Quite some time ago I wrote a series of posts about Benjamin Franklin, and his business prowess. The series of posts was following the 12 rules of management from a book written by Blaine McCormick. In one of the posts, ‘A Simple Recipe for Lifelong Learning,’ I briefly mentioned a bit about using board games to gain ideas and try different ideas and strategies. I thought it might be a good idea to show you a couple of board games that you might like to try out.

1) Settlers of Catan - In this game, you are trying to control the island of Catan economically. Each different type of tile has the ability to produce a different resource that you will use to develop roads, build settlements, upgrade to cities, and use for bartering with other players. At the start of every turn, resources are produced for everyone who has a settlement in the right area. Following that you have the opportunity to trade and build.

The great thing about this game is that the board is based on tiles. Each time you play the game there will be a different island, and the resource production rates will also be different for each game.

2) Ticket to Ride - Connect the world! Well, rather connect the United States with your rails. (There is also a German version, a Europe version, and a Switzerland map) In ‘Ticket to Ride’ you are trying to connect cities across America. Doing so will get you points in two different ways. Every time you lay down train tracks and if you can complete your secret route cards.

The route cards are very simple. They have two cities and a point value. If you can connect the two cities on your railway, you get the points. Otherwise they will count against you. The farther apart your cities are, the more it will be worth. The turns move along fairly quickly as it is easy to come up with your next move before your turn happens again.

During your turn you will have three options - take more route cards, lay down track, and collect train cards (which you use to lay down track). What is your backup plan when somebody takes your route? What is the best way to get from point A to point B? It’s not always a strait line in this game.

3) Puerto Rico -In the game Puerto Rico, you are trying to stimulate economic growth on the island and build up San Juan. You have several different ‘roles’ that you can choose during your turn. But when you choose one, everyone can do the action. So you really have to determine when the best times are to trade goods in the market, ship them off to England, build buildings, and harvest crops. Once a role is taken, it can not be used again until the next round.

You will also have the ability to build buildings in San Juan. They will allow you to do things such as getting better prices at the marketplace, being able to store more goods, and of course the ability to process the goods. The only thing that I should caution you about this game is the time. It will take around 90 minutes to play this game, even more time during the first run through.

Hopefully you will get a chance to play these games; however they all require 3 players minimum and go up to 5. (Settlers of Catan only goes up to 4, unless you buy a 5-6 player expansion.) There are also some great 2 player games to rack your brain, I’ll talk about them in an upcoming post.

I’ve started making a list of the posts for Monday. I have determined writing these posts will be no easy task, but of course coming to that conclusion isn’t a big leap.

I am trying to be prepared to write them, but I still have to finish up the new theme that I am working on. So it looks like I am going to have a good part of my evening filled tonight, not to mention the entirety of tomorrow!

Check out this awareness test that I found over at Seth Godin’s Blog.

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March 24, 24 Hours, 24 Articles, and 1 soon to be struggling with carpal tunnel writer.  It’s beginning to  dawn on me just how extensive this project will be.  I have come up with ideas for some of the posts, and jotted down a few ideas so far.  I want to do the majority of the writing on the 24th.

To many bloggers 24 posts is not a very significant amount for one day.  Then again that is their full time job.  I’m not sure how they don’t get blocked up.  Of course many of them are looking at a newsfeed, commenting on other posts, or bringing up weird stories.  Not that there is anything wrong with this.

My goal is to pack in as much value for you as possible within my 24 posts.  Just 4 days left!

In less than a week, I will be turning 24. Granted this isn’t the most incredible of life’s landmarks, I want to do something different for my golden birthday. With that I am going to do two difficult tasks.

First, I am going to change the look of Aridni. I have had an idea in my head for a new them for a couple of months now. It’s time I finish coding it and get it released. On March 24, Aridni will look quite a bit different. Hopefully it’s for the best.

Secondly, and perhaps quite a bit harder than putting together the theme in one week, I am going to post on the 24th. A LOT. I am going for 24 posts in 24 hours.

To make it fun, I will give away a $24 Amazon gift certificate to a lucky commenter on the this day.

