Personal Finance Advice

Many people have financial troubles, and while financial difficulty happens due to legitimate reasons such as job loss or medical expenses, many times the poor financial state is due to nothing more than bad habits. Here are a number of things that people do that keeps them poor: Inability to Save Money There are a [...]

One problem people have when it comes to money is prioritizing. They either don’t have the ability to sort out what matters most, or they simply can’t decide what’s most important. It’s a skill people need to master because achieving financial success (without a Trump-sized income) requires prioritizing. You have to put your true needs [...]

Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older, but I find myself becoming more content with my life. It’s not that anything has changed greatly in recent years. I haven’t won millions of dollars, bought a new house or car, or taken a fancy vacation. In fact, very little that’s happened in the last few years [...]

I read a lot of different financial message boards. I’m always amused when someone in a thread gets incredibly defensive over something that was posted. The latest example was a thread about luxury handbags. The original poster inquired about the quality of a certain brand of handbag and wanted to know if it was worth [...]

We all have stress in our lives. Much of it comes from things we can’t control. We have trouble at work, someone we love gets sick or dies, our kid has problems in school, or we have too many things to do and not enough time. With all the stressful events in our lives, why [...]

I have recently read a number of articles about the businesses which are being hit the hardest by the current downturn in US and well as the global economy. This got me thinking about the businesses that should be affected, even though apparently some of them aren’t. Giant Gas Guzzling SUVs: Not only are they [...]

When we talk about bargain hunting and getting the best price on items that you need, it’s usually with the assumption that you have time to shop, compare models and prices, and wait for sales. Most of the time that’s the case. But there are times when you need something right now and you can’t [...]

I don’t have an iPhone (I don’t even have a cell phone, but that’s a whole other story), but if I did, I would definitely buy the Opportunity Cost of Money iPhone app. This iPhone app makes the cost of your purchases concrete. Basically, it’s an iPhone app where you list all of the things [...]

One of the biggest excuses that I hear for spending money you don’t have is that you might die tomorrow. “What if I’m hit by a bus tomorrow and I didn’t go on that vacation, or have that car, or own that bag?” The thinking is that it would be a shame to die without [...]

Here is an interesting question to ponder. Is the reason that Americans are such lousy savers due to the freedom that parents give to their kids as opposed to how children are raised in other countries? We aren’t told who we should marry, we aren’t told what job we should do, but we are also [...]

Earlier this week a friend asked me out for dinner at a pretty pricey restaurant. Having been there once before for a special occasion I knew that the food and service wasn’t that great and definitely not worth the price tag (at least to me). I declined my friend’s invitation. When she asked why, I [...]

I’ve noticed a side effect of the bad economy that may end up prolonging our economic woes. It’s called poor customer service. The other day I had to return something to a big box electronics store. The line in the returns department looked like the day after Christmas and only one clerk was working. When [...]

I had to go to a theme park today. When I say I “had to go,” I mean that my son and I received two free passes to go to the park so that his football team could celebrate its season and participate in the filming of a commercial. We had a great time and [...]

Sunday, December 28, 2008, was a black day. I needed advice from a real person regarding my iPod. My younger son needed software for his iPod. My wife had returns to make at Old Navy and The Gap. My older son needed something to do. Thus the stars were aligned for a family trip to [...]

In my house we’ve had a tough couple of months with deaths, health scares, and general work-related stress. We’ve been tired, sad, and angry. There’s been a definite need in this house to feel better. We’ve needed some cheering up and calming down. In our spendier days we would have gone out to eat, gone [...]

As the economic decline slides further into uncertainty, we have to take a hard look at our own familial finances and begin to ask some serious questions. It’s time to take off those rose-colored glasses. First, we all need to understand what we, as individuals, can and cannot control. We can control how much we [...]

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 [...]

How does using cash or a debit card influence our spending? About a month ago, I watched a video on Yahoo about an ordinary couple who were challenged to use cash for everything they bought for one week. The idea was to find out if they would spend less when using actual paper money. How [...]

One of the absolutely best things my wife and I ever participated in was premarital counseling with our pastor. Among other things, he brought the topic of finances to the forefront for discussion and helped us put the right plan together. Not unlike other families, our biggest issue was that I am a saver and [...]

This week I was trawling one of my favorite message boards and noticed a thread on whether or not a child should have an expensive cell phone and, if so, should it be given as a gift for a big occasion, bought with the child’s own money, or just purchased outright by the parents. The [...]