With all the turmoil in the stock markets, I’ve been ignoring two significant milestones on this blog: we recently passed the one million mark in visits and the number of posts stands at more than 1,030. Though a thousand posts sounds impressive, the underlying message has been quite simple: Pay down debt. Track your spending. Diversify. Avoid complicated investing strategies. Leverage sounds great, until it blows up. Costs Matter. Don’t chase performance. In other words, hardly earth-shattering stuff. So, thanks for reading, commenting and keeping me going.

Giveaway: To celebrate, I’m giving away two $50 gift cards at any major retailer of your choice. Entering your name in the draw is, as always, super easy. Just leave a comment to this post and don’t forget to include your email address. There are a few simple rules for the giveaway:

  1. Deadline for entries is 8 p.m. EDT on Friday, October 24, 2008.
  2. One entry per person.
  3. Canadian mailing addresses only.
  4. As your privacy is very important to us, your email address will be used for the sole purpose of contacting you if you happen to win.
  5. I’ll pick two entries at random and announce the winner after the deadline. Our decision is final.

If you have a friend or colleague you think might be interested in the blog, do let them know. They might pick up a tip or two and they get to enter their name in the draw for their trouble.

Thanks once again and good luck!