Personal Finance Advice

People often ask me how I came to write about personal finances. It kind of fell into my lap, but I get ahead of myself…
I graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Sociology. If you ever want to graduate with a completely worthless degree, choose Sociology. While the actual required readings and courses [...]

I spent a good portion of today painting the balcony which gave me time to think. Now having the time to think would usually be thought of as a good opportunity – a time to relax and possibly think about all those vacations that I want to take in the future. I, on the other [...]

There are certain areas that I talk about quite a bit in this blog, but there are other areas that I don’t mention as often. Tim over at My Money Forest asked me quite a few questions for his blog about Nate and I and SavingAdvice.com, some of which I have not answered before here. [...]

I took notice that over the last couple of months a lot of personal finance writers have had the blogoversaries. As I sometimes do, after reading about one of these (I can’t remember exactly which one which is a shame because I would really like to thank that person) I went in and did a [...]

Do you have a reward debit card? If so, there is a TV production company that would like to interview you for a report they are putting together on debit reward cards. Julie McCoy, who is a TV news producer with NewsProNet contacted me in hopes I could help her find someone to interview:
The story [...]

One of the things that bothers me the most about traveling is Internet access charges. Part of the problem is consistency. I never know where or how much I’ll have to pay to access the Internet. When I arrived at the San Jose airport, I would have had to pay in order to get Internet [...]

It’s late here (approaching 1:00 AM) and I’ve just arrive back from Vegas about an hour ago. Both Nate and I had a great time and there are actually a few stories about personal finance and other money related issues to pass a long. I also have a nice assortment of photos to share. I’m [...]

With the latest airline terrorist plot in the UK, I’m expecting even the short jaunt to Las Vegas to be a major hassle getting through the airport. I’m hoping that since I’m taking a fairly early flight I will be spared the brunt of it, but still plan to get there at least 1.5 to [...]

This is another post that only has a minor connection to actual personal finance, but might explain why there may be a bit less posting than normal this week. This is going to be one of the busiest and most exciting weeks this summer for me.
First and foremost, this Friday Nate and I will [...]

A quick step away from personal finance…
I’m not sure whether I should be happy or disappointed that one of the most popular posts on this site has little to do with personal finances. The fact is that my post about my wife’s entrepreneurial spirit and how it has made living in our house a cute [...]

If you want your opinion to count in the media when it comes to investing, you have a chance to give your opinions to USA Today as part of their Money Panel. They are currently looking for investors:
USA TODAY is looking for investors to join its Money Panel. The panel is composed of hundreds of [...]

I wrote a little while ago about my desire to dig for diamonds and mentioned that I would also like to pan for gold. I convinced my dad to take me to the foothills in California and we decided to try our luck at panning for gold.
I can tell you without reservation that this [...]

I wrote a bit yesterday about the day at the Blogher conference. One of the little tidbits I collected from the conference was a tool that you have if people are stealing your content. This is always a problem I have had where I find my articles on the Internet without any acknowledgement that I [...]

5:45 The workshops are over and I was finally able to meet another pfblogger out here (believe me, there are not very many at this conference) who was Nina from Queer Cents / Sitting Pretty who was actually leading one of the discussions (transforming your life with blogging). It was nice to actually meet one [...]

While I think that drinking water is a great way to save money that can make you over $1000 richer each year, this only works if you are not purchasing the water. As I have written before, there really is no reason to purchase bottled water since it’s a waste of money for the vast [...]

I have a list of about 100 things I want to do and places I want to go that I look at every so often and add new things to it when I hear about things that interest me. My latest addition is to go digging for diamonds! Apparently there is a State Park in [...]

I mentioned in my last post that I went to San Francisco to see a baseball game with my dad. We went to the game because we were given free tickets to it and this got me thinking that “free” can often be quite expensive. The truth is that if we had not been given [...]

I was talking with a friend over dinner about what I’m currently doing. His response?
“Oh, personal finance guru (sarcasm dripping in buckets), what is the best money advice you can give to me?”
I sat there thinking for a few minutes about all the money related topics I discuss on a daily basis here and on [...]

I was with a friend and stopped in at a gas station today to find that the California lawmakers have ensured that air and water at gas stations are free. This must have happened while I was away in Japan, because I remember before leaving that it used to cost $0.50 to get the air [...]

I wrote a while back that lack of sleep costs me money and how things that seem to have absolutely nothing to do with money can actually end up being a fairly large drain on your wallet. I found out this past weekend that being in a hurry is another one of those areas that [...]