Happy New Years Eve y’all! Before you get sloshed out there and party into the wee hours, I thought I’d give you an opportunity to fill your brains one last time this year with some fiscal sex-savvy-ness (real word, look it up). And everyone knows it ain’t a party without a financial nerd in the house, so soak these up and then get out there on the dance floor and make us proud! 2015 for the win wallet!
The top 10 most popular articles of the year on Budgets Are Sexy, in no particular order: (And I find it quite amusing that a third of them I didn’t even write – hah!)
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★ 5 Money Saving Challenges to Try – Includes the “52 Weeks” challenge, the “No Spend” challenge, the “Less Things” challenge, and the “Quit Reading This Right Now and Just Save Your Damn Money!” challenge, haha… Okay, so maybe I made up that last one, but do go and check out the article – I guarantee all of the experiments work :)
★ My Total Lifetime Earnings & The New Wealth Ratio! – This was a personal favorite of mine. Not only because I got to share how much I’ve made throughout my working life (at least in terms of taxable money), but I also had fun making up a calculation that later went on to be featured in a New York Times article :) How cool is that?
★ Two Kick-Ass Spending Tips – We go over two awesome ways to better help you be more conscious with your spending. The “Stranger” Test, and The “Urgency” Test. Which I literally use EVERY SINGLE TIME I’m in a store. They work, believe me.
★ Side Hustle Series #52: I’m A Lyft and Uber Driver – These companies have been all over the news lately, so it’s no surprise to see our side hustle on it get some good attention in the latter part of the year. My boy Harry dishes the dirt on what’s hot, and what’s not, in the rideshare industry, as well as how much you can make by driving around people yourself with each company. A pretty interesting read. (And promos at the end if you want some free $$ to test out rides yourself!)
★ The Power of Doing Just *ONE* Thing – This is where I share 5 simple ways to become a millionaire. But notice I say simple, and not necessarily easy. Though many of you can certainly accomplish this if you make it a priority. I’m almost half-way there by mainly maxing out my retirement accounts each year!
★ How I Ran A Business Out of a Shoebox and Made $10,000 – This was another side hustle post we featured here, on buying and selling sim cards like a beast on eBay. My man Brent shares how he got into it all, what he did to ramp up the earnings even more, and then shared some tips to pay attention to yourself if interested in doing similar things, as well as offering up his eBay checklist at the end. An interesting read no doubt.
★ My New [Lazy] One-Fund Investing Strategy – I share the time I finally wised up and sold all 47 of my stocks/funds I was invested in (yes – 47!!) and poured all the money into one main index fund with Vanguard instead. I share the names and tickers of all of them – including the one fund I’m now fully invested in – as well as my reasoning for taking such a drastic, but much needed, action. And I haven’t lifted a finger since!
★ How I’m Saving $100+/mo on Our Cell Phone Bill! – I talk about why I dropped my iPhone after nearly half a decade (and which I never thought was actually possible – I loved that thing!!) and how we’re now saving over $100 every month that follows… Hint: I switched to Republic Wireless. (Also – I’m banking ALL saved money for an entire year off this “challenge everything” series, and after 3 months we’re already at over $1,200… No stop till’ (Save)lyn baby!!!)
★ 10 Habits That Made Me a Millionaire at 27 – This articles was a bitter sweet one. It was sweet because the lessons are spot on and would INDEED make you a millionaire if followed, but unfortunately the guy who wrote it ended up to be a fraud after being outted on the homepage of Yahoo Finance… A big shame, considering I had considered him a friend.
★ “Anyone Can Buy That” – This was probably the quickest, and most fun, post for me to write this year. It’s a phrase I repeat to myself multiple times a week whenever I catch myself getting jealous of other peoples’ things. And it’s quite empowering – I urge you to try it!
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If you’re a new reader to the site here, hopefully this fills you in with everything you need to know :) And I wouldn’t get mad if you spent the next 10 hours reading through all 1,902 other articles in our 7 year archives either! Or if you…
- Followed me on Twitter
- Liked us on Facebook
- Signed up to get these articles emailed to you when they come out :)
I’d also like to give y’all a mad shout out for helping Budgets Are Sexy grow like crazy this year… With over 2 and 1/2 million page views and 200,000 people now reading the site every month, this little blog ain’t so little anymore! And I wouldn’t be here still spewing my thoughts if no one was on the other end listening. So I tip my hat to you ladies and gents, and thank you for making me one lucky S.O.B(logger).
