Personal Finance Advice

People like to refer to life as a game or a competition. The winners are the ones who accumulate the most or best things, achieve the most success, or get the most power. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway, which means that a large number of us are playing a game we’ll never win. We’ll never [...]

I have a friend who has lusted after a certain board game for years, now. It’s out of print and if you can find it on the secondary market in good to mint condition, it usually sells for north of three hundred dollars. While this seems crazy to me, it’s not to him. To him, [...]

I have a relative who does nothing but whine about how she doesn’t have certain things, how she never gets to travel, she doesn’t have any money, and she’ll never own a nice car. Well, while I tend to think that most of her whining is over pretty superficial stuff (she does have a loving [...]

If you want to get ahead financially, one of the most important questions you can ask yourself is, “What do I need?” It seems like such a simple question, one where the answers should be immediately obvious. You need food, shelter, clothing, and maybe transportation. Everything else is really a want, in some form or [...]

I wrote earlier about just how far we should expect an employer to bend when dealing with work/life balance issues. The point of that piece was that while an employer may be willing to help you balance your work and home lives, they are not obligated to do so. Their only obligation is to the [...]

One of the keys to financial success is learning how to separate wants from needs. It sounds easy. A refrigerator is a need. A car (in most cases) is a need. Housing is a need. Utility usage is a need. This is all true, to a point. However, these things can easily bleed into the [...]

If you’ve read the book, “All Your Worth” by Elizabeth Warren, you’ve probably seen her “Balanced Money Formula.” You may have seen it even if you haven’t read the book because it has become the budget of choice for many media pundits and writers. For reference, the formula is as follows: Needs = 50% of [...]

When it comes to personal finance, the one question that can save you a lot of money, time, and heartache is, “Why?” Too often, though, it’s the question people don’t ask. I learned a long time ago to ask why (about pretty much everything, not just money). I was one of those kids who pestered [...]

Amish people and communities are unique in many ways. To most outsiders, they’re known mostly as soft-spoken people who live a simple life, don’t use electricity and don’t drive cars. They’ve also had just enough bad press to make some people wary. No matter what your opinion of their beliefs, the traditional Amish lifestyle offers [...]

I’ve reached a point in my financial life where I tend to analyze everything to death. It’s not just because of the money, either, although that’s a big part of it. My small house only has so much space, so I’m constantly thinking, “Do I really need/want this?” Not only that, I have several longer-term [...]

I am probably one of the last people in the US that doesn’t have a cell phone. I don’t have a cell phone to protest in any way. I actually think there are a lot of interesting aspects to them. I have friends that keep telling me that I really need to get one so [...]

I am a firm believer, from my own experience, that after committing to spend less than you earn, the most important thing that you can do for your finances is to truly understand what is important to you and what makes you happy. I know that at first glance this doesn’t seem like it has [...]

We just bought some new living room furniture. Our old furniture was just that: Old. While it was still serviceable, it was no longer that comfortable. Yes, we could still sit on the couch, but the couch had lost a lot of its support and comfort. It was also no longer a great match for [...]

Last year I finally caved in to my baser urges and bought a Wii. I also bought the Wii Fit and balance board to go with it so I could get a little fun exercise on bad weather days. I’ve loved the Wii and bought all kinds of games for it. In my opinion, it [...]

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how helpful a shopping list can be when you want to save time and money. I’m a firm believer in lists. I compile pro and con lists when I have to make a decision, I keep lists of places I need to go for errands, and I [...]

What do you want? I don’t mean what fantastic things do you wish you owned or could do or could be. What reasonable things do you want in life that you do not currently have? Do you want to be healthier? Do you want to spend more wisely? Do you want a nicer car or [...]

A friend of mine who, like me, has always lived a debt free life recently ran into a perfect storm of disasters. He was diagnosed with an illness and, despite having good medical coverage, ended up with bills that threatened to eat up much of his non-retirement savings. As if that weren’t bad enough, he [...]