It Might Start Looking A Little Funny Around Here Today

We are currently under construction, but do not fret, the final product is going to amaze you and make you want to spend a few hours poking around. That’s right, a new theme is underway and we are anxious to get it out to you! A post will follow tomorrow morning about how to use the new theme and where the cool features are at. If you have any questions, thoughts, concerns, or suggestions, email me at aaron@whereyouarenow.com.

If things start to scare you too much, get our content in your RSS reader for now and give our podcast a listen…that should help you cope!

Thanks!
-Aaron

A New Year Starts Tomorrow? What’s Happening Here?

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new year, 2009 to be exact, and we have BIG plans for this website in the New Year that we would like to share with you.

1. New theme
2. Podcast
3. Monthly Radio Show
4. Schedule
5. REfocus

1. New Theme - The current theme of our site is, as Lindsay would say about our apartment decor, non-committal. It is very plain but it was perfect to start out with. The new theme is going to offer up more content on the homepage and will be organized in a way that will allow you to search through our arhives based on topic. It will also be a little more appealing on your eyes. We hope this will be a positive change for those of you that read our content on the website and welcome our RSS readers to check it out when we relaunch it.

2. Podcast - We started podcasting back in November and plan to continue offering you our voices in 2009. We are constantly looking for things to change and make better, so we cannot really give you what you want until we hear from you! Shoot us an email (wyanradio@gmail.com) at the show and tell us what you would like to hear on the podcast in 2009!

3. Monthly Radio Show - Another form of audio but LIVE and with the option for you to CALL IN and talk with us. This is still on the drawing board but as we go it will be refined and refocused to give you what you want. Again, your participation in this is crucial! Details on shows will be posted here before they start, but right now we are talking about having the show every first Saturday of the month at 1pm EST.

If you call into this Saturday’s show you will get a FREE t-shirt! We’ll even pay for shipping. Listen to this podcast for more information.

4. Schedule - In 2008 the schedule was “On Tap for This Week” every Sunday, “Weekend Review” every Saturday, and actual fresh content Monday through Friday. That fresh content has always been written material. Moving forward in 2009, we will keep the weekend posts the same, but Monday through Friday here is what you can expect to see:

• Monday - Article
• Tuesday - Video
• Wednesday - Article
• Thursday - Video
• Friday - Article & Podcast

5. REfocus - Over Starbucks, we really had time to hash out exactly what this website would offer to you in the new year. We are going to be taking our ship into deeper water where we will have more room to talk about life issues and more in depth financial topics. Topics could include:

• Relationships (with the in-laws too!)
• Personal growth
• Organization
• Investing

We are very excited about the new content that we have lined up and hope that you are able to find our content more useful.

As usual, we need to hear from you inorder to really make all of this work! What do you like? What could you do without? What are your thoughts? We NEED to hear from you!! You can email us, send us a message on Facebook, or contact Aaron on Twitter or with Blackberry Messanger (PIN: 24432C45).

Hope you have a great night tonight and a very happy New Year!

Cheers,

Aaron & Lindsay

WYAN Radio Ep #6 - New Year’s Eve on a Dime

If you enjoy our podcast write a review in iTunes and vote for us at Podcast Alley!

Click here to subscribe in iTunes | Click here to subscribe in an RSS reader [?]

Coffee Break

• Gevalia - Royal Vinter - order from gevalia.com
• Lindsay - picture presents
• Aaron - New microphone/Audio book

Our Debt
Lindsay School loan - making payment of $944.90 which will bring debt amount to - $5,362.70

New Year’s Eve Tips

• Don’t get a tab at the bar, pay as you go
• Have a small get together at your home
• Have your guests bring their own alcohol
• Play video games - competitive games on xbox, wii,
• NO Meal, finger food only

Talk about the radio show

• This Saturday Jan. 3rd, 2009
• Website to go to - our blog. at the bottom of the sidebar there is a blue button that says “Chime In”.
• Listen live from this web page
• Number to call as guest from land line or cell phone - (724) 444-7444 ext: 27698 ext: 1#
• Time - 1-2pm EST
• Topic - new year resolutions (click here for ideas!)
• Why? - Free t-shirts (Strands/Aftertouch/OK Rivals)

Outro Music

• “Summertime Gal” - Hot Buttered Rum
• http://www.hotbutteredrum.net

It Is Going to Rain - Get an Umbrella and Save

Plan on worst case everything and never think that you are immune from the unexpected in life just because you are you. IT is going to happen (your car is going to break down, and you are going to need life saving procedures done that are not covered). Plan for it.

This horse has been dead for sometime now, but I must beat it again. I’m sorry, but this is simply a VERY important factor to your future financial success. Who wants to have money problems? NO ONE! Who wants to avoid money problems? EVERYONE!

