Personal Finance Advice

Over the course of a lifetime, you will have many occasions to purchase living things. If you own a home, there will be landscaping that might require plants. Wherever you live, you might want houseplants. Perhaps you want a pet, whether that means a dog or a canary or a horse. If you know your [...]

I write a lot about things that I can eliminate in order to save money, but I am actually to the point where I really have nothing else that I particularly want to eliminate from my life or my household. There are some things that are just too important to my daily pleasure and, although [...]

Being frugal does not mean that you want something for nothing, unless nothing is the best price that you can possibly get for a product or a service. By that, I mean that none of us wants to take things for free when payment should be made. The reverse side of that coin, however, is [...]

For nearly two years, I have been offering my thoughts on saving money. Sometimes, readers have liked my ideas. Other times, the response has been less enthusiastic. In either case, rest assured that a lot of thought went into the creation of each article. Despite all that thought, there are still a lot of purchases [...]

I am a bit surprised to find myself with a lot of work to do. I am surprised both because my business is young and because the week before the Fourth of July is usually quite quiet in my profession. That said, I have enough work to do in the next week that I have [...]

The mercury has reached about 96 degrees each of the past two days. With the beginning of July on us, we move deeper into hurricane season and that will have a very clear effect on my household buying patterns for the next few months. Peak hurricane season is July and August, but the season, which [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

If you live in a small town, you probably know all of the good places to eat. Indeed, you might know all of the places to eat. The McDonald’s just off the highway. Maybe a locally owned restaurant or two. In small towns, there just are not a lot of options and that makes choosing [...]

Creative genius and business skills are not always found in the same person. Creative minds want to create for the sake of art. Business minds want to promote business success. In order to succeed in creative businesses, owners must balance on the edge of a knife while they make concessions to their creative ideals in [...]

Summer is coming. There is no denying it, at least if you live in the Northern hemisphere. Days are getting longer. Winter clothes are being stored in attics to await the return of cooler nights. Kids are ready for the school year to end. Summer vacation will be upon us in the blink of an [...]

Frugal living does not need to be Spartan and cost efficiency does not require huge sacrifice. Rather, in seeking to stretch our dollars we are attempting to get more, have more and, at least for many us, share more, than we would if we did not pay attention to our spending habits. Warren Buffet, for [...]