Money Tips Network

(This was originally published on 13 October 2022.)

I started this website two decades ago. The first time the Internet Archive captured the site was back in April 2004. I registered the domain in 2003.

Back then I was hand-crafting HTML pages in a text editor, and managing all of the links by hand. I had found a website template that gave me the sidebar, and worked from there. I composed the pages on my computer and then transferred them to a webhost via FTP to “publish” them.

Not the most difficult thing in the world to do, but certainly not the easiest.

Then I found WordPress

In mid-2005, after being on blogger.com for only a couple of weeks, I found out about WordPress, and my content creation at the time shot through the roof.

I recently ran across a new-ish referral site called invitation.codes.

It's a site that aims to be one-stop shopping for referral bonuses. These are the extra sign-on goodies that you sometimes get when signing up as a new user on a site.

Often a website will offer a bonus to its current users for referring new users. This is usually good business practice because the current users will work for free, and only get rewarded when someone signs up. It's cheap marketing labor!

Even better when the site throws in something for the new user to help the current user get the sign-up. Generally money well spent by the business.

I've changed the way I shop over the past few years. And although the shift has been subtle, I've found that I'm much happier with the things I buy.

In the past, my approach to shopping was simple. If I wanted a new thneed, I would go to a store (or, with the advent of the internet, a website) and choose from the available thneeds. I'd look at the store's selection (or the website's selection) and pick the one best suited for me.

If the thneed I wanted was particularly expensive or important, I might expand my search to multiple stores or multiple websites. But usually, I stuck with the first store I visited.

The key point here is that I allowed the places I shopped to impose limits on the thneeds available to me. I think of this approach as “store-centered shopping”. Whatever the store has in stock defines my universe of options.

It's always fun to unearth some esoteric piece of personal finance history. I know there are only a few nerds out there who care (hello, Grant Sabatier!), but those of us who care really care.

This week I'm in Orlando for Fincon, the annual gathering of folks who work at the intersection of money and media. As a result, I haven't had time to do all of the things I normally do during a week. I haven't been reading or writing about money. Instead, I've done a lot of chatting with colleagues.

We've been coming together at Fincon since 2011. At first, we were nearly all strangers to each other. Today, many of these people are my closest friends — but they're friends I see in person only once or twice each year. I value every moment I get to spend with them.

On Tuesday, for instance, a group of us booked a private VIP tour through the Disney theme parks. We had a blast. I mean, look at this wretched hive of scum and villainy…

I am obsessed with the film Everything Everywhere All at Once. From the moment I saw the trailer, I knew the movie was meant for me. I was right. The film's bizarre blend of action, philosophy, science fiction, taxes, and juvenile humor feels specifically targeted to me and my brain.

For those unfamiliar, here's a quick plot synopsis.

Evelyn and Waymond Wang own a laundromat. Their business is failing, their marriage is fracturing, and so is their relationship with Joy, their daughter. During a meeting with the IRS, Evelyn is visited by a version of her husband from a parallel universe. He says that the multiverse — all of the many parallel universes — is under attack from an evil being named Jobu Tupaki, and Evelyn is the only one who can save it. The rest of the film is about Evelyn overcoming her skepticism and discovering her true power (and Waymond's).

Today, the Get Rich Slowly summer of books concludes with an excerpt from Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away from Julien and Kiersten Saunders. Julien and Kiersten are the power couple behind the rich & Regular blog and YouTube channel.

The following excerpt from Cashing Out (published by Portfolio/Penguin) is used with permission. Copyright © 2022 by Rich & Regular LLC. This passage has been edited to be more readable on the web.

Sometimes the things I spend my time on leave me shaking my head.

This post from Accidentally Retired on how you don't need multiple streams of income to become wealthy hit me between the eyes a bit.

He also tweeted:

You don't need multiple income streams to become wealthy. You ONLY need to spend less than you earn and invest. That. Is. It.

Target Return Policy Without Receipt In 2022 (Complete Guide)

Target is an American shopping favorite. They offer a variety of merchandise at affordable prices. Customers can return almost all items in a specified timeframe if the receipt was kept.

Target will replace your receipt if the alternative proof of purchase can be provided. The packing slip, purchasing credit/debit cards, and return barcode are all acceptable. You can only return up to $150 worth of items without a receipt per year.