Gather Little by Little

I was looking over a list of ideas for generating so-called “passive” income when I was struck by the thought that there really is not such a thing as passive income. I think that many times we look at the way certain monies are earned and if those ways seem easier than the way our money is earned, we consider that money to be passive income. I once made a tax mistake regarding passive income, so there is definitely a difference in how the IRS treats active v passive income.

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Mrs. Stew and I recently opened new checking accounts in our area. As I shared in February, my wife and I have separate brick and mortar checking accounts for salary direct deposit and regular checking deposits. We then use online savings accounts for bill pay, emergency funds, long term savings, etc. Earlier in the month, we both acquired Chase bonus coupons for $125 and opened our new checking accounts.

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Did you see that game?! Awesome!

Here are some articles that I found interesting this week:

A guest post at Cash Money Life listed tens ways to market your small business with limited funds. I am a big fan of marketing. Good stuff there.

What happens when your bank fails? Check out the answer in an article by Craig Ford at Moolanomy.

Do you ever need auto vehicle repairs? My Two Dollars posted 11 tips for getting a good car repair estimate.

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I think we all have weak spots when it comes to spending money.

Mrs. Stew really, really likes bargains – she just cannot turn down a 30% off clearance item – even when the kids do not need that new shirt. Mrs. Stew is also a coffee lover, unfortunately, coffee aficionado is not a cheap hobby. Don’t get me wrong, overall, Mrs. Stew is a good money manager, but we all have an Achilles heel, don’t we?

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I have watched more C-SPAN over the last couple of days than in my previous thirty-five years combined. I have been fascinated by this health care debate. I had a traditional personal finance post ready for today, but I am so into the details of what has happened in Washington D.C. over the past months that I just cannot concentrate on anything else.

Obviously, health care and health insurance is a huge concern for all of us. I would love to hear thoughts from some of you who have watched this process. I am not interested in yelling or accusations, just perspective. Here are a few of mine:

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This guest post comes from Michael, a contributing editor of the Dough Roller, a personal finance and investing blog, and Credit Card Offers IQ, a credit card review site.

It’s rare that I can make it through a whole week without watching some kind of game show. Should the game show network ever make its way into my cable package, I’m deathly afraid that my life will cease to exist outside of my television. No one can argue the genius behind the game show greats like “Let’s Make a Deal”, “Press Your Luck” or “The Price is Right,” and with more and more new ideas debuting every year, it begs the question I’ve always wondered. Do game shows actually want people to win or to lose?

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Is this President Obama’s “mission accomplished moment? We might find out this weekend. Here are some articles that I enjoyed this week:

Cruise over Green Panda Treehouse and enter a contest to win an iTouch!

College textbooks can be a really large unexpected cost. Moolanomy suggests the Best Places to Purchase Textbooks for Students. Before spending money on that brand new textbooks, take a look at this article and give yourself the opportunity to save a few hundred dollars each semester.

Late payments on a loan are not the only way to hurt your credit score. Mrs. Micah lists5 Ways to Hurt Your Credit Score Without Using Credit.

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For the past 2 years, most people (including me!) have been having second thoughts before buying any goods. We didn’t want to make an unnecessary purchases and potentially run into money problems down the road. Each time I stand in front of a store and am about to buy something, I ask myself: “Do I really need it or can it just wait?”

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Last summer, after our house finally sold, I posted a list of our financial priorities  now that we no longer had to deal with the financial obligation of owning a home. I kind of forgot about that post and when I ran across it recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had made progress in most of the priorities that I listed back in July. Eight months have passed since the closing of our home and while we are not rolling in the dough, we have turned a corner of sorts.

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I have received several comments with regards to my previous posts about giving an allowance to my children. I presume this is a very touchy topic since it links to 2 major things in our lives: money and our children. While we want the best for our children, we also want to use our money wisely and teach them to do the same. What is the best way of teaching money management to your kids? I have no clue! However, I still have more thoughts on allowance for children:

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