A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be on Fox Business’ Willis Report. Gerri (the host) wanted to interview me for a live segment about not saving enough for retirement. Her producer had stumbled upon one of my US News “On Retirement” articles.

Visiting Fox Business

At first, I thought “no way am I going to do this. I will totally embarrass myself.” But, thanks to some encouragement from Mrs. PT, I decided to go for it. I replied to the producer and learned that I would be doing a 5 to 6 minute segment towards the end of Gerri’s show the following week. While I was relieved I had some time to prepare, I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep for a week.

I spent the next few days preparing like crazy. I researched clips of Gerri’s show, TV interview tips, and I even contacted Liz Weston who shared some excellent advice for being in front of the camera. I prepared for my segment by breaking down my 5 points into “talking points”, 30 to 45 second snippets of information.

Final Preparations On the Set

I also spend the next few days preparing blog posts on each of my talking points. That way I could expand my knowledge of each of the points and be prepared for any follow up questions. This is why I wrote on social security, inflation, retirement estimates, and college expenses the last 2 weeks. In addition to this, I recorded a podcast about retirement savings with my friend Austin of Foreigner’s Finances.

I also searched through Gerri Willis’ 5 Tips articles from back in her CNN/Money days. I stumbled upon a piece she wrote on retirement, and absorbed it to gauge her thoughts on the subject.

Finally, to borrow a sports term, I practiced like I was going to play. I spent a lot of time giving my talking points to the camera, the blank wall, Mrs. PT, and just about anyone who would listen. Going into the segment, I felt confident and prepared.

Chatting it Up with Gerri

On the day of the show, I arrived at the Fox Business Network affiliate location here in Dallas. I sat through 40 minutes of the show and then was asked to step into the camera room. By the way, if you’re doing one of these remote live segments, you don’t get to see who you’re talking to. I stared at a camera and listened to Gerri in my ear piece. Made it pretty difficult. But I survived. Here’s the final product (excuse the poor quality, as it’s merely a bootleg from the TV):

PT Money Featured on Fox Business’ Willis Report is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. How to Fix Your Credit Report (and Identity Theft)
2. What is a Tri-Merge Credit Report?
3. Clearing Up Old Credit Report Errors: Reader Q&A

…web hosts, that is. I’d been with BlueHost on shared server space for over 2 years. Great service overall, but it was long time I stepped up to some dedicated space for ptmoney.com. I went with Media Temple’s (dv) Dedicated-Virtual plan. Media Temple uses Plesk instead of cPanel. So there were a few things to figure out.

Even the contractor from oDesk I hired to help me make the move had a bit of trouble navigating Plesk. But, with the help of MT support we were able to get it done. I still need your help though. If you see any weird things happening with the site please let me know (other than the post I ran through the feed twice this weekend).

After you’re done browsing the site, check out these other posts from last week:

Real Estate Related

• Oblivious Investor discusses calculating real estate investment return. Is your home an investment?
• Bargaineering breaks down the differences between the mae’s and macs.
• Money Smart Life asks how much house you can afford.
• Software Advice puts together some interesting research on the most tenant friendly US cities.

Just Fun

• Coupon Sherpa lists 13 semi-secret ballpark deals, and was wise enough to include my division leading Rangers.
• Moneyed Up profiles a millionaire: Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins.
• Dough Roller shares a guide to Google’s search engine.

More Links

• Credit Karma shares some highlights from the financial reform bill that recently passed.
• Financially Poor begins a series on financial freedom: get your mind in the game.
• Bible Money Matters wonder what’s going to happen with the Bush tax cuts that are expiring.

Carnivals: Frugality, Debt Reduction, Personal Finance, Best of Money, and Financial Planning.

I Just Moved… is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. The Millionaire in the Making Series – Stats!
2. Where Are They Now? Podcast Interview with a Millionaire in the Making: Todd French
3. 100th Edition – Carnival of Personal Finance

Today marks three years since I first started this blog. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been at it this long. Looking at my stats, I see that there have been 727 blog posts and over 5,000 comments made on the site. I feel lucky to have made it this far and to have had your participation along the way. I’m especially encouraged that I’m still motivated and have more to learn and share. If you’re new here, I’d encourage you to dig into the archives for some of the older articles you may have missed.

If you’re a long time reader, all I ask from you is that you continue to show up and read the articles that interest you. And if you see something a friend or family member might like, please share it with them.

Given that it’s my blog-o-versary, I thought it might be a good time to let you know that I recently left my full time job. I did this partially because I have hopes to make this blog my primary source of income. I wanted to see what would happen if I put my full time effort into it. So far it’s gone well.

