Well, now that we've painted a depressing picture of your life, here's the good news: you can earn more money by working less. No, this isn't about to turn into a sales pitch for a self-help book - we are talking about establishing multiple passive and/or portfolio income streams. Confused already? Don't be, as you won't need a business degree to achieve financial freedom. Also, know that this isn't a pipe dream. Millions of people are enjoying life, real life, every day while making money. Here are 25 ways you can do it, too.

Art investment is a viable way to earn money and, in many ways, it is less risky than paper assets. Although there must always be demand for your supply in order to turn a profit, the fickle stock market has little to no affect on your art investment. Rather, you must simply choose a piece of art that will increase in value over time. Yes, it sounds simple enough, but there is a bit more to it. Below, we will share with you a beginner's guide to investing in art.

1. Manage Your Estate

   Let us start with the morbid end of business so we can quickly move past it. Your life is far from over and you may feel like a million bucks, but all adults should have a living will and testament. Furthermore, you should be covered for life insurance, as a premature death could leave some of your loved ones in dire straits. If you happen to be the sole survivor of your family, then you may not need life insurance; rather, you may have unorthodox plans for your estate. In any case, your last wishes should be legally documented while you are of sound mind and body. Once that is out of the way, then just relax and forget all of this nasty business about dying. After all, life begins at 50.
   



2. Meet With a Financial Planner

   Ideally, you should have met with a financial planner long ago to discuss asset allocation strategies. Beginning a long-term plan in your twenties would have really helped you to sustain a comfortable lifestyle after retirement. People rarely take care of such things when they are young, however, so you aren't alone if you didn't start thinking about investments until now. Even if you are already retired and have never met with a financial planner, it is never too late. You need to protect your fixed income, as well as your savings. Too many people jump into retirement with little to no investments to aid them in the future.
   



3. Get Healthy and Stay Healthy

   You have discovered, no doubt, that your body has been changing quite a bit in recent years. Never before has regular doctor visits and healthy living been more important to your body, mind and finances. With moderate exercise and a sensible diet, your retirement years will be all the more enjoyable for you. Not only will you save in medical expenses by fighting off chronic conditions, you will feel years younger. Medical insurance with a fair drug plan is essential, as many seniors take at least one medication with regularity. If you retire before you are eligible for Medicare, then consider a spouse's insurance plan or COBRA, which can be used for up to 18 months after you retire. If neither of those options are available and you can't afford private insurance, apply for Medicaid.
   



4. Aggressively Pay Off Debt

   Before you enter retirement, you should try to pay off your debts as aggressively as possible, lest you spend the rest of your life fighting interest fees. Credit card debt, in particular, is plaguing many seniors today. A balance transfer from a high-interest card to a zero-interest card is the first step in reducing your bills. Also, in regards to any kind of debt, try to pay more than the minimum balance due each month. Remember, a premature death could result in passing your debt onto loved ones.
   



5. Apply For Social Security

   The U.S. government recommends that you apply for Social Security three months before you are eligible. You can start collecting your benefits at the age of 62, although they will be greater each month if you wait until you are 65. Ideally, you should have other investments in place to supplement the Social Security, but many seniors live off their benefits alone.
   



6. Cut the Apron Strings

   Do you still have grown children living at home who don't help with the bills? Or, perhaps they live elsewhere with a little financial help from you? While your unconditional love and support is commendable, you must reduce your number of dependents in order to survive as a senior on a fixed income. A little tough love will be good for any children or grandchildren who see you as their meal ticket.
   



7. Join the AARP

   The American Association of Retired Persons, or AARP, offers many benefits to its members. You are eligible if you are over the age of 50, regardless of your retirement status. Many businesses participate in rewards programs for AARP cardholders, which will save you money on anything from food to hotel rooms. Also, the organization offers many insurance programs, including homeowners, auto, dental and medical. The latter is most welcome, as seniors often find it difficult, if not impossible, to qualify for private medical insurance.
   



8. Take Advantage of Senior Discounts

   If you become a member of the AARP, you will be eligible for countless discounts. However, there are some businesses which offer rewards to all seniors, whether they are AARP cardholders or not. From restaurants to movie theaters, always check to see if you qualify for senior discounts. This will probably only save you a few dollars here and there, but those dollars would be better spent (or saved) somewhere else.
   



9. Consider a Part-Time Job

   Just because you have reached "retirement age", it doesn't mean you have to retire. Some seniors can't afford to quit working completely, while others simply don't want to. If you are in a similar situation, then consider a part-time job. There are many companies, Wal-Mart for example, that value mature employees and offer tailored positions for senior citizens.
   



