Trick Forex Trading

Tehnik Switching Untuk Menyelamatkan Trading Forex

SWITCHING penting dilakukan guna menghindari kesalahan posisi yang berujung fatal. Saat kita memperkirakan harga akan naik, tapi kenyataannya harga terus turun dan turun. Bila demikian, mengapa kita terus bertahan pada keyakinan yang salah?


Switching merupakan suatu cara untuk melakukan pergantian arah secara cepat dengan cara menutup posisi kita (cut loss) yang sedang merugi karena ternyata harga bergerak berlawanan dengan prediksi yang kita lakukan. Pada saat itu kita membuka posisi baru dengan mengikuti harga yang bergerak berlawanan tersebut dan berharap akan mendapatkan keuntungan pada posisi yang kedua lebih besar dari posisi sebelumnya yang sudah merugi karena kita cut loss.


Ya, masalahnya adalah sejauh mana kita meyakini bahwa posisi kita salah. Ini juga bukan hal remeh. Perlu pengetahuan dan seperangkat analisis untuk bisa sampai pada kesimpulan bahwa kita memang salah, dan harus segera diubah.


Tentu istilah "jangan melawan harga pasar" harus lebih diutamakan daripada bersikap egois dan menyatakan harga akan kembali lagi. Switching semata-mata bersifat personal. Semua berdasarkan analisis personal di mana hanya kita yang bisa meyakini. Trend adalah sahabat anda. Meyakini trend berarti menghilangkan egoisme.


Kerugian pada posisi salah yang pertama perlu segera ditutup dan kita segera mengambil langkah lain untuk mengambil keuntungan. Lalu, bagaimana kalau analisis kedua kita ternyata salah? Dan harga memang benar-benar sesuai prediksi pertama? Apakah kita harus melakukan switching ulang?


Semua keputusan memang terserah Anda. Tapi baik bila memperhatikan hal ini: bila berturut-turut kita melakukan analisis yang salah, tutup chart Anda dan refreshing melakukan penyegaran, evaluasi mengapa kok selalu terjadi kesalahan.


Untuk itu, ada baiknya juga memperhatikan ungkapan William O'Neil ini:

"Kebanyakan investor yang tidak punya skill, keras kepala menahan kerugiannya ketika kerugiannya masih kecil. Mereka beralasan akan bisa keluar dengan keuntungan yang minimal. Mereka tetap menunggu dan menunggu dan berharap sampai kerugiannya menjadi keuntungan. Namun disayangkan biaya yang dikeluarkan juga cukup besar."

Maka stop loss sangat berguna di sini untuk membatasi diri dan memperbaiki disiplin trading kita.


Sukses untuk trading hari ini …

Paypal Sudah Dapat Ditarik Ke Kartu Kredit Indonesia

Kurang lebih setahun lalu, paypal menerima member dari Indonesia tapi hanya bisa untuk melakukan pembayaran dan belum bisa menerima transfer serta withdrawal, sehingga jika kita menerima pendapatan dalam dollar dari paypal tidak bisa langsung dicairkan. Di bulan Oktober 2007, PayPal memutuskan untuk mengeluarkan Indonesia dari daftar hitamnya. Mulai saat ini Account Paypal Indonesia selain bisa digunakan untuk pembayaran menggunakan kartu kredit juga diberi ruang untuk menerima payment serta melakukan withdrawal ke kartu kredit dan debit Indonesia (VISA dan Mastercard). Mulai sejak itu anggota paypal dari Indonesia dapat kirim uang dan request uang juga.

Tentu saja berita ini cukup membuat lega banyak online marketer Indonesia. Kepercayaan paypal terhadap pengguna jasanya dari Indonesia ini sebaiknya dijaga jangan sampai kembali terpuruk ke dalam daftar hitam (black list) yang akan banyak membatasi ruang gerak pemain online marketing dari Indonesia. Ini adalah suatu kemajuan bagi Indonesia, artinya kepercayaan terhadap orang Indonesia sedikit meningkat. Oleh karena itu kita patut menjaga kepercayaan ini dengan berbisnis yang bersih.

