Personal Finance Advice

Usually at Thanksgiving, I make a point to give thanks for non-material things. I need that reminder not to overlook the things that really matter when I’m so busy thinking about earning, saving, and spending money. However, this year, I decided to make a list of money-related things for which I give thanks. I share [...]

Dinner parties can be a lot of fun to attend, but not necessarily a lot of fun to host. From staying up late the night before preparing the meal to racing home after work to finish cooking the meal, it’s almost like a second job. Don’t even get me started on the costs of these [...]

I used to love Christmas shopping. I truly enjoyed searching for just the perfect gift for each person on my list – something that fit each one’s personality and interests, something that no one else would buy, and yet something still within my budget. But as the years wear on and the people on my [...]

For me, running errands or shopping for groceries is like an adventure. Every time I enter a store there’s always a new item on sale, which of course I never need, but yet I always end up buying. Why is it that I always fall into this trap of coming home with more items and [...]

I enjoy doing most kinds of puzzles. My favorites are logic puzzles (the type that usually come with a grid in the Penny Press Logic Puzzles magazine), kakuro, and crosswords. My local newspaper carries kakuro only on Sundays and doesn’t have logic puzzles at all, so I’m often fighting temptation to buy a logic puzzle [...]

By David John Marotta In 1985, an MIT professor won the Nobel Prize for a simple technique that squirrels have known intuitively from birth — you have to “squirrel” away some nuts during times of plenty so you can survive during times of scarcity. Economist Franco Modigliani won his Nobel Prize for modeling how humans [...]

Last year I went without a car in my first year of graduate school. The result? I saved myself $2000 in student loans, just in parking, gas, and insurance. With education costs rising, cutting out car expenses can really be a smart move to consider for any student. Here are a few ways that doing [...]

Lately I’ve been trying to save more and spend less, all the while trying to exercise more and eat less. I’ve learned that even though I’m trying to accomplish two different goals, the principles to succeed are very similar. And these two goals are hard enough to take on during the year, but throw in [...]

By David John Marotta Financial planning is important, but it is never urgent. Most people fail to establish a financial plan because they fail to start planning. Some resolutions can be postponed, but for every six years that you delay saving and investing, you cut your retirement lifestyle in half. So, act on your resolution [...]

Dear Mom, I’ve been at school for three weeks now, and I still hate the pale green of my dorm room walls. What do they think we are? Prisoners? Classes are going great… As I previously mentioned, many people love art, and as the popularity of shows like Design on a Dime shows, people like [...]

Do you want to know what I dislike more than grocery shopping? Coming home with more grocery bags. Plastic or paper, it doesn’t matter. I just don’t reuse all those bags, and the piles keep stacking up. So I started searching for some clever reusable and recycling grocery bag ideas, and I’m passing this information [...]

Shortly after my husband and I got engaged, he asked to take a look at how much I had in student loans. He knew that my graduate program cost a lot, but had no idea how much in the red I was. He bought the rock which proved to me that he wasn’t going anywhere, [...]

I was talking with a group of friends about the upcoming holidays and one said, “I’m so afraid of Christmas. I don’t know how we’re going to afford it and I just know we’re going to end up in financial trouble because of it. It terrifies me, but there’s nothing I can do about it!” [...]

This is my project for the weekend – to build a solar window heater (shown in the video below). It’s been a fairly mild winter here in Japan thus far and I have managed not to take out the space heater, but it’s been getting colder and it is just a matter of time. With [...]

By David John Marotta and Justin Harris Purchasing a car is the second biggest spending decision we face as consumers next to buying a home. Unlike real estate or an investment portfolio which appreciates, cars are rapidly depreciating assets. In addition to the car’s sticker price, operating expenses can drive the unsuspecting consumer into the [...]

With the holiday season almost upon us (or already in full swing if you accept what retailers are telling us), what are your holiday tipping rules? I had a quite lively debate about this with a group of friends who had a wide variety of opinions on the subject, and I’m sure the readers here [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky The average college student graduates with almost $20,000 in student loans. While this is a daunting sum, it is still possible to build wealth even while paying off student debt. But earning the degree and paying for the degree require two different kinds of smarts. In fact, [...]

Yesterday, as I washed two coffee mugs that my aunt gave me, I said unexpectedly to myself, “These will be among my final things.” An image flashed before me. I saw myself, old and shrunken, seated at a little table surrounded by the few belongings worth keeping through the years; a lifetime of journals, my [...]

I am one of the first to admit that television, video games, the Internet, and cell phones add fun and convenience to our lives. But this past April I took the challenge presented by TVTurnOff.org and shut the television off for the week. For good measure, I also shut off the video games, and the [...]

By David John Marotta No married couple wants a scandal, even if it is just financial in nature. Money problems can ruin the love affair with your spouse. The work of blending two lives in harmony requires certain basic commitments. Many families today are financially troubled. Most of these are in denial. The rest of [...]