Congrats to the winners of the free Turbo Tax giveaway that I announced over the weekend!

The announcement was at the bottom of the post that looked at the common income tax problems that contest entrants experienced.  I haven’t heard back from all the winners so in case you missed it, I’m posting it again here with a little more descriptive title.

Thanks again to everyone that participated and stay tuned for another upcoming givewawy of tax prep software.

Every now and then you’ll see a contest with cool prizes announced online but the biggest one I’ve seen so far is in now in progress over at Money Crashers.  Here are some of the things up for grabs in their New Years bash giveaway:

• Cash from a variety of different personal finance sites $25 – $500
• 2 Amazon Kindles
• Several iPods
• Gift cards from:
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Best Buy
• Wal-Mart
• Visa
• American Express
• Tons of personal finance books
• Magazine Subscriptions
• Free copies of TurboTax & Quicken

I’ve known the team over at Money Crashers for a while now and think it’s great they’re putting together this huge contest.  To help support them I’m sponsoring a prize for the giveaway. I teamed up with Neak Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim and I’m giving away two copies of Neal’s Money School for Couples.

I thought about giving away cash but I really like the concept behind Neal’s course and thought this was a good way to let more people know about it. Money School for Couples is a quick and effective system for couples who are on different wavelengths when it comes to money.  I like the approach because Neal gives couples the tools they need to address not just the financial aspects of managing money together but also the relationship part of the equation.  Anyhow, that’s why I chose to offer Money School for Couples as a prize.

There are many different ways to enter the contest, check out the prizes & rules page for more details.  The giveaway lasts until January 31^st but there are things you can do each day to qualify for a prize so don’t wait until the last minute.

There are 60 free Flip cameras up for grabs over the next few days if you’re willing to share your best money tip.  The question being asked is:

“What is the savviest way you have made your money work harder for you this holiday season?”

If you leave your answer to that question in the comments on one of the sites below, you could win one of the Flip cams:

• Bargaineering
• PT Money
• Cash Money Life
• Moolanomy
• Ask Mr Credit Card
• Suns Financial Diary

The site owners will be picking the best tips and deciding who gets the Flip cam, so make your savvy money tip a good one! I didn’t see any rules about submitting the same tip on multiple sites so you could write it once and share it on all sites, not a bad prize for a minutes worth of typing!

Note: American Express is actually giving away the Flip Cams through the sites listed above. I’m not connected with the contests and don’t have any Flip cams to give away. Although I do have one of my own and it’s pretty slick, I used it for my recycle video on Blog Action Day.

Good luck!

Surprise, surprise!  Mac users are more passionate about their computers than PC owners.  Not only did the Mac users leave more comments than PC users but the responses were longer and full of more detail. Thanks to everyone for participating.

iBank Mac Software Winner

Congratulations to Brian from The Mutex who was the random number winner of a copy of iBank personal finance software from IGG Software.  Brian, I’ll pass your information along to IGG who will send you a download code for iBank.

H&R Block TaxCut Premium Winner

Thanks to Sara from Paying Off My Future, for her comments on the PC!  She was the random number winner for the H&R Block TaxCut Premium software, featured in our best tax software post. The software will ship out to Sara once she sends me her shipping info.  Tick tock, tick tock… tax day is approaching

Thanks to both IGG Software and H&R Block for sponsoring the contests with free copies of their software.

Mac vs PC

Are you a Mac fanactic or a PC devotee?  Personally, I use a PC, I’ve never owned a Mac.  So when the people from IGG Software contacted me and asked if I’d like a free copy of their iBank personal finance software for the Mac I almost said no thanks. Then I realized that in the wide PC vs Mac world there were sure to be some readers that use a Mac.

iBank Personal Finance Software

The makers of iBank have agreed to sponsor a software giveaway contest, to enter simply leave your top 3 reasons why a Mac is better than a PC in the comments below.  One winner will be chosen at random and IGG Software will send you instructions and a coupon code so that you can download and install iBank software for free! 

After the winner’s had a chance to try out the software, they can send me an email about their experience.  Of course, this isn’t required, it would simply be nice feedback that I can pass on and let other Mac users know your thoughts on the software.

PC users, don’t feel left out.  Tomorrow I’ll announce a software giveaway for you as well : ) 

Contest Rules

Again, to enter, simply give your top 3 reasons why a Mac is better than a PC in the comments below.  The contest will end on Friday, 3/13 and one commentor will be chosen at random and notified that weekend.  I’ll pass the winner’s email address onto IGG Software and they’ll send you info on how to get your iBank coupon code for a free copy of the software.  So Mac fans, here’s your chance to let us know why you think your computer is better than ours, Good luck!