Syarat untuk bisa menarik uang ialah memiliki kartu kredit yang berlogo Visa atau MasterCard. Tetapi bagi Anda yang memiliki kartu kredit, debit, atau ATM yang berlogo visa atau mastercard silahkan mencoba (kalau account paypal anda sudah ada dananya). Biaya yang dikenakan untuk menarik uang melalui kartu kredit ialah US$5 untuk setiap penarikan. Anda bisa menarik uang secara gratis jika Anda memiliki rekening bank di USA. Jadi menarik uang melalui rekening bank USA adalah salah satu alternatif untuk menarik uang dari paypay. Dulu, Anda harus mengaku-ngaku orang Amerika agar bisa menarik uang, tetapi sekarang tidak perlu.

Bagi Anda yang belum mengenal paypal, paypal adalah alat transaksi internasional dimana Anda bisa menerima pembayaran melalui kartu kredit atau rekening paypal lain. Yah, Anda secara instant bisa menerima pembayaran kartu kredit. Dengan rekening paypal Anda bisa mengikuti berbagai peluang bisnis international dimana pembayaran relatif lebih mudah. Anda belum memiliki rekening paypal? Silahkan mendaftar paypal 

Kiriman Uang Paypal Bisa Dicairkan Melalui Bank Lokal

Kita mungkin suka melakukan transaksi perbankan. Entah mengirim atau menerima uang. Jika kita tinggal di Indonesia, dengan bank lokal seperti BCA, Permata, Mandiri, tentu tidak ada menjadi masalah. Tapi bagaimana jika kita berhubungan dengan pihak kedua yang berada di luar negeri?

Dengan transfer bank semacam Western Union, ongkos kirimnya bisa-bisa lebih mahal ketimbang uang yang kita kirimkan. Walah. Bisa terpotong deh uang kita. Seorang kawan yang tinggal di Jepang, misalnya, ingin membayar utang, tapi karena ongkos kirimnya lebih besar daripada jumlah utangnya, dia tidak jadi bayar hutang. :(

Nah, di dunia internet ada pembayaran yang popular, yaitu PayPal. Dengan PayPal peluang melakukan transaksi kawan kita atau sesama rekan bisnis di luar negeri akan menjadi praktis dan lebih aman, karena kita tidak perlu memberikan info kartu kredit setiap kali bertransaksi di internet, misalnya kepada penjual terhubung (online merchant). Tapi cukup sekali saja pada waktu kita melakukan pendaftaran ke PayPal sebagai agen pembayar kita. Jika kita melakukan transaksi, PayPal lah yang mendebet kartu kredit kita (atas konfirmasi kita melalui nama pengguna dan kata sandi) dan membayarnya. Kita tinggal melunasinya melalui tagihan kartu kredit setiap bulan.

Dengan kartu kredit apa saja (Visa dan Mastercard), kita bisa mendaftarkan diri ke PayPal sebagai pihak pengirim/pembayar uang. Akan tetapi, hanya Visa yang bisa mengirim dan menerima uang melalui PaypPal, Mastercard tidak. Setelah menerima di rekening Visa kita, baru kita bisa menariknya melalui ATM.

Dengan ATM berlogo Visa, ongkos penarikan sebesar standar penarikan internasional. Jika kita punya kartu kredit BCA, kita bisa menariknya di ATM BCA dengan BCA Card. Ongkosnya lebih murah.

Petugas layanan pelanggan BCA yang ditelepon bilang, dengan menarik di ATM jumlah yang bisa diambil maksimum 40 persen dari pagu kartu kredit. Jika ingin pagu yang lebih besar lagi, kita bisa datang layanan pelanggan bank dan menariknya langsung. Jumlah penarikan bisa 60 persen pagu kartu kredit.

Untung saja itu cara yang ada sebelum Januari 2008. Kini kabar bagusnya (terutama buat profesional atau pebisnis terhubung [online]) ada pilihan lain. Kita di Indonesia bahkan bisa menarik uang kita di bank-bank lokal semacam BCA. Tinggal isikan data bank (kode bank, dan kode cabang) kita pada profil acoount yang kita daftarkan. Kemudian kita bisa mencairkan ke rekening tabungan (atau giro) kita di bank, dan menariknya melaui ATM.

Tapi awas: jika Anda mendaftar dengan PayPal, kata sandi Anda jangan sampai dengan kata sandi email anda, meskipun Anda menggunakan alamat email Anda sebagai nama pengguna (user name).

PayPal agen pembayaran yang bagus karena membuka pintu buat kita menjangkau pasar global. Jika Anda desainer web lepas, umpamanya, Anda bisa menjual karya Anda secara internasional. Kalau Anda ingin menjual barang, contoh lain, Anda bisa menawarkannya melalui pelanggan e-Bay yang pasarnya mendunia.

