Archive for April, 2007
The Importance of Diversification
We all know that if we want to have any sort of true wealth we must do much more than work and put our money under a mattress. We all know that we have to do some investing, but if you invest without understanding, you are probably better off shoving it all under your mattress! [...]
Say No to "Bill Me Later"
Just a decade ago, the internet was in its infancy. There were a few sites here and there which provided a lot of great information, but for the most part the content was static and there wasn’t much the internet could do but allow you to play Quake with your friends and look up information [...]
Five Tips for Shopping at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart, Costco, and other big box stores can really be quite deceiving. Yes, they do have some very nice low priced merchandise, but if you don’t go in there with a plan, they have a plan for you. Before you realize it you’ll spend much more than you would have otherwise. There are just so [...]
How to Budget in College
Very few college students take the time to stay on top of their finances. Most of them just really don’t have much of any money to manage. Others have no idea of personal finance and just make use of the habits they’ve learned from their parents or what they’ve figured out on their own. Most [...]
Why It Probably Doesn’t Make Sense to Change Your Own Oil.
Getting one’s oil changed is a necessary evil of owning a vehicle. None of us really enjoy take the time of doing it, but it does have to be done every few thousand miles. There’s always the question of whether or not to get the tools and do it yourself, or to take it to [...]
How to Save Money on Every Purchase From Amazon.com
Amazon.com is easily the number one online retailer. They sell just about everything there is to sell, from Segways to Books to Groceries. Because of the Amazon Marketplace, you can easily get your favorite books and DVDs for just a few dollars a piece. Amazon usually has great prices anyway, excellent customer service, and decent [...]
Debt: It’s All About Compound Interest
A lot of people casually borrow money based off of need or because that’s what everyone does. Nobody saves up and pays cash for a vehicle anymore, instead they just finance their new vehicle so that they can have their car now, and after all, everyone does it so it can’t be that bad, right? [...]
The Pro’s and Con’s of Carpooling
In some of the more urban parts of the country, America’s highways and byways are highly-congested and an outright nightmare to drive on during rush hour. Many Americans turn to driving to work with their neighbors in order to cut back on some of the expense and craziness of driving to work in the morning, [...]
Ten Tips for Buying User Cars.
It almost never makes financial sense to buy a new car, unless you’re a millionaire and can take the depreciation. Get yourself a quality 2 to 4 year old used vehicle, and avoid the massive hit of depreciation that vehicles face in the first few years of ownership. Here are some tips to buy a [...]
Cutting the Cost of Your Cable Bill
Some people have absolutely no problem with not having cable television, and that’s just fine for them. There’s just as many other people who can’t get enough of their favorite programs and are wiling to fork over all the money they have to get access to them through cable television. In some parts of the [...]
How To Get Free Krispy Kreme Donuts
A few months ago the nearest Krispy Kreme donut shop closed its doors, which caused me to shed a tear. In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing that they’ve closed, since I’m trying to lose weight (I’m already down 7.5 lbs). Fortunately they can still be had at a number of gas stations and other [...]
How to Identify Bad Financial Plans
When people are trying to lose weight, they often turn to expensive meal plans, diet pills, and new fad diets to try to get healthy. In 95% of cases (including my own), it just makes sense to cut the calories and work out more. There’s no magic solution to losing weight. Getting rid of major [...]
When to Not Use a Savings Account
Most of us have had a savings account since we were very young. We probably got one before the age of ten, and whenever we got money for our birthdays, holidays, or what have you, we’d throw it in there. This way we had some money to help pay for a car and college when [...]
Student Loans: How Much Is it Okay to Borrow?
65.7% of college students have to get student loans to pay for college, and the average student loan debt is $19,237 for a graduating senior in the United States according to the National Post Secondary Student Aid Study. This is no surprise considering that the rate of tuition increases 7% per year, and in some [...]
Why Being a Stay At Home Mom Can Make Economical Sense
Some of the outer fringes of the feminist movement are telling other women that they should not be stay at home moms, and instead should go back to work because being a stay at home mom is nothing more than female servitude. They say that women should be able to work out of the home [...]
Over 60? Buy Long Term Care Insurance TODAY.
When we become older, often times our medical expenses increase dramatically. It’s a natural part of life, as you get older your health slowly declines over a long period of time. It’s something that we have come to accept as a society because modern science and medicine have only advanced so far. Medical researchers have [...]
Make Sure You Have Enough Homeowner’s Insurance
In the last two years, America’s housing industry has just been booming. New home sales, existing home sales, all of the statistics were on the up tick. The only thing the real estate community had to worry about was how long the ride might last. Part of the reason that the housing market boomed so [...]
Your Children Don’t Need an Allowance, They Need to Work!
Giving children an allowance each week has been a much debated issue among parents. Some adults lavish their children with money to show them their love, others expect work from their children with no pay, and some make their children work for their money. What the children do with the money is an entire another [...]
How to Safely and Cheaply Order New Checks
In the last several years, most major banks have created online bill paying services which have made it so we don’t have to write nearly as many personal checks as we used to. The combination of bill paying services and the explosion of credit and debit card uses has made it so we really don’t [...]
Avoiding Foreclosure When Your Behind on Your House Payments
Several years ago, I was listening to a radio show about personal finance. A woman had called and told the host that her credit card bills were caught up, but she had not eaten in two days. Talk about some seriously messed up priorities. Paying your mortgage payment shouldn’t come before food and your light [...]
Social Security: Is Early Retirement the Way to Go?
Social Security is perhaps one of the most interesting results of the New Deal during the great depression. Some believe that its nothing more than a very bad retirement savings program, whereas others believe that it’s a safety net to keep seniors from living in poverty. Regardless about how you feel about it, you will [...]
Frugality in Motion: Going to the Movies
Frugality in motion is a series of posts designed to enable to save more money throughout your regular activities, practices, and life events.If any one single industry has figured out how to separate us from our money, it has to be the movie industry. We go to the theater, spend $10.00 a person on tickets, [...]
Don’t Use Your Ceiling Fans During the Winter
I used to have a kitten that loved to sit under our living-room ceiling fan and watch the blades turn for hours on end. She was the most content kitten in the world when she sat under that fan. It provided her a lot of entertainment, and now I’m wondering if that’s just about all [...]
How to Help Charities in Five Minutes or Less
There are so many worth while causes to help and fight for and so many people who need help. It’s a tragedy that the money to help take care of each and every worthy cause fully is not there. Often time’s people will go without much needed medical procedures because the money is not there. [...]
Early Warning Signs of Financial Trouble
When people have problems with money, they often don’t do anything about it until they cannot afford to make their monthly payments, their house is foreclosed on, or a vehicle is repossessed. People often live in financial denial, living far above their means and spending much more than they make. Only when they hit bottom [...]
Simplify and Save: Get Rid Of Your Cell-Phone
It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when nobody had computers, cell-phones, or any of today’s modern conveniences, yet people seemed to get by just fine! It makes one wonder if perhaps we could simplify our lives by getting rid of some of these modern “conveniences.” Chances are we could save a lot [...]
Never Pay an ATM Fee.
When I was very young and first got an ATM card to go along with my newly held checking account, I didn’t make very good use of it. Whenever I thought I needed money, I would take some out and spend it as I pleased. Until I got to college and was forced to be [...]
after working on our loan modification for a year with WF I got a denial letter April 26. They sold ...
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