According to a recent survey conducted by the The Conference Board, U.S. households plan to spend, on average, $390 on Christmas gifts this year. That’s down from last year’s estimate of $418. Considering the economic turmoil many Americans faced during 2009, I’m not at all displeased with the 6.7% decline in spending from last year. […]
Do You Deserve To Spend? Is It Ok To Splurge Even When You Don’t Have The Money?
I’ve been thinking about a type of spending lately that I think causes a lot of problems similar to impulse buying. However, this spending is deliberate. It’s emotion driven and it can get you into credit card trouble quick, if not careful. Perhaps it’s at the end of a long week. Work has been a […]
A Scam Or Not A Scam, That Is The Question: How To Make Sure You’re Really Getting A Deal
We are all too eager to spot a cool deal to save some money. Sadly, very often we are so eager that we forget about caution – and many scammers take advantage of that. What are you risking by running into an online scam? They can steal your money; They can steal your contact information […]
How To Teach Young Children About Money
How soon is too soon to teach a kid about money? Since it is hard to predict when your kids might “get it” I think it would be wise to have a system in place for when the child does.
Preparing For Difficult Times: When The Money Manager Is Unable To Perform Responsibilities
As the family money manager, I have an important responsibility which I never considered before last week. It’s a responsibility to insure my wife knows how to get access to all of our financial information and important documents immediately, if something ever happened to me. This is a serious topic many people don’t want to […]
How To Save Hundreds Of Dollars On Your Tax Bill By Challenging Your Property Taxes
After reading on some other blogs how the bloggers had successfully challenged their property tax assessments, saving them hundreds of dollars every year, I decided that it was time that I give it it a shot as well. Our assessed property value last year was almost $20,000 higher than we thought that it should be, […]
Set Your Course For Next Year Now! Setting Values Oriented Goals
With all the focus on Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping and Christmas time, you may have not yet thought about planning goals for next year. Is it too early and are you too busy to think about the subject of goal setting right now? Or perhaps you’ve never really invested much time in goal setting. Either […]
Start Saving Up For Infrequent Expenses And Christmas Savings Goals Using Automatic Accounts Like Smarty Pig
We’re quickly coming upon one of the busiest spending times of the year, the Christmas season. For too many years I would come up to Christmas and suddenly realize that I had woefully under-prepared for the coming holiday. I never saved up enough money to pay for gifts for my immediate family, friends and relatives. […]
The Financial “Slip Up” And What To Do When It Happens
For those of us who have yet to at least adopt some measure of “frugal living” into our current lifestyle, I’d say it’s high time to get going. However, if you’re already at least doing something to improve your personal economy, hats off to you! No matter what steps you’re currently taking, you are at […]
20 Tips To Press Onward Towards Your Financial Goals
Are you in a financial rut? Do you need some motivation to get you back on your feet and move forward? Perhaps you’ve been trying to build and emergency fund this year and emergencies pop up as quickly as you deposit money into your savings account. Or, perhaps you’ve paid off all your debt and […]
Make Extra Money By Doing Graphic Design Work On The Side
One thing that I am a huge proponent of is trying not to rely too much on one stream of income for your family. Why not instead create multiple streams of income, whereby if one of them dries up, you’ll still have several others that you can depend on? PT over at PTMoney.com is launching […]
Avoid The Pressure To Spend
Have you ever felt like you were pressured into spending money? Deep down you really knew you didn’t have the money to spend, but because of the situation, people around you or other factors, you ended up spending anyway. For those who are conscious spenders you know when one of these occasions is about to […]
When Getting Great Deals On The Things You Buy, Make Sure You’re Actually Getting The Deal
For the past week or so my wife and I have been vacation. We went on a road trip from beautiful Niagara Falls, across New England, ending up in Northern Maine. The fall colors were in full bloom, and we had a wonderful time. On the last day of our trip, however, we almost had […]
What You Need to Know About Cash Flow Management
Cash flow management, managing what’s coming in and what’s going out, is critical to maintaining control of your spending and staying in financial balance. Some people manage it to extreme detail and others manage it up to the high level. Either way, its cash flow management and it’s our jobs as wise money managers to […]