6 Great Free Alternatives to Quicken & MS Money

Every Tuesday is Finance & Family Day at Zen Habits.

Recently I got some amazing responses from all of you in Ask the Readers: What are your financial tools? and I wanted to share some of the best tools I've found from that thread. And the thing I like most about them: unlike Quicken and Microsoft [...]

Every Tuesday is Finance & Family Day at Zen Habits.
Recently I got some amazing responses from all of you in Ask the Readers: What are your financial tools? and I wanted to share some of the best tools I've found from that thread. And the thing I like most about them: unlike Quicken and Microsoft Money, they're free!

1. Excel or Google Spreadsheets. Perhaps the simplest tool of all. Create your own (I did) or find an excellent one already created: Pear Budget, Of Zen and Computing's simple spreadsheet, Get Rich Slowly's spreadsheet. The appeal of this is that it's extremely flexible, it's simple, it's fast and easy, it's free and, if you keep it really simple, you can put it online with Google Spreadsheets.
2. Gnu Cash. Now available for Windows for the first time, Gnu Cash was designed for Linux and is available for OSX and other operating systems. It's totally free (under the GNU GPL), easy to use, even if it isn't as pretty as more expensive software. Very popular among the Linux crowd. Beloved for its double-entry accounting system. This open-source software can import data from Money and Quicken, and can export to numerous data formats.
3. Wesabe. Web 2.0's answer to money software, Wesabe takes the traditional approach and turns it on its head with a social aspect. It can import all of your financial institution data (banks, credit cards, etc.), and allows you to tag each entry, so you can see how you're spending your money. Even more interesting is the social part: based on your tags, you can see how others spend on similar tags, and see their best tips for that type of tag. An interesting approach, but I'm not sold yet on this concept.
4. Money Trackin. A very easy-to-use site, this is perfect if you want your money software to be online and accessible from anywhere, including your mobile device. Just spent $30 at a restaurant? Enter that from the restaurant itself. This online software allows you to enter all your transactions, tag them, view reports, and see your financial situation at a glance. And it doesn't require you to enter your personal info to set up an account.
5. AceMoney. The lite version of AceMoney is freeware — and has the same features as the paid version, except you can't manage multiple accounts. So this would be great for someone who just has one main account to track. Track your spending, set up a budget, track investments, look at graphs, import data from your bank, be reminded to pay your bill, plan to pay off your debts, and more. Not the prettiest software, but hey, it's free! And it works.
6. Yodlee. This is a slick solution. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm severely tempted (I just haven't had time to give it a spin). A totally online solution, you can track spending, monitor your budget, look at portfolio charts, track your net worth, and more. Pretty nice.

If you're willing to pay for your money software, there are a number of great paid alternatives, including but not limited to: You Need a Budget, Mvelopes, and myspendingplan.com.
Anyone given these a spin? Tell us what you think of these alternatives, especially if you've tried more than one and can compare them.

How I Ended My Love Affair With the Credit Card (and Why I Use Cash)

Every Tuesday is Finance & Family Day at Zen Habits.

Confession time: My name is Leo, and I'm a recovering creditcardaholic.
When I was just starting out in the world of adulthood, I shied away from credit cards. My parents had had some troubles with them, so I had a bit of a phobia. In my early [...]

Every Tuesday is Finance & Family Day at Zen Habits.

Confession time: My name is Leo, and I'm a recovering creditcardaholic.

When I was just starting out in the world of adulthood, I shied away from credit cards. My parents had had some troubles with them, so I had a bit of a phobia. In my early 20s, I caved in and got a card, simply to build credit. It only had a $500 limit, and I pledged to pay off the balance every month. I did this for a few years, but for one reason or another, eventually let the balance creep up until I could no longer pay the balance every year. I then paid it off and canceled the card, out of pure fear. I went without a card for a little while, and then came the bad days.

I need to buy something important, and didn't have the cash. I got a card with a $5,000 limit, and felt the fear creep back in. The first charge was well over $1,000. Then there were other large charges — expenses I wanted to pay for, but didn't have the cash. I tried to pay as much as I could each month, but when I started having other expenses, the credit card bill wasn't a priority. I could pay it later.

Fast forward to a couple years ago: I could no longer afford to pay my minimum balance on my card. I had other bills that were also out of control. I canceled the card, and worked out a payment plan. I struggled with my other bills until the beginning of 2006, when I started getting things under control. But I still had a Mastercard debit card, and I used this to buy stuff over the Internet. Since it wasn't a credit card, that was OK, right?

