You’ve probably heard the phrase “Don’t ask a barber if you need a haircut.” What about “Don’t ask a dentist if you need a filling?” One of my relatives I spoke to recently was having some tests run by a cardiologist, and the same relative hasn’t gone to a dentist in a while, with the … Read more
My wife went to a church retreat this weekend in the Virginia Beach area. The church still had some time left on the rental (they had paid through today at 10 AM) so there was some time for others (like myself) to come down to enjoy the house for a bit. The house was right … Read more
This article on MSN was convicting: Too broke to save money? Never Liz Pulliam Weston responds to a reader’s e-mail. Jason Adair supports a family of three on $40k per year, and he finds most of the money-saving advice available — some of mine, probably as well! — quite unhelpful: “Please, spending $15 at Arby’s … Read more
We just got our tax refunds for 2005. (We filed for an extension.) It was a decent-sized interest-free loan to Uncle Sam. It’s true that we could increase my paychecks a little by withholding less. We could use the additional money to invest. However, it’s a game to try to get the withholding as low … Read more
Just this weekend we bought a Garmin GPS receiver using Buy It Now on eBay. We saw one in the store and after checking online we found that we could get a much better deal there, and decided that we could wait to get one online. EBay is a great site to find fair market … Read more
Just because Howie Mandel plays risk-taker provocateur on TV doesn’t mean that he’s a risk-taker himself. The host of Deal or No Deal is risk-averse. He would rather have a bird in the hand than risk it for the two in the bush. He talks about the risks and the nature of the show … Read more
A poster in the Saving Advice Money and Budgeting Forums came across a $92k windfall from a settlement. The poster asked the forum for advice on what to do with it. The debts that the couple had were vehicles: $42k. More than enough to pay off the cars. One (his) would definitely get paid off, … Read more
I felt a little bit like a wet blanket earlier. My wife called up yesterday to ask me about GPS receivers (actually, if she could get one). She and her parents got into geocaching. I was really glad that she called me (we try to discuss any reasonably major purchases). There were a couple of … Read more