Personal Finance Advice

Looking for a way to get your finances organized and under control? Before you spend money on accounting or personal finance software, give a spreadsheet a try. Today’s spreadsheets are pretty powerful, with each file (or ‘workbook’) holding multiple sheets and unimaginably large amounts of data. With that said, the prospect of building your own [...]

Sometimes finances go beyond your own and involve the finances of good friends or family members. When the finances aren’t yours, but those close to you, how do you help those that are obviously having trouble keeping their finances under control? This was a question that was raised in the forums: Over the Memorial holiday [...]

Reasons Not To Be A Cheap B*stard: There are times to save money and then there are times when being cheap is going to cost you much more in some other way. So before you decide that something isn’t worth the expense, make sure that it won’t cost you more in the long run. How [...]

A new study finds that men in the 30s are making less than their fathers did. Since this age group is somewhat representative of what the generation is likely to earn for the rest of their lives. While the reasons for this have not been determined at this point, they will be studied later. Using [...]

If you’re creating a garden on the cheap or going for the frugal to downright FREE garden, here’s my list of must haves: 1) The frugal gardener needs to be flexible, as in no master landscape plan set in concrete. The frugal gardener lets the plants be the guide and the garden sort of “happens [...]

Disclaimer: I always have a difficult choice on whether to report these loopholes because even if they may technically be legal, they certainly are an abuse of the intended law. I do not recommend that people participate on either side of this scheme to raise poor credit scores. That being said, it does exist and [...]

When you decide to take on a part-time job, you have to figure out what job opportunities are legitimate and which are going to cost you money rather than help you make money. This question comes from a reader who has a friend that wants her to join a multi-level marketing firm: I am thinking [...]

Why Is Gas So Freakin’ Expensive: Looking for the reason that gas prices are so expensive? The Consumerist takes a look at the different issues that affect the price that we pay at the pump. Free Drinks: Here is an idea that will be starting a few days in Japan and will likely move to [...]

I keep reading general financial advice and disagreeing as it applies to me. Obviously, every one has a unique financial situation. Overall, it is better to get financial advice tailored toward your own situation. But over and over I notice that financial advice does not really apply to my case simply because I am young. [...]

By Wixx, special contributing writer I am sure that I am not the only person who did not bid on your auction because of one of these reasons. That means that you may now be relisting your item, or selling it for a lot less than what you could have. The following is a rant. [...]

When it comes time to get a new car there are always a lot of questions that arise since it is a purchase that isn’t done very often. This reader wants to know whether or not she should get a new or used car plus some questions about how to get the best deal: I [...]

Googling Credit Card Numbers For Fun and Profit: The question is, why are credit cards still so easy to find on the Internet? It’s seems that the credit card companies don’t seem to mind so much if you credit card number accidentally gets exposed – a scary article in how easy it can be to [...]

By S. Shugars In this consumer centered world that we live in, it is often easy to forget that: You are not the car you drive. You are not the house you live in. You are not the clothes you wear. You are not the toys you play with. You are not the people you [...]

You may not know this, but your credit card provides a lot of additional services in addition to letting you postpone payment on purchases and earn cash back or frequent flyer miles. One of these services is rental car collision insurance. Car rental companies will always try to sell you insurance options that can add [...]

Since I live in an area of the country where housing prices are higher than what I can afford, I was considering buying property in a very affordable state where I used to live and renting the property out. That city has a lot of available duplexes and quadraplexes, so I decided to read up [...]

How much did your car cost? How much did your camera cost? How much did your house cost? When you answered each of these questions, you likely chose the price that you paid for them. Whenever people go out to purchase something, they almost always focus on the retail price that they will pay for [...]

When it comes to resumes, work documents, and other professional writings, the quality of your writing directly impacts your success. Poor quality writing can lead to missed opportunities and negatively affect your earning power or financial well-being. When you don’t write correctly, you can come across as ignorant or careless and confuse your readers. Many [...]

This question actually comes for the forums from a member that wants to know how a phone bill all of a sudden jumped dramatically in price when they threatened to switch phone companies: My mom wanted to get a family plan for me and her at Cingular Wireless. Well my mom pays on the bill [...]

Credit Card Companies Cheer New Regulation?: Yes, it sound a bit fishy and there is a very good reason for it. The credit card companies are hoping by accepting a bit of oversight now, they will derail legislation that is much tougher on their practices. Common Myths About Traffic Tickets as told by a former [...]

No one would be surprised to read that cosmetics companies exaggerate the claims of what their products are able to do, yet thanks to an endless tirade of marketing, many of us still believe part or all of what we hear. Below, I’ve listed some of the biggest of these myths to help you deflate [...]