So many people wait to start saving for retirement. If people only knew the magic of compounding and what it can do for their investment and savings accounts, they would be amazed.

So, how young is too young to start investing? You are NEVER to young to start investing. Let’s take the common 23 year old who just graduated from college. If he/she has $1,000 currently saved and they invest $1,000 each year for 42 years (let’s say they retire at 65 years old) at an annual return of 8%, they would have accumulated $353,922.49. Now let’s say this person waits until they are 40 years old to start saving (which MANY people do and often later in life). Let’s take the $1,000 they currently have saved and invest $1,000 each year for 25 years (retire at 65 years old). Let’s give them the 8% interest like in the first example. At the age of 65, they would have accumulated $85,802.89. They would have saved $268,119.60 LESS than if they started saving when they were 23 years old and just out of college. COMPOUNDING WORKS MAGIC. USE IT!

Here is a compounding calculator for you to mess around with: Compound Interest Calculator

Get A Jumpstart On Your Retirement Savings

If you would like to jumpstart your savings, a great place to work some magic is your 401K account at work. Hopefully you have one and hopefully your employer contributes to it. So, if you have a 401K at work, JOIN IT! It’s money that comes out of your paycheck BEFORE taxes so you are not taxed on that amount. It’s simple a smart move. Put away as much as you can afford to put away and still live comfortably.

In 2008, the maximum contribution to a 401K is $15,500. Those over 50 years of age can contribute an extra $5,000 each year to “catch up”. Most people will not contribute the maximum amount of $15,500 or $20,500 if you are over 50 years of age. Let’s take this in another direction though.

Let’s say you run into some money. Maybe you win a smaller sized lottery. Maybe you got a settlement for some cold hard cash. Maybe you received an inheritance. If this is the case, start putting in the maximum amount to your 401K and live off of the money you have received from the lottery, inheritance, settlement or whatever other way you received the money. This will give you a NICE tax break come tax time and will get your 401K up and running. If you are younger, this allows this sudden flow of money to your 401K to compound which will help you tremendously in the long run.

So, it’s simple. Live like you normally would but defer as much of your paycheck to your 401K as possible and live off the secondary source of money you have. When you start to run low on the other income, switch your 401K back to something more manageable.

Happy Savings and Compounding!

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If you are just starting out, it can be very overwhelming with all of the affiliate marketing offers that are out there. Picking the right affiliate offer is essential to the success of your affiliate marketing business. So, do you pick an offer that is highly competitive or do you pick a niche that hasn’t been tapped into so much?

How To Pick Your Affiliate Marketing Offers

You have basically two choices when it comes to picking an affiliate marketing niche. You can pick a competitive niche that many people are advertising or you can pick a niche that has not been over-saturated. So, you’re asking…which option is the best? There is a lot of debate on whether you should pick a highly competitive niche or stick to something with less competition. I am a believer that you should pick a highly competitive niche when you first start affiliate marketing. There is a reason that certain niches are highly competitive. That is because they make their affiliate marketers money. Isn’t that the end product we are all searching for? I know that’s what I want. I don’t think any of us are in this business just to pass the time!

The key to success in a highly competitive affiliate marketing niche is to think outside of the box. Don’t just throw up some affiliate banners and links and hope for the best. You will definitely fail if you do this. Think outside and do things that no one else is doing. Affiliate marketing let’s your creative juices flow…so USE them!

Try to master one area of affiliate marketing such as pay per click (PPC marketing), search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, article marketing or anything else you can think of. Put focus on one of these areas and become an authority in this one area. BUT, learn the other areas as well. Learn A LOT about one particular marketing method and learn a little about the other areas of affiliate marketing. You want a well-rounded business and by learning all areas…even if it’s just the basics, you will achieve this.

It’s A Fact - You Will Lose Money

This is true. It’s the nature of the beast. Losing money is TOTALLY normal when you are a beginner affiliate marketer…even when you are a seasoned affiliate marketer. It just happens. Lots of hours of trial and error are unavoidable. This is partly why so many people fail at affiliate marketing. They throw up an affiliate offer. They lose $100 in pay per click marketing and they call it quits. If this is what you are planning to do…save your $100. Don’t even waste your time and effort. You need to be prepared to lose money and you need to be prepared for frustration. Sorry if this sounds harsh…but it is brutally true. If you can get over both of these obstacles and move forward, you have a chance. Persistence is the key to affiliate marketing. Be persistent.

