Get Rich Slowly turns eighteen this week! Eighteen months, that is.

While this blog is toddling around and learning to speak, I thought it might be fun to celebrate by giving something back to the readers. To that end, I’m holding a week of contests. I have over $600 in prizes to give away, including a Nintendo Wii.

  • On Monday (Blog Action Day), I’ll be giving away a nature print from photographer (and GRS reader) Andrea Gingerich. Andrea’s work is amazing. Visit her site for another chance to win one of her prints.
  • On Tuesday, I’ll be featuring a guest-post from Michael Mihalik, author of Debt is Slavery (reviewed here a couple months ago). I’ll give away two copies of his book.
  • The folks at Intuit were kind enough to pass along three copies of Quicken Deluxe 2008. These are the prizes for Wednesday.
  • On Thursday, I’ll be giving away a brand-new 1gb silver iPod Shuffle.
  • To cap things off, next Friday I’ll be give away a Nintendo Wii bundle. The contest for the Wii actually begins today, however. Read on.

To enter the first four contests, you’ll need to contribute a substantive comment to a specific post on the day in question. (By substantive I mean a comment that adds to the conversation, not something like “I want to win the book!”) To have a chance at winning the Wii, you’ll need to join the first-ever Get Rich Slowly writing project: I want you to share your personal finance success story.

Have you escaped minimum wage? Have you paid off your debt? Did you drive a hard bargain at the car dealership? Have you given up credit? Is your mortgage paid off? Have you learned to cook at home? Write about your biggest financial achievement. Whatever it is, tell us your story. One lucky participant will be chosen at random to win a Nintendo Wii with Mario Party 8 and an extra controller.

There are two ways to share your story:

  • If you have a blog, write an entry sharing your personal finance success story. Make it fun. Make it interesting. Make it inspirational. When you’ve finished, drop me a line with URL. While I’d be happy if you linked back to Get Rich Slowly, it’s not a requirement. Next Saturday, I’ll post links to all bloggers who shared stories.
  • If you don’t have a blog, you may enter the contest in the Success Stories forum at the Get Rich Slowly message board. (To register, you’ll need to use the VIP code 0325.) While you’re there, be sure to join the discussions in the other forums.

You may enter only once per daily contest, and only until 1:00 a.m. Pacific Friday, October 19th. Sometime on Friday, I will randomly select one person to win the Nintendo Wii. At that time, I’ll also make drawings for the other prizes.

(If this group writing project is successful, there will be others in the future. I can’t afford to subsidize the prizes every time, so I’d be happy to hear offers from potential project sponsors.)

Contest Rules
You can find full contest rules here. Legal mumbo-jumbo makes my brain numb, so here’s the abridged version:

  • No purchase is necessary to participate in these contests. Purchase will not improve your chance of winning.
  • All winners must be 18 years of age or older.
  • These contests are open to participants outside the U.S., but in all cases are void where prohibited by law.
  • Winners will chosen at random from valid submissions.
  • I am the sole arbiter of what constitutes a “valid submission”. If you’re participating in the spirit of the contest, your submission is probably valid. (In other words: blogspam and one-line “stories” are no way to enter this contest.)
  • In order to win, I have to be able to contact you. If you participate, please use a valid e-mail address. I will never harvest your e-mail address for any nefarious purpose. Also, winners will need to supply a mailing address so I can ship their prize.
  • There are no prize substitutions. The Wii is a North America-region Wii. If you win and you’re from Germany, for example, you are responsible for making the system work.
  • All prizes are provided as-is. They’re new now, but Get Rich Slowly is not responsible for any problems you may have with them.
  • Finally — and this is important — by participating in these contests, you agree to allow Get Rich Slowly to republish what you write, either on the blog or in other contexts.

These giveaways are being conducted in the spirit of fun. Please treat them as such. If things go smoothly, there will be other giveaways in the future!