End of the iPod empire?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7813527.stm
The previous web address if for a BBC story on how itunes is now offering non-copyrighted music. I believe this will segway new competition in the highly competitive music player market. Part of the glory of the iPod besides its killer good looks and ease of use is the sole fact that itunes has the one of the worlds biggest music collections. itunes has always been known for its ease of use and exclusivity to the iPod. Now that itunes songs are unprotected I believe we may see more entries into the mobile music market; this may result in the downfall of the iPod. I doubt the iPod will go out of style any time soon; but as soon as another company can create a better player iPod's may not be as good as they once were.

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Okay so it has come to my attention...one of my viewers told me my blog was too formal. I will stick by my format of keeping it formal as it is a financial blog that i post on every day. However for anyone seeking less formal writing you can always check out my other blogs.

Falling energy prices

As many of us are aware oil prices have been plummeting since late October early November. I recently read an article on Yahoo Finance stating that falling energy prices could lead to higher gas taxes. This is not a post on financial freedom this is a rant. Almost every American that owns a vehicle remembers the gas prices during the summer. I believe the most I paid was $4.25 a gallon. The government knowing full well that the gas prices led to this recession have the nerve to raise the taxes, which in essence will raise the gasoline price again? I believe the taxes are ludicrous and if implemented many people will be feeling even more hardships than they are feeling now. I find it very hard to believe that raising fuel taxes is a good idea; Americans are suffering with the high cost of living without the proper raises in income. This is just my opinion though take it however you want.

Making money off the internet

Okay this is going to be a short post today. Some people don't know where to begin in order to make money off their website, or even how to start a website. Your first action is to buy a domain name from Yahoo. There are other sources but Yahoo is the most popular. Second it is good to take a local class on how to use HTML and how to create a website. Once you have this down, then you need to do research.

Student Financial Freedom

I recently took a trip to Boston for the New Year and noticed a few very important things. First was the fact that there were a lot of young people like myself; second was the diverse economic standing between the people there. While hanging out with my friends I realized that everyone there was young and ambitious. However how do you think many late teenagers and early 20 year olds make a lot of money? Well we do it from online business. I recently created my own business on the web which is now making positive profit after a very small time period. Online businesses are not for everyone though; I have recently sacrificed working any student job this winter in order to start mine. The opportunity cost for me was probably about $2,000-$3,000 (opportunity cost is the money you could have made if you did an alternate activity from the one you were doing, so in this case I would have made that money from working however I did not work). My business has an estimated $3,000 a month profit, and I am the only employee. Sure I could have worked very hard doing a student job, but now I am making a lot more money and I have a steady cash flow. I can get into how to start a business if anyone is interested. However it would take me a while to explain everything so I will not go into it now. Having multiple money sources is a great way to financial freedom at a young age; it’s not impossible to be wealthy and young. I have one philosophy that I follow, work hard party harder. I network like crazy now, the more people I know the more chance I have at success. Some students that I have observed do not have a large social network; they would rather study or hang out by themselves all the time. I constantly party and hang out with friends; this is the key to my success. I still maintain a high GPA don’t get me wrong, I think it is very important to study as well but if you find yourself only partying or studying it will be a lot harder to succeed.

Financial Freedom Part 2

Key steps in surviving a recession and coming out on top are diversifying your skills. I know we have all heard this before; except perhaps it pertained to your stock portfolio by diversifying your investments. The same logic pertains. If you are in college now this is the perfect time to do yourself the best good. First start by taking classes that pertain to the real world! Taking random classes that are not closely linked with your major/minor or have no real world potential are in essence just money wasters. Think of college as an investment; who wouldn’t want to maximize their profit? Think of yourself as a normal good that can be bought or sold; if you had a niche that none of the competition had don’t you think you would have a greater advantage? So far everything I mentioned in my blog has been pretty straightforward I want to touch base with the basics before I start going in depth about any specific topics. Suppose college graduation was 20 years ago, what do you do now? Well the same skills can be met, but often they are free. Companies will train their employees more often than not in certain other areas then the employee has been in currently. As anyone who finishes management 101 will tell you a diverse employee and one who is not doing the same task repeatedly will give you a higher performance rate, and often the employee will be happier with their job. So your company doesn’t offer these training courses? Not to worry with your work experience many online Colleges and Universities would love for you to share your knowledge with other students while working towards an advanced degree. During recessions colleges mainly public and community see a rise in attendance. Many people who are not finding their job fulfilling or need a larger pay check will find themselves back in the classroom. This is a great time to get an advanced degree. As the economy picks up you will have a much larger chance at a good job and higher pay. Now let’s imagine you have already done these basic steps to maximize your worth, now what do you do? Have you started a Roth IRA? Do you know how compound interest works? Well to sum it up compound interest is one of the greatest things out there. A Roth IRA is almost a no risk investment that has a maximum investment of $5,000 a year starting at the age of 18. If you max your account out you will have nearly 2 million or more by the time you’re ready to retire. I will write more in the next post about how to maximize your worth, and how to be appealing to employers. Yes I will start to use more economic terms and go in depth soon but I still need to touch the basics first.