Personal Finance Advice

You’ve probably seen targeted marketing in action. When you receive a coupon in your email because you subscribe to a company’s newsletter, or when you get a discount code from your favorite resort, you’re seeing targeted marketing. Targeted marketing extends discounts and special offers to customers based on their prior history with a company or [...]

Life insurance is one of those things that many of us know we should have, but often don’t get. You need life insurance if you have people who depend on your income. It’s designed to provide money in the event of your death so that your surviving spouse and any children can continue to cover [...]

If you’re a student, you know that textbooks are expensive. Some are so expensive you think they must have gold plating somewhere within the pages. For years the only way to save on textbooks was to buy used books, either from your school’s store or from a third party seller. Now, though, you can rent [...]

This year I’m making more of an effort to make my actions meaningful. This comes after a couple of years where I’ve found myself wondering, “Where did the time go?” I find myself getting distracted by the Internet or some other mindless entertainment and whole hours are suddenly gone. It’s not like whatever I was [...]

Financial gurus often tout the money saving aspect of paying cash. With cash, if you don’t have it you don’t spend it, unlike with credit cards. But there is a lesser known aspect of paying cash that will save you money in the long run. Paying cash, especially at local mom-and-pop stores will help to [...]

I love the theater and music. I love sporting events. I love to watch live performances. Video is good, but there’s nothing like being in an arena watching your team or favorite artist perform. For all that I love live productions, however, I very rarely attend any. Why? Ticket prices. I don’t dispute that artists [...]

It happens to all of us. A valued relationship ends. It may be a friendship, a marriage, or a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Maybe the relationship ends through death, or divorce, or a messy break-up. Maybe it ends more gradually and one day you wake up and realize you just have nothing in common anymore. Maybe one [...]

One of the most frequent pieces of advice given to those wanting to save money is to write down all of your spending. Doing this exposes all the wasteful spending that often slips by unnoticed. I have a corollary piece of advice: If you want to save money, start by examining your trash, both at [...]

Two weeks ago I got food poisoning. I got it from a deli sandwich that either had bad mayo or meat on it. This wasn’t a little, twenty-four hour case of food poisoning, either. This was a full-blown-week-long-have-to-go-to-the-doctor-because-I’m-dangerously-dehydrated kind of food poisoning. Let me tell you, it wasn’t fun. (Although losing eleven pounds in a [...]

We all know that time is our most finite resource. We all have a set number of days on this planet and we’re not getting any more. We can’t make or buy more time. Since we can’t make more time, it’s important to make the most of the time we do have. I’ve found that, [...]

I have a friend who works at a tire shop. When possible, he takes some of the old tires and uses them to create art. His latest creation is a big, whimsical bug sitting in a lawn chair. There is another person in town who makes art from discarded yard supplies like mowers, garden hoses, [...]

I received a call from my TV provider the other day. After giving me a pep talk about what a great customer I am, the representative explained that I was about to receive, “A very special offer. Something that we’re only offering to one percent of our clients!” Being polite, I didn’t hang up on [...]

I just purchased a $200 pair of sunglasses. While many people would consider this an unnecessary splurge, I consider it to be a frugal purchase. Some of you are undoubtedly assuming that I have lost my senses, but I’m able to make this statement with confidence because I know myself well. I rarely buy things [...]