Archive for December, 2007

 Most people set goals and resolutions to improve their lives in some way at the start of a New Year. One of the most popular resolutions, of course, is to lose weight- but with the increasing number of American’s in excessive debt, it would do us all some good if we made some financial plans [...]

Depending on where you live in the country, a one bedroom apartment might cost you $300 a month to live in, or $1,100 a month to live in. Movie tickets might cost you $4.50 in rural America, or easily twice that in some of the larger theaters on the west coast. A $100,000 home out [...]

If you’re young, broke, and desperately need money, what do you do? Conventional wisdom would indicate that going out and getting a job would be the smart thing to do, but instead some people are taking drastic measures by selling advertising real estate on their skin! People are connecting with advertisers and having temporary tattoos [...]

When it comes to shopping online, you can never be too careful when it comes to security. There are criminals out there that would pay good money for your personal information and your bank/credit card account numbers. They use trojan-horse viruses and phishing scams in attempts to steal this personal information. Most of us know [...]

If there’s ever one point in one’s life where they learn the most about money, it certainly has to be college. Most college students have and earn next to nothing, so they have to make the most of what they have. They wisely take tips from upperclassmen who have figured out all of the great [...]

Imagine that it’s Christmas eve and you’re down on your luck. You might have recently lost your job or had some other huge financial emergency and there just wasn’t enough money to go aroundfor presents this year. You’re at a store trying to figure out what you can get for the kids so they at [...]

I recently took a trip to the local Century movie theater to see a film called “Dan in Real Life.” After paying for the tickets, a beverage for each of us and a large bag of popcorn, the total bill ended up being $27.00, and I live in rural South Dakota! It might not be [...]

Most people that know me or know of me to be a pretty good steward and handler of money. I have no debt, a decent nest egg and am well on my way to retirement, but something was missing. There are several aspects to proper stewardship, and there was one of them I was failing [...]

This is an often used line in marketing- and it works.  How often do you find yourself buying three shirts when you only intended to buy one because the price per shirt was less when you got three of them?  Individually, the shirts might cost $15 each; but when you get 3 they’re only $12 [...]

Welcome to the December 18th, 2007 edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The topic of risk often takes a backseat when talking about finance, but it’s extremely important to adjust whatever financial action you’re taking for risk. A bet on black in Vegas will yield a 100% rate of return on your money, but most [...]

Increased gasoline prices are here and they’re here to stay. It’s been over 3 years since we’ve seen prices that are consistently under $2.00 a gallon, and they don’t seem to be headed down anytime soon. Instead of griping about the high cost of gasoline, we should instead adopt a positive attitude and look at [...]

Buying a wedding gift that will be remembered and cherished rather than returned to Bed, Bath and Beyond for store credit is a difficult thing to do. Buying presents for Christmas and Birthdays is hard enough, but when anywhere from 50 to 150 people are buying gifts for just two people, it’s almost impossible to [...]

If you’ve decided to become self employed, recently lost your job, are in between jobs, or are working for an employer who doesn’t offer health insurance, you are not alone. In fact, there are nearly 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance because they feel they cannot afford it.
Can you afford NOT to [...]

Seems everything these days has some form of “artificial intelligence”.  Childrens toys, computers, cars… but investments?
Life cycle funds are mutual funds that offer investors a quick way to create a diversified portfolio.  Life cycle funds already contain a mix of stocks, bonds, and various assets- so when you contribute to a life cycle fund you [...]