Few things lend themselves better to goal-setting than debt reduction. The goal is very clear: Get the amount you owe down to zero! This doesn’t only apply to people with credit card debt, but also to anyone who has a mortgage (this includes myself). Even though fixed-rate mortgage debt is among the better kinds of … Read more
Toys do not need to be expensive. They don’t even need to be cheap. They can be free! The ToobShooterâ„¢ Starter Set (click the picture to enlarge) consists of a batting tube (my wife quilts), my computer chair, a Folgersâ„¢ coffee can, a yellow golf ball, and a defunct trackball ball. Assembly time required: 8.7 … Read more
You know the one I’m talking about … your tax refund! 😉 When I saw the Liz Pulliam Weston article 7 smart ways to spend your tax refund I saw the word “spend” and thought, “Oh great, just blow it on junk, why don’t you!” But I was wrong in this assumption. Some excellent advice … Read more
What a great story: Pregnant Teen Waitress Gets $1,000 Tip Actually, the total payment was $1,000 — $26.35 for the meal and $973.65 for the tip. This is a 3,695% tip! Gifts like this are touching. When one person’s definition of pocket change is different from another’s by a few zeroes, it tends to make … Read more
Kirby on Finance has a few great posts that address an interesting question: Can you afford to be so frugal? With this he makes an excellent observation: “So often we talk about the time value of money in terms of saving, but we rarely think about money value of time in spending!” Time and money … Read more
Last year we got over our heads a little bit on our taxes because of new business relationships. Caught up in the excitement of starting up and producing things, we neglected some basic recordkeeping and filing, and as a result the tax filing did not go smoothly at all. We filed extensions, missed deadlines, and … Read more
This Business Week article on Money Central, Build a nest egg without a 401(k), dishes out some advice for young people (dubbed rather unceremoniously as Generation Debt) who don’t have the luxury of contributing to an employer-matched, tax-deferred retirement account. Here’s the advice, with a little commentary: Open an IRA. This is good advice even … Read more
This article rose to the personal finance page on Money.com: Top things to know about controlling your debt The folks at Money have a Money 101 course online with a good series of articles covering many areas of personal finance. Five of the suggestions specifically relate to debt reduction in this article. Here they are, … Read more