Personal Finance Advice

I tend to be a bit bullheaded at times. Well, maybe more than a bit, but just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do.
Take the advice that you hear everywhere about turning down your thermostat. Many people turn down the thermostat when they leave for work or are [...]

Do you know that feeling when you’ve had something hanging over your head for a long time — and then it’s gone? My husband and I have been enjoying that feeling. We just paid off our vehicle loan. What a relief!
Now we have the happy problem of what to do with the “extra” money [...]

When I was in the 6th grade, Mrs. Nygren (my teacher, may she rest in peace) used to admonish the class that no one should ever buy anything on credit except for a house. She was adamant. If we could not pay with cash, we should not buy what we wanted to buy. [...]

Weekend reading is a round-up of personal finance and money related stories that caught the eye of our forum members this week:

Americans’ debt shrinks – 1st time ever
Trickledown Downsizing
Eight of the market’s sharpest thinkers: The future is frightening
Recession Special: Buy one car, get one free
Why Bailouts Are Dangerous
Buy Short-Term [...]

There is a famous quote that says that money is the root of all evil. I think that statement is wrong. I think that the envy of money is the root of all evil. How can money be evil? Money is an inanimate object, and as such, is incapable of any action at all, let [...]

I was chatting with a neighbor the other day and he mentioned that he is having the entry to his home renovated. I was surprised, since his home is relatively new and, I think, quite nice. He laughed and said that his house does not have “foyer appeal” and that he wants it [...]

A neighbor recently confided that she had just paid off the last of her substantial debt.
“I can’t tell you what a relief it is,” she said. “It’s like having my life back again. All that time I was living under the crushing pressure, and now I’m free. I don’t know how things got so [...]

Although my wife and I may not be the most social of couples, our kids more than make up for our willingness to miss parties. My kids have always been popular with their peers and, when they were younger, routinely received one or two birthday party invitations per month. Sometimes, they received invitations from [...]

As the years have gone on, I’ve grown tired of the Christmas retail madness. We are a family of all grown ups so gift buying is almost impossible. Everyone tends to buy what they need and want throughout the year, leaving little left for Christmas except an exchange of gift cards. (Which is kind of [...]

It has been unseasonably cold in Orlando for the past couple of weeks. Nights have dropped into the thirties and days have rarely made it past 75 degrees. While that may seem balmy to anyone living north of Florida, trust me when I tell you that I am not used to this kind [...]

I thought since the holidays are fast approaching that I would share a few, very easy recipes that are also cost effective. My favorite quick and easy cookie recipe is especially suited to letting the kids help.
As a person with several years of baking experience, I want to first recommend using good quality ingredients. Use [...]

About fifteen years ago, in mid-February, I walked into a drug store and saw a surprisingly large display of Christmas wrapping paper. Everything was marked down to ten cents per package – regardless of how much wrap was included in the package. Some of the packages were multi-rolls of very nice wrapping paper. [...]

I spend a lot of time thinking about the holidays with thoughts about Christmas, cheap dates at Christmas (the holiday dates section), and the benefits of artificial Christmas trees among others. Whether you agree with my ideas or not, I believe that thinking about the holidays and how they affect your wallet is important.
I love [...]

Weekend reading is a round-up of personal finance and money related stories that caught the eye of our forum members this week:

Koobface Virus: Facebook Virus Being Used to Steal Credit Card Numbers
Predicting $25 a Barrel Oil
Tax-free Capital Gains Are Here
Having Sex to Save Money
The worst jobs with the best pay
[...]

My husband is on the verge of a life-changing diagnosis: type 2 diabetes. I’m proud to say that he is looking this impending diagnosis in the face and calling its bluff.
Besides the symptoms is the sheer expense of diabetes: insulin, blood meters and co-pays for the doctors’ appointments, to name a few. In our quest [...]

The summer of 1987 was a great summer for me. I was between the junior and senior years of college and had decided that I could give up the retail job that I had held since age 16. Instead, I took a job working at the Essex Institute (now the Peabody-Essex Museum) in [...]

Money is physically dirty

99.9% of all paper money is covered in germs and bacteria including E. coli and salmonella. Money isn’t just dirty because of the microorganisms; it’s also covered in bits of fecal matter and grains of cocaine. You would probably be just as well off licking the bottom of your shoe as you [...]

I live in a suburb that has grown rapidly over the past decade. When we first moved here, there were two shopping areas within three miles of our home. Now there are at least eight. Where once there were trees, now there are stores and restaurants.
A lot of the development I [...]

By Maggie Ellis, guest writer
I know many people who are followers of Dave Ramsey’s financial advice. Since the economy has tanked, it seems like I’m seeing even more people joining the Dave bandwagon, looking for a way out of the financial messes that they have gotten themselves into. His “Total Money Makeover” and the associated [...]

This year marked the 5 year anniversary of my Grandfather’s passing. When he died, it was like losing my father. In fact, he was the only father figure in my life for my first 8 years until my mother remarried. So it’s no surprise his death affected me as deeply as it did.
This past [...]