The Best Money Blog – How to Save Money, Live Frugally, and Earn Passive Income

Similarities can be drawn between two seemingly unrelated things, in this case, personal finance and working out. To be successful in either discipline takes change as it is usually contrary to human nature.

By studying positive aspects in one facet of your life, you can learn a lot about what it takes to be successful in other areas. Below is a list of five ways that personal finance is like working out, and by learning to apply these five character traits, you can see growth in both areas.

Why are you saving money? Is it so that you can have a fat wallet, nice clothes, and a house full of toys, or is it so that you can get rid of all your responsibilities and spend your time however you want to without worrying about any repercussions?

I wanted to take a minute (see I am using my time wisely) and really think about what our goals should be as we learn to make and save money.

It’s easy to see financial problems when you’re on the outside looking in. When you see your friends wasting money on stupid things you are quick to point it out because you can’t find the logic in why they are spending their money so irresponsibly.

It really does take a strong person to admit that they have a lot to learn when it comes to money, and sometimes it’s helpful to share criticisms of the way others spend their money because it helps us realize our own downfalls. Below is a short list of some of my biggest pet peeves with money. Be sure to add some of your own in the comments below.

This month has definitely been an interesting one. We saved money, spent money, and even wasted some money as usual. The biggest news is that we have begun renting out our house and moved to an apartment. Our renters move in tomorrow, and I am grabbing the last of our stuff later tonight.

The real question is whether or not our pretty drastic lifestyle changes made any financial difference. It definitely had an emotional and physical impact (I swear I’m hiring movers next time), but how has it affected our finances?

The Best Money Blog received editors choice honors in the new Carnival of Personal Finance#267, this time hosted over at Beating Broke. Saving Money For Opportunities was chosen along with four other articles to be featured at the top of the list.

Be sure to check our some of my personal favorites below that were included in the carnival.

The Best Money Blog’s Favorites

• How To Convince Your Spouse You Need A Budget by Neal Frankle @ Wealth Pilgrim
• 10 Tips To Create Wealth. by Bob @ Christian Personal Finance
• These Commercials Are Making Me Batty! by J. Money @ Budgets Are Sexy

Why are you so afraid of your own success? Do you even realize that fear is what is keeping you from reaching your goals? The number one reason that most people fail to meet their economic expectations is fear. You must learn how to overcome this fear if you ever want to move beyond your current fiscal situation.

As a follow up to Wednesday’s article on our current exploration of renting out our house, I felt like now would be a good time to discuss the greater purpose of saving money.

A couple of days ago I went into some detail as to what we are planning to do with the money we will save. Today I want to try to explain it in a way to will serve as a long term inspiration to anyone, no matter what financial situation you might be in.

The Best Money Blog was featured once again in the Carnival of Personal Finance, Getting Hot In Here Edition, this time hosted over at Nerd Wallet. If you have never checked out a carnival of personal finance, now is there time. They are chock full of the best articles out there on saving, spending, investing, frugality, and all things money.

Be sure to check our some of my personal favorites below that were included in the carnival.

Top 3 Money Articles of the Week

• U.S. Presidents and their Net Worth by J. Money @ Budgets Are Sexy
• The Secret to Getting Out of Debt: Forget Snowballs and Interest Rates by Frugal Dad
• Financially Prepare your Spouse in order to Simplify by Simple Financial Lifestyle

A few articles back, I posted my first money saving idea, which was to use cash for groceries in order to track our expenses better. This week I wanted to talk about something that has been in the works for the past month that will finally come to fruition about a week from now.

We have rented out our house and are downsizing to an apartment! Before any congratulations or bashing begins, read the rest of the article to see our reasoning behind the move.

If you could earn 5% more at work without actually doing more work would you? It’s safe to say that everyone would take a pay increase in a circumstance like this. So now you probably want to know how it can be done. It’s done by buying things for the company of course. Alright, maybe that’s not the answer you are looking for, so let me rephrase the idea. It’s done through reimbursements for the things you buy for the company.