Friday Finance Findings for May 8th

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Hard to believe it’s May and we’ve had our new baby for over a month already. It seems like I was just at the hospital last week. It’s been a pretty crazy month trying to learn how to get things done with a new addition at home, but we’re making progress.

I’m also proud to announce another milestone that quietly came up in the past week or so, but we have finally reached 1 million visitors here at Generation X Finance. A small feat for some, but quite impressive by my standards. If you are signed up for the email newsletter, you already received word of this milestone and you may have heard that there’s going to be a big contest/giveaway to celebrate. I’m not releasing the details just yet, but it’s true that I’m going to be giving away some pretty awesome stuff to help celebrate this milestone.

If you want a heads up on the new contest or receive bonus entries, make sure you sign up to the newsletter at the bottom of this post or follow me on Twitter.

How To Get A Free FICO Credit Score – Looking for a free credit score? Usually you have to pay to get your score even though your report is free. But Jim has put together a list of ways you can get your own FICO score for free.

The Ultimate Collection Of Money Saving Tips: 122 Ways To Trim Your Budget – Here’s a huge collection of quick money saving tips. 122 of them to be exact. There are enough tips here to apply to everyone. The neat thing is that all of these tips were submitted by readers.

Making Home Affordable Q & A – I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but the Making Home Affordable plan is geared towards those who may not have the equity or credit score needed to refinance their mortgage, and to help those in risk of losing their home to foreclosure. But, not everyone will qualify. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know.

How To Buy A Foreclosure: Find Foreclosed Homes Online – This is one of those times where I wish I had some extra money sitting around and some knowledge in real estate. I wouldn’t mind picking up a cheap foreclosed property to hang onto for a few years and/or rent it out. If you’ve thinking the same thing, here’s a good foreclosure buying primer.

Scottrade Reference Code for Commission Free Trades – How do some free stock or option trades sound? If you’re looking for a new or additional brokerage, you might want to take a look at this Scottrade offer to get you a few free trades to start.

Save Money on Cell Phones – Cell phones have become part of our daily lives for most of us. In some cases, we’ve even ditched traditional landline phones in favor of only mobile phones. Unfortunately, cell phones and the various plans can be expensive. So, here’s some tips on how you can help keep those cell phone costs down.

Early Retirement or Meaningful Work? – What does retirement mean to you? A lot of people associate retirement simply as not working, but is it really that simple? Brip Blap points out, and I agree, that it’s ‘more than that. By early retirement, I’m thinking more along the lines of a new and meaningful line of work.

Emergency Fund Saves the Day (again) – Ever feel like you have an emergency fund and never have an emergency? Something can and will happen. Here, Centsible Life shares a recent experience where her emergency fund saved the day (again).

Defined Benefit Pension vs Defined Contribution Pension – What’s the difference between a defined benefit and a defined contribution plan? Here’s a good breakdown of the differences and pros and cons of each.

Angies List Tips to Hiring a Contractor – I’ve heard of Angies list before, but haven’t used it. After reading this I can see that it would probably be quite helpful when looking for a new service or contractor.

How to Become Prosperous the Easy Way – Think becoming prosperous takes a lot of luck? Sure, the cards you’re dealt in life can play a role, but anyone can become prosperous and it doesn’t have to be hard. Here are three things you must remember in your quest to prosperity.

What to Expect When Closing Your Loan – A loan closing, especially on a house is a pretty big event. There’s a mountain of paperwork and a lot of things to try and understand, so it helps if you know what to expect before going into it. Here’s a good outline of what you can expect when you’re closing on your loan.