Share Something about Finance and Win $1,000

I'm helping to manage to a personal finance guest blogging contest. It's pretty simple. You register, you submit a blog post on finance (saving, entrepreneurship, debt, etc.) and you promote it. If you it promote it well, you could be in the running for a $1,000 grand prize. And several other people will get $100. We've got 13 cash prizes to give away, and only six entries so far. So your chances are good. Go ahead and enter. Share a personal story about personal finances. You don't even have to be a PF blogger to do this.

You have until January 31, 2010 to enter.

Contest Sponsors

We have entered the CCC Personal Finance Guest Blogging Contest, with thousands of dollars in prizes. We would like to thank Credit Cards Canada and the sponsors for making the prize money available...

$200 SPONSORS

Investing, economics & personal finance - with Balance Junkie

Money and Lifestyle Tips - with Personal Dividends

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0 APR Credit Cards - with Card Wisdom

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100 Day Challenge - with Gary Ryan Blair

High Yield Dividend Stocks - with Dividend Stocks Online

Submit Canadian Blog Post - with Zoomit Canada

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• Canadian Finance Blog, offering CPP
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• Find The Best Car Price, offering How to buy a car
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• Tushar Mathur, offering Everything Finance
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$50 SPONSORS

• Work From Home
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• Credit card comparisons

It's a New Year, and I'm Desperately Punching the "Reset" Button

For the last six months, I've been trying to find a "reset" button that might slow things down and maybe return things to some version of normal. Perhaps 2010 seemed like such a trial because 2009 was so good and 2008 was pretty decent. But 2010 -- and especially the last six months of it -- have been somewhat trying. It seems like it's one thing after another, and I can't get on top of everything I should be on top of. Which is why I'm hoping that things will slow down a bit in the New Year.

We've had a lot going on, from my grandmother being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing surgery to my grandfather's death to my wisdom teeth coming out to our home being invaded by ground water. In between, of course, we've had the everyday sprinklings of illnesses (I've been sick for the past week), people living with us (which isn't a problem; it just adds to the general busy-ness), and the increased activity and obligation that come when you have a boy that is growing up. Oh, and at my yearly physical the day after our home was flooded, they found a lump that wasn't there before. "It's probably nothing. Just thick breast tissue. But I'd like you to come back in a month. If it's still there, we'll order a mammogram." And, while I do think it's rather early to begin freaking out, sometimes the thought circulates in my mind that, yes, Things Could Get Very Challenging Indeed.

I've fallen behind in work (which really can't be allowed going forward since someone has to pay for all this and the emergency fund won't last forever), and I feel quite overwhelmed. Which is why the last couple of days have been somewhat helpful. I have allowed myself to do not very much -- sleeping in (until 8 a.m. yesterday and 10 a.m. today) and sitting around in my pajamas (it's after 1 p.m. and I'm not dressed yet), doing only what has to be done, and reading books. Novels. Satirical Terry Pratchett fantasy novels that make me laugh. (The non-fiction book about the Millionaire Fastlane that I should be reading in order to review it is somewhere in the stuff piled in the garage, waiting for my office downstairs to be set to rights.)

Anyway, I'm hoping that this relaxing, low-stress weekend (and the few days I spent fairly stress-free in Idaho with my parents and siblings earlier this week) will be just the thing I need to find the energy and the motivation to get things going again. Hopefully at a pace that I can keep up with and, sometimes, even enjoy.

Best wishes to you for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.