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The $750 “No Excuses” Hustler Giveaway!

by J. Money on Tuesday, June 18, 2013

hustlers don't sleep shirt

Okay guys, If you’ve been sitting on your patukuses waiting to start that side hustle of yours, now’s your chance to get on it! My friends at Deals2Buy.com and I are partnering up to give one of you lucky s.o.b.s $750 worth of whatever it is you need to get that hustle of yours launched and out the door. And if you’re already rockin’ one, we’ll help you upgrade!

We know money can be an obstacle with this stuff, so we’re clearing that hurdle today and giving you no excuses to get out there and finally kill it :) Need a new laptop? We got you. Digital camera? Done. 20 chickens and 3 goats for that organic farm? No problem! Okay, well maybe that’ll be a problem – where do you buy goats these days? -  but we’d happily take up the challenge ;)

The point is, we want you to go out and finally start that dream of yours. And sometimes all you need is a little push to set things into motion.

About our partner:

deals2buy logoSister site to RetailMeNot.com, Deals2Buy is all about the deals and saving you money. They’re known for their computer deals & gadgets more than anything else, but they also offer discounts on watches, home goods, toys, clothes, and pretty much anything else that’s a great deal out there.

You can find their site at Deals2buy.com (d’uh), and we thank them for fronting us the money to do this giveaway today! So awesome of them!!

How to win this $750 Prize:

Okay, so if you want to enter today’s giveaway you REALLY have to put some thought into what it is you actually *need* for this side hustle of yours. Is it merely a “thing” or two to get you started, or is it some type of service? Do you need advice on anything, or is it simply a matter of getting X,Y, and Z and being on your way?

We want you to use this $750 as efficiently as possible so you can put aside the excuses and get right to it. WE WANT YOU TO KILL IT!

So step #1 to entering this contest is answering the following question:

“What hustle will you be starting (or continuing), and how can you use $750?”

Leave your answer down in the comments below, and then follow on to step #2:

Step #2: Share this giveaway with at least one other person. It can be through Twitter, Facebook, or some good ol’ fashion emailing action. However you do it is fine by us – we just want to get the word out and people thinking more :) Here’s a blurb you can use:

“Want $750 to start a side biz? Check out the “No Excuses” Hustler Giveaway by @BudgetsAreSexy & @Deals2Buy –> http://budgetsaresexy.com/go/hustler

That’s it! Tell us you’ve shared it, along with your answer to how you’d use this $750, and you’ll be entered and ready to go. We’ll leave this up until the end of the month (June 30th), and then the esteemed panel over at Deals2Buy along with yours truly will review ‘em and select a winner. So make your entries good as this one ain’t random, baby!

Good luck, my little hustlers!

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Giveaway ends 6/30/13 @ 12 pm EST, open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, 18+.

[Bad-ass shirt snapped by Andrea Whitmer]

{ 49 comments }

RGIII and USAA Team Up! What What!

by J. Money on Monday, June 17, 2013

Just saw this press release and I’m grinning from ear to ear:

“USAA announced that Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III will support its military appreciation efforts this year. This agreement supports USAA’s Official Military Appreciation Sponsorship of the NFL and the Washington Redskins. The 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year was born on a U.S. military base and grew up in military communities across the country as his parents served in the U.S. Army.”

Two of my favorite enterprises coming together to kill it :) Yeah USAA and RGIII!!! Keep it real, babies… Best thing I’ve read all day.

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Help A Reader: Buy a House to Prevent Uncle Sam?

by J. Money on Monday, June 17, 2013

uncle sam poster

Got an interesting email over the weekend, and thought you’d enjoy reading and chiming in :) Can’t say I’ve heard of this one as a driving force to go out and buy a house! Haha… Though bonus points for the creativity.

Here’s what our dear reader sent over:

Hi J$!

My husband has recently secured a nice, but temporary for now, gig that will bring us about $60,000 gross by the end of the year. He’s 1099, so there are no taxes taken out of his paychecks. He has been tossing around the idea of buying a house to prevent the tax man from taking as big of a chunk at the end of the year. (Reminded me of the way you bought a house on a whim.) Although he is freelance, his pay has been relatively steady for the past few years.

What do you think about this? Who should I ask for more detail? Is this a terrible idea? Please help, I’m scurred!

Thanks!

