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Posted
Oct 07 2008, 04:56 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. By nature, I accumulate stuff. Three years ago, my office was pristine. Everything was organized, everything had its place, there were no papers strewn about, and there was order in the world (with world peace and the abolishment of hunger mere moments away). But, as the weeks passed and entropy worked its magic, my office became more and more chaotic. I never lost anything, but anyone walking into it would be amazed that I could ever find anything. It was organized chaos. Then I stumbled upon this idea: The easiest way to de-clutter and reorganize a room is to wipe the slate clean and start over. Want to do it? It's easy.
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Posted
Sep 30 2008, 06:10 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. More than one reader has e-mailed me in the last month asking how much house I thought they could afford in our sinking housing market. One reader, Chester (not his real name), lives in California, where home prices still seem in the stratosphere despite lowered prices. The other, Wilson (also not his real name), lives in the Washington, D.C., region, where demand has kept home prices relatively stable. In both cases, I think the question of how much house you can afford is independent of the local real estate market and more a product of your spending habits and the local cost of living.
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Posted
Sep 16 2008, 04:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. We've made it through four of the seven deadly sins of personal finance and touched on many good topics so far. The first few were easy -- have an emergency fund, don't raid your retirement, budget and plan and project for the future. We're starting to get into the hazier areas of personal finance, where the answers aren't quite so clear-cut and where much of it depends on you and your specific situation. That brings us to today's deadly sin -- being improperly insured.
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Posted
Aug 18 2008, 11:15 PM
by
Ryan MacClanathan
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial
Prosperity.
Upselling is when a salesperson
tries to sell you something more expensive than what you are already buying.
Cross-selling is when a salesperson tries to sell you something that is related
to or can be integrated into whatever you're already buying.
A prime example is a digital camera.
If you were buying a 5-megapixel camera, an upsell would be an offer of a 7-megapixel
camera at a reduced price. A cross-sell would be offering a camera case,
digital printing services, printers or even just printer paper. Upselling and
cross-selling are crucial parts of the sales process because you've already
identified yourself as someone willing to buy something. Now it's just a matter
of convincing you to buy more.
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Posted
Aug 05 2008, 05:13 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: I've never liked having debt because I've always felt uncomfortable owing someone money. When it comes to major purchases like a home, it's usually unavoidable; but for smaller- ticket items, I avoid debt like the plague because I know it's a slippery slope. You start owing a little here, a little there, and the next thing you know you're making large monthly payments with little to show for it. But we've all been there; we all slip up. Whether it's eating too much at a meal, spending too much when you're out with friends, or something else, stuff happens and you deal. Well, if debt happened and you're looking for some tips on how to get it unhappened, I'd like you to check out these 10 steps I've learned over the years.
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Posted
Jul 15 2008, 04:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. If you've ever tried to buy a car or a house, you've probably faced the monthly payment math trick. It's a psychological trick salespeople use to get you to buy something you couldn't afford or to pay an amount you weren't originally comfortable with. A salesperson will try to convince you to purchase something based on the monthly payment you'll have to make. It frames the purchase in a way that lets you begin integrating the purchase into your life, before you've actually made it, and may even make it more likely you'll make the purchase.
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Posted
Jun 24 2008, 05:45 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Do you want to know how I shaved nearly 13% off my college costs? I took Advanced Placement classes. I graduated college a semester early in part because I had loaded up on AP classes while I was in high school. Someone got it into my head that I could take AP classes for free (not counting the nominal fee for the exam) and get college credit for getting high marks on the AP tests. At the time, my brain wasn't thinking, "Oh, I can save money on college," but rather, "I can spend time now and have it count twice -- once in high school and once in college," so it was in part the bit of hustle inside of me that spurred me to action.
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Posted
Jun 17 2008, 05:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Nearly two years ago, my then beautiful girlfriend, now my gorgeous wife, quit her job and moved to Maryland. Over the next month, she faced adversity some are now facing -- the seemingly endless futility of searching for a new job. She was jobless for quite a while, sending out dozens of resumes and cover letters a day, and falling deeper into the pit of futility with each passing day. While she didn't have actual financial pain, she felt the pressure of not earning money but still spending it, on rent, groceries, etc. That pressure and her ingenuity resulted in three tips we discussed over dinner the other night.
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Posted
Jun 10 2008, 05:41 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Some of my friends put a rubber band around one wrist if they're supposed to remember something, like getting milk on the way home. Some of my friends send themselves e-mail or schedule events in Outlook. Some of my friends draw treasure maps and hide them behind paintings in their attics. (OK. No, they don't. That was from "The Goonies.") The point is, we all have little hacks we use to remind ourselves about things we are supposed or not supposed to do.
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Posted
May 27 2008, 06:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. -- Sun Tzu's "Art of War" In this post, I'm going to try to identify a salesperson's tools, why they work, and what you can do to defend against them whenever you're going to make a purchase.
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