Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook here now.

Here are some examples of what you’re missing. 

ON TWITTER @MONEYUNDER30

Our Twitter page is where we share helpful links, chat about money, answer questions, or get involved in “tweet chats”.

Sometimes we tweet or re-tweet funny and/or helpful quotes:

Other times we send out conversation starter tweets to get your opinions on financial issues. The responses we receive are often pretty insightful and even make it into our posts on occasion:

We regularly share links to helpful financial articles across the Web:

Occasionally, we share extra personal finance or career tips that you won’t see on the blog:

FACEBOOK: MONEYUNDER30

Over on Facebook, we try to spark up great conversations about personal finance. It’s the perfect place to pose a question or thought and see what other like-minded financial go-getters have to say.

Here are some things we’ve been talking about recently:

Our social media groups are growing and evolving because of the involvement of our fans and followers. The conversations would not be as helpful or beneficial without their (your) thoughts, advice, reactions, and encouragement.

We’d love for you to join in on the action and get involved in our conversations.

• Like Money Under 30 on Facebook here.
• Follow Money Under 30 on Twitter here.

Don’t forget to tweet us or leave us a comment and let us know that you joined our group. We’d love to meet our new friends!

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What’s the number one thing Money Under 30 can help you with that you may not be able to get anywhere else?

Let me know in a comment.

WHY I ASK

Over the weekend, I was in Chicago at the first-ever financial bloggers conference with nearly 300 other bloggers. It was surreal to meet so many people I have been emailing with for years, and it was a chance to be inspired by bloggers who have taken their games to a higher level and are aiming higher yet.

While there, I reflected on what I’ve accomplished over the last five years, but more importantly, I also thought about where we can go in the next five.

Notice I said “we”.

When I started Money Under 30, I was just playing around. I thought blogging about my struggle with debt and musing about various financial topics would be helpful to keeping myself honest as I worked to get debt free.

About a year later, however, two things started to happen. For one, I started to realize that stuff I was writing was actually helping people. Two, I started making some money from the blog.

As you can imagine, both were motivating to keep writing. As I’ve worked, I’ve read all your emails and comments and have even done a survey or two, bit I still find I choose the articles we publish mostly based on what I think will be interesting.

That’s not so good. 

In the next five years, I want the conversations to be driven by you, the readers.

You can see this in new features like Financial Checkups, but that’s just the beginning.

Today I’m asking for the top thing that this blog can help you with. But I’m asking not just for your top financial goal or the thing you most want to read about on a financial blog, but the top thing Money Under 30 can help you with that you cannot get anywhere else.

As this blog grows but the hours in the day do not, I’m going to have to make even more choices on what to cover. I’ll admit now, some of you will be disappointed that there won’t be as much content about ABC, and maybe too much content about XYZ. But to be successful as a blog (after all, I’m not The New York Times here), I need to focus on the one or two ways I can best help you.

Please be specific!

If you answer “pay off student loans”, that doesn’t help me very much and I won’t pick you to get some free money.

If you answer, “position my finances and my credit score to be able to buy a home before I turn 30 and pay off $100k of law school debt before I’m 40″ that’s better. If you include a reason you think Money Under 30 is the best place to get the content you’re looking for, that’s best!

Thanks for taking a couple minutes to help me out—and shape the future of this blog!

Leave a comment now…

As always, thanks for reading!

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Although I’ve decided not to work on Money Under 30 full-time right now, I still have every intention of moving the site forward. I want to make it more valuable, more known, and more followed.

To help me do that, I’m excited to announce that Amber Gilstrap is going to begin work as Money Under 30’s assistant editor and social media coordinator. Many of you already know Amber from her work here as a contributing blogger (first appearing under her alias Carrie…on the Cheap). You may also know her from her own blog: Blonde and Balanced.

About Amber

Amber lives in Kansas City, Missouri where she works as an accountant and enjoys writing and working out. The last couple of years have been busy for her: She survived the rigorous prep to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and got married just a few months ago.

