PFI Weekly Updates – December 16 (2008)

photo credit: Patrick Q

Welcome to PFI and the weekly updates – Happy Holidays Edition. With the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays just days away, I wanted to take some time to discuss those events in my weekly updates. Our Holiday shopping is almost complete and we have not visited WalMart once since our little episode on Black Friday. Christmas has become very commercialized in recent years and I thought this year would be different. I had assumed that the struggling economy would put more perspective on peoples lives, but our experience shopping that day after Thanksgiving proved me wrong. Don’t get me wrong – there are still many people out there who celebrate Christmas more for what it means than just for buying gifts. Apparently it is just that these people don’t shop at WalMart!

It is hard to believe that 2009 is right around the corner. It seems like it was just yesterday that I started PFI (back in April 2008). I look forward to the upcoming year and what it has to offer. I have been extremely busy at work right now and have been spending a lot of time writing and maintaining my site along with working on eHow articles. As a result, I have been sacrificing my sleep lately which I hope to catch up on in the next few weeks (ok – I know you can’t make up sleep). This gives me more desire and drive to create several passive income streams. I don’t want to be tied down to a career that is extremely demanding of my time. Instead, I want to have multiple streams of income that can be used to supplement our family income. That way I can choose a less demanding career that won’t take up most of my free time. The extra time can be used for spending it with my kids and wife doing activities that I enjoy!

Carnivals
December 16, 2008 – I participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance #183: The Pre-Holiday Sales Edition hosted by The Frugal Duchess. I would like to thank The Frugal Duchess for hosting the carnival and including my post Car Buying – New, Used, Or Lease?.

December 10, 2008 – I participated in the 42nd money hacks carnival: laid-off and freelancing edition hosted by Financial Wellness Project. I would like to thank Financial Wellness Project for hosting the carnival and including my post 3 Keys to Creating Passive Income as one of the “top readings”!

Articles I liked this week
Sticking with the theme, I am listing my favorite articles posted with the topic of Happy Holidays. Here are some of my favorites -

1 – My Work at Home Mom Blog writes about using Site Build It to create residual income online, and the current 2-for-1 Holiday Sale.

2 – Dusty from Chasing the Bull has written an eHow article about making charitable donations. The Holiday season is an excellent time to start!

3 & 4 – Dividend Growth Investor and Dividends4Life give us a Holiday present. Both sites give us a list of companies that are still raising their dividend, even in a bad economy.

5 – Bible Money Matters gives us an awesome list of frugal gifts that can be used for this upcoming holiday season.

6 – Dawn at Fighting Foreclosure posts some Christmas Decorations and deals.

7 – Free From Broke gives us a list of personal finance books for the Holidays.

8 – Frugal Dad discusses the rising interest in stores using layaway this holiday shopping season.

9 – Curt from Penny Jobs writes about Christmas Tree Sales this year.

Have an excellent week!

Tagged as: PFI Updates