Search results for Get Rich Slowly
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 03:41 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A story at USA Today -- "Mortgage rates at 37-year low: Average 5.19% for 30 years" -- disrupted our partner blogger J.D. Roth's vacation reverie. All of a sudden, J.D., who's not an impulsive guy, is thinking about refinancing his home. He checked Bankrate.com and found a low rate of 5.085%, which would reduce J.D.'s payments to $1,111 and save him $275 a month. But wait. It could get even better, he wrote in a post at Get Rich Slowly.
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Posted
Feb 23 2009, 05:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
I've had several requests lately to update my two-year quest to find cheap alternatives to cable television.
In March of 2007, Kris and I were paying $65.82 for a deluxe digital cable package that we rarely used. I wrote at that time that "$65.82 a month isn't a fortune, but it's a lot of money to pay for something that doesn't get used. If we were big TV watchers, maybe the cost could be justified. But we aren't. And it can't."
To save money, we cut our cable to just the basic channels, which reduced our bill to $11.30 a month. We also began to use the iTunes Music Store to subscribe to the shows that we wanted to watch. And over the past year, I've become a fan of Hulu, an online service that allows users to watch many past and current shows for free.
Here's an overview of the tools we use, and how much money we've managed to save.
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Posted
Jul 06 2009, 05:43 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
When I bought my used Mini Cooper in April, things didn't go exactly as I'd planned. Part of this was because I hadn't done enough research. But a lot of it was because the dealership had some tricks up its sleeve and I did not.
At Car and Driver, Jared Gall has compiled a list of car dealer tricks to watch for when buying a vehicle. He says the following are common practices:
- Juggling the foursquare. The "foursquare" is the worksheet on which the salesperson jots down the terms of the deal. It's an easy way for her to manipulate one factor (purchase price, down payment, monthly payments, trade-in value) or another.
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Posted
Nov 24 2008, 06:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. In "The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets" (which I recently reviewed), author Peter Schiff provides a list of the best jobs to beat the economic collapse he predicts is just around the corner. "I foresee the following as the 10 strongest professions and industries over the coming decade and beyond," he writes. His list:
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Posted
May 04 2009, 05:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
On the first day of college, I opened my first bank account.
The gym was filled with registration tables, not just for classes and clubs, but also for local businesses wanting to sell themselves to the students. There were even a couple of banks. Because I was getting a small payment from the school to cover living expenses, I needed to open a checking account.
The two banks had very different methods of attracting students. One displayed a sign that said "free checking." The other was handing out Frisbees. My choice was easy. I wanted the Frisbee. (Free checking? How boring.)
I signed up for my checking account, got my free Frisbee, and spent the afternoon on the quad, tossing the disc back and forth with my roommates. When it was time for dinner, I took the Frisbee up to my room, put it in the closet, and never used it again. But I had that checking account for nearly 17 years.
Classes started. I forgot about the Frisbee, and I forgot about the checking account. The next month, I received my first bank statement. There was a $5 service charge, but I didn't care. It was just $5, right? I accepted the fee as part of the package, and as part of being an adult. My parents had always paid service charges on their bank accounts, and I expected I always would, too.
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Posted
Aug 24 2009, 07:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
In June, a user at Ask MetaFilter wondered: What are the differences between someone who makes $100,000/year and someone who makes $30,000? As you might expect, this question generated a lot of discussion -- all of it interesting.
Many commenters noted that, from their experience, high-income earners generally exhibit several of the following traits:
- They maintain a strong work ethic.
- They don't watch the clock.
- They seek to improve their skills.
- They do quality work.
- They're flexible and adaptable.
- They maintain a good social network.
- They possess self-confidence.
A few commenters noted that there are two other factors that absolutely play a role in how much a person earns.
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Posted
Aug 04 2008, 06:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. When I was a sophomore in college, I got my first credit card. I thought it was awesome -- it was like free money. Soon I got another credit card, and before long I'd maxed them both out. I entered the work force with a handicap. I had the start of a nasty credit habit. My parents had never been good with money, and as a result I had no notion of proper financial skills. I made some bad decisions, which were in turn compounded by some rotten luck. Just five years after graduation, I had about $20,000 in credit card debt. For the next decade I tried to kick the habit. Sometimes I'd make progress, but then I'd find other ways to fall behind. Here are some of the mistakes I made along the way and the steps I took to correct them.
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Posted
Jun 01 2009, 05:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Some people never take control of their finances because they're afraid that doing so would require them to give up everything they enjoy. I don't believe that's true. Getting out of debt requires hard work and sacrifice, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun along the way.
Aaron recently sent the following e-mail:
You paid off $35,000 in debt in just over three years. Does that mean you were (completely) dedicated and had no frills and were dour-faced the whole time? Were you using every spare penny to pay debt? Did you give up all luxuries and all fun? Did paying off the debt consume you?
That's my greatest fear about the whole thing. What makes it worse is that I'm serious about getting out of debt -- I just don't want to be miserable in the process. Especially since I'm going to be married soon.
Any encouragement you can give would be greatly appreciated.
When a person decides to make a lifestyle change -- financial or otherwise -- there's a temptation to GO ALL OUT. With the zeal of a new convert, you leap headlong into a life of thrift, for example, giving up everything you valued before.
There's a problem with this.
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Posted
Jun 16 2008, 06:25 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The federal government may not be winning many popularity contests, but our partner blogger J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly found a treasure-trove of wonderful consumer tips in a U.S. government publication, the 2008 Consumer Action Handbook.
The fact is, there are plenty of useful federal government Web sites about all sorts of personal-finance matters. (Two we've found particularly helpful are www.irs.gov and Social Security Online.)
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Posted
Oct 05 2008, 08:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. How much do you know about millionaires? My wife recently had dinner with her friend Linda, who is a high school social studies teacher. As they ate, Linda bemoaned the lack of personal-finance and economics education in the United States. She mentioned that every year she gives her economics students a short "millionaire quiz" to see just how much they know about wealth and where it comes from. They do poorly at it, which surprises them. Linda says they always pay attention to the follow-up discussion. Because I asked nicely, Linda sent me a copy of the millionaire quiz in the mail. Here are the questions that give the kids so much trouble:
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