The year is just about over. As always, the time just flew by. It’s 2012 and that means that it’s the last year of the world’s existence. We might as well enjoy it, right? Just curious, what do you guys think about this world coming to an end stuff?

A few things that I’m proud of myself for doing on here in the past year are:

I got into more focus on the readers. I finally launched my own newsletter and started building it. I also used my mailing list to send exclusive content to readers, communicate with readers, and get more feedback from them. I’m excited to have focused more on my readers in 2011.

More value. I truly believe that I did more research than ever and interacted with enough credible people to add more value to my readers. There’s just so many personal finance blogs out there, that if you don’t add high value, nobody will read your blog.

More personal stories. After the Financial Blogger Conference in Chicago this year I decided that I need to share more personal stories. This is what I started doing. I plan on sharing even more personal stories around here in 2012.

Those are a few of the main improvements that I could think of right now. I obviously have much more improving left to do. Please share what you think I need to improve in the comments section below. I would love some honest feedback.

Those are a few of things that I’m proud of on here from 2011.

Things I need to improve are:

• More results.
• More personal stories.
• Additional research.
• One-on-one coaching.

I want to hear what you guys want to see more of around here in 2012. Any specific topics you want me to cover more?

If you want to get a free gift from me and want to hear more from me, then you should sign up for my newsletter below.

Let’s look at the best articles from 2011:

Making money.

Case Study On Explosive Blog Growth & Creating a Full-Time Income.
How You Can Start a Business Right Now With $1,000.
Testing Your Ideas to See If You Can Make Money.
How Can Your Small Business Be a Home Run?
What Do You Do on Saturday Mornings?

Drastic lifestyle changes.

Vagabonding 101: Everything You Need to Know to Travel the World.
What You Must Do Before You Quit Your Job.
WTF To Do After College Guide.
Do I Have to Find a Real Job After College?

Personal finance.

How-to Save Thousands of Dollars– The Power of Automated Savings.
5 Personal Finance/Entrepreneurship Books That Changed My Life.
Out of College & Dead Broke– WTF Do I Do?
Personal Finance 101: How Important is Getting Laid?
The Solution to All of Your Financial Problems in Your 20s

Other articles.

How-to Cure a Hangover (and destroy credit card debt).
What’s a Good Credit Score & Why Should You Give a Damn?
How Does The Stock Market Work?
24 Random Life Lessons Learned in 24 Years.
What’s The Best Time & Way to Buy a Home?

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Let’s check out some links from the past week:

The Art of Screening Tenants Properly to Protect Your Huge Investment @ PIN.
How Social Media Can Ruin You @ TFB.
Year End Tax Tips @ Retire Happy Blog.
Our Family’s Budget Tools @ Couple Money.
Saving Money On Video Games For A More Frugal Gaming Experience @ Smart on Money.
Tips for Holiday Tipping @ Free From Broke.
How Often Should You Service Your Vehicle? @ Boomer and Echo.

I wanted to say what’s up to all of my new readers.

If you found me through the NY Times online article or the print version, I’m excited to have you on board.

If you found me through Google, a referral, another blog, your ex-girlfriend, or from anywhere else, I wanted to tell you what Studenomics is all about.

I started this site a college student. Now that I’m done college I’ve started to cover more advanced topics. This is simply the only site you need to read in your 20s if you want to hack life, build credit, travel the world, pay down debt, and make some damn money on the side. I make all of this stuff as fun as humanly possible. Once in a while I also get into pre-drinking and partying on a budget.

I have an eBook out on Amazon:

My top ten pieces of all time are:

1. Vagabonding 101: Everything You Need to Know to Travel the World
2. The Ultimate Home Buying Guide — Buying vs Renting Detailed Comparison
3. Going Full Time With Your Side Business– When is it the Right Time?
4. What is Lifestyle Design & Why is it So Damn Popular?
5. How-to Save Thousands of Dollars– The Power of Automated Savings
6.  WTF To Do After College Guide
7. How-to Choose a Online Banking Account That’s Right For You
8. How My Friend Made $2,100 From Tutoring
9. How To Save Money On Your College Tuition
10. The Ultimate Financial Survival Guide For New College Students

Finally you can sign up below to get a free gift from me. You give me your email and I send you a case study with an internet entrepreneur that’s making a killing online. Just for trusting me with your email you get this juicy case study. You can see what it takes to make money online, how you can get started, when to quit, and when to push forward. Are you ready?

