The year is nearly over—can you believe it? As the calendar winds down, I thought it would be helpful to gather my favorite posts from Making Sense of Cents from the past year into one convenient list so you can easily explore them.
I’ve organized the posts into these categories:
- Money saving tips
- Debt payoff tips
- Money management
- Making money blogging
- Ways to make extra money
- Income reports
- Life, motivation, and inspiration
- Travel
I also started a private Facebook community for readers of Making Sense of Cents. If you want to improve your finances and your life, join the group and let’s support each other. The private group has grown to over 8,000 members and keeps expanding. We’d love to have you join!
Enjoy these personal finance tips!
My top favorites
If you only want to read my absolute favorites from 2017, start here:
- How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog
- I’m a Female Breadwinner! I Earn Much More Than My Husband – So What?
- Why Is Talking About Money More Taboo Than Sex?
- Why would you make $100,000+ a month and live in an RV?
- Should People With High Incomes Be Allowed To Shop At Thrift Stores?
- How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans in 7 Months
- The Best Debt Payoff Stories – These Six People Paid Off Over $400,000 in Debt!
- How This 28 Year Old Retired With $2.25 Million
- 15 Reasons You’re Broke And Can’t Save Money
- How I’ve Earned $434,698+ From One Online Course Without Webinars Or Spending Money On Advertising
- The Less You Own, The Less That Owns You
Money saving personal finance tips
- 50 Easy Ways To Save Money – Start Saving Thousands Each Year
- Challenge Everything! Are You Wasting Thousands of Dollars On These 14 Things?
- Frugal, Cheap, or Thief? Are You Smart With Money Or Actually A Thief?
- Why Is Talking About Money More Taboo Than Sex?
- How To Save Money Fast
- 11 Tips For Renovating An Abandoned 115 Year Old House On A Budget
- How To Save Money In The Summer And Still Have Fun
- 20 Ways I Saved a 20% Deposit To Purchase My First Investment Property At 20
- You Don’t Need Everything – Do You Know The Difference Between Wants And Needs?
- 50 Things You Can Do Right Now Instead of Spending Money
- 10 Budget Recipes and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try
- How to Drink the World’s Healthiest Beverage for Pennies a Cup
- 5 Unhealthy Habits That May Be Hurting Your Health And Costing You Money
- Does bringing lunch to work actually save money?
- 10 Budget Lunch Ideas and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try
Tip: Consider signing up for a cash-back service to earn money on purchases you would make anyway. Many services let you shop through their links and return a portion of the commission to you as cash back.
Pay off debt tips
- How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans in 7 Months
- How This Couple Paid off $204,971.31 in Debt
- The Danger Of Normalizing Your Debt – Stop Living Like Everyone Else
- Financing Furniture — A Disaster Waiting to Happen
- The Best Debt Payoff Stories – These Six People Paid Off Over $400,000 in Debt!
- How This Family of 6 Lives On $53,000 a Year (with $22,000 of that going towards student loan debt)
- How This Family Moved To The “Hood” and Paid Off $120,000 in Debt
- How We Paid off $86,000 in Debt in 5 Years – with 7 Kids!
- How I Paid Off My $400,000 Mortgage In 7.5 Years, Before I Was 32
- Know Your Rights When Dealing With Debt Collectors
- How I Paid Off $77,000 In Debt In One Year And 10 Months
- How I’ve Paid Off $29,000 In Debt By Living In a Van
Tip: Checking your credit score regularly can help you understand and improve your financial options. Many services provide free access to your score and useful tools for tracking progress.
Money management tips
- How This 28 Year Old Retired With $2.25 Million
- Why I’m Not Sad That I’m Frugal – Frugal Doesn’t Mean Boring
- 15 Reasons You’re Broke And Can’t Save Money
- The Power of Meal Planning – 6 Reasons Meal Planning Will Change Your Life
- The 7 Money Mistakes That Shaped My Life
- Cutting College Costs: Understanding The Cost And Value Of Your Degree
- How To Get Rich: The Steps To Build Wealth Now
- 56% Of Americans Have Less Than $10,000 Saved For Retirement
- How to Live Like Carrie Bradshaw Without Going Broke
- 7 Lessons I Learned From My Short Sale
- Great Financial Lessons My Dad Taught Me – Money Doesn’t Have To Make Your Life Miserable
- 6 Important Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying A Home
- 28 Money And Life Lessons I’ve Learned
- What To Do When Your Partner Is Horrible With Money
- Reaching Early Retirement Through Dividend Growth Investing
- Could Not Having A Budget Destroy Your Finances?
- Here’s What I Learned From Working For Millionaires
- How I Retired In My 30s – From Ugly Crying To Retiring Just 10 Years Later
- Should People With High Incomes Be Allowed To Shop At Thrift Stores?
