Investments & Loans

It might surprise you to know that

made $52 million in 2005.

Pretty amazing. Considering It posted a profit of $2.4 Million in 2003 and $5.8 Million in 2004. You can guess where the 2006 and beyond figures are heading.

But, if you were like me, you might be asking how does firefox make money? Given it is open source software, and “just” a search engine (not ad network publisher like Google for example).

Well, John Chow has a great post about it. Check it out –> here.

Basically, every time you search on the firefox with google start page, there will appear google ads on the results page, which firefox gets about 80% of the revenue. And on the tool bar you will notice a google search section, the same applies to any google ads that are clicked on the results pages there too.

Nice. (Why didn’t I think of that!)

Another popular personal finance and wealth creation blog, and friend of Investments & Loans, Free Money Finance (FMF) is running an inspired March Madness competition at the moment.

FMF has accepted 114 posts from various sources and is setting them against each other in a “playoff” style competition. Each day posts play off against each other and the winner, as voted by us readers, progresses to the next round. Eventually one post will be crowned the winner.

There are some great posts in there.

Be sure and check it out. And if you want to support the home team (your friendly Investments & Loans writer TC) then look out for the post does your credit score matter? We got a bye in the first round (they must have been a little scared by the outstanding and inspired quality of the writing.. lol) but we should be kicking off today or tomorrow. (TC is itching to get into the fray!)

Another week has arrived. Hopefully you are feeling ready and charged for your week. We have again found an inspired list of great finance links for you to kick off your working week..

1. How to teach your kids about money

2. 10 shopping tricks that stores hate

3. 10 big mistakes people make when trying to improve their credit score

4. How to have a hot tube at home and pay NOTHING in utility bills

5. Get an extra $30-$60 back on your tax return by filling in one line

Having just posted our “Ultimate 4″ Credit card tips.. I wanted to follow quickly on with an amazing credit card secret that could save you thousands.

Most people have seen this advertised and know a bit about this. And I know most of Investments & Loans readers are already on to it..
Read more »

If you are into simplicity with you finances you may not be a fan of credit cards.

But if you have the discipline and access to some great tips like these, you can really make them work in your favour, and get them giving you bonusses for the same effort.
Read more »

We have decided to save all our loyal Investments & Loans readers some surfing time and increase your productivity by starting the week off with a tidy round up of 5 great finance links:

1. Top seven credit score secrets

2. 8 Things you must do if your identity is stolen

3. 10 ways to know you are an entrepreneur

4. Overstock.com sues wall street for $3.48bn

5. The 13 most overlooked tax deductions

Steve Pavalina is one of the web’s most popular bloggers, with his sage wisdom for living a great life.

Here are three great links to some of Steve’s best articles:

10 reasons you should never get a job

How to make money from your blog

5 Wealth Lessons from 20 Percent of a Millionaire

Brilliant article about the financial advice the founders of GOOGLE wanted to get to their genuis kids as they found themselves on the edge of mutli-millionaire land..

Quick summary: INDEX funds are good.

read the article here