Credit cards have been around for a while, mainly during the past sixty years. They’ve made it easy for people to start a tab: buy now, pay later. The problem with buy now, pay later, of course, is that it’s likely that the thing you’re buying will cost more money in the long run. There … Read more
It’s 2013. We’ve successfully gotten past the Mayans, and media exposure from the Fiscal Cliff hasn’t claimed any lives that we know of. Go us. January 1st is a time for new year’s resolutions, starting afresh, all that good stuff. Here are a couple of simple suggestions for your finances as we enter the new … Read more
A few days ago I chatted with some financial planners. They were recommending some bond funds as alternatives to holding cash or money-market funds. I admit that I haven’t looked at bond funds too closely. I knew that there was an inverse relationship between the price of bonds and the interest rate: as rates go … Read more
MSN.com has a slide show on 100 ways to save money in 2013. There are a lot of good ways to save money but the one on slide 18 is not good. It recommends not paying for music If you’re a music junkie, you probably download the latest and greatest songs from iTunes without a … Read more
I met Kay Bell a little over a year ago in Chicago. She’s kept Don’t Mess With Taxes as true to topic as any personal finance blogger I know: all taxes, all the time on her blog. (As you’d expect from a tax blog, no?) Recently she’s come through with nine end-of-year tax games with … Read more
We’re doing Christmas gift-opening a couple of times this year because we’re traveling around to see family. Tonight we spent some time opening part of our gifts. Yesterday after work I had only a few last-minute Christmas gifts to get, and it was a fairly fast and painless process, even at the start of the … Read more
My watch beeped midnight only a short while ago. Let the waiting game begin. Matt Jabs gave me some comfort in telling me that the solstice wasn’t going to happen until 11:12 this morning. But he didn’t say which time zone. More seeds of doubt. If we take the stance that the Mayans were wrong, … Read more
Housing is right up there with groceries as a major household budget item for many families — not just in the raw amount of money shelled out, but also in importance. Food and shelter and all that. Since housing involves a commitment (either a lease or a mortgage) there’s less flexibility in adjusting housing costs … Read more