I’ve kept this under wraps for a few weeks for a few reasons. One is that I’m not quite sure how this will work out financially. Mrs. PT (a stay-at-home Mom) and I would like to have more kids and given the state of private health insurance in Texas, we’d essentially have to pay full price (>$15K) for each kid. I’m not sure I’m ready to leave the friendly confines of group health insurance for good. The blog income is enough to cover our normal budget, but not those hefty baby bills. We don’t want to dip into savings or put a hold on other goals. That means I’ll likely be looking for another full-time gig this summer. We’ll see.

In the mean time, I’ve been increasing my income by doing some blog design and consulting, as well as participating in this tax season with the family CPA practice.

Over the next week or so I plan on sharing my thoughts on getting private health insurance, leaving the corporate world, working from home, and in general, how heading out on your own affects the finances. I appreciate your continued support with comments and questions. They are what keep me going.

Here’s the latest from the blog at PerkStreet: ATM and Card Safety for Your Checking Account

More from around the pf web:

• Why Debt Counseling Services Don’t Work for Most People
• How to Get What You Really Want
• Your Coupons are Making You Poor
• Healthcare Reform: What You Need to Know

Carnivals from last week: Best of Money, Debt Reduction, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning, Financial Planning, and Money Stories.

I Quit My Day Job is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. Buying Health Insurance as a Self Employed Individual
2. Different Types of Insurance: Do You Have What You Need?
3. HSA Insurance: What Makes an Insurance Plan HSA Compatible?

Free iPhone App from PT Money

Check it out. PT Money is an iPhone App. Visit Apple iTunes to download the App for free.

With this App, you’ll be able to read the blog content online or offline, share your favorite articles, and follow my recent tweets all from your iPhone.

Here’s the description:

PT Money is an App based on the personal finance blog, PT Money, at ptmoney.com. Everyday on PT Money, PT shares real personal finance tips for a life without limits.

The App contains an RSS feed from the blog as well as a feed from PT’s Twitter account. The content of the feeds are strictly related to personal finance. Topics include saving money, frugality, credit cards, debt reduction, making money, budgeting, insurance, taxes, retirement, etc.

Visit the PT Money App test page at AppMakr.com to click around on the app without an iPhone.

Get your blog made into an App. Use the code PTMONEY to get 25% off.

The biggest benefit to having the iPhone App vs just visiting via browser or reader is that you automatically have the last 10 posts downloaded on the app. This way if you wanted to read the latest blog post but don’t have a wireless or wifi connection (on a place for instance) then you will still be able to read 10 posts.

Here are a few screen shots from the app in action:

Download Page in the App Store

Home Screen (showing the RSS feed)

Twitter Feed Screen

PT Money on Amazon Kindle

Do you have an Amazon Kindle? PT Money is also now available for the Kindle. Visit Amazon and subscribe to PT Money on Amazon Kindle. This is a subscription service from Amazon and will cost .99/month. I would have made it free, but that wasn’t an option.

I don’t have a Kindle so I can’t show you a screen shot. Anyone?

Get your blog published on Kindle: visit Kindle Publishing

PT Money on WP Touch Browser

Last but certainly not least, if you’ve been visiting the blog via mobile browser over the last month or so you may have noticed the special theme designed just for viewing on a small screen. I installed the WP Touch WordPress theme. The theme automatically resizes my blog for mobile devices. Here are a few screen shots:

Home Screen

Individual Post

I love this theme. Makes the blog so much easier to read by phone.

Have your own blog? Download  the WP Touch Plugin for WordPress

I’d love to get your comments, ratings, feedback on the 3 options. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for you to grab the content here at PT Money.

PT Money Goes Mobile: iPhone App, Amazon Kindle, and WP Touch Theme is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. PT Money Gets a New Look with Headway Theme
2. 10 Free iPhone Apps to Help You Make the Most of Your Money
3. Last Day to Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card

Just a quick announcement post to share the results of the Amex Charge Card Flip Ultra Video Camera Giveaway as well as the results of the readers’ choice charity fantasy football challenge over at Cash Money Life:

Winners of the 10 Flip Video Cameras

There were a ton of excellent comments (169) and well over 300 retweets about the giveaway. Thanks to everyone that participated.

The winners from the comments:

The Proverbswife
Ryan P
Kay
Doreen
Jeff@MySuperChargedLife

The winners from Twitter:

@onemoneydesign
@domesticcents
@figalicious
@junkytrinket
@desiree_allen

I will be contacting all the winners to mail the cameras.