I think it’s about time I took part in the 7 links project. I was tagged by Boomer and Echo a few months ago, and most recently Mike at The Financial Blogger tagged me as well. I’m currently sitting in a McDonald’s in Warsaw, Poland, waiting to take the bus to the airport. I had an exciting and eye-opening trip. Now I’m ready to go home for a few days before the Financial Blogger Conference.

Let’s look at these links…

Your most beautiful post.

Most beautiful post? Personal finance isn’t always a beautiful topic, especially when writing about debt. I’m also not much of an emotional person. I do feel that my most beautiful piece is when I first wrote about long term travel and the idea of breaking out from the norm. I think that we can all benefit from extended travels in our 20s.

Vagabonding 101: What You Need to Travel The World.

Your most popular post.

If by popularity you want to go by traffic then the answer is obvious. I have one piece that for some reason happens to be very popular.

Dorm Room Essentials For College Students.

Your most controversial post.

They say that controversy creates cash. I enjoy to stir the pot and have some fun in real life. I don’t find myself writing too many controversial pieces on Studenomics. Maybe I need to start causing some trouble around here.

Personal Finance 101: How Important is Getting Laid?

Your most helpful post.

The whole point of this blog is to help people out. My most helpful post is also the one where I conducted the most research and spent the most time on. I don’t even want to think about how much time I spent on this post. The good news is that it received a crazy amount of links and comments.

The Ultimate Home Buying Guide — Buying vs Renting Detailed Comparison.

A post who’s success surprised you.

I get surprised once in a while by how popular a post can be. The post that I chose here is a basic one that I didn’t really expect to take off. I just wanted to cover the topic because I find that it’s important to go over the fundamentals. The post got picked up by The Simple Dollar and a few other popular blogs. The success in traffic was definitely a nice little surprise.

Live Within My Means? How?

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved.

There have been a few posts that just never took off for one reason or another. I wanted to highlight a specific post that actually got some solid traffic. I just thought that this post would be more popular because of the topic and the value offered.

The Complete Financial Survival Guide For New College Students.

The post you are most proud of.

I’m proud of most of my work so this is going to be a difficult one. I couldn’t pick one of my own posts that I was most proud of, so I decided to pick a guest post. I love a quality guest post because they happen to be very rare to come across these days. When Austin offered to write about his experiences in finding work abroad I couldn’t resist.

5 Steps to Get You Hired as an English Teacher Abroad.

I’m not going to nominate anyone because by now most blogs have participated in this project. I’ll be back soon with a brand-new post. In the mean time I urge you to check out these links.

There’s a lot going on around here personally and on this web site. Behind the scenes here I’m working hard on creating products that will save you guys tons of money. I’m also planning on providing you guys with at least three super helpful articles from Briana and I each and every week.

I wanted to mention that I’ve been nominated for a few Plutus Awards:

I’ve been nominated for Best Economics Blog and Best Personal Finance Blog for Teens or College Students. If you have a few minutes you can click here to vote. I’ll be more than happy to accept your vote. If you think don’t care for Studenomics then please feel free to vote for my peers. All that matters is that you vote.

What’s going on personally? At this exact moment I’m sitting at the airport waiting to start my trip. I’m heading out for my first ever vagabonding experience/unstructured trip. I’m starting off in Warsaw, Poland and ending up wherever the road takes me. I’ll only be gone for three weeks and I promise that you guys won’t even notice.

You can also sign up for my exclusive mailing list for fresh content and promotions. You get access to an insightful case study that I conducted with Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.

Let’s check out some links before I talk about myself anymore. I really wanted to give thanks to a few friends of mine…

2 Terrible Mistakes I Made That Will Haunt You For The Rest of Your Life if You Don’t Wake Up @ The Financial Blogger. I really appreciate the fact that Mike has allowed me to work with him and to see how a successful blogging network operates.

Dealing with Stock Market Volatility @ Oblivious Investor. Mike has always been super-helpful and willing to respond whenever I have any rookie questions.

Five Personal Finance Habits of the Past that Must End to Have a Financial Future @ PT Money. Phil has done a spectacular job with organizing the personal finance bloggers conference. We all need to buy him a beer at the conference. Hopefully he can hold his booze.

Are There Really People Who Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less? @ Financial Samurai. Sam is always putting together thought-provoking pieces. I always like a kick in the butt or a reminder of the benefits of hard work.

Dispelling 3 Personal Finance Myths @ Canadian Finance Blog. Tom has been supporting this site for a long time now. You guys should definitely check his site out.

