It’s been a while since I’ve done a site review of another finance blog, and there’s no better reason to do one than when the site is offering up $1500 in prizes. David over at MoneyNing is getting married soon and is giving away $1500 in cash prizes to celebrate (and increase his traffic). You can check out his $1500 giveaway post and see what you need to do in order to possibly get your hands on some of the cash.

While you’re there though, be sure to poke around the site a little bit. I’ve been reading David’s blog for a while now, and there are some pretty good things going on over there. It will definitely provide you with some food for thought. So after you’re done subscribing to the Fiscal Musings feed check out all that MoneyNing has to offer, especially the cash prize…!

I figured it would be appropriate to take a look back at the previous year and highlight some of the most read articles. Obviously this blog wouldn’t be much of anything without all of you, the readers. Thanks for making 2007 such a great year.

1. Answering a Reader’s Question: This was by far the most read article here over the past year. A reader asked what advice I had for newbies on what to invest in within an IRA. Also, feel free to ask any other questions either in the comments or by email and I’ll be sure to get an answer out quickly.

2. Restaurant Lifestyle…?: Coming in second is my discussion about eating out. Apparently we all like to eat out since this struck a chord with so many. I just may have to revisit this topic at some point.

3. Developing a Wealthy Mindset: This is one of my favorite articles, and you ought to read it if you haven’t already. If you’re really serious about becoming wealthy it’s going to take a different mindset that what you may already have.

4. Best of the Roth IRA…: In this article I talk about the advantages of a Roth IRA and why you should have one. They’re also not that complicated and pretty easy to set up and get started.

If you’ve got your own favorite article (from your own blog or wherever), I’d like to hear about it. Just let us know what it is in the comments. We can all stand to learn something new.

I stumbled across an interesting website the other day that I thought I would make you aware of. Apparently the government cares about our personal finances at least at some level. I know it’s hard to believe, but they’ve at least put up a website.

At USA.gov they’ve got a section about Money and Taxes. It covers a variety of topics including:

• Currency and the Economy
• Federal and State Financial Agencies
• Financial Crimes and Scams
• Investing
• Personal Finance
• Sales and Auctions, and
• Taxes - Federal and State

The information in these different topics is pretty ordinary. There isn’t anything earth shattering or revelatory, but it’s an interesting resource to check out. It does however, provide reliable information on some of the most common personal finance topics. Where else would you get better information about government sponsored retirement plans than from the government themselves.

Overall I think the site is worth checking out. You may find a topic that you want to learn more about, and you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of it. How else would you learn about the Check 21 Law (I will be very surprised if you know what this is). You can also order a free CD-rom called the Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) Resource Guide for Small Business Owners and Individuals (I’ll let you try and find this for yourself). Who would have thought? So poke around the site and see what you think.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my Blog List here in the sidebar. Some of the blogs that are currently listed have become more or less dormant, and I want the list to contain quality blogs that are updated regularly. This way I can ensure that what I’m endorsing for my readers might actually interest them and be worth reading. And in order to accomplish this I’m going to need your help in one of two ways.

1. If you would like your blog to be featured here on Fiscal Musings in the Blog List, leave a comment to this post with your blog’s URL linked to your name or included in the comment. You can also email it to me (email address is top right in the sidebar) if that’s what you’d prefer.

2. I would also like to hear about some of your favorite blogs that aren’t necessarily your own. If you don’t have your own blog, let me know what blogs you think ought to be included here. Keep in mind that the blogs don’t necessarily have to be personal finance related.

Once I have all of your inputs and have compiled the new Blog List, I will do a follow up post linking to all of the blogs. And now, since I’m on the subject, I’ll give a shameless plug to the other blog that I run, The Milk Crate, which is an opinion blog covering all sorts of topics. You may also want to subscribe to The Milk Crate.

Like most people you probably accumulate a lot of things that you don’t use anymore, or at least very infrequently. A lot of this stuff probably sits around in storage or closets since there “may” come a time when you’re going to need or want it again. If this scenario doesn’t describe you, you most likely know someone it does.

Every now and then it’s a good idea to sort through your collective accumulation and assess whether you actually still need some of it. Not only can you significantly simplify your life and reduce clutter, you may be able to raise a little cash. There are many ways to rid yourself of extra “stuff” and profit from it at the same time.

Ebay is always a popular venue for selling your unused items. It’s a fairly user-friendly interface which is pretty easy to pick up. You can also list items on Craigslist which allows you to target a specific area. Craigslist is great for larger items that would need to be picked up in person by the buyer. If either of these options is too unfamiliar to you, you can always hold a standard garage sale. If you’re really enterprising, you can organize a neighborhood sale which will attract more buyers.

Another option is to donate items to local charities and organizations. You can also just give things to individuals who you think would like or could benefit from them. An expansion of this idea would be to offer an item up for a blog contest as a way to drive traffic. This is an option that I’m considering (stay tuned), but I’d only use items that are “almost new” or in great condition.

These are by no means the only ways to rid yourself of clutter and benefit at the same time. What are some ideas that have worked for you or someone you know?

When many people are looking for their first “real” job after college or they’re looking for a new career, one of their biggest concerns is “how much money am I going to make”. While this is certainly an important consideration in selecting employment, don’t forget the many other factors that will affect your situation.

Probably the most important aspect (aside from the salary) of a new job is where you’ll be located and therefore the cost of living in that area. It’s no secret that $50K in New York or California isn’t the same as $50K in Kansas City. In one case you’d barely get by and in the other you’d live quite comfortably. When you throw the cost-of-living into the mix, it can be rather difficult to compare different opportunities on an equal plane.

I found a tool online, however, that can help with this exact problem. Bankrate.com has a cost of living comparison calculator that lets you compare different salaries in various places of the country. You select the city you’d be moving from, the city you’d be moving to, and the current salary in the first city. It will then tell you what salary you’d need to earn in the new city in order to maintain your current standard of living.

I would mostly use this tool to give you a ballpark figure of the differences between two cities though and not as an ultimate determining factor. Even though it’s important to know, there are a lot of other things that should be considered when making such a decision.

For those of you that not only have an interest in personal finance but also in overall success and motivation, you may want to check out Karl’s blog. He posts daily inspirational thoughts and messages to aid in personal growth and development. On Monday he posts different “Random Acts of Kindness” and on Friday he posts a “Friday Factoid”.Karl Moore is a writer and an entrepreneur, and he wants to share what he’s learned. He’s got a section of inspirational quotes and another focused on self-development. There really is a lot you can learn from his website. So check it out for yourself. It’s well designed and very easy to navigate. You also might learn something.