This has been on my mind a lot lately.

I want to add an element to AFM that hasn’t been here in a long time. That element is optimism. Optimism that embraces personal responsibility (something that seems to have been snuffed out by the victim mentality). Optimism that drives change.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t need to look at the events of the day with a critical eye. We do. One of the things I am most proud of about AFM is our ability to discuss topics without getting (too) angry. But, I want to go from simply grousing to helping people understand how to move through it.

How do I plan on doing this? Well, through topics like:

• How to be a better employee

• How to find the job you were meant to do

• How to set goals

• How to get out of debt

• Studying Napoleon Hill’s “Law of Success” and other personal improvement literature (the classics)

• How to save for the future

• Teaching your kids about personal finances

• Interviews with successful business owners to find out what does and does not work

There’s more. Lots more.

So, if you’re interested, join me here on Monday morning as we’ll go over chapter one of Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich*. It’s a short book and an easy read. The perfect place to start. Most libraries have copies. You might even be able to find it for free online. I did a search and found a pdf copy but couldn’t get it to open. You can also purchase the Kindle edition* for a whopping $.99.

Who’s with me?

Thoughts?

*Affiliate Link

So…

Starting next week, AFM will have a new contributor. Her name is Lindsay. She and her husband have five kids and a lot of debt. Her desire to get out of debt is the reason I asked her to write for AFM. Since they are in a different place than my family is, I thought it would be interesting to have her write about the topics related to their quest to get out of debt.

It’s important to note that she is not an expert. She’ll be writing from her experience and will be researching and learning along the way.

I have limited experience in hosting other writers so we’ll see how this goes. I have every reason to believe it will go great.

If you would like to reach Lindsay, you can email her at

We took a trip out to West Texas to spend Christmas with my wife’s granddad. Living in Southeast Texas, we rarely have snow. So, it was really cool that it snowed before and during our trip there. The kids got a white Christmas. Very cool.

I’m looking forward to 2012. I’ll have an announcement to make later this week of a change that will be taking place here at AFM. I’m also kicking around some other ideas for AFM.

In the meantime, enjoy your family. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and financially-blessed 2012!

The randomly-selected winner of the latest AFM giveaway winner was commenter #1, Laurie Smith. This is the first time in my 7 years of blogging that the first commenter was randomly selected for any giveaway. Congrats to Laurie.

For those of you who didn’t win, I still highly recommend Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst’s Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves*. It’s a very interesting and easy read.

The next giveway will be posted in a bit.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?

I’ll announce the winner of the book giveaway in my next post.

I’m hoping that AFM readers will go check out her new blog, Downs With Debt, and offer her some encouragement. If you’re a blogger, I’m hoping you might send her some link love.

Thanks for reading.

Today marks the 7th onniversary of when I started blogging. I started off with a .blogspot blog called AllThingsFinancial. I moved to a paid hosting site in August of 2005 and changed the URL to AllThingsFinancialBlog.com. Several months later I was sued by First Tennessee bank because they owned the phrase “All Things Financial” and they demanded I cease from using that name. So, I changed to AllFinancialMatters.com and have been using that name for well over five years now.

It’s been a bumpy ride over the years. The blog grew steadily from 2004 through 2008 and then kind of wavered since 2009. I grew tired of simply blogging about personal finance topics as I felt I had already covered nearly all the basics. So, I got more into politics, which I’m sure has alienated readers.

It’s also funny that when I first started bloggin back in 2004, it was a very new form of publishing. I was probably one of 5 or 6 financial blogs at the time. It was so new that main stream media gave bloggers some coverage. Some of them made fun of blogging. Yet, it wasn’t long before main stream media started launching blogs staffed with their own writers. There was a time when articles about “The Best Blogs” focused on smaller blogs. Now they’re almost all about either company-sponsored blogs or blogs that are5. written by well-known people. All of this means, it’s a very crowded field and it makes blogging all the more frustrating.

I have always tried to adhere to the following principles in my blogging:

• Always tell the truth. That doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. But, I have never lied. That’s something I’m very proud of.

• I don’t allow sponsored posts UNLESS it is made very clear to AFM readers that the post is paid for.

• I don’t do affiliate advertising UNLESS it is made clear that I do in fact make something if someone clicks a link or makes a purchase. That’s why I always use the little “*” whenever I link to an Amazon book. Other bloggers approach this differently by saying, “Readers know I have to make money some way so I don’t think I need to tell them each time I link to something that makes me money.” I disagree but that’s just me.

• I tell it like it is. Yes, I’m a conservative and I hold conservative principles near and dear. I take a lot of flack for my beliefs. I don’t care.

• I have ALWAYS encouraged “adult” discussions. No name calling or childish behavior. Those comments that I deem offensive get deleted.

• I have ALWAYS published comments of those who disagree with me UNLESS the comments are offensive.

What does the future hold for AllFinancialMatters? I have no idea. I have been kicking around a few ideas to help the blog grow. I’m hesitant to do anything drastic because I like the general concept of the blog the way it is. I have considered bringing in different authors and going for a more “professional” blog. I’m not sure I want to go that route as this blog has always been very personal in nature.

All I know is that I’m not happy with my current stats and I think it’s ridiculous that this blog isn’t more popular than it is. This is my fault because I really don’t spend any time networking (sucking up) to bigger bloggers (most of whom I don’t like). In fact, I feel kind of cheated by the bigger bloggers who used this blog and other smaller blogs to build their base and then “forgot” about us once they reached the blogging stratosphere. Many of the bigger blogs no longer link to the smaller blogs and yet, the smaller blogs still link to the bigger blogs.

Frustrations aside, I do enjoy blogging. I have enjoyed meeting people over the years. I’m even facebook friends with several AFM readers. How cool is that? I’m very honored that I have readers who have been reading AFM for YEARS! Two readers I would like to highlight just because they add lots to nearly every discussion are BG and Jack. Their passion (they usually don’t agree on much…lol) makes for very interesting discussions. I have other readers who have contributed comments over the years. People like Stacey, Sam, Kitty, Russ, RA, Miguel, Dan, Traciatim, Evan, Jon, John, Harm, BD, and all the rest of you who make this blog worth reading. My readers are the best!

Here’s to another 7 years!

I received a copy of Tim Maurer and Jim Stovall’s The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life* a week or so ago. I’m about 25% of the way through the book but I like what I have read enough to go ahead and host a giveaway of a copy. I think AFM readers will enjoy it. I’ll post a review of the book as soon as I’m done reading it.

This book would be great for newbies but those who are “financially mature” will probably like it too.

So…

If you would like to entered in the giveway, simply leave a comment below. Be sure and remember my two rules:

1. You must be a resident of North America (I won’t ship internationally).

and…

2. You can only enter one time.

I’ll randomly select a winner Friday morning. Good luck.

*Affiliate Link

I have a favor to ask of all of you, I have some exciting opportunities pending but my producers would love to see me have more than 10,000 fans on this page. Big numbers build credibility with studios. If you can ask your friends to join my fan page, it would be helpful as I’m building a case for future “offerrings.” I need some more fans. Help me if you enjoy this page! About 3,000 to start with would be great. Invite your friends! Thank you!

So, if you’re on facebook please consider…

1. Going to Larry’s facebook fan page and “liking” it.

and…

2. Sharing it with your friends (http://facebook.com/LarryWingetFanPage)

Let’s see if we can get Larry to 10,000 fans by the weekend…

Thanks for your help.