This is a picture from Yalta, Ukraine. In my capstone class for my political science degree I researched Ukraine’s political system. Ever since then it’s been on my bucket list of places to visit. Another random fact: I actually ended up graduating one class shy of the degree – Finance major and Political Science minor
Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup! Every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
We also have our giveaway roundup every Friday. This Friday there are over 150 giveaways listed that end today (9/6) through next Thursday (9/12).
Below are the posts from this week:
- First off, PLEASE consider taking our short 8 question survey. I already started reading some of the responses and I can’t say enough how useful they are. Only 8 quick questions – thanks in advance!
- On Monday I shared Three Reasons to think about Retirement at a Young Age. My personal favorite reason to get started is habit. If you get in the habit early on of regularly having automatic deposits into your retirement account, the habit will stick with you all the way up until retirement.
- On Tuesday we had a guest post from my good friend Jo Saxton. Her post, Reflections and Tips on the Quarter Life Crisis is a follow-up to her post last week. If you only have time to read one post this week, I’d highly recommend you make this one it.
- On Tuesday we had another post as part of our promotion of Cub Foods $4,500 45th anniversary sweepstakes in What I Love about Cub Foods: Savings and Deals. I realize that this blog is read in many countries and many states besides Minnesota and Illinois (you must be a resident of one of the two to qualify) so I appreciate everyone putting up with our taking part in promoting a more “local” sweepstakes.
- On Wednesday our staff writer Cat threw (in her words) her weekly “blog party” with her post The Truth About Being a One Income Family. I love how open Cat is about her finances and various situations she is going through. I also appreciate her insight into what it’s like to be married to a med student. I will be VERY interested to see her thoughts and opinions twenty or thirty years from now!
- I had a ton of fun writing Thursdays post 5 Frugal Fall Activities. I used to be all about the Summer, but Fall has really grown on me.
Update Time
- Labor Day Weekend Was Awesome – I had such a great Labor Day Weekend. Friday I stayed in because I was drained and burnt out from the week, but that was fine because I had Breaking Bad season two to watch :) Seriously don’t know how I waited that long to watch it. The Fair was good on Saturday even though it rained and we left earlier than I would have liked. Sunday had a bonfire with a couple of our good friends and Monday was my Father-in-law’s fantasy football draft party. Speaking of fantasy football…
- Fantasy Football Team – If you don’t like fantasy football, feel free to pass over this section. I have to share my team, though, because I have never been so happy with the team I drafted. Below were my picks:
Marshawn Lynch (Seattle) RB
Steven Jackson (Atlanta) RB
New England Quarterbacks
Reggie Wayne (Indianapolis) WR
Jason Witten (Dallas) TE
Hakeem Nicks (NY Giants) WR
DeAngelo Williams (Carolina) RB
Chris Givens (St. Louis) WR
Houston Texans Defense
Isaac Redman (Pittsburgh) RB
Miami Quarterbacks
Justin Tucker (Baltimore) K
Brent Celek (Philadelphia) TE
Sidney Rice (Seattle) WR
Sebastian Janikowski (Oakland) KThis was in a 14-team draft, which gets to be tricky since the well-known players are pretty much gone after a few rounds. I did have the third pick, which was great (though I would have loved to have the first pick and have AP on my team).
And yes, that’s not a typo. I got Sidney Rice in the second to last round. Don’t ask me how so many people missed him, I hardly believe it myself.
- Side Projects, Affiliate Income, and Balancing Time – I have a pretty solid idea for a second website that I think has great potential for affiliate income as well as direct advertising. The problem is I truly feel like I’m supposed to put my time towards Young Adult Money for the foreseeable future. I have a lot of things I want to do with the site and I feel like it’s still in the baby stages.
I really just need a plan for how to deal with other side projects and ideas. My best idea for now is to commit as little time as possible to them. Maybe jot down some notes here and there and keep a notebook of various ideas. After all, it took me over a year and a half to finally start Young Adult Money – I want to be fully committed to any projects I start.
Posts of the Week:
- Sam from Digital Spikes shares the Benefits Of Guest Blogging.
- Jordann from My Alternate Life talks about Frugal Fall Shopping.
- Micro Missions talks about a disturbing trend in Less people are resting on Labor Day.
- Pauline guest posts on Eyes on the Dollar about an awesome topic in How to Attract and Retain Advertisers for Your Blog.
- Brian from Luke 14:28 tells you How to Choose a Career.
If you are from the US, how was your Labor Day weekend? Have you ever wanted to visit a not-so-typical place like Ukraine? How do you balance current responsibilities with new ideas and goals?
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Photo by MeRyan
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That picture is awesome! I visited Odesa, Ukraine earlier this year and it was a truly stunning place.
Good luck with the new website and juggling the two.
moneystepper Oh very cool, I hope I make it to Ukraine eventually!
Thanks DC for the mention. It was a pretty good long weekend on this Labor day and enjoyed it. It was more of relaxing this time. I will add Ukraine in my visit list as the picture is looking stunning
Samgill No problem, and it’s always nice to have a relaxing weekend. Hope you have another good one this weekend!
Never got into FF but I have a lot of friends that are addicted. I say once you get YDF where you want it and can put in on auto pilot go for it with the other sites. We had a great Labor Day weekend and now I have a lot of catching up to do. I find it is best to get one thing successful before moving on so like you I tend to jot things down and come back.