10. Don't Underestimate Your Lifespan

    While young adults often feel immortal, studies show that most seniors underestimate how long they will live. The result? They spend like there is literally no tomorrow. If you are already age 65 or older, then chances are very good that you will be over 80 when you pass away. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't, as modern medicine is making new discoveries about the human body every day. So, do your bank account a favor and keep planning for those rainy days, as you have many left ahead of you.
    



11. Check Your Credit Report

    It is important to check your credit history at least once a year. Not only will this keep you aware of how much debt you currently owe, it will also present indicators if you have been the victim of identity theft or fraud. Unfortunately, identity theft is on the rise, with seniors becoming specific targets. Criminals consider senior citizens easier to steal from for two reasons: people from older generations are often more trusting and they are also less savvy when it comes to technology. A free credit report can be obtained from the government once a year through this Web site.
    



12. Start a Budget and Stick to It

    Starting a household budget is crucial for those who wish to live frugally, a lifestyle which befits most seniors. If you don't know where to begin, then start with a simple checklist of expenses. Remember, drafting the budget is the easy part. In order to stick to it, you must have common sense and determination. Luckily, those who successfully reach their golden years will have both in spades.
    



13. Consider a Smaller House

    This can be a sensitive subject for many seniors, as letting go of the family home is very difficult. However, you may be left with a house that is much too big for your needs after the children have grown and left the nest. Even if your mortgage is paid off, utility bills and property taxes can be lowered significantly with the purchase of a smaller home. If your budget is tight and your home is large and empty, this is probably your best solution.
    



14. Avoid Shopping as a Hobby

    After retirement, you will have a lot of free time on your hands. Shopping becomes a hobby for many seniors, whether it is for entertainment purposes or because spoiling the grandchildren is so rewarding. With television viewing also a major pastime for seniors, paid commercials and shopping channels can contribute to a newly-acquired shopping bug. It is important to stay busy and to have fun, but you need to stick to your household budget.
    



15. Beware of Scams

    As we said before, senior citizens are often targets for identity theft and fraud. There are two ways in which seniors are commonly preyed upon: over the telephone and over the Internet. Remember to protect your personal information from anyone who calls you on the telephone, as well as someone who solicits you with an email. As you become more familiar and comfortable with new technology, you will be able to recognize scams more easily. Doing so can save you from potential financial ruin.
    

Face it, you've worked very hard for many years and you deserve some rest and relaxation. This can't be achieved without some forethought, however. It is never too early to start planning for retirement but, unfortunately, many people wait too long before they start to take it seriously.  Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. If you have reached an age where you want to slow down and you realize you haven't taken the proper steps to afford you such a position, then it is all the more important to follow the above advice.

In ranking the most influential personal finance bloggers, our goal was to show — using objective data from reliable sources — which blogs about personal finance are the most popular. To this end, we used data for these four metrics to calculate the rankings:

• — Google PageRank
• — Alexa Rank
• — Technorati Authority
• — Bloglines Subscribers

Top 25 (see complete methodology below)

Rank	Site					Score
1	BloggingStocks	7	10	10	10	37
2	Get Rich Slowly	6	10	10	10	36
3	The Simple Dollar	5	10	10	10	35
4	My Money Blog	5	10	10	10	35
5	I Will Teach You To Be Rich	6	9	10	10	35
6	Blueprint for Financial Prosperity	6	9	9	10	34
7	Free Money Finance	5	9	10	10	34
8	Money, Matter, and More Musings	5	10	10	8	33
9	Consumerism Commentary	5	10	9	9	33
10	The Digerati Life	5	10	10	8	33
11	fivecentnickel.com	5	9	9	9	32
12	AllFinancialMatters	5	9	9	9	32
13	Personal Finance Advice	4	9	10	8	31
14	Generation X Finance	5	9	9	8	31
15	PFBlog	5	8	8	10	31
16	Mighty Bargain Hunter	5	9	8	8	30
17	No Credit Needed	5	8	9	8	30
18	Blogging Away Debt	4	8	9	8	29
19	My First Million at 33	5	8	8	8	29
20	Boston Gal's Open Wallet	5	7	8	9	29
21	Getting Finances Done	5	7	7	10	29
22	Online Business - Inside and Out	4	10	7	7	28
23	My Two Dollars	5	9	8	5	27
24	Binary Dollar	4	8	8	7	27
25	Grad Money Matters	4	8	9	6	27

Methodology

To begin, we found a set of Web sites that met a certain criteria. To become a member of the set of Web sites to be ranked, a Web site must, as of August 14, 2007:

• be listed on our previous post, Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs; or
• be ranked in the top 200 for the phrase finance blog on Google; and
• be primarily a blog about personal finance.

