It was about a year ago that Katie and I started Aridni, and in the last year we have had some all kinds of articles. Some good ones, some Great ones, and of course some lousy ones. Today I want to highlight what I think have been some of the years best articles for each month in 2006.

1. January - Investing: When can you start? How can you start?

One of the earlier articles from Aridni to help get you going in the stock market. What are the issues and skills you need to be aware of and possess?

2. February - I’ve got a Big Sky Booya coming at ya!

Watching Jim Cramer is like jumping into the stock market. It isn’t easy for the novice, but here are some tips to getting started.

3. March - “Acey said ten percent.” – Why less is more.

I still really like this ideology about investing less to learn more.

4. April - Weekend Homework: Define ‘Value’

What is important to you? How are your actions stacking up to what you hold important?

5. May - Marketing with MySpace

While this approach works out well in theory, it’s a lot harder than my article makes it look. I’ve been trying things out and will certainly post some new ideas about it.

6. June - How you might destroy $1,000,000 dollars or more today.

Do you keep track of your ideas? Tomas Edison didn’t either, until got fed up with losing to many. From then on Tom and ‘the boys’ filled up thousands of notebooks with all kinds of ideas and discoveries.

7. July - Expand your business with “The Three C’s”

What’s the best way for you to set raise the capital needed to increase the output of your business?

8. August - An employee finds a second job. An entrepreneur finds an opportunity.

Katie takes a moment to ask just what exactly is she working towards.

September - Have you ever considered that you are not good enough? With Billions of people in the world, you might not be good enough. By no means does it mean that those who are won’t be willing to work with you.

9. October - Is real estate calling you?

This is an article Katie wrote about some of here experiences and thoughts after spending some time in the real estate market.

10. November - On hiatus for the month!

A little break before it’s back to the grindstone.

11. December - Step back from the obsession with $

Katie gives us some reflections about money and the desire for wealth. What is money, and how does it work?

Katie found some of her favorite posts from the past year and put them in an article called Seeking Goals and Reaching Objectives - THIS YEAR

I hope that we can provide another great year of ideas and inspiration. And as always, feel free to leave a comment or even send a message with our Contact form

Last night, the musician screamed into his microphone, “45 seconds until the new year. Have you made your resolution?”

Did you spend any time reflecting on ways that you wanted to be better this year? Given 45 seconds, I didn’t come up with a foolproof improvement plan. Lucky for me, I have a database of favorite Aridni articles that I often look to for inspiration:

What does it really take to make money? This article guides you in defining and reaching your financial desires

Is it better to let your dreams die or do a poor job? Todd’s had an idea for about a year… but he lacks skill. What does he do? What do you do?

No longer the bride today I celebrated my one-year anniversary this summer and found a finance partner to boot for - I discovered a 5-step plan to seeking goals and reaching objectives.

Are you climbing to the top when there is no top? Before you can get somewhere tomorrow, you have to think of where you are today. Examine the corporate ladder at your office.

Make your success move from the polls to the ballot Women are starting new businesses twice as fast as men. Three success secrets revealed–

One month to impress Define your image in one month, step by step.

Do you remember the last time you decided to set up some New Year’s resolutions? I’ll go out on a ledge and assume it was roughly a year ago. Now exactly how long did that self improving quest last? If you’re like the majority of people you set up your resolution and soon drop it within weeks. By the time you see a coin stamped with the year 2007, your mind will be the so far away from resolutions that they won’t pass through until we’re getting ready to set up the set for 2008.

So what exactly is the resolution solution? How can we keep our resolutions to improve ourselves for this New Year?

The best way to stick to your resolution is to make resolutions that you can stick with.

Instead of making a drastic resolution that you know you won’t be able to keep, why not make something that actually has a fighting chance.

If last years failed resolution was, ‘I will stop smoking.’ Perhaps you should make this year’s resolution be simply, ‘I will smoke 5 less cigarettes a day”

Frustrated because you can’t stick to your resolution to stop eating junk food? How about go with something along the lines of the 90-10 eating rule. Ninety percent of the time, eat foods that are okay for you. The other ten percent of the time you can eat grease burgers and fries. You know, the tasty stuff.

So when you resolve to improve yourself this year, make it something that you can achieve.

What are your resolutions?

Do you ever become so obsessed with something? So distracted that your daily living becomes influenced by your addiction?

I took a break from Aridni–I had to. My thoughts were too focused on net worth. And while money is an important topic, we cannot let it consume us. We can’t become this holiday’s Scrooge.

Stop to think. What is money to you?

Does money serve as a positive resource or an obsession?