Smartphone Face Off: Blackberry vs. iPhone @ College Candy. This site has been supporting Studenomics ever since I can remember. They definitely deserve a huge THANK YOU.

From now on I’m going to try to include a story or a quick note of sorts with my link roundups. This week I wanted to share a scary story from a recently travel experience.

It’s Thursday night and it’s time to leave Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and head back to Toronto. After a week of drinking and being up all night you can imagine how badly one wants to get home. We got on the plane and I’m just about ready to get some shut eye. The plane’s not moving. No big deal. A little delay. That’s cool. Then all of a sudden we become informed that the airport security needs to see a few people. I was one of those lucky people.

At this point the pilot decides to take everyone off the plane because the security says that it’s going to be a long delay. I get into the security room and they inform me that they want to check my luggage. No problem. The security goes through my luggage and finds nothing but dirty clothes. They inspect a few more agitated travelers and get the same result. Nothing. They check the bag of an older gentleman. Once again the security finds nothing. Then one of the airport staff brings out a golf bag that’s attached to this gentleman’s seat on the plane. The man calmly informs them that he has never seen that golf bag, his name isn’t on it, and he only checked in one suitcase.

The security doesn’t listen to what the man says. The security decides to open the golf bag. What’s in this golf bag? Bricks of cocaine. Yes, a golf bag full of coke was framed on this guy. The accused man starts stressing, his daughters start crying, and security takes the whole family away. The rest of us passengers were stuck in a humid lobby at 1 in the morning wondering if we’ll even get home.

What’s next? Everyone got off the plane and chatted for a few hours in this stuffy airport lounge. A few hours go by and everyone is on edge ready to snap. The pilot even comes forward and tells us he has never seen anything like this before. This uneasiness went on for a bit longer until finally after three hours or so the family comes back and we’re all allowed to board the plane.

What happened with the family? It was an inside job and the people in on it just had to attach the drugs to someone’s suitcase. Sucks to be that family because their luggage had to stay in the country over night.

What’s the point of sharing this story? I’ve traveled over a dozen times in my life and this has only happened once. When you’re in a foreign country you must remember to be respectful and that you need to stay calm at all times. There’s lots of amazing people out there in the world that you should try to meet. Don’t let the few scumbags ruin your perception of travel or of another country.

The top pieces from the week:

1. Stats Are A Waste Of Time @ The Financial Blogger.
2. The 7 Steps to Starting a Business @ Investor Junkie.
3. What To Do With Your Tax Refund @ Canadian Finance Blog.
4. Beat The Odds and Save Money by Doing It Yourself @ Debt Free Adventure.
5. 4 Virtually Instant Ways To Go Hardcore With Your Business @ PIN.
6. Do you Have a Back-Up Plan if you Slip from the Corporate Ladder? @ The Extra Money Blog.
7. I Went to My Safety School… And I Love It! @ College Candy.
8. 10 Ways To Make Money Writing Online @ Christian PF.
9. Finding Health Insurance When You Are Self-Employed @ Gen X Finance.
10. What Is Your Purchasing Behaviour Style? @ Boomer and Echo,

A little while back I shared 5 books on personal finance and entrepreneurship that changed my life. These are books that I would recommend to everyone and anyone that remotely cares about money, life, and building relationships. At the beginning of the year I decided to a read less this year and to apply more/spend more time on producing.

With that being said, I decided to check out Escape From Cubicle Nation and I’ve been enjoying it thus far. The point that I’m trying to get at is that I was hoping you guys could share some of your favorite books with us here. What books would you recommend to anyone interested in personal finance and entrepreneurship related ideas?

Now it’s time for the link roundup:

Surviving Senior Year @ College Candy.
How Can I Rebuild My Credit Score Now? @ PIN.
You Must Spend to Earn @ Financial Blogger.
Thoughts on Losing $50,000 on Our House @ Cash Money Life.
When is it Best to Itemize Your Taxes? @ Free From Broke.
10 Best Home Based Businesses @ PT Money.
Best House Selling Tips @ Boomer and Echo.
Mortgage Applications Rise Even As Rates Inch Up. Is It Time To Buy Or Refinance? @ BMM.
When Do You Need to Buy Long Term Care Insurance? @ Clarity.
Where to Keep Your Emergency Fund @ Moolanomy.
Whoa There Cowboy! You’re STILL Paying Checking Account Fees? @ The Wisdom Journal.
7 Proven Credit Builders @ Wealth Pilgrim.
Increasing Our Extra Mortgage Payments @ Couple Money.
Cable Alternatives – Legal Alternatives to Cable TV @ Debt Free Adventure.
This is Why You Can’t Make Money in the Stock Market @ Gen X Finance.

