Personal Finance Advice

I’ve been helping a neighbor attack her New Year’s resolution to get her finances in order. She’s been writing down all of her spending for a couple of weeks and I’m helping her identify things that can be cut back. Like a lot of people, she spends a lot on things like coffee from Starbucks, [...]

Getting your finances in order is a lot like weight loss. You start off great in the beginning. You drop a lot of debt quickly. It’s almost too easy to cut expenses. You realize that you’ve got lots of things you can cut and you eagerly drop unwanted services, renegotiate bills, stop eating out, and [...]

Congratulations! You paid off that last debt and you’re officially debt free. After the celebration party ends, you’re likely to be confronted with one thought: Now what? You’ve just spent months or years focused on the goal of getting out of debt. Now that you’re there, what do you do next? It can be difficult [...]

I married a man just like me. He had no debt going into our marriage and no desire to incur any. This has made it very easy for us to create a financial life together that we both agree on and enjoy. I know many other couples who are not so lucky and this has [...]

The other day I was feeling punished for my good financial habits. My savings are earning pitiful interest, thanks to the low rates in place to prop up the economy. There are no mortgage or housing breaks for me, since I don’t carry a mortgage. My credit cards have had their limits cut and interest [...]

A lot of people are realizing that a life without debt is both liberating and safe. It’s something that more and more people are striving for. The problem is, many people who would like to live a life without debt have no idea what that sort of life looks like. They have spent so many [...]

I’ll be perfectly honest. Even though I make a living writing about personal finances (and enjoy reading and writing about the subject), I have to make a concerted effort to stay financially motivated with my own finances. For those that have little interest in personal finances, but still want to get their finances in order, [...]