Are you a Facebook addict? Do you know anything about the company that’s responsible for you being tagged in those embarrassing photos? Are you considering investing in this company when it goes public?

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.” — Mark Zuckerberg

Since Facebook is going to public, we’re going to find out more about the company. There’s more to the company then just being responsible for many breakups and unnecessary updates from friends that don’t know what should be kept to a private text message. If you read my previous post on how the stock market works, you already know that investing is all about putting your money into a company that has a strong management team.

What are the numbers that Facebook has released?

Facebook had 483 million daily active users on average in December alone. They also had a full-year net income of $1 Billion. Zuckerberg, the founder in case you didn’t know, is 27 years old. After all these years of experience and being in the public eye, he’s not even 30 years old yet. Facebook has 845 million users. The company hopes to raise $5 Billion through going public on the stock market.

Those are some impressive numbers. When I first heard about Facebook in 2007, I thought it was simply going to be the next MySpace (remember that?). Here we are in 2012 and Facebook is making all of this money.

How does Facebook make money?

Facebook stalks you. Well, to be technical here’s what they do:

Facebook sells the promise of highly targeted advertisements based on the information its users share, including interests, hobbies, private thoughts and relationships. Facebook also takes a cut from the money that apps make through its site.

Did you really think that those ads on the side were a coincidence? My friend told me that he noticed he had seen ads based around dating sites and the such. I asked him if he had been on any adult sites recently. He confirmed that he had been. Now he knows why he gets the ads on Facebook that he does.

Facebook sells highly targeted ads and is able to charge top advertising dollar because of the amount of users on the Facebook network.

What’s the role of social networking on your career?

Social networking can screw you over. On the other hand, you can use Facebook to land your dream job.

I won’t even attempt to hazard a guess on how Facebook will be used in the future to find (or lose) a job. I can guarantee that you need to watch what you do on Facebook. I’m as guilty as anyone of being foolish on Facebook by getting tagged in drunken pictures and writing nonsense. I’ve cut back on Facebook in the past and have even considered deleting it because I do like some privacy. I don’t want to know what every single person is doing on a Monday morning. I also don’t want others knowing everything that I’m up to.

I do realize that Facebook can also be a great tool. I’m trying to integrate Studenomics and Facebook more often these days.

How you can make billions of dollars in this world?

I’ve always been told in my marketing classes that making advertising money is all about eye balls. The simple formula then is to have an abundance of eye balls and the ability to promote something. That doesn’t sound so difficult, does it? All you need is to build yourself up to the point where you have a huge amount of supporters. Stop right there. That’s the problem. You need to find a way to get a huge amount of followers on board. If you do this, then the money will follow.

Everyone thinks that it’s easy to start the next Facebook and make a fortune. If it really is that easy, then why don’t you try to sign up with Bluehost and build your own site. Good luck getting anyone past your immediate family and circle of friends to even pretend to care about your site at first. Now imagine bringing the amount of users on your site to 845 million.

My girlfriend recently helped me setup a page on Facebook. It’s not fully setup yet, but you can still like Studenomics on Facebook and join the cool kids. The page may or may not be fully operational in the future.

You can also get in on the game. You can check out the top online business solutions for your new side hustle. If you want the full guide, I wrote the easy steps to starting a business with no money. What are you going to start?

Are you worried about economic problems? Is the economy holding you back from making more money?

Let’s start off this article with a common scenario. You’re sitting around with a bunch of casual friends or strangers just chatting away about work, life, and whatever else pops up as the drinks start flowing. Then someone will mention something about how the economy sucks. Then they will start to blame the economy for their problems and the current situation that they happen to be in. This person can’t accomplish their goals as a result of the economy. They decide to bash the economic problems for their financial problems.

Everyone at the table will nod and agree. The economy sucks and there’s nothing that we can do about it, right? It’s much easier to just complain about economic problems.

Actually, blaming the economy for your problems is the worst way to live life in your 20s. That sort of thinking will get you absolutely nowhere. Blaming someone else for your problems is dangerous and will leave to you never taking ownership for your mistakes.

What’s something that nobody will tell you about the economy as you graduate from college?

You can still make money and enjoy yourself if you’re good at what you do in this economy or any other economy.

I’ll be the first to admit that the economy isn’t all that great right now. That’s not a secret by any stretch. What seems to be a secret to some is that you can still make money and find a job. You don’t have to rush back to school during a recession just to upgrade your skills. You don’t have to bash the economy and accept mediocre results.

What’s my proof for saying that you can still make money despite the economic issues?