Take these tips and run with them. You don’t need to try and build a multi-million dollar affiliate business overnight. Start slow. Learn from your mistakes and when you find a winning campaign, scale your campaign to make more money.

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It’s not hard to become an affiliate marketer but it IS hard to become a successful affiliate marketer. Hopefully the tips I’m about to outline help you on your way to making money online.

Most people think that you have to have a product or service to make money online. This is not the case at all. All you need is a little creativity, motivation to succeed, a little budget and you too can start bringing in online paychecks.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of Internet marketing in which a person drives website traffic to a companies website, product or service and in return they receive a commission for bringing in a lead, sale or even as simple as a click. So, you drive Customer A to buy a Widget at Company XYZ’s website. Customer A buys the Widget for $100. In return you are rewarded $15 for bringing in that sale.

Affiliate marketing can be in the form of an actual sale, just a simple lead or even just a click through of an online advertisement. Each company will set their own commission structure on what they will pay the affiliate in return for driving traffic, sales and leads to their website.

How Do I Get Started As An Affiliate Marketer?

Realistically, you can start affiliate marketing in a matter of days or even a matter of a few hours if you are already familiar with some of the concepts. Here are the three things you need to get started.

1. You need to be an affiliate of a company. You can do this easiest by signing up with an affiliate network. I recommend Commission Junction, ShareASale.com, CPA Empire and Never Blue Ads. These four affiliate marketing networks will give you more than enough to get you going. There are many more but utilize these first and expand to new networks as your business grows.
2. You need a way to market the product. Here is a post in itself but I will give some basics on how you can get an affiliate campaign up and running in no time.

   The easiest way is if you already have a website or blog that receives website traffic. To make money online, you need website traffic. It’s as simple as that. It’s a numbers game. Everything comes down to traffic and conversions and if you have traffic that converts, you WILL make money online. You might even make enough money online to quit your day job and focus entirely on your online endeavors.

   So, if you already have a website or a blog, you can sign into your affiliate accounts that we talked about above and find a merchant that sells a product or service that relates to your business. From there you can place their advertising banners and text links and other forms of affiliate links on your website or blog. When someone clicks on the link or banner, they will be directed to the merchant site and this is where you can make your commission if it’s in the form of a sale, lead or click.

   A quick tip: If you have a particular web page or many web pages that receives a lot of website traffic, advertise your affiliate links on these first. Monetize correctly and you will be off to a great start.

   The next way to promote an affiliate offer is through pay per click marketing. This is a post in itself but PPC marketing is basically a way for you to bid on keywords in Google, MSN and Yahoo and when a user does a search on one of their search engines, your add could appear in front of millions of potential prospects. Google Adwords is probably the PPC engine you should master first. If you can master Google Adwords, you can master the rest. Google is the big dog so learn all you can with Google before you move to the smaller PPC engines. To learn more about Google Adwords, Start Here. Most people fail to learn this information so if you can learn this first, you will be ahead of most of your competition.

   Email marketing is another great way to monetize affiliate offers. You have to be very careful not to spam anyone so make sure you touch up on your email marketing etiquette before you begin an email marketing campaign. Email marketing is especially valuable if you already have a marketing list built for your business. Most people and businesses fail to properly monetize their marketing lists. This can be a HUGE earner if utilized correctly.

   Develop a website or a blog or both. If I had to pick which one to start I would go with a blog and I would go with the Wordpress Platform. You can realistically set up a blog within a matter of a few hours, even if you have no experience whatsoever. Pick a blog topic that interests you and something that you have a huge knowledge base of. If you are not interested in what you are talking about, the blog will fade and you will not succeed. If you can regularly update your blog with USEFUL and VALUABLE information and content, you are asking for success. Blogs don’t start turning profit overnight but post unique articles regularly and you will soon see the traffic pour in after a couple of months. Just don’t give up. This is the number one reason blogs fail. People will update them for a month or two, they don’t see the traffic they thought they would get and they stop. Just keep posting content. Don’t give up. It will pay off. Once you start receiving decent website traffic, it’s then time to start monetizing your blog with the proper affiliate advertisements so head over to your affiliate network and put up some banners and text links on high traffic pages.

