I spend a great deal of time with college students. Over the past decade, I have observed a phenomenon – very few students work their way through school anymore. I know that there are exceptions, but I remember when the college student stereotype was a guy who drove an old beater (if he had a [...]
Okay, a little shorter post today with the holiday weekend and all. I do not want to make anyone think too hard but I was reminded recently that “frugal” does not always mean “cheaper”. My wife and I sometimes review some of the purchases that we have made over our lives where we spent little [...]
A long time reader named Bobbi sent me an email recently. The email contained a list of 45 lessons that life taught Regina Brett, a 90 years old resident of Cleveland, Ohio. The list inspired me to share my own list of lessons, but from a personal finance perspective.
Of course I’ve learned far [...]
Last week, I wrote about my belief that when it comes to giving and tithing, the Bible does not prescribe an exact percentage of giving for the New Testament believer. The idea that the ten percent tithe is a hard and fast command to the church goes against the spirit of the New Testament, and [...]
A frequent subject on personal finance blogs is the discussion relating to tithing. If you conduct an internet search on that topic, you will find a colorful variety of opinions scattered throughout cyberspace.
What is a tithe?
Some of the controversy centers around the word “tithe” itself. The Old Testament Jews had a strict definition of what tithing [...]
Last Friday, I was informed that the wife of a friend I work with passed away in her sleep unexpectedly. She came home from work not feeling well, went to bed and never woke up. It reminded me of just how quickly your life can be taken from you. The article below is an article [...]
A few weeks ago, I shared with you a great service I found for creating a financial plan. I also shared the importance of having a plan and how if you didn’t you were basically driving around without knowing where you’re headed. Having a financial plan in place can make a significant difference in whether [...]
Johnny Carson once said, “Scientists have discovered a powerful new weapon that leaves buildings standing, but destroys people . . . it is called the 17% interest rate.” Another famous quote about interest may or may not have been uttered by the famous physicist, Albert Einstein, who was once asked about the most powerful force [...]
A few pictures from my reef tank
One of my hobbies is maintaining a 75 gallon saltwater reef aquarium. I’ve mentioned this a few times before in some other articles I’ve written. A number of you have written asking me about my aquarium and saying you’re in the hobby as well. So I thought I’d share [...]
Solomon most famously wrote the Book of Proverbs. Thoughts about money are prominent in both Proverbs and his other book of wisdom entitled, “Ecclesiastes”. We might even say that King Solomon was the first “personal finance blogger”.
My pastor recently spoke on the following passage from Ecclesiastes 11:
Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will [...]
Ever get up one morning and decide you just want to take off somewhere?
“Honey! Kids! Come on, we’re going somewhere!”, John yelled as he looked for his keys finally finding them on the small table by the door. “Where are we going?” his wife and kids all yelled back unanimously. John was ready to go, [...]
Last week, I listed some some of my poorer financial decisions. Unfortunately, the picture that I inserted into the post seemed to give the impression that I viewed having children as a poor financial decision. That was not the intent and I took a little heat for that decision. But the discussion did start me [...]
I’ve been talking about the benefits of having an emergency fund for a while now. As a matter of fact, my 7th article here on Gather Little by Little introduced the concept as step 5 of my Getting Your Finances Under Control series.
When I first heard Dave Ramsey talk about the concept it was in [...]
I wrote about a using a firewall account with ING Direct sometime back. Using a firewall account is a concept I use to insulate my ING savings and ING checking accounts from the outside world. Any income I receive comes to my ING firewall account and then I transfer it to the appropriate [...]
I enjoyed reading the M-network answers to the question posed by Leah last week. There is a lot of good information in the M-network responses and you will find an argument for almost every viewpoint in the comment thread. I have discovered that the comment threads here at Gather Little by Little are a great [...]
