NEW NEW NEW!!

Teen Bloggers Share Their Stress About Money

YORK, Pa., Jan. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Can money buy happiness?  The answer is "no" if you're a teenager, but it certainly stresses them out.  StageofLife.com, a national blogging and writing resource for generations of Teens to Baby Boomers, released its summary report on "Teens and Money."  

The report is complied from the anecdotal insights of 3,335 teenagers and young adults who visited StageofLife.com's recent monthly writing contest for students - many of whom submitted 500 word essays answering the writing prompt, "What is your relationship with money?  How do you spend (or save), and why?"

Major themes emerged from the blog submissions detailing the delicate and often contentious relationship between young people and money.  From anger towards world financial and economic institutions to more pragmatic insights on personal budgeting, StageofLife.com's teen blog summary report provides links to over 60 of the submitted student essays/blogs.

The winner of the blogging writing contest, Justina Tran, a student at Garden Grove High School in Garden Grove, CA, personified money as a living being in her essay, "Affinity Gone Awry."  When asked about her current relationship with money, Tran stated, "(It) still stresses me out to an extent, but I'm confident it won't overshadow my life. I guess money and I can still be friends."

Although stress and money were tied together in many of essays, that relationship is one that can be broken.  StageofLife.com featured Mint.com as its free, educational resource that can help young people establish a budget, learn the benefits of saving, and plan financial goals, thus relieving stress associated with money.

"At Mint.com, we believe money is for living," said Aaron Patzer, VP and General Manager of Intuit PFG and founder of Mint.com. "It's important for teens and students starting college to be financially literate and know how to budget for life. In just a few years, they will be in control of their own bills, bank account, and credit card, so they want to have good financial habits that they can use for the rest of their life."

StageofLife.com teen blog editor, Amanda Konstantine Perlmutter, takes this advice to heart.  "It's important for teens to budget their money. I've been a teen for four years already, and...if I'd have spent less money on unnecessary things in the past, then maybe I'd have been closer to saving up for a car then I am now!"

When asked why she entered the writing contest with her essay, "Money:  Guilty As Charged", Rose Sulentic, a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, TX, stated, "I needed extra practice with personal essay skills.  The question about money was perfect because it was a way for me to vent about my then-recent car accident without being too morose."

The current writing contest for college and high school students asks, "What organization, company, non-profit or 'cause' will help make the world a better place in 2011?"

"This month's essay contest is an opportunity for teens and college students to shed light and share with us worthwhile 'causes' that we should all know about," states StageofLife.com CEO, Eric Thiegs.  For each person submitting an essay to the current writing contest, their nominated cause will receive a link on a newly created resource page called, "Making the World a Better Place."  

Site sponsor, KodakGallery.com, is providing the monthly prize and StageofLife.com is offering up SWAG and Featured Blogger status to the next student writing contest winner.

The contest summary report page about Teens and Money can be found at: http://www.stageoflife.com/Teens_and_Money.aspx

About Stage of Life®:  StageofLife.com is a free, non-partisan grassroots project with a mission to make the world a better place, one story at a time.  By hosting blogs, information and resources for teens, college students, Millennials, Gen Y, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generations, its hope is that cross-generational story telling will weave a network of wisdom from which all can benefit.  Specialized content includes free lesson plan ideas and writing prompts for Language Arts teachers, monthlywriting contests, blogging resources, goal setting worksheets, a free national platform for writers to promote their blogs and much more, including My Life Rewards, an area dedicated to providing relevant coupons and discounts exclusively geared towards each stage of life.

If you'd like more information about StageofLife.com or an interview with CEO/Founder, Eric Thiegs, please use the Contact Usform on www.stageoflife.com or call 717-650-0699.

SOURCE StageofLife.com

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://www.stageoflife.com

January's Writing Contests!

There are only a few more days left in January, be sure to check out Stage of Life's four writing contests.

High School/Teen Writing Contest Topic: 

"What organization, company, non-profit or 'cause' will help

make the world a better place in 2011?"

College Writing Contest Topic: 

"What organization, company, non-profit or 'cause'

 will help make the world a better place in 2011?"