   Before you start a website or blog, it’s a good idea to get your own domain name and hosting account. There are free ways of starting a blog or website without these but they will be bogged down with third party advertisements so get your own domain for $9/year and a hosting account for $10/month and you will be MUCH better off. This is a very small investment for the amount of money you can bring in. Trust me on this one.

3. A little budget does not hurt. You will need a little bit of money. Most people think that they can get into Internet marketing without spending a dime. While this can be true, it’s MUCH easier if you have some sort of a budget to work with, especially with Pay Per Click marketing. Figure out what you can afford first and don’t go overboard. You can start small and always increase. I do suggest re-investing all revenue back into the business for the first year. Gradually ramp up your earnings. Don’t expect to throw up a blog and the next day collecting checks. It just won’t happen. Be realistic about your Internet marketing ventures. Do you think they built YouTube and Facebook overnight? Not a chance! Take your time. Learn the business. And learn from your mistakes.

There are many great resources out there on affiliate marketing and the majority of them are free. Blogs are a GREAT place to learn so start with them:

Super Affiliate Mindset
Uber Affiliate
Cashtactics
Zac Johnson

These are great resources so read their ENTIRE blogs first. You will come out with a wealth of information on affiliate marketing and also Pay Per Click marketing.

Best of luck and I hope you find your pot of gold online!

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We had our rehearsal dinner at the Biltmore Golf Resort on Friday. Everything turned out great. Saturday was a packed day of getting reading and doing little last minute things. Our wedding was at St. Francis Xavier Church in Phoenix. After the wedding ceremony, we (Wendi and I) cruised over to our reception at Paradise Valley Country Club in a Bentley while the wedding party jumped in a Cadillac Escalade limo . Not too shabby! Once we got to the reception, we took some more pictures with the photographer before our grand entrance and first dance. Our photographer was Alan from Moments Found. He and his staff were phenomenal! Great job Alan!

After some more pictures and our first dance, we ate some wonderful food at the Paradise Valley Country Club. Filet Mignon and bacon wrapped shrimp. WOW! That’s all I can say. GREAT food! A little sip of vino here and there, a few toasts from family and friends and we danced the night away!

Around 11 p.m. we went back to our hotel which was the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge. What another wonderful experience. Everything was perfect. The day after the wedding we had a brunch for family, friends and out of town guests at the University Club downtown Phoenix. Another great event!

We then got to go back to the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge and relax by the pool and lazy river! Much needed rest!

Our next adventure is our honeymoon set for late May in Lake Como, Italy. My gorgeous wife, pizza, wine….what more could I ask for!

So, all in all…it was THE PERFECT DAY!

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It’s time we stand up against this crap and start fighting back. The credit card companies and banks are a major reason why America is in such HORRIBLE debt. The situation is only getting worse and there is no end in sight unless we start pushing back.

I set up a site that allows people to submit credit card complaints. If enough people can get together and take a stance on this, maybe something can be done someday to help alleviate the debt that America is in. It’s not going to go away on its own and the credit card companies sure aren’t going to back down as long as we keep on taking it.

You can fight back with us if you have:

• You are fed up with credit card companies and what they are doing to us!
• You can’t make your minimum payments because your interest rates are too high!
• Your credit card rates have been dramatically raised for no reason at all…just because they can do what they want…when they want!
• You are skipping other bill payments because you are overwhelmed with credit card debt and increasing rates.
• You are on the verge or have already filed for bankruptcy!
• You want to help put an end to all of this credit card frustration!
• You simply won’t let them keep doing what they are doing and you want to fight back!

Please pass this link along and submit your credit card complaint. The more people who submit their credit card complaints, the stronger stance we have against them.

Submit Your Credit Card Complaints Now!