Today, I am scraping by, but here's the cool thing: I don't have a credit card at all. Not even the Mastercard debit card. I am paying off my debts (the card should be paid off this summer) and things are looking much rosier.

My recommendation: if you have problems paying off a card's balance each month, and have a hard time resisting impulse purchases, cancel your credit card. Today. They are a plague.

This point can be debated ad naseum, so I'll just say this: do what works for you, but be very careful with credit cards. They are dangerous, and have caused many financial wrecks for many families. The best policy for many people, and you may differ, is to go without a card for as long as possible.

But how do I live without a credit card? Here's how:

1. I pay my bills online or through automatic deduction. It's simple, convenient, and automatic. Hey presto!
2. I use cash for everything else. Everything else? Pretty much. Once in awhile I'll write a check, or use my debit card (it doesn't have a credit card label on it, so I can't use it online), but those occasions are rare. I withdraw cash for groceries, gas and "spending".

What about online purchases? Exactamundo! You've hit the nail on the head. One of the biggest dangers of credit cards these days is that they make purchases so darn easy. Doing some research on how to pay off your debt? Hey, there's a great book about it by Dave Ramsey. One Click(tm) and it's headed to my door. Credit cards allow you to buy stuff, anything really, without having to think about it. And that's dangerous.

So if I REALLY need to buy something online, I might ask a relative to order it for me, and give them cash. Obviously, this is inconvenient and you don't want to do this too often and wear out your welcome. Which is why it works. Before I canceled my Mastercard debit card last year (about four months ago), I bought stuff online at the rate of about two things a week. Not exactly a spending spree, but it adds up to a lot over the course of a year. In the last four months, I think I've ordered one item. A reduction of nearly 95% of my online discretionary spending.

I could also pay using PayPal or similar methods, but I haven't yet. The point is that it's much harder for me to buy things online now (and to some extent, in the real world too), so I rarely ever do. While we might think that buying things online is necessary, in almost every case, it's not. Buying online simply makes you spend more than you normally would. Take it from me, someone who is living evidence.

Using cash has other benefits. I can see at a glance (looking in my envelopes for each cash spending category) how much I have left in that budget category. That's hard to do when you're using a credit card. Sure, you could check your balance online, but most people never do this. Sure, you could update Quicken or Money, so you know your available balance, but this is much harder to do, especially if you're away from home, and so many people guesstimate their balance when they're on the road, and sometimes don't even bother to do that. With a credit card, you can worry about it later. At a high interest rate.

This has been a hot topic in the last month or so on personal finance blogs, with people weighing in on both sides. I think it's a highly personal issue, and different methods work for different people. See posts on this topic from Get Rich Slowly, No Credit Needed, and Digerati Life. All good posts.

Turning over a GNU leaf: 5 step guide to setting up GnuCash personal finance software

[edit: The content of this post is freely available for use in documentation under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. Thanks Sam for the suggestion.]

Why use personal finance software?
Using personal finances management software is a key part of getting in control of your spending, and getting out of debt. It's not enough on its own - you'll have to make lots of other small, incremental changes to your lifestyle and habits - but without it you're going to really struggle. It might be possible to use pen and paper, or a spreadsheet, but now that there's free software available that's been designed for this precise purpose, you'll be creating needless pain for yourself by choosing not to use it. That said though, what works for me may not work for everyone!
In the UK we're a bit stuck for good money management software - MS Money hasn't been updated since 2005, and Quicken no longer support the UK. There isAccountz, but having taken a quick look at the demo version I wasn't exactly overwhelmed, and wasn't prepared to pay for it until I'd considered the free option - theOpen Source programme GnuCash.
Why use Open Source?

Open Source has lots of advantages, some of which make it the obvious choice for money management.

