I have a great fascination for the great philanthropists in our history and the great spirit of philanthropy that permeates our culture. Did you know that Americans give more money voluntarily than the citizens of any other country? We give seven times more money to charity than the citizens of Germany for instance. Another example [...]
In the financial world, we often talk about investment diversity and how important it is when investing to not place all of our eggs in one basket. Why? Risk mitigation. If one area “flops”, chances are other investments won’t.
People with even the smallest amount of investing experience recognize this strategy and practice it. What amazes [...]
Do you ever feel financially overwhelmed? Over the past two weeks we’ve had to pay property taxes on our rental home, home owners association (HOA) dues for our current home and rental house, our car registrations came due, a few bills were due, and another misc expense.
Under normal circumstances, none of these issues should have [...]
A survey done in 2006 by Entrepreneur magazine revealed that “70% of Americans say they are good or excellent at managing their finances.” Did that statistic shock you? It did me. Statistics from a 2006 government survey show that “96% of all Americans will retire financially dependent on the government, family, or dependents.”
“It isn’t what [...]
I’m currently out of town on business. I don’t travel often, but when I do for some crazy reason a few days before I always begin to think through the question: “How easy would it be for my wife to pick up our finances if died?“ I’m not really afraid of flying and I’ve flown [...]
When it comes to family money management and assisting friends and family who fall victim to the current economic crisis, most people want to help, but often have absolutely no idea what to do. 90 percent of us understand that the equation of “family + money” = “a particularly nasty” outcome. Hence, the dilemma resulting [...]
As a techie and former software developer I love software and in particular money management software, including personal budgeting software. I’ve expressed my extreme fondness for You Need a Budget in the past as my favorite personal budgeting software package. I thought I’d take some time in this article to highlight my favorite online money [...]
Just in case you might have been on an extended vacation in another galaxy or maybe you really do live under a rock, I thought I would let you know that it would seem we really are in an economic recession. The symptoms are all over and new symptoms seem to be appearing daily on [...]
I was listening to Frugal Coast to Coast last Monday evening. The show was about becoming frugal. Lynnae and Jenn shared their various frugal tips and suggestions and people in the chat room did as well. I found it very interesting to observe people’s levels of “frugalness”.
Some people, like Lynnae and Jenn, I would consider [...]
After seeing my home heating cost at more than $400 last month, I decided to take some drastic action to reduce our overall heating cost. Right now, I just don’t have the budget to make major changes like moving to a more energy efficient heat-pump or converting to a different source of heat like propane [...]
The following is a guest post from Studenomics.
I’m not the world’s most religious person but religion definitely plays a vital role in my life. I try to follow my religion and it’s teachings as often as possible and make it a point to attend Mass Service every Sunday. Whether you realize it or not your [...]
I’m sure many of you received holiday gift cards just as I did. I know many people don’t like gift cards, but I actually prefer them, especially Visa gift cards. I’m fine with store specific cards as well, but Visa gift cards are great because you can use them anywhere.
I’m a fan of gift cards [...]
I recently received the first full month electric bill for our new home here in the NC mountains and was shocked: $420.00! That is the most expensive electric bill I have ever had. Granted, my new house is all electric, where my prior homes were both electric and gas.
To get a comparison to our previous [...]
I mentioned two weeks ago in my Friday gathering post that as a result of moving into our home, I’m having to learn a bunch of new things due to our new house and the new area we live in. The trend of learning continues.
As I write this, I am sitting next to a nice, [...]
I listen to the radio in my car while traveling, and it seems like almost every commercial break contains a Blue Hippo computers commercial. I am sure you’ve heard them, Blue Hippo promises a desktop or laptop with no credit check and they even throw in a free digital camera and color printer. If you [...]