This is what I wrote back:

Hey! That move reminds ME of our house-on-a-whim buying experience too ;) Which as you know I would take back in a heart beat if I could! (As long as I could keep everything I learned and how it changes my life for the better, haha…. but that wasn’t cuz of the house purchase itself, more on what it *led* to. Like the starting of this blog :))

My gut feeling from your husband’s idea is “ACK!” When you buy a house you usually want to do it for a number of other reasons than just taxes :) Like, settling down in one place for a while, building equity instead of paying rent, needing more room for a family, etc etc…. Now if some of those reasons ALSO play a part in his plans, then yeah – totally different story. Especially if it’s longer term than just 1 year because when you buy a house they’ll be checking in on all this and verifying income in past, present, and future, along with a number of other things like your credit and debts/savings/etc.

There’s a lot more to the home buying process that people tend to think, so I’d be careful going down that route unless again you guys have been wanting to for a while outside of just taxes. It’s also hard to gauge your situation without knowing the entire financial picture as well ;) If you have no emergency funds or income outside of the $60k that would also throw up some flags to hit the brakes.

Now all that aside, there ARE some other ways to shelter some of that tax money for sure. My favorites being to plunk down $5,500 to max out a Roth IRA for *each* of you (so, a total of $11,000 invested for the 2013 year, and maybe even another $11,000 for the 2014 year since the gig will pay into next year too?), and then the other being to pump up your 401(k) contributions if either of you have that option. All that money in either of those accounts will grow tax free until you’re old and gray and needing to take it out :) (UPDATE: I’d also look into an SEP Ira as well, as a commenter pointed out below. I totally forgot about that and I use one myself as someone who’s self-employed! D’uh.)

Another option could be to finally start that small business idea one of you have always wanted to do, since you can write off a lot of those expenses, but that may even be more hardcore than buying a house to not pay taxes, haha… Especially if you’ve never ran/owned a small biz before.

Regarding “who to ask” for more details: If you’re interested in checking out the home buying process more and what that all entails, I’d check with a local realtor. Especially if your family or friends know of someone they like and trust as they’ll be able to tell you all about the ins and the outs with ownership (and hopefully not skew you one way or the other, so def. try to get a recommendation!).

On the subject of not paying as much taxes, I’d have a chat with a financial adviser or a CPA. Both of those could shed more light on that type of stuff – and again good to get through a friend or family member that trusts them.

Hope this helps!

What do you guys think? Any gut feelings one way or the other? Anything I left out? All I know is I’m damn glad I got all this craziness out of my system years ago so I don’t have to go through it all again :) Home ownership is no joke, you really gotta think hard before jumping in!

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[Photo by karendesuyo]

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Noodling Some Googlings

June 14, 2013
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Woot Woot – haven’t done one of these in a while… You know, when I check the stats to see what kinds of craziness people are typing in to get to this site? Makes me feel all types of legit and stuff, haha… Or at least sane, for that matter :) Here were my favorite questions I found in the past 24 hours, along with . . .

32 comments Check out the full article →

National Debt, Retirement, and 401(k) Loans?

June 14, 2013

Hidey ho, love birds! Here are my favorite posts from around the web this week – starting with one who says my blog is her favorite ever ;) A sure way to catch my attention! Haha… Everyone, go check out Kara’s new blog and show her some love: karaschaoticlife.wordpress.com. Thanks, Kara! Here are the rest of the ones I enjoyed: It’s just a job @ . . .

7 comments Check out the full article →

Happily Squished: Learning to Live in 270 Sq. Ft.

June 13, 2013
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(Guest post by Cat from Budget Blonde) High up on a hill on a little Caribbean island called Grenada sits the cutest, tiniest 270 sq. ft. apartment you ever did see. It has no couch, no TV, no central AC, and no dishwasher, but despite its shortcomings, I’m proud to call it home. While one person could definitely live here comfortably, I share it with . . .

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Thoughts From a Wealthy Neighborhood

June 12, 2013
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So it’s been over a week and a half now chillin’ at the mother-in-law’s, and so far everything’s going superbly. Every day we hang out together, drink coffee together, and even have dinner at a normal time of night together – 6pm. Down 5 hours from our normal late-night feeding we were trying to break ;) I’m actually feeling like a responsible adult these days! . . .

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Do NOT Be Like My Wife!

June 11, 2013
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She’s going to kill me when she sees this, but I just wouldn’t be doing my job as a personal finance blogger if I didn’t talk about this today ;) She’s completely off her rocker! Here’s the deal. You know how we’re living with my mother-in-law (her mom) right now? Well, as part of her agreeing to let us stay there, she kindly asked that . . .

81 comments Check out the full article →

Whelp, My Caddy is “Totaled”

June 10, 2013
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Two and a half hours sitting at Progressive’s car center to get a report back that my car is considered a “total loss” now :( Apparently the damaged caused in our recent accident (which I was not considered at fault in, btw) exceeds the total worth of the precious sexy car. Meaning it’s not as simple any more of taking a check or getting it . . .

89 comments Check out the full article →