I noticed that most people who work at a company that offers 401k do 1 of 2 things.  They either don’t contribute to a 401k at all or they just pick random stocks or let an advisor pick for them.  I took a verbal survey at my last job and found that a lot of people weren’t even saving at all, for anything!  Of course the statistics are higher for younger people but I was still surprised.

If you are one of those 2 people I just mentioned then listen:

1) If you don’t wish to contribute to a 401k then change your mind.  Companies usually offer a matching program, where they will match a certain percentage of what you contribute to your 401k.  This is free money!  Why wouldn’t you want that?

2) If you do wish to contribute but are not sure what stocks to pick do the following:

• Get the booklet about your 401k that shows what stocks/funds are offered
• Go to The Motley Fools website and search for each individual stock or fund in the search bar
• Look for articles that talk about each stock and see if the fools have good things to say about the stock for the long run.
• Pick a variety of stocks from different industries to build your portfolio.  Try to focus on stable dividend yielding stocks.
• Invest the minimum percentage required for your company to match your contributions
• Now do your job and forget about your 401k

This is the same technique I use and I believe in it.  Although my portfolio is down right now I am positive it will go back up even higher than it was before.  I am especially confident in the dividend yeilding stocks because they actually buy more stock at a lower price right now through automatic dividend reinvestments.  I actually intend to ultimately invest in a separate IRA as well as 401k.  I only invest in 401k because of the free money matches from employers.

If you wish you learn more about investing check my article on beginning investing online.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is only a recommendation, your financial future is solely your responsibility and you should do your own research.  i look at this techinque as a better alternative to just randomly selecting stocks for your 401k.

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The tool is a little pc desktop app called Souptoys.  This little application turns your pc desktop into a virtual toy box for your little ones to play with.  All they need to know is how to use the mouse.  Point and click and drag and drop.  It is an amazing little program with superb graphics and is based on real physics.  You can throw the toys around, create dynamic playsets, etc.  There are infinite possibilities and the game is super addictive fun.

I have a 2 year old son who already knows how to use a mouse.  He has a blast playing this little game and he stays right next to me when I need to spend time on the internet and watch him at the same time. 

You can download a demo of this application from the Souptoys homepage.  The demo is limited so you may want to purchase the full version. This way your child doesn’t get frustrated and start screaming at you as to why he/she can’t click on certain toys.

So there you have it.  By the way, this application is not just for children.  I have had much fun playing with this as well.  Enjoy!

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If you ever read any "for dummies" books then you know why this is a good offer.  Although vulnerability management is not a super critical part of making money online from blogs, the fact that is that this book is free.  I am going to get this one myself, simply because if I ever wanted to know about vulnerability management in business, I know I will learn it from this book.

"Dummies" books really spell things out in layman terms.  I once read "Personal Finance for Dummies" and I learned a ton about how to manage my personal finances.  It made me realize things I never would have thought of.  The way the book is design makes it even easier to read and understand.

It’s know secret that whomever created these books is a millionaire by now.

Revresponse is offering this ebook for free!  I am sure you love free stuff just as much as I do.

Click here to get this ebook.

If you want more great free offers like this one then check out revresponse’s catalog of free stuff!  Thats right!  All of it is free.  They have magazines, ebooks and more.

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They offer a great service at very low cost.  The way it works is simple.  You pick the amount of directories you wish to submit your site to and they will give you the price.  Right now they charge only $0.14 per site.  Or if you are like me and don’t have a whole lot of money yet than you simple put in your budget price and they will calculate how many directories you can afford instantly.  Once you pay they will submit your sites to each directory manually on your behalf.  They accept paypal which makes it even easier.  It usually takes about a week for them to complete the work, depending on how many directories you choose.

So far I have submitted this site to 204 different directories.   Unfortunately this site doesn’t make a whole lot of money just yet, so I am slowly paying to eventually submit to all 1017 directories.

2 other great things about this service:

1) They only use directories that don’t require reciprocal links which is the best way to go.  They also keep track of all the directories and are constantly adding and removing from their database.

2) They have an affiliate program you can join to help promote their services and make money in the process.  They also have a free ebook you can give away to help promote.  I love to promote services I use because I know it works so I have no problem telling people about them.  If you would like a copy of the ebook use the link below.  You can right-click and save as or you can open the PDF and click on the save button.

Download Directory Maximizer Free E-Book.

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Many people think that bringing our troops home is a bad thing.  It was a bad thing for us to go in there in the first place.  I watched the news often when president Bush first started talking about going into Iraq.  You remember, "Weapons of Mass Descruction".

That was all that was talked about and it pretty much out of the blue too.  9/11 happened so fast and we went to Afganistan shorty after.  We spent little time there however and didn’t accomplish much.  Then all of the sudden we were going after Iraq.  I remember it happening just like that too.  I turned on the television one day and there he(Bush) was talking about Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons and we must stop him.

Then off we went to Iraq and blew the shit out of their country and DIDN’T find any nuclear weapons.  Did you hear what I just said?!  "didn’t!"  This is a very bad thing but no one seems to care.  Oh but they do, you just don’t see it reported on the news.  The world should have been outraged to learn that the U.S. declared war on a country based on false pretenses.  I know I did not feel too good when I first read about that.

As an American and a veteran I have to disagree with those actions which is why I am glad the troops will be coming home.  Although many people disagree with it because they think that since we went in there and did so much damage, then we should stay to protect the people who wish to try and create a democracy out of it.

Although I agree that democracy is better than a dictatorship I know you can’t just go into a country and force it on them.  This country is way older than ours and trying to force democracy on them seems like an impossibilty.  Hasn’t worked yet, has it?  Everytime they try to put together a government they get assassinated or suicide bombed.

