Personal Finance Advice

Every so often, hard work and dedication really do pay off in fabulous ways! Recently, Mary Hannaby, a 57 year old English housewife, hit the jackpot while metal detecting in a field that she had searched many times over the years. An avid treasure hunter for the past 7 years, Mrs. Hannaby found [...]

When was the last time you were invited to a swap meet? How many of us actually remember them? For those of you who are new to the ways of the frugalista, a swap meet is “An informal gathering for the barter or sale of used articles or handicrafts.” The last swap meet [...]

It’s been said in a derogatory way that “talk is cheap.” I suppose it is, but it is also cheap in a wonderful way. There are few things that we can do in just about every environment and every situation to relieve boredom, share companionship and stimulate the mind, but if have a [...]

I am in the midst of a job search. Although I have excellent experience and academic credentials, I am one of the hundreds of thousands of intelligent, articulate and qualified jobseekers in the market today. I am sure I shall eventually find a job, but my job search has taught me that despite [...]

In this day and age of satellite television, home video game systems, iPods and other toys that entertain and often isolate us, it is sometimes difficult to recall that not too long ago, there was a time when there were no expensive electronic toys to keep us occupied. The older I get, the more [...]

My family and I have lived in the same house for close to a decade. When we moved here, there were six palm trees on our rather small lot, and I could trim all of them on my own. A few years ago, several of the trees had grown to a height that [...]

Editor Note: This is a repost of an article posted last week. David did a live, nationally televised show regarding on ABC Money Matters titled Shop With Your Man: Why husbands should shop with their wives.
Although the men I know seem uniformly capable of going to a store, buying a product, and feeling confident in [...]

Summer is coming. By the time you read this, your kids or grandkids, if you have them, may already be on summer vacation. Back when I was a kid, that meant endless days of hiking in the woods with my friends, playing baseball, shooting baskets and generally trying to make myself scarce so [...]

Yesterday, I got a dog. We named him “Peter’s Lucky Biscuit” and he is adorable. That’s him in the photo to the left. Biscuit is a pure bread labradoodle. We had to get a pure breed because we needed a hypoallergenic breed that would be more likely to be compatible with [...]

I may have written about my dad in the past. Dad is a retired dentist. He grew up during the Depression, barely got through high school while he worked multiple jobs to support his family and joined the Navy at age 17 during World War II. My Dad was truly part of [...]

I live about two miles away from “Restaurant Row,” a road that has an amazingly high concentration of restaurants from Mickey D’s to fine dining. I generally do not visit any of them, with only a few exceptions. Nestled among all of the high end chains (Roy’s, Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, etc.) there are [...]

I truly love to write. I enjoy self-expression. I enjoy giving advice. I enjoy the feedback I receive from my readers. I love the power that the written word has to motivate, to intrigue and to inspire. We all have stories worth telling or knowledge and experience worth sharing. With a [...]

Last Sunday, my son overslept and could not go to church with the rest of the family. Accordingly, he went to a later service by himself. When I dropped him off at the church, I said to him, “Remember that you may sit down next to a girl who you may someday marry [...]

Why are you here? I am not asking for your take on the meaning of life or your grand purpose in life (although I am always happy to listen if you want to tell me). Rather, I want to know why you are reading this article at this very moment.
Are you here [...]

Recently, a twelve year old New Jersey Little League pitcher pitched a perfect game. For those of you who are not baseball fans, a perfect game occurs when a pitcher retires every batter in a game, without any of them reaching base. It is one of the rarest feats in baseball and it [...]

One of the most enduring images that I recall from college was a video clip of an obviously drunk student at a football game and holding up a sign which read, “I don’t care. Daddy’s paying.” At the time, although my parents had paid for my tuition, I was working about 20 hours [...]

Last week, a fellow I know was lamenting to me the cost of his daughters’ weddings. He has three girls. Both he and his wife are very loving parents so I found it really quite odd that he was worrying about wedding plans. He even went so far as to express the [...]

This past Sunday, my wife and I awoke to the pitter patter of little feet in our home. It was not our children, because long ago they left gentle footsteps behind them in favor of the thundering stomp-stomp-stomp of teenage boys. It was not our grandchildren because we do not have any. It [...]

About ten years ago, a woman I know gave up a high paying job in Connecticut because she felt that she could not handle the stress. She moved to rural Florida for a few years, lived with a guy she had met in high school in a house that her parents bought and basically [...]

The other day my son managed to lose a pair of pants from his school uniform. How he did this, I am not sure, since he was wearing them at school that day. Nevertheless, somehow between the end of the school day and the end of his bus ride home, he managed to [...]