There is no shortage of personal finance advice available. I’ve been known to produce a bit myself here and there. There are recurring themes like “buy vs. rent,” “spend less than you earn,” “the magic of compounding,” and so forth which are the cornerstones of personal finance, saving, and retirement planning. They’re cornerstones because there’s … Read more
Economies of scale are a wonderful thing. The more you’re willing to buy from a particular vendor, the better the unit price they’re inclined to give you. Selling a thousand items a hundred times is a lot more work than selling fifty thousand items twice. It’s less bookkeeping, less tracking, less shipping, and less labor … Read more
Saving money, and spending less money, are two crucial activities for people looking to take, and maintain, control of their personal finances. And, as with most things, there are classy ways to go about it, and … less classy ways. On the spectrum of ways to spend less money openly, one can be (in order … Read more
Personal finance boils down to recognizing, and acting on, good deals in their proper context. What’s a wise finance decision for one person could easily be a foolish decision for another. In deciding whether something is a good deal, it’s often useful to quantify its cost in terms of something familiar. While raw amounts like … Read more
I’ll admit it. I’m a card-carrying member of the grammar police, the spelling police, and the style police. “Weird Al” Yankovic released his newest album Mandatory Fun less than two months ago. He parodied a Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” with “Word Crimes.” If Weird Al’s song speaks to the innermost parts of your being, then … Read more
The pillar of responsible personal finance is to spend less than you earn. If you’ve heard that once, you’ve heard it thousands of times. There are three ways to work towards spending less than you earn: One area that discourages people with finding ways to spend less is that “spending less” often translates to “doing … Read more
Rebate sites are a great way to save money easily when shopping online. Just click through these sites instead of going directly to the store, and they’ll keep track of your visit and rebate you a portion of your purchase. There are quite a few of these sites out there, and they compete against one … Read more
I was chatting briefly with a colleague yesterday about married life. (He was going to be best man in a friend’s wedding in a couple of weeks.) In the course of the conversation, I admitted that saving money was a heck of a lot easier before I was married, but that I wouldn’t go back … Read more