Profitable Ideas: Frugality Gone Too Far, Saving For Life’s Unexpected Good Things, and More
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Signs you’ve become too frugal (Money Ning). If you want to know how I really feel about this topic, read The Case Against Frugality. How does a raise early in your career affect your finances? (Of Dollars and Data). Good reasons to […]
‘Much Obliged’
Writer Fulton Oursler had vivid memories of an old woman named Anna who helped care for him as a child. When she sat down to eat she would say, “Much obliged, dear Lord, for my vittles.” Oursler wondered why she thanked God since she would get the food regardless of whether she gave thanks or […]
Profitable Ideas: Why We Buy, Adding to Your Life Through Subtraction, and More
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Why do we buy what we buy? (VOX). One of my favorite writers on our competitive, comparative spending. Why we struggle (Humble Dollar). The challenge to manage money well “isn’t complicated—and yet it isn’t so simple.” How to make a debt reduction […]
Best Financial Advice
Over the years, I’ve asked readers to share some of the best financial advice they’ve ever received. Here are some of their answers. Bob said that during a pre-marriage class he and his then fiancé attended, the teacher suggested using pay raises to build an initial savings account. In Bob’s words, “I can remember how […]
Profitable Ideas: Netflix Wants to Sell You a Sweatshirt, Minimalism Crashes the Economy, and More
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Doing nothing is hard work (A Wealth of Common Sense). When investing, sometimes we have to resist the urge to take action. Plan now for changes coming to college costs (Fidelity). It looks like the aid funnel is getting narrower. 5 lies […]
Determining Your Financial Independence Day
As we prepare to celebrate our country’s Independence Day this weekend, why not take a few minutes to figure out your financial independence day? If you have any debt other than a reasonable mortgage, that’s the day when you will be completely out of that debt. If the only debt you have is a mortgage, […]
Profitable Ideas: Measuring Your Financial Wellbeing, No Regrets, and More
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Can you measure your financial wellbeing? (The Evidence-Based Investor). Take the test and see how well it assesses your financial situation. Banks slowly offer alternatives to overdraft fees, a bane of struggling spenders (NY Times). Overdraft “protection”has long been one of the […]
The Absolute Best Way to Teach Kids About Money
Personal finance may be the most important topic typically not taught in school. And where it is being taught, there are mixed results. The main problem seems to be a lack of practicality—lectures and simulations will only get you so far. As I thought about the general ineffectiveness of teaching kids about money in a […]
Profitable Ideas: A Money-Making Machine, Unlimited Vacation Days, and More
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. A money-making machine: why a Roth IRA is your retirement best friend (USA Today). If you have kids and they have earned income, get them started on a Roth. Long after you’re gone, they’ll continue to think very nice thoughts about you! […]
Money and Marriage: Keeping No Financial Secrets
A divorce attorney once told me that when money is the issue that comes between couples, as it often is, the most common problem is that the spouses were living separate financial lives. Often, unbeknownst to the other, one was taking their relationship to the edge of a financial cliff, usually by racking up a […]