Personal Finance Advice

Women know how expensive cosmetics can be. Even the basic drugstore brands can cost anywhere from $3.00 on up per item. If you buy department store brands, you can easily drop twenty dollars or more on just one item. Given that most women use several items (lipstick, eye shadow, eye liner, foundation, blush, mascara, and [...]

Sometimes, common sense escapes even the most intelligent of people. We all make fundamental assumptions. Drawers should slide open and slide closed. Doors should behave in a similar fashion. When they do not, something very primitive and entirely irrational possesses all too many of us. We devolve to the level of the beasts and try [...]

I went to a yard sale this weekend that was disappointing, to say the least. Everything on sale was either broken, damaged, dirty, or trash (one half-used crayon, a moldy mattress, a shirt so faded and tattered that it would only suffice for rags, and board games missing most of the pieces and with the [...]

What’s in a name? Sometimes a lot. And sometimes not a lot. It all depends on what name is at issue and what associations you have with that name. If someone calls you by your name, you will recognize it. If someone calls you by a friendly nickname or pet name, you will similarly recognize [...]

In this economy a lot of people are returning to the workforce after having stayed at home for several years. Maybe you stayed home to care for children or elderly parents, or simply because you had enough income or savings to do so. Unfortunately, the longer you are out of the workforce, the more difficult [...]

I am a Boston Celtics fan and I have been since I was a youth during the rather wonderful season that was 1981. I had the joy of going to see the Celtics play regularly in the Boston Garden back when fans could arrive early and, if they thought about it, walk on the parquet [...]

Like most people, I used to factor groceries, toiletries, and household items into my regular budget. The cost of those items had to be deducted from my cash flow. That was before I discovered how to pay for most of my household needs without ever dipping into my regular income. Thanks to online surveys and [...]

Father’s Day has come and gone. My family dutifully celebrated my status as “Dad” by going out for breakfast and, later in the day, ice cream. In deference to the day, no one complained when I ordered only coffee for breakfast and passed up the ice cream as I am trying to drop a few [...]

A friend came to me for advice the other day regarding a big problem brewing in his house. His in-laws are getting up in years and have very little saved to cover their health care and long term needs. Health problems are starting to show up and expenses are mounting. They’ve told their daughter and [...]

When I was younger, I hated to go back to school shopping. Every year, as the calendar pages turned and Labor Day approached, I dreaded my mother’s announcement that we would be headed to the store to buy clothes for school. That always meant a trip to the nearest Sears for shirts and corduroy pants [...]

I read an article on MSNBC.com this week about how people are not paying on their homes and voluntarily entering foreclosure so that they can save money. The gist of the piece is that these people have simply decided to stop paying on the home and use the money for doing more fun things in [...]

Summer is coming to the Northern hemisphere so, for most of us, we are going to be feeling the heat very soon. If you live in a climate that is already hot, as I do, the heat will be even more intense. No matter where you live, you will need to drink more, and more [...]

Your water heater is one of the biggest contributors to your electric bill. It’s usually on all the time, heating water even when no one is home. I learned just how much it contributes to the power bill one summer when I went on a long vacation. I had turned it off at the fuse [...]

You are only young once, and that is a good thing — not only for parents and children, but for everyone else, too. Last year, one of my sons went to Boston for the summer to study creative writing. The program was designed to give him a taste of college life and living away from [...]

I lost a good couple of hours of my life this week to a website that a friend directed me to called Bundle.com. This site lets you look at the aggregated monthly spending habits of people in any city, county, or state in the U.S. You can further break it down by age groups, family [...]

As I sit at my desk typing this column, it is Sunday afternoon. My newspaper, now read and enjoyed over several cups of tea and a few cups of coffee, lies scattered at my feet. When I have the energy to rise from my office chair, I will be visiting my garage to deposit today’s [...]

Last fall we had new neighbors move in next door. They seemed nice enough until spring came and I started hanging my laundry out on the line again. One day the lady of the house came over and said, “Can you not hang your laundry on the line? It’s not nice to look at.” I [...]

I was scheduled to have coffee with someone tomorrow but he had to reschedule because he has a telephone interview. I am always happy to reschedule a meeting because another person has an interview or an opportunity to meet with a client. I really believe that every person who finds a new job or a [...]

SavingAdvice is starting a new column that’s going to look at strange, offbeat ways to save and make money. Anything that’s a little odd, uncommon, or contrarian is fair game – as long as it’s legal. You probably already know about Roth IRA’s. These are IRA’s that you fund with after tax dollars and then, [...]

I have been fortunate to have known a lot of creative people over the years. I count writers and musicians and many other “creatives” among my friends. In years gone by, I was a partner in a record label and I managed bands. Today, I do a little writing myself, as you may have noticed. [...]