Here is how:

PLAN AHEAD! Expect the rain to come and pack your umbrella. And you know what, while you are packing, you should bring that poncho too. Because sometimes, when it rains, it pours!

We own two cars. They both are registered vehicles and must be inspected once every year. Before and after their inspections something is most likely going to go wrong with the car that will need fixed. I am going to say this slowly, not because I doubt your ability to understand, but so it sounds better: IF YOU OWN A CAR, YOU SHOULD BE SAVING MONEY EVERY SINGLE MONTH FOR WHEN IT BREAKS DOWN. Even if you have a fairly new car, save up. When it rains it pours, and I can promise atleast a shower.

I planned for a hurricane this past year with my car and am so thankful that I did. I mentioned a while ago that I knew my car needed to have some pretty expensive work done to it when it came time for inspection. I planned for this and then some, because YOU NEVER KNOW! So I was planning on certain amount X but was also covered if XY happened. Guess what, XY happened and I’m glad I was prepared for it!

If you don’t plan for car problems, you will end up sliding the credit card and paying interest on something that was going to happen sooner or later. Don’t ever pay interest on car problems; save cash and pay cash.

Another area that can bite you without warning is medical bills. All I can say is know what is covered and what is not covered, and plan that your body is going to breakdown (just like a car). And even though certain things may not be covered with your medical plan, you can’t avoid everything. Recently we had some medical bills show up, unexpectedly, but they were legitimate bills. The procedures that were done were not covered but they needed to be done. So what did we do? We paid them ofcourse, and thankfully had money set aside to do so. Otherwise…credit card or wait for the collection calls to start coming in.

So, all of that to say plan ahead. Plan on worst case everything and never think that you are immune from the unexpected in life just because you are you. IT is going to happen (your car is going to break down, and you are going to need life saving procedures done that are not covered). Plan for it.

Hulu.com Replaced the Cable Company

If you are trying to save some money each month, the first thing I would cut out, if I were you, is the TV bill. Just get rid of it. You can get breaking news, weather, and practically anything else you want all ONLINE. From there, learn the best way to plug your computer into your TV so that you can still enjoy some TV shows every now and then. But, take the first step and get rid of paying for TV. NOW!

It is wonderful, when an online company offers just about the same service as the cable company does. And they they do a great job. Plus they have the TV shows that we enjoy watching, they hold them in a queue for us, and we can watch them whenever we want to. All of this lets us do what we enjoy doing: SAVE MONEY.

Not only that, but thanks to modern technology, we are able to connect Lindsay’s laptop to our TV and watch online TV via Hulu.com on our 36 inch flatscreen. You’d never know the difference. Especially because we can run the sound from the computer through the TV speakers. The only difference is that Hulu feeds the shows to us and we can watch them whenever we want to. Wait. That’s BETTER than cable!

Yes it is. And we absolutley love the fact that Hulu.com works so hard to provide free TV online. It works like a charm and then some. We have had many a date night on our couch thanks to the service, and we save money doing so because we do not have a cable bill.

But coolness factor aside, there is a bigger point to this. You do what you have to do. That is life in general, but especially when you have goals that you are trying to reach and places you are trying to get to that involve money; you do what you have to do. We go without paying someone for TV, and there was a time when we did not have internet access at home. You just do what you have to do. If you can learn this and put it into practice now, you will gain so much extra money each month that you will have available for your goals and debt. Taking the first step is hard, but after that, and once you discover your local library and Hulu.com, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.

What have you cut out from your life that is common for people to pay for?

On Tap for This Week

Every Sunday, we will give you the posts that we have scheduled for each day of the coming week. Be sure to grab our RSS feed and sign up to receive posts in your e-mail inbox!

Weekend Review - The Wow This is Crazy Edition

Yes, the title says that this is crazy. It is. Lindsay and I sat down at our local Starbucks and talked about what we want this website and the podcast to look like in the new year. Lots of big changes to come, but a post on that will publish later this week. The first part of the new year and this website is a new theme, a more functional, premium theme. It will showcase a lot of archived articles and make things more searchable and easy to navigate. It is easier said than done and we have been working on shaping the new theme to fit our needs all weekend.

As a result of the time on the new theme, I have had to become a tad bit distant with creating content here and just keeping up with articles. Please accept my deepest apologies for this! Everything we are doing is for you and I do not want you to think that our attention is anywhere else. It is not, I can promise you that (just wait and see what we have in store for the new year!!!).

So how was your Christmas? Did you get together with family? We’d love to hear your Christmas stories in the comments!!

Before my coffee starts to go cold, here is the weekend review…

How to Save When it Comes to Children

Just in general, when you are purchasing toys think about whether you honestly need or not, or do you just think it would be nice to get something new. Save that money and put it towards something more long lasting for your child. Use it to buy a bike when they get older or start a college fund for them.