Sometimes money does great things for us; sometimes money distracts us from the things that really matter. Can you spend a whole day without thinking of your net worth? Do your dreams, ideas, and inventions get blocked from your mind if you think there’s no money in your thought? Is it possible to be an enlightened millionaire? Would you do something for free, knowing that you could easily make a few bucks?

Do you want wealth or riches?

I know a couple that eats at fine restaurants every night. They drive expensive cars and travel the world with the highest class. …and they’re going to be working forever to maintain this style and consider retirement. When they aren’t traveling, they work all day and all night. They are rich.

This couple gets their riches by serving wealthy people. Wealthy people invest their money further and further through the labor of this rich couple. Wealthy people are willing to pay for temporary riches of the couple because in the end, the couple will have to seek new clients while the wealthy people will have profits without efforts.

What is money, anyway?

Money is only what you make it. We assign the dollar a value through society’s general acceptance; money, on its own, is worth nothing. The problem is that for must of us, the social acceptance of money holds no options. You can back out and say that these particular forms of exchange mean nothing to you, but then you lose.

This contract of money holds too many advantages for most of us to consider a surrender, of course. Money gives us the lifestyle we want and the image we want others to see. Image becomes especially frustrating for me at this time of year. I’m not buying expensive gifts like everyone else at my office. They’re all buying extras–newer iPods, fancy wines, media subscriptions and DVDs. If you want more money than you have today, you can purchase this money by pledging more of the money that you will have tomorrow.

On the flip side, one of my coworkers who buys fancy gifts is twice as old as me; she has no retirement savings of any sort. Money holds such strength that her decisions today will cause her to work far into old age.

What if I want more of this money? …because I DO!

I figure we have three ways of honestly making money:
1. selling our stuff
2. selling time
3. taking risks

You can guess what the first two topics represent. Sell your stuff–your heirlooms, your iPod, your house, your used appliances, and your garage sale junk. Sell your time–work for someone else for x dollars an hour.

But taking risks? That’s what Aridni is all about. Take risks by selling your money to investors, stocks, or bonds. Or possibly more powerful, find a way that your money can grow and raise more little dollar bills and coins–create a business. Your own business holds more leverage than selling your time or your stuff.

My only hope is that your business idea adds value to society, not destruction. I’m determined to find this avenue for myself, and I plan to ponder with you in the meantime.

What was the last good idea that you followed from the drawing board to actualization? Now what was the last good idea that you let slip by? How many ideas go through our minds that we simply don’t have the time and resources to bring to life?

Hopefully there is a high frequency when it comes to good ideas that were planned out and put to the test. However in the real world that isn’t quite possible. Unless of course you only come up with one good idea every couple of months, but we both know you can do better than that if you wanted!

So what should you do with all of your aging light bulbs? You can either act on them or forget about them.

If you want to act on them but don’t have the time, what are you doing now that isn’t necessary or could be postponed? What is required for you to raise the capital to fund this new project? Is it a matter of not eating out a couple times or as large of a decision as getting a second mortgage on the house? Perhaps you have to go talk to your friends and family about investing in you.

Whatever it takes to make your dream a reality, for the purpose of this article we’ll say you can’t or are unable to make the leap in a project you believe in. Now what? Do you let the idea sort of fade out of existence until the opportunity is gone, only to have it return as a regret?

Keep track of your ideas, make a folder for them. Allow them to evolve if they need to. But most importantly ACT. Act on some of your ideas. It’s much better to produce a decent project today than to search endlessly for the perfect idea.

Time is the mysterious and invisible “something” granted by our Creator as the roadway of the soul.

The flow of time is graphically recorded throughout nature and although seemingly infinite, all persons are allotted the same amount each day… no more, no less. One can neither buy it, sell it, nor barter it. Lost or unused time vanishes as a shadow in darkness, never to be found again.

Upon the skein of time are woven life’s patterns from the threads of love, joy, sadness, and pain. It is the magical element that heals the deepest wounds and lessens the spectacular.

Yesterday is dead time.
Tomorrow is unborn time.
The now time is the only live time.

Therefore, fill each waking moment with the highest you know and understand. Let the fertile moments of today spawn greater works for tomorrow.

This week’s guest writer, Duane, posts his above work in the bathroom of his airport hangar. At 90 years old, Duane continues to operate his own airport, take visitors on scenic flights, fix airplanes, and teach people to fly. Duane is the epitome of happiness–he holds passion for the aerial business in a way that few people love their career focus. He’ll kiss a girl’s hand or cheek, invite you for ice cream, show you his favorite websites and e-mail his friends, and hop up and down with cheer when he emerges from his plane work. He has the money for his dreams… that’s all he wants, all he needs.

Duane, you’re an Aridni hero.