JLP’s post on the Rules of 72, 114, and 144 got my math juices flowing. Where does the Rule of 72 come from? If you’re not into math, no biggie, but you might experience a little boredom. 😉 Say I have starting principal Ps with periodic interest rate r (expressed as a decimal). I let … Read more
This weekend I stopped by a yard sale on the way to another activity. I had thought it would be a quick two-minute scan and then I’d be on my way. Boy, was I wrong! A little background: My wife on occasion does scrapbooking, and she has a lot of friends that are into scrapbooking … Read more
No, she’s not mad at me and I’m not trying to get on her good side. If one were to put a salary on “stay-at-home mother” it would be over $138k this year, according to the compensation experts at Salary.com. Between housekeeping, teaching, psychological counseling, van driving, cook, and several other jobs, that’s what a … Read more
This was a little silly, but it made me realize that I could save a little bit on shipping once in a while as I fulfill orders in my eBay store. I had packed up an order for a customer in a Priority Mail® box. I charged the customer for flat-rate shipping and expected to … Read more
EBay has turned a lot of people into resellers and virtual store owners. If you can fill out online forms and use a web-based or downloaded listing program, you can sell stuff on eBay. Now, actually turning a profit isn’t quite that easy. And making a living at it is more difficult still. This article … Read more
Reader’s Digest (eBay) had an article in its May, 2007, issue entitled New Ways to Make a Bundle. I’m a big fan of supplementing one’s income in one’s “spare time” because a good way to save more, and thus get on more financially sound footing, is to earn more. Earning more on a side business … Read more
A good friend closed on land and a building loan today. He was telling me about the loan process and some of the terms of his building loan/mortgage. It had terms that I hadn’t run across before, but they were interesting terms. The loan is fixed rate, 30 years, but the payment increases after 10 … Read more
There was a discussion over in the Money Blog Network Forums about different ways to calculate how much to save to allow a particular monthly payment during retirement. Some people responded with future value and present value functions and the 4% retirement rule. These are perfectly legitimate ways of estimating what you’ll need in retirement. … Read more