In the almost two years Amber has been writing posts for Money Under 30, she’s demonstrated an awesome work ethic, attention to detail, a passion for personal finance, and a genuine interest in blogging…the perfect combination of traits to help grow this site.

In her new role, Amber will be working a number of hours a week to create more content…both on the blog and other channels like Facebook and Twitter.

Amber will not only deliver more useful content for your benefit, but her work will allow me to focus on more *big* posts and other projects that I think you’ll really like when I’m able to launch them.

So be on the lookout for interesting links and thought-provoking questions, as well as an uptick in posts here on the blog featuring Amber’s perspective and personal experiences on getting married, merging finances, and beginning down the road of purchasing her first home.

Q&A

To help you get to know Amber better, here’s a brief interview we did over the weekend.

DAVID: Why are you interested in personal finance?

AMBER: I’ve been interested in money and personal finance from a fairly young age. Numbers and math have always come easy to me, so I think that’s what first fueled my interest. But I became increasingly interested in the subject as I was figuring out my own financial path right after college. I think the psychology of money is really interesting, too — why people spend money the way they do. There are so many different aspects of personal finance that it never gets boring!

DAVID: You’re a CPA—has your work experience and training in accounting influenced how you manage your personal finances at all? If so, how?

AMBER: At my full-time job, I work with financial system development, financial reporting, and million — sometimes billion — dollar transactions, so my job hasn’t directly influenced how I manage my finances (although, I often wish my bank accounts experienced million or billion dollar transactions — preferably deposits).

However, when I was studying for the CPA Exam, it really opened up my eyes to taxes. Although I don’t work in tax (yet), it’s a topic that comes easily to me (I scored highest on the tax section of the CPA exam and it was, by far, the easiest section to pass), so that has definitely changed the way I look at my own taxes and tax law in general.

The main thing that has influenced how I manage my finances was getting into and out of debt. I really started paying attention to personal finance when I was paying off debt and it ended up developing into a great interest of mine!

DAVID: As those who’ve read your articles here and your own blog know, you recently got married—congratulations! Now that your wedding is behind you, what’s your next financial goal?

AMBER: Thanks! We’ve actually been saving for our first home for a couple of years now. We plan to seriously start looking for our first place later this fall with the hope to buy something this winter or early next spring.

It has long been our goal to save a significant down payment in addition to maintaining an emergency fund and a “new home expense fund” (both of which are fully funded) before we jumped into home ownership. I’m happy to say we’re almost there! And after six years of apartment-living, we’re ridiculously excited to have a garage (no more scraping our windshields in the winter) and our own backyard. We also plan to expand our family with a puppy when we buy a home!

DAVID: Your own blog is called Blonde and Balanced: What does a balanced life mean to you?

AMBER: Good question! Balance means a lot of things, but when I decided on the name for my blog, I was referring to balance in personal finance and health. Many people try to reach personal finance or diet/fitness goals by being super restrictive — year-long shopping bans or trying to subsist on just celery and egg whites. Most of the time, those types of plans cause burn-out and end in failure.

DAVID: Couldn’t agree more!

AMBER: I’ve found success in both finance and health by taking a balanced approach. And I’ve discovered that making balanced decisions really translates well to all areas of our lives — career, relationships, goal-setting, organization, entertainment, productivity, attitude, and so on. Balance means cutting yourself some slack but also keeping the long-term goal in mind.

DAVID: Enough about money for a minute. If you were a Jeopardy contestant, what would be your “Jeopardy story” (you know, some silly memorable story or fact about yourself)?

AMBER: This is a tough question to answer. I’ve been thinking about it for over a day now. I even asked my husband if I could steal his Jeopardy story (he won a college scholarship by kicking a 30-yard field goal before a KU game), but he wouldn’t let me. As for me, I did study abroad in Valencia, Spain during college. I did the total immersion thing — I lived with a Spanish family and went to a Spanish school. I had so much fun eating way too many tapas, learning Spanish slang with my host brother, and spending most afternoons in the Mediterranean. I definitely recommend studying abroad to any college student!