Baby Story Contest Topic:

"If you could share one piece of advice to new parents about your experiences of being a new parent (however long it ago it may have been) during that first month home from the hospital, what would it be?"

Wedding Story Writing Contest Prompt: 

 "What is your engagement proposal story?"

Snow Day...Not

Last night, like many others, we experienced a pretty decent snow storm.  The roads were closed, schools let out early, and our town called a snow emergency. However to my dismay, my university did not call a snow day or even a delay today like the other area schools.  Today, I have been robbed of a snow day.

Before  the snow began yesterday, I had the chance to skype Eric yesterday and discussed some new projects.  He gave me contacts to 8 new featured bloggers, which I contacted last night.  I also got to fill him in on the details about a great class that I am taking a potential event that Stage of Life may be able to sponsor.

This morning, I had the time to brainstorm for our next project/event. Stayed tuned for me to divulge more details of this project at a later date :)

Has anyone been checking out Stage of Life on facebook?  Eric and I have been working side by side posting and updating it. Let's get some more friends!! Check it out :)

Tuesday's Reflection

Today, I got to sit down and write to bloggers, new and undecided.  Since beginning this project in mid-December, I have "signed" 13 new featured bloggers and have contacted an upwards of 50 bloggers overall.  Throughout the last month, some emails have gotten no response.  My job today, was to write reminder and update letters to bloggers.  My drafts have now been sent to Eric for editing and additions. After I receive Eric's revisions I should be able to send out the letters and make contact with a hand full of bloggers interested in becoming a featured blogger.

Tomorrow, I also get to have a Skype call with Eric to discuss new and old projects, as well as simply catch up. Meanwhile, I'm praying for a blizzard tomorrow and Thursday to give me and my friends a great snow day or two :)

P.s. Check out Stage of Life on Facebook, give us feed back on the site and blogs!!

Friday Facts

Want to know more about Stage of Life?

Mission Statement

 To provide a writing and blogging resource that allows people an opportunity to change the world, one story at a time, while at the same time giving them access to "Rewards for Life's Journey," wisdom for greater happiness and financial savings. 

Key Officers

Eric Thiegs

          Founder, CEO, & President

Joe Thiegs

                CFO, Business Content Advisor, and Investor Relations Manager

A Little Chunk of History

During the first year, after the initial launch, of the site,  Stage of Life had the #1 Google ranked page for the key words "writing contests for high school students” as well as had over 2,100 stories shared on the site.

Today, I contacted a new blogger, Deb.  Can't wait to hear back from her :)  

Is it the beginning or the end?

Yesterday, I began the my last semester of my senior year in college.  Since the winter weather was less than cooperating, I ended up only having 2 of the 4 classes I was supposed to.  This entire week, I have been slowly becoming more and more stressed about my life and craziness of it.  With the beginning of this semester, I am also some how being sucked into the end of my college career, whether I am ready or not.

With the next 5 months in front of me, I have a lot of heavy decisions to make like: where to go to grad school and for what, where to move,to find another apartment, and  to get a full time job. These choices are leaving me even more stressed about the overwhelming work load I already have while working 2 jobs and attending school full time as a writing major.

Today felt like my breaking point, but I just never broke.  I was on the verge of tears all day, but they just never came.  My next 5 months crumbled into thin air sometime between yesterday and today, and currently I am sitting in complete shock.  This isn't going to be the easy, fun semester spent hanging out with friends, it's going to be the semester that is hotter than hell and makes me sweat every little detail.

In the Stage of Life realm, since January 14th I have signed 10 new featured bloggers up on Stage of Life.  I encourage everyone to go check out their blogs and writing on Stage of Life, leave comments, and enjoy their stories.  I want to give a huge shout out to those new feature bloggers, you know who you are :)


P.s. We welcomed 2 new additions to our family last Friday.

Winnie & Wally

A Warm Welcome on Very Chilly Day

Even though it's around 27 degrees outside, I would like to take the time to give a great group of NEW Featured Bloggers a warm welcome to Stage of Life.  Between yesterday and now, I have heard back from seven interested bloggers....

