personal finance planning

Would you like to have these great bargains delivered right to your inbox? Join over 57,000 fellow deal seekers and subscribe to Deal Seeking Mom. Also become a fan of Deal Seeking Mom on Facebook for more conversation, additional deals and a peek at the freebies I receive in the mail. Thanks for visiting!

Freebie Friday is provided by Wendi, who blogs at TheFreebieBlogger, where she finds you 100% free items each and every day.

• Logical Nutrition is offering a FREE Revitalize Health Supplement sample. Just put "sample request" and you mailing address in the "How Can We Help?" box.

• Request a FREE Pregnancy Planner that helps prepare you for each trimester and for when baby comes home. It includes a 10-month calendar section to record checkups and other notes.

• Sign up to receive two FREE Wysong Epigen Cat or Dog Food Samples. You can choose from chicken, fish or venison.

• Walmart is offering a FREE two-day Prevacid 24HR sample for the treatment of heartburn to those who qualify.

• Those with children can sign up with Publix Preschool Pals to receive freebies, coupons and more. This offer is available to select states.

• Mercury Magazines is offering a FREE Forbes Investors’ Guide to those who qualify. This guide offers tips on investing and financial planning during volatile times.

• Kids ages 8 to 18 years old can get a FREE Young Eagles Flight and become one of over a million Young Eagles. Be sure to find a volunteer in your area.

• Sun Laboratories is offering a FREE self-tanning product samples. They do not mention which product you will receive.

• If you love Taylor Swift, you can download three of her songs for FREE: Love Story, Fifteen and You’re Not Sorry.

• Stand Up For The Troops is offering a FREE comedy CD download to those with a valid military ID number. Comics include Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Jeff Foxworthy and Kevin James.

• PracticalMoneySkills.com offers many FREE materials including a Practical Money Skills CD ROM, Financial Soccer & Financial Football CD Roms (to teach students personal finance skills) and more.

• Astroglide is offering a FREE Natural Personal Lubricant sample for a limited time.

See the previous freebie roundups for more free sample offers that are still available!

As always, make sure you’re protecting your personal information when you’re signing up for freebies.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Every Friday I’ll start a new post with a Mr. Linky for you all to share your fabulous freebie finds with Deal Seeking Mom readers! If you have a freebie you’d like to list, just leave your link below.

To keep it neat, I suggest that you list your blog name and then the freebie you've found in parentheses, ex. Deal Seeking Mom (Free Toilet Paper Sample). The only requirement is that you link directly to your post on the freebie. Links directly to your homepage will be deleted.

Personal finance site for women LearnVest has had a big year. Launched last fall at TechCrunch50, the startup raised its first round of funding from Accel Partners and seed investors a few months ago ($4.5 million to be exact).

LearnVest has a simple goal: to help women organize their finances and learn how to become financially savvy. It’s kind of like an online version of financial planner Suze Orman blended with personal finance site Mint.com.

Today, the startup is launching three online programs, called ‘bootcamps,’ to educate women on various financial subjects, including a Financial Basics Bootcamp, Cut Your Costs Bootcamp, and Investing Bootcamp. Instead of creating a book-like online experience, LearnVest is making email newsletters the foundation of the educational sessions.

For example, the Investing Bootcamp, which costs users $7.99, teaches women how to make smart investing decisions and properly allocate their portfolios. For three weeks, women will receive daily emails with advice and actionable items that they can perform on LearnVest, making the newsletter interactive. For example, for the Financial Basics bootcamp, one of the daily actionable items is ‘Get Your Credit Score.’ Cut Your Costs Bootcamp topic range from Bootcamp topics range from ways to save on energy bills to exactly how to negotiate a lower cable bill. Learnvest will incorporate all of the information users complete and input in bootcamps into their LearnVest account.

