December was a fun month since it brought in the mood of the holidays filled with the spirit of sharing and giving. It is always exciting to choose gifts for our loved ones. And the beauty of pure joy that is shared among our near and dear ones is unparalleled. We hope you had a fabulous time too.

We are really thankful to our readers who visited us and the pf community who sent traffic our way in spite of the holidays. Here are our top ten traffic referrers for the month of December:

1. Entre Card
2. Jonathan via My Money Blog
3. Karen via MSN Money Smart Spending Blog
4. Ken via Bank Deals
5. Credit Panda
6. Mary via SimplyForties
7. Trent via The Simple Dollar
8. Personal Finance Channel via Alltop
9. PFBlogs
10. Sharon via The Frugal Duchess

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Chase is offering a $50 sign-up bonus when we open a FREE Chase Checking Account and set up direct deposit.

• Sign Up Link: Deal & Details

• Expires: 15th Jan, 2009

No Monthly Service Fee — Chase CheckingSM has no monthly service fee when you have a direct deposit or five or more debit card purchases post to your account each statement period.

Bonus/Account Information — To qualify for the reward you must open a new Chase CheckingSM account with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates).

Also, within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit such as payroll, pension or Social Security, or other government benefits.

The reward will be deposited into your new account within 10 days after the initial direct deposit has posted to your account.

Limit one personal checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year. Offer not available on account conversions or in combination with any other offer. Reward is not considered part of the minimum opening balance.

Checking account must remain open for a minimum of six months or the reward will be debited from the account at closing.

Account is subject to approval. Reward is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Chase CheckingSM is available only at Chase branded branches and at Chase.com.

Free Chase Mobile — There's no charge from Chase, but standard text messaging and other rates from your wireless provider still apply.

Zero Liability protection — Chase reimburses you for any unauthorized card transactions made at stores, ATMs, on the phone or online when reported promptly.

Please let us know your experiences and opinions about this deal. Good Luck with your FREE $50.

Jan 6, 2008: Today we came across a great deal from Restaurant.com. Since we are frugal diners this special discount on their dining gift certificates is a welcome break for us. Hope it helps in saving some dining dollars.

• Beginning now, Restaurant.com is offering 50% OFF on their dining certificates + a Free $10 Certificate with every order!


• This means that their $25 dining gift certificates that normally sell for $10
  have been reduced to $5 ONLY.
  


• Promo Code: Enter DEAL at checkout.
  


• This offer is valid from Jan 6th to Jan 12th, 2009.
  

Their website provides detailed information about a restaurant, it's menus and wine lists along with the ability to make free online reservations. Enjoy!

2008 was one of the most challenging years for young investors like us. Our portfolio went down by nearly 35%! That's not fun. Now we are in the process of re-evaluating our strategies and risk taking capacities to set forth on a new direction with renewed vigor. In the process of doing so we were contemplating on what sort of average returns we should shoot for from different types of investments that make up our portfolio.

Call it luck or grace, we received pithy advice in this area from James O Donell's fine book "The Shortest Investment Book Ever: Wall Street Secrets for Making Every Dollar Count." This book is one of the most effective ones on investing that we've come across till date. It's very concise, with a no nonsense yet simple approach to investing that focuses on the essentials alone. There are no complex jargon and philosophies involved. Thankfully it makes us feel that we've not lost it all. There are some well tested timeless principles which still work provided we understand them well :).

Coming back to our question we found a simple answer or suggestion to it in Chapter 6 of Donnell's book. The title of the chapter is "10, 5, 3" and other rules of thumb. At the start of the chapter James tells us to remember the numbers 10, 5, 3. Next we present the gist in his own words:

10, 5, 3. That's all you need to know. Maybe you hoped for more. Sorry. It's as simple as that.

Over long periods of time - without any guarantees, of course, you are likely to get a 10% return on equity-oriented investments, 5% from bonds, and 3% from your cash. Now, those numbers don't account for inflation, taxes, or fees, but you can't control inflation or taxes, and we've already addressed fees (hint: avoid them as much as possible).