I feel a mixture of feelings right now.  I feel like the U.S. and the world just may benefit from the Democrats taking over the White House but I also fear that worse things just may be on the way for us because of our actions.  I don’t always get to control what actions my country takes but I get to live with the consequences of it’s actions…

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Blogger Unleashed is a blog I came across recently.  This blog is yet another MMO blog, however it has a unique approach and Vic is a very straight forward type of guy.  The blog design is unique and very well designed.

Vic has some very good information to help people truly understand about blogging to make money online.  My favorite part about his blog is that he offers a mentor program.  This is a great resource for any new blogger.  Most new bloggers don’t have the money to pay for the advice that many of the pros offer and I think Vic understands that.  Vic claims to be an expert in making money online and offers to review your blog, and tell you what to change.  Once he does you are supposed to just make the changes and watch the results.  You are also required to blog about the changes and how they affect your blog.

To join this mentor program you are required to write a review of his blog and what you learned from one of the posts.

I really would like to see what he recommends for this blog and see the results in action.  Every new blogger should not be afraid to try new things and experiment in order to become a true expert in making money online.  Vic also has some great videos on his site you should watch.

What I learned From Vic’s Blog

As soon as his theme loaded I realized right away some theme layout tips.  I really want to make a totally unique header for my blog and i feel like I should just start completely over because the URL I chose basically sucks.

Anyway, one thing I learned right away is that sometimes the hard honest truth can get you traffic and praise.  But it is all in how you do it.  For example, if you read a post on Vic’s blog called,  Another DumbFuck is Born LMAO!!!!

You see that Vic is a pretty straight forward and honest guy.  Acting this way is a dangerous move for your reputation.  Obviously Vic is pretty good at what he does because if you read the comments you see plenty of people supporting his claims.  I just feel bad for the poor guy in the video as he is taking a lot of flack from buying a blog about MMO while not really knowing much about MMO in the first place.

Well, I hope this post qualifies for Vic’s mentor program.  I could really use the advice.

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Yesterday when Barack Obama won the election there was mass celebration all over these United States.  I can’t say that I shared the same enthusiasm.  Simply because I am a well groomed American when it comes to politics.  The campain promises will always have to be, "I will beleive it when I see it".

I would like to present a different approach to our countries politics.  Many of you may have seen this…

Regardless, you should watch it again.

 CLICK HERE NOW!  ENJOY!

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I am writing this post because I need your help.  I recently switched from Goggle adsense to adbrite and I have added some new ads to this blog.  I have not heard any feedback regarding this and I really need some.  Please tell me what you think about the design, the ads and whatever else you like or don’t like about this blog.

I added banners in the posts, inline text ads and full page ads.  Please take a few moments to tell me what your opinion.  Are the ads annoying?  Are the colors bad?  Is the blog too busy or not busy enough?  Your comments are much appreciated. 

Thank you.

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I am slighty angry about this.  I think that they should have let me know that my blog was violating some standard before just deleting my account all of the sudden.  What about the people who paid credits to advertise on my site at the time.  I guess they just lose out.

I repied to the email asking them which exact standard I violated.  I do not wish to continue using Entrecard now.  I just want to know why my blog was deleted.  I removed the widget from my sidebar as of now and will be replacing it with something more useful.

I read that Entrecard is viewed as spam by search engines anyway.  I also noticed that the top bloggers don’t use it as well.

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I am done with IE!  The browser sucks now.  Even with the new Internet Explorer 8 coming out.  I have always been an avid user of IE for many years.  When FireFox first came out I shunned away from it.  IE used to be the fastest and simplest browser out there and none of the others were able to top it.

Ever since I started blogging however, IE would not display pages and themes correctly.  There was always problems with ads, java scripts and more.

Firefox

Now Firefox on the other hand is wonderful.  It displays my blog perfectly and rarely has errors.  It seems so much more compatible with Wordpress functions and Java script.  Firefox 3 is out now and there are many add-ons for it and is more compatible than ever.  Not to mention it has become popular and the most stable of today.

I was doing some research on how many people actually use Firefox today.  According to Mozilla COO John Lilly as of 2007, there are an estimated 125 Million people worldwide using Firefox.  I want this number to grow or want Microsoft to fix IE.  I do not want to have to put that disclaimer on my blog saying, "This page best viewed in Firefox"!  Haha!  I doubt I would ever do that anyway.

Google Chrome

Now this browser excites me.  Most Google products are unique and interesting.  Did you know that when you open tabs in Chrome they open as separate processes.  This idea makes Chrome extremely fast but also stable.  I tested the speed difference between this browser and IE and Firefox.  This browser is by far the fastest and because of the multiple processes if one page causes a crash only that tab will fail and the whole browser will still run.  You just simply need to open a new tab and reload that page.

This is promising technology from Google.  The idea is to eventually have just very light workstations and all applications will run completely online.  For example, Google Docs let’s you store and edit documents totally online.  This is certainly an interesting concept that opens the doors for many new business ideas and changes to the work environment.

If you have not tried out Google Chrome yet I suggest you do so.

Conclusion

The winner.  Firefox.  All in all this browser is all around the best choice for blogging in my opinion.  However, due to the fact that most people still use IE it would be a good idea for me to fix this blog in IE.  If anyone knows how to make IE more compatible with Wordpress and java scripts or if there is some patch or something to fix it please let me know. I noticed that it depends on the version of Windows being used which defines the impact on how well IE can display this blog.

Your feedback is much appreciated!

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