Did you know that the disciple called Matthew, also known as Levi, was a tax collector before Christ called on him to be a follower?
Today’s post is another in our Lessons from Luke series. Luke tells of Christ’s first encounter with Matthew here:
After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”
Welcome to January 2011 and the year where all your dreams will come true!
Okay, not quite, but I think we often over-hype the new year when the the reality is that January 1st is nothing more than a number, a date, a day that is really no different than December 31st. The day is typically cold, the sun comes up, the sun goes down and January 2nd is upon us.
On Monday, I wrote about the sociology of the first few stages of Christmas gift giving.
These stages are not meant to be exhaustive, there are all kinds of idiosyncratic changes that many of us could make based on differing Christmas traditions, blended families, differing socio-economic status and a host of other factors. Also, many of us might experience several of these stages at the same time when dealing with different branches of the family tree.
Here is the second half of the list:
I follow a few personal finance bloggers via Twitter, one of whom is Money Crashers. Last weekend Money Crashers hosted an #MCchat where the discussion revolved around Christmas, especially the family gift-giving aspect of the holiday.
The social media exchange piqued quite a few thoughts about gift giving. I thought I would put on my sociologist hat and share some of those thoughts. I think that most families go through similar stages of gift giving at Christmas. Each stage of life presents new challenges for the tradition and even different possibilities for offense and hurt . . .
“Let’s be honest, no one ever wished for a smaller holiday gift.” Wait, what?!
When we were kids, my dad used to threaten to charge us a nickel or a dime if a light was left on in a room and if he could figure out who was the last one in that particular area. I’m not sure that he actually ever collected too many of the fines, but it proved to be a useful tool in reminding us of the importance of saving electricity.
I have invested in Certificates of Deposit or CD’s a number of times over the past two decades and lately, I have been doing some reading on the concept of a “CD Ladder”.
I first heard the term CD Ladder several years ago while listening to a Saturday morning radio show that dealt with topics like mutual funds, annuities and estate planning.
I have made no secret of the fact that we use credit cards here at the Stew household. “We” as in, my wife and I – our children do not currently carry plastic, although my seven-year old told me to “just put it on the card” the other day.
She and I might need to have a talk.
Years ago, before I really knew what a credit score was worth, my wife and I would often sign up for store-branded credit cards in order to get the various incentives that come with getting a card: $50 bonus or 20% of a purchase or any number of things.
I have mentioned once or twice that we would like to find a place to rent that comes with lower rent than our current location.
Late last week, Mrs. Stew found a rental that had just come open on Craigslist and called to find out more details. A few days later, we drove over to see the place. It was not terrible, some things we liked, some things we did not like. Let me lay out the pros and cons to see what you think:
I recently ran across a question on Personal Finance Q&A’s over at Moolanomy. The question itself was not all that remarkable, but the scene portrayed in the lead up to the question portrays a marriage that might be headed for trouble in my humble opinion.
Here is a portion of the questions posted by a writer who identified herself as KJC. If you would like the entire context, click through here:
