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Department of Finance and Administration.
Could I make any less progress on my February Goals?! Wow. I’m realizing that it’s almost the end of February and I haven’t put in nearly the effort that I needed to in order to meet my goals. As promised though, I’m going to share my “progress” with you. As I think about it though, sure, I might not hit all of these goals (or any for that matter), but my site is still improved when you compare it to what it was last month. So I guess I can’t get too down on myself.
February Goals
1) Bring My Alexa Rank Below 100,000 – My Alexa Rank last week was 113,393, and today it’s at 114,164, so it’s basically gone unchanged for the week. I really have to keep an eye on this and put some more effort into attracting more visitors, after all, if your business isn’t moving forward, that means it’s going backwards. Time for me to get active in this category again. I really would like to get my Alexa Rank below 100k! If you’d like to help me achieve this, please download the
href="http://www.alexa.com/toolbar?utm_source=top-nav&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=toolbar">Alexa Toolbar! Not only will your visits then count toward my rank, you’ll also be able to see the rank of every site you visit!
2) Grow my Subscriber Numbers to 1,100 – I really haven’t paid attention to my subscriber numbers this month, so there was virtually no progress in this category. I’m still hovering around the 908 number. So this is most definitely going to be a big fail!
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3) Increase my Facebook Friends to 375 – I haven’t focused on this goal either. My Facebook friends have grown from 314 to 316. It’s incredibly slow progress, but I suppose it’s still progress, right?
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4) Increase My Twitter Followers to 1,300 – Twitter has been a struggle for me for a long time, so I put quite a lot of effort into this category this month. I have paid attention to related Tweets, responded to direct messages, and started following other Twitter users that relate to personal finance. I have grown my Twitter followers from 979 to over 1,100. It’s not quite my goal yet, but it’s not too shabby either.
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Weekly Round-Up
I don’t always like to admit it, but there are a few articles out there that aren’t written by me, but are incredibly insightful and are fun to read! Here are a few of those articles from last week. Enjoy!
title="How To Be Indispensable" href="http://www.youngadultmoney.com/2013/02/19/how-to-be-indispensable-even-if-you-work-at-jiffy-lube/">How To Be Indispensable at Young Adult Money
title="Does Being Rude Get Your Further in Life" href="http://eyesonthedollar.com/lifestyle/being-rude">Does Being Rude Get Your Further in Life at Eyes on The Dollar
title="The Un-American Way: Saving for Purchases" href="http://luke1428.com/the-un-american-way-saving-for-purchases">The Un-American Way: Saving for Purchases at Luke1428
title="Having Trouble With The Debt Cycle? Stop Agreeing to Payments" href="http://www.worksavelive.com/2013/02/the-debt-cycle/">Having Trouble With The Debt Cycle? Stop Agreeing to Payments at Work Save Live
title="Avoiding Debt: A Holiday Challenge" href="http://financeinspired.com/avoiding-debt-a-holiday-challenge/">Avoiding Debt: A Holiday Challenge at Finance Inspired
title="Where's The Inflation" href="http://dqydj.net/wheres-the-inflation">Where’s The Inflation at Don’t Quit Your Day Job
title="Preparing to Venture into Investing" href="http://www.modestmoney.com/preparing-to-venture-into-investing/">Preparing to Venture into Investing at Modest Money
title="Learning to Live on What We Earn" href="http://www.beatingbroke.com/living-on-what-we-earn-a-learning-process/">Learning to Live on What We Earn at Beating Broke
title="What's an Impulse Purchase" href="http://www.evolvingpf.com/2013/02/whats-an-impulse-purchase">What’s an Impulse Purchase at Evolving PF
title="Can You Afford an Early Retirement" href="http://www.onesmartdollar.com/can-you-afford-an-early-retirement/">Can You Afford an Early Retirement at One Smart Dollar
title="The Impact of Saving More Money" href="http://www.iheartbudgets.net/2013/02/the-impact-of-saving-more-money/">The Impact of Saving More Money at iHeartBudgets
title="Are You Getting Reeled in by Deceptive Refinance Marketing" href="http://www.smartonmoney.com/are-you-getting-reeled-in-by-deceptive-refinance-marketing/">Are You Getting Reeled in by Deceptive Refinance Marketing at Smart On Money
title="10 Ways to Embrace The Frugal Life" href="http://www.moneyinfant.com/10-ways-to-embrace-the-frugal-life">10 Ways to Embrace The Frugal Life at Money Infant
title="Tax Return Scams - 5 Tips to Protect You When File" href="http://stumbleforward.com/2013/02/18/income-tax-return-scams/">Tax Return Scams – 5 Tips to Protect You When File at Stumble Forward
href="http://www.financialsamurai.com/2013/02/22/is-there-a-correlation-between-physical-fitness-and-financial-health/">Is There a Correlation Between Physical Fitness and Financial Health? – by Financial Samurai
href="http://www.20sfinances.com/2013/02/22/how-to-make-lots-of-money-by-losing-your-password/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+20sFinances+%2820s+Finances%29">How to Make Lots of Money by Losing Your Password – by 20s Finances
href="http://www.goodfinancialcents.com/you-may-not-be-as-financially-fit-as-you-think/">You May Not Be As Financially Fit As You Think – by Good Financial Cents
href="http://www.worksavelive.com/2013/02/why-youre-better-off-investing-in-index-funds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WorkSaveLive+%28WorkSaveLive%29">Why You’re Better Off Investing In Index Funds – by Work Save Live
www.euronews.com Question from Sophie in Zurich, Switzerland: “Hi, I’m Sophie from Switzerland. With baby-boomers entering the pension age, how will my generation pay for the retirement of our parents?” Answer by John Woodall, Senior Social Security Specialist, International Labour Office: “If we are going to find a good answer to the question, we have to ask the question in the right way. And I think that the key to this is to say that not all of the problems, by any means, arise from the phenomenon of the baby-boomers. “It’s true that the unbalances are due to the growing number of elderly people who expect to receive pensions compared with those who are working and paying contributions, and therefore are keeping the system funded. But an even more important issue, I think, is that longevity is increasing. We have to find ways of dealing with that effectively. “One possibility is to increase the money that is going into pension schemes, increasing the contribution rates, but of course this is not a popular solution right now, when everybody is under pressure. “The second thing you can do is to think about reducing the amount of benefits that comes out of the pension schemes. You can see that solution having been applied in countries like Greece. Then you have to ask the question: is it fair that the pensioners should be those who bear a heavy part of the burden, which, arguably, should belong to society as a whole? “The third thing you can do to re-balance the pension …
