I’ve set as one of my goals this year to track my finances better. Getting the process down is the goal, and one part of this process is making sure that the receipts don’t pile up too high. So I’ve set as a goal to clear out my receipts at least ten times a month. … Read more
There are a number of different ways to value your time in order to determine whether to go the extra mile for a discount, do something yourself or hire out, or take on an extra job. I gave my take on how to calculate the hourly value of my time, which turned out to be … Read more
Stuff is illiquid, but it’s liquid at the right price. A boat, a car, or a house might get decent offers if the owner has time to wait for the right buyer to come along. If the offers don’t come and the owner wants to sell, nothing attracts more buyers like reducing the price. Further, … Read more
The last post mentioned that I’ve set as a goal this year to track my expenses a lot better than I have been. There are a fair number of untracked expenditures in our current spending, and it’s likely those little secret leaks that will hurt us in the long run if we don’t plug them … Read more
It’s helpful to figure out how much your time is worth in order to weigh trade-offs between money and time. It helps to determine whether it’s more economical to walk to the grocery store, to drive there, to order the food online, or to pay someone else to do it. If your time is worth … Read more
The Smart Spending blog on MSN MoneyCentral (who’ve linked to me a few times — thanks very much Donna and Karen!) posted some reader responses to the question: Do you pick up pennies? I absolutely pick up money I find. Pennies are great. I point out pennies so that my daughter can pick them up. … Read more
A family I know has raised a whole bunch of kids — the number is somewhere between the Brady Bunch and Cheaper by the Dozen — on a fairly modest income. The parents don’t worry about paying for college, because they’ve told all of their children flat out that once they graduate high school and … Read more
Commenter “CF” asked three questions about flexible spending accounts. Here’s what I could find. (Standard disclaimers apply, as in this is information only and not personalized financial advice. Feel free to use this as a starting point for your own investigations, but follow this advice at your own risk.) My company offers supplemental insurance which … Read more