Just a friendly reminder to enter the MyMoneyBlog Giveaway if you want a free chance to win a free music CD or Starbucks card. It’s open to all, but as of right now only 10 people have entered. So they have a 50/50 chance of winning right now! Giveaway ends Friday at 3pm Eastern.

The turnout is a bit lower than I had hoped, I’m thinking it’s partly due to the fact that the e-mails show to the public? Use a Hotmail or Yahoo account! Or maybe the prizes just suck =P. I am not collecting e-mails for a mailing list.

(I just want to make it clear that anyone can enter, even if you don’t have a website!)

Ok, other than hating both Money and Quicken this week, I’ve decided to have a little giveaway/contest! This is my first try at this, so forgive me if I do something wrong. If it’s fun I’ll do it again!

Prizes (Qty):
(3) CD of your choice from YourMusic.com
(1) $5 Starbucks Gift Card.
(1) One week of being the “Featured Site” on this blog.
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I got a chance to add up the receipts from our Disney vacation, and it was a pretty penny. The really crazy thing is that just about every cent went directly to Mickey’s deep pockets (DIS). We stayed at a Disney Hotel. Had breakfast at the resort in the Disney cafeteria. Ate the rest of our meals exclusively at Disney restaurants, either at the theme parks or at various resorts. Bought souvenirs only at Disney shops. Our snacks were Disney popsicles. (If you can’t tell yet, my wife loves Disney.) The only thing I can think of that wasn’t Disney-branded was the gas, and we even gassed up at a Hess station on Disney property, so they probably got a piece of that too.
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Whew, my plane landed late last night, and I’m still digging out from under work e-mails. Along with various awful Disney songs, I’ve also got lots of post ideas in my head and some written in Notepad on my laptop, so hopefully I’ll be able to start blogging again soon. Most likely not ’til tomorrow.

On a side note, remember Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Supposedly the “Rich Dad” was actually a real guy, named Chin Ho, who was a really successful businessman in Hawaii, where Kiyosaki grew up. I guess people in Hawaii know this through word of mouth, but I can’t find any documentation about it online. Anyways, my wife actually went to school with the grandson of Mr. Ho. Apparently Rich Dad was a poor Chinese immigrant, which might explain the lack of formal education. Anyways, if this is true, it really is a small world. Ha! Now the song is stuck your head too!

I’m going to be busy decreasing my net worth and increasing Disney revenues this week, so here’s some popular past posts. The criteria was pretty simple, any post prior to April with more than 6 comments so far is listed here:

Emigrant Direct American Dream Saving Account Review
My Meager Stock Portfolio: Much Room for Improvement
Free Money! …aka Best of 0% Balance Transfer Offers
Are warehouse clubs like Costco or Sam’s Club worth it?
Who’s #1? MyMoneyBlog! (According to Yahoo!)
March 2005 Financial Status Update

In case anyone didn’t see or want a more permanent link to the Wall Street Journal article on financial blogs written a while ago, I ran across this reprint at OCRegister.com – Bloggers let anyone become a financial voyeur.

Really. I’m visiting my parents for the next week in Florida, and we are stopping by DisneyWorld as well. Not my dream way to spend a week of my vacation time, but it’ll be good to see the parents again. Apparently there is an entire underground of people devoted to all things Disney and how to save every single cent and maximize your Disney-fun while there:

http://www.mousesavers.com/ / http://www.allearsnet.com / http://www.disboards.com/

I’ll still be updating sporadically from the road (free hotel internet!), but I apologize ahead of time for delayed e-mail responses.

I would like to announce the start of my new blog – MyHealthBlog.Net! Putting my life online, setting goals, and having y’all keep me accountable has been great. And now I want to extend that to my physical health as well as my financial health.

MyMoneyBlog is 4 months old now, and it’s been a great success. I’ve learned more about finances in the last 4 months than in my entire life, my net worth has increased $15,400, and MyMoneyBlog has even been mentioned on TV! But even as I feel I have a grasp on my finances and am on my way to reaching my financial goals, I feel like my health has been suffering greatly. I am only 26, and should not be so out of shape. So here goes, I know it won’t be easy. I’m currently in need of some advice in defining my health goals, your help would be greatly appreciated!

There seems to be an explosion of finance-related blogs out there now, from frugal living to personal finance to stock trading to real estate investing. I’ve either run across these myself or had people recommend them to me. Today I’m resolved to catching up on old e-mails and comments, and at least making a list of them to visit. My apologies to all if it’s taken a while, or if I leave anyone out. It looks like I’m going to need to starts a separate links page to help categorize some of these blogs! In no particular order:
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Inspired by Neville’s exceedingly entertaining Lottery Experiment, I went out and bought a lottery ticket of my own while pumping my barely sub-$3 gas. Notice I said a lottery ticket, ’cause I am a cheap bastard and dislike playing games of chance where the odds are stacked against me. Ok, I’m ready to scratch… (I had no access to a Canadian quarter so it was up to my trusty non-flawed American one…)
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If there anything to be learned from the headlines today, it’s that now is the time to decide what kind of medical treatment you want, as there may be a time when you won’t be able to decide for yourself. And that’s exactly what it is. Your decision. Not your spouse’s, not your parents’, not W’s. Wills and estate planning are something that everyone know that they should do, but an Advance Directive can be even more important.
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If there anything to be learned from the headlines today, it’s that now is the time to decide what kind of medical treatment you want, as there may be a time when you won’t be able to decide for yourself. And that’s exactly what it is. Your decision. Not your spouse’s, not your parents’, not W’s. Wills and estate planning are something that everyone know that they should do, but an Advance Directive can be even more important.
[Read more…]