Alexa von Tobel, LearnVest’s CEO and founder, tells me that the idea is to encourage women to not only learn, but also motivate them to make actionable decisions about their accounts and finances at the same time. She chose a newsletter format because the ‘LearnVest woman’ simply doesn’t have time to read the same information in a book. Women are more inclined to read a daily tidbit in an email vs. sitting down with a book, says von Tobel.

LearnVest held a pilot bootcamp in January and saw impressive results—8,000 people signed up for the basic financial bootcamp. With the new additions LearnVest expects to sign up a total of 40,000 participants. LearnVest plans to launch additional bootcamps in the future, including sessions realted to how to get a mortgage for a home.

The integration between the bootcamp educational sessions and the user’s LearnVest profile is key to the success of the initiative. As we wrote in our initial review of LearnVest, the site will ask you a series of questions about your financial health (i.e. how much credit card debt do you have), you life stages (i.e. do you rent, are you planning a family soon, do you own a house) and your financial education level and will diagnose your financial health and give you a snapshot of what you need to learn and improve. LearnVest will create customized plans for you, depending on your goals, and allow you to chart off your improvements and achievements.

Von Tobel says that LearnVest is steadily adding more female users flock to its site and is currently seeing 500K uniques per month. The next step is to take the site mobile, says von Tobel, and help women access LearnVest on the go.

canadian penis extender

Business <b>News</b> You Need Today: Aug. 25, 2010 - DailyFinance

David Schepp has covered business news for more than a decade at news organizations such as Dow Jones, BBC News and Gannett. His beats have included technology, biotechnology, health care and workplace. He lives in New York's Hudson ...

&#39;CBS Evening <b>News</b>&#39; Ratings Hit Record LOW During Katie Couric&#39;s <b>...</b>

NEW YORK — Katie Couric and the "CBS Evening News" team did some striking work during a two-day trip to Afghanistan last week, only to see some record-setting low ratings in return. The Nielsen Co. ratings have to be discouraging to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Executives Actually Recently Met With Saudi Billionaire <b>...</b>

By now, you may have heard about how on last night's edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart made fantastic comedic hay out of a Fox And Friends segment, in which the gathered panel indulged in some outsized fearmongery over Cordoba ...

personal finance manager

Tracking your spendings online with web apps is very convenient since they offer the power of monitoring your expenses in detail without the clunky interface found in desktop apps. If you are looking for alternatives to popular personal finance apps, then you should check out Accpal. This Silverlight-based money management tool allows you to track your accounts with extra features such as multi-level tagging, comprehensive reports, and one-click transactions.

To use Accpal, simply add your new account and currency. After which, you can start adding individual transactions. You can add multiple transactions by clicking “Add & New” while adding an entry. Inputting data feels like working with a spreadsheet which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many will find this a nice surprise since you can see your income and expenses in one glance.

The highlight of this app is the multi-level tagging feature. With multi-level tagging, you can break down your transaction into a single tag nested under a broader tag. For example, you can click coffee as a tag under “food”, and you can even go deeper and tag “espresso”, under coffee. This gives you an idea of what exactly you are spending on. This differs from other web apps that lets you tag as much as you like, leaving you to organize the transactions yourself.

Accpal is a nifty website for anyone who needs a better-organized online money management tool.

Features

• Track your expenses online.


• Free of charge.


• Requires Silverlight 4.


• Tag your transactions – multi-level tagging.


• Comprehensive reporting.


• Export to Excel.


• Shortcuts allow for one click reporting and transactions.


• Similar Tools: BudgetTracker, BudgetPulse, Thrive, and BillFloat .

Check out Accpal @ www.accpal.com

Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint.com (2008), sold his company to Intuit for $170 million and has been ensconced as Vice President and General Manager of Intuit Personal Finance Group. But he hasn't forgotten his entrepreneurial roots. He's using that stack of cash from Intuit to make some angel investments of his own, including a stake in Jack Abraham's Milo.com, which is on this year's list. And he's also an informal advisor to Anapata's Ooshma Garg.