YourDailyFin Yeah I think I will have to just write notes and plans and whatnot until I can truly invest in another project. It’s pretty hard to even do one project when you already have a full-time job.
Hey thanks for mentioning my post!
Jordann No problem Jordann!
Looks like a solid team. 14 teams is a lot. I do a 12 team keeper league with my college buddies and I’m pretty happy with where I ended up too. I actually have Sidney Rice as well, though I got him a little earlier than you. Fantasy football can be so fun and at the same time so frustrating. Let’s hope this year it’s more of the former!
Matt @ Mom and Dad Money It definitely can be frustrating at times! I had a 6-7 record last year and was lucky to even get that many wins.
Oh no, is it fantasy football time again? Haha!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Holly at ClubThrifty Haha yes it is, unfortunately for people who are not interested in it ;)
Hope you have a great weekend too, Holly!
I know what you mean about the second site. I’ve been bouncing around the idea of second site and just don’t have the time right now. Though, when the redesign is done and I finally hire a VA then it’ll be a different story. I think Ukraine would be great to visit. I want to go to Russia some day and my wife thinks I am nuts…perhaps we’ll wait til this whole Syria thing is done…. ;)
FrugalRules I wouldn’t mind visiting Russia, but it’s so low on my priority list that I doubt I’ll ever make it there. I haven’t hired a VA either and I’m not sure the redesign will save me much time haha, so I think increasing revenues and hiring out stuff is the only way I’ll get there.
Breaking Bad is the best TV show ever. Walter White is also the best character ever developed. Wait until you get further along. I am on the season before the final that is on right now. I would love to visit just about anywhere that I am not likely to get my head chopped off. Thanks for mentioning Pauline’s guest post. Have a great weekend.
Eyesonthedollar The characters on Breaking Bad are amazing. Kudos to the writers and creators who made such dynamic characters. Excellent casting, too!
Hope you have a great weekend as well!
Breaking bad is on my to watch list too, I don’t want to start for fear to watch the whole season in a day but will definitely enjoy the super fast French internet to download it and watch in Guatemala
RFIndependence You just might end up watching a whole season in a day! The only reason I stopped last Friday night was because I could barely keep my eyes open.
I was a Business Managment and Political Science double major…I was lucky that a lot of my business electives were also Poly Sci classes too so I got credit for both. Anyways, I’m in a 16 team league…and honestly the FA market is slim pickings…I imagine it is similar with 14 teams. I prefer 12 teams.
Andrew LivingRichCheaply That’s pretty sweet, pretty much zero of my polysci classes overlapped with my finance major. 16 team league sounds pretty tough. I think 14 is already getting to be too much.
We did our fantasy draft on Wednesday, and I got Peyton Manning as my QB. Great game last night and 46 fantasy points for my QB alone. Love it, I’m off to a great start!
Looks like I should have a decent team this year, I’ve got a few of the same players as you do – including Reggie Wayne, and the Texans defense.. Good luck!
moneymatters Holy cow, you basically are set this week then! *knock on wood* Best of luck with your team this season!
Your fantasy football team looks pretty solid!
ayoungpro Thanks man!
Sounds like you had a lot of fun last weekend!
We had a great Labour Day weekend in Canada as well. It was finally hot and sunny all weekend. :-)
Sounds like you have a great Labor Day weekend! It seems like everybody is thinking about or launching new blogs. Right now I need to stay focused on The Heavy Purse. It’s still quite small and in all fairness – I don’t have a second idea! LOL! But if you think right now YAM is where your focus should be then that’s what you need to do. Keep notes and ideas and when the time is right – you can launch them.
TheHeavyPurse Thanks for the good words, Shannon! I definitely need to stay focused on Y.A.M. I mean, if I was going to have a second site I need to get further ahead on Y.A.M. and not have zero posts ready to go for next week Saturday morning haha. My site is still relatively small as well and I need to realize there is so much more to do with it.
Ha…I listed my team on my blog today also. That is a nice draft…especially for a 14-team league. (I’m in an 8 team league.) I also took Lynch at #1. Have a great weekend!
Oh…and thanks for mentioning my post on careers! :)
Brian @ Luke1428 No problem! Careers and small biz posts are by far my favorite type of posts so keep them coming!
Brian @ Luke1428 No problem! Careers and small biz posts are by far my favorite type of posts so keep them coming!
Thanks for the shout out. Team looks pretty good although I never played in a league using team quarterbacks. That definitely has to help when the QB gets benched because of a blowout game. My work league is a 16-man league, so I feel your pain with having to sift through the garbage pile to try and find quality guys.
MicrosMissions Wow, 16 is a ton. I like Team QBs but it makes drafting quickly because you can’t sit and wait too long (I usually end up waiting until far later and my QBs often are sub-par, but this year went early).
MicrosMissions Wow, 16 is a ton. I like Team QBs but it makes drafting quickly because you can’t sit and wait too long (I usually end up waiting until far later and my QBs often are sub-par, but this year went early).
I have Janikowski on my team, too :)
LisaVsTheLoans Nice! He’s a solid backup – or even starter. It’s hard to tell with kickers.