In my first review of the book Life Focus by Jerry Foster, I talked about the difference between success and influence. It's amazing how confused we can get in life. We strive after things that will not satisfy (like success), rather than striving to live a life of influence by being generous givers of our time, money, compassion, and skills to others.

In the same way that we mistakenly pursue an illusion of success, we also pursue material things.

Lately, my bad luck has been almost humorous. But then, when I stop to laugh about it, no sound is made - there's nothing funny about it.

Doesn't it seem that when one thing starts to crash down on you, a whole bunch of other ones come with it? That's exactly what has happened to Michelle and I this last month... financially speaking.

Let's tally up what our unexpected expenses have been:

The first "G" in the 5G's of financial freedom is Goal Setting.

When it comes to setting goals, most people will dream for about 5 minutes, write a few things down, maybe even set a date and map out how to get there, but then that's it. They end up with three or four great goals but will probably never reach them.

Believe it or not, there really is a BEST way to set goals.

Here's how: Set goals in 5 different time periods of your life.

Goal setting starts with a little bit of dreaming. Let your mind go wild. The best way to do this is to do some brainstorming on paper and talk it out with someone else (If you are married, this is a GREAT exercise to do with your spouse). Then, after letting your mind go wild for a while, bring it almost all the way back to reality (not quite the whole way- you have to stretch yourself, otherwise, what's the point in setting goals?)

The problem with the global economy is that... well, perhaps I should just let these comedians from Australia explain:

Ridiculous? Yep.

Funny? The video, sure - not the situation.

What can we learn from this?

There are several new laws that are slowly taking shape for credit card use and bank account regulations. Believe it or not, the government is actually trying to help American consumers with personal finance issues.

Did you happen to experience a huge spike in your credit card rates for no apparent reason recently? I sure did. Some of my rates went up from 12% to 19% APR! The reason credit card companies did this was because they knew that these new laws were coming soon. They wanted to take advantage of every bit of control they had left and milk their clients as dry as possible before Big Brother came in and started cracking down.

I hate to sound like "Debby Downer" or "Pessimistic Pete", but I fear for this country's future.

There is a lot of junk on the news these days, so you really have to be careful to what and who you listen to and make sure to take it all with a grain of salt and open mind. I do not watch the news very often, but lately I have paid close attention to what the "financial experts" are saying about the economy. There is still a large disagreement. One side says that we are pulling out of the mess and the economy is on the rise, and the other side says that we are in for another "doomsday" or "dooms-YEARS."

I have been asked to elaborate on what it means and what it looks like to automate your finances. I am currently working on putting together an interactive diagram that you can follow in order to put your finances on autopilot. Be looking for it by next week.

Do you love to get the best deals when you travel? I do. I'm always looking for the best price on flights, hotels, and other various travel related expenses. I'd seen a few commercials about Hotwire.com recently and decided to check it out.

I was pleasantly surprised.

I have been doing a little bit of research over the last few years on which online travel booking agency is the best to use. The results of my unofficial and sporatic research have shown that they are almost all the same when it comes to price.

How would you like to buy a Macbook for only $24.97? Or maybe a digital camera for only $15.78?!! It's possible with Quibids.com.

I would spend a whole lot of time typing out how it works, but instead I'm just going to let the following video do that for me:

My thoughts and advice:

I was reading through the "Quibids 101" which gives a lot of tips and tricks on how to bid well and found some good information to share with you.

This year's Super Bowl was a blast to watch. I always enjoy getting together with friends and eating until I can't eat any more. As far as who wins the game, I usually never really care - I just want to see some good football.

Being as how my ears perk up any time I hear some kind of money saving tip or trick, I couldn't help but catch a few good ideas while watching the biggest ball game of the year. Here they are:

1. Get a free breakfast tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb 9th). Even though the commercials were a little annoying, in my opinion, the message was clear: Go to Denny's and eat for free from 6 am to 2 pm. Why not right?

2. Don't make large monetary bets on who will win the game. I'll bet there were plenty of people who lost money last night. Never underestimate the underdog in a Super Bowl game. Hey, I've got an even better idea: Don't bet, ever, ever, ever, ever....