Personal Finance Advice

Countless employees dream of leaving behind a demanding boss, working from home, and earning a limitless income. Self-employment, however, is not the same as a life of leisure. As was already pointed out a few months ago, much of the mythos surrounding self-employment is simply mythical. Businesses that promote work from home “opportunities” thrive on [...]

When saving money, meals in restaurants are rightfully one of the first expenses to be cut, but if you hate to cook as much as I do, budgeting for a meal or two out each week may save enough of your sanity to be worth the expense. On the days you do choose to eat [...]

Nearly half (45%) of college graduates are working in fields unrelated to their majors four years after graduation, according to a 1997 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s hard to imagine when reading the want ads, which often have high expectations for candidates with specific degrees and several years’ experience in a [...]

Music has a profound effect on many people. A specific song can trigger long-forgotten memories and emotions or can inspire someone to make a life change — maybe proposing marriage, following a dream, entering rehab, or expressing appreciation to parents. Music is a creative way to express the thoughts and emotions dearest to our hearts. [...]

You may have already heard that if you bought a diamond or diamond jewelry between 1994 and 2006, you might be able to get a share of a class action settlement. Is it worth your time to submit a claim? Based on the results of past class action suits, it’s a bit of a gamble. [...]

Before money existed, people exchanged goods and services through bartering. Even after money became the logical solution to the problem of finding someone who could offer what you wanted and wanted what you had to offer, bartering remained a viable alternative way to do business. Today, as the Internet has enabled more would-be barterers to [...]

When I volunteered to send greeting cards to members of the congregation as part of our church’s “encouragement team,” the team leader told me that the church could stamp the envelopes if it was a financial hardship for my family. “We can manage it,” I said a bit sheepishly (as I do when I don’t [...]

If you have a lot of storage space, warehouse clubs, such as BJ’s, Costco, and Sam’s Club, can help you save some money on products you use frequently. The one we visit does not offer the best deals on every product, but we depend on it for consistently low prices (usually about 30% less than [...]

As a child, I went grocery shopping with my adult sister at a store that didn’t exist in my hometown. When she checked out, the cashier gave her a number of stamps based on how much she had spent, and she discovered that she had enough saved to treat me to a toy chosen from [...]

Other than our mortgage and utilities, the majority of our regular spending goes to consumables. It’s amazing to think how much it costs to keep our bodies fed, clean, and healthy. Penny pincher that I am, I try to squeeze every last bit out of our consumable items before I throw them away. Each little [...]

“Countercultural” is one of the last things most people would call me, but the description that fits me well. Chances are, if you are reading this article, you are countercultural, too. Living within your means and saving for the future are pretty radical ideas in our culture of easy credit and instant gratification. In addition [...]

Personal finance books and articles offer many simple ways to save money — cut out a daily trip to Starbucks, turn down the heat by one degree, order water at restaurants — and all of these tips are useful, but we often ignore the fact that the best way to save money is not so [...]

Some bits of advice are so common that they’re cliche – don’t put all your eggs in one basket, don’t count your chickens before they hatch, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and so forth. But have you ever thought about how advice for other areas of your life can apply to saving [...]

In England, letterboxing is old news – more than 150 years old, in fact – but I only heard about it for the first time (from two different sources) in 2007. It may be gaining more popularity because of its close relation to geocaching and the many recent books and movies about puzzle-themed treasure hunting [...]

Coupon clippers and other frugal types are under constant scrutiny by those who are eager to call them “penny wise but pound foolish.” “You might be saving pennies there,” the naysayers say, “but you waste dollars on the big things.” While penny pinchers who overlook big savings are common enough to make “penny wise but [...]

Creativity is vital for frugal living. No, you don’t need to be a poet or a sculptor to save money, but you do need to look at life a little differently from how most people do. One of the ways creativity comes into play when saving money is in problem solving. Trying to discover the [...]

A number of people have pointed out that advertisements that insult consumers use these ads because they work and that I must be affected by ads, too. I agree with these comments. I never said that those particular ad strategies are ineffective, only that they are insulting. I also have nothing against advertising in general [...]

Bargain hunters looking for deeply discounted Christmas items and gift recipients eager to exchange their loot for something that better fits their bodies or personalities make the day after Christmas a busy one for retailers. With 364 shopping days until Christmas, those who work best under pressure might not have enough motivation to start shopping [...]

Successful businesses spend a lot of time planning – creating a business model, a business plan, a strategy, and a mission statement. They want to define their main purpose and goals partly so that everyone in the company can stay focused on the reason for their work and not get distracted by other worthy but [...]

Though they’ve been around for more than sixty years, fair trade products have been gaining popularity in recent years. They seem to have made the jump from something only bought only by earth mothers to a common way for mainstream shoppers to purchase responsibly. Though not without its critics from both sides of the political [...]