Investments returning an average of 10% per year double over about seven years. If you hear someone tell you that they can get you 15 or 20% per year, especially if you are also told "there's no risk," trust me, the person telling you such nonsense is exceptionally misguided.

10, 5, 3 - got it? You don't need charts and graphs and miles of words that equivocate and hem and haw over what you're likely to get. Because no one knows what you will get. We cant' see into the future .......

No one knows what's ahead. So just remember, in spite of depressions, wars, recessions, presidential elections, and assassinations, over long term the numbers are still 10, 5 and 3. They're probably our best guesses for the future.

Hmm...n being conservative in nature and observing the current state of the market we'd rather root for a more achievable 8, 5, 3. That's our rule of thumb for investing this year. Let's see how the year unfolds as we go along and the lessons involved. What are your thoughts on these numbers? We are looking forward towards your feedback.

About the Author: James O' Donnell serves as executive-in residence and associate professor of business and economics at Huntington University, seeking to integrate Christian faith, ethics and values into the realm of business. A thought-provoking writer, his opinions on ethics and finances have appeared in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, America and many other publications. For more information on the book and the author check out the book.

This year we are starting a new trend of doing our reviews of carnivals and festivals from the personal finance blogosphere on Fridays instead of Sundays. This will give us more time to contemplate and research further on the articles during the weekend. And the fun part is that Fridays are more relaxing than Sundays since the weekend is ahead of us and we don't need to get back to work next morning. We hope this new pattern fits your schedule well. To that effect, here are our relaxing favorites of the week:

• The Personal Financier: We've all heard of Bernie Madoff's huge Ponzi scheme and its aftermath. But have you ever pondered whether our stock market is the biggest Ponzi of all ?

• Passive Family Income: Here is a nice post which tells us how discount shopping can be fun so long as we don’t get lured into the traps set for us.

• Destroy Debt: Here is a detailed article which can help you create your own debt reduction plan, rather than asking help from the debt help scam companies.

• My Wealth Builder: He retired early last year (in his forties). He shares a few useful strategies for anyone contemplating retirement.

• Greener Pastures: Lisa shares a timely nice article for those of us looking forward towards eating healthy without being wealthy: sweet potatoes and yams.

Retro FIRE

• FREE iPhone App for Mint's Users

• 2008's Best of FIRE Finance

• Our Goals for 2009 - A Picture Essay

Carnivals

• Dollar Frugal hosted Carnival of Wealth, Money and Life
• Fraud Files hosted Carnival of Personal Finance#185
• Deposit Accounts hosted Carnival of Saving Money
• Intelligent Speculator hosted Festival of Stocks
• Insight Writer hosted Twenty Something Finances
• The Money Gardener hosted Investing Carnival
• Greener Pastures hosted Carnival of Money Stories
• Cash Money Life hosted Money Hacks Carnival
• Penny Pinching hosted Penny Pinching

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

We wish you a great new year ahead. May all things that will lead you to a better life materialize this year. This is a wonderful time to set new goals. We start 2009 with a prayer to the Almighty to help us stay focused on our paths and successfully reach our goals.

In this auspicious beginning to a wonderful year ahead, we also wish that all beings of the universe experience peace, joy and love. Happy New Year!

As 2008 goes out the door into the archives of the past, we welcome 2009 with a picture essay of our goals focused on having fun, learning, loving and more .........

Oops! Now we need to face 2009.

Boy! There may be risks involved.

We may face roadblocks.

It always pays to stay alert.

Who has seen tomorrow! Today we'll spend time with friends.

And jump over obstacles ...

and cross them with care ...

and keep moving forward with caution.

Pooh! Who's scared of challenges?

Everday we'll laugh ...

and cooperate ...

and discover ...

and make new friends!

And we'll be ready for adventure ...

and stick together.

We'll go far ...

and then very far ...

and ... Well not that far away!

Every day we'll take time to smell the flowers ...

and relax ...

and enjoy a quiet loving moment with each other.

How do you plan to enjoy life and its simple pleasures in 2009? We are looking forward towards hearing your feedback, please do drop a comment. Hope you liked the kitties. We love them :).