- Change Your Life By Saving Just $1 More Each Day – How Much Should A Person Save Each Month?
Tip: Financial tools that aggregate accounts and track net worth can be useful for monitoring progress and planning investments.
Making money blogging
- How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog
- How I’ve Earned $434,698+ From One Online Course Without Webinars Or Spending Money On Advertising
- Blogging Changed My Life – Could It Change Yours?
- Here are 5 great blogging freebies!
- Why and How I Make Time to Blog With 3 Kids 3 and Under
- 5 Ways I Made My Blog Go Viral – 2,000,000 Views A Month In One Year!
- My Complete List of Monthly Expenses for a Multi Million Dollar Blog
- How I Grew My Blog from $0 to $17,000 per Month in a Year as a Stay at Home Mom
How To Start A Blog FREE Course: There’s a free seven-day email course that walks you through launching a blog—from the technical setup to earning your first income and attracting readers. Each day you’ll receive a short lesson to help you create a successful, profitable blog from the ground up.
Make extra money
- 12 Work From Home Jobs That Can Earn You $1,000+ Each Month
- 65 Ways To Make Extra Money
- 43 Extreme Things People Have Done To Make Money
- How Melissa Made $40,000 In One Year Flipping Items
- How To Make Money By Becoming A Cooking Instructor
- 10 Real Ways To Make Money In A Day (or a Week!)
- How Jenn Makes Over $10,000 A Month With Her Online Store In Less Than 10 Hours Per Week
- How to Make Extra Money with a Flea Market Booth
- How To Spot Work From Home Job Scams And Avoid Them At All Costs
- The Important Reasons You Need Multiple Streams of Income
- How This 29 Year Old Is Building A Real Estate Empire
- Should you get an MBA if you want to start your own business?
- 7+ Ways To Make $500 By The Weekend
- How To Teach English From Home And Earn $14 to $26 An Hour
Income reports
- How I Made $979,321 In 2016 – My December Online Income Report and Annual Wrap Up
- My January 2017 Blog Income Report – $139,233
- How I Made $160,211.27 in February Blogging
- How I Made $130,856.35 In March Blogging
- How I Made $131,448.35 In April While Traveling Full-Time
- How I Made $120,104.93 In May Working From Home
- How I Made $121,861.28 In June While Sailing to Beautiful Islands
- How I Made $110,897.33 In July 2017 Blogging
- How I Made $135,110 In August 2017 Blogging
- How I Made $113,267.08 In September 2017 Blogging
- How I Made $136,829.30 In October 2017 Blogging
- How I Made $110,656 In November 2017 Blogging
Life, motivation, and inspiration
- I’m a Female Breadwinner! I Earn Much More Than My Husband – So What?
- The Less You Own, The Less That Owns You
- Are You Making Your Life Difficult? 18 Ideas To Simplify Your Life in 2018
- Stop Comparing Yourself To Others And Live Your Own Life
- Less is More: Guide To Becoming a Minimalist
- 5 Great Benefits Of Being An Early Bird And How You Can Change
- 9 Ways to Live an Extraordinary Life
- 59 Things To Do Instead of Watching TV So That You Can Take Your Life Back
- The Busy Person’s Guide On How To Be Healthy
- How To Stay Focused, Get Stuff Done, And Be Successful
- Every Dog/Cat Deserves a Home But Not Every Home Deserves A Pet
- 15 Habits That Are Hurting Your Happiness
- My Search For A Better Work Life Balance
- For Those Who Want Life To Speed Up – Are You Dreaming Too Much About Tomorrow?
- Create a Life You Don’t Need To Escape From
- How To Reach Your Goals
Travel
- How I Run A Business While Traveling 365 Days a Year
- How To Travel On A Budget And Still Have The Time Of Your Life
- 11 Reasons to Choose RV Life
- Our 10-Day Sailing Charter Around The British Virgin Islands
- I’m Tired Of Living In A Motorhome! — This is my favorite travel-related post for 2017
- How To Camp For Free, Even In Beautiful and Desirable Places
- 9 Lessons I Learned From Traveling Around the World
- How I Saved $45,000 In Three Years To Create A Life Of Travel
- How This Successful Family Of Four Makes Travel Blogging Work For Them
- Should you go on vacation if you have debt?
- How To Make Extra Money By Renting Out Your RV
- How This Couple Does Van Life with A Baby (and a dog!)
- Why would you make $100,000+ a month and live in an RV?
- How This Couple Bought an $11,500 RV, Traveled To All 50 States, and Built A Thriving Business
- Common Full Time RVing Questions Part 2 – Don’t You Hate Each Other Yet?
Finally, my sister runs a blog called FITnancials. Here’s one of her helpful posts:
- How I Make $3,000+ Per Month With Sponsored Posts
Question: What personal finance tips helped you most this year? Which blog post—mine or someone else’s—was your favorite?