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The High Cost of Immediate Gratification

The High Cost of Immediate Gratification

Tweet What a rush to be able to buy whatever you want whenever you want it! Instead of shopping around or waiting for the price to drop significantly, you pull out your trusty credit card and purchase your item that day. You walk into the store, select the item that you want and walk out [...]

10 Ways to Simplify Your Finances

10 Ways to Simplify Your Finances

Tweet People can have several bills to pay each month. They will have the mortgage, the electric bill, the water bill, the gas bill, their auto insurance bill, their cell phone bills and the list goes on. There can even be times when a bill is missed and the payment is late. This can be [...]

How to Keep Your Vacation Costs Down

How to Keep Your Vacation Costs Down

Tweet You know what it feels like to return from vacation. You feel rested, rejuvenated, even eager to get back to your old routine and to see your friends and co-workers once again. That’s why it’s so important to take time off and see a part of the world that you never visited before. It [...]

Prepare for Your Next Financial Crisis

Prepare for Your Next Financial Crisis

Tweet With constant talk of the debt ceiling and a possible double-dip recession, I thought it would be applicable to talk a little about personal finance crisis events in our personal lives and what we can do about it.  Like any other American, bad things happen to us.  Most of the time we’re not prepared. [...]

Avoid These Warning Signs When Looking for a Financial Advisor

Avoid These Warning Signs When Looking for a Financial Advisor

Tweet Not everyone has the time or “know-how” to manage their money on their own.  That’s why personal financial advisers, and other financial professionals exist.  That’s why many people hire a CPA to do their taxes. But before you hand over all your assets to an advisor, you should be aware of some common red flags. [...]

Fight the Urge to Splurge

Fight the Urge to Splurge

Tweet You’ve been prudent and created a budget.  Every cent is accounted for.  Things are looking good.  Then WHAM, your savings and budget are annihilated because of your latest splurge.  Does that sound familiar?  I know it does for me.  I mean, it’s fun for a moment, then you realize what you’ve just done to your personal [...]

It Might Be Time to Trade-In Your Used Car

It Might Be Time to Trade-In Your Used Car

Tweet Personal finance gurus have always talked about the value of buying used instead of new cars, and for good reason. For the better part of two decades vehicles would depreciate at a fairly rapid rate and buying even a very slightly used car could save you thousands. So it made sense to let the [...]

How to Avoid Fights About Money in Marriage

How to Avoid Fights About Money in Marriage

Tweet Getting married is a significant life change that offers a lot of new challenges. It probably goes without saying, but money is one of the hot-button issues in any marriage. Two people never have identical outlooks on money and reconciling those differences can lead to some nasty arguments. So it is in your best [...]

Personal Finance the Lazy Way

Personal Finance the Lazy Way

Tweet This is a guest post by Lazy Man from Lazy Man and Money. A lot of people ask me why I go by the name Lazy Man. I wanted to convey the message that managing your money doesn’t have to be a lot of work. If a Lazy Man like me can do it [...]

Creating a Budget: Money Management 101

Creating a Budget: Money Management 101

Tweet For most people, the word “budget” conjures up thoughts of penny-pinching and the unpleasant task of crunching numbers. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A budget is the cornerstone of a solid financial foundation, regardless of your situation, and it isn’t that hard to do. A budget is nothing more than a breakdown [...]

April is National Financial Literacy Month

April is National Financial Literacy Month

Tweet Did you know that April is National Financial Literacy Month? That’s right, there’s a whole month dedicated to increasing financial literacy. I like to think that around here it’s a 24/7 financial literacy marathon, but a lot of media outlets and finance blogs will be joining forces over the next few weeks to bring [...]

Five Swift Financial Moves to Make Right Now

Five Swift Financial Moves to Make Right Now

Tweet We’ve all heard the ubiquitous GEICO car insurance commercial, about how fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent on your car insurance, right? Well, as popular as those commercials are, it turns out there are plenty of things you can do in fifteen minutes that have the potential to save you a lot of [...]

529 Plan Benefits Are Not Just for Kids

529 Plan Benefits Are Not Just for Kids

Tweet Thanks to the Pension Protection Act, the 529 plan looks like it is here to stay. These plans were initially slated to end in 2010, but that’s no longer the case and they are here to stay. A 529 plan is clearly recognized as a college education savings plan, but the benefits don’t stop [...]

Time to Review Your Budget

Time to Review Your Budget

Tweet An often overlooked tool in managing your personal finances, the basic budget is where it all begins.  The budget is the foundation from which all other things relating to your personal finances are built.  Ironically, many of us have the tendency to set our budget and move on to bigger and better things.  We [...]

MyJibe Review – Taking Your Budget to the Next Level

MyJibe Review – Taking Your Budget to the Next Level

Tweet Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to experiment with a new financial service that’s aimed to help regular people improve their finances. It’s called MyJibe. MyJibe is a unique, easy-to-use, web-based software for helping people manage their money, make spending decisions and plan for the future so they can have more [...]