DAVID: What’s your favorite thing about living in Kansas City?

AMBER: My favorite thing about KC is that it’s a hidden gem in this big country of ours. It’s surprising how many people assume I grew up on a farm or have to drive two hours to get to any sort of civilization. Western Kansas may be empty prairie land, but KC is just like any other urban city. Also, KC has both a small town and a big city feel, which I love. And the people (like many areas of the Midwest) are super nice and friendly. My only gripe about KC is that the public transportation stinks. I’d love it if we had a subway or a decent bus system!

DAVID: It’s happy hour; what do you order?

AMBER: I usually go with my favorite local beers: Boulevard Wheat or Boulevard Zon (a summer seasonal). I’m partial to Belgium white beers — my other favorites are Hoegaarden and New Belgium Mothership Wit.

DAVID: Finally, what’s the best piece of financial advice you’ve ever received or read?

AMBER: I’m going to be cliché here and say “live below your means”. Living below you means can change your life in addition to changing your finances forever. It has allowed my husband and me to pay off all our debt (school loans, car loans, credit cards) and start saving for bigger goals (like a future home and retirement). Our friends even joke about how we’ve been considering buying a flat-screen TV for three years, but just haven’t taken the plunge. We still think our old-school TV works just fine. (We do plan to buy a flat screen for our new house.) Living below your means also removes such a great deal of stress from your life, which is something you just can’t put a price on.

DAVID: Well, thank you for your time, Amber. I’m excited to be working with you and I look forward to all you’ll continue to contribute to Money Under 30!

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Not only can being grateful make you happier, it might just pay dividends.

Psychologists have shown that when people feel appreciated, they’re more likely to make economic decisions that benefit the common good—not just themselves.

That might mean a donor giving more to a thankful charity, an employee putting in longer hours for an appreciative boss or—vice versa—a boss or coworker helping out an appreciative colleague down the road.

This week, saying thank you can also win you $50.

American Express has generously offered to provide five $50 “Thank You” gift cards to Money Under 30 readers in recognition of Administrative Professionals week.

(Amex has also created a Recognize and Reward Sweepstakes at ForEverythingYouDo.com, where professionals can recognize a standout administrative professional, colleague or peer and enter them to win Gift Card prizes.)

To enter THIS contest, simply share the best “thank you” you’ve ever received in a comment. Who thanked you, and how? What’d you do to deserve it? It could be at work—from a boss or colleague—but it doesn’t have to be.

I’ll pick one winner to receive a $50 gift card each workday this week. (One entry per reader…more comments won’t get you more entries, sorry!)

I look forward to reading your stories, and I’m pleased to be able to offer this contest as a small THANK YOU of my own to you, my awesome readers!

Note: The contest is now closed, but comments are still open…the stories shared are awesome and if you want to share your best “thank you”, we’d certainly love to hear it!

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Disclaimer: Obviously, American Express is providing the gift cards that I’ll be giving away, but I did not receive any additional compensation to run this post or contest.

Today, I’m launching a long-overdue Facebook Page for Money Under 30. And I mean literally “launching”. As I publish this, three people like it…including myself and my brother.

So help me fix that!

To kick this off, here’s what I’m going to do: For the first 500 people who like Money Under 30 Facebook page before Midnight EDT on Sunday, November 28, 2010, I will donate $1 to charity. I’ll divide the donation evenly between two highly-rated charities (feel free to give some extra on your own if you can, too!)

• The Jimmy Fund, supporting pediatric and adult cancer research at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
• MAP International, promoting health of impoverished people in over 115 countries.

Like Money Under 30 now:

Do it for cause, but also for you…

Over the coming year, I’ll be using our Facebook presence to develop richer conversations with and among readers, so I hope you’ll consider liking it both to give $1 to good causes, but also to join a community of others committed to building a more secure and more prosperous future.

