Personal Finance Advice

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 [...]

I think I’m getting old. I’m starting to hit that phase of life where I’m looking at the choices I’ve made and ruminating over the roads less traveled. I find myself wondering about the career I chose, the jobs I’ve taken along the way, even the relationships I’ve had. Along with all the general “What [...]

Last night I met up with a crowd of restaurant reviewers from the local Yelp community. Yelp, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a community of on-line reviewers who contribute reviews of restaurants and other businesses. Over time, visitors to the site can get an increasingly accurate perception of how [...]

The other day, I was headed to our local dog park with my wife and our puppy. We were already in the car and actually backing out of the driveway when I realized that I had forgotten my business cards. I stopped the car and told my wife that I was headed back into the [...]

I’m a huge Star Wars nerd and many of my favorite quotes come from the Jedi Master, Yoda. My personal favorite is the following: “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not.” When I think about my debt free life, I often change [...]

I had an interesting exchange with my two sons yesterday (separately). I am trying to motivate my elder son to speak more articulately and with a greater awareness of proper grammar. He retorted that I do not know how to communicate and that as long as information is conveyed effectively, it does not matter how [...]