Visit: www.LowerOurRates.com

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So, you’re probably wondering what this magical lifestyle “thing” is! For those of your who have never heard of this phrase, it’s called WORKING OUT! Other common phrases include “staying in shape”, “toning up”, “pumping iron”, “shedding some pounds”, “losing the spare tire”, “hitting the gym” and I’m sure there are many more that sum this complicated term up. Come on, it’s not difficult to grasp. If we work out and get in shape, we feel better. Our bodies are healthier. We have more confidence. We have less stress. We sleep better. Our sex life can be better. Our immune systems are stronger. In general you are happier and just feel better about everything.

When you get out of shape (as I have!), you tend to get in a bad routine that is very hard to break away from. It takes a different mindset to actually motivate yourself to get back into it. It’s so much easier to let it slide and say the magical words, “I’ll just start working out TOMORROW!” If this is you, do yourself a favor right this second and stop reading this blog post and go do something physically challenging. Go to the gym. Go for a walk. Go have sex! Just do something to get yourself going without saying those six dirty words, “I’ll just start working out TOMORROW!” Seriously, stop reading, get off your ass and go do something. If you wait for tomorrow, you won’t do it. It’s too late.

I’m 31 years old and I’ve basically taken an 8 year leave of absence from working out regularly. Sure, I’ve don’t my occasional full week of working out hardcore only to stop after the 5th or 6th day and take a one to two month break! That just doesn’t cut it. Obviously, you need to pick a routine that you can stick to. Saying that you will go to the gym 7 days a week, each and every week all year long is just not realistic. Start out going 3 days a week. Do this for a month or two without cheating. If you feel this is working for you, stick to it. If you feel you can step it up a notch, add an extra day each week. Whatever you do, just stick to it. If you can make it through that first month, you will be golden. People work out hard for a week or so, they don’t see instant results and they quit. You need to stick with it for awhile in order to see the results. As you see the results, this will motivate you to keep going and hit new milestones. So, just get past that one month breaking point and you will be in the clear.

You should also mix up your routines. Don’t do the same exact thing every time you go to the gym. Do different body parts each day. Do different cardio machines so you don’t get bored with the same ones every time. Get a workout partner so you can motivate each other. I don’t work out with her everyday but my fiance, Wendi, has motivated me to get in shape. She has done a phenomenal job over the past 5 or so months getting in shape for our wedding next week. She goes to a trainer 2-3 times each week and also works out on her own at Lifetime Fitness a few times each week. She looks amazing and it’s all because she got over that hump and started seeing major results which motivated her even more.

I hope you’re not reading this right now because you were suppose to get off your ass a few paragraphs ago and GO DO SOMETHING PHYSICAL!!!

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You all might think I’m nuts for writing this post as everyone thinks that multitasking is the best gift anyone can have. People brag about multitasking at interviews for business jobs. People brag about doing 1 million things at a time. Yes, multitasking is a great asset to possess in certain instances but it’s not what’s going to make or break your day. If you want to be the most productive you can be, DON’T MULTITASK. Yes, you heard me…no multitasking.

How Should You Be Productive If You Don’t Multitask?

Focus on your number one important task first. Put all of your focus into this one task until it’s done. Don’t try and do 100 other things while your working on this one task. It will only dilute the quality of your work and it will take much longer to complete the task. Each and every morning, start out with the most important thing and work on that ONLY until you feel your tackled what is necessary for the day.

If you are a sales, marketing or business person, you should be focusing on the things that make you money first and foremost. Don’t worry about the secondary things until you have put in time every morning working on the tasks that can directly make you money. When you multitask, you can easily get sidetracked and fall off of the productivity wagon. To keep on track, only focus on ONE thing at a time. And make sure this one thing directly relates to more money or assets.

Try this out for a month and see how this directly reflects on your productivity and earnings. You might just stop bragging about your multitasking abilities and switch over to singletasking!

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To some this might not seem like a whole lot going on but for me it’s a handful right now. Wendi, my fiance, makes fun of me sometimes and says, “How can you be stressed? You have it easy.” I’m a teacher and have to stand all day long and you get to sit at a desk. What she doesn’t realize is that I am constantly thinking about how I can provide the best lifestyle for her and a family someday soon. I don’t want to waste all of my time working a 40 hour a week job and spending most of my time with people I really don’t care about. I want to spend it with her and my family, when I want and where I want. Anyway…enough ranting for now!

