I’ve read a number of articles dealing with the dynamics of personal finance with couples, and one suggestion that pops up pretty regularly is keeping separate checking accounts for discretionary spending, or even for regular monthly bills that are in one person’s name or the other’s. The big motivations for doing this are freedom (“This … Read more
Did you miss me? I sure missed me. I was down for at least 130 hours — over five days. (Not that I was counting or anything.) Why was I down for this long? It would be easy to blame my web hosting company or blame lousy customer care, but I’m not going to do … Read more
This movie by now is old news in the finance blogging community but I watched Maxed Out last night. It shows interviews with these folks, among others: A woman who spent years (I think) reclaiming her credit record and good name after someone thought that she had died rather than her daughter, who did die … Read more
No, seriously — it works really well at getting rid of smoke odor. I bought a collection of California Raisin figurines at a yard sale for a decent price. They were a little dirty but they’re durable, so they withstood scrubbing to get the grime off. Then I smelled the cigarettes. The woman who sold … Read more
EBay’s search function is a useful tool for buyers to locate auctions of interest. It will even search for plural forms if you enter the singular form in the search box (listings containing “dimes” will show up if you search for “dime”). But if the seller misspells a key term in the title, a lot … Read more
First off, a big thank you to The Consumerist and The Simple Dollar and others for linking to my article on seven prudent things to do with a small windfall. I’m glad you found it worthwhile! The Consumerist linked to an article on CNN Money that discussed this issue as well. Walter Updegrave gave advice … Read more
Windfalls can be either an excuse to spend lots of money or they can be excellent tools for strengthening your financial disposition. Reducing debt is one of a number of prudent things that can be done with a year-end bonus, yard sale proceeds, or any other one-shot income event. If you have consumer debt, then … Read more
For the past few weeks I’ve been going to a chiropractor to start working to strengthen and restoring my spine. My body’s “oil light” is going on and I finally decided to pay attention to it. (Alert: Personal medical history through end of paragraph.) I was born with a clubfoot and went through three surgeries … Read more