As the end of January rolls around, you should have begun to receive your tax statements from your employer, broker or bank. If not, most should arrive in a few days. As these forms begin to arrive, try and remain organized. Doing so will ensure that you have the necessary paperwork once you sit down to start preparing your tax returns.

Personally, I use TurboTax to complete my returns. While there are numerous software packages out there, I have been using them so long that it would not be worth the effort to try and learn some new program just to save a few bucks. If you have no idea how to prepare your tax return, or feel uncomfortable doing so, you should have your taxes prepared by a professional.  The reduced stress may be worth the $100 that it will cost you.

Whichever path you chose to follow staying organized is the key. As your forms arrive, open them and place them in an accordion folder. If you use a regular folder, you risk having the forms fall out or get lost. Start a checklist of what you expect to receive and what you are still missing. Once you think you have everything, you are ready to file your return.

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So much talent…so little time. I tend to bookmark my favorite posts from the past few weeks so that I can revisit them as time permits. Here are a few of my favorite posts from the past week.

Passive Family Income wonders what other areas, besides personal finance, are impacted during a recession. As a dog owner, this article makes me wonder what more I could do for our furry friends out there.

Bible Money Matters talks about why you need an emergency fund and how to get started if you do not have one yet. Pete is an incredibly talented writer that blogs about personal finance from a Christian perspective. Definitely worth a look!

FiveCentNickel also posts about emergency funds victories. I wish I could get 5.25% APY now!  We are lucky to get 0.25% now!

Passive Dad talks about eHow and its amazing potential. I am sure he will be making a KILLING in a few months. This guy’s work is solid and is fast becoming a must read. Go check him out!

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Has anyone ever told you that you cannot do something? It’s too hard….you’re too small….it can’t be done.

You can’t make any money online! Or can you?

Tonight I watched Rudy, for what I think may have been the hundredth time. In case you do not know, Rudy was a small kid who dreamed about playing football at Notre Dame. No one gave him a chance. Not his family, not his friends, certainly not his coaches. Rudy, however, never gave up on his dream.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, but let me just say, that you can achieve whatever your heart desires. If you will put in the effort you can succeed. Just don’t give up!

My friend over at Passive Family Income published a great post today about taking care of your personal finances. His story is similar to mine in that he has a good college degree, a great family, and a promising career. Like me, he has also been wondering whether it is smart to rely on a job as his sole source of income. Particularly in this economic environment.

Thoughts like these reaffirms my decision to concentrate on creating passive streams of income. Even though I feel that my job is secure, that could change at any moment. Who would have thought ten years ago that the largest banks in the world could go bankrupt? Who would have thought that our government would bailout anyone with a pulse; including manufacturers of wooden arrows toys for children (you really should read the economic bailout bill if you don’t believe me)?

I chose to put my economic future in my own hands. I am creating my own personal bailout program that includes working my butt off now with the hope that the passive income I earn later will be well worth the effort.

Passive Income is the new “cool”. If you did not know, now you do! Do not make excuses why you cannot succeed in America. There are so many different methods to make money and support your family. You do not need a bailout from the government.

Live within your means, save money for a rainy day, learn a new ‘marketable’ skill and create a few streams of passive income of your own.

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A few years ago, a guy named Travis introduced the world to bum marketing, more commonly known as article marketing. The concept is extremely simple. Write articles! Submit them to article directories! Earn Money!

Sounds simple enough right? Hundreds of thousands of people thought the same thing. Some people made a killing. Others gave up extremely fast when they realized how hard it is to actually make this technique work well.

In today’s environment, article marketing has to compete with blogs, social networks and newbies. With the increased competition, many people wonder if it is even possible to make money still.

As I am progressing with my article marketing experiment my preliminary results look rather promising. Although I only have about one month of article marketing experience, I feel that by the end of the year I could be making really decent income. If I could somehow multiply the number of articles I produce daily, my results would explode exponentially.

This is the key to article marketing - QUANTITY! So what are you waiting for? Get writing!

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While this blog tends to focus on monetary forms of passive income, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about my best stream of income- my relationship with God.

