Personal Finance Advice

Despite the fact that it’s the middle of winter here, my dog has fleas. I got this great news at the vet’s office when she went in for her checkup. He said that the weather conditions here have been perfect for growing a huge flea population and now that it’s cold, all those fleas are [...]

I spent Christmas visiting my parents. When I am at my parents’ home, I am always amazed that nothing is ever out of place. I can walk into the house and know exactly what I will see and where it will be. I know what is in every drawer and every closet. [...]

When thoughts turn to getting more cash every month, many people assume that they’ll have to take a second job. That may be true. If your financial situation is dire or if you have your heart set on some big ticket item, a second job may be the only way to get to the necessary [...]

When people find out that I’m debt free, the thing they most want to know is how it’s possible and how they can achieve it, too. Quickly. They want the crash course or the quick fix to debt free living. I tell them that there really is no quick fix. There’s no magic pill that [...]

I’m always a little surprised at how much everything in our society is measured in terms of money. We measure our worth by our salaries, not by how much we love our work. We measure our remodeling projects by how much we can get back when we sell and not on how much we love [...]

The only debt we’ve ever incurred was to buy our house. At the time we bought, we just didn’t have a spare $150K lying around so we had to get a mortgage. We knew going in that we didn’t want to be stuck with it for thirty years so we set out to buy a [...]

We just had our first cool snap of the year. While it will be hot again by the end of the week, the cool weather reminded me of the things I need to do to get my home and family ready for the colder months ahead. Some simple preparation and prevention efforts now will save [...]

It is the middle of August. That means that if you live anywhere in the continental United States, it is probably a lot hotter outside than you would like. With temperatures in the 90’s and 100’s across much of America, staying cool becomes a very serious pursuit. Staying cool without breaking the [...]

A friend of mine works for the local newspaper. In the process of writing an article about green home improvements, she stopped by to look around my house since she knows that I am a “greenie.” She wanted me to show her the improvements we’ve made and to give her an estimate of how much [...]

Recently I was trapped in a hotel on a rainy weekend and I got sucked into a marathon of Clean House. (This is why I don’t keep cable at home. If stuff is on, I just fall into it.) I was mesmerized by the amount of stuff that some of these people had. Stuff was [...]

I was talking to a neighbor the other day and she expressed how frustrated she is with her current house and how much she’d like to move. As we talked, it became clear to me that it’s not the actual house, neighborhood, or lot she hates, it’s that the house is older and needs some [...]

I was listening to the radio the other day and the DJ was talking about how he had to call someone to come fix his garage door opener. No matter how much he pushed the button, it wouldn’t open. There was no sign of life from the thing; even the overhead light didn’t work. So [...]

This past Sunday, my wife and I awoke to the pitter patter of little feet in our home. It was not our children, because long ago they left gentle footsteps behind them in favor of the thundering stomp-stomp-stomp of teenage boys. It was not our grandchildren because we do not have any. It [...]

About ten years ago, a woman I know gave up a high paying job in Connecticut because she felt that she could not handle the stress. She moved to rural Florida for a few years, lived with a guy she had met in high school in a house that her parents bought and basically [...]

If you can’t afford the luxury of a professional crew of organizers and designers to organize your clutter and maximize your space, that doesn’t mean you have to keep living in chaos. Those of us on a budget still have plenty of options for getting organized. All you need to get started is some time [...]

I recently wrote about services that we never would have purchased forty years ago but which now are commonplace expenditures. Indeed, I suggested (or at least implied) that there was no real reason to ever use services such as a lawn service because most domestic services we could and should handle on our own. [...]

People frequently ask me why I’m so committed to living without debt. Am I debt phobic? Afraid of bankruptcy? Am I afraid that I’ll get in over my head? Am I just out of touch with “the way people do things these days?” I always answer no to all of these questions. The reason I [...]

A lot of people are realizing that a life without debt is both liberating and safe. It’s something that more and more people are striving for. The problem is, many people who would like to live a life without debt have no idea what that sort of life looks like. They have spent so many [...]

Do you ever stop to consider all of the papers that you receive in the course of your daily life, but which you do not stop to read? Do you read the warranties on every product you purchase and the terms and conditions on every website that you visit? Do you even bother [...]

Part of what has gotten the economy into such a mess is the belief that everyone should be a homeowner. Everyone from the government, to the mortgage brokers, to the banks, to the realtors and the homebuilders thinks that everyone in this country has the “right” and “duty” to own their own home. “It’s the [...]