. Here are my calculations.

\/ How many beers do we need \/

5beers / person = 5 X 90 = 450 beers total.

\/ How many 30 racks are required to have 450 beers \/

Total # Beers / 30 (case of 30 beers) = 450 / 30 = 15

\/ Cost of 15 thirty racks of Keystone Light \/

15 X $15.99 = $239.85

\/ Revenue from guests \/

Total # guests X $5 = 90 X $5 = 450

\/ Total amount of returned Cans \/

450 X .05 = $22.50

With these figures, I quickly made an balance sheet, which I included on the proposal.

Income

Revenue from guests - $450.00

Revenue from returned cans - $22.50

Total – $472.50

Expense

Beers - $239.85

Decorations - $25.00

Total - $264.85

Conclusion - +$207.65

After all of these calculations were complete, the hard work was out of the way. I started inviting guests, I used Facebook, but any social networking site will work.

(NOTE: In the invite, do not state the address, and do not state there is alcohol. You can have it say something to the effect of “Halloween Party at the Blue House, Its gunna be bigger than ever!”)

One final phase of planning was to assign who was going to staff the party. This is vital!! I needed to cover 5 positions throughout the entire night. 1 doorman, who would collect money and issue a stamp. 1 Stairman, who would work to keep the party in the basement. 1 floorman, who would walk around and make sure everyone was enjoying theirselves. And finally, 2 Barmen, who were in charge of serving alcohol. The system we used, was that people would get a full can, and when it was empty, the only way to get another was to present the empty can, which we would put in a large plastic bag.

Luckily, we had 4 pledges at the time, who gladly worked the whole night. All together, we had 5 people already scheduled, so I only had to find a few other friends who could take shifts doing the last position.

THAT’S IT

As the pictures below will prove, we had a LOT of people, a WILD time, and HUGE amounts of FUN. But we had all of this in a well-controlled environment.

Looking back at that night, I get many people asking me, “It must have sucked for you to work the whole party huh?” My answer is, “Not at all, I got my satisfaction out of proving to myself, that I could successfully facilitate a function as large as it was, without problems!”

And one other benefit of me working the whole night > I met my current Girlfriend, who is awesome!

-Andrea and I

My Brothers Pregaming for the Party of a Lifetime!

The Party once it started

Three of the Brothers Enjoying Halloween

Some People Enjoying it Too Much

Special thanks to the pledges who helped make it possible

A wild, crazy, and controlled time.

Investing & The Undergraduate

You're low on money, you are barely scraping by until Friday, which is payday. You only have to be poor 1 more day! Payday comes and goes, and on Tuesday, you check your wallet out of curiosity. Just Moths.... You start thinking, where did my money go?

If you have ever been in this situation, I share in your aggravation. My goal, over last summer, was to find a way to utilize my check, so that by the end of the week, I could proudly look back, and see where my money, (or at least some of it) was allocated. That goal was achieved when I was introduced to investing, and the stock market. Investing, for me anyways, achieved two ends. The first was, that I could see where my money was going each week, and the second, investing made saving money a LOT easier, due to the fact that when your money is invested in stocks, compulsive buying is drastically reduced due to the lack of liquidity in your money.

At first, I was very skeptical, and thought that investing was only for older people who had money to spend. In the past decade, however, many discount brokers have popped up on the internet. I spent weeks researching the various options that were available, and I finally decided on the Discount Broker Tradeking. Setting up an account was a breeze, and within a few days, I made my first transaction. I purchased 4 shares of the Real Estate company Equity Residential. Over the past few months, the cost of this equity has fluctuated from the high $50's, down to the low $30's. However, one thing that I have found consolation with, is the fact that, I have received two quarterly dividends so far. Each, only totaling around $5 dollars each, but imagine in the future, if you get a dividend payment for 100, or 1000 shares? You could have a nice second income, if you work at it. In conclusion, Tradeking offers a very easy trade setup, and the best part, is the low cost of commissions, which is $5.95. Give it a try!

UPDATE!!
I must add one thing to this post. Although investing is very good for your financial future, you also have to make time to have fun. One of the most fun things, that require just a small amount of money, is pranking people. If you visit my friends blog Wacky Revenge, you will find many ideas on how to prank people, Especially in the college atmosphere

Ideas From One Cash-Strapped Undergrad, to Another

I was at Crimson Cafe, which is the newest cafe on the BSC campus, and a friend of mine and I were having a dead-end conversation, as usual. The topic of the day was, what can we do to make extra money, with minimal effort. Needless to say, that conversation didn't get too far. But it did spark my imagination, to think of lucrative ideas requiring minimal effort. Below, i've combined what I already do for extra money, along with ideas that I have researched.

Online Surveys - Let me just start with this, you won't become rich by doing online surveys. However, if you ever find yourself with extra time, this may be a viable option. I've been taking online surveys for about two months now. I personally do the majority of surveys while I sit at work, but im sure that you can agree, us undergrads have no problem with finding spare time. Check my last posting, where I rate my two favorite Survey Sites.

Help out a classmate with notes, papers, and knowledge - Next time a semester comes to a close, think twice before burning your class notes and papers. There are undergrads that are very desperate to pass classes, so desperate that they will pay you for your notes. For example, at student of fortune, undergrads post questions, request notes, and need tutoring. The best part is that they are paying money for it. If tutoring is more your thing, E-tutor might be the way to go

Become a Freelancer - Before last week, I didn't know what freelancing meant. It basically means, you don't have a set job, and you are willing to work different types of small, under the table jobs. Now it is easier than ever to sell your services. Websites such as Barefoot Student and Odesk, offer a vehicle through which you can post your services. Services can include, helping a student move in, transportation, cleaning, babysitting, and much more.