• It's free, so if you try it and it doesn't work out you're not going to have wasted any money
• It's not dependent on a company developing and maintaining the product - if you use Open Source, you won't be let down in the same way that UK customers of Microsoft and Quicken have been
• There will be lots of other people using the software around the world, and as it gets better more and more people will use it - so there will always be someone to help if you have questions or problems
• The development community will be happy to help or point you in the right direction, or take suggestions for new features for future releases

As a long-term fan of Open Source, I thought I'd give GnuCash a try and I've been pleasantly surprised. Once you understand its principles, it seems to work well, and setting up your accounts is very easy. It will integrate fully with online banking downloads (OFX is most common) and has plenty of powerful features to help you see where you're spending your money and whether you're sticking to your budget... you have a budget, right?
There are five steps to managing your money using GnuCash.
The first three are about setting it up, the latter two are about keeping it up-to-date. In the next post, I'll talk about how to get the most out of GnuCash, but for now we'll focus on setting it up.
The five steps are:

1. Plan your accounts structure and categorise your spending (using paper and pen)
2. Download and install GnuCash (quick and easy)
3. Set up your accounts structure in GnuCash & populate initial values for assets and liabilities
4. For the next two weeks, use your debit card where possible but keep receipts for ATM withdrawals and for ALL cash purchases
5. In two weeks time, import all debit card payments from online banking and enter cash payments / withdrawals 

Before you start you'll need:

• an hour of free time
• online banking set up with your bank
• a current account (ideally one with a debit card) that will allow you to download OFX files
• internet connection
• computer / laptop, or somewhere safe to store your personal files
• notepaper, pen

1. Plan your accounts structure and categorise your spending
This is where you will need to use your brain the most, but once it's done it'll help you a lot with everything else you do next.
Using a blank sheet of paper, make a list of your:

- assets: money that's yours, in your current and savings accounts
- liabilities: money you owe to others, typically credit cards, store cards, personal loans, informal borrowing, etc. Strictly, a mortgage should go in here, but for the sake of simplicity we'll leave it out for now. 
- income: for people who have regular income, this will simply be the net number on the payslip, but might be your loan payments, pension, etc. ALL money you receive. 
- expenses: categories of ALL the things you spend money on. My first pass looked something like:

Savings   
Rent inc bills   
Repayments   
    -Grad loan
    -Credit card payments
Subsistence   
    -Groceries
    -Restaurants
    -Coffee / snacks
    -Drinks
Travel   
    -London
    -National
Health   
    -Contact lenses
    -Treatments
    -Dentist
Laundry   
    -Dry-cleaning
    -Laundrette
Clothing   
Hobbies   
    -Photography
    -Books
    -Music
Holidays / International Travel   
Web / software   
Toiletries   
Gifts   
Telecoms   
    -Broadband
    -Mobile
    -Landline

I'm sure that everyone's list will be different, but this doesn't matter as long as:

• Categories make sense to you
• You cover everything you need
• You aren't counting anything twice!

At this point you need to use online banking (or phone calls to credit card companies, or whatever) to find the balances of ALL your accounts - current accounts, savings, credit cards and store cards, etc.
EVERYTHING... :-)
This might take a few minutes but you definitely need to do it before you go any further.
2. Download and install GnuCash
The GnuCash website will allow you to download the most recent stable version of the software (currently 2.2.8). You'll be directed to a SourceForge download page - make sure you choose the Windows EXE file.
The EXE file is a standard installer which will take you through the installation. Use the default values, and once you're done, run GnuCash.
As you don't have any accounts file set up yet, you'll need to set up a new 'blank' set of accounts. I chose my currency (GBP) and used the 'Common accounts' default account structure - you'll modify this in the next step. 
3. Set up your accounts structure in GnuCash and populate initial values for assets and liabilities

This is simply a case of replicating the lists you made in step 1 in GnuCash. It's very easy, simply start with the 'Common Accounts' structure you chose at the start, and use the buttons at the top of the screen to add, delete, and edit accounts.
Note that you will need to enter an Opening Balance for each account - you can either do that when creating a new account - it's one of the pieces of input data - or by entering a 'Transfer' in the account's register:

• From the main screen, double click on the account you want to set the opening balance for
• In the 'Description' column, type 'Opening Balance', then tab to the 'Transfer' column
• You need to select the category 'Equity:Opening Balances', then tab to the 'Receive' column and enter the amount of your balance
• If you're overdrawn, enter the number as a negative (i.e. with minus sign in front)
• Tab until you're onto the next row, and your opening balance should be recorded
• Save (Ctrl-S)

Note that GnuCash uses the term 'accounts' for both real accounts (like your current account) and for what I've termed spending categories (like 'clothing').
TIP: I found it easier to delete the Assets accounts and start from scratch than to modify the existing ones it gives you.
CONGRATULATIONS - you're done for now.
You might be interested to look at your Net Worth: your Assets and Liabilities added together. For me it's a big negative number :-)
4. For the next two weeks, use your debit card where possible but keep receipts for ATM withdrawals and for ALL cash purchases

