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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
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 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
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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Posted
Feb 06 2008, 06:01 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Single Ma at Fabulous Financials apparently took it as a personal slight when her bank informed her in a letter that -- due to rate cuts by the Federal Reserve -- her online savings account was, so to speak, losing interest. So Single Ma responded with a Dear John letter online. She noted that her bank first attracted her with a 5.05% APY. In the past five months, it has dropped four times, now to 3.55%. She wrote: "I really enjoyed our love affair while it lasted: the 5.05% APY, our biweekly exchanges, your generous deposits, the sneak peaks at my growing balance -- ah, the memories. But it's over now."
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Posted
Jan 29 2008, 02:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Kevin Geary at Change Your Tree doesn't try to cajole or sweet-talk readers into adopting good personal-finance habits. Rather, he bashes them over the head. In a recent post called "2 simple savings concepts you should be utilizing but probably aren't," Kevin addresses a common PF-blog theme in a way that makes for a very entertaining and enlightening read. On saving for an emergency fund, he writes: "If you don't want Citibank holding your umbrella when the rain starts pouring down, you'd better set up a safety net now." He recommends an ING Direct account, adding, "They also have a foolproof automatic-saving feature for those of you who still haven't stopped making excuses."
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