Let's give a shout out to our CONFIRMED NEW FEATURED BLOGGERS:

Fran...

http://branchingoutthroughtheyears.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=7

Barb...

http://barbbelliwasjustthinking.blogspot.com/

Jan...

http://thankfulthornshaveroses.blogspot.com

and we are still waiting for the final word from

Jenny

Bob

Briley

Megan

Today, I really got to dig into my Stage of Life work and am making some great head way.  Too bad my classes start on Tuesday, so this will be the last day for me to really sit and notch out work time like this.

Today I have the honor of welcoming a new featured blogger, Frances, to the Stage of Life team. If you would like to check out her blog go to http://branchingoutthroughtheyears.blogspot.com/2010/12/sentimental-sunday-hero-and-our-first.html or look for her writing on Stage of Life.

Everyday, I receive about 6 Google Alerts that lead me to blogs that  are based on the different Stages of Life. Each day, I don't always have enough time to check each one and then my inbox gets backed up. It makes me feel like I'm slacking, but I know that I put a lot of time into my Featured Blogger searching.  So I am going to continue my ongoing, exploring of the blogging world to assemble the best Featured Blogging team I can find :)

In my other projects, I have still not heard from any administrators, since the emails were sent out and nothing yet from the Leaky Boob, either.  I'm not loosing hope though, and I'm trying to think of new ways to get our name out there.

When it comes to the social media front, I posted a great story, http://www.stageoflife.com/Default.aspx?tabid=123&g=posts&t=1942,  from one of our featured bloggers onto our Facebook.

While managing the Stage of Life Facebook Page, I want to spice it up and make it not so generic,

  any ideas?

Social Media Manager

Even though I am feeling a little under the weather today (but loving the snow!), I am really excited about all the work I'm getting done for Stage of Life.  Last night I invited about 8 of my friends to write about their engagements, for our new Wedding Contest, and about 5 of my friends to write about their baby stories, for our Having a Baby Contest.  This morning I managed to invited 2 more friends for the wedding category and about 5 more for the baby contest.  It's a really great feeling to share what I am doing with people that I love!

A few weeks ago, I found a really neat site called the LEAKY BOOB.  The site is based on breast feeding and acts as a forum for women to asks questions and seek advice.  Today, I tried to make contact with the site manager, hoping that she will be interested in partner up with Stage of Life.  We would be able to feature the LEAKY BOOB on our Having a Baby stage of life, helping our readers as well as promoting the LEAKY BOOB. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to hear back with some positive news.

Yesterday, Eric deemed me the Social Media Manager.  Since then I have been loading Facebook with Stage of Life information, including adding Stage of Life to my employers. Next on my to do list, is updating the Stage of Life Facebook Page for the day :)

A New Lease on Life... and Work

With the beginning of the new year, I have been sticking to my goal sheet:  attempting to save money, working out at least 3 days a week, and reading daily ( just to name a few).  Today has been a great day, I have managed to get the last 60 emails out to school district administrators.  Now it's all about waiting to see what the administrators do with the information and pass it on to their English departments like we asked.

This is my last 20 hour work week with Stage of Life, since classes resume next Tuesday.  After a great phone call with Eric, we decided on some new tasks that I can attack to increase traffic to Stage of Life, to meet some of our 2011 goals.  One of my new tasks is to work with the Stage of Life Facebook page as well as make daily posts about what's new with Stage of Life.

Tonight I will be getting to invite my friends who have recently gotten married, engaged, and those who have just had babies to share their stories with us in one (of our 3) writing contests.  I'm excited to get my loved ones involved in such a great site, and hope they take the time to share their stories.

2011 is looking promising in many aspects of my life and I'm so excited to be able to spend it with Stage of Life!

Start your 2011 with Stage of Life,

Mission Statement

To provide a writing and blogging resource that allows people an opportunity to change the world, one story at a time, while at the same time giving them access to "Rewards for Life's Journey," wisdom for greater happiness and financial savings.

More Deliveries!

Today I realized that I didn't actually finish all the emails on Friday after all, there are 3 tabs on my excel sheet so I still had a little over a hundred more emails to send.  After working for a while, this morning, I managed to get 51 more emails sent.  Hopefully, I can knock out the rest this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

I will continue my featured blog search and seriously buckle down on the merchant updates.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

It's FRIDAY!