Look around you. Look at all of the people out there making good money. Do you read monthly blog income reports? Do you see how packed the malls and night clubs are? I recently shared how I went to Cancun and there were thousands of people in the night clubs in January all waiting in line to hand over $60 just to get in. Despite all of the economic issues going on we could still find time to party in Cancun. These people all must be making money somehow. If other young people can make money and afford to travel, why can’t you?

The thing is that economic issues will always exist.

I urge you to stop stressing about economic news. The truth is that you’ll always find more reasons why you can’t do something over why you can actually do it.

You can always blame the recession for going back to school or for not being able to find the dream job, but then you have to wonder why others have been able to succeed if the recession is so tough.

This post was designed to be a reminder to those of you that are stressing out about the economy. I’m curious if you even know what you’re complaining about? Is it worth complaining about the economy? I personally believe in focusing on what I can control and ignoring the rest. Good luck.

Are you waiting for that perfect business idea to hit you? Will everything get better once that idea comes to you? Are you working towards the next million dollar idea?

One of my favorite blogs recently has been Marc and Angel Hack Life.We all need a little inspiration once in a while. A piece went up the other day on 20 ways to create million dollar ideas. It really got me thinking about working towards a successful business and how some entrepreneurs make it while others never do.

I wanted to highlight the points that stuck out the most to me the most in the piece:

• Fail a lot.
• Keep your eyes, ears and mind wide open.
• Look for problems and solve them.
• Keep it simple.

These four points all stuck out the most for me personally. Why is this?

Fail a lot.

I wrote about overcoming the fear of failure in the past. I find that failing has such a negative connotation that many of us don’t accept challenging tasks just to avoid failing. Screw that. It’s time to aim for the top. You’re going to have to fail once in a while. It’s not that big of a deal. Would you rather sit around doing nothing?

Keep your eyes, ears and mind open.

When you’re always talking about yourself and living in your own little bubble, you’re going to miss out on many great opportunities. When you open yourself up to new ideas, you expose yourself to a world you never knew even existed.

Look for problems and solve them.

There’s many problems out there waiting to be solved. If there’s something out there bothering you that you want to have solved, then think of everyone else that would love to have this problem solved. If you can think of a solution, this can be your million dollar idea.

Keep it simple.

You don’t have to create some complex computer programming system. Million dollar ideas can often be really simple. Think of Facebook for example. MySpace was already around, as was Friendster. The idea itself was a simple thing. You get to stay in touch with friends, see who’s hooking up with who, and post drunk pictures. It took off and now the founders are gazillionaires. Your next business idea can be something very simple.

How are you working towards million dollar ideas?

I wrote about the concept of lifestyle design and why it’s so popular a little while back. This is a topic that’s fairly new to me and I wanted to share my findings with you guys to see what you thought about it. I received some cool feedback. One comment stuck out from a usually controversial man.

Financial Samurai left an eye-opening comment:

Lifestyle design is a fine choice for those who can’t get the job of their choice due to the economy.

At some point, it’s important to see what’s behind the curtain and take a look at people’s finances.

ANYBODY can go travel the world and say how great their life is on a blog. This is why my post on “The Minimalist Lifestyle Is Not For You” was so eye opening to me and many readers.

It’s better to have a choice, then to be stuck.

That’s certainly an interesting take. I personally love to look into both sides of everything. As enamored as I am with the whole idea of creating the life of your dreams and making money “following your passions,” I also understand that a location independent lifestyle isn’t for everyone.

Has the recession sparked this lifestyle design trend?

Difficulty in finding work.

Let’s be perfectly honest here, it can be difficult to find that right job out of college. Sure you can find any job. The thing is that we don’t want just any job. After spending four years in college we have it instilled within us that we deserve a well-paying respectable position. Instead of accepting a job that we feel is beneath us, it’s much easier to claim that we’re entrepreneurs.

Avoid shame.

Instead of telling your parents and peers that you can’t/find a lucrative job, you can easily tell everyone that you’re creating the life of your dreams. I’m personally worried about this. For me it’s so much easier to focus on my online projects than it is to go out there, find a “real job” and show up at 9 AM every day like a good employee. I’m still not sure if this is a positive or a negative quality. Does it spark entrepreneurship or create laziness?

Positive outlook.

This is what I love about lifestyle design. Instead of stressing about investing in silver or complaining about the market swings, you can get out there and do something about there. I’m all for being proactive and taking action.

Ask the readers– do you think that the recession has sparked lifestyle design? Is lifestyle design a fad that will go away soon? What are your thoughts on this topic?

