Personal Finance Advice

My neighbors’ oldest child just left for college this fall. Watching him load his car with electronics, clothes, and “stuff,” headed for his new apartment, I started reminiscing about when I was just starting out. When I was younger, I lived a life that made others think I was poverty stricken. I didn’t live that [...]

The other day on the light rail I sat near a woman. Let’s call her Sally Jesse. Sally Jesse spun her head around every time we stopped, asked everyone around her what station we were at, and promptly swiveled around to stare at the roadmap. Then a full 3 stops before Sally Jesse made her [...]

Gas prices are on the rise and have been forecasted to possibly reach $4.00 a gallon by this summer. This news sends many people into shock, but for me, it hardly makes me bat an eyelash. Granted, I don’t like spending extra money on anything, but I know that even if gas does [...]

Last year I went without a car in my first year of graduate school. The result? I saved myself $2000 in student loans, just in parking, gas, and insurance. With education costs rising, cutting out car expenses can really be a smart move to consider for any student. Here are a few [...]

By David John Marotta and Justin Harris
Purchasing a car is the second biggest spending decision we face as consumers next to buying a home. Unlike real estate or an investment portfolio which appreciates, cars are rapidly depreciating assets. In addition to the car’s sticker price, operating expenses can drive the unsuspecting consumer into the [...]

By Wixx, special contributing writer
I have a gas guzzler (a Chrysler Pacifica) and so most people would recommend that I trade it in for a car that gets better gas mileage to help save money. Since this is the only car I own, I use to to commute back and forth to work which at [...]

One simple way to save money is to keep your fixed costs low. In order to do this, you must first asses each of your regular expenses and see what subjective value it has for you. There are many items and services that we view as necessities or the basics these days that didn’t even [...]

My husband sighs, “I’m still bummed about the Cayenne.” We’re at a stoplight and out the driver’s side window is a beautiful, sparkling, silver Porsche Cayenne. About a year ago we were hot in the market for a new car. We had studied the Audi brand, the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge Magnum, and this [...]

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 [...]

Something has struck me as very odd over the years. I have mostly lived my life with great disdain for car dealers. As someone who was well taught how to shop for used cars from private parties, I never really considered going to the dealership for an overpriced car as an option.
My husband, on [...]

Co-signing on a loan is not something to undertake lightly. The reason that people need you to co-sign is because they have some issues with their credit or otherwise there would be no need for you to do so. And even if they have the best intentions to pay, sometimes things don’t work out as [...]

We all know that walking has health rewards, but it can have financial rewards as well. Here are ten financial reasons you should consider walking:
It’s free. This is the most obvious reason. You have to pay to own or rent a car, hop a bus, or ride the subway. Airplanes, helicopters, yachts, [...]

When it comes time to get a new car there are always a lot of questions that arise since it is a purchase that isn’t done very often. This reader wants to know whether or not she should get a new or used car plus some questions about how to get the best deal:
I will [...]

You may not know this, but your credit card provides a lot of additional services in addition to letting you postpone payment on purchases and earn cash back or frequent flyer miles. One of these services is rental car collision insurance. Car rental companies will always try to sell you insurance options that can add [...]

Most people assume that there is no way to reduce the cost of their commute, but there are a number of alternatives worth considering. Here are 10 ideas that can help you reduce the amount you spend commuting:
Get up earlier: If you can learn to leave an hour or two earlier, you’ll miss the majority [...]

If you’re looking to save money on gas with the rising prices, you probably have already heard most of the steps you can take to save money on gas. There are, however, a number of myths where people think they are saving gas when they probably aren’t. Here are four of them presented by CBS [...]

Cars can cause a lot of unexpected expenses when they get older and start to break down more and it is not often easy to know when a car should be traded in for a newer model. This reader wanted to know opinions on how one can tell when it’s time to get rid of [...]

Ever wonder why guys pay more for auto insurance than women? Insurance companies do risk analysis on different groups to determine if they are more likely to have an insurance claim than other groups. This video cuts it down to the basics with a lot of humor thrown in.
Warning: There is some adult language in [...]

In order to justify expensive purchases, many people, including plenty of otherwise very intelligent folks, like to refer to certain types of spending sprees as “investments.” Luckily for me, from the time I was about four years old, my father took any opportunity he could to tell me that anything that loses value after you [...]

By M Butler, special to pfadvice
I don’t own a car. I found myself in a desperate situation where I was not able to meet all of the payment obligations that I had and I was slowly drowning in debt. I needed to do something drastic and my decision was to get rid of my car. [...]