Earning a Living Doing What You Love

Some Barriers to Blogging Full Time

by
213[?]
in Lifestyle on Jan 9th, 2011
73
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If you follow Consumerism Commentary, and I hope you do, you might have seen that I recently left the company I’ve worked for during the day for the past eight years. Since 2003 but particularly in the past few years, Consumerism Commentary has been a side project — even though I often contributed more than forty hours a week to its development. For a side project, it’s done quite well for me. The revenue from Consumerism Commentary surpassed my day-job salary in 2007. The question I am asked most often about my revenue is, “Why didn’t you quit your day job a long time ago?”

I ended my Yakezie member post with the issues I needed to consider before leaving the corporation that offered me a steady salary and benefits: “… the two remaining questions are whether quitting the day job will allow me to further enhance my online projects while keeping my sanity and whether I would be able to quickly recover if the income were to disappear overnight.” Read More

Entrepreneurship
Lifestyle Archives »

My Secret Financial Desire For The Yakezie Network

by
1035[?]
in Personal Finance on Jan 7th, 2011
43
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As you may or may not know, the goals of the Yakezie network are the noble Writing Contest cause, and the selfless support of the members within!

But I have a secret desire for the Yakezie network too!  And that desire is… (drum-roll, please…) continuous financial improvement and learning additional knowledge in diverse subject matter.  As a financial blogger, I believe I have game, but I admit that I don’t know everything. (gasp)! Read More

Personal Finance Archives »

The Golden Voice Homeless Man Who Never Lost Hope

Tips On Improving Your Speaking Voice

by
16600[?]
in Personal Finance on Jan 5th, 2011
25
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If you haven’t seen this video yet, you are in for a real treat. A homeless man has been panhandling on the streets of Ohio with a sign that says he has the “God-given gift of a great voice.” It’s true, his voice is AMAZING and so inspirational for anybody whose been down on his or her luck and lost hope.

The homeless man, whose name is Ted Williams tells us that he once worked in radio, but due to alcohol and drugs, his life went downhill. Despite his difficulties, he never gave up hope and thanked goodness everyday. He’s been sober for two years now and all he would like is to earn enough money to eat regular meals, have a place to call his own, and find a steady job again. Oh yes, he also prayed everyday that he could one day see his 92 year old mother in Brooklyn and show her that he was alright and that he had made it.

Well Ted, you have made it alright and the entire world is rooting for you! Your kindness after the man gave you the $1 was so sincere. I watched this video 7X after everybody had left from work and began to cry. Your humility and spirit is such an inspiration! If you are out there and happen to stumble across this site, I will happily send you a check for $500 to help support whatever you need. Perhaps you’d be free to do a short interview as well!

“Radio is defined, theater of mind.” Read More

Personal Finance Archives »

Do You Live For Money Or Use Money To Live?

How do you spend your hard earned money?

by
2371[?]
in Personal Finance on Jan 5th, 2011
55
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As a personal finance blogger, guy with two finance degrees, former banker, stock market enthusiast, and someone who once enjoyed rolling around in a big pile of money, you might call me a finance minded individual.  Most of the Yakezie members, like me, think about money a lot.  We think about earning money, we think about saving money, we think about frugal use of money, we think about spending money, we shudder at the idea of wasting money, and we are sickened at the idea of losing money to fees and credit card interest.

My Focus on Spending vs. Saving Read More

Budgeting
Personal Finance Archives »

Goals For The Yakezie Network In 2011

Slowly Creating Something Special

by
16600[?]
in Featured on Jan 2nd, 2011
65
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Dear Members, Challengers, & Readers,

Happy New Year everyone!  2011 will be a year of positive change.  From our humble beginnings as a disaggregated group of bloggers who used Google Docs and a patchwork of lists as our main sources of connection, we now have this site to call our home to help make magic happen.  We hit all our targets for 2010 with the launch of Yakezie.com in August and the establishment of the Yakezie Writing Contest fund in December.  Meanwhile, the Yakezie Forum is booming with ideas and our Yakezie Blog Network continues to grow.

