A recent poll by YoungMoney.com found that only 24 percent of people felt they have a decent knowledge of personal finances.How much do you know about finances? Do you think that you can answer 15 questions about money?

Take the Young Money Challenge and find out how much you know and how much you still need to learn! The best way of figuring out what you need to know if seeing where you are lacking information. 

The challenge is a 15 question financial IQ quiz. All questions offer an easy to understand help section and a score of 90% or higher results in a list of incentivized offers. Young Money has partnered with national companies including ShareBuilder, PNC Bank, New York Life, FreeCreditReport.com, Fastweb, Restaurant.com, and PayOff Live to offer incentives of value. These incentives have been carefully chosen to touch upon the most important financial concerns: getting out of debt, saving money, managing money and checking credit reports. Incentives include $25 free when you open a ShareBuilder account, two months free off of PayOff Live, $10 in free groceries and many, many more!

Take the Young Money Challenge!

With the financial markets in such turmoil, this is a great time to learn about Direct Investment Plans, which is why YoungMoney.com and The Moneypaper are introducing a new section dedicated to them. Simply click the “Direct Investment Plans” dropdown below “Investing” or go directly to www.youngmoney.com/drips.  We’ve made it easy for you to sign up and get started.  And, before jumping in, you can get a lot of information in our “About DRIPs” section.

As you know, many people have limited amounts to invest. Say you’d like to become an investor, but you have only $500 to invest each month or each quarter (or even $250). With DRIPs, you can establish a portfolio diversified among 10 different industries and stay within your budget! That’s because with DRIPs, you can start out with as little as a single share of stock and build holdings by investing as little as $50 or $25 in each company—to buy whole or fractional shares (depending on the market price of the stock).

Is this the right time to start investing?
One never knows–if one is making lump-sum investments. But, with DRIPs, now is always the right time to invest. That’s because DRIPs make it easy to make regular investments. When the market is up, your investment will buy fewer shares, and when the market is down, your investment will buy more shares. You’re essentially buying more shares when they are selling at bargain prices.

Only DRIPs make dollar-cost averaging and wide diversification of assets–time-tested investment strategies — efficient, economical, and easy to implement.

The bottom line: DRIPs ensure that the control over your investments remains in your hands — not a broker’s and not a mutual fund’s — and, over time, that you are likely to amass substantial holdings at a cost that is lower than the average price of the stock during the period in which you were investing.

www.youngmoney.com/drips

I had never played the stock market before. And, to tell you the truth, after the recent ups and downs and horror stories of people losing their entire retirement savings, I was scared to even try. That is, until a friend told me about the Young Money Stock Market Game. It’s is a lifelike brokerage trading simulation where you can safely learn the ins and outs of Wall Street.  But best of all, it’s free and anyone that plays can potentially win actual money.

I signed up to become a member and started to play. It only took me a few minutes to figure out how to buy, sell, and trade stock. I added stocks I was interested in to my WatchList, and even compared my portfolio to the S&P 500.

I made a few mistakes, but with 1,000,000 in virtual money I had more than enough to play with. Other games I looked at had a lot less money to start with than that.  But one of the coolest things is that you can enter contests where you can play against your friends, strangers, or even other investors. You can even start your own contest.

So I entered the Young Money/ShareBuilder Stock Market Game Contest. The winner is decided by the percentage gain within their portfolio during the two-month contest period. First prize is $1000 cash—in real money!

I definitely feel more confident about playing the stock market and I think I’m ready to begin actual trading on Wall Street. If you want a great way to practice a lifelike brokerage simulation for free then I highly recommend this game. It will not only help with maneuvering the sometimes complex world of stocks, but it will give you a chance to win up to a thousand dollars.

The most important thing that I have learned while playing the virtual stock market game is to diversify. You want to own lots of different kinds of stocks. That way if one of them doesn’t do well you aren’t completely sunk. I own some large, medium, and small cap investments. I also bought some domestic stocks and some international ones. I made sure that I spread my stocks across various industries: construction, energy, and telecomm to name a few. I also bought some companies that I had heard of and am interested in, such as Google and Bank of America.

It’s free, perhaps making this the one time you can play the stock market without any risk but still have the chance for some reward!

The Young Money Stock Market Game features real-time trading simulation and multiple contests. Beginning investors can practice stock market trading, compete with friends and investors, and win REAL money.

First Prize: $1,000 cash (1 winner)
Second Prize: $200 cash (3 winners)
Third Prize: $50 cash (5 winners)

Winners will be determined by the percentage gain within their portfolio during the contest period. The First Prize winner will be the investor with the highest percentage gain in a two-month period. Contests must enter by Friday, February 6, 2009 to be eligible to win. One portfolio may be created per email address.

Check out the Young Money Stock Market Game: http://www.youngmoney.com/stock_market_game

Almost every year losing weight is the #1 New Years resolutions, but with the economy limping along, more and more people are looking to make changes in their financial health instead of their physical health.

