Starbucks is beginning to test $1 “short” cups of drip coffee with free refills in Seattle. Other chains are offering good alternatives at lower prices, so Starbucks might be feeling out the market to avoid getting beaned by the competition. Pricey drinks are of course a favorite example of David Bach, author of The Automatic … Read more
Liz Pulliam Weston’s article on twenty ways to make $100 more a month presents food for thought on how to increase your income. Increasing your income accomplishes the same end as reducing your expenses; the amount that you save each month goes up. The advantage of increasing your income over reducing your expenses is that … Read more
(If I get one. The chickens aren’t hatched yet.) That’s what I did with the $300 check I received in 2001. It wasn’t burning a hole in my pocket at the time. The $100 billion (give or take a few billion) injection of liquidity — also known as a “stimulus package” — into individuals’ wallets … Read more
I received a complimentary copy of Getting Started: The Financial Guide for a Younger Generation by Brian T. Jones, CFP®. On the back cover it proclaims: “This is NOT your parents’ financial planning guide.” This book encourages young people (and slightly older people like myself) to think about financial planning considerations that don’t really seem … Read more
Most of you won’t know Mrs. McHale. You might know her if you went to CFA around the mid-1980s (a high school that was converted to a middle school in the region south of the Finger Lakes in New York State). If you do know her (or recognize the names Mr. L’Amoreaux, Mr. Baker, or … Read more
A few months ago I went to meet with a financial planner that works with my parents. The meeting was nearly two hours and we discussed a number of topics. One word that the financial planner used a number of times was discipline. Getting control over personal financial matters doesn’t happen by itself. As I’ve … Read more
It’s only a week and a half into the new year, so there’s not much time lost if you haven’t. If you use your vehicle for business, moving, or charity work, you can claim an itemized deduction of a certain amount per mile driven if you don’t otherwise deduct your actual vehicle expenses. There are … Read more
This may not be a revelation to many of you but natural spring water can taste really, really good. We and my wife’s parents have recently begun stopping off at a natural spring just off of Route 55 near the Virginia-West Virginia border. We had made a number of trips before that and we always … Read more