Recommended Services
February 5th, 2012
NOTE: Most of these are affiliate links, but they are awesome services and I just have to share them with you just so you know they exist.
Keep track of your bills and revenue for taxes
- Scan, Categorize, and Organize Your Documents at Shoeboxed.com! (aff)
- Outright.com – Free Yourself from Accounting – Automatically pull in transactions from your credit cards, bank account and paypal. Even the tax report is free for this tax season! (aff)
Web hosting with cpanel – for beginners to intermediate
- Hostgator Shared hosting (where this site has been for years – aff)
- Bluehost – excellent reputation – Free Domain With $6.95 Hosting Package (aff)
VPS – Virtual Private Server – Hosting for advanced usage, completely DIY, but you have full control
- Linode is awesome. Just maybe stay away from Fremont, CA location. Ref code: 65078253f9923816a558d98df5785403d32435c0 (aff)
Shopping for gadgets/books, free international shipping (I’ve ordered from all of these places)
- DinoDirect.com (aff)
- DealExtreme.com (aff)
- Everbuying.com
- BetterWorldBooks.com – books only, free international shipping (aff)
Investing
- Sharebuilder is pretty great with their automatic investments at discounted prices. Contact me for a special offer from them.
- If you’re not very actively managing your portfolio, look into investing long term in ETFs like SPY or VIG (they should appreciate over time and give about a 2% dividend).
- Or, if you want to try your hand at direct loans, look at LendingClub or Prosper (aff) – they give you a high interest return.. depending on your stomache for risk. Diversifying is probably a great idea, so a single default won’t make you lose so much.
- A managed portfolio like Sequoia Fund might be good for you ($5k minimum to start or 2.5k for IRA)
- … or Betterment – at least take a look at their methodology and current holdings.