It’s back to reality for me. Despite having posts up the whole time, I was away in Cuba for a week. I also managed to go 4 days without checking my blog stats (mainly due to the slow and expensive internet connection). My sleep schedule is a bit off since I happened to be going to bed at 6 AM everyday and it sucks to be back in the bitter Canadian cold. With that being said, I’m ready to write and hustle here for you guys.

I was also wondering if there is there anything in specific you guys would like me to cover around here?

Some of the top articles from the week:

The Only Check List You Need Prior To Starting Your Business @ The Financial Blogger.
A Generation of Oversharers Joins the Workforce @ College Candy.
9 Tips to Owning A Successful Small Business @ Wealth Pilgrim.
How Much Does Netflix Cost You? @ BMM.
There’s More to Risk Than Meets the Eye @ Gen X Finance.
The perfect retirement myth @ Money Smarts Blog.
Asset Allocation is a Sloppy Science @ Oblivious Investor.
Is It Always Good to Pay Off Your Car Loan Early? @ PT Money.
Alternative Ways to Pay Off Your Student Loans @ Cash Money Life.
Make Credit Cards Work For You By Earning Rewards @ Free From Broke.
Automating Your Way To Wealth @ Moolanomy.
Add A Little Interest To Your Checking Account @ The Wisdom Journal.

I got posts ready to go for the next two weeks. Why so far in advance? Oh no real reason. Well actually because I will be away in Cuba for a week, Spring Break or Reading Week (or whatever you want to call it). Just because I’m done with college it doesn’t mean that I can’t go away for this week. Does it? I’m sorting of treating this like a graduation trip/retreat from the internet. That’s right. For one whole week I will attempt to not use the internet at all. Not sure if it’s possible, but I’ll try.

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you guys for following Studenomics as I enter the “real world” and attempt to explore many new topics. While I’m away for the next 7 days, there will be posts going up. I just won’t be able to respond to comments until I return.

I will make sure to have a drink for all of you guys though!

Some of the top links from the past week:

70 Post Ideas for Your New Blog @ Broke Professionals.
This Post-Grad Life: Dealing With ‘Why-Am-I-Here’ Syndrome @ College Candy.
How does getting Married Affect My Taxes? @ Gen X Finance.
6 Wealth Building Strategies While Living Paycheck to Paycheck @ Moolanomy.
How I Make Money From Blogging: My Top Income Sources @ Money With a Blog.
How Much Work Is Do-It-Yourself Investing? @ Oblivious Investor.
Netflix Free Trial Offer @ Cash Money Life.
How Forex Trading Works @ PT Money.
Book Review – Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security @ The Wisdom Journal.
Changes on the 1040 IRS Tax Form this Year…How Does It Affect You? @ Free From Broke.
New 2011 Tax Rules for eBay Sellers: The 1099K @ My Dollar Plan
Quick Small Business Tips @ PIN.

Lately I’ve been working on batch writing my articles for Studenomics and the other sites I write for. What I do is I grab a cup of coffee and work on 3-4 articles at a time. This way if I run out of ideas on one topic I move on to the next piece. The positive here is that I can pump out 4 articles a night. The negative is that I’m up until 4 in the morning and then exhausted in the morning. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Do you guys have any writing tips that you can share with us?

Oh yea and enjoy the big game today. Eat like a pig and sit back…

This Post Grad Life Crisis at 23 @ College Candy.
Graduated From College? Financial Tips For The New Graduate @ The Digerati Life.
Clean Your Budget to Find Hidden Cash @ Canadian Finance Blog.
Opening a Business as a Professional LLC @ Wealth Pilgrim.
Bootstrapping Your Start-Up Business With Little or No Money @ Gen X Finance.
Do I Have to Pay Tax on Unemployment Compensation? @ PT Money.
Best Retirement Plans For The Self Employed or Small Business Owner @ Free From Broke.
Where Can I Check My State Income Tax Return Refund Status? @ Smart On Money.
5 Helpful Android and iPhone Tax Apps @ My Dollar Plan.
TurboTax vs H&R Block Online: Which Is Better? @ The Wisdom Journal.
Filing For Bankruptcy at 23 @ Debt Kid.
Protecting Your Private Files @ Oblivious Investor.
Is Gold A Good Investment Now? @ Amateur Asset Allocator.