Either way, thank you for being a Money Under 30 reader. I truly appreciate you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Oblivious Investor: How is a sole proprietor taxed? Good reading for any solo entrepreneurs out there…you don’t need to “form a business” to be “in business”!

No Debt Plan: Five tips to pay off your mortgage fast.

20Something Finance: A guide to the new bank overdraft fee rules.

Generation X Finance: Buying a new car may actually be cheaper than buying a used one. Say what?

MintLife Blog: Why organic food costs so much. And does it ever!

New York Times Bucks: Should you trust Mint.com?

I Will Teach You To Be Rich: Five surprising insights into earning more money. I couldn’t agree more with Ramit’s focus on earning more. This is good shit.

The job I took is great. It’s a mile from home in offices on the Portland, Maine waterfront. I’m doing something I enjoy (marketing and technical writing) and work with a great small team. There’s been a learning curve, but I’m enjoying the challenge.

As it turns out, taking a job when I did was fortuitous. That’s because we now have a little girl on the way! Come the end of August, I’ll be a worker, a blogger, and a father. I’m tired just thinking about it. But oh, so excited.

Blogging continues to rock. Money Under 30 still surpasses my expectations. Traffic has grown to new heights, reaching nearly 100k unique visitors in March. (There’s been a slight drop as interest in articles related to taxes and the home buyer tax credits dries up, but the trend is still good.)

Revenue is also better than it’s ever been. If the site’s net revenues were a “livable” wage a year ago, they’re a “comfortable” full-time salary now.

(Still, there are good reasons for the job: security, live human interaction, and the opportunity to get new skills outside of blogging. Part of me also questions the long-term viability of ad-supported blogging as a business, although it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.)

As you know, I’ve also hired some writers to help me manage the pressure of running what could easily be a full-time business while doing my best at my full-time job. I think Carrie, Emily, Mark, and Sarah are doing an awesome job; I hope you do, too!

Finally, there’s this: Seven months from now, I face a conundrum that most of my friends already joke about.

In January 2011, I turn 30.

The question, of course, is how does a 30-year old run “Money Under 30”?

I’m still working on that one. Perhaps by publishing younger writers. Perhaps by taking on a younger partner. Perhaps by rebranding. (I’m open to suggestions).

Until then, I’m going to be using my limited time to work hard on my mission: To build not just another financial blog, but a resource providing simple, sound, and enduring financial education for twenty somethings.

In that vein, I created a quick survey asking for suggestions that I’ll be fully promoting next week. (Interested in helping? Take my survey here.) I’m also going to launch a Money Under 30 Facebook page soon, which is long, long, long overdue. Finally, I’m quietly working on a new site. Whether it will one day compliment Money Under 30 or become Money Under 30 “2.0”, I’m not sure yet. That’s all I can say for now, but I will keep you posted.

If you have other suggestions for steering Money Under 30’s course, questions about blogging, or just thoughts, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

David

Also, for anybody interested in the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit or the $6,500 home buyer tax credit…they expire at the end of this month. Sort of. You must sign purchase agreements by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010 to be eligible for the credits. So there’s still time to get mortgage approval and shop for the perfect home. Just don’t feel like you have to buy a home to get the tax credit. Buy a home when you’re ready to buy a home. Period.

Happy Friday!

About the Contributors

Simon, a 22-year old recent college grad, is a full-time editorial staff member at MyBankTracker and maintains his own personal finance blog, the Realm of Prosperity. Simon will be writing on a variety of personal finance topics from credit cards tips and tricks to saving money when you shop online.

Carrie hails from Kansas City, Mo., and is also an established personal finance blogger at her site Carrie…on the Cheap. In addition to bringing her personal experiences crushing debt and beginning to build net worth by age 26, Carrie is also in the final throws of studying for the CPA exam. She will be contributing great debt-reduction strategies, money-saving ideas, and oh-so-helpful tax tips!

