As most of you know, we moved into our current home last June. We have a nice sized yard and a really nice neighborhood. What we don’t have is a house that was move in ready. Well, it was, but we wanted to change many things. It’s been months and we still have too many…
My friends over at Motif Investing created this great infographic on how to grow your wealth with simple investment strategies. As regular readers know, I’m a fan of infographics. I feel they are easy to follow and some of them provide awesome visuals on a topic which might be boring otherwise. If I get a…
I have been reviewing cell phone providers for a long time, longer than this blog has been around. I have a few “test” phones around my house just for this purpose. The reason I do it is because I got really tired of paying inflated prices on the big networks. I had Verizon for a long time and just accepted their prices. They do have one of the best networks around, but you pay a premium for it. I was never mad at their service, just their prices. I broke up with Verizon nearly two years ago and have since been on a mission to try my hand at other networks. Today, I am going to provide you with my Boost Mobile review.
Being buried in debt and struggling to make ends meet every month can stress you out and have a negative impact on your overall health. This type of stress is one thing that the wealthy never have to worry about. But there are other ways in which the income gap between the rich and poor is affecting our health, and that was the subject of a recent article on MSN Money. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, while American eating habits did improve between 1999 and 2010 the improvements were not reflected evenly across the board.
One of the longer running pieces of personal finance advice is to never buy a new car. Seriously, most experts use the word “NEVER!” I am cool with that, especially as someone who has purchased quite a few new cars, I have learned my lesson. The justification of this advice is you can save a lot of money by just buying a car one or two years old. The majority of depreciation happens within the first year. After that, most cars depreciate on a sliding scale. Some do it slower than others, but I am not getting into that. So, let’s talk about this “never buy a new car” advice.
You’re frustrated at the end of the month because it feels like every penny you make goes toward paying bills, and you have nothing to show for your hard work. You see things that you would like to have, seemingly frivolous items like designer shoes or a new television, and walk away, thinking that because you don’t have the money now, you won’t ever be able to have what you want. You’re jealous of others. While it’s true that basic necessities like food and shelter cost more than ever, the real reason that most people aren’t achieving wealth goals has nothing to do with how much money is in the bank. It has to do with how they think about money.
Welcome to the first Debt Roundup DIY post! In my new house update, I told you I was going to be adding some new do it yourself content in order to help those looking to save some cash and learn a few things. Yes, that is me in the video above. I am a huge DIY advocate. I think you can learn so much while trying to accomplish tasks on your own. I fix my own cars, build fences, fix plumbing, run electrical, and have moderate carpentry skills. If something comes up in my house, I am going to try to build or repair it on my own. Why not? I have saved thousands by doing things on my own. Not only that, but I have learned valuable skills. Today, I am going to show you how to replace a lamp socket. Why is this one first? Well, here is the back story and how to do it.
How You Can Earn Cash Back Everyone loves to earn cash back, right? I know that I look for each and every way to earn money back when I go shopping. This page is a resource that will show you how to earn back back when you shop both online and offline. These resources are…
First, let me give mad props to my fellow personal finance blogger, Holly of Club Thrifty, for rocking a Wall Street Journal essay and a Fox Business TV interview. She was dealing with the topic of money and marriage. This is a very controversial topic in the world of personal finance and I understand why. I wrote about it briefly some time ago when I was talking about paying off a spouses debt when they incurred it before marriage. That one got me some angry comments and emails, but I powered through. I don’t mind causing a little controversy. I read both the arguments on the WSJ piece and I am going to provide my argument for separate finances for married couples.
Over the past decade, more and more people have found themselves deep in financial debt. While there may be some obvious reasons why some people have gotten into debt, there are also many other overlooked factors that could have led to their accumulation of debt. I have spent a good amount of my adult life in debt. I know how it feels. There is nothing fun about it, but that doesn’t mean it has to define you. Remember that you are the one in control of your money, so don’t let it take control of you. We all make mistakes and debt should be one that you only make once. I don’t plan on making the debt mistake again, so I hope you do the same.
One of the popular ways to build long-term wealth is to own your own home. While simply owning a home and paying down a mortgage over time will lead a significant amount of wealth creation, those that are looking to maximize the amount of equity that they could ultimately have in their homes should look for ways to improve their home. Those that are looking for home improvement projects to consider, here are six specific home improvements that could add the most amount of value to your home when you ultimately try to sell your home.
Insurance is on the forefront of everyone’s thoughts these days. With the new healthcare roll out in the US, people are wanting to know more about insurance. Insurance is actually a pretty easy topic to understand, but there are still people out there that don’t carry any insurance or just don’t really know how it actually works. I am going to go over the simple basics of insurance and how it works, just on a top level. There are many forms of insurance, which include health, car, home, marine, business, life, banking, and many more. Insurance is a part of our life, so we should take just a little time to understand how it works.