Think back to a moment in your life that epitomizes your finesse at saving money. Summarize that wonderful, cash-conscious, debt-busting, wealth-building pinnacle of frugality into one sentence and share it with the world. One randomly selected story will win a 1 year subscription to Smart Money Magazine. See my example entry below.

Watery Cereal
I, like many college students, had no money when I was in school. Thanks to a good financial upbringing I scrimped and scraped instead of running up credit card debt. My roommate will never let me forget how he found me one morning.

Sitting in my coat, eating cereal with water in a dark, cold kitchen.

Sitting – Free hand me down table and chairs.
Coat – Purchased off-season for 75% off. Also, see cold below.
Cereal – I’d fill zip lock bags full of cereal “for the road” in the school cafeteria.
Water – Didn’t want to spend money on milk, water was much cheaper.
Dark – No lights = Lower electric bill.
Cold – No Heat = Lower gas bill.

For fun, try and get the highest frugality ratio that you can. What’s a frugality ratio? My sentence had 13 words, 6 of them exhibited money saving qualities. My ratio is 6 / 13 = 46.15%.

Submit your entries in the comments, via my contact form, or on your own site. I can’t wait to hear how frugal everyone is! Also, the FinanceSpiration Challenge ends on 1/22, submit your entry today.

Thanks to The Digerati Life for inspiring this contest!

After some suggestions by J.D. at Get Rich Slowly, this contest has been relaunched here. Looking forward to hearing about your FinanceSpirations!

Kristine McKinley is a CFP and CPA from Beacon Financial Advisors whom some of you may recognize from her contributions to various finance carnivals. The winner of the challenge will get a mini-version of her Right Start Financial Checkup. The prize is one hour of phone consultation with Kristine on your investment or tax issues.

So how do you win? Here are the rules:

1) Write about any small idea from a personal finance blogger in 2006 that inspired you to a big financial change.

It doesn’t have to be a small idea but usually that’s all it takes. If you have a blog of your own, post your entry there. If not, send me the information via my Contact page and I’ll post it on this blog.

The submission should contain two things:

• A link to original post from the blogger that inspired you.
• A link back to this post.

2) Voting
The winner will be chosen for the people by the people! As the submissions link back to this post, you’ll see them at the bottom of the page. Get out and vote for your favorite success stories by leaving a comment on their post. You can vote for more than one.

3) Winner
Whichever submission has the most comments by the end of the day January 15^th wins! At the end of the contest, I’ll write a summary post linking back to all of the submissions and announce the winner.
Kristine will contact the winner to schedule the meeting and determine the personal finance questions to be covered in the consultation.

Contest Updates
I’ll be giving updates on the contest over the next two weeks so subscribe to my feed to stay in the loop.
Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who offered feedback for the What Sucks Most About My Blog Contest. I really appreciate your input and will make updates accordingly. To say thanks for taking time to offer your thoughts you all win something!

The Grand Prize of Quicken Premeir Home & Business 2006 goes to Blaine of The First Time Homeowner. In honor of the new tax year beginning tomorrow, I’d like to give everyone else a Travel Receipt Organizer to help track your 2007 receipts!

The lucky few who will be oh so organized next year are:

Trent
Tricia
Chicky
Big Cajun Man
Paigu

If you’re interested in one just shoot me an email here letting me know where to send it. Thanks again for your suggestions, have a Happy New Year!

I recently launched a new theme for my blog and am looking for input from those that matter most, the readers! I started a contest last week that ends tomorrow. So far Blaine Moore’s (First Time Home Owner) comments have offered the most value so he’s the guy to beat!

Your comments don’t necessarily have to be about the look and feel of the site. I’d be interested to hear what you think of the content, what you’d like to hear more about from me, or what you think could help improve the site.

Good luck, may the best comment win!

Hurray! I’ve finally launched a new look to Money Smart Life! I know you readers spend hours a day staring at personal finance blogs so you know the ropes.

The Rules
Let me know what sucks most about my blog by leaving a comment. I’ll turn the comments into constructive criticism by making changes so it doesn’t suck (as bad)! Whichever suggestion or comment leads to the biggest improvement, according to me, will win Quicken 2006 Premier Home & Business personal finance software. I’ll announce the winner next Saturday, 12/30.

About the Prize
The extra CD of this software I purchased on eBay by accident six months ago is sitting in my desk drawer. Why not put it to good use? It is the CD only, no instruction manual or box. I look forward to hearing what sucks most