Personal Finance Advice

It’s the end of the month and I’m looking over my goals. I’ll have a list of how I’ve done against them after today is over and I can get this month’s numbers. I was also thinking about a fundamental switch that I’ve made with this journal during this month. I’m not sure if anyone [...]

If you came out of 2005 with more savings (or less debt) than you began with at the beginning of the year, give yourself a huge pat on the back. You were one of the few. The Commerce Department reported today that consumer rose more than double the rise in incomes which left the 2005 [...]

You have no will power and you know it. You have therefore cut up your credit cards keeping a single one frozen in a block of ice in the refrigerator just in case of an emergency. You finally gotten the monkey off your back that comes with easy access to money you don’t have that [...]

Now that we have set up a plan on where to place the money that we’re going to save, it’s time to begin saving some money. The important thing to remember is that any savings that you reap from the ideas presented needs to go toward your investing plan. If you end up spending it [...]

We’re out to a quick start this week on carnivals with three already up. I’ll continue to update as I see new carnivals come up: Fat Pitch Financials has put together a rather large 33rd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance – lots of reading here if you have the time. Phosita has put [...]

When I wrote Financial Challenge #7, I received a number of emails (and one comment) from people who said the “peace of mind” that the money in a savings account gives them is important. While it’s important to do what is best for you, it is also important to realize that this “peace of mind” [...]

Coming soon to a store near you – talking gift cards. Arthur Blank & Co. will be introducing the Talking Gift Card, which will allow you to not only give a gift card, but also allow your to record a short personalized message to go along with the card. The Talking Gift Card contains a [...]

The weekend is hear and that means it’s time to take a look at the past week’s Funny Money in the news: The Lucky Couple Finds $295,000 Worth Of Whale Vomit – whale vomit?!? Lost Handbag With $110,000 In Jewellery Returned – How do you forget $100,000? The Stupid Bank Robber Leaves Name & Address [...]

I came across this little piece about an ID Theft scam that goes to show that you really can’t trust anyone these days: For Aisha Shahid and dozens of others who went to an advertised job fair in Chattanooga and got offers of nightclub work in Atlanta, Memphis and Miami, the “dream jobs” turned out [...]

This challenge will mark the end of our “simple investing” plan. Just to reiterate, the reason we’re going for the “simple investing” plan is that saving money is the best investment that you can make when you’re just starting off. Once you reach $100,000 you can begin to spend more time researching different investing options, [...]

If you enjoy reading a large variety of the personal finance writing out there but find signing up for everyone’s rss feed a pain, you might want to check out PFBlogs.com which is currently aggregating 81 different pfblogs. Or just use their rss feed to get everything in one feed rather than doing it 81 [...]

If you have personal finance questions that you have been wanting to ask, today’s your chance. Kiplinger’s Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days in conjunction with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) will be answering anybody’s personal finance questions for free from 9 a.m. until 6 pm. eastern time on Friday, January 27 – [...]

Looking for some entertaining reading this week, check out the Business2 101 Dumbest Moments In Business – makes you wonder why you aren’t getting paid big bucks to run a company because you surely could not do worse than some of the moments mentioned… Grand Prize Winner, Dumbest Moment of 2005 – Bubble Trouble “If [...]

In the last challenge we talked about contributing to your 401(k) plan to get the matching funds. Unfortunately, some people don’t have access to a 401(k) fund or their company doesn’t match any contributions to the 401(k) fund. If this happens to be the case, then for most it’s time to move onto the next [...]

According to a new ACNielson survey, people in the US are the most cash strapped people in the world with 22% saying they have no money left after they have paid for their essential living expenses. This ties the US for number one with Portugal. While the numbers are nothing to smile about, there are [...]

For those who were affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the IRS has released a new publication – Publication 4492 (Information for Taxpayers Affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma) – which is now available on the IRS website. Paper copies will be available in about two weeks. This publication lists the disaster areas [...]

NOTE: The entire challenge series is what I would do with my money and is merely my opinion. You should do thorough research and seek professional advice and decide to do what is best for you. My Disclaimer Welcome to the second week of the Financial Challenge. While we spent some time last week looking [...]

I found this interesting data at usatoday: More than nine in 10 investors say they would choose a financial services company with strong ethics; just 5% prefer higher returns This is a classic case where people say what they think they should rather than the truth. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m sure that there [...]

I was informed with our annual car check that our car needed new tires. I went and looked at them and they appeared to be perfectly fine to me. We don’t drive that much and have maybe put 10,000 miles on them (and that is probably stretching it). When I asked why we needed new [...]

An interesting article at msn on why young families are broke: In case you haven’t figured it out, the reason you always feel broke is that you are married, with children. It’s that simple. Yes, you probably put too much on your Visa bill. And, yes, it’s incriminating that you know the exact price of [...]