Personal Finance Advice

I’m sure you’ve heard that if you want to be successful in getting or staying out of debt, you should craft a budget and stick to it. Does this really work? I suppose for some people it does, but it’s really never worked for me. That is until I stopped caring so much.
The problem for [...]

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is, “How did you learn so much about finance?” The subtext to the question is usually along the lines of, “I know you aren’t a genius or good with numbers, so how come you have a handle on this stuff and I don’t? How come I’m broke [...]

Are you left with more month than paycheck? Are you trying to stick to a budget, but can’t understand where all your discretionary income is going? Do you always end up searching the couch cushion and car seats for extra change to make everyday purchases?
My husband and I had all of these problems and more.
We [...]

Your grocery bill is likely one of the largest parts of your living expenses. If you were to rank them from largest to smallest, it would probably fall just after mortgage (or rent), energy and car payments. You can’t do much to lower a mortgage payment or car payment, so trimming as much as you [...]

I find budgeting unreliable.
Whatever method you use to budget, there is a good chance you are wasting your time, and possibly money. Just to be clear, when I say “budget,” I mean trying to predict how much you will spend in specified categories over a certain period of time and allocating money ahead of time [...]

If there’s anything designed to ruin a marriage, it’s money. Not only could tension be created by the amount coming in, but there could be different money styles – a hoarder vs. a spender.
My husband and I, thankfully, have similar styles. He’s more of a tightwad than I am, but we can find the middle [...]

Our personal finances mirror many things in life, and fantasy football is no exception. Wittingly or not, we apply many of the same tactics to succeed in both. At the risk of using way too many football analogies in one article, here it goes:
An Investment In Your Future

First and foremost, fantasy football is an investment. [...]

Summer is already half way over, but you still have at least one more month of fun in the sun to enjoy (depending on where you live). So whether you’ve already maxed out your summer budget, or are simply looking for some inexpensive activities to fill the rest of your summer with, here are [...]

It was recently announced in the news that Starbucks (SBUX) will be closing over 600 stores due to a phenomenon nicknamed “The Latte Effect.” This basically describes the actions people often take when economic times are tough and money is tight, which includes cutting back on extra expenses like coffee, manicures and hair treatments. [...]

Most of the people I know are convinced that the current high fuel and food prices are temporary. “Surely the bubble will burst soon,” they say. “It won’t be long before we can resume living the way we were before,” they proclaim. “A new president will fix things,” they believe. They continue spending [...]

Conventional wisdom says that you should have a budget to get the most out of your money. While I believe a budget is a good thing to have when money is tight and you are first learning how to take reign of your personal finances, the ultimate goal should be not to have a budget [...]

If you’re interested in personal finance, you probably know who Dave Ramsey is. If you don’t know, he’s a television and radio personality (and author) who preaches a “common sense” approach to getting out of debt and creating wealth. His plan is built around seven “Baby Steps” that are designed to lead you to financial [...]

Most people are probably painfully aware that gas prices have been rapidly increasing over the last couple of years (and especially months), thus also increasing the costs of any items needing to be delivered from anywhere, the most common being groceries. Many people are feeling the crunch in their budgets as they find themselves [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how you could create positive new money habits in just twenty-one days. Now for the flip side of that article. I want to show you how easy it is to fall into negative money habits in just twenty-one days. We often think that money problems come about [...]

It is an accepted part of self-help wisdom that it takes twenty-one days to develop a new habit and make it stick. This has been found to be true in weight loss, smoking cessation, reducing alcohol consumption, and many other regimens designed to create positive habits. It can also be applied to your finances. If [...]

We all want to be safe and secure, but spending big money on a high tech security system may not be necessary. In most cases, simply applying some common sense will do the job. For most people, reasonable security can be attained for very little money. I say, “reasonable security” because the sad fact is [...]

Do you ever find that it is difficult to remember things? A weak memory is often hard to fix, but there are some things you can do to help yourself remember things. I’ve actually found that having a budget helps me remember certain things. How is that? Well my budget is [...]

My husband and I recently celebrated our 2 year anniversary at the end of January. As it happened, it coincided with the aftermath of a bit too much spending at Christmas time — the dreaded credit card bills. Granted we pay our credit card bills in full each month, so when the ones [...]

“Silver Bells” and “Silver and Gold”, some budgets just don’t allow a gift to all who deserve something for the holidays. You know how hungry animals in cartoons see our hero as a roast bird or some other tasty morsel? Throw open your pantry and see a stack full of sparkling gifts in tidy bows, [...]