Stan is new to blogging, but brings an impressive passion for investing. Before he even graduated from college, Y.S. was running his own investment fund for family and friends. He now works for a New York brokerage company and will be writing market commentary and how-to guides for young investors.

Look for their new posts next week!

Why I Got a “Real” Job

When I posted that I was looking for new writers and was going “back to work”, the questions started pouring in, mostly from other bloggers, who wanted to know:

• Why would I ever want to give up being a full-time blogger, especially so quickly?
• Did it not work out?

Quite the contrary, actually. In fact, I’m hiring contributors because things continue to go well, not just because I got a job again.

To understand why I took a job, you have to understand this: I didn’t start blogging full-time because it was my dream; I began blogging full-time because it enabled me to make a living in the city where my wife and I wanted to live. In fact, I hoped that my blogging would propel me to a new career that would take advantage of my interest of writing and Web publishing, which it did. I wasn’t out to take just any job; only one that put me to work in an area I’m passionate about.

I serendipitously saw a job posting for just such a job (I wasn’t actively looking) and said, “Wow, that looks perfect for me”. Fortunately, my new employer thought so, too.

Might I like to “be my own boss”, either as a blogger or as in another business, someday? Perhaps. But I want to do it when I have a financial safety net (which I don’t yet) and not at a time I may be starting a family in a matter of one or two years.

I want to continue to grow Money Under 30 into a substantial and useful resource for people in their twenties looking for answers to their financial questions (and earn a little something extra doing it). I have never, however, wanted to become a financial guru or “professional” financial writer (not that I wouldn’t consider writing a book someday, it just hasn’t been a focus of mine). Without a book or other product to sell with my blog, and without a professional service (like financial planning) to promote, my blog probably belongs as a part-time endeavor.

The fact that blogging supported me full-time (and could again, if I needed it to), is simply a sweet, sweet bonus.

Moving Forward

Ultimately, even though I am going to have less time to write new articles for Money Under 30, I am really excited to bring some new voices to the site. If things go well, I may add even more contributors down the road.

I hope you enjoy the articles that Simon, Carrier, and Y.S. will soon start publishing. Please give them your support as we all work together to share knowledge about managing our money and growing financial secure, one day at a time.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

David @DavidWeliver

If so, consider applying to be a Money Under 30 staff writer.

Here’s the deal:

I recently accepted a full-time position managing Web content for a software company. Money Under 30 is certainly not going away; but with my time and energy focused on my new gig, I’m going to need a little help.

Who I’m Looking For

I’m looking for one or two talented writers with a passion for personal finance to write one or two original and educational blog posts a week.

My mission for Money Under 30 is to continue to build not just a blog, but a comprehensive online resource for personal finance basics. Ideally, I want young people with personal finance questions to be able to find everything they need to know about money right here.

With that mission in mind, the ideal staff blogger will be able to write about personal finance topics in a way that is entertaining, but also clear and educational. Posts should have clearly defined topics and answer a question or meet specific needs.

The specific requirements for this position are:

• Demonstrated personal finance knowledge (I am especially interested in expanding content on investing and real estate)
• Experience writing for the Web
• Ability to use WordPress to compose and/or format blog posts
• Ability to submit at least one 600-plus word post per week, on deadline

What You’ll Get

In addition to earning a few extra dollars (see below), you’ll also be able to grow your writing portfolio and gain exposure for your writing (and blog, if you have one) with over 75,000 monthly readers. Specifically:

• Articles will be published under your byline
• Posts may include a link to your own blog (if you have one)
• Compensation starts at $25 USD per post, paid monthly via check or PayPal
• Compensation will be reviewed after three months of contributions

How to Apply

To apply, please contact me and provide the following:

• A description of your writing experience and personal finance knowledge
• Links to two or three published blog posts or articles
• Links to any Websites you publish
• A few topic ideas for Money Under 30 posts

I will accept applications until Monday, November 30, 2009 and contact finalists with any follow-up questions. At this time I am only hiring one or two writers, but I will keep all applicants on file should I need more writers in the future.

Please contact me to apply.