Many readers have expressed their concerns with online/mobile banking and banking security in general. Having your banking account hacked, financial situation exposed, and even money stolen, can be a very scary and unforgettable experience. This is why I really wanted to advise you guys to keep your banking information private. How can you do this? Below are a few quick tips to protect your finances when it comes to banking:

Check your accounts.

I find it to be critical that you check your bank accounts every few days. Not only does this keep you updated/focused on your financial goals, but it allows you to keep a tab on things. I personally just like to stay focused on my financial goals by checking my accounts to see how close (or how far) I am from my goals.

A friend of mine recently checked his bank statement only to find out that he had been missing $1,000 for a few days. Thankfully, he caught this in time and contacted the fraud department to inform them of what happened. The money was eventually returned and it was a good thing that he checked his account when he did.

Don’t share any info over the internet.

Never share any of your banking information with anyone over the internet. Your bank manager or anyone from your bank will never email you asking you for your online banking password or your pin number. I get emails from “ING” and “Facebook” all of the time telling me about some issue that happened and how they need my password to resolve everything. I don’t think so! Never share any of your banking information over the phone or through the internet.

Trash old records.

Some documents are important to keep. Other banking documents need to be trashed ASAP. You don’t want to have confidential information lingering around. This is why you need to tear up all of your banking mail once you’re done looking it over. You don’t want to risk someone finding out about your banking information.

How do you keep your banking information private?

Everyone knows the FIFA World Cup is here! Yes, everyone. Chances are your friends, spouse, partner, family, co-workers, and randoms have been talking about it for the past few days. I personally love to play soccer. Admittedly, I only catch the occasional game in between the World Cup and Europe Cup. Why? It’s the same reason NOBODY ever watches swimming unless it’s the Olympics.

I wanted to apply some of my World Cup observations to the fascinating world of personal finance (you know you’re cool when…). I don’t mean to rant, but recent arguments and debates have really got me thinking about this whole “expert” concept. For the next month every single spectator is going to become a soccer expert. Anyone that reads a dating book is a modern day Casanova. Anyone that reads a personal finance book is quick to judge others’ spending habits.

Everyone is an expert.

I was a soccer referee for three years. I absolutely do NOT understand all of the rules of the game. The best referees still make mistakes. Players begin playing the game as early as 3 years old and prepare their whole lives to be involved in such as major spectacle. Yet when the English goalie fumbles the ball, everyone is ready to castrate him.

Nobody plans to screw up. People don’t plan to get $40,000 into debt. Nobody plans to lose their job. We don’t plan to neglect our retirement planning. This stuff just happens. Instead of proclaiming to be an “expert” you should try to understand that every situation is different. You may be talented when it comes to landing a lucrative position, yet completely clueless with actually saving money. We all have areas in our lives where we need to improve.

I love the section in Ramit Sethi’s book I Will Teach You To Be Rich where he dispels the myth of the “expert.” On pages 143-3, Sethi cites a study where the following occurs:

A 2001 report Frederic Brochet of the University of Bordeaux, where 57 “wine experts” were invited to check out two different wines. What happened? You guessed it. All 57 supposed “experts” were unable to determine that they were drinking two identical wines.

Does anybody do any real research?

I wrote about money myths here the other day. Why are so many money myths prevalent? Because we all rely on experts and take information at face value. Buying is better than renting just because. Does anyone ever run the proper calculations prior to throwing this statement out? Probably not. We’re all guilty of this. It’s much easier to accept mainstream knowledge than it is to dig deeper.

It’s really easy to judge others.

When your buddy Vlad buys the newest iPhone that just came out,  it’s all too easy to say, “you already have an iPhone jackass.” Why would anyone spend a couple hundred dollars on yet another phone? Well maybe this person takes public transportation instead of buying a new car. It’s all too easy to look down at the financial mistakes that others make. How often do we take a realistic look at our own financial situation? We usually don’t because it’s much easier to look at the person that’s thousands of dollars in debt and feel good about ourselves for not being in debt.

Logic is thrown out the window.

Emotions trump logic when major decisions are made. This is what brings people to lose money. When choosing individual stocks, rookie investors will often take the advice of “financial experts” as gospel. Stocks are purchased based on the recommendations of supposedly trusted individuals. When the stock prices starts to drop, we don’t sell because we figure this is a temporary change. We let our emotions get in the way. We heed the advice of those that we view as experts. In the end we wished we followed logic (actually researched the stock) instead of solely relying on the help of others.