A big thanks to American Express Charge Card services for providing the cameras and for providing them to PT Money.

$100 for Doctor’s without Borders

The readers over at Cash Money Life selected Doctors Without Borders as their charity of choice. Therefore, as promised, Patrick and I donated $100 each to this charity.

More about Doctors Without Borders:

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Seems as if the money will be put to good use.

Flip Camera Winners and $100 for Doctors Without Borders is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. American Express Charge Card – 10 Flip Ultra Cameras to Giveaway!
2. Book Giveaway Winners!
3. An Update on My ESPP Flip

I recently upgraded the blog’s theme and logo. Those of you that actually visit the blog occasionally should have already noticed the change. But I know some of you only get the rss emails, or view the site through your rss reader. So, in case you missed it, here’s a screen shot of the new look:

The New Logo and Tagline

The logo was designed by yours truly, with the help of Mrs. PT’s watchful eye. She gave me a big “no way” on several previous versions. She barely let this one fly.

The tagline was something I struggled over and I’m not sure I’m totally happy with it. I crafted it using the guidance from a Copyblogger post titled, “How to Create a Rock-Solid Tagline That Truly Works” (thanks, James Chartrand), and my desire to move the purpose of my blog content away from simply saving, debt, and frugality towards something bigger: “A Life Without Limits”.

I want this to be a positive place where the focus is on moving people towards a more positive financial position: a place where you’re not limited by debt, the need for stuff, and a lack of savings.

New Blog Theme by Headway

The big change, the theme, was a hard one to make. I’ve been with the Blog Oh Blog BobV2 theme for about 2 years now. I loved it. I tried several times to move to other themes for various reasons but I kept coming back to ole Bob. I was tempted by the Thesis theme, but never could make the move.

Then, the Headway Theme came along and it seemed like a good fit for me. I tested it out and found that it could quickly maneuver into a theme that I could use. The main selling points for me were the visual editor (I can change things while looking at the blog - don’t have to go into the admin panel), the forum support, and the easy hooks feature.

If you’re interested in a new theme, click through the banner to see the Headway Theme visual editor in action. It’s definitely worth a look.

Update: The Headway theme failed me due to poor customer service, bugs in the visual editor that jack up your site, and their built in SEO tool overrides, instead of works with, your All In One SEO plugin. In hindsight, I’d advise you to pass on Headway and go for Thesis Theme.

As for the PT Money customizations, I still have some kinks to work out (e.g. width, column placement, individual page customizations). But the theme is getting close to what I want. Hopefully you’ve found that the functionality and readability have improved. I’ll promise to keep working to make it an enjoyable experience while you’re here.

What Do You Think? I’d love to get your thoughts: good or bad. Is the site easier to read and navigate? Does anything annoy you or seem amateurish?

PT Money Gets a New Look with Headway Theme is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. PT Money Goes Mobile: iPhone App, Amazon Kindle, and WP Touch Theme
2. Prime Time Money 100th Post
3. Debt Reduction Bar Graph Added to PT Money

2010 is upon us. It’s time to look back on the year that was and appreciate some of the better efforts here on this blog. I’ve definitely had some hits and misses with this year’s blog schedule and choice of topics. Some things worked. Some didn’t.

But I’m still enjoying it. And you guys haven’t abandoned me yet. So I’ll declare 2009 a success, and I’ll keep putting together at least three articles a week here on the blog and interacting with you guys through comments and emails.

My Favorite Blog Posts

There were 201 posts written for this blog in 2009. Here are a few of my favorites:

• How to Care {Not Worry} About Your Finances
• Stick it to The Man: 15 Things You Should Never Pay For
• Opening a Roth IRA for the First Time
• Keep Investing Simple: Taxable vs Tax-Advantaged Investing
• Clean Finances, Clean Mind
• How to Keep TV from Stealing Your Money and Your Life
• 10 Reasons to Get Off Your Butt and Start a Roth IRA

My Favorite Guest Post

I appreciate all the guest contributors to the site. I want to highlight one guest post that I thought was particularly special with the arrival of little Miss PT:

•  Kids Can Teach You To Be Frugal

Best Contribution from a Reader

Long-time reader, David, chimed in with his analysis of the cost-effectiveness of renting a car. It made for a solid discussion as evidenced by the number of comments.

• Your Next Road Trip: Is it Better to Rent a Car or Take Your Own?

Thank You

Many friends, family members, and readers have inspired blog posts here on PT Money. I want to say thanks for keeping me in mind when that blog post idea or money question pops into your head. It’s those comments, emails, and text messages that provide some of the best blog material here. Your contributions make this a better place for everyone. So thanks for that and please do keep it coming.