For each metric, a score was assigned on a 0–10 scale. For Google PageRank, raw PageRank data was scored. For Alexa Rank, Technorati Authority, and Bloglines Subscribers, the Web sites were broken up into deciles. If a Web site was in the 0>10% decile, a 1 was scored; for the 10>20% decile, a 2 was scored; and so on, up to a 10 being scored for the 90–100% decile. If no data was available, a 0 was scored.

The overall score for each Web site is the sum of the scores of the four metrics. In the event of a tie in overall score, the tie is broken according to the Alexa Rank raw data.

Raw Data for Entire Set

Rank	Site
1	BloggingStocks	7	24,932	1,737	570
2	Get Rich Slowly	6	31,203	1,841	1,453
3	The Simple Dollar	5	30,618	1,673	863
4	My Money Blog	5	55,600	656	843
5	I Will Teach You To Be Rich	6	73,500	596	10,859
6	Blueprint for Financial Prosperity	6	58,860	432	382
7	Free Money Finance	5	84,172	659	341
8	Money, Matter, and More Musings	5	48,382	939	106
9	Consumerism Commentary	5	53,753	448	221
10	The Digerati Life	5	54,452	1,146	85
11	fivecentnickel.com	5	55,774	413	226
12	AllFinancialMatters	5	94,399	273	155
13	Personal Finance Advice	4	64,866	1,144	77
14	Generation X Finance	5	82,475	300	115
15	PFBlog	5	165,694	257	543
16	Mighty Bargain Hunter	5	106,879	249	105
17	No Credit Needed	5	172,170	325	111
18	Blogging Away Debt	4	148,716	416	96
19	My First Million at 33	5	247,094	218	77
20	Boston Gal's Open Wallet	5	288,330	186	171
21	Getting Finances Done	5	333,824	156	329
22	Online Business - Inside and Out	4	52,519	155	64
23	My Two Dollars	5	99,483	214	21
24	Binary Dollar	4	132,848	198	53
25	Grad Money Matters	4	162,878	303	22
26	Queercents	3	288,651	379	84
27	2million	5	386,438	150	133
28	Make Love, Not Debt	6	582,602	136	143
29	Money Blog Network	4	23,995	56	57
30	The Frugal Law Student	4	255,458	267	22
31	We're In Debt	5	461,837	177	73
32	My Open Wallet	2	458,152	180	145
33	Single Ma's Fabulous Financials	5	627,875	210	52
34	FIRE Finance	4	433,139	527	16
35	ETF Trends	4	453,790	75	88
36	The Frugal Duchess	5	610,765	130	72
37	22 Dollars	5	163,997	30	22
38	Money Musings	5	266,269	0	183
39	My Financial Journey	4	278,793	176	21
40	Savvy Saver	4	934,592	80	167
41	Don't Mess With Texas	5	502,102	34	52
42	It's Just Money	4	720,015	101	71
43	Broke-Ass Student	4	511,992	114	13
44	Young and Broke	5	685,373	0	140
45	Well-Heeled	5	870,155	101	36
46	Million Dollar Journey	4	113,534	0	35
47	My Money Forest	5	743,602	44	22
48	The Budgeting Babe	5	1,089,926	1	245
49	Accumulating Money	3	278,289	88	11
50	Dual Income No Kids	5	821,775	67	21
51	An English Major's Money	4	1,119,108	110	27
52	Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist	5	1,360,235	119	17
53	How to Make a Million Dollars	4	578,065	95	5
54	Live Learn Invest	4	601,352	110	11
55	Bryan C. Fleming	2	774,138	112	21
56	VInvesting.com	4	1,127,477	39	21
57	Adventure Money	4	971,168	28	16
58	Enough Wealth	4	1,024,883	85	8
59	Mad Money Machine	5	1,301,865	26	15
60	Penny Foolish	5	1,426,223	0	42
61	OSAWatch	4	2,285,533	83	14
62	City Girl's Financial Blog	4	2,644,944	54	18
63	A Penny Saved	2	271,678	0	17
64	Money Crashers	5	396,725	0	9
65	Moneysmartz	4	581,479	9	12
66	The Finance Journey	4	858,903	65	8
67	Ask Uncle Bill	4	1,248,652	1	32
68	The Corner Office Blog	4	1,387,462	29	15
69	Adult ADD and Money	4	2,719,866	27	21
70	Credit Card Lowdown	4	345,655	0	1
71	Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge	0	439,234	0	47
72	Debt Hater	4	1,904,900	0	29
73	The Weight of Money	4	6,336,060	38	14
74	Finance News Today	4	596,723	15	3
75	Aridni	4	1,038,672	0	12
76	Dimes to Dollars	4	1,440,682	19	10
77	The Financial Ladder	4	1,648,483	53	8
78	To One Million and Beyond	3	1,672,099	40	12
79	Stubborn Capitalist	3	7,048,515	18	23
80	Kirby on Finance	5	1,962,206	1	11
81	Medicated Money	4	7,321,379	23	11
82	Tired of Being Broke	3	8,121,493	35	12
83	Fearless Money	4	1,905,946	0	5
84	The Money Tortoise	4	2,453,130	0	9
85	Debtective.com	3	3,522,099	12	11
86	Debt in Seattle	3	3,655,097	34	3
87	My Money Path	3	No Data	22	10
88	Retiring Early	4	No Data	15	9
89	Credit Cave	4	3,811,730	0	3
90	Just Another Money Blog	3	6,328,333	3	7
91	Million Dollar Countdown	4	No Data	4	2
92	Cents to Save	3	No Data	5	2
93	Hill's Personal Finance	2	6,927,638	4	3
94	A life After College?	0	No Data	26	4
95	Finding Freedom	0	No Data	5	2

