I.O.U.S.A

Looks like a must-see.



Official Website: http://www.IOUSAtheMovie.com

Some new ideas to make money and save money

You can read about what I've come up with on Main Street today. Let me know if any of the ideas work out for you.

And don't even try to sell me your art.

Book Giveaway

The Bank Bonuses blog not only says "A Million Bucks by 30" is a must-read, but that he is also giving away my book for free. So far only 8 people have signed up to win. Those are some good chances! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post and he will randomly select a winner. You have less than 40 hours to enter. Good luck!

Extreme Home Makeover goes bust

I haven't been this angered by a news story in a long time. A family on Extreme Makeover got a free pimped-out mansion with no mortgage, plus a $100,000 stiped to cover carrying costs such as utilies, insurance, etc.

The couple is now in foreclosure. After the makeover, they took out a $450,000 home equity loan and invested it in a speculative construction company that apparently didn't do too well.

It's stories like this that make me believe that no matter what helping hand you give people, it's just easier for some people to be broke. (The $100,000 homeless man story comes to mind too. And this $54 million dollar lottery winner.)

And they all had access to financial advisors.

I'm speechless.

Explanation of the mortgage crisis

To fully understand what caused the tremendous rise in the real estate market and then the subsequent fall, check out this thorough and interesting explanation about what caused it all. It's an hour long, but it's amazing. It's from NPR's This American Life, one of my favorite radio shows. Stream it for free.

Wordle

Wordle is a cool program that creates "word clouds" from the text you enter. The size of the words is represented by the frequency of its use. Below is the entire text of my book in word cloud form (with common articles excluded). I'd say it looks like a fair representation of what the whole book is about: JUST MONEY.




Click on the photo for a closer look.

Another week, another chance for a free book

This time on the heels of a great review from The Money Gardener is your chance to win another free book. That's basically saying you have about a 1 in 50 chance to have the knowledge of a millionaire in the palms of your hands (albeit with numerous dog-earned corners and ring marks from a few beers.) But nevertheless, you have a chance. All it takes is leaving a comment here.