When he appeared on the 30 Under 30 list in 2008, Etsy founder Rob Kalin had just hired a professional CEO and given up day-to-day management responsibilities. But last December, Kalin retook the reins. Etsy has thrived since--the company is profitable and has been posting double-digit monthly sales gains. In his spare time, Kalin is working on a second company, Parachutes.org, an online education start-up.

Chaim Indig and Evan Roberts, the founders of Phreesia (2008), closed a $16 million Series D investment from Ascension Health Ventures in May. Phreesia, a self-service patient check-in company that makes electronic tablets for use in doctors' offices, will use the investment to expand its nationwide presence.

Involver founders Rahim Fazal and Noah Horton (2008), have added Facebook, the White House, and Sony Music to their client list. Involver, which helps companies and organizations build their video presence across social networking platforms, now supports more than 80,000 brands.

It's been a big year for Ben Lerer and Adam Rich and their company Thrillist (2009). Early in 2010, Lerer and his father Ken, co-founder of The Huffington Post, launched the New York City-based angel fund Lerer Media Ventures. And in the spring, Thrillist made its first acquisition, expanding into the e-commerce space with the purchase of Jack Threads, a flash-sale site for men's streetwear that works similarly to Gilt.com. With the deal, Thrillist diversifies its business, which was heavily dependent on advertising revenue, while Jack Threads will get its name in front of Thrillist's nearly 2 million e-mail subscribers.  "We have the e-mail list and they have the vendor relationships," Lerer says. "The case we made is that it would be just so much easier for them if they didn't have to worry about building the audience."

Box.net's (2008) Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith grew their company more than 535 percent in 2009 and tripled revenue in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.  Box.net allows users to share, store, and access any type of digital file from anywhere at anytime, and now has more than 4 million users, ranging from SMBs to giants like Volvo, Audi and Coca Cola. The company launched one of the first customized business applications for the iPad, developed mobile applications for the iPhone and Blackberry, and also integrated with other mobile productivity applications. Last April, the founders landed $15M in Series C financing, led by Scale Venture Partners, bringing Box.net's total venture funding to $29.5M.  Levie and Smith plan to invest aggressively in R&D and will add a significant number of employees.

Ben Kaufman (2007) sold Mophie in August of 2007 and began developing Kluster, a platform designed for group decision making and measuring influence. It's Kluster that drives Quirky, the social product development company that Kaufman launched in June 2009.  Quirky develops one new product a week and shares the revenue with the influencers who helped develop each product. Since launch, Quirky has collaboratively developed 46 new products, hit threshold on 16 (the trigger that sends a product into production) and raised $6 million dollars in series A financing led by RRE (also an investor in Venmo, on this year's list.)

penis extender

Tracking your spendings online with web apps is very convenient since they offer the power of monitoring your expenses in detail without the clunky interface found in desktop apps. If you are looking for alternatives to popular personal finance apps, then you should check out Accpal. This Silverlight-based money management tool allows you to track your accounts with extra features such as multi-level tagging, comprehensive reports, and one-click transactions.

To use Accpal, simply add your new account and currency. After which, you can start adding individual transactions. You can add multiple transactions by clicking “Add & New” while adding an entry. Inputting data feels like working with a spreadsheet which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many will find this a nice surprise since you can see your income and expenses in one glance.

The highlight of this app is the multi-level tagging feature. With multi-level tagging, you can break down your transaction into a single tag nested under a broader tag. For example, you can click coffee as a tag under “food”, and you can even go deeper and tag “espresso”, under coffee. This gives you an idea of what exactly you are spending on. This differs from other web apps that lets you tag as much as you like, leaving you to organize the transactions yourself.

Accpal is a nifty website for anyone who needs a better-organized online money management tool.

Features

• Track your expenses online.


• Free of charge.


• Requires Silverlight 4.


• Tag your transactions – multi-level tagging.


• Comprehensive reporting.


• Export to Excel.


• Shortcuts allow for one click reporting and transactions.


