Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
Sometimes, going against conventional wisdom can work out in your favor. Emile writes:
I stumble on your website after a Google search and what a pleasure it was. I have a situation and I’d appreciate your honest opinion on it. I am graduating college in about a month with about $30,000 in credit card debt and student loans. I’ll be starting a job in June paying $72k/year. I was thinking of paying off all my debt during my 1st year.
Doing this would mean minimal savings. Do you think it is a good idea? FYI: I have about 20k in student loan and 10k in credit card.
Many people will tell you to build an emergency fund first, but I will tell you otherwise, as soon as you feel comfortable in saying that you are safe at your current position. [ continue reading… ]
Starting next month, the plan to allocate my income will drastically change.
Trying to land a loan has been an unnecessarily cumbersome process, but now that we are through jumping over all the hurdles, I can concentrate on figuring out how I will continue to allocate my income to build wealth. For a while now, the plan was simple: stick everything other than retirement account contributions in an online savings account in order to save for a down payment. As our short term need for money essentially vanished after buying our first home though, it’s time for an re-evaluation. Here’s what we came up with. Please take a look and give some comments or ask questions. [ continue reading… ]
Do you get paranoid about your finances, try too hard and end up hurting your chances for a comfortable life?
Sara was sick, or at least so we thought. During one morning, she was having trouble breathing and sneezing, and getting very frustrated. The caring dad yelled at whoever came his way, pushed everyone aside and rushed her to a walk-in clinic. When they got there, Sara was quietly asleep, without a hint of trouble. But that’s not the end of it. Everyone else there was sick. Kids were running around sneezing, coughing, and spreading their viruses around the room. That’s when it dawned on daddy.
Is Sara fine all along but made sick because I came?
Then another thought came to his mind. Has anyone else done this with their finances? Panic, overreact and then swiftly push their finances down the slope of destruction because they just felt they needed to break a sweat? [ continue reading… ]
My wife spent $0 during the month of March. Surprising, it was expected.
Welcome to the first month of parenthood. No temptations, no advertisements and no access to salespeople. It was easy for her not to spend, really. She didn’t buy anything because she wasn’t thinking about money. She wasn’t worried about her kitchen because she didn’t past by William Sonoma, and she didn’t eat out because, well, she never left the house.
Her focus was on Sara, our one month old. Nothing else seemed more important, and it was easy because spending was the last thing on her mind. Babies are expensive, but it doesn’t mean less savings after its all said and done. [ continue reading… ]
The global recession has left a lasting effect on everyone’s life. During this recession while some people lost their jobs, some experienced salary cuts. Overall production, income, corporate profit, investment expenditure of the economy reached an excessive low. So, it is very natural that the economy will take some time to recover even in the post-recession period. In order to ensure that you face no more hardships post-recession, it is best to improve your personal finance. Here are some tips that you probably already know, but it pays to revisit them one more time. [ continue reading… ]
When you start talking about personal finance, you can get into some arguments about where to buy things. Wal-mart, after all is hard for many stores to compete with on prices. At the same time, though, buying from Wal-mart doesn’t always help the local economy. The same holds true at big box stores and online.
The Lowest Price
One of the benefits of buying from a big box store is you’ll usually get a lower price, whether you’re picking up a television or you’re buying a bunch of radishes. When you’re focused on the bottom line, it’s very hard to argue with a lower price — the less you spend, the better your finances are. Of course, there can be big differences based on where you live. Prices in New York City, whether you buy locally or from a big box retailer, are going to be very different than if you’re living in Sioux City, Iowa.
But personal finance is more than just about numbers isn’t it? The price may not be the only factor that affects your finances, so this is worth a deeper look. [ continue reading… ]
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