This shouldn't be too difficult - simply make sure that wherever you can, you use your debit card to pay for anything you buy, and where you can't, you ask for a receipt when paying with cash. Also keep track of any cash withdrawals you make - simply keep the receipt in the same place as the cash receipts.
Once you get in the habit of asking for a receipt, it should be quite easy to place them in your wallet or purse and in two weeks time you'll have all the information you need for step 5 in one place...
5. In two weeks time, import all debit card payments from online banking and enter cash payments / withdrawals

In two weeks time, you'll have accumulated a pile of receipts for cash purchases and withdrawals.
Well done - you can now move to the final step in your money management process: downloading an OFX file from your current account using online banking. This will show all of the transactions that have happened in the past week - debit card spending, direct debit payments, income, interest payments, cheques cashed, etc.
Obtaining an OFX file is normally quite easy - the link to allow you download one will usually be somewhere near the 'Statements' area on your online banking website.  You will need to download a file containing all of the transactions since you set up the account structure in GnuCash two weeks before. Ideally, the website will give you the option of downloading all transactions between two dates, but if not, get more than you need and remove unwanted transactions during the import process.
Armed with the OFX file, you can import the transactions to the corresponding account in GnuCash. The steps to do this are:

• On the menu bar, click File --> Import --> OXF/QFX...
• In the pop-up dialog box, find and open the OFX file you downloaded
• The next step is to select which account the OFX file corresponds to (this will be your current account, within Assets)
• The next window shows a list of all of the transactions you're about to import, and allows you to uncheck transactions you don't want to import, for example if the OFX file contains items outside of the date range you're interested in (as mentioned above). Normally, this won't be necessary - just click OK

Now all of the transactions have been added to your current account - you just need to go in and categorise them:

• Open the register page for your current account (where you just imported your transactions) by double clicking on the account in the main window.
• In the 'transfer' column, all of the entries (which would normally show the corresponding account for which the transfer has been made or received) will say something like 'Imbalance-GBP' (or 'Imbalance-USD' if you're using dollars).
• You now need to tab through all of the lines and change the Transfer data to the correct expenses sub-account, so that, for example, your Switch card payment for a sandwich is reflected in the Expenses:Dining sub-account.
• The first time you change the data in the Transfer column you'll get a window pop up and ask you if you're sure you want to do this. This time, you do, so select the lower checkbox ('Remember my answer and don't ask me again THIS SESSION') otherwise it'll do it for every item you change and click 'Record Changes'.
• To speed things up, make sure you use the tab key, and type to select expenses using GnuCash's autoselect feature. For example, for the 'Expenses:Groceries' sub-account, you could just type 'Ex:Gr' and the autoselect would get the right one without you having to type the whole lot.

Now all you need to do is add the cash transactions and you're done.

• Open your 'cash in wallet' account and enter each of the cash purchases one by one - each one will take a single line in the 'register', and you will need to indicate which of the expenses accounts the money went to.
• It's exactly the same as what you've done with the OFX import, but you have to enter the transaction description, date, and amount, as well as the corresponding expense sub-account.

If there are any other accounts you need to update (eg credit card spending) then repeat the same process, either using OFX or manual transaction entry.
Once you've finished, congratulations again! You're done for now. Make sure you've saved your GnuCash data file somewhere safe. 
On the main accounts screen, you'll be able to see a summary of your spending in each expenses sub-account during the last 2 weeks, as well as an updated view of your net worth. This might be enlightening!
What next?
Return in a week, when I'll describe some of the powerful features in GnuCash which will help you see where your money is going, take corrective action if necessary, and get in control of your personal finances.
Good luck! I hope that this tutorial has been useful :-)
Source: 

Turning over a GNU leaf: 5 step guide to setting up GnuCash personal finance software

Best Websites for Teens to Earn Money Online

As the end of the school year approaches, many high school and college students find themselves scrambling for summer jobs so that they can save up some spending money.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many decent paying jobs available for teens, especially in a rough economic climate. However, there are a number of websites that offer very easy money for teens online. For a teenager who is disciplined and responsible, online jobs are the easiest way to earn a significant wad of cash this summer.