Image Source(s): A personal friend.

Leo Babauta has released his latest book "The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life."

In addition, he is offering a superb bonus giveaway which will end on Jan 1, 2009. If you purchase the book before the end of Jan 1st, 2009, he will give you one of the following as a bonus:

1. The Zen To Done e-book, usually a price of $9.50.
2. The Zen Habits Handbook for Life e-book, usually a price of $6.50.
3. An exclusive audio podcast of weight loss tips from Leo, packaged with a special sneak peek of an audio interview — Leo interviewing GTD author David Allen — which will be released to the public next week sometime.

Leo has written a companion e-book for The Power of Less titled "Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a Tough Economy." This e-book is being offered as a FREE download for all. We read this e-book. It brings home the facts in a simple yet pithy way which is easy to practice. Check out all the goodies that our blogging superstar Leo is offering. Enjoy!

It is time to cheerfully bid adieu to 2008 and welcome 2009 with renewed hopes and enthusiasm. 2008 taught us great lessons with respect to the market and the fragile nature of our investments. We've learnt to accept things as they presented themselves and remained calm even when 35% of our portfolio got wiped out in one of the worst dives of the stock market. Things could have been worse. The best part amidst all this events is the fact that our loved ones are all right. For us, love and peace of mind are the greatest wealth that we can ever have.

Now it's time to reevaluate our strategies, risk taking capacities and garner a fresh perspective on where and how to invest. 2008 was a wild roller coaster ride but we found solace in sharing it with our readers as well as fellow pf bloggers and learning from their experiences plus feedback. In that spirit of sharing, here are our best posts from 2008:

Series

Sneaky Credit Card Tricks - Ten sneaky tricks which all card users should know to be a winner in the credit card game.

Rankings

Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - Ranked By Traffic - We implemented several new features for our rankings and the results have been well appreciated. This free value based service for the personal finance community is something we take pride in :).

Budget & Career

» In Search Of A Savory Salary

» 2008's Hot Career Trends in US - Some Contemplations

» 2008's Financial Goals - Budgeting & Conscious Savings

» $1000s in Savings and our 2007 Financial Performance

Banking, Credit & Debt

» Torn Dollar Bills Reimbursement

» FDIC Deposit Insurance Coverage Limits Increased

» Bank Failure - Is your deposit Fully Insured?

» Check Scam - Don't Be A Victim

» Best Gas Credit Cards

» Four Quick Ways to Build A Strong Credit Rating

» Risks Of Cash Advances And Payday Loans

» 5 Reasons For Getting A Business Card

» Federal Agencies Crackdown on Unfair Credit Card Practices

» UAL Visa Story

» Three Quick Steps To Get Out of Debt

» Knock Out Your Financial Problems Like Rocky

Early Retirement

» Retirement - All Is Well If Our HEART Is Well

» Retirement - The Magic Withdrawal Triangle

» Secure Retirement - At What Rate Should You Save For It?

» Early Retirement Case Study - My Dollar Plan Retires At 29

» Want To Be A Millionaire? Follow the YAWN Philosophy

» Etrade's Quickplan - Personalized & Easy Retirement Planning

» Three Good Habits of Successful Retirees

» Top Resources For Early Retirement Planning

Frugal Tips

» Electronic Gadgets - From Junk to Joy

» Frugal Creative Gift Ideas for Holiday Cards

» Rentometer Paves The Way For Smart Moves

» FireSafe Your Personal Finance Documents

» Prevent Auto Theft & Home Burglary with Affordable Anti Theft Devices

» 12 Tips To Lower Your Heating Bill

» Save Your Wallet With These Penny Hacks

» Back To School - Super Savers Guide

» Tipping Guidelines

» Airline Excess Baggage - Tune in to new fees

» Top 5 Freebie Websites

» Top 7 Energy Saving Tips for this Summer

» Top 10 Dollar Store Buys

» Top 5 Ways To Trim Our Grocery Bills

Investing

» Investing - Which Stock Market Indexes to Choose?

