The Hidden Costs of Brand Loyalty

by in Personal Finance on Aug 1st, 2011

When my wife began clipping grocery coupons a couple of months ago, she learned something surprising. In her words, “I discovered that I had a loyalty to certain brands of coffee, laundry detergent, ice cream and quite a few other items. The strange thing is that these products were not necessarily better or cheaper than other brands; it is just that I got into the habit of buying them and had no good reason not to perpetuate that habit.” Fortunately, the couponing has forced her to look at each and every item with a fresh objectivity. While some of her long standing favorites have continued to find their way to her shopping cart, others stay on the shelf in lieu of better and/or less expensive ones.

Where else do we have brand loyalty?

The grocery store revelation caused me to wonder, “Where else can brand loyalty be costing us money?” My answer is in itself a revelation: almost everywhere. I will list only a few items in this post, but, hopefully, they will help you consider other product loyalties which could be costing you money. Read More

Before You Become A Millionaire, You Must Become A Thousandaire

Yakezie Member Post: Gamma Class

by in Personal Finance on Jul 29th, 2011

Hello Yakezie brothers and sisters. I’m Kevin McKee from Thousandaire and this is my Yakezie Member Post.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about what makes my site unique and why I do things a little bit differently than any other site I’ve seen. Let’s start with the “why” first. I believe there is a huge untapped market for personal finance content. This market is so incredibly massive, and yet so blatantly ignored, that I believe anyone who can reach this audience will have no limit to their success as a personal finance writer and influencer.

This market is young people.

Personal Finance for Young People Read More

The Value of Your Network Can Be Priceless

Building Relationships One Person At A Time

As some of you may know, I used to drive quite a bit for work.  Not only did I not work in the city I live in, but I didn’t work in the state I lived in either.  While I enjoyed my job, it (the commuting) grew tiring, and I knew I was missing out on getting to know people and do things in my community.

A few months ago, I got a new job down the street from where I live.  Once I got settled into that, It was time to start building connections – I shouldn’t need to explain to the Yakezie members the value of a community.  I have lived here for about 2 years now, but due to being gone 14 hours most days and working one (sometimes both) days on the weekend, I obviously didn’t know that many people.

THE DECISION TO MAKE A BETTER CONNECTION Read More

Financial Success for Young Adults

Yakezie Member Post: Gamma Class

Hi, my name is LaTisha and I am the force behind Financial Success for Young Adults. It’s funny that I teach finance now because I was never really a math person. In middle school and through most of high school, I hated math. My favorite subjects were art, english and lunch. But I am a big fan of pushing myself to the limits of what I think I can do. So senior year of high school, I decided to take the advanced calculus class. I studied every day and did over and above what was recommended. I was always an A student but this class was kicking my behind. I completed the class with a B and learned that math is not so hard, it just takes repetition. And I have no problem with hard work.

My Finance Story Read More

How To Increase Motivation And Succeed

Especially If You Are Easily Satisfied

by in Lifestyle on Jul 22nd, 2011

Motivation is hard to come by sometimes, especially when you’re a normal person with a regular life. If you’ve got your health, some spending money, a family, a pet chihuahua and a couple friends… what more do you want in life? There’s really no need to break your back to do much of anything really. Life is simple, yet so perfectly mundane.

I have a problem with motivation.  I know I should be working harder many times, but I encounter the “good enough” syndrome.  In tennis, “isn’t being a starter on the team good enough?  Do I really need to try and play #1?”  At work, “isn’t a AA performance rating and 10 hours a day good enough?  I used to work 11-12 hours a day, but my hunger has normalized.  Online, “Isn’t posting 3-4X a week, commenting/interacting with 10 other bloggers a day while maintaining Yakezie.com good enough?”  I should probably do a better job with @Yakezie on Twitter and stop by the Yakezie public forums more.

It’s easy for me to be happy with what I have and tire because of “good enough”. There isn’t much more that I want, or need, except for unsprainable ankles and more free time.  Anybody else content like this? I have very little desire to want more, which is a far change of attitude up until my mid-20s.  I’m surrounded by constant innovation and wealth in the Bay Area, yet I’m so happy to have a regular job and maintain the Yakezie Network.  I think all of us like the tight-knit group that expands slowly, rather than build it quickly and lose a lot of our culture.

Practically everything I do, I try and fly under the radar. I want people to think I’m slow on the tennis court, dumb during debate, and know little about any venture I undertake. Just the other day, I brought up the idea of creating a personal finance and lifestyle network with my poker buddies to see what they’d think, and they laughed off the idea saying I was too much of a “twit”, and don’t have the “creativity” or the “know-how” to make it happen. I was so happy they made fun of me for the idea because it’s exactly the type of motivation I need.  With every project I undertake, I purposefully seek rejection to give me that inexhaustible energy to forge on through.

WAYS TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS Read More

Income Diversity Is A Necessity

After writing at The College Investor for over two years, I’ve started to see a common pattern in my thought process.  And events that have happened in my “business” life have really helped me to hone in on my philosophy.  I’m calling it income diversity, and I’m writing about it at My Multiple Incomes.  Basically, I think that it is important for everyone to maintain diverse streams of income, just like you would do with portfolio allocation.  This can allow you to achieve financial freedom by not being dependent on one source of money!

Recent events surrounding California Taxes and Amazon have really put the nail in the coffin for me that this should be my most important financial goal.  Just imagine if you lived in California, and you main source of income was Amazon affiliates?  It would be the equivalent of being laid off – you would have lost your income without having done anything wrong.

LOSING TWO SOURCES OF INCOME IN ONE YEAR Read More

Don’t Let Time and Risk Aversion Be Your Enemies

by in Personal Finance on Jul 18th, 2011

Missed Opportunities of the Past

I use to be the kind of guy that would think of an idea or process but miss out on acting upon it.  Then later, I would read that someone else had since taken my idea (not intentionally, of course) and made the best of it.

Oh, the person never knew me, nor I them, but still it was basically the same idea that I thought of years before.  Obviously, the person thought of the idea too, but it irks me that I didn’t act on it when I had the chance.

My problem was that I grew up too careful with my finances and not taking enough beneficial risk in life.  Beneficial risk would be taking a risk for a high chance of reward.  Non-beneficial risk would be risk with no reward and unlimited downfall (including death).

Past Examples Read More

10 Tips And Tweaks To Keep Your Blog Looking Professional

Better Blogging Made Easy

by in Lifestyle on Jul 15th, 2011

Thanks to WordPress and Blogspot, starting a blog is no longer a daunting task. The technology is out there, how you use it is up to you.  You may have the best content in the blogosphere, but an amateurish looking blog is a turn off for both your potential advertisers and readers.

For those of you who are avid blog readers and have always thought about starting a blog to share your thoughts, you should really just go out there and do it.  One of the best things you can do is just start.  The Yakezie Network is a tremendous resource and there’s really nothing that is preventing you from succeeding except for your own motivation!

10 TIPS AND TWEAKS TO KEEP YOUR BLOG LOOKING PROFESSIONAL Read More

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