Jennifer writes in: My parents have been giving me $1,000 a month since I graduated from college three years ago. When my career first started, I really needed that money as I was an unpaid intern for several months at first while I built up my resume, then my first job paid less than minimum
It happens to a lot of people – myself included. One day, something triggers a change inside of you. You get really sick of paying money to the credit card companies and finally you reach the tipping point where the drawbacks of living a debt-filled life outweigh the benefits. You’re sick of it. You cut
A few weeks ago, I discussed a Bloomberg article about Warren Buffett’s projections for the stock market over the long term. Here’s a refresher on what Buffett said: “The economy, as measured by gross domestic product, can be expected to grow at an annual rate of about 3 percent over the long term, and inflation
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. 1. Renoir on beauty “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir Everything painful in life leaves behind a powerful imprint when the pain fades away. 2.
When I look back to the middle of the last decade – roughly 2002 to 2006 – I see a lot of great memories. I see my marriage to my wife. I see the birth of our first child. I see myself at a pair of jobs that I enjoyed quite a lot. I see
We are emotional people. We react to situations with a wide range of emotions: joy, fear, anger, mirth. On the other hand, money is about as non-emotional as you can get. Money is simply a method of exchange between goods and services. The problem that most of us run into when it comes to personal
It is very easy to get lost in an endless conversation about money issues. What kind of retirement plan should I have? How do I get rid of my debts? Am I saving enough for my child’s college fund? The goal of all of those things seems to be the accumulation of money. Money provides
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Free shipping and handling question 2. Hopeless debt 3. Handling real estate windfall 4. Friends convince me to spend 5. Package internet deals 6. Reporting tax
There are a lot of tactics that work well in both the personal finance world and the business world. Cutting your spending works in both worlds if you do it in an intelligent way. Investing in resources that will last for a long time is a good tactic in both worlds. However, there are things
The rain is falling from the sky. My work for the day is done and I actually have a few free hours. There is truly nothing that sounds more enjoyable to me in that situation than curl up in a comfortable chair with a great book. I’ll throw a blanket over me, get lost in
To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction – Newton’s Third Law of Motion Whenever you choose to spend money on one thing – an action – you have that much less money to spend on another thing – a reaction. It works for time, as well. Whenever you choose to spend
I received three reader emails in the past week about estate planning and children. First, from Doug: My wife and I are about to have our first child. What steps do we need to take care of to make sure our baby girl has a good life if something were to happen to her parents?
There are a lot of tactics that you can use to save money on food – coupons, comparison sales, and so on. The biggest problem with many of those tactics is that they work best – or they only work – on items that aren’t particularly good for you. My doctor has two simple rules
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Financial account security 2. 401(k) and company stock 3. Closing credit cards 4. Credit card rewards 5. Videos on personal finance 6. Credit card debt after
I have a very busy life. I have three kids, each of which are in different activities. I have three different community committee responsibilties, which means multiple meetings a month and other activities related to each one. I have writing responsibilities that involve two articles a day for The Simple Dollar, an ongoing effort to
A close friend of mine recently introduced me to Live Below the Line, a charity that challenges people to live on a food budget of $1.50 a day for five days. Live Below the Line is run by the World Food Program and actually starts tomorrow (though you could, of course, do the challenge yourself
“An allowance is not a salary or an entitlement. It is a tool for teaching children how to manage money.” – Joline Godfrey When our oldest child turned four years old, we started an allowance system. Each week, we gave him fifty cents per year of his age (so, $2 as a four year old).
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. 1. Abraham Lincoln on friendship “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The
Every so often, I’ll get a question like this one, from Gina: I am a federal employee and I get my paycheck every two weeks but all of my bills are monthly. What’s an easy budgeting system? This is a pretty consistent problem, actually. Many employees receive their pay on a weekly or biweekly schedule.