Power of Trying Something New – Personal Finance Review

February 3, 2008

Risktaker

Do you ever feel like the growth in some area of your life has hit a plateau and you don’t know what to do about it?  One of my friends was recently in that situation and took action that reminded me we sometimes have to move out of our comfort zone and try something new to make progess.

This is the friend that I introduced to selling on eBay who not too long ago became my eBay partner.  His wife is staying at home with their new kid and he started an eBay business to supplement their income.  He had been seeing steady growth but not enough to earn the money he had planned on.  He realized he needed to try something new in order to break through the income barrier he was facing.  After researching many different options, he decided to spend alot of money buying pallets of goods from Liquidation.com to resell on eBay.

It wasn’t an easy choice, he was spending almost all of his earnings to date on the deal and had never done anything like it before.  Despite the doubt and all the reasons not to do it, he bought the products, took a day off from work to have the pallets delivered, and dove into listing the inventory.  Using his new approach he’s able to list more items, faster, and make higher profit margins.

I was pretty impressed with my friend’s willingness to try something new and take a risk.  I’m really glad its working out for him and offered to be an investor when he needs a few thousand dollars to buy more products.  To me, it was a great example of how we have to be willing to change to grow.

Personal Finance Review

Some weeks are better than others in terms of personal finance content online and this week was just chock full of good stuff so this is a longer review than normal.  Enjoy the articles:

Lazy Man & Money has an article I really liked called Your Financial Football Team, that reminded me of my Personal Finance for Sports Fans series and Is Your Investment Portfolio a One Man Team?

Suns Financial Diary reminds us that we’re not the only ones feeling the pain of the financial markets, things aren’t pretty with Chinese ADRs either.

The Digerati Life has a great article on beating the average investor’s returns with the Simplest Investment Portfolio and Generation X Finance reminds us of the importance of The importance of disability insurance.

No Credit Needed is pretty well read when it comes to debt reduction and offers his Favorite Books About Debt Reduction And Credit.

Free Money Finance warns that little expenses can add up, the Mighty Bargain Hunter covers banks obligations on foreclosed property, and Five Cent Nickel lists 12 commonly missed tax deductions.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity gives us 8 Reasons To Do All Your Shopping Online, make sure you also read how to save money on shipping when shopping online.

Many people are asking the question whether they should refinance after all these interest rate cuts, Get Rich Slowly takes a look in Are Mortgage Rates Tied to the Federal Funds Rate?

The Simple Dollar takes a look at online personal finance analysis tools like Mint and Wesabe and My Money Blog talks about a new online payment system called MoneyExchange that’s offering a $25 bonus to signup.

If you’re not tired of reading about money yet, here are some more good posts from the M-network: 

75 Frugal Hacks for Your Home @ Being Frugal

Prosper – the Ebay of Person to Person Lending @ Cash Money Life

Making Money in Real Estate with Fixer-Uppers @ Gather Little By Little

The Big Rocks of Life @ Moolanomy

Money Mistake Monday – The Learn Before You Invest Syndrome. @ My Two Dollars

American sub-prime crisis: should the rest of us care? @ Plonkee Money

The Real Cost of Homeownership @ Single Guy Money

How to buy partial shares of Berkshire Hathaway with ShareBuilder @ The Dough Roller

The “Can We Afford The Payments” Mentality @ Paid Twice

Ben

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Ben
Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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Comments

8 Responses to Power of Trying Something New – Personal Finance Review

  • Fixemup Terry

    Thanks for mentioning the “fixer-upper house” article that I wrote for Gather Little by Little blog.

    Keep up the good blog work!

  • No Debt Plan

    Ah, the whole risk-reward trade off. Glad it has worked out for your friend. Now you’ve got me looking at liquidation.com… 🙂

  • Pinyo @ Moolanomy

    Thank you for sharing articles from the M-network with your readers.

  • SingleGuyMoney

    Thanks for the mention.

  • Glblguy

    Thanks for including my article! Update us on how your friend does.

  • Lynnae @ Being Frugal.net

    Thanks for the reminder that it’s good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes. I have a hard time with that!

    And thanks for the mention, too! 🙂

  • Patrick

    Kudos to your friend for doing the research and making a big decision. I hope it works well for him!

    And perfect timing on your article today… I have been thinking about stepping out of my normal comfort zone as well. I’m thinking about a career change (or at least a change of employer), and I have also started looking at other sources of revenue as well. I hope it works for me like it did for your friend.

    Thanks for the mention. 🙂

  • David

    Thanks so much for the mention!

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