Personal Finance Advice

By David John Marotta
For those working in the arts, financial planning is artistic freedom. You can be an artist and also eat well if you don’t avoid the subject of financial planning all together. After you have your cash flow and career planning in place, you also need to address your insurance and legal concerns. [...]

By David John Marotta
The image of the starving artist has prevailed too long. At the July 24-29 San Diego Comic-Con there were tens of thousands of people working in the arts. Of the 650 hours of events and presentations, only one hour was devoted to financial planning for artists. Here are the financial essentials that [...]

I find myself daydreaming about money quite a bit. It’s not so much about the money I have, but it’s about the money I don’t have…yet. Of course, if you add in my work bonuses and my lottery winnings I’m doing quite well for myself. Well no, I haven’t actually earned these [...]

I have always spread my money around in multiple accounts. I use multiple checking, savings, and investment accounts, all marked for different purposes. Some are at the same institution, but I also use several different banks, depending on my needs. When I started making money years ago, spreading it around was simply the easiest way [...]

I never pay any of our bills. Neither does my husband. But they get paid. Every month and on time.
Now I’m not advocating ignoring your bills and racking up a ton of debt. That would be stupid and begging for bankruptcy. What I am advocating is never physically going through [...]

“You’re causing me social stress!” was a common complaint of my college roommate, who liked solitude. I, on the other hand, loved the social life of the dorms and the wide activities college offered. I knew what she meant by “social stress,” though, and I still occasionally experience it today, often due to what [...]

What scares you? What is holding you back and affecting your financial well-being? If you were not afraid, how different would your life be? I think fear is a major problem when it comes to finances. Do you have any of the following financial fears?
Budgeting. This is one of the [...]

One of the few shows I make sure I watch is Survivorman. For those who are unfamiliar with this show, it is about a man who strands himself in different locales all around the world with just his camera equipment and a few random items for seven days. He then documents his survival, [...]

Budgets are a main foundation for a lot of people trying to get their finances in order, but is a budget always necessary? That is a question from one of the readers:
I keep reading about the importance of having a budget and I’m wondering how important it really is for someone that is spending less [...]

You’ve finally done it — earned that coveted diploma. You’re feeling a bit cocky. Your parents are wondering why they had to pay for your expensive education when you already knew everything.
Now it’s time to enter The Real World, the place that you have talked about for years as if it were a [...]

Sometimes the best ways to save depends on the number of people involved. That is the question that a single reader has about the cost of food:
I’m single male and I keep reading that it’s less expensive to cook your own food. I would love to save money, but I find that it is [...]

Many times it helps to hear how other people do the things and to use their examples to best fit your needs. That is such a question that came by e-mail the other day regarding how to budget:
I know that one of my problems is my lack of organization when it comes to [...]

By Wixx, special contributing writer
This is a fun little game in which the members of a household role play a little to help them save money. In this game, the family or roommates will play the part of the board of directors for the home or apartment business. Right away this will prove [...]

Looking for a way to get your finances organized and under control? Before you spend money on accounting or personal finance software, give a spreadsheet a try. Today’s spreadsheets are pretty powerful, with each file (or ‘workbook’) holding multiple sheets and unimaginably large amounts of data.
With that said, the prospect of building your own [...]

Sometimes finances go beyond your own and involve the finances of good friends or family members. When the finances aren’t yours, but those close to you, how do you help those that are obviously having trouble keeping their finances under control? This was a question that was raised in the forums:
Over the Memorial holiday my [...]

Even though I live a relatively frugal lifestyle, I enjoy nice things. The ironic thing is that if we purchased things like the average American, there is no way we could enjoy these nicer things. But by taking a few steps it’s possible to have your cake and eat it too.
The main ingredient [...]

There is nothing worse than money that you expect to cover some of your expenses not arriving. This is a problem that this reader has with child support:
I am a single mother with two small children and I have a major difficulty with my current budgeting. The problem is that I’m supposed to receive [...]

By S Shugars, special to pfadvice
Conventional wisdom says that paying to have your groceries delivered to your door is a waste of money. I have to disagree with this assessment. I have found that having my groceries delivered has saved me far more time and money than I could have ever done by shopping [...]

When you make financial decisions, there are times when you’d like to have others take a look at the decisions you have made and give their honest opinion on whether or not they think you’re on the right track. That is exactly what the writer of this email was looking for:
I earn approximately $77k and [...]

No doubt you have heard of the Two-Income Trap. I think a major issue that is often overlooked with the Two-Income Trap are taxes. I come from a situation where when it came down to having kids and wanting a spouse home, we never saw much of a loss going down to one income because [...]