• Similar Tools: BudgetTracker, BudgetPulse, Thrive, and BillFloat .

Check out Accpal @ www.accpal.com

Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint.com (2008), sold his company to Intuit for $170 million and has been ensconced as Vice President and General Manager of Intuit Personal Finance Group. But he hasn't forgotten his entrepreneurial roots. He's using that stack of cash from Intuit to make some angel investments of his own, including a stake in Jack Abraham's Milo.com, which is on this year's list. And he's also an informal advisor to Anapata's Ooshma Garg.

When he appeared on the 30 Under 30 list in 2008, Etsy founder Rob Kalin had just hired a professional CEO and given up day-to-day management responsibilities. But last December, Kalin retook the reins. Etsy has thrived since--the company is profitable and has been posting double-digit monthly sales gains. In his spare time, Kalin is working on a second company, Parachutes.org, an online education start-up.

Chaim Indig and Evan Roberts, the founders of Phreesia (2008), closed a $16 million Series D investment from Ascension Health Ventures in May. Phreesia, a self-service patient check-in company that makes electronic tablets for use in doctors' offices, will use the investment to expand its nationwide presence.

Involver founders Rahim Fazal and Noah Horton (2008), have added Facebook, the White House, and Sony Music to their client list. Involver, which helps companies and organizations build their video presence across social networking platforms, now supports more than 80,000 brands.

It's been a big year for Ben Lerer and Adam Rich and their company Thrillist (2009). Early in 2010, Lerer and his father Ken, co-founder of The Huffington Post, launched the New York City-based angel fund Lerer Media Ventures. And in the spring, Thrillist made its first acquisition, expanding into the e-commerce space with the purchase of Jack Threads, a flash-sale site for men's streetwear that works similarly to Gilt.com. With the deal, Thrillist diversifies its business, which was heavily dependent on advertising revenue, while Jack Threads will get its name in front of Thrillist's nearly 2 million e-mail subscribers.  "We have the e-mail list and they have the vendor relationships," Lerer says. "The case we made is that it would be just so much easier for them if they didn't have to worry about building the audience."

Box.net's (2008) Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith grew their company more than 535 percent in 2009 and tripled revenue in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.  Box.net allows users to share, store, and access any type of digital file from anywhere at anytime, and now has more than 4 million users, ranging from SMBs to giants like Volvo, Audi and Coca Cola. The company launched one of the first customized business applications for the iPad, developed mobile applications for the iPhone and Blackberry, and also integrated with other mobile productivity applications. Last April, the founders landed $15M in Series C financing, led by Scale Venture Partners, bringing Box.net's total venture funding to $29.5M.  Levie and Smith plan to invest aggressively in R&D and will add a significant number of employees.

Ben Kaufman (2007) sold Mophie in August of 2007 and began developing Kluster, a platform designed for group decision making and measuring influence. It's Kluster that drives Quirky, the social product development company that Kaufman launched in June 2009.  Quirky develops one new product a week and shares the revenue with the influencers who helped develop each product. Since launch, Quirky has collaboratively developed 46 new products, hit threshold on 16 (the trigger that sends a product into production) and raised $6 million dollars in series A financing led by RRE (also an investor in Venmo, on this year's list.)

online stock trading online stock trading how to lose weight fast

Exclusive: Fujifilm&#39;s phase detection system explained: Digital <b>...</b>

Exclusive: Fujifilm's phase detection system explained: With the announcement of the Fujifilm F300 EXR and Z800 EXR coming on a day that also saw four other cameras being launched, it would be easy to overlook their most radical feature ...

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock dated.

Spectroscopic science <b>news</b>

These are my links for July 30th from 18:21 to 18:27: Space balls redux - I've reported on this ...

big white booty

personal finance programs

I sought government assistance ONE time.  I mean actively go and get it, had a lawyer and everything and I got it. 

