I give grocery stores a lot of credit. They do seem to come up with new and exciting ways to get you to spend more money while giving you the impressing that you’re saving money. As I was going through my receipts to enter things in Quicken to track our spending, I ran across what … Read more
My mother-in-law was very happy today. Four popped collars happy. So happy, in fact, she gave me not one, but two high-fives. Her taxes were finished. Practically signed, sealed, and delivered. Just waiting on one form from an investment firm that was overdue, but otherwise, done and done! She didn’t have a simple return, either. … Read more
My tax-advantaged retirement account from my employer offers a valuable piece of information on our annual statements. It’s the amount of monthly retirement income I can expect, given the amount I have in there now. This amount really was nothing to write home about. (It amounts to about 6% of my gross income.) But I’m … Read more
Nothing derails well-laid-out financial plans like a giant expense. The kind of expense that consumes one or more full paychecks. Big expenses happen to everybody. Some are unplanned, like an emergency room visit, or a trip to the vet after a pet gets bitten by a copperhead. It’s for this reason that building up a … Read more
Wow. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Kinda sneaks up on you. Right, guys? You have exactly one day to avoid succumbing to the capitalists. I received an e-mail today with the post’s title as the subject line. It’s a thoughtful question. My wife and I have it pretty easy as far as Valentine’s Day expenses go. … Read more
Sequestration talks have federal government employees worried about the possibility of being furloughed. A furlough is a (usually) temporary layoff. Since there is an upcoming deadline that could mean $85 billion in automatic spending cuts in two weeks, there’s the possibility that many federal employees will be missing some pay this year. This is called … Read more
(This is a guest post. A rather breezily-written one, but I think you’ll like it. If you want to guest post here and on hundreds of other sites, sign up for a PostRunner account.) So what do you get when “making money online” meets the exotic world of financial derivatives? The answer, it seems, is … Read more
“Free” is one of my favorite four-letter words. There’s almost no other more powerful marketing word. (Except perhaps “you” because people love to have people pay attention to them.) Sadly, free isn’t free. Everything has a cost. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s so very easy to be lured into doing someone … Read more