Welcome To The Yakezie!

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the beginning of a great new initiative.  Yakezie.com was created after our little group of personal finance bloggers grew to almost 100 in a matter of six months.  Who would have known there are so many like-minded people out there looking to improve their presence and meet new people.  There is no bigger personal finance network in the world than the Yakezie and we should all be very proud.  The amount of collaboration has been incredibly impressive and what better idea than to start a website we can call our home.

Over the course of the next couple months members will be further strengthening their relationships through a series of “Member Posts” where we formally introduce ourselves to the group.  After each Member Post, we’ll add each member to the Yakezie Network List and create a member profile.  Everybody has a unique story to tell in their own special voice.  Perhaps some of us will share our failures.  While others may discuss their online and real life goals.  Whatever the case may be, we’ll get to know each other that much better as we head towards our next challenge of monetizing our online initiatives.

SLOW AND STEADY IS THE WAY TO GO

One of the consistent themes about the Yakezie is progress.  Through a steady delivery of content, accompanied by the regular promotion of others, we’ve been able to improve our web presence and march higher in the Alexa rankings.  However, gaining a respectably high Alexa ranking is only the first step in our journey.  After all, an athlete can’t run before s/he can walk.  We must develop a reasonable amount of traffic and a strong enough foundation before we can do more.

There are no fireworks or fancy giveaways with the launch of the Yakezie.  It’s just not our style.  We’re a group of individuals who all wish to improve our personal finances in some way or another.  Some may have plenty of debt to pay off.  Others may be looking to find a new career.  Still others wish to retire early and travel the world.  The amazing thing is that within the Yakezie alone, we can find answers to many of our inquiries and problems!

Certified Financial Planners, doctors, journalists, authors, stay at home mothers, and entrepreneurs you name it.  We are all apart of the Yakezie.  With the collaboration of so many different backgrounds, there’s no obstacle we can’t tackle.

THE POWER OF “Y”

Why do things happen the way they do?  Why are things the way they are?  The inquisitive mind knows no boundaries.  As soon as we stop questioning, we grow stale and decrepit.  We’re proud to adopt the letter “Y” as part of the Yakezie’s core belief of perpetually learning more.  The status quo is only there to challenge our minds and think in new directions.

The Yakezie emblem is a circle to signify unity and the infinite amount of knowledge that is waiting for us to consume.  The more we learn, the better we are prepared.  Each petal represents one of three main verticals:  1) Yakezie Personal Finance, 2) Yakezie Lifestyle, and 3) Yakezie Scholarship.  Finally, each dot is the point of balance among all three verticals so that we may always stay honorable, balanced, and upright.

1) Yakezie Personal Finance: YPF is our bread and butter, since almost all of us originate from this field.  We’ll discuss topics such as: budgeting, retirement planning, career advice, education, government and taxes.  The idea is to educate as much as possible to create the strongest personal finance system for ourselves and our families.  The financial crisis of 2008 made it apparent that optimized personal finance is tantamount for long term well being.  Once we have a grip on our finances, we can literally do anything we want, which leads us to the next vertical.

2) Yakezie Lifestyle: YL is the place where we discuss our dreams.  We will profile those who are living the life they’ve always desired.  Money is only a means to an end, which for most people is a better life.  There is an entire world out there full of entrepreneurs, world travelers, and free spirits who are not living the typical 9-to-5 lifestyle.  We’ll get to learn about what makes them tick, and where they get the courage to go out on their own.  We’ll learn about how some have retired early to pursue their passions as travel writers, while others are thriving with online businesses.  The Yakezie Lifestye is maximized through strong fundamental personal finance.

3) Yakezie Scholarship: YS is our most ambitious vertical and likely one that will take the longest time to build.  The Yakezie group has the innate spirit of selflessly helping others.  If you could only see the amount of collaboration we’ve shown in our Google Groups, you’d be amazed.  Yakezie Scholarship is our chance to give back to the community of readers in a big way.  We want to help those who most wish to help themselves.  The Yakezie Scholarship Menu will consist of consulting advice about how to get into graduate school, analysis of your existing investment portfolio, advice on how to grow a profitable online business, a monetary gift certificate to buy books for next semester and much more.  Think about the Yakezie Scholarship as Extreme Home Makeover meets personal finance!

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

We never know what the future holds.  One thing is for certain is that if we do nothing, we will always be left wondering.  There are no grandiose goals for this site, just that it gets started so that members from all over the world can have an official site to call home.  The success of Yakezie.com lies in all of us and our desire to help others.  As soon as we stop thinking about ourselves, new things open up in a big way.

We look forward to getting to know everyone better through the upcoming Member Posts starting Monday, August 23rd.  Over the next several days, we’ll introduce members to some features and initiatives on Yakezie.com that will promote further collaboration.  Thanks to everyone for their support and being a part of something special so far!

* For those of you who would like to join The Yakezie, feel free to head over to the first Yakezie post where things all began.  Follow the guidelines, commit to the challenge for the next 6 months, surpass your expectations and check back then!

* Feel free to provide as much constructive criticism and feedback as you’d like about the site in the comments section below.  Chris and I have done as much as possible to get this steel bird off the ground and let it soar.  We are always looking for new ways to improve the reader experience.  Please let us know about any bugs you encounter as well so we can trouble shoot away!

Regards,

Sam

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