Personal Finance Advice

In the last year, quite a few houses have gone up for sale in my neighborhood. Several have sold and several have languished. While price plays a big role in what sells and how quickly, most of the houses that languished in my neighborhood were priced competitively. So what made them unappealing to buyers? One [...]

Do you have a museum, zoo, or theme park nearby that you find yourself visiting more than once per year? If you do, you might want to look into the costs and benefits of buying a season pass or becoming a member. I was surprised recently to discover that a year long membership at my [...]

Have you noticed that lately new bank fees and fee increases have been popping up like pimples on prom night? Much of this is because of new federal regulations limiting revenue major financial institutions take in from things like overdraft fees and, more importantly, debit card swipe fees. Also known as interchange fees — this [...]

Unless you get your clothes dry cleaned, wire coat hangers are getting harder to find. Everyone seems to appreciate the plastic and wood models more these days and those are the hangers you’ll find in stores. I’ll bet, though, that you have a stash of old wire hangers in your closet. Wire hangers have a [...]

By Steve Siebold A new report from a research arm of congress says the rich are getting richer. The average household income for the nation’s top 1% nearly tripled from 1979 to 2007, while middle class incomes grew by less than 40%. How do you break into that top 1%? It starts with your mindset. [...]

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about how to find cheap books if you need to feed your reading habit but your library is dying or dead. In the comment trail for that piece, several readers expressed disappointment that the piece wasn’t about how to keep such a frugal resource alive in the [...]