I hope you guys understand that I’m not a financial “expert” or “guru.” I will never try to come off as one. I’m just a regular dude learning about finance. Some of you are ahead of me and you come here to help out (I’m looking at you Budgeting in the Fun Stuff). Others are really interested in the newly entered world of personal finance and come here to check out my opinion on stuff that matters to them. Either way I like to treat Studenomics as a  super-helpful resource for everyone involved.

After studying for a majority of the day I decided to work out and then work on a blog post. Unfortunately, I spent an hour reading personal finance blogs before I even thought about a decent topic for an article. The phenomenon of information overload swept me once again. I consumed more than enough information. I just did not know how to apply this knowledge.

There are so many great personal finance blogs out there covering such a wide variety of topics that you could literally spend all day online (hey it beats watching tv all day).

You can obtain so many great ideas on retirement, emergency funds, extra income, etc. that you absolutely do not know where to begin. This is why I wanted to share/implement my own personal cure for information overload:

1. Do not stop reading any blogs.

I don’t want my fellow personal finance bloggers sending me hate mail because they lost readers. Instead try to understand why you are reading the specific blog. What are your goals? Where are you in your financial journey? Do you want beer money for the weekend or do you want to start saving for retirement?

2. Begin to read and only focus on one & only ONE topic at a time.

When you become successful and comfortable with making your own decisions on that one topic (for example you can select the next week to be your retirement education week) you will realize that in the long run you are getting more done. When you read about retirement, extra income, credit card debt, in the same day you will likely cause information overload.

3. Read many different blogs to gain different perspectives on the one topic.

Once you figure out which topic you will focus on, search for information on the top blogs in that niche. One blogger will tell you this is the best source of retirement income while another will tell you that it is a horrible idea  401k vs Roth Ira). The trick is to factor in all sides of the coin before you decide what works for you.

4. Do something!

The problem often is not that we do not have any information available to us. The problem is that we do not apply enough of the information currently available. I could point you to a million great articles on debt reduction (here, here and here) but what are they worth if you don’t apply the information? The next time you read an inspirational article- do something! Apply something from the article. Don’t worry about the minor details and just do what you can.

5. Become a producer.

Once you start applying more of the new found knowledge to your life, try becoming a producer. How can you become a producer? What I do is I write a blog post on the topic to reinforce the concept and hold myself accountable.  Yes I know that not everyone wants to deal with running a blog, so here are some more suggestions to be a producer:

• Try guest posting on your favorite blog. Most bloggers are more than willing to post an informative article that a reader sends in.
• Join a forum. There is a forum out there for everything. When you join a forum you can ask for FREE advice and share your journey with others.
• Teach others. Once you start excelling at one particular concept you can reinforce it by helping out others.

Please bookmark this article and give it a read whenever you feel like information overload is affecting you.

You worried about failing a course? You concerned about not reaching your goals? As the new college semester begins many new or returning college students are probably very nervous about some of the difficult courses. As I enter my final year of college there are a few specific courses that I’m stressing about. Today I wanted to discuss the topic of failure and how one can overcome the fear of failure:

Failing a course in college

Just because you fail at reaching a certain goal it doesn’t mean that you’re an overall failure. Failing a course just means that the specific course is a weakness of yours. That’s all. Not every business student enjoys working with numbers. An Arts student may not be successful in a Science course.

The problem is that many colleges require students of a specific major to take a difficult course from a completely different subject. I understand that it’s import to graduate from college with a diverse set of skills but not all college students have the aptitude for certain courses.

Change your opinion on failure

If you view failure as the end of the line or as a sign to quit then you will never grow as a person. Just because you fail the course with one professor it doesn’t mean that you will fail with every professor. You can take the course again next semester with a professor that better suits your learning style.

It took you a few years to gain all of that weight so don’t expect to lose it right away. Students that graduate with an A spent at least 5-10 hours a week on studying. Failing to reach a certain goal can occur due to a variety of reasons. If you are of the opinion that this failure should be the end of the road then you will never push yourself to the limit.

Failure is a major part of success

Okay I will spare you guys about the story on how Michael Jordan didn’t make his elementary school basketball team and ended up becoming a basketball legend in the end. There’s also the classic tale of Bill Gates or of Richard Branson. I’m sure everyone has heard of all of the great triumphant rises to the top from people that were at the bottom.

Failure should be a viewed as a sign to work harder, to work smarter, and to get more serious. When you fail at reaching a specific goal you need to re-assess the situation and determine what needs to be done differently next time.