Just in case you haven’t done so already, make sure you are subscribed to the Aridni RSS feed, because you don’t want to miss out on this posting spectacular.

If anybody else wants to join me in the pursuit of a plethora of posts, please let me know and I’ll get a link to your site here.

I need to go stock up on coffee and start stretching my fingers, because the fun is about to begin.

I just wanted to share with you this post from Seth Godin’s blog. The article is basically about the tendency to keep good ideas down in favor of the current status quo. It’s a short little post, but I found it to be motivational.

There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.

In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.

The forces of mediocrity

I just saw a commercial for my idea a little while ago. The only problem was that it wasn’t mine. Over a year ago I had a million dollar idea that would take some setup time, and be only a matter of promotion from there.

One of the big issues that I face is that my programming skills in this language aren’t as high as they need to be. I have to reference books to move forward with the project.

An even bigger issue is distraction. I’m kicking myself for not working as hard and long on the project as I certainly needed to be. There is still room for more in this particular area for another player, so hopefully if I can launch within the the next four months I might have a chance.

Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best won’t produce results. Like most things, focusing and doing the work will. I need to get going before I see advertisements from another company now.

Now that the holidays are over, the number of divorcees looking for a rental house explodes. I thought it was just an interesting fluke last year when we were trying to rent out a larger property. This year, a property manager has confirmed that he finds more newly separated people looking for a new home than any other time of year.

How interesting since it’s also Valentine’s Day time, huh?

Valentine’s Day and personal finances make an interesting combination… a situation we haven’t figured out the best way to handle. Spend a fortune on stuff? Bypass the big spending? Put the money toward something “super sweet” like your hubby’s Roth or a new stock pick?

We’ve always downplayed this holiday at our house–usually because we’ve had a house to rent out! Now I’m contemplating all of the past articles on Aridni and wondering what the best solution is.

Many veterans who have used their VA Home Loan benefit to purchase their homes have also refinanced with an Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan (IRRRL). An IRRRL is a refinancing program that is offered by the VA for veterans who want to refinance their current loans to get a better interest rate on their mortgage.

Some interesting facts that you should know about the VA IRRRL are:

• An IRRRL is used to refinance an existing VA loan with a new VA loan that usually has a lower interest rate.
• An IRRRL can be a fixed rate loan, an adjustable rate loan, or a hybrid adjustable rate loan.
• An IRRRL must be at a lower interest rate than your previous mortgage loan unless you are refinancing from an adjustable rate mortgage loan. This is because the interest rate with a fixed rate loan may be the same or slightly higher than your current interest rate with your adjustable rate mortgage loan, but once the rate begins to adjust it may increase. Therefore you should refinance an adjustable rate mortgage before the interest rate starts to increase.
• The monthly payment for an IRRRL must be lower than the previous loans monthly payment unless you are refinancing an adjustable rate mortgage or the new loan term is a shorter amount of time than the old loan term, like 20 years instead of 30 years.
• For most IRRRLs the VA does not find it necessary to get an appraisal, credit information, or underwriting. Your VA approved lender may require these things, and if they do the costs can be financed into the new loan.
• The lender can usually close an IRRRL automatically, so it is not a complicated loan process like taking your original mortgage loan.
• If the loan that is being refinanced is over 30 days past due then the VA must approve the refinance so it can not be submitted automatically by the lender.
• If thee loan that is being refinanced is more than 30 days past due then the late payments and charges to bring the old loan current can be financed into the new loan. The costs that are involved if the lender has already begun foreclosure can also be refinanced into the loan as long as they are reasonable.
• Energy efficient improvements are allowed to be refinanced into the IRRRL. This means that if you want to purchase a more efficient furnace, put in new windows, re-insulate, or make any other home improvement that will save you money on utility bills in the future, then you can use the equity in your home and pay for these improvements with your IRRRL.
• There may be an increase in your monthly mortgage payment amount if you finance energy efficient home improvements, finance your closing costs, include the funding fees in the loan, finance points, or get a higher interest rate when moving from an adjustable rate to a fixed rate mortgage.
• Only as much as two points can be financed into the IRRRL at closing. A point is equal to 1% of the loan, and if you take more points on the loan then you can lower your interest rate.
• You can not take cash out with an IRRRL. You can finance home improvements for the purpose of saving money in the long run, but that money is paid back to you as a reimbursement after the work is completed and it must be within 90 days of the loan closing. You do not get cash out of your home with this refinance loan.
• If your monthly payment will increase by more than 20% due to home improvements, fees, closing costs, a shorter loan term, or other factors then the VA does require credit information and underwriting.

