Gather Little by Little

How many times have you heard the money is the leading cause of divorce? For years, this has been a common belief by most everyone, including marriage counselors, financial experts and myself. Turns out, this may not be the case.

Jan Anderson, a family and consumer sciences professor at California State University Sacramento, set out to prove this theory by writing a doctoral dissertation on the subject. Anderson both taught personal finance classes and came from a family that ended up in divorce as well. Like me, Anderson enjoyed teaching money skills in hopes to not only educate people, but hopefully to save a few marriages as well.

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I am continually amazed at the growth I’ve experienced here on Gather Little by Little. Each day it seem like I receive a comment or email from someone that says something like “Hi, just found your blog…” or “First time visiting and love the site”. I love getting those types of communications. As I’ve said before, my intention with starting Gather Little by Little was to make a difference in people’s lives. Hopefully, the more readers I get, the bigger the positive impact I can have.

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I’ve mentioned in a few posts in the past that I enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons*. Call me a geek, but it really is an incredible game, much like playing a novel where you are the main character. Recently, Wizards of the Coast (the makers of D&D) released the 4th edition rule set and along with it new rule books and adventures. The new rule set not only makes the game better (or at least in theory) but it’s an incredibly smart marketing move for WOTC (Wizards of the Coast) as it encourages everyone that plays to upgrade their books and adventures. I recently learned what my price for convenience is. Let me explain…

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Photo by: NickStarr

Each week I give the readers of Gather Little by Little a chance to ask me anything. The only real rule is that I can decline to answer. IÂ’ll do my best to answer as many questions as I can though. Have a question you would like answered? Just drop me a line or leave a comment!

I received two questions since last weeks Ask me Anything post. The first questions is from Jennifer who asks:

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Photo by: mmmarilyn

Just a real quick post to let you know that I’m heading to the NC Mountains today and won’t be back until July 9th. Don’t worry though, thanks to some blogger friends I have a few guest posts scheduled for you to read while I am away.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing fourth of July weekend!

Photo by: ritchielee

Exactly one year ago today, I brought Gather Little by Little online. I had been blogging for about two months on a personal blog that I started just so I could play around with two blogging software packages (WordPress and Drupal). I wrote articles about various things, but mainly personal finance topics, more to document what I was learning than to share any insights with anyone.

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My wife and I were having a discussion last night about our house. As many of you know, we’ve been casually looking around for another home. We’re looking to move out in the country in a house with some land. I say we’ve been casually looking, as we can’t really sell our house right now. We have a whole list of things that need to be done before its ready to sell: repainting, repairing some interior molding, new carpet, and some other minor things. The big problem is the major items on the outside.

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Photo by: star5112

Each week I give the readers of Gather Little by Little a chance to ask me anything. The only real rule is that I can decline to answer. I’ll do my best to answer as many questions as I can though. Have a question you would like answered? Just drop me a line or leave a comment!

I received two questions since last weeks Ask me Anything post. The first questions is from Emily who wrote:

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New on the Christian music scene is a group who calls themselves Tenth Avenue North. They hail from West Palm Beach Florida and are made up of Mike Donehey on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jeff Owen on electric guitar and backup vocals, drummer Jason Jamison, and Scott Sanders on bass guitar.

Their debut album is Over and Underneath, and features their hit song Love is Here. Keep an eye out folks, these guys are going to be big. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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Photo by Hamed Saber

I was thinking this week that I owe you updates on a couple of things: How things turned out when by debit card was stolen and what happened to the house we were contemplating buying.

Stolen Debit Card

Late last year, I wrote about a terrible experience we had when my debit card was stolen and used by some low down thief. I’ve followed up with my bank a few times, and while they did recover some of their money from the merchants involved, the remaining amount was written off. What did surprise me is that the bank made very little effort to track down the thief. I was told they generally leave that to the merchant or customer. Customer? Wait, was I supposed to do something?

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