Personal Finance Advice

There are a lot of different levels of friendship. There is the guy in the cubicle next to you at work who you don’t really like all that much, but who you still introduce to your significant other as your friend because you don’t want to create awkwardness at work. There is the guy you [...]

Many of my friends and family members are single. Some by choice, some because they haven’t yet met the right person, and others are divorced or widowed. With very few exceptions, they turn to shopping to fill a void in their lives. They aren’t comfortable being alone, so hitting the mall allows them to get [...]

If you ever find yourself in a position where you need therapy to deal with the stresses and strains of life, your wallet is likely to experience sticker shock. Hour-long sessions usually start around $100 and go up from there. Therapy is sometimes covered by insurance, but many plans exclude it, pay only a small [...]

I am a bit surprised to find myself with a lot of work to do. I am surprised both because my business is young and because the week before the Fourth of July is usually quite quiet in my profession. That said, I have enough work to do in the next week that I have [...]

Father’s Day has come and gone. My family dutifully celebrated my status as “Dad” by going out for breakfast and, later in the day, ice cream. In deference to the day, no one complained when I ordered only coffee for breakfast and passed up the ice cream as I am trying to drop a few [...]

A friend came to me for advice the other day regarding a big problem brewing in his house. His in-laws are getting up in years and have very little saved to cover their health care and long term needs. Health problems are starting to show up and expenses are mounting. They’ve told their daughter and [...]

I lost a good couple of hours of my life this week to a website that a friend directed me to called Bundle.com. This site lets you look at the aggregated monthly spending habits of people in any city, county, or state in the U.S. You can further break it down by age groups, family [...]

Last fall we had new neighbors move in next door. They seemed nice enough until spring came and I started hanging my laundry out on the line again. One day the lady of the house came over and said, “Can you not hang your laundry on the line? It’s not nice to look at.” I [...]

I was scheduled to have coffee with someone tomorrow but he had to reschedule because he has a telephone interview. I am always happy to reschedule a meeting because another person has an interview or an opportunity to meet with a client. I really believe that every person who finds a new job or a [...]

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 [...]

The other day a friend mentioned that she was shopping for a new desk for her nine year old son. She mentioned that his current bedroom set was originally purchased at Ethan Allen and that she “did not want to go that route again.” Over the years, I have heard that a lot. Parents have [...]

Sometimes I hear advice along the following lines: “If you want to be wealthy, you need to wear and drive the status symbols of wealth. That’s the only way anyone will take you seriously.” In other words, fake it till you make it. I can sort of understand where this advice comes from. It is [...]

Charles Baudelaire once said, “Anybody, as long as he knows how to be amusing, has a right to talk about himself”. Orson Welles advised that “Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest”. Anti-tax agitator Vivien Kellems was quick to proclaim, “Of course I’m a publicity hound. Aren’t all crusaders? [...]

Are you overwhelmed and horrified by the prices you’ve been quoted to provide food and drinks for your wedding guests? It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some options to keep food and drink costs within your wedding budget. Choose a wedding venue that lets you choose the caterer: Many wedding reception sites [...]

I have written about my elder son in the past. Readers may recall that he is less than industrious when it comes to academics and contributing around the house. By comparison, my younger son applies himself to his school work and is far more willing to offer assistance around the house. He keeps his room [...]

Last week some long lost relatives came to visit (well, not long lost but definitely not close relatives). Frankly, I wish they’d stayed lost. We let ourselves get talked into hosting these people by another relative who, knowing that these long lost people were coming to our town for a convention, so kindly recommended that [...]

It is hard for me to believe that I have been writing here at Saving Advice for close to two years now. After about 150 columns, I am pleased to count many of you among my new friends! I’ve also developed a sense of how readers are likely to react to anything that I write. [...]

This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week three (week one and week two) The lesson for this week was cash flow planning, also known as budgeting. You could see everybody approaching this lesson with trepidation. Not only does it mean more [...]

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would take the time to show me how money worked. (This was in the days before ATM’s and online banking.) My mom would show me how to write a check out to “cash,” hand it to the teller, and get cash in return. She showed me [...]

This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week two (week one) This week’s lesson is about money and relationships. I was excited about this week because relationships are something that everyone has to deal with, no matter how much money they do [...]