Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Jul 18 2008, 05:35 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. About a year ago, I wrote a lengthy article about how to start a filing system, including information about what kind of filing cabinet to buy and what sorts of things you should file. Near the end, I wrote one little paragraph that deserves to be looked at again in more detail: A master document explaining what all of this stuff is. This is mostly a guide to the executor of your estate, containing all important information not in the other documents and also explaining online account access and other details, like where a safety deposit box key can be found. This may also include personal letters for people to read in the event of your passing. Think about this scenario: If you dropped dead right after reading this article, would your survivors -- your kids, your spouse, your family -- have any idea how to access your money? Would they even know where all of your accounts are?
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 11 2008, 06:49 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Let's start off with an interesting statement. I believe that many of the personal-finance problems people face are due to confusion between wants and needs. Not long ago, I used to think there was a blurry area between wants and needs. I'd use that blurry area to justify some of my purchases -- cell phone usage, expensive pens and so on. Those things were "needed" in some way, so I would define them as needs and not think about them critically.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 02 2008, 07:57 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. You are going to be fired from your job this Friday. Read that statement again. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine if that sentence were true in your own life. Would you be ready?
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 27 2008, 05:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Alan wrote in with an interesting situation: My problem is that I can't say no to people. I am a sucker for Girl Scouts selling cookies. I am a sucker for salesmen at stores. I am a sucker for my church when they need money for something. I am a sucker for friends and family who need to borrow money. I am a sucker for the Green Party or Green Peace when they call and ask for money all the time. I have heard it called "the disease to please" before, and I just wanted you to know how much it affects me not only with a lot of stress and anxiety, but also financially. I don't think I am alone either. ... I am trying to empower myself by saying no to at least one person a day. It is not easy though. I always fear hurting people's feelings or making them angry. Your article today about the left and right brain was fascinating. It got me thinking about other parts of a person's psychological makeup that could potentially affect their spending habits. For me, if I could grow a backbone and say no to people, I would probably save $100 or $200 a month. Sometimes more.
Read More...
-
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.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 13 2008, 06:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Last month, I was sorely tempted to pick up Mario Kart Wii. Mario Kart has been my favorite video game series. I played it for hours and hours with my friends in high school on the Super Nintendo, then burned countless hours in the college dorms playing it on an N64. Even as recently as last Christmas, I stayed up most of the night playing Mario Kart DS wirelessly against my wife's family at their Christmas celebration (one person had a cartridge and several of us had DS units.)
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 05 2008, 09:29 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Prior to our financial meltdown, my wife and I never sat down and talked about our finances. Right after the meltdown, we talked about things almost every day. Through our recovery, the number of meetings slowly declined to a monthly family financial meeting. The meetings have become a big part of the financial glue of our marriage.
Read More...
-
Posted
May 30 2008, 07:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Recently, my wife and I kicked around the idea of installing a clothesline in our backyard. We both grew up in the country and we both had clotheslines for drying clothes in the spring, summer and fall. A quick cost analysis. An average dryer load costs about 30 to 40 cents to dry, so we'll give it an average of 35 cents a load. Given the installation cost of the clothesline we investigated (about $30, all told), we could recoup the cost of drying the clothes with about 89 loads, and after that it's gravy.
Read More...
-
Posted
May 23 2008, 06:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Hopefully, that headline woke you up a bit this morning. Several months ago, I made a list of 101 goals that I wanted to reach in the next three years. I piled this list on top of an already long list of medium-term and long--term goals --including building a writing career and paying off debt. While making the giant list of goals felt very empowering at first, it soon became a big weight on my shoulders. I was reaching for too many things at once. When I set a goal, I'm committed to achieving it, and thus I often feel like Lucy and Ethel on the chocolate candy assembly line -- more to do than I can possibly keep up with.
Read More...
-
Posted
May 16 2008, 05:32 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. When I was fresh out of college with my first high-paying job, I would insist on paying for everything -- meals out with friends, lattes at the coffee shop, even sometimes shopping purchases. I felt this deep need to step in, bust out my plastic and say, "I'll take care of it." The burning desire to always save the day led me down a path to a lot of debt.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