We asked Young Money readers about their #1 New Years resolution. This is what we learned:

45% of all our readers have save money as their number one resolution
25% want to get out of debt
15% want to lose weight and/or get in shape
10% chose “other”
5% want to stop a bad habit

What was your New Years resolution? Have you stuck to it?

According to our latest YoungMoney.com poll 50% of you think that an economic depression is likely, 40% do not, and 10% aren’t sure.

Last October CNN did the same poll: almost 60% of respondents felt like another economic depression was likely.

Here are just a few reasons why we probably won’t see another Great Depression:

Government bailouts. The U.S. government didn’t acknowledge the start of the Great Depression until it was too late. This time we are proving that we will not make the same mistake again. As soon as the recession began a plan was put into place—a lot of money has been spent in bailouts to avoid another Great Depression.

Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve acted quickly and lowered interest rates. This didn’t happen back when the Depression set in.

FDIC insurance. To avoid panic and make sure everyone was protected Congress raised the amount of FDIC protection from $100,000 to $250,000. This “safety net” didn’t even exist in 1929.

Mortgages. Listen to the news and it sounds like most of America is defaulting on mortgages. This simply isn’t true. In fact, in 2008 only 6.4% of all mortgages were at least one payment behind. In the Great Depression 44% of all first mortgages were in default.

World trade. Right now nations around the globe are working together in an unprecedented fashion to address the financial downturn.

What do you think? Are we heading toward another Great Depression? Why or why not?

Hello, my name is Taylor Moseley and I have recently won the Young Money Holiday Contest.

I am currently a college student at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas and I am majoring in Public Administration. As well as being a student I am also a member of the Arkansas Army National Guard as an intelligence analyst. I started playing the Young Money Stock Market Game in the beginning of December after my roommates and I challenged each other to see which of us could do the best in the stock market. The game itself is great, simple to use and easy keep up with. I won the holiday contest by having the most gains during the contest period. The way I did this was to invest heavily in a certain natural resource that I felt was going to do well for the duration of the contest period. Some of these included oil, natural gas, energy, and gold companies and it worked. This game is a great way to practice investing in the stock market at no cost and no risk, if you haven’t tried out the game yet I highly encourage you to do so.

Taylor Moseley

Play the Young Money Stock Market Game

YoungMoney.com and ShareBuilder have partnered to offer their first joint Stock Market Game Contest of 2009.

The Grand Prize: $1,000 deposited in a ShareBuilder Account and a free ShareBuilder Advantage Subscription for a Year (1 winner)
First Prize: $200 deposited in a ShareBuilder account (3 winners)
Random Prize: $50 deposited in a ShareBuilder account (5 winners)

The Young Money Stock Market Game is a free community that allows members to practice trading in a lifelike brokerage simulation.  By participating in the community, YoungMoney.com members learn the ins and outs of Wall Street by investing $1,000,000 in virtual money.  The Young Money Stock Market Game features real-time trading simulation and multiple contests. Beginning investors can practice stock market trading, compete with friends and investors, and win real money.

ShareBuilder believes everyone should be able to invest and that’s why they have created an investment service that has eliminated account minimums, reduced commissions and doesn’t have maintenance fees. ShareBuilder is dedicated to making investing easy and affordable for everyone.

For more information, visit YoungMoney.com/stock_market_game

Check out Blogging for Money.

I’ve wrote way too much on blogging and making money online, as I’m making my transition into real life marketing wtih Gurilla, I’m using alot of tactics I picked up through the last 2 or so years I’ve been making money online. To be honest an entreprenuer is someone who can establish him/herself on their own and how I explain entrepreneurs is someone who has earned their right to be called a certain someone in their own industry without it being handed to them.

This is Entrepreneurship 101 – The very basics (Kinda like my handbook)
Confidence in what you do.
If you’re not confident in what you’re doing there is no way anyone will take you seriously, to be a leader you need to follow your own passion.

No bullshit.

I’ve seen a lot of people lie to themselves about the “potential” of their project, but that’s where it gets ugly, if you start anything with a lie it won’t end pretty, know the pros but believe in the cons of your project, that’s what you need to focus on.

Do it yourself. Help is your last option.
If you do everything with help from someone, then you’re not really an independent entity of your business, I know for a fact that you need to be resourceful and to know people in places where you can call for favors or whatever but that doesn’t mean you should depend on them.

In my opinion (this is how I judge myself), If I get help from someone, that’s a sign of weakness, I’d rather learn it my damn self then go around asking for help and be seen as some helpless kid. So far, I have earned everything I have and who I am today, I’ve never asked for help from anyone and I pretty much never will, as far as I know at least.

While I’m at this point, I’d like to say that so called “partners” are just another way to say, “Hey, let’s work together, it’s much better! How about you work today I got something to do, yea, we’ll still split the money and fame over the project, see ya.”

No sucking up to sponsors or advertisers.
I’ve been on both sides of the marketing business—an advertiser and a publisher—and I know suck ups when I see them.