» How To Protect Our Finances From A Market Crisis?

» Sep 11, 2001 (9 / 11) - Hindsight And Investment Gains

» Investment Risks at a Glance

» Key Points to Remember While Making a Will

» Mutual Fund SAI - Should I Ask For It?

» Mutual Funds - The Economic Cycle of Sectors

» TIPS for Inflation and Deflation

» How to Turn $5000 into $22 million? Lessons From One Successful Individual Investor

» Is Your City Recession-Proof? These 10 Are

» Vanguard's Managed Payout Mutual Funds - A Primer

» Simple Strategies to Inflation Proof a Portfolio

» Renting Versus Owning Costs

Taxes

» Short on Tax Money - File an Extension or Pay in installments

» Double Your Tax Deduction Every Time You Fund Your IRA

» File 2007's taxes to get your Economic Stimulus Rebate Check

» How to e-File Multiple State Returns with TaxAct Online?

» FREE Turbo Tax Filing for Federal Returns

FIRE Finance has got a fresh new look this year. It was well received by our audience. Thanks for all the compliments. Also, our giveaways were very popular. We are planning several attractive ones for 2009. So stay tuned.

We truly enjoyed blogging at FIRE Finance this year amidst several personal challenges. Your feedback and support keeps us going. Please let us know how we can improve further and what topics you would like us to cover next year. We are looking forward towards a fabulous year of blogging in 2009. Three Cheers for everybody!

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Mint has launched a free iPhone App for its users. This sure will make Mint the killer banking app for the iPhone mobile community. In case you use a different phone and want to know your bank's balance, you can set it up to receive alerts from Mint.com via SMS. This will help you to get real time balances anytime.

Coming back to Mint's iPhone app, it delivers the same, simple yet powerful experience we get at Mint.com right to our phone. It is updated automatically and provides us with the convenience of having real time access to our financial information anywhere.

We can track our budget and manage money on the go. And the best part is that unlike other apps, we don't need to enter our transactions. The app automatically syncs with all our online banking accounts to get our balances and transactions. Here are some key tasks the app helps us to perform:

» Check our credit card balances from that seemingly endless checkout line. We can also check the balances of our checking, savings, investments (including 401(k), brokerage and IRA) and loan accounts.

» Monitor our gifts budget in real time, in case our loved ones are burning up the plastic at another mall. Hmm......n now that is really useful :).

» Stay on top of our finances while traveling. We’ll know if our paycheck cleared without navigating our relative’s dial up service.

» Watch our investment performance, distributions and dividends. Helpful in deciding when it’s okay to sell and realize those capital losses, sadly :(.

» Check our monthly income vs. expenses instantly across all our accounts. We can also see the purchases we've made and deposits across all our accounts. The best part is we can track where we've spent money each month by splitting across categories like Food, Auto, Shopping, Bills or merchants like Walmart, Costco and more.

And if you are worried about security, Mint has implemented a neat feature for it. If we lose our phone or misplace it, we can deactivate the iPhone access from our profile at Mint.com. which will prevent unauthorized access to our phone. This is definitely comforting since the thought of losing an expensive gadget like the iPhone already brings an uncomfortable feeling in our tummy. We really love this cool app from Mint. You can check out Mint's site for more information. Enjoy!

This is the last Sunday Review of 2008. What a wonderful year it has been with its fair share of trials, tribulations and triumphs. We really enjoyed reading about different experiences from fellow bloggers and compiling favorites in our Sunday Reviews.

The blogosphere has opened up a vast repertoire of information which was unimaginable half a dozen years ago. We are really grateful that blogging has taken off and become an established medium of sharing information across the globe. Here is our toast to blogging and favorites from the week that went by:

• The Happy Rock: John writes an impressive perspective about a couple's story who are Eating on $1 a Day.

• Pecuniarities: Brilliant Madoline presents a fabulous way of presenting gifts in Using Nature’s Gift Wrap: The Eggshell. We loved the smooth glossy and colorful eggs with a gift tucked inside it :).