Today, I worked on my newest project, contacting Pennsylvania School District Administrators.  I received the email I wrote back from Eric, last night, with some additions. We gave it the finishing touches and this morning I sat down and plugged away at sending each of the 57 emails, individually, to the administrators. I love being productive and getting stuff done.

While working I thought it would be great to share some fun facts about Stage of Life:

Did you know?

•              Stage of Life sees close to 45,000 visitors by the end of 2010.
  ·         Stage of Life will have encountered 112,000 page views in 2010. 
  ·         Stage of Life has the #1 Google ranked page for the key words "writing contests for high school students".
  ·         Stage of Life sees more than 2,000 teen and college visitors to the site each month.
  ·         Stage of Life has over 125 merchant offers on the site. 
  ·         Over 2,100 stories have been shared on Stage of Life.
  ·         Stage of Life runs a B2B platform that can create custom loyalty programs for affinity organizations ranging from to banks to non-profits.
  ·         Over 20% of the visitor traffic coming to StageofLife.com originates from a referring website linking back to us or a blogger that is talking about us.
  ·         Corporate partners Intuit/Mint.com and Kodak Gallery sponsor the website.
  ·         Stage of Life offers six lesson plans for English teachers on the site. 
  ·         Stage of Life features a monthly writing contest for teens, college students and parents who have had a baby.  Additional writing contests will be added in other stages in 2011.
  ·         Stage of Life’s number one most viewed page on the website is the teen writing contest followed by the lesson plan page for teachers.

New Background and New Project!

So what do you think?  I personally love it!  It's so me and so STAGE OF LIFE! We have similar taste :)
Last night I spent about an hour just reconfiguring my whole background and trying to make my blog more personal to me.  Today I woke up and went to the gym, after breakfast of course, and now here I am writing to you.

I've spent about the last forty five minutes working on a new project, assigned to me yesterday at my meeting with Eric, Stage of Life's CEO. It was a great meeting, like always, and I even got to spiff up his blog, yay!
The coolest part about our meeting was working on the spare computer in the office, it was great to feel like I had my own desk in an office to work at.  I hope to have more meetings like that one.  My new project, writing to administrators of school districts, is to get our High School Writing Contest out in the English departments around Pennsylvania, encourage students to write, and teachers to Stage of Life as a resource.

In my forty five minutes working on the new project, I managed to write a rough draft of the letter to be sent to the administrators, and send it to Eric for editing and additions.

OUR NEWEST WRITING CONTEST!!

Stage of Life wants to hear your wedding story...and we're willing to award you prizes for it.   Starting in January of 2011, we will feature a bi-monthly writing contest themed around engagements and weddings. This writing competition is a non-fiction, memoir, blogging, essay-style contest for any person who is currently planning a wedding OR has participated in a wedding as either the bride, groom, bridesmaid, groomsman, maid of honor, best man, usher, attendant, or special guest (e.g. wedding singer). 

Wedding Writing Contest Winner Gets:

1. Stage of Life t-shirt and pen
2. $25 cash from StageofLife.com or equivalent value gift card from Wedding story contest sponsor
3. Featured Writer invite on Stage of Life

January - February 2011

Wedding Story Writing Contest Prompt: 

 "What is your engagement proposal story?"

Featured Wedding Discount

Our featured wedding merchant is honeymoon travel partner, Cruise & Vacation Perks.  Get free nights, unlimited golf, or big discounts at Sandals, Beaches, Paradisus and other Caribbean resorts.  PLUS, you'll get 4% cash back on your booking. Call 1-866-634-6185 and ask for the "Stage of Life" discount. CHECK OUT ALL OF OUR WRITING CONTESTS AT  http://www.stageoflife.com/Writing_Contests.aspx

January's Writing Contests!

January's writing contest topics are up! If you are in high school, college, or are a parent check out our writing contests on www.stageoflife.com. 

Also, be sure to check out our staff page, http://www.stageoflife.com/CollegeInternsandStaff.aspx#Megan , where you can learn a little more about me :)