2 Corinthians 9:7 – God loves a cheerful giver.

Yesterday, I slapped a few stamps on my last few tax returns I had to complete and put them in the mail. I cannot tell you how satisfied this makes me. Not only did I get a chance to learn an entirely new skill set, it saved my company tons of cash; which is something every business needs right now. Motivated by my efforts, I have decided to start my own small business, centered around finance and accounting over the next six months. I want to be ready to strike hard during tax season next year.

Following John’s lead, at passivefamilyincome, I started a new passive income stream this week; LENDING CLUB! Just by signing up, I earned $50. I have already lent this money out to two separate borrowers. I decided to play it safe thus my current expected interest rate is 9.63%.If you are planning on joining, please consider using this LINK. You can choose to withdraw your $50 right after you sign up so it is worth your time!

Additionally, here are a few posts that I really enjoyed this week from my RSS reader.

Christian Personal Finance is giving away a copy of Fireproof. This is such a powerful movie, with an incredible message. Every married couple should watch this movie.

Dave, from DoYouDaveRamsey, discussing hourly wages and how you can tell a lot about a person by his answer to “How much do you make?”

Kevin, at NoDebtPlan, explains how to start the drug store game. I recently started dabbling in the CVS game with limited success. Over time, you can save some decent money playing these games.

My friend Pat, over at SmartPassiveIncome, just banged out $23,000 in profit during the month of February. Get this, most of that time he was getting married and on his honeymoon.  I have started working on my first study guide. It is hard not to get excited when you read about his success.

John, at PassiveFamilyIncome, discusses his eHow earnings for February. In fact, I  signed up with Lending Club after reading this eHow article – How to Earn Over $100 in 5 easy Steps. His articles are producing him a nice little stream of consistent passive income. I wish mine would start to produce those types of results. Thanks again my friend!

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Ecclesiastes 5:19 – To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life – that is indeed a gift from God.

Another wonderful week has gone by. It has been extremely busy at work lately, but I cannot complain too much. I have a good job, doing what I am trained to do and I get to come home everyday at lunch to see my wife and son. Sometimes I have to work late, but that just comes with the territory. As such, I have not had the opportunity to post much this week.

I did publish my passive income results for February 2009 over on my other blog – Experimental Blogging. In February, I managed to break the $200 mark for the first time. Not too shabby for two or three months of effort. Additionally, this is really encouraging since I did not get to create many articles in February at all. All my eHow earnings were from old articles. Even my affiliate sales were from articles I wrote last month. Pretty cool. Pretty cool indeed!

I also hosted my first blog contest on ChasingTheBull. The results were pretty pathetic to be honest with you. I have contacted the winners to notify them of the prizes they have won.

There were numerous articles from another the net that I truly enjoyed this week. Here they are – in no particular order.

Megan, at Counting My Pennies, finally got around to automating the contributions to her Roth IRA. Smart move, in my opinion. If you listen only to the popular media outlets you would think that America will cease to exist next week. Don’t believe the hype. If you are not going to retire for 20+ years, you need to start investing. The government will not be in the position to help you out when it is your turn. The math just does not work.

Todd, at Harvesting Dollars, reminds us that we should not pick our investments based upon tax implications. I could not agree anymore! I hear people tell me all the time how wonderful it is that I have mortgage interest to deduct on my taxes. Are you serious? I would rather pay the government $2,500 and keep the other $7,500 in my pocket, thank you very much!

FreeFromBroke discusses the merits of using Google Calendar to pay your bills on time. Currently I use Quicken to do this exact thing. If, however, I do not open Quicken, I could miss a deadline. This is definitely something to invest this week.

Passive Family Income discusses his peer-to-peer lending experiment. Man, this sounds cool. I have always wanted to try this. Perhaps now is the time!

The Passive Dad discusses the numerous frugal things you can find at your public library. I am a huge fan of our library. In the past 6 months, I have checked out 15 books, 5 audio books and watched all 5 seasons of Babylon 5 (awesome stuff).

What articles did you enjoy this week?

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Last week was an extremely busy, and productive, one for me. I had the privilege of creating a guest post on PassiveFamilyIncome, one of my favorite blogs. People always asked me what I do with the passive income that I earn, so I used this guest post to talk about it. Please check it out here, or from the link below.

Additionally, on March 17, this blog will have officially been around for a year. During the first 10 months, I really did not post on a consistent basis. To be honest with you, I did not really know how. I had a billion ideas, but could never find the time to get them on paper (so-to-speak).

As you can tell, I have been posting regularly for a while now (here and on experimental blogging), and have decided to renew this domain for another year. I have met so many wonderful bloggers from around the world and I feel that I have a lot to offer. I have learned a tremendous amount during my time online, and during my battles with debt and my finances. I would really consider it a blessing, if you would consider subscribing to my feed. Remember, if you sign up via email, you are automatically entered to win a prize from my first blog contest (this is the only way I can tell who has subscribed and validated their subscription).

My friend John, from PFI, was on vacation last week but he lined up some really amazing writers to fill in for him while he was gone. Here is a recap, in case you missed any:

• Personal Finance Startup discussed why passive investing may be better than active investing (trying to beat the market)
• Pat, from SmartPassiveIncome, discusses an important ingredient to online success.
• Studenomics explains that Passive Income Requires Work.
• Lulu, from How I Save Money, tells you how to Get Passive Income from Lending Club.
• Corrie, from “Cents”able Momma, tells you 5 Easy Steps to Cut Your Grocery Costs.
• Become Debt Free (ME) explains, How Passive Income Saved Me at Least $27,880.

Additionally, here are a few of my other favorites from the past week.

The Passive Dad compared Cable and Hulu in an effort to save some additional money. My wife and I made a similar analysis suring our first budget committe meeting of the year.

Bible Money Matters explains the sales tax deduction when you buy a new car in 2009. I agree completely that used cars are the only way to go.

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to another great week.

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