• Harvesting Dollars: Todd shows us how to Evaluate Advice Using a Framework of Questions. This is an important article with respect to personal finance where we are dealing with our hard earned money.

• Debt Goal: Scott has made a useful list of 10 Big-Ticket Clutter Items to Sell for Instant Cash.

• Saving Money: Here is an nice article on why Saving Money is an Important Lesson for Children.

Retro FIRE

• $250 Bank Sign Up Bonus from WT Direct

• Gas Credit Card - Discover Open Road

• World's Largest Ice Santa Claus

• November's Best of FIRE Finance - 2008

• Restaurant.com - Special Discount 80% OFF

• Lottery Tickets - Our route to Wealth?

Carnivals

• Systems Overload hosted The Holiday Spirit
• Miss Thrifty hosted Festival of Frugality #157
• Gobs Channel hosted A Mighty Good Money Carnival
• The Skilled Investor Blog hosted Carnival of Financial Planning
• Rich Life Carnival hosted Rich Life Carnival

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Harbin, the freezing capital city of Heilongjiang province in north China and located on the edge of Siberia has built the world's largest Santa Claus ice sculpture. The enormous Santa with a flowing beard and hat is 160 meters long and 24 meters high! This sculpture is the star attraction of the ice festival which is expected to attract an estimated 800,000 tourists, 90 per cent of them Chinese.






In the same spirit, here are some more huge Santas made with different mediums like sand, metal and hot air from across the world.

A 7.57 meter tall sand sculpture of Santa Claus, created by Indian artist Sudarsan Pattnaik sits at the Golden Beach in Puri, India.

In Seoul, South Korea, the 22 meter high statue, Hammering Man, was dressed in Santa Claus outfits to celebrate Christmas.

This is a 60 meter high hot-air balloon Santa Claus in the village of Samnaun in the eastern Swiss Alps.

And finally a real Santa ....

A man dressed as Santa Claus rides his sleigh in northern Finland.

Once again, Merry Christmas to you all :).

Image Source(s): Associated Press

We wish you a wonderful Christmas filled with gaiety and fun. May Santa fulfill all your needs on this fantastic day.

On this auspicious occasion we pray for peace, love and joy on Earth. We are ever grateful to God for protecting us on all fronts of our lives this year and always. In that spirit, once again, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a lovely weekend ahead.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

In Latin "novem" means nine. Initially this month was the ninth month in the Roman calendar. After January and February were added to the calendar it became the eleventh month but retained its name as November. This month is special for men since the International Men's Day is celebrated on the 19th. The flower of this month is chrysanthemum.

Today on the eve of Christmas, we present our best posts from November. In the spirit of the holidays, let's do a "Retro-Novemober" ..........

PF Articles

• Prevent Auto Theft & Home Burglary with Affordable Anti Theft Devices (Popular)

• Torn Dollar Bills Reimbursement (Popular)
  

• Retirement - The Magic Withdrawal Triangle

• FireSafe Your Personal Finance Documents

• What is USPS - Certificate of Mailing?

PF Products

• Discover More - $50 Cash Back Bonus + 5% Cash Back (Popular)

• Hilton Honors Platinum - $100 Worth Sign-up Bonus Plus 40,000 Additional Bonus Points (Popular)

• 2.90% APY from Etrade's Max Rate Checking Account

• Wall Street Journal Subscription - 80% OFF - Promotion

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Dec 26, 2008: Today we came across a great deal from Restaurant.com. Since we are frugal diners this special discount on their dining gift certificates is a welcome break for us. Hope it helps in saving some dining dollars.

• Beginning now, Restaurant.com is offering 80% OFF on their dining certificates + a Free $25 Certificate with a min. $11 purchase on $25 Gift Certificates!


• This means that their $25 dining gift certificates that normally sell for $10
  have been reduced to $2 ONLY.
  


• Promo Code: Enter CELEBRATE at checkout.
  


• This offer is valid from Dec 26th to Dec 31st, 2008.
  

Their website provides detailed information about a restaurant, it's menus and wine lists along with the ability to make free online reservations. Enjoy!