In February we will welcome the Beta Class of Yakezie Members who have successfully completed the 6 month Challenge of networking with others.  Some of you joined the Challenge after the window date, which is fine.  Just let us know when your 6 month period is up, whether you’ve reached your goals, and we’ll invite you to write a Member Post to get inducted into the community.  Those who have not been as active in getting to know your fellow Challengers, please make a final one to two month push.  The more you give, the more you will receive.

As our Network grows, it’s important we don’t lose the tightness of our community.  Inevitably we will have growing pains, but once we’ve developed our relationships with each other, there’s really nothing that will bring us down.  I’d like to highlight three main initiatives for 2011 we should strive towards below.

THREE MAIN GOALS FOR 2011 Read More

Yakezie Challenge
Featured

The Winners Of The First Yakezie Writing Contest

The HowToSaveMoney.com Yakezie Writing Contest, Tips, & The 2nd Writing Contest Questions!

by
16600[?]
in Writing Contest on Dec 31st, 2010
50

Dear Community,

Happy New Year!  It’s with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the HowtoSaveMoney.com Yakezie Writing Contest.  We received thirteen essays from America and one from Singapore for a chance to win a contest pool of $1,000.  Originally, we had only planned on awarding $500 to one winner.  However, thanks to the generosity of 38 other donors besides Chris and myself, we were able to raise much more and therefore open up the contest to three winners.  To see how we decide how much to give away and to how many applicants every month, please see here.

The three winners wrote essays that captured the attention of the audience and never looked back.  They were very personal and highly memorable.  All three applicants are in high school and look to further their education by going to college.  With the proceeds from the Yakezie Writing Contest, they will be employing the funds accordingly.  Make us proud!

Announcing the winners of the HowToSaveMoney.Com Yakezie Writing Contest Read More

Writing Contest Archives »

Writing Contest Voting Rules and Process

December 2010 Writing Contest

by
16600[?]
in Writing Contest on Dec 12th, 2010
28
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UPDATE: Writing Contest Voting is now live.  New essays will be posted daily.  Vote here.

Dear Applicants & Voters,

Starting Monday, December 13th, Yakezie.com will be posting the Writing contest essays once a day for Members and readers to vote on.  There are a total of 14 applicants for December’s HowtoSaveMoney.com Yakezie Writing Contest and there will be three winners ($600, $300, $100)  given we have raised over $1,000.  In the future, we plan to publish the Top 10, but since this is our first initiative, we’ll go ahead and publish all 14.

The winners are determined by a simple numerical vote where a registered user of Yakezie.com, and only a registered user of Yakezie.com can vote.  Applicants are welcome to vote for themselves once.  We will be monitoring all IP addresses, so please do not register for multiple accounts to vote for yourself.  If you do, we will have no choice but to disqualify you from the competition since we want to make everything as fair and meritocratic as possible. Read More

Writing Contest Archives »

Keeping up with the Joneses? More Like Winning!

by
616[?]
in Personal Finance on Dec 10th, 2010
39
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I ran into something interesting the other week. There’s a tool in a Slate article that shares the average and median income of your neighbors in your zipcode. The information is based on what American Community Survey gathered. I admit, it’s kind of neat to see how you’re doing compared to the neighbors. As I looked at the numbers, I realized there was so much more that wasn’t being mentioned.

Looking at the Big Picture

I hate just looking at income because there are certain factors you don’t know or control. How many of my neighbors are DINKs? How many have kids? What kinds of careers do they have? Dual income families may be making quite a bit more than single income families. There’s another big factor that’s missing from the chart. Expenses are mentioned in it, so you may be missing a huge piece of the puzzle. Your neighbor might be making $75,000/year, but his/her expenses add up to $80,000/ year.

You can, however, you the general information as a tool to motivate yourself and your family to improve your finances. Have you looked into asking for a raise at your current job? Are you looking at starting a side hustle? Read More

Budgeting, Retirement Planning
Personal Finance Archives »
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