I Love My CASH T-shirt

When you are sliding that card (debit or credit) you lose track of how much you are spending almost immediately. Out of sight out of mind is the key here! You don’t see the CASH leaving your account so it is hard to account for it. Use cash and you see it leaving you, it almost pains you, so you keep close track of it and know how much you have left and what you need it for. With plastic it gives you the ILLUSION that the cash will never run out.

44th Money Hacks Carnival - The Merry Christmas Edition

…get in your favorite pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, grab that mug of hot chocolate, curl up on the couch near the crackling fireplace, and boot up that laptop. This is the 44th Money Hacks Carnival - Merry Christmas Edition, ENJOY!

WYAN Radio Ep #5 - Gmail Stickers and Setting Financial Resolutions

Show Notes for your convenience:

Our Debt

• My Journey to Eliminate Debt
• Going Back to School debt
• Our Goals

Financial Resolutions (financial destinations)

1. Track Expenses for 30 Days (TWYS; I’m on twitter @aaronaiken)
2. Get on a Budget
3. Save $1,000 for Emergency Expenses
4. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
5. Saving One Month of Living Expenses
6. Pay Off Consumer Debt
7. Saving Three Month of Living Expenses
8. Save for Big Ticket Items - Car/House/etc…

Email the show at: wyanradio@gmail.com

LIVE RADIO SHOW INFORMATION

Featured Artist - Ryan Calhoun
www.myspace.com/ryancalhounmusic

Our Christmas - The Unwrapped Edition

Our Christmas day was AWESOME! We both absolutely love this time of year and do not need too much in the way of gifts to have a great time with friends and family. We did our own Christmas at our place in the morning and spent the afternoon and evening visiting Lindsay’s side of the family. We landed at her parents house at 6pm for a delicious Christmas dinner!

That’s it folks! I hope that you enjoyed this week, especially the carnival! Lots of awesome articles were submitted and lots of great blogs that you can and should add to your financial reading.

Now, if you don’t mine, I’m going to get back to planning for the new year…like I said earlier, LOTS OF GREAT THINGS ARE COMING!! Stay tuned…

Our Christmas - The Unwrapped Edition

You’re probably wondering what the heck the title is all about. Well, the “unwrapped edition” is a cool way of saying “the day after Christmas”. So now that you know…

Our Christmas day was AWESOME! We both absolutely love this time of year and do not need too much in the way of gifts to have a great time with friends and family. We did our own Christmas at our place in the morning and spent the afternoon and evening visiting Lindsay’s side of the family. We landed at her parents house at 6pm for a delicious Christmas dinner!

Today we are still in the Christmas spirit and will have been with my family for most of the afternoon.

How about you? What are your traditions for Christmas?

WYAN Radio Ep. #5 - Gmail Stickers and Setting Financial Resolutions

Another great show brought to you by nearly financial experts Aaron and Lindsay, you will not want to miss this one! We talk about missing Gmail stickers, rip off car washes, our debt, and what resolutions to set in 2009. During the entire show we are drinking the “Noel” blend from St. Thomas Roastes; we HIGHLY recommend this blend for the remainder of your holiday season.

Show Notes for your convenience:

Our Debt

• My Journey to Eliminate Debt
• Going Back to School debt
• Our Goals

Financial Resolutions (financial destinations)

1. Track Expenses for 30 Days (TWYS; I’m on twitter @aaronaiken)
2. Get on a Budget
3. Save $1,000 for Emergency Expenses
4. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
5. Saving One Month of Living Expenses
6. Pay Off Consumer Debt
7. Saving Three Month of Living Expenses
8. Save for Big Ticket Items - Car/House/etc…

Email the show at: wyanradio@gmail.com

LIVE RADIO SHOW INFORMATION

Featured Artist - Ryan Calhoun
www.myspace.com/ryancalhounmusic

Click here to subscribe in iTunes

Click here to grab the Podcast RSS Feed

Not sure what RSS is?

44th Money Hacks Carnival - The Merry Christmas Edition

Use these links to navigate through this carnival: Editor’s Picks | Debt & Credit | Economy | Frugality & Money | Insurance | Investing | Taxes | Other

Welcome to WhereYouAreNow.com! We are honored to be hosting our second Money Hacks Network blog carnival, our first one was the 34th Money Hacks Carnival - Fall Into Saving Edition.

Before we jump into the great articles included in the carnival, here are a few ways to keep up with us: Receive our daily financial articles in your RSS reader or email inbox. You can also subscribe to our PODCAST in iTunes or in your favorite RSS reader.

Today is Christmas Eve and this is one of our favorite days of the year! We absolutely love the Christmas season and love the days surrounding it. We’ve had our tree up since the day after Thanksgiving and it is now towering above a pile of gifts that are wrapped and waiting for friends and family. This time of year is a beautiful time of year and one that we hope you enjoy as much as we do.