In ranking the most influential investing blogs, our goal was to show — using objective data from reliable sources — which blogs about investing are the most popular. To this end, we used data for these four metrics to calculate the rankings:

• — Google PageRank
• — Alexa Rank
• — Technorati Authority
• — Bloglines Subscribers

Top 25 (see complete methodology below)

Rank	Site					Score
1	Get Rich Slowly	6	10	10	10	36
2	My Money Blog	5	10	10	10	35
3	I Will Teach You To Be Rich	6	9	9	10	34
4	Consumerism Commentary	5	10	9	9	33
5	Money, Matter, and More Musings	5	10	10	7	32
6	Personal Finance Advice	4	9	10	7	30
7	The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator	5	8	8	9	30
8	The Sun's Financial Diary	5	9	9	6	29
9	AllFinancialMatters	5	8	8	8	29
10	PFBlog	5	7	7	10	29
11	Blogging Away Debt	4	7	9	7	27
12	Neville's Financial Blog	5	7	6	9	27
13	Binary Dollar	4	8	7	6	25
14	Boston Gal's Open Wallet	5	5	7	8	25
15	Not Made of Money	4	7	6	6	23
16	Frugal For Life	4	6	8	5	23
17	Savvy Saver	4	4	5	8	21
18	The Budgeting Babe	5	4	3	9	21
19	Everybody Loves Your Money	5	5	3	7	20
20	Experiments in Finance	4	5	5	5	19
21	Money for the Rest of Us	4	4	7	4	19
22	Daily Speculations	3	6	3	5	17
23	Dedicated to Financial Freedom	4	4	6	3	17
24	Ask Uncle Bill	4	3	3	5	15
25	Finance For Youth	6	3	4	2	15

Methodology

To begin, we found a set of Web sites that met a certain criteria. To become a member of the set of Web sites to be ranked, a Web site must, as of August 14, 2007:

• be listed in the DMOZ category, Money Management Weblogs; or
• be ranked in the top 200 for the phrase investing blog on Google; and
• be primarily a blog about investing.

For each metric, a score was assigned on a 0–10 scale. For Google PageRank, raw PageRank data was scored. For Alexa Rank, Technorati Authority, and Bloglines Subscribers, the Web sites were broken up into deciles. If a Web site was in the 0>10% decile, a 1 was scored; for the 10>20% decile, a 2 was scored; and so on, up to a 10 being scored for the 90–100% decile. If no data was available, a 0 was scored.

The overall score for each Web site is the sum of the scores of the four metrics. In the event of a tie in overall score, the tie is broken according to the Alexa Rank raw data.

