February 14th is coming up fast. Since I’m male, the holiday is known as: Procrastination Day. Retailers are well aware of this. They’ve been taunting us with displays of heart-shaped boxes of everything since December 26th. And during the fifty-one days in between Christmas and Procrastination Day, we purchase: nothing. Then, in an enormous fit … Read more
The recent beer posts on Five Cent Nickel reminded me of an article from the pre-blog MBH site. From the catacombs, for your viewing pleasure! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IS THIS REALLY A GOOD PRICE? How do you know it’s a bargain in the first place? Knowledge is power: Knowing what things cost The more you know about … Read more
I’ve been a proponent of early-payoff of a mortgage because of the interest savings. I still am, for the most part. If you have a lot of resources and can do really well with your money, then it might pay not to pay off your mortgage quickly. It might just be a great deal to … Read more
Our cordless drill was no longer holding a charge, so we began looking for another one. In the process we learned a number of things about the market for new and used cordless drills. Cordless drills at pawn shops probably don’t hold their charge. The first one we bought at a pawn shop had batteries … Read more
The February 2006 issue of Money had a short feature on owning gold. George Mannes, “The Answer Guy,” answers a reader’s question about how to invest $50,000 in gold as a hedge against the declining US dollar. The response is only luke warm: he suggests Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and international stock funds as hedges against … Read more
Difficult customers, beware! Bottom feeders, watch out! Stores have had it with you if you’re a “bad customer.” Stores are taking note of customers who drain resources while keeping a tight grip on their wallet or returning an outfit that they “bought” and wore out for one evening. These below zeros are furtively guided elsewhere … Read more
In a previous post I proposed that personal finance and debt management be taught in school, figuring that high school students would do well to know about the high costs of credit card debt in a quantitative way before they went off to college. I don’t remember getting a lot of credit card offers in … Read more
An article on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity entitled Minimum Credit Card Payments Increase, in addition to reminding his readers that minimum payments on credit card balances are doubling from 2% to 4%, reminds everyone of the high cost of paying only the minimum balance. This is years and years of repaying things that are already … Read more