Personal Finance Advice

At craft shows, a maze of booths show off handcrafted original wares. Some things are common from show to show, like polymer clay jewelry, stained-glass window décor, and beaded designs, but it’s not the medium that matters, it’s the artist’s individuality and handiwork. I go into stores and see things mass produced and refuse to [...]

With the holiday season almost upon us (or already in full swing if you accept what retailers are telling us), what are your holiday tipping rules? I had a quite lively debate about this with a group of friends who had a wide variety of opinions on the subject, and I’m sure the readers here [...]

I, like every other teenager in America, learned about subliminal messages in high school. Determined not to be influenced against my will, every time I entered a dark movie theater I would steel myself against advertisers’ sly tactics. I was certain that “Buy Massive Amounts Of Buttered Popcorn And Obscenely Large Soft Drinks” flashed in [...]

I have always spread my money around in multiple accounts. I use multiple checking, savings, and investment accounts, all marked for different purposes. Some are at the same institution, but I also use several different banks, depending on my needs. When I started making money years ago, spreading it around was simply the easiest way [...]

The Best Travel Deals Don’t End in .Com: “Some of the best travel deals on the Web these days don’t end in .com but can be found on a travel company’s foreign offshoot, which usually ends with the country’s domain name, like .fr (France), and .de (Germany). Though the travel companies don’t advertise it, they [...]

I never pay any of our bills. Neither does my husband. But they get paid. Every month and on time. Now I’m not advocating ignoring your bills and racking up a ton of debt. That would be stupid and begging for bankruptcy. What I am advocating is never physically going through the process of paying [...]

I saw “DWI — You can’t Afford It” written on road signs along Interstate 40 as we passed through Texas on our recent vacation. What an interesting angle, I thought. I guess that since the fact that the risk of killing innocent people, as well as themselves, isn’t enough of a deterrent for drunk drivers, [...]

Last week, eBay sent me a message urging me to contact my state representatives in support of a bill that would exempt eBay sellers in Pennsylvania from having to get auctioneer licenses. “You may have heard the Pennsylvania State Board of Auctioneer Examiners is lobbying for eBay sellers to be licensed under the state’s outdated [...]

I didn’t pay anything for Radiohead’s download: “I didn’t pay anything to download Radiohead’s In Rainbows last Wednesday. When the checkout page on the band’s Web site allowed me to type in whatever price I wanted, I put 0.00, the lowest I could go. My economist friends say this makes me a rational being.” Consumers [...]

While I can’t guarantee that these are the absolute top 10 ways you can waste money on e-Bay this week, they certainly deserve some attention and possibly some laughs… 10. A rubber band: No joke. You can get a regular rubber band for $1 with free shipping. 9. A million ants: You can adopt an [...]

I have been collecting the money confessions of people who give them to me anonymously over the past few months. I share some of the more interesting ones here. This is confession number 69 in the series: “I keep most of my money at home. I don’t trust banks.” Other confession already listed: The First [...]

For the last few months I have been collecting the money confessions of people that attend the talks I give. I share some of them here as part of an ongoing series. This is confession number 68 in the series: “I have no idea why I buy some of the crap I do.” Other confession [...]

There are a lot of hidden money secrets that we keep to ourselves. I have been asking people to share theirs with me. This is confession number 67 in the series: “I’ve had a distorted view of money all my life. Only now am I coming to terms that money isn’t bad.” Other confession already [...]

I have been collecting the money confessions of people that attend my talks and share the more interesting confessions here. This is confession number 66 in the series: “I still look for money in vending machine coin return slots. I just turned 56.” Other confession already listed: The First 25 Confessions Confessions #26 – #50 [...]

This is an ongoing photo essay of money confessions that I have collected from people that attended my talks. I share some of the more interesting ones here. This is confession number 65 in the series: “It really pisses me off that I’m not rich.” Other confession already listed: The First 25 Confessions Confessions #26 [...]

As part of an ongoing project, I have been collecting people’s money confessions. Some of the more interesting ones I share here. This is confession number 64 in the series: “I wish I had the guts to pay my taxes in pennies.” Other confession already listed: The First 25 Confessions Confessions #26 – #50 Wedding [...]

As the US becomes more and more a cashless society, is it really necessary to have cash at all? In many instances, there may be no reason, but one time that cash is king is when there is an emergency where normal outlets that dispense cash are not available and credit systems may be offline [...]

We all have money secrets that we keep to ourselves. I’ve asked people to anonymously give their money confessions to me after the speeches I give for the past few months. This is confession number 63 in the series: “I have to choose between food and prescription medicine my doctors say I need to take [...]

Almost everyone has some type of money secret that they keep. I have been collecting these secrets for the last few months asking people to anonymously give theirs to me after the speeches I give. This is confession number 62 in the series: “I hate borrowing money from my parents because it always comes with [...]

The older the artist, the smaller the crayons become. Many kids don’t have a problem with broken crayons. Many kids ignore them. Many kids get gifted several boxes of crayons in a year, or build up a collection over time. Throwing crayon pieces away is one of the most dissatisfying clean-up jobs to parents and [...]