Welcome to MoneyJibe.com! My name is Mark Minks and I started this website in September 2006 after several friends recommended I launch a site and start sharing my experience and ideas with people in the online community. As long as I can remember I've been interested in personal finance, saving money and making money. I've helped friends and co-workers invest and save money, and I'm passionate about helping people do better financially. In my professional career I have 20 years of software development and management experience, including four years of international experience in Europe. I've met people from many different cultures that have different views on personal finance, but the core virtues of being frugal, avoiding debt, and living within one's means are universal. If you find the content of this site worthwhile and you have a website or blog, please link to us and help increase our visibility on the web. Feel free to contact me and let me know what you think of the site. I'd love to hear from you!

I've decided to start giving back to the community, and beginning September 2008 MoneyJibe will donate a portion of all revenue earned to the Phoenix Rescue Mission. The mission was founded in 1952 by six businessmen in the Phoenix area. It's open 365 days a year and meets people's basic needs, providing three meals a day to many men, women and children. So now, every time you buy an Entertainment Book, open an ING savings account, or use a coupon on MoneyJibe.com etc. you'll be helping someone less fortunate!

Also, a friend of ours named Peter Pakulis is currently undergoing a fight against cancer. We are believing for a full recovery, but the treatment is expensive and has cost tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to date. I want to help out, so from September to December 2008 MoneyJibe.com is going to donate 50% of all revenues received to help pay for Peter's medical bills.

Invest In Knowledge

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Knowledge is power. We all make decisions based on the knowledge we have at any given time. Being armed with the proper knowledge and putting it into action can produce amazing results. On the other hand, making decisions in ignorance can be costly. How many times have we looked back at a decision we made in life and thought "If I'd only known that then!". Our goal is to use MoneyJibe.com to pass on the knowledge and experience we've gained over the years regarding personal finance. We all grow wiser with age and experience, and MoneyJibe.com is a forum where we can share this knowledge and provide helpful resources to enable people to save money, make money, and do better financially.

How Not To Save Money

When I bought my first car, I was clueless. I had no idea I should negotiate based on the out the door price of the car and not the monthly payment. I simply wasn't armed with the knowledge of the best way to go about saving money and getting the best deal on a car. The bottom line was I ended up with a car I couldn't afford. On top of basing my decision on the wrong criteria (monthly payment instead of the out the door price), I let the salesman talk me into stretching my budget to the breaking point so I could drive a nicer car (and, of course, earn him a bigger commission). After making the payments for a few months and resigning myself to the fact that living on ramen noodles for the next 5 years wouldn't be so bad after all, I happened to tell my story to a friend. Fortunately, he had bought several cars in his life and was very familiar with the process, and he had much more knowledge and experience than I did in this area. He knew that car dealers can tear up one contract and write another if they choose to do so, and with his help I was able to go back to the dealership, tell them I couldn't afford the car, and negotiate an affordable deal on a less expensive one.

Saving Money And Making Money

On the other end of the spectrum, buying a home was one of the smartest things my wife and I have ever done. Over the past several years not only did we save money on rent (tens of thousands of dollars), but we also happened to make money as well since our home has gone up in value. The reason we got serious about buying a home was that several people at work (who just happened to be younger than us) had all bought homes over a period of just a few months. Call it peer pressure, but seeing all these people younger than me investing in their own home made me take a hard look at our own personal financial situation. Not only were they saving money on rent, but they were making money as well because their homes were appreciating in value! I finally educated myself on the process of buying a home by doing a lot of research on the internet, and talking to a lot of people we knew who had either been homeowners for a while or had bought homes recently. I thoroughly researched the advantages and disadvantages of home ownership. I looked at different financing options and used online calculators to determine the break-even point for renting vs. buying. I was convinced it would be worthwhile for us to buy a home if we could commit to staying in it for at least 2 years. Within a few months we were out of the apartment and moved into our very own home. That was back in in August of 2003, and now that it's been a few years, we've saved thousands of dollars in rent and our home has appreciated in value. We're so glad we made this decision and took action!

Online Coupons & Deals

We shop online frequently and we've been able to use free online coupons, coupon code and promotional codes to save money on all kinds of products. We've recently become affiliated with select online merchants and now offer Free Amazon.com Coupons, free Overstock.com Coupons, PetSmart Coupons and Bare Necessities Coupons, among others. The full set of current coupons and promotions is accessible from our Online Coupons page, and we post the latest hot deals and bargains on our Home Page.

My real life examples on saving money and making money demonstrate how I was able to benefit by having the right knowledge and acting on it. My goal is to fill MoneyJibe.com with helpful money saving tips, money making ideas, online coupons and resources to help you create your own Way To Wealth!

I'd honestly appreciate any feedback you'd like to provide about the site, as it will make the site better for everyone. Feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions you have.

Happy surfing!

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