Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
Before I even start to write this post, I know I’ll be opening up a can of worms: for some people, pets are members of the family and entitled to a level of care on par with the rest of the family. For others, pets are great, but are not necessarily worth spending a lot of money on. Each person decides for themselves how important their pets are and nothing anyone else says can or should interfere with that.
There are some considerations about spending on a pet that are worth talking about, however. There are many new pet products coming out every year, making your pet’s care just as important a factor in your budget as any other part of your life. [ continue reading… ]
It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to improve our financial picture but somehow never taking that first step. Here are five things to try to gain the motivation to get things moving.
1. Ask yourself if you really want to do it. Often, we think that we should want to do things and put them on our giant list of things that should be done, even though we have no interest in them whatsoever. Then, they hang over our heads like big black clouds and make it impossible for us to move on – oddly enough; this isn’t motivating and makes us procrastinate even more. [ continue reading… ]
China holds an iconic place in our perception of entertainment and value, as many couples still seriously consider requesting china when they get married. Before you opt to spend, or have people spend, hundreds of dollars for dishes, consider the following points. [ continue reading… ]
It wasn’t that long ago when a career would begin and end in the same workplace. For our parents and grandparents, staying with one job throughout the working years would not only foster a sense of job security, but it would also ensure a retirement. Those days are gone however, and with it the ability of an employee to leave retirement in the hands of his employer. In the new millennium, the average worker will change jobs every 4.4 years. This can lead to some confusion, apprehension and apathy when it comes to handling retirement accounts. And if you changed jobs at any point in your career without taking your retirement accounts with you, you might have completely forgot about them—risking a chance that it might be very difficult to recover your assets after decades of abandonment.
Bottom line: consolidate your retirement accounts. There are two main avenues for consolidating retirement accounts: rolling your previous savings into your new employer’s retirement program or funding an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). [ continue reading… ]
Last week, I took my kids to the ice cream place to celebrate an awesome achievement for one of them on her math test. When it was time to pay, the tip jar was glaring at me, with big yellow letters that seemed to scream “THANK YOU!”
Ice cream for the three of us cost about $8. I gave the guy a $10 bill and asked him to keep the change.
On Saturday night, my husband and I met two other couples for dinner at a nice restaurant. The evening was great – interesting conversation, and amazing food. When the bill arrived, we realized that a service charge of 18% was automatically added to our bill, since we were a group of six. When signing the credit card receipt, I added enough to make it a 20% tip.
Years ago, when I was a law school student and worked part time as a waitress, there was this one terrible night where the kitchen was understaffed. No matter how efficient I was, my customers had to wait for their food FOREVER. I got very bad tips that night, even though the delay in serving the food was completely out of my control.
Tipping. We all have stories about tipping, and most of us feel pretty strongly about the subject. Today, I’d like to share a few stories, make a few observations, and hear what you have to say about this seemingly delicate subject. [ continue reading… ]
The IRS recommends that you keep your tax returns for a minimum of three years after filing. But there are plenty of records that go into preparing a tax return and it’s not always as clear just how long you should keep all of that paperwork. It seems pointless, in particular, to keep every last little receipt you’ve received – even if the IRS audits you, is the agent really going to want a record of that bag of burgers you picked up for dinner six months ago?
The simple truth is that while it is a good idea to maintain good financial records for a given year for at least three years after filing that year’s tax return – based on how long the IRS has to audit tax payers – there are some pieces of paper that are going to be more important and that you should make sure you keep, often longer than that three year deadline. [ continue reading… ]
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