Personal Finance Advice

One of the most important life lessons that we can all learn is to seriously listen to and consider the advice from those who have more experience than we do. When it comes to the end of our life, most of us are going to have some regrets. A nurse, Bronnie Ware, who spent years [...]

My first job was terrible. The boss was a bully and a sexual harasser. The work was brain numbingly boring, and the office politics were bloody and cruel. It was a lot like a game of Survivor without the eating of bugs. On top of it all, the company scammed its clients and lied to [...]

If you’ve ever read the book by John Grisham or seen the movie, “The Firm,” then you are familiar with the tale of corporate and personal greed that leads one man to almost lose his life and all of the things he values. In the movie/book, Mitchell McDeree takes a job at a law firm [...]

By Jim Camp Do you believe compromise is the best way to get what you want? There’s a better way, and it’s based on a word young children understand even better than adults: “No!” If you’d like to boost your finances in 2012, then learning to say no, invite no, and be comfortable hearing no [...]

I’ve always kept my eyes open and to the ground when I walk and the result is that I usually find at least $100 dollars a year. There’s a lot of money at your feet if you are willing to look, and some people take this looking seriously. In fact, for them the streets are [...]

Years ago I made the choice to leave the full time corporate world and go out on my own. I did it for many reasons, not the least of which was because I just couldn’t stand the toxic office games and politics. For the sake of my mental health I knew I had to do [...]

By Steve Siebold A new report from a research arm of congress says the rich are getting richer. The average household income for the nation’s top 1% nearly tripled from 1979 to 2007, while middle class incomes grew by less than 40%. How do you break into that top 1%? It starts with your mindset. [...]

If you have aspirations to be an entrepreneur or inventor, you know that one of the hardest things to do is to get enough capital to make your invention or business a reality. The traditional path has been to get a loan (or several) from a traditional bank, find a benefactor willing to back you, [...]

Do you have a funny saying that you’re known for? Are you an artist? Or maybe you can draw some funny little character that people seem to love. If you’ve got an artistic bent and you want to see your work on t-shirts, hats, mugs, electronics skins, water bottles, bags, posters, and hundreds of other [...]

A friend of mine (who has been unemployed for over a year) was recently offered a job in her field with a good company. She didn’t take it. I was floored that someone who has been out of work for over a year would not snap up a job like this. “I didn’t like the [...]

It’s widely known that many employers Google prospective employees in addition to the standard criminal background and credit checks. Most usually check out your social networking pages and any obvious name-mentions in the press. But what may not be as widely known is that some employers are going further. Whether they’re doing it themselves or [...]

Working with the dead typically appeals to two types of people.Those who don’t like a lot of personal interaction in their work (the dead aren’t going to complain or engage in office politics, after all) and those who are compassionate and derive satisfaction from helping others through their grief. Either way, working in the funeral [...]

Maybe you’ve always dreamed of being in a movie but you took a boring day job instead. Maybe you just want to make a little extra money while getting to see the inside workings of movies and TV. If this is you, you might want to become an extra. Extras are in almost every production. [...]

If you spend a ton of money at one store, you might want to think about taking a job at that store and using the employee discount to offset your spending. I have a friend who did this when he was remodeling his house. He took a job at a local home improvement store and [...]

Last week I wrote about cases where taking a pay cut might make sense. This week I want to give some suggestions for how you can adjust to a decrease in pay. Some pay cuts will require no adjustment, or very little. If you take a pay cut but get a shorter commute, move to [...]

We are almost hardwired to pursue ever increasing pay levels. Each job should, ideally, give us a salary bump. Yearly evaluations should result in increased wages. In pursuit of ever higher pay, we sometimes miss out on opportunities in life that require us to take a pay cut or to forego money entirely for a [...]

Many businesses are willing to pay you to refer your friends to them. It’s far cheaper for a company to pay you for a referral than it is for them to advertise and discount in order to recruit new customers. Some companies pay you in cash, while others give you a credit on your bill. [...]

If you need a way to make money that requires very little work on your part (but some possible pain), you can look into selling various parts of your body. To get the most value out of your body, it needs to be in great condition. Non-smokers of appropriate weight and with few overall health [...]

I visit a number of finance-related forums. On many of these boards I hang out on, one of the most frequently asked questions is, “How can I make some extra money from home?” The question is usually asked by women who are home with kids. They want to contribute to the family income, but aren’t [...]

This year I’m making more of an effort to make my actions meaningful. This comes after a couple of years where I’ve found myself wondering, “Where did the time go?” I find myself getting distracted by the Internet or some other mindless entertainment and whole hours are suddenly gone. It’s not like whatever I was [...]