For more information on the VA IRRRL program go to www.va.gov

The net worth is struggling to maintain itself these days, and to be honest, I’m not thinking about money to the point of obsession like I used to. Instead, I’m experiencing the things that I haven’t been able to do since college:

learning how to cook
writing a book

My husband is doing something he’s always wanted to do:

earning a master’s degree

While my co-personal finance bloggers experience rapid growth this year, we’re setting different goals for ourselves that involve personal development and enrichment. I work part time until May, which is the coolest feeling I have ever experiencing about work. Working 9 to 5+++ was the most miserable experience I have ever had.

Now I don’t have to worry about what the boss thinks or if I’ll lose my job or how to spend my messily vacation days. I have total freedom for myself, which no one else in my office experiences. Sure I get paid less. But at some point, we have to ask ourselves what matters most: lots of money or lots of freedom.

I read a fantastic book that illustrated the way I was feeling:
The Anti 9-to-5 : Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube

I suggest that anyone feeling frustrated with work take a glance. It has some fantastic strategies for reflecting on what makes you happiest and determining how to obtain the best situation for your working self. The fact that it’s targeted to women is something pretty much only relevant in the title. The rest is easily male or female.

I just finished reading this article from Matt Heaton, who is the CEO of Bluehost and Hostmonster. It is called “Win at all Costs!!” It is about the competition of business, particularly the web hosting business. In case you were not aware, the business is incredibly competitive. It is extremely easy to get into the business, all you need is an old computer, an internet connection, and some free software.

Of course something being easy to do, and easy to do well are a completely different thing. If anybody can actually make a good webhosting company, they would find no shortage of customers. It looks like Matt knows a thing or two.

This may seem strange from someone who has written in the past that many of my fiercest competitors are also my friends. We talk often, share ideas, and if they are really struggling with an issue I am glad to help out where I can. I do this because I respect these people in the industry and that respect translates into help and information if they require it.

Having said that, my goal is to take ALL of their customers. They aren’t stupid. They know that is my goal and I have even mentioned it to them on several occasions, and if they were smart they would be plotting to take my customers as well. I can think of several occasions where we have gone above and beyond what any sane company would do to get an affiliate relationship with a large advertiser.

His drive to win gives me confidence in my new webhosting company. Of course only time will tell, but from this article I wouldn’t want to go up against him!

I seem to be much better at picking and buying stocks than I do at selling them. The number one reason for this is because I often forget to sell on the gains. But if I could always call the tops and bottoms of every stock than ranking with investing legends would be a snap.

Where will the market top? Where will it bottom? Buying after a correction or after a company has a rough week is easy. Learning to sell right before one happens is the real trick.

So If I’m not claiming to be a great investor what exactly do I need to be doing to get there? One thing that I need to work on is determining my selling point and timeframe BEFORE I buy the stock.

From there it is a matter of sticking to your guns and selling when you have hit the mark. Of course if significant news come out you will need to re-evaluate where you are going.

If I would have been following my own advice here within the past month I would have been able to sell off one of my stocks at my price, right below the top. Now I have lost much of the gains that could be out growing in another investment.

Well, I have learned quite a bit from this, and hopefully that will make me a better investor in the future. I suppose only time will tell.

What lessons have you learned in bear markets?

We all have dreams or plans on becoming quite wealthy. The majority of the top 20 are all self made billionaires. How long until we see your name up on that list?

It also gives information on their background and what they are up to.

20 Wealthiest People

I could only guess the top two on the list!

Then again who wouldn’t guess Bill Gates and Warren Buffet?