It was the TOUGHEST decision I ever made because I hated, I mean HATED the idea of relying on governmental help because I was raised to be independent but I had to do it.  I had to do it because I made a mistake unwittingly years ago (follies of youth) and I had to pay the piper as it were because it caught up with me and it was a bit of an act of desperation and had very little choice.  (bankruptcy)

I was taught not to look to the government for more than the execution of righteous laws, including and especially the Constitution, and its military defense of the country.   So this was little more than a handout from the government and because it bothered me so much, I actually went to therapy for a short while.  Things are fine now, as I said, this was years ago.

Because of the way I was brought up, and the way I am, I don't see how people can seek government help without trying other avenues first?  And I mean really trying.  Yeah, there are some legit cases, but then you know there are the loafers out there too, and this business of the unemployment benefits has been abused in recent times, especially since it has been certified that the Obeyme administration truly is anti-business and places to work at don't want to hire people in that kind of climate.  So you got two big problems here, the people taking advantage of a situation and the current government taking advantage of a situation and NEITHER one benefits in the end....except the government has tighter control.

So what are people to do?  The options are getting more and more limited these days.

-Jon

LearnVest founder and CEO Alexa von Tobel turned down Harvard and a life on Wall Street to make personal finance education accessible to women, and she has no intention of failing.

She thinks learning how to manage your money should be simpler, a passionate belief which comes from her personal need for her New York-based company’s product, a series of online tutorials on personal finance which have led some to dub her “Suze Orman 2.0.” On Tuesday, LearnVest announced the launch of three new on-demand, online Bootcamps covering basic personal finance, cutting costs, and investing. These products are just the latest iteration in von Tobel’s quest.

The 26-year-old von Tobel got the idea for LearnVest while working at Morgan Stanley, realizing that she had no idea how to manage her own finances.

“Here I was responsible for millions and millions of dollars and I didn’t know the first thing about getting a credit card or insurance,” von Tobel said. “I needed tools like these.”

Instead of attending Harvard Business School, von Tobel put all the money she’d earned after college into building LearnVest. Since then, the company has raised over $5.5 million in financing, most recently closing a $4.5 million round led by Accel Partners in April.

The LearnVest  CEO has been spending a great deal of time in the media spotlight recently. She was recently named to Inc.’s 30 Under 30 list of young entrepreneurs and has received media coverage from a number of local and national outlets including BusinessWeek and the New York Times. The ‘Suze Orman 2.0’ moniker first came from a Fox reporter.

But behind the media attention that even has the attractive blonde’s coworkers teasingly calling her ‘Finance Barbie’ is an entrepreneur possessed. Her self-deprecating humor and amiable demeanor are genuine, but von Tobel is shrewedly packaging herself and LearnVest as an accessible and fun medium for learning about personal finance. And she’s doing it from a cubicle alongside her employees in Learnvest’s cozy New York office.

Usage statistics suggest it’s beginning to work, with Learnvest receiving about 360,000 unique visitors in the U.S. per month according to Quantcast, a Web-traffic-measurement service..

While von Tobel is certainly passionate about giving women unbiased advice on their personal finances, she is also keeping her eye on earning money to repay her investors.

And that’s where LearnVest’s latest product, the online bootcamps, come in. The three-week programs consist of daily emails with information and easy to do items that take minutes, according to von Tobel.  The investing bootcamp is LearnVest’s first paid offering, costing users $7.99.

“It’s cheaper than ‘Personal Finance for Dummies’ and easier to understand and accomplish,” von Tobel said. “We don’t want users to be overwhelmed.”

LearnVest’s content also provides affiliate marketing opportunities for the New York startup, where LearnVest earns money by suggesting personal finance products like credit cards.

Besides affiliate fees, LearnVest also sells advertising, in the hope that financial services firms and other brand advertisers will pay a premium for female users taking advantage of LearnVest’s educational content over what they’d pay for such users on general-interest websites.

Next Story: Your mobile app is spying on you Previous Story: Dark Roast Media integrates Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes into its social game

penis extender