Personal Finance Advice

For the first time in years, gas here went under three dollars a gallon. It was cause for a minor celebration. There’s just something nice about seeing that $2.98 on the marquee. It’s only psychological, but it was comforting. Of course, after my minor celebration I realized that there was no point in getting overly [...]

Like any good financial nerd, I spend a lot of time watching and reading the media’s coverage of the economy. Over the last few months the tone has gone from mildly concerned, through concerned, and on to full blown panic. This amuses me because you can literally watch the rhetoric ratchet up and up, sometimes [...]

Today’s morning question is, How have gas prices changed your routine? I have to admit that increasing gas have done very little to change my routine. Part of the reason is that living in Japan, gas prices have been over $4 a gallon for years (and now they are heading toward $8 a gallon), so [...]

I recently discovered a new website that has a wealth of information about saving money on fuel. I’m pretty sure the website itself isn’t new, but it’s new to me and it might be new to you too. The website is Fueleconomy.gov and it run by the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection [...]

My husband and I often remember prices differently: I think it was $5; he thinks it was $4. Turns out it was $4.99. The difference is how we view the cost — I automatically round up in my mind: $0.89 becomes $0.90, $1.46 becomes $1.50, $1288 becomes $1300. He tends to block out anything after [...]