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Posted
Jun 27 2008, 08:48 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Most of us have lottery dreams. If we won the big one, we'd quit our job(s), pay off the house, live abroad. But consider this: The amount of money it would take to change your life might actually be much more modest -- and a lot more attainable. "Paidtwice" at I've Paid For This Twice Already calls that amount your "life-changing money." She used to think it was hundreds of thousands of dollars. "But then I realized -- at this point, life-changing money for me really means simply getting out of debt and establishing an adequate emergency fund," she wrote. With $40,000, she wouldn't have to think so much about money with every decision she makes. Many of her readers said they feel the same way.
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Posted
Jun 20 2008, 06:08 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Almost every day, people write to me with intimate details about their debt situations. Some of them are pretty mild and can be taken care of easily with a little bit of elbow grease. Others are horrifying and will take some very serious attention to manage. In either situation, the principles for getting rid of debt are much the same. Similar tactics can be applied whether the debt is a $200 credit card balance or a mountain of $250,000 worth of various forms of debt.
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Posted
May 02 2008, 09:00 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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About six weeks ago I wrote an essay about why getting rid of some of the clutter in your life could help you save money. Yesterday I read an Associated Press article about people who are emptying closets and attics just to keep the wolf from the door.
Online auctions are bristling with family heirlooms, home electronics and designer duds. Craigslist ads are getting increasingly frantic, like the one in which a teen begged on behalf of her unemployed mom for people to "please buy anything you can to help out." One cash-strapped Wisconsin woman put her diamond engagement ring up for grabs.
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Posted
Mar 26 2008, 05:01 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Fed up with the government's bailout du jour? You'll find a kindred spirit in Randall at Credit Withdrawal. He's been on an extended rant lately about the causes of economic gloom and the supposed solutions to fix them. His starship goes where a lot of other personal-finance bloggers hesitate to travel. Bailout plans provoke this reaction: "Rewarding stupidity isn't going to make anyone learn from their mistakes. America is the land of opportunity, but that opportunity also includes the opportunity to fail." Why does the government want us to blow our tax rebate money on stuff? He writes: "If everyone were to spend their checks only on debt reduction, the only 'stimulus' that would happen would be for the bankers and lenders, and they already have lots of money coming to them from the Fed in the form of reduced prime rates and now direct loans to nonbanking businesses." Randall doesn't stop there. He foretells the future -- it ain't pretty -- and proposes what regulars folks should do, just in case his predictions are spot on.
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Posted
Jan 31 2008, 06:56 PM
by
Karen Datko
Does shame sometimes compel us to spend money that we don't have? It's time to get beyond that type of thinking, writes paidtwice at I've Paid For This Twice Already. In a gem of a post, paidtwice explains that she came to that realization after her dentist said her wisdom teeth have to come out -- this just after paidtwice spent the family emergency fund and other reserves on a car engine replacement. So she's practicing what she'll say when she tells the dentist that the procedure will have to wait until she has saved money to pay for it. "I get so hung up on appearances, and the idea that money would cause me to put this off makes me feel like I can't keep up the appearance that we're doing just fine," she writes. But, she says, "I'd rather live in full awareness of reality and be a little embarrassed than in a fantasy world I create with available credit."
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Posted
Jan 28 2008, 06:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. Sometimes I wonder: Have I always had personal-finance conversations all the time? I don't often initiate them, but money seems to be a constant topic, even when people are unaware that I write about it every day. For example, I met with a fellow who needs some boxes to ship his woodworking products. (By day I am the sales force for my family's small box factory.) My customer gave me a tour of his shop, showing me his doll beds and myrtle clocks with obvious pride. "When I retire in a few years, I want to spend my time doing this," he said. "I love it." After we'd measured his products and determined what kind of boxes he needed, we began to discuss payment terms. "Now, do you guys take credit cards?" he asked. "We don't," I said. "We're not set up to handle them." He sighed. "I guess I can pay by check. I should be able to pull the money together. It's probably for the best anyhow. That interest will eat you alive." "Oh, I know," I said. He took a sip of his coffee and then told me his story.
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Posted
Jan 21 2008, 11:52 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. If one of your resolutions for 2008 is to take control of your money (instead of letting it control you), this crash course in financial basics can help guide the way. Here's a summary of everything I've learned about personal finance. Track every penny you spend. The authors of "Your Money or Your Life" admonish readers to "keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life." (This is) the best way to become conscious of how money actually comes and goes in your life as opposed to how you think it comes and goes .... This is the step that somehow makes the biggest impact. It doesn't matter how you track your spending -- the most important thing is to do it. You can use a cash notebook, you can use an on-line tool like Wesabe, or you can use software like Quicken or Microsoft Money.
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Posted
Jan 18 2008, 05:02 PM
by
Karen Datko
Recent layoffs at a company Blubba once worked for prompted him to share the benefit of his experience with his readers. The host of Fat Man ... Skinny Wallet has been down that road. He says the first thing you need to do is get a handle on your emotions. "Losing your job is a lot like a breakup," he writes. "A lot of emotions are going on -- mine were shock, disappointment and bed-wetting terror at being able to make mortgage payments on my just-purchased home."
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Posted
Jan 04 2008, 05:32 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm of partner blog The Simple Dollar. No matter how careful you are, there may come a time when enough bad events happen that you simply cannot afford your bills. While you can do certain things to protect yourself from being in that situation -- building an emergency fund, practicing frugal living -- they don't really help when you have no money and a pile of bills to pay. If you find yourself in this situation and don't know what to do, here are some practical steps you can take to get started on the road to recovery. Don't bury yourself in guilt and shame. Everyone makes mistakes in life, and you're certainly far from the first one or the only one. I was in a desperate situation once upon a time. Realize that there are solutions to your problems, no matter how bad the challenges are. Just because you don't immediately see the answers doesn't mean the answers aren't there. There are answers, and there is a path to a better situation.
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Posted
Dec 31 2007, 09:12 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
What to do with spare change has been a popular topic here of late, so we thought we'd look into how personal-finance bloggers handle theirs. (None keep enough in jars at home to pay cash for a new truck, like that famous Indiana fellow.) You can tell by the name of his blog that glblguy at Gather Little by Little doesn't eschew spare change. In fact, he wonders "at what point did we as a society make the decision that loose change just isn't worth the trouble?" He and his wife put spare change, and now $1 bills, in a jar, and periodically deposit the money in an emergency fund or pay off debt. Estimated savings over 15 years of marriage: $4,500.
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