—

In the coming days I plan to do a review of how I did with my 2009 personal, blogging, and financial goals, as well as challenge you to set goals for yourself for 2010. Stay tuned. 2010 is going to be great.

The Best of PT Money 2009 is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. Prime Time Money 100th Post
2. The Money Life Network
3. My 2009 Financial, Blogging, and Personal Goals

After taking 1st place in the 2008 fantasy football league amongst personal finance bloggers, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of a repeat in 2009. Well, the final point was calculated last night on the 2009 season and PT’s Prime Timers didn’t make it happen. I lost in the finals to the Cash Money All-Stars, the talent filled juggernaut owned by Patrick from Cash Money Life.

But all is not lost.

Side Bet for Charity

Although our league is a free league and there is no official prize for the winner, at the beginning of the season Patrick offered to donate $100 to the charity of choice for the winner of the league (and if he won, he promised to donate to a charity of his readers’ choice).

Last week, since I found myself pitted against Patrick in the finals, I offered to match his donation.  That means $200 will go to charity once his reader’s make their choice.

Latest from Cash Money Life

Patrick has an excellent blog over at Cash Money Life, focusing on personal finance and careers. I’d encourage you to head over and check it out. Here are some of my favorite articles from Cash Money Life:

• Let it Breathe
• 5 Ways that Inertia Costs You Thousands
• Do You Know How Much Interest You Are Paying Each Month?
• Sharpening Your Soft Skills
• Traditional IRA or Roth IRA for Young Investors?

The Rest of the PF Blogger League

Here’s the rest of the gang, in order of final standings, including a recent post from their blogs:

• No Debt Plan – Radically Change Your Life in 4 Steps
• Fighting Frugalistas (Being Frugal) – Passing Down the Frugal Gene
• CFL Allstars (Four Pillars) – 5 Ways to Make or Lose Money with Investment Properties
• Pandas (Green Panda Treehouse) – Which Charity Do You Support?
• Farve DollarFootlong (Bible Money Matters) – 10 Year-End Tax Deductions and Credits
• Debt Kid (Debt Kid) – Wedding Planning 101 Series
• The Ditka’s (Good Financial Cents) – Top 135+ Personal Finance Posts of 2009
• remodelers (Remodeling This Life) – A Year of Progress

Great season, everyone! I’m taking back my crown in 2010.

Carnivals from last week included the Carnival of Debt Reduction, the Money Hacks Carnival, and the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Fantasy Football: 2009 Personal Finance League Results is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. Lazy Man Wins Fantasy Baseball League
2. Fantasy Football Draft Weekend & The PrimeTime QuickHits
3. Personal Finance QuickHits

Just a quick note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you are enjoying the holidays with friends and family. We’re having a great time seeing little Miss PT enjoy her very first Christmas. She’s loving all the family time and attention. I’m sure she’ll figure out these “present” things soon too. Enjoy the weekend. I’ll be back next week. Oh, and be careful if you go sledding.

Merry Christmas! is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. Merry Christmas!
2. 5 Gifts That Will Bring Your Family Together This Christmas
3. QuickHits: Disney World and a Last Minute Christmas Gift Idea

This week I’m busy writing my first e-book. I’m really excited about finishing it soon and sharing it with you guys. It’s going to focus around the idea of saving more of your income, so that you can do more giving. The working title is:

Saving to Give: Learn the 4 steps to improve your finances so you can improve the lives of others.

It will be geared toward those of us with an income and a desire to make a positive impact on the world. The book will hopefully be a quick, easy read full of specific action steps you can follow to help you save more and give more. It will also be free.

Get an advanced copy of Saving to Give. I recently soft-launched the PT Money Newsletter. I’m not done setting it all up, but it will one day include exclusive content and giveaways, video tutorials, access to other projects, and more. If you join the free newsletter now, you’ll be the first to check out the e-book, which I’m hoping to launch within a week.

What are your thoughts about the e-book idea? Do you have any interest in reading it? What do you think of the title? The cover art? I’d love to get your feedback this week as I’m finalizing the draft.

Carnivals from last week…

debt redux, taxes, twenties, hacks, pecuniary, frugality, economy

Writing My First E-book: Saving to Give is a post from: PT Money: Personal Finance by PT.

Related posts:

1. Follow-Up on What Book or Advice to Give a High School Grad?
2. What Book or Advice to Give a High School Grad?
3. Automated Tithing: A New Way to Give