Make a funny Video - If your weekends are as crazy as mine at school, there are countless occurrences, that if recorded, would make for a very funny video. At Revver, you can post videos that you create, and based upon how many views it receives, you will get paid. You also get paid through people clicking on the advertising that is on your video's page. If I had a Digital Video Camera, I would be all over this, but I only have an analog camcorder.

Recycle Cans like a Bum - Collecting cans isn't the most sought after job, but if you can rake in $40+ dollars over the course of a weekend, can collecting, can prove lucrative. This is extremely practical if you, or a friend, has a party house on campus. Last year, my Roommate and I went every Sunday, after three days of hard partying, and collected $40 - $50 dollars worth of cans, which we would split 50/50. Don't waste your time at Stop&Shop, redeeming cans one by one. At a redemption center, you can bring pre-counted bags full of cans and they will give you cash.

Be the Local Dorm Laundromat - I have not tested this out personally, yet. But my Fraternity is considering this idea for a fundraiser. All that needs to be done, is to set up posters around the dorm advertising your service for a particular date. You charge each client an extra dollar or two, and they can bring their laundry down to you, you wash it, dry it, (perhaps iron it for an additional fee) and then bring the finished laundry to their room. If you plan on trying this, I would try to create a team that can help you. Offering to wash peoples laundry, by yourself, may come across as creepy haha.


Finally, Throw a Party! - This is something that I am very experienced with, and has proven time and time again, to be EXTREMELY lucrative. I will give you a personal example. Last Halloween, I presented a proposal to my friends who had an off-campus house, which outlined, in detail, exactly how the party would be run, who would run it, and how we would profit. After expenses, which mainly was purchasing cheap Keystone Light thirty racks, we profited around $300 dollars. In ONE NIGHT! I won't get into detail on the actual specifics of the execution (maybe a future post will be dedicated to explaining exactly how to plan, and execute, a profitable party).

I'm not trying to explain exactly what you should do, to make money on campus, I am merely proving ideas through which you can brainstorm with! For more info, check out TheSimpleDollar, which is one of my favorite financial blogs, it has a lot of good financial advice, for the common person!

Survey Sites are NOT Created Equal!

Ever thought about doing surveys? I never thought about trying them, until one day, when I was at work, sitting at my lonely cubicle. I work at a livery company (limos & such) and with the current economic situation, not many people are calling to book reservations. For the past year or so, my cubicle has been used for: writing school papers, getting lost in wikipedia, and researching various topics that I find interesting at the moment.



My experience with taking online surveys have been mixed, but overall, I have been extremely happy with the experience. It is obvious that one cannot become rich through taking online surveys, but the way I look at it, I have a lot of freetime at work and there are not many other ways to make extra money, while chained to a cubicle. Out of the 7 survey sites that I applied for, all at the same time, there has been two that I have used on a consistent basis. Below I'll give you my experiences with these two legitimate sites.



Opinion Outpost - This site is within my top 2 favorites. It takes under 10 minutes to sign up, and then you are ready to start surveying. They have a "profiles section," in which you complete "mini-surveys," which are used to match you to real surveys the site finds. In any given week, I receive about 10 to 15 survey opportunities, with payouts ranging from $1.00, all the way up to $20.00! In my experience, the most I have ever made from one survey on this site was $10.00, which was a fun survey about beer. It took me about 50 minutes, and I made 10 dollars. They do have a threshold, one has to meet, in order to cash out and it is $5 dollars. About two weeks ago, I requested a check for the amount I have gained, which was $22. Just last night I received a letter from opinion outpost, with a check for that amount! https://www.opinionoutpost.com/


Pros
- Legitimate Survey Site

- More often than not, you are not disqualified from surveys

- Surveys generally take the amount of time that they say

- When you request a check, (in my experience) it arrives a lot sooner than the 4-8 weeks they say it does

Cons
- Not really any I can point out, aside from the fact that they cannot pay via paypal.

Lightspeed Consumer Panel - This is possibly my favorite online survey site. There is a quick signup process, and from there, I receive anywhere from 10 -30 survey invitations, in my email, per week. Although I disqualify from quite a few of them, I have made in total around $35 dollars in the past month. $35 doesn't seem like much, but I like to look at it like it is overtime pay. Lightspeed also has surveys where they mail you free products to try and then take a follow up survey. Just last week, they sent me a box of trojans to try out. http://us.lightspeedpanel.com/

Pros
- Legitimate (not a scam)
- Many survey invitations per week
- Get paid through Paypal, which I have done 4 times so far.
- The threshold for payout is only $5 dollars.
- It takes about 3 - 4 business days from the time you request payment, until the time the money shows up in your paypal account.
- Some interesting surveys, generally the hardest surveys to qualify for, are the most interesting.

Cons
- There are more low paying surveys at this site, compared to Opinion Outpost.
- The screeners that Lightspeed uses, to match you to future surveys, are somewhat tedious.

My First Blogpost Ever!

Let me introduce myself first. I'm Frank, and I am currently a first year senior, at Bridgewater State College. I've decided to start documenting my financial situation for anyone, who is interested, to see.

I feel that by blogging about my financial experiences, I may help myself, and it may also help YOU. As far as myself, I believe I will become more aware of my personal finances, and be better able to track the outcomes of various financial decisions throughout my twenties.

As I spoke about earlier, I feel that through documenting the financial hurdles throughout my life, I may build a bridge,of knowledge, for everyone my age and younger, so that they may not run into the same problems I have.

I encourage comments and feedback, both positive and negative. Without positive criticism, I may never know what I am doing wrong! Until next time!

Frank

P.S. If there are any special topics you would like me to cover, I encourage you to ask. Also, you can check the Blogcatalog finance section if you are looking for a specific topic