‘Till next year homies… keep your wallets close, and your credit cards even closer!
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Congrats on a great year, J. Money! I’m a big fan of your challenge series–challenge all the things! Wallet will definitely be closed tonight since we’re partying at home with Frugal Hound ;). Hope you have a fabulous New Year!
Thanks F’woods! The Challenge series was one of my favorites from the year. Fun to write/use my brain on, but even more so to save!! I just added another handful of hundred dollar bills to the account this month – blog post coming soon :)
Here’s to a successful 2015!
Happy New Year J. Money! Keep balling in 2015!
You too, sir!
Congrats on an awesome year J, especially the growth – it’s very much deserved! Here’s to even bigger and better things next year!
Happy new year bud – glad we got to connect more this year :)
When I grow up I want to be just like you! Ha well at least all that awesome blog growth….The millions and millions.
It’s much more fun than when I had 10 people reading the blog, I’m not gonna lie :)
Thanks for your work and congratulations on your growth! I have enjoyed getting introduced to your site this year.
Thanks Mark – appreciate all the kind words. Here’s to the success of your projects too!
I love these year end review posts because they make me remember all of these awesome posts I loved reading throughout the year. For me, I loved the savings challenges post, the doing one thing and your challenge series because I am a part of the challenge series and currently up $600 in my savings account just by following it. Great year my friend and I can’t wait to read what you have to say next year! Happy New Year to the Budgets Are Sexy family!!!
Happy new year to you all too! So glad you’re participating in some of this stuff and saving that $$$$$. My goal is to use it all to max out my Roth IRA next year I’m thinking… want to join? :)
Those are awesome posts, keep them coming J. I have to borrow this idea, and do a post soon. Good luck in 2015 Bro.
You’ve had an incredible year of articles and success! Great job, J.! Now can you share a little. ;) Keep up the great work.
Sam
Wow great job on the blog growth. That is amazing! I hope 2015 is a great year for you :)
Happy New Year, J.! Congrats on all your growth. I know your side hustle series definitely had a huge influence on me.
Thanks, friend :) And for linking/promoting my side hustle stuff too! I still get handfuls of clicks a day due to your killer article on your own site. So congrats on all your success too!
J$,
Thank you for the opportunity you gave me to share my story of becoming a “SIM card mogul” with all of your amazing readers. It was definitely one of the highlights of my years blogging as well.
Congrats on the amazing year! Can’t wait to see what 2015 brings.
~Brent
I still have a lot to learn from you, good sir :)
Congrats on the New York Times mention! That’s so cool! Have a happy new year!
It’s been a fantastic year! I’ve loved reading all the articles this year. You’re definitely one of my favorites in my Feedly reader, so I plan to comment more often in the new year. :)
Awww, thanks Fig! So sweet of you to say!
Awesome 2014! I’m glad I found my way to your site this past year. Maybe I can still become a Lyft driver and take advantage of some surge pricing fares to ring in the New Year.
Good luck in 2015!
You too bud – hope your blog explodes this year as well!
Thanks for the inspiration this year! You’re the man.
I am glad that a number of these articles were written by guest authors. You do us readers a service by bringing in other experts to complement your own wisdom.
Thanks Steve :) I try and mix it up here since others have many more experiences in life than I do. And there’s never just one way to do things!
Great job this year J Money that is impressive site numbers. My wallet and credit cards were kept closed over New Years as I was working these past couple days.
Happy New Years!
Mr. Captain Cash
Looks like I have some reading to catch up on. :) Seriously though, some of these look great. I’ve learned so much about PF in the past year and I still have a long way to go, but now I feel like I CAN get out of debt and that’s a huge leap forward.
My favorite is The Power of Doing Just *ONE* Thing and maxing out 401(k) every year is one I’d like to do among the five you listed, except from winning the lottery. Thanks J Money for listing the best articles of this year.
If you only did that you’d be pretty well off down the road! :)