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Posted
Oct 08 2008, 01:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Many of you are wondering when the huge wave of economic woes will come crashing down on your head. For some of you, it already has.
I crossed a financial minefield of my own in recent years -- sudden unemployment followed by working for near minimum wage -- and I'm prepared to do it again if I have to. Hopefully what I learned about getting by in difficult times can help you too.
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 10:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ron Haynes at The Wisdom Journal is almost ready to bet the farm that you aren't doing everything you could to better manage your money. Doing our best to make every penny count could provide a greater sense of security as we collectively ride an economic roller coaster. So we took him up on the challenge and reviewed his "50 frugal things you aren't doing." He's right. We're not doing all we can.
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Posted
Aug 27 2008, 01:58 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Have you ever had a bad boss? (We can hear the chorus of yeses from here.) "Free Money Finance" describes one of his former bosses as "Attila the Hun's long-lost relative." Another of his bosses was incapable of making a decision, and yet another penalized employees she didn't like. Needless to say, FMF's post "Share your bad boss story" drew plenty of comments from readers, who related the antics of bosses who were unethical, unappreciative, cheap, incompetent, downright mean or all of the above.
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Posted
Jul 28 2008, 02:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
An article in The New York Times about more Americans than ever living on the verge of financial ruin got "Frugal Zeitgeist" thinking about her own contingency planning for disasters. If a terrorist attack, a catastrophic illness or job loss struck, would she survive financially? This blogger does have a plan -- in fact, several -- and she is worth listening to. She's so financially disciplined that she just paid off the mortgage on her New York City apartment and did it in less than seven years (although some would argue that's not always the best way to use extra money).
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Posted
Jun 27 2008, 08:48 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
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 26 2008, 03:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
It goes without saying that whenever personal-finance bloggers write about how much money they saved on shampoo or toilet paper and other mundane stuff, someone thinks -- and sometimes writes -- "Get a life." Why think about -- or take the time to find -- a $1 savings on a tube of toothpaste? As Kevin at No Debt Plan succinctly says in a post called "2 reasons you should care about my toothpaste savings," it's not just about the toothpaste. It's about "your money-spending life."
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Posted
Jun 09 2008, 12:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Cash is great, but consider other gifts to start the new graduate on a path to financial health that aren't so easy come, easy go. So says Money Smart Life. "The problem, as I remember it, is that cash is a hard thing to hold on to once you're out of school and thrust into the job hunt or working world," he writes in a post called "Gift ideas for college grads for a financial head start." We particularly liked his suggestion to set up an investment matching program.
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Posted
May 15 2008, 04:57 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Lazy Man" noticed that some personal-finance gurus have a phrase they can call their own. David Bach has the latte factor. Dave Ramsey has the debt snowball. "Paidtwice" has snowflaking. Not to be outdone, Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money has invented one -- "snowforting." "I realize that Lazy Man and Money is going to nowhere if I don't coin a term and/or champion a cause," he wrote. So, what is this snowforting, other than another PF blogger's fascination with winter?
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Posted
Mar 26 2008, 05:01 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
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
Mar 06 2008, 03:43 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Your friends may be giving blood or watching porn to make extra money, but you can beat them on the weirdness factor by hiring out to contract malaria. Isn't that an interesting approach to building up your emergency fund? That's right. You can get paid to get bitten by an infected mosquito and check into a hotel for a few days while researchers check for parasites in your blood, according to an article by science writer Sandi Doughton in the Seattle Times. And, blessedly, not one soul has expired from participating in the experiment. This particular malaria is a cloned strain developed by the U.S. Army that can be easily cured.
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