So get in your favorite pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, grab that mug of hot chocolate, curl up on the couch near the crackling fireplace, and boot up that laptop. This is the 44th Money Hacks Carnival - Merry Christmas Edition, ENJOY!

Editor’s Picks

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If you take the time to read the articles submitted to this carnival, you will see that all of the content is awesome. Well written with good messages, tips, and financial strategies. The 4 articles below were our favorites, though. If you read nothing else here, read these:

• Money Saver presents How to Save Money during the Economic Downturn posted at Save Money Tips.
• Matt presents Lessons From My Grandfather posted at The Online Investing AI Blog.
• The Happy Rock presents Skipping Christmas Gifts And Other Ways I Save At Christmas posted at The Happy Rock.
• Vince Scordo presents Marriage and Money: 5 Tips posted at Scordo.com.

Debt and Credit

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Credit Shout presents How to Challenge a Credit Card Denial posted at CreditShout.

William Blake presents Pay Off Debt Or Invest Your Money? posted at Debt Smackdown.

Destroy Debt presents Make Your Own Debt Reduction Plan posted at Destroy Debt.

Raj Patel presents DebtGoal » Blog Archive » 5 Important Tips on Educational Debt Repayment posted at DebtGoal.

American Entrepreneurship presents How to Avoid Late Fees on Credit Cards posted at American Small Business News.

Scott Crawford presents Credit Card Reform: Be Careful What You Wish For posted at DebtGoal.

PFR presents Citi PremierPass Card 20,000 Bonus Points Offer posted at Personal Finance Reviews.

Sun presents Where to Get Your Free Credit Report? posted at Earn More and Invest Wisely at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

CreditAddict presents Citi PremierPass Elite 20k Point ($200) Signup Bonus posted at Credit Card Addict.

Insurance

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Sam presents More Ways to Save on Auto, Home and Health Insurance posted at Fix My Personal Finance.

Investing

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Sandy Naidu presents Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme posted at FutureNestEgg.

D4L presents Is Now The Time to Consider Long-term Bonds? posted at Dividends4Life.

Investing School presents 9 Terrific Investing Websites That is Sure to Suck Up Your Time posted at Investing School.

FMF presents Employee Stock Purchase Plans: Great Investments posted at Free Money Finance.

[EDITOR'S PICK] Money Saver presents How to Save Money during the Economic Downturn posted at Save Money Tips.

Mike C. presents Are TheStreet.com Ratings Great Contrarian Indicators? posted at Stock Investing Tips.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents MoneyAisle - Banks Bid for Your Money posted at Cash Money Life.

value investor presents Graham vs. Greenblatt (Session 1) posted at Value Investing.

Other

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Surfer Sam presents NEW !! Do You Need a Will? Ten Steps to Make a Legal Will. When Do You Need An Attorney? posted at Surfer Sam and Friends.

vh presents Cleaning help scored! posted at Funny about Money.

J. Money presents J. Money Claus is coming to town! (My Holiday Gift Budget) posted at Budgets are Sexy..

pfincome presents Finding Auto Loan Rates in a Recession posted at Passive Family Income.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove presents Reasons to Delay Taking Social Security until Age 70 posted at Go To Retirement.

nickel presents 36 Ways to Earn Extra Money posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Money Beagle presents Leveling Out Our Monthly Expenses | Money Beagle posted at Money Beagle.

Cindy King presents Christmas Buffling In Britain posted at Cindy King.

Economy

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[EDITOR'S PICK] Matt presents Lessons From My Grandfather posted at The Online Investing AI Blog.

Michael Haltman presents Bernie Madoff: Who Could (Should) Have Known? posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator.

Intelligent Speculator presents Are US automakers doomed? posted at Intelligent Speculator.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove presents Trying to Shine Light into our National Money Hole posted at Tough Money Love» Tough Money Love: Hard Truth about Money and Personal Finance.

Penelope Pince presents Gifts Cards Could Be a Blessing This Christmas posted at Pecuniarities.

Robin Bal presents People Giving Up Pets As Economy Falters posted at Fortune Watch.

Frugality and Money

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Jim presents The Mythical Thin Wallet posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

MoneyNing presents Bargaining to Advantage: Lowering your Bills in a Recession posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

[EDITOR'S PICK] The Happy Rock presents Skipping Christmas Gifts And Other Ways I Save At Christmas posted at The Happy Rock.

Broke Grad Student presents The Best Frugal Christmas Gift Ever — Broke Grad Student posted at Broke Grad Student.

[EDITOR'S PICK] Vince Scordo presents Marriage and Money: 5 Tips posted at Scordo.com.

Taxes

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Madison presents 17 Tips for End of Year Tax Planning posted at My Dollar Plan.

Thank you for stopping by! I invite you to check out more personal finance bloggers who are a part of the Money Hackers Network. Next weeks Money Hack Carnival will be hosted at Online Savings Blog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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