Many successful people either have the adversity quotient to bounce back from failure or the understanding to change their strategy next time around. Let’s be honest if you drank every weekend and failed that difficult course then drink less often next semester. Don’t lie to yourself. Failure is needed to grow. Failure is also sometimes needed to kick you in the butt to change your ways.

photo: pierodemarchis

I discussed the cash for clunkers program back when it was first introduced a few weeks ago. Since then I have received a few emails about the program. A popular question was in regards to the tax implications of the cash for clunkers program.

After reading around the official website I can tell you guys that the Cash for Clunkers income is not taxable.It doesn’t matter if you received $3,500 or $4,500. Thankfully his program is no an easy way for the government to collect tax revenue.

The good news from the official website (www.cars.gov) is:

Is the credit subject to being taxed as income to the consumers that participate in the program? NO. The CARS Act expressly provides that the credit is not income for the consumer.

The bad news on the cash for clunkers tax rules:

Do I have to pay State or local sales tax on the amount of the CARS program credit? MAYBE. The question of whether a consumer must pay State or local sales tax on the amount of the CARS program credit depends on the sales tax law of each State or locality. Consumers should review the law of their respective States or consult a tax advisor to answer this question.

States Charging Tax on the Cash For Clunkers:

• Arizona
• Idaho
• Nebraska
• New Jersey
• New York
• Ohio
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Virginia
• Washington

States Not Charging Taxes for Cash for Clunkers:

• California
• Connecticut
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• Minnesota
• Texas
• Wisconsin

Please remember that if you purchased a new car with the voucher then you have already paid for the tax.

Further reading on the Cash For Clunkers Tax Rules:

Cash for Clunkers – Tax Rules

Is there a Cash for Clunkers tax?

Cash for Clunkers taxable income?

Cash for Clunkers taxable?

Cash for Clunkers Tax Rules

Cash For Clunkers Tax Rules- The Truth

Tax Rules & Consequences of the Cash For Clunkers Program

Cash For Clunkers Tax Rules

Cash For Clunkers- Tax Rules

I had a few readers on Twitter ask me about the Cash for Clunkers Program that has been popping up on many news outlets and personal finance blogs. To be honest I had no answer for the readers so I told them to hold up while I conducted some research. After searching around for more information on the Cash For Clunkers Program, I found a great post at Good Financial Cents about the Cash For Clunkers Tax Rules and an ABC story on the program.

How The Cash For Clunkers Program Works:

- You may quality if you own a car made in 1984 or later that gets 18 miles to the gallon or less.

- The car must start, and been insured/registered for the last year.

- The government will give you $3500 if you trade it for a car that gets four more miles per gallon.

- You will receive $4,500 if your new car gets 10 miles more per gallon.

- You only have to increase mileage by 2 to 5 miles per gallon for SUV’s and pick up trucks.

- Your new car must be brand new and cost less than $45,000.

What does the Cash For Clunkers Program Mean for me?

1. An incentive to purchase an environmentally friendly vehicle (translation: buy a car cheaper on gas). We all talk about buying a car that’s better for the environment but when it comes down to it we would rather drive whats cheapest or in most cases- what is handed down to us by our parents.

2. An Opportunity to finally buy a new vehicle. I ranted about purchasing a car and I discussed that when buying a new car you should search for value/quality and not image. With the Cash For Clunkers Program you have the chance to finally buy a new car that is also great on gas.

3. Fairly hassle free way of getting rid of your old car. I’m sure many young professionals reading this are thinking about how they can get rid of that old car that has been around since their parents graduated from college. Well now you have a relatively hassle free way of getting rid of that old clunker and you can tell your parents it’s for a “good cause.”

4. An opportunity to get everyone off your case. Your friends can finally stop bothering you about driving a “gas guzzler” and your environmentally friend can get off your case for polluting the environment. We all have that environmentally friend that takes environmental issues very seriously and always lectures us on our pollution.

5. Cash For Clunkers allows you to save money on gas. By getting rid of your old gas guzzler you will end up with a more economical car that helps you save money on gas. Less money spent at the gas pump is always a good thing.

Remember that ever since the US Senate and the House of Representatives passed the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act 2009, everyone has been looking into this program, not just you. In fact the ABC News story claims that $35 million of the $1 billion set aside for the Cash For Clunkers has been used up. Remember that once the budget for the program dries up the program will come to an end, even if its before the November 1st deadline.

I have heard lots of criticism about the Cash For Clunkers Program so I was wondering if anybody could share any stories on the program?

photo: dave_7