I guess it’s just the fact that we all feel overwhelmed at some point or another and this is it for me. I’m by no means stressed to the max but I feel that a bunch of things are coming up all at the same time. When our schedules get like this, we need to balance things out so the chaos doesn’t drive us insane. Everyone has their own way of putting their life in order and some do it better than others. I really don’t have a set method and many of these things I’ve described above I have no control over such as traffic, my grandpa’s death and how my annual review will pan out. These are everyday occurrences that happen whether we want them to or not…it’s part of life.

Some of the things, however, can be balanced out such as planning a wedding, reducing debt and related lifestyle issues. When these busy times in our lives arise, it’s much better to be prepared for whatever comes our way. I’m trying to be better prepared for these life hurdles. Wendi is a HUGE planner and I am a HUGE procrastinator. I don’t think either are the way to go. Somewhere right in the middle is probably the key. If I had to lean towards one though…it would be the HUGE planner. At least they are prepared while I’m sitting there last minute trying to scrounge something up!

There is really no rhythm or reason to this post other than sending the message that things get crazy sometimes and it’s a good idea to find a balancing routine to help you get through the waves.

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Basically every day I come home from work, I stop at our subdivision mailboxes and pick up the mail. Most of the time we get a bunch of junk mail such as credit card offers, political campaigns and retail catalogs so my first instinct is to throw it in the back seat of my car or on the floor where it then ends up for at least a few weeks until I get the motivation clean my car out.

I also have a garage door opener in my car that obviously lets me in our garage. So, here’s the simple equation.

GARAGE DOOR OPENER IN CAR + MAIL IN CAR = ASKING TO BE ROBBED

If someone breaks into your car which is VERY common…especially if you live near a larger city, you open up the door to much worse things that can happen. If someone breaks into your car and sees a garage door opener in sight with mail right next to it, there is the key into your house. They have the garage door opener to get in the house….at least into the garage. Most of us don’t lock our door that leads to the house from the garage (now I will)! They have your address from the mail you left in your car. You are actually helping the robber succeed at his job if you do this. Even the dumbest of robbers can pull this one off.

So, moral of the story…don’t be a lazy ass like me. Take your mail inside the house when you get it. It takes all of 3-4 seconds to grab it from your seat. If you are too lazy to handle this, then you might as well leave a key to the front door in your car too.

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So, what do you do if you are searching for the perfect career or if you are in college and not sure what you want to do when you grow up? Get into Internet marketing at some capacity. No joke…it is the best decision I’ve ever made (with the exception of proposing to my fiance Wendi).

I don’t care what kind of business you have…automotive, retail, financial or anything else…you can get hit by the recession. So can Internet marketers but the difference is they can pick themselves up much quicker. Internet marketing and website development is an essential piece of every company in this day and age. How many successful businesses do you know out there with no website? Not many, right? Yes, there are a few businesses that are run the old fashion way but the majority of businesses are now moving to the web and what does that mean? MORE INTERNET MARKETING JOBS than there are Internet marketing professionals. There is a shortage of qualified Internet marketing professionals.

There are so many pros of working your way into Internet marketing, I can’t even list them all here. A few of the big ones are:

• You have a skill not many people know much about. This is great for job security.
• Internet marketers get paid well. You can make a GREAT living with Internet marketing. It’s not uncommon to make between $80-$120K with just 5 years of experience. Keep expanding your skill set and you will make even more.
• Internet marketers can work from tree houses if they had to. We are a mobile bunch and all we need is a laptop and Internet connection and we are good to go.
• We can substantially increase a companies revenue and profits with our expertise. Many people do not know that Internet marketing has a GREAT ROI compared to print media and other traditional methods of advertising. If they could only see through the confusion of Internet marketing and give it a try…they would see the light and what it can do for their business.
• Even if you have a full time job, you can still do side Internet marketing projects and make a nice chunk of money throughout the year on top of your full time salary. Now we’re talking early retirement!!!
• It’s an all around fun profession. I truly enjoy it and love to learn new things each day about Internet marketing and new strategies to execute.
• There are not many other professions where you can work 10 hours or so a week and make more than most people do in a month.

If you are seriously considering a career change or if you are still in college searching for what you want to do…look into Internet marketing. I promise you will be pleased at what you find.

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