God has blessed me with the a wonderful wife and a beautiful son. Each day I receive more blessings that I could possibly ever deserve. The coolest thing is that I only had to do one thing in order to receive these gifts - accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I must admit, this was the best decision I have ever made.

Every day that I wake up is a gift. It is my intention to honor God and be the man he has called me to be. It always amazes me that the more I give up to Him, the more he gives back to me. Now that is what I call passive income!

By the third week of 2009, many people have already forgotten their New Year’s Resolutions. How are you doing thus far? Is it time to re-evaluate your goals and assess your progress?

I posted a few goals to try and keep myself motivated.  Below is a summary of my progress so far this month.

eHow - My goal was to publish one article per day. Through 25 days I am 9 articles behind my goal. I contribute this to being sick for the past  2 1/2 weeks. I finally broke down and went to the doctor’s office on Friday, so I anticipate feeling much better over the next couple of days. Hopefully, I can bust out enough articles to get back on pace.

ezinearticle - I have published 8 articles so far this month, which has resulted in 6 sales. I hope I can replicate these results once I start publishing articles with a vengance. Imagine if I could have publish 5 articles a day like some marketers do?

Fitness - 25 days down, zero days at the gym. That is just plain pathetic! I know I have been sick, but that is ridiculous. I need to get into shape (although I guess round is a shape - just not a good one).

What about you? How are you doing with you goals?

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I did not have time to do any internet marketing today. Additionally, I did not go to work or do anything to increase my net worth.

You know what the great thing about passive income is? I make money even when I don’t do any work. If addition to the residual income that I made from eHow and Bukisa, I even made a few sales from my article marketing experiment. I did this while spending the day with my family.

If this does not make you want to develop your own streams of passive income, I have no idea what will. The amount of work that you put in additionally is more than paid for by the income your efforts generate for you day after day, month after month, year after year.

What are you waiting for? Get started TODAY.

Are you trying your hand at article marketing? If you are then there is one rule you must follow everyday.

Write. Write one article, then another, then another. When you are done writing that article, write a few more.

If you want to succeed, you need to write as much can. Unfortunatey, quantity is much more important than quality. Don’t believe me, just check out some of the articles published on ezinearticles. Some of these articles are complete trash. The only reason that they were written at all was for the one-way link. Almost every keyword imaginable has been oversaturated with worthless crap promoting some eBook that is basically 27 pages of fluff promoting some other worthless product.

Sorry about that minor rant, but seriously, if you are going to try article marketing, try promoting products that you have actually used. Then write about a hundred articles promoting it!

In my life, I have worked for three different companies. Two of them are on Fortune’s Top 100 Best Places to Work for 2009.

Publix Supermarkets -  I started working for Publix when I was in high school. It was meant to be a part-time job in which I used any money that I made to buy myself things that I “needed”. I kept working there during college because the managers would always let me pick what nights I wanted to work. Fifteen years later, I retired! Not only is their employee stock program amazing, I absolutely loved working there. The employees were some of my best friends, the customers made me laugh almost every day and the job kept me in shape. There are days, even now, when I miss stocking shelves at 2am.

Ernst & Young -  Working at E&Y was pure hell. The funny thing is that I loved it! The pressure to get done, the long hours, five square meals a day (oh yeah, we worked so long that we normally ate fourth meal at around 9pm and then fifth meal somewhere around midnight). You could learn more in one year at E&Y then you could learn in ten years anywhere else. While it was a great experience, I truly do not miss busy season (or the hundred twenty nights in a hotel each year). What I do miss is the people.

At both jobs, the people made these jobs great. Anyone can stock shelves or audit financial statements, but not everyone can get along like we did. When you respect your colleagues, and they respect you, it can actually be fun to go to work. I know, hang with me for a second, but it truly can.

Your attitude coud be the reason you are miserable. Are you too much of a perfectionist? Does every little mistake get on your nerves? Do you feel like you do the work of two, maybe three, people but only get paid for one (maybe less)? Try changing your outlook on life. Relax a little and enjoy life; don’t wish it away - it will go by faster than you can imagine.

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