Personal Finance Advice

One of the things I would have liked to do is to both try and get a loan from Prosper and lend some money through Prosper just to be able to give a better account of how the system works, but unfortunately being in Japan at this time makes doing that a rather complicated issue. [...]

In the last few Financial Challenges, we’ve hit on area such as cable TV, Internet service and long distance phone service where you may be able to find painless savings. Today we are going to take a look at a less obvious monthly charge where you may be able to compare prices and get a [...]

I received an email regarding my earlier introduction post about Prosper.com and whether it would be a good place to consolidate her credit card debt: …I have a little under $10,000 in credit card debt where I’m paying about 27% interest on three different cards. The payments are killing me and I’ve been trying to [...]

Sorry, I couldn’t let this one go and I’m interested in getting the opinions of others on this. Let’s just say that my eyes were rolling a tiny wee bit as I read this article over at msn titled Why the Donald gets all the girls? Why do beautiful women keep marrying Donald Trump? Most [...]

If you ever had a doubt that credit card companies only had their best interest in mind, you can see it clearly in the recent escalation of credit card offers aimed to entice you to put your taxes on your credit card. This includes such cards as Chase offering double mileage on the United Mileage [...]

In the last couple of Financial Challenges we’ve compared rates on cable TV / satellite TV and Internet providers in an attempt to lower the price we pay for these services. One of the wonderful aspects of going after these monthly costs is that if you can reduce the amount you pay, you place more [...]

If you have done eBay auctions for any length of time, you soon realise that Paypal takes quite a bit in fees from your sales, but they have also extended their reach into a lot of other enterprises on the Internet. For example, most of our advertising is paid for through Paypal payments. That means [...]

In the last Financial Challenge we used competing offers to get a better deal on our cable TV / satellite TV. As we pointed out in the last challenge, the most difficult part in many of these Financial Challenges is actually making the call, but this simple step is necessary to get many of the [...]

Another Friday has arrived and to get the weekend off to a good start, here are a few stories from the news that will make you laugh, or more likely, make you shake your head. No matter what, they will show that life isn’t near as bad as the previous week may have made it [...]

Who says personal finances can’t be exciting? Not Hollywood who will be releasing the movie Firewall (with trailer) tomorrow. The movie is about Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) who works for the Seattle-based Landrock Pacific Bank as a computer security specialist. As a top-ranking executive, Jack has built his career and reputation on designing anti-theft computer [...]

While my counterparts will be spending well over $100 and deciding between candy, an evening out with their significant other, flowers, jewelry and gift cards (gift cards???? – even I know that is a sure to pour cold ice on a romantic evening – “here honey, a gift card just for you because I love [...]

Have some time to waste and a keen interest in housing prices in your area (or anywhere in the US)? You have to check out the site zillow.com, but be sure you have some time set aside to play. Whether you are looking to buy, sell or you already own a home, there is fun [...]

Today we’re going to stick with painless saving, but we’re going to move away from insurance for a short while (don’t worry, we’ll get back to other insurance policies in a short time) and work on some other areas where you can save money without changing your lifestyle. One of the easiest places to lower [...]

When I first read about this in the UK, I knew it was only a matter of time before something like it started here in the US. I stumbled across a new site that has started to do person to person lending in the US the other day. The site is called Prosper.com and it [...]

I just finished up an article on the main site about some simple steps you can take to help avoid a tax audit They include: 1. Make sure all the math calculations on your return are correct 2. Be sure to sign your tax return. 3. Be sure to fill out form 4868 to get [...]

I’ve spent a lot of my years freelance writing. In the early years it was just the thrill of getting published that kept me going because the pay was literally nothing at times. As I got more pieces published I began to get paid more for my articles to where I could get several hundred [...]

Welcome to another week and Day 12 of the Financial Challenges. With W-2 forms arriving in the mail you should be getting ready to do your taxes soon if you haven’t started them already. The IRS Free File tax network has thrown a little curve ball into getting your taxes done for free this year. [...]

The weekend is hear and that means it’s time to take a look at the past week’s Funny Money in the news: Wife Sets Up Husband To Be Robbed – Now there’s a solid relationship Grave Robbers Target Hong Kong’s Wealthiest Man’s Dead Wife – At least they have good taste… Bill Gates Has Tax [...]

Give yourself a big old pat on the back if your finished the series of making sure you’re getting the best price on your car insurance. If you went through all the steps and still weren’t able to save any money, don’t feel bad at all about it. You should be happier than the rest [...]

This post has already gotten me in trouble with my wife, but I swear it was necessary research! Big Mike was kind enough to inform me that: “The problem with this (simple investing) plan is that it’s boring, and if it’s too boring people would rather spend their money on a new car than the [...]