If you want to get sponsored, that’s great, it’s one of the easiest ways to come up—but if you suck up to the first sponsor that comes your way, you’ll never get anywhere. I’ve been approached at least 10 times for sponsorships for a lot of my projects and I’m not talking about just advertising, this is some real money that they’ll be providing me with to take my projects to another level in return for whatever they ask for, that’s where it goes wrong, usually sponsors want a lot more from you then they are willing to give you, that’s where I state a plain NO, with a valid reason that I’m being ripped off in this deal and that I can do better on my own.

Don’t take a NO or never leave with a bullshit reason.
If you are approaching a client or a company to work out a deal to work with them and they just keep bringing out new reasons not to work with you then you definitely deserve the right to say, “What’s going on here?”

If you want something really bad then do not leave with a “no,” persuade them with your strategies/tactics and if you still can’t do it, never ever leave with a bullshit reason that would make you feel better. Like I said, there is no room for lies when you want to make it on your own, go ahead and ask them as bluntly as you can, why wouldn’t they work with you, what’s going on there?

Unless you know your flaws you’ll never get ahead.

Money should not be a hurdle.
I’ve learned to work my way around hurdles that require me investing a lot of money, whenever I start a project I have at least 30 free solutions with 2 to 4 paid solutions as a backup and yes, I do use the same tactic with every project, usually people end up blaming their failures on money, that really gets annoying. I know I can do 100 times more things if I had an unlimited budget but I don’t so I’m working my way around it. On the other hand, if I had that kinda budget I wouldn’t blow it all away just because I’m too lazy to work out a strategy.

Giving up is not an option.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, then giving up is not an option on your list, it shouldn’t be there in any case anyway.

I flip a lot of sites and yes, I do call them my projects but the sole purpose for those sites is just to fuel my own expenses and personal financial status in the first place so when they get sold I consider it mission accomplished.

If you give up way too easily then maybe you’re not meant to be an entrepreneur.

No dead end jobs. No employment. No excuse.
If people have jobs and a project on their hand their excuse is: I don’t have enough time or I’m too tired after work or whatever.

The way I see it, I don’t work for anyone, I work for my self, I’ve always been a service provider with my own business model providing whatever services that are being considered at hand, I’m dedicated to what I do but there’s no one looking over my shoulder, that gives me a lot of creative freedom and it always has been like that since I started out online.

Ahson Rafiq

This week on Young Money Talks, you’ve read about everything from Tiny Houses, to Interview Questions, to Five Ways to Hypermile, but YMT wasn’t the only place coming up with creative and useful hints. Here’s this week’s wrap-up of the hottest topics over on YOUNGMONEY.com:

~Looking to pick up a few extra bucks, but can’t seem to figure out how? Maria T. Olia makes a few suggestions in Six Ways to Make Fast Cash. Not into being a human guinea pig? Well, you could always sign up for a good old market research study where you test consumer products instead of medical treatments.

~If you can’t get enough Rock Band, but actually have to leave home every once in a while, then YOUNG MONEY has the solution for you. Check out ThinkGeek’s new drumkit t-shirt in this week’s Tech Wrap.

~Sure, the stock market’s out of control but wanna know one think you can keep a handle on? Your identity. Play our online identity theft game to see if you know how to keep your personal information safe.

~After you play the identity theft game, you’ll know how to guard your personal info, but do you know if your money is safe in the current economic climate? Matthew M. Brandeburg tells us all what we need to know.

That’s all for this week on YMT. Check back here Monday for a special Election Edition of Young Money Talks!

The election is just 3 weeks away, but Obama and McCain’s battle for the White House isn’t the only big story out there. Here are a few of the week’s top stories from our friends at YoungMoney.com:

~With the struggling economy and weak dollar, a trip to Europe is probably not on the top of your to-do list. But, with a little preparation, you can still make that European get-away an affordable reality. Patrick Evans tells us how.

~It might be a cliche, but the old saying “love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life” is repeated for a reason: it’s true! Benjamin Levy explains why now is the perfect time to pursue your dreams.

~Are you afraid to start that first business venture because your degree is from the University of Bent-Toenail Alabama? Well, fear not my friends. Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz explains why you don’t need a Harvard diploma to achieve what you believe.

~A few months ago, I got a call from my credit card company informing me that someone was trying to charge hundreds of dollars to my account while shopping on a hunting supply website. I’m no Sarah Palin, so naturally my bank figured it out, but if I had followed Gail Cunningham’s advice, I just might have saved myself the trouble. Find out how to protect yourself from identity theft.

~Has the market bottomed out or do you think there’s still a long way to go? In this week’s Young Money Quickpoll, most of our readers said they think the market will dip to 7000 before climbing back up, while a slight minority thought we were almost at the bottom. If you’re ready to start stashing that cash in your mattress, you’re certainly not alone, since a number of our readers thought tougher times are yet to come, with the market bottoming out at 6000.

That’s all for this week on YMT! Check back in on Monday to find out why, when it comes to your job search, it pays to be cautious!