Raw Data for Entire Set

Rank	Site
1	Get Rich Slowly	6	31,203	1,841	1,453
2	My Money Blog	5	55,600	656	843
3	I Will Teach You To Be Rich	6	73,500	596	10,859
4	Consumerism Commentary	5	53,753	448	221
5	Money, Matter, and More Musings	5	48,382	939	106
6	Personal Finance Advice	4	64,866	1,144	77
7	The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator	5	86,121	282	185
8	The Sun's Financial Diary	5	62,754	642	56
9	AllFinancialMatters	5	94,399	274	155
10	PFBlog	5	165,694	258	549
11	Blogging Away Debt	4	148,716	416	96
12	Neville's Financial Blog	5	156,653	141	417
13	Binary Dollar	4	132,848	198	53
14	Boston Gal's Open Wallet	5	288,330	187	171
15	Not Made of Money	4	187,317	111	46
16	Frugal For Life	4	218,733	324	32
17	Savvy Saver	4	934,592	80	167
18	The Budgeting Babe	5	1,089,926	1	245
19	Everybody Loves Your Money	5	590,012	0	71
20	Experiments in Finance	4	542,745	43	33
21	Money for the Rest of Us	4	685,363	177	23
22	Daily Speculations	3	275,386	0	40
23	Dedicated to Financial Freedom	4	1,043,622	81	12
24	Ask Uncle Bill	4	1,248,652	0	32
25	Finance For Youth	6	1,362,733	19	3
26	A Penny Saved	2	271,678	0	17
27	AL6400 Blog	4	1,442,180	26	3
28	How To Be Poor	4	1,935,532	11	28
29	A Frugal Living Blog by a Frugal Living Guy	5	3,616,499	25	10
30	Capital Ideas	4	No Data	0	44
31	Financial Reflections	4	4,023,372	0	10
32	Molly's Brother On A Mission	4	2,985,356	0	7
33	everySecondPaycheck.com	3	1,814,978	8	1
34	TheGoldenParachute.com	2	1,994,643	10	2
35	The Paranoid Brain	3	3,489,192	0	3
36	Indie Mission	3	No Data	0	2

To that end, the following ten cards represent our dream credit cards in alphabetical order. No matter if you're a geek, a gypsy, or a bigwig, you might find a card here that will suit your taste. At the very least, these ideas might generate thoughts about your personal dream credit card. Then, after you're through dreaming, you can visit our best deals at Your Credit Advisor.

With a possible rise in living costs, retiring early can be tricky - but it isn't impossible. At year-end 2006, there was $16.4 trillion in American retirement accounts. There are a number of things that you can do to prepare yourself for those extra retirement years, and with careful planning and the right investments you can actually live quite comfortably. Here are a few things that you'll need to consider before you head to the golf course rather than back to work.

Beyond the expenses that you'll incur with your wedding and honeymoon, money may provide most of the contention within your marriage. While discussions about money might seem unromantic at this moment, it's best to talk about the future now before that marriage makes you legally bound to each other. Once you've said, "I do," some things can't be undone.

Although veterans, shoppers, patients and employees have demanded more privacy protection, federal legislation can prove ineffectual unless data wasn't secured sufficiently. States have stepped in, but they've passed privacy laws that represent mere patchwork solutions to an international problem. In addition, technological advances have expanded potential for data to be used and compromised by legitimate companies and in underground chat rooms. How can you protect yourself from personal data exposure?

The following information will help you to discover whether your personal data has been compromised in the first place. If it has, you'll find more information about what to do to correct the problem - if anything needs to be done - and ways to protect yourself in the future.

An addiction is a psychological and physiological dependence on any substance or activity, and the signs of addiction vary depending upon your "drug" of choice. When it comes to debt addiction, the signs that a person might be addicted to borrowing begins with actions that the debtor justifies. The problem escalates and often ends with symptoms that can affect the debtor and his family and friends physically and emotionally. All the while, the debtor develops a strong case of denial about his problem. Addiction is powerful and the behaviors are difficult to overcome.

If you realize that you're in debt over your head and you also realize that your "lucky" break to pay off that debt may never come, then you might recognize your behavior in this list developed by Debtor's Anonymous (DA), if you answer "yes" to at least eight out of the following fifteen questions on that list, you might be a compulsive debtor. Some other signs that you might be addicted to borrowing include the following.

The bad news is that most self-employed individuals don't take time to learn about their retirement options, even though they may know exactly how they want their businesses to grow. The good news is that you can set up and - in most instances - control your own tax-advantaged retirement program and put aside more each year than the average wage earner. The following list details the best self-employed retirement plans based upon 2007 tax rules.