photo by Markies

Yes, it may sound strange, but we know there are some people who have never tried shopping online. This is in the face of numbers from the United States Census Bureau from 2008 indicating how e-commerce accounted for $93,280,000,000 of all total retail done in America, equating to around 2.5% of all major sales transactions. There are also figures from Nielsen that estimate that over 875 million shoppers worldwide go online, and that number is pegged to rise sharply in the future.

This rise in popularity is owed to the benefits that shopping online provides people with, especially those who are looking for very specific kinds of items or gifts. Yet there are still thousands who have not engaged in online shopping, and they have their reasons. Identity theft, money security and credit card fraud all come to mind when discussing the perils of buying online. This doesn’t include worries over shipping and product damage, or items that no longer suit their owners, such as clothes or shoes with sizes that don’t fit.

Never bought anything online? Here are a few points for people to remember:

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There are a lot of people who whine about their work. We don’t. It’s not because we have lots of assets or the best jobs. It’s because the best asset you can possibly have today is your job. If the events of the past few years have taught people anything, it should be this: Your home, car or bank account could all disappear one day. One day, your health insurance may not cover everything you need, or the business you set up may suffer great losses amidst a climate of fear and uncertainty.

Of all the things you ought to fight to keep, we have learned that people should keep their employment. Gainful employment helps people keep their health insured, assists in obtaining high credit scores and helps put money in the pocket. These three reasons alone make work worthwhile. This does not even mention the psychological rewards of being employed – a sense of security, a feeling of accomplishment at the end of a month or week, and the overall variety of a day in contrast to being unemployed.

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There is a parable that tells the story of a man who found a diamond the size of his fist. He didn’t want to sell it, pawn it or have it kept away. He didn’t want to take it to a gem cutter for the pieces to be used for jewelry or for industry. Instead, he kept it in his garden, buried under a tree. He did nothing with it, apart from digging it up to check if it was there, and buried it back again. This went on for a year, until finally thieves spied upon his curious habit and stole the diamond from him.

One of the toughest challenges we have with money is how to make it grow after we’ve worked so hard to save it away. What do we do with money, after all, when we’ve set it aside in the first place? Like the man and the diamond, we can’t just sit on our money knowing full well that the value of a dollar changes and fluctuates as time passes. To truly make our wealth worth something, we need to put it into something truly worthwhile, ideally into something that helps more than just ourselves, but the greater community as well.

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Photo by Eustaquio Santimano

If you’re like us, you know that New Year’s resolutions go out the window when we think we can’t do them anymore. We say “I can’t stop eating,” and we end up ditching the diet. We quit on trying to wake up earlier to go to work, especially when it’s that very same work that keeps us up all night. We lose hope on trying to get exercise done, when we have work, family time, and other things that compete with the one hour we want to block off for jogging.

That’s why we’re determined to make it easy on ourselves this year. We’ve come up with some stuff that helps keep costs low, and dovetails straight into keeping the budget in check. Yes, that’s right: a lot of the money-saving tips you learn can actually make for a better, healthier, and more fulfilled you. These are tried and true tricks – you’ve heard them so many times, but like what every New Year brings, it’s time you refresh your memory.

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Has it been a great year? 2009 is perhaps one of the most financially challenging years that we’ve seen so far, and today’s generation will look back to the year that is about to end as a very tough economic lesson that will teach them a great deal about finance in the same way that the Great Depression of the 1930s taught us about the volatility of the financial markets.

Despite the economic hardships, with some great financial tips, we were able to get by in one piece. This time, as the year closes, we will take a look at some of the best MiCash Blog posts that you voted as your favorite.

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Post-Holiday Blues. We all have them. It’s when we have to go back to work, get back to the grind and start the new year on a good foot, yet we’re all still a little hung over. We still rue all the food we ate, the gifts we didn’t get and that one drink too many we had on New Year’s Eve. Most critically of all, we all nurse that buyer’s remorse on all that money we blew on food and gifts and things. What happens next when we have a hole in our pockets, and need to get some of it back right away?

The smart way to get around it: Turn unwanted gifts into income!

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Some of the things that can certainly spark our interest are ways to earn more money. We definitely could use a few extra bucks on a regular basis to keep up with some of life’s mounting obligations – utility bills, credit card bills, mortgages, etc. Some people get by with just their full-time day jobs, but with the mounting financial obligations brought about by economic uncertainties, some simply need something to help them get by swimmingly.

Opportunities abound these days that offer lucrative means of earning extra cash when your full-time job is simply not enough to sustain you on a monthly basis. With the right skill sets, passion and knowledge, you might be able to land a successful entrepreneurial endeavor.

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When it comes to personal finance, we need all the help we can get. But with too many resources out there, such as books, CDs, seminars, etc., and with too little time in our hands, we can only wish for some more extra time to get all the information that we need to help us jumpstart our finances.

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We have pretty much covered the basics of savings and investments in the past, and delved into several types of securities where one can put some of his cash to earn interest and capital gains. Stocks, as we have learned, provide stockholders with an equity stake in the issuing company, which means stockholders are co-owners. While stock is the most volatile form of security, it potentially offers the highest rate of return, following the financial principle that the greater the risks, the greater the rewards.

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Our goals are pretty much all the same when it comes to money: To save and secure our future. But how can you save when you’re not earning enough or if you always overspend? To increase your cash flow, you should decrease your spending and find ways to increase your income.

Here are some ideas to help you earn extra money:

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