Websites That Offer Easy Money for Teens

Teenagers today typically have an assortment of skills that are useful and valuable on the Internet. For teens who are skilled writers, earning money will be that much simpler. Additionally, there are also well paying jobs available for teenagers who know how to write web pages, write high-volume blogs or forum posts, or program in different Internet or desktop programming languages. However, finding those opportunities often involves wading through a mountain of garbage and scams. This article will provide teens with a guideline for the best opportunities on the web that offer easy money for teens.

1. Easy Income for Teens Who Can Write Articles

For any teen that has excellent writing skills, the Internet offers an abundance of cash just sitting there for the taking. Yes, it may take a full eight hours a day of good solid writing work – but what could be better than rolling out of bed at ten in the morning and going to work at home, in your pajamas? Sound too good to be true? Well put on your pajamas and check out these opportunities.

Associated Content

Associated Content is one of the most popular “user-generated content” sites that offers articles on just about every topic under the sun. 

At Associated Content, you can either “claim” topics from the assignment desk, or you can submit topics of your choosing. You can earn both upfront payments, as well as monthly payments based on traffic to your articles. Starting out, you might only earn $3 to $4 per article you write, plus $1 to $2 for traffic – but if you wrote 5 articles a day, that’s $400 a month, plus additional monthly royalty payments.

Not only does writing for a site like AC establish you as a writer, but if your writing is exceptional, AC will even consider you as a preferred content producer, and their clients may ofter you writing gigs that pay $20 and up for an article.

Helium

Helium is another user-generated content forum that pays you both upfront fees as well as traffic royalties.

Helium is unfortunately a bit cheaper with their payments, and they’ve established a bunch of loopholes you need to jump through. You can earn about $1 per article plus traffic payments. However, to earn those payments you have to spend time “rating” articles – a painful and tedious process of comparing two articles and picking the one that’s better. But with Helium, the real money is in the “marketplace” section, where you can compete on client writing gigs worth anywhere from $5 to $100 or more.

Triond

Triond is another content site that accepts your articles and pays you royalties for traffic.

Triond is one of the few sites known for actually sending authors the payouts they’ve earned, so it deserves mention here. However, if you want to use Triond to add an income stream to your summer writing, you’ll need to submit a very large quantity of articles that are well written with SEO in mind, and can attract a very large stream of readers from the search engines. If you can accomplish that, then yes – you can earn money from Triond.

2. Make Money Writing Reviews or Writing Letters

One of the most popular reasons many people use the Internet is to research products before buying them. This has turned “reviews” into one of the most popular types of content online. If you like writing up product reviews, then there are countless opportunities to earn income from your written opinions.

I’ve written for Shared Reviews (the image above) before, because they do legitimately pay their authors. However, I’ve also heard that Epinions is another great review site to earn money from.

Have your friends ever told you that you’re amazing at writing letters? Then consider spending your summer creating custom letters at Letter Rep. Yes, the website isn’t exactly the prettiest site in the world – but by submitting letters to custom letter requests that visitors submit to the site, you stand to earn $10 per letter. Not only that, future visitors to the site can also purchase your letters, making your pile of work a wonderful source of residual income, not only throughout the summer, but even throughout the school year.

3. Quick Money for Teen Programmers

If you are an ace programmer with any programming language, you could spend your summer doing programming freelance jobs for some real cash. However, when it comes to finding freelance work, you have to be very careful what websites you visit – as most of them are useless or flat out scams.

Scriptlance is about as far from a scam as you can get. At the beginning of my online writing career, I spent months sifting through the latest project postings there (there are dozens per hour), and bidding on the ones that matched my skill set. There’s writing work, but the bulk of Scriptlance is programming work. If you post a professionally written proposal to the person who posted the project, your chance of landing the gig will be excellent. Just working on scriptlance projects alone, you could easily earn several thousand dollars by the end of the summer.

Other legitimate freelancing sites (although none quite as big as Scriptlance), include Rent A Ghost Writer, Elance, and iFreelance. Be sure to watch for new updates often, and be the first to post a bid.

Work Hard, Be Persistent, and Rake in the Dough!

The key for teens to successfully earn a small fortune during summer break through online work is by staying persistent, even when it looks like you’ll never land that first gig. Keep posting your daily articles to the royalty paying websites, and bid on freelance projects constantly. Soon, you’ll find that you have more work than you know what to do with. If you can discipline yourself to work for at least eight hours straight for every weekday during the summer – you’ll save far more money than any of your friends could earn waiting tables or mowing lawns!

Have you ever earned money from any of the sites listed in this article? Are there any good opportunities missing? Share your opinion in the comments section below.W