Interesting news article out on the city of Philadelphia requiring bloggers to pay a $300 “license” fee in order to keep blogging.  Amazingly, the example used in the article is a “blogger” who has made about $50 total from online activities so the $300 is 6x her income from the web.  The main focus here is that cities, states, and the Feds are strapped for cash and are looking for new ways to bring in revenue. Blogs and online business activity is a likely target in the future since there …

This is a guest post submitted by Kathleen Mackenzie
Whether you are looking to purchase a family home or considering snapping up some property as a form of investment, there are plenty of reasons why buying a foreclosed property is a sound plan. Certainly there are a few hurdles. For starters, it’s not the best time to be trying for a loan as mortgage lenders have significantly tightened the purse strings since the market went into freefall. And for first-time homebuyers who thought they could count on assistance from the federal …

Fidelity released today that early retirement withdrawals are up big time in recent days where individuals are opting to pay a stiff penalty in order to gain access to retirement funds. This is yet another example of the terrible financial condition of many, many Americans.

Textbooks are one of the most expensive things college students buy every semester. Universities often get a cut of the profits that book companies make from selling books in the campus bookstore, so it’s a good idea to be wary of university book selling practices. If you don’t want to spend another few hundred dollars on your college textbooks this semester, here are some good tips for you to follow to get the best bang for your buck so that you can save …

Recently, a visitor to 20smoney.com emailed me with some questions on blogging, namely how to grow and expand a blog in order to make money on it.  Here is the conversation that followed (published with permission and with anonymity):
Hi Kevin,
I just found your blog today by searching “blog growth” in Google.  I have a seven month old blog that I built from scratch using Thesis and I’m getting to the point I’m sure many bloggers get – I’m wondering if all the work is for something, or for nothing.  I …

I’m looking to put together a nice little investing contest for the readers of 20smoney.  There are some great platforms on the internet where you can do “fake investing” without real money – Investopedia.com is probably the best.  Before launching such a contest, I want to gauge interest.  If we can get 10+ people, it might be fun to do.
Here’s what I’m thinking:

Cash prizes for the best investors based on performance
Investing is definitely a long-term game, so the contest could potentially run several years – to keep interest, we might …

Quietly, gold is back up to the $1230 level per ounce.  This is just the way I like it.  Frankly as long as there are gold skeptics out there and in a decent number, I know that gold has higher to run.  As long as QE is the prescription for all our ills, gold has to be a part of your portfolio.  Gold isn’t going away anytime soon.  We’re still in accumulation phase.  Don’t worry, I won’t always tell you to be BUYING gold, there will come a time to …

Sometimes the mounting debts of college students overtake their bank accounts and it can be difficult to imagine a lifestyle where debt isn’t an everyday reality. But if you can manage to get your finances in order, you’ll realize that it is very possible to get yourself out of debt as you progress through school and that it’s even more possible to start saving for retirement as you plow through the courses for your degree.
Evaluate
The first step to figuring out how you can …