Hello everyone! It's a new year, and we are ready to offer you some fun new content.

One of the things that has been buzzing around here is talk about all the options you have nowadays when it comes to being conscious about finance.

Once upon a time, it was the old fashioned pencil and paper. Then we added the ledger and calculator,  then computer accounting software, which led to programs like Quicken, Quickbooks, and others.

I know some of you are credit card free and are committed to never using them again and/or to never starting to use them in the first place and I salute you! I have seen many financially responsible people go to credit cards in the last year with the shifts in the economy or due other significant junctures in our lives (getting sick, having a child, divorcing, losing a job, etc).

Here are a few resources for what do with your current credit cards.

This article in the NY Times by Ron Lieber (was posted back in August 2009) although, it is still very helpful regarding the current credit card changes and it offers some good options for all us:

Hi There~

Lately I have been writing in my blog often....although it happens to only be happening in my head! :)  You see, my little guy, Noah, who is almost 16 months old is really the focus of my life right now, plus trying to sleep and hike and eat some food and oh, yes, get some time with my husband and a few close friends.

While I have my Monday - Wednesday office hours (10 - 14 hours per week), where a nanny is here with Noah. That time is really consumed with teaching my 4 month Wake UP With Money Course (I typically have 1 or 2 going at the same time), seeing some private Financial Therapy clients and then offering some 30 minute free Intake Sessions to provide a sounding board, direction and resources to this community.

Many of us have been hearing about new rules regarding credit cards. It is very important to be clear about what this will mean for each of us who use them.

Many thanks to LeAnne Ozaine Smith of Spend On Purpose, who was kind enough to share the following list translating what the new rules are into language we all can understand.

Check her out at www.spendonpurpose.com

As many of us have, I learned to use Quicken as my Conscious Bookkeeping tool of choice when studying with Bari.

However, since then I have heard a lot about Mint.com and its abilities to help manage money. It looked fancy and tempting, as did moving to an online Quicken app that would let me manage money on the road with my iPhone. What bliss! Making my iPhone my electronic stylie accoutrement? Sounds like paradise.

But how is a conscious bookkeeper to choose among all these options?

I met Patti recently at a networking event in Los Angeles, and loved her specialty: teaching kids to manage money. Don't all of us wish he had had Patti when we were growing up? I was so excited to have her on the site and am delighted to share her guest post today! so now, take it away, Patti! (be sure to read her amazing bio at the bottom, where you can learn about her book: How to ditch your allowance and be richer than your parents)

In the last post, I talked about "The Compact," a group which began in SF and aims to eliminate spending entirely aside from food and toiletries.

I have given a lot of thought to how to integrate this idea of spending less while continuing to get the benefit of experiences I associate with spending money.

This past week, I learned about something called "The Compact." It started as a San Francisco group devoted to buying nothing new other than Food, toiletries and medicine. It is acceptable to buy used and to borrow or barter. This got me thinking. I have long been an advocate of voluntary simplicity, loved Janet Luhr's book, Simple Living, and have looked for many ways in my own life to cut costs and to be more conscious in how I choose to spend money. And while a certain part of me heaves a sigh of relief about no trips out to shop for a year, or for life as some of these members imply, there is part of me that balks at this method. This is not only because I enjoy finding new things and have recently discovered a new passion for earrings, it is also because when I do choose to spend money, I relish the opportunity to support those I purchase from. A good example is my love of Etsy, a site where designers and artists can sell their goods directly to the consumer. I have bought jewelry, clothes, art and gifts from this site and have loved the contacts and connections buying from these amazing people have created. So how to embrace simplicity while still enjoying the process of shopping with purpose? I think this is a challenge we each must face individually. What is your philosophy around spending? Has it changed in the last year? How do you decide who you would like to support with your money. Please share in the comments below!

This week, I found the video above and was so happy to see the concept of investing spelled out in such a no-nonsense way. 

This past year, we have seen a lot of crazy shifts in the market and in the language the media uses to talk about money. One of the things I always try to do with clients is to help them get down to the core of the issue and take the emotion out of the concept they are working with.

This week, I received the very informative results of a survey that Ramit Sethi had conducted on his readers. (You will remember Ramit from my previous post on his work and his new book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich).