Personal Finance Advice

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 [...]

Eating out is often an indulgence, sometimes a necessity, and usually costly. It can also be a lot of fun. Where we choose to dine out is a personal decision but most of us can be helped in our decision making if we can find good food in a good venue that offers good value. [...]

The other day I was helping a friend sort through her expenses as she tried to save herself from an impending job loss. Things were going well until I got to her Internet expenses. She was paying $40 per month for high speed Internet at home. She was also paying another $50 per month for [...]

I drove one of my sons to a birthday celebration tonight. I’ll ignore, for at least the moment, that the “party” was held about 20 miles from my home and that it included, eighteen holes of golf, lodging in a villa, meals and who knows what else. When did sixteen and seventeen year old boys [...]

Most of us have collections of some sort. Maybe you collect dolls, stamps, coins, rocks, or movies. Some people collect bigger things like cars and antiques. Whatever our collector’s item of choice is, most of us come to a point in our lives when we ask ourselves, “Now what do I do with it?” Maybe [...]

I enjoy going to museums. Art, history, science — if it is in a museum, I am going to enjoy it. Of course, if I were to buy a ticket to every museum that I encountered, I could run up quite a bill. My family of four could easily cost $50 to $60 if I [...]

This week’s lesson was about the power of marketing on our buying decisions. This was my favorite lesson so far. Being a finance/consumer nerd, this kind of stuff really interests me. Dave starts out by telling us that we live in the most marketed and advertised culture in the history of the world. It’s no [...]

I’ve written before about how we’ve cut out cable TV, preferring instead to use Netflix and over the air channels for our entertainment needs. Recently, however, we allowed cable back into the house. I’m a huge Olympics and tennis junkie and my husband is a big NASCAR fan. And March Madness is coming. Between the [...]

One of the great things about being debt free is the freedom it gives me to pursue the hobbies I love without compromising my participation because I’m tapped out. I recently got back into photography, something I’d done in high school but pushed aside over the years as other things took priority. To get started, [...]

When the talk turns to weekend plans, usually ideas that involve spending come to mind. Dinner out. A movie. A night out at the clubs. A sports event. These things are fun and fine to do in moderation. However, they can get expensive if you do them every weekend or if you are on a [...]

Regardless of whether you are looking to reduce spending for the purposes of debt reduction, or for saving, the first thing that must be done is to identify where you are spending money unwisely. If you are not ready to be honest about a budget breaker, a vice, or a ‘treat,’ then you are not [...]

When a foot injury (and bitterly cold weather) recently sidelined me from my regular running routine, the doctor suggested that I find some low impact exercise to see me through my recovery time. Biking was out, at least for a while, because biking in sub-zero temperatures holds no appeal for me. I was already doing [...]

When we get bored or stressed, some of us tend to head for the stores to look for something to do. Maybe we want a new book, a new CD, or a new movie. Maybe we want new clothes so we can jazz up our wardrobe. Maybe a new board or video game will do [...]

I tend to be way behind the technology curve. Heck, I finally got a Wii two months ago, three years after the system came out. It’s not that I don’t like technology; I do and I’m always reading up on new gadgets to see what developments are coming. It’s just that I’ve found that keeping [...]

Many people want to be out of debt. They talk about it and they may even take steps toward the goal. They may make up their minds that they will never have debt (again) and that may become their mantra. They may have the best can-do attitude out there. Yet they may still fail. Why? [...]

I’ve noticed that some respondents to my previous articles seem to think that I’m living a life of deprivation because I choose to save money aggressively and live debt free. I want to set the record straight: A debt free life is not a poor life; it’s not a life of deprivation and suffering. It’s [...]

In the process of making out my Christmas card list for the year, I was struck by how many of our close friends are also debt free. I’ve never given it much thought, but there it was. We didn’t plan it this way, it just sort of evolved over the years. Like any sort of [...]

“More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.” – National Institute for Literacy “Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or ‘functionally illiterate.’ They can’t carry out simple tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing [...]

I’m a big reader and some of my reading materials are magazines. Yet over the last few years I’ve been noticing something: Magazines aren’t always good for my wallet. It’s not the subscription costs, but the advertising that’s the problem. Magazines are full of ads; it’s how they pay for their publication. I get it. [...]

I like to sip iced coffee when I drive. I am not sure that I like the coffee as much as I like crunching on the coffee-flavored ice, but for whatever reason, I like to have an iced coffee in the car. Of course, as a responsible frugalista, I would never admit to stopping at [...]