Archive for December, 2005

“A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that’s subtraction.” – Mae West

Bank of America is apologizing to customers for a system error that kept direct deposits from showing up in their accounts. If you’re a Bank of America customer and this has affected you, mark it down in your calendar or someplace else where you can easily remember and reference it. Why? Because you know that [...]

Earlier I argued that the best investment that the majority of people can make is learning how to save money and referred to it as Ugly Duckling Investing. The reasons I see saving as such an important investment is because: Low Risk: Saving money money is an extremely low risk investment to make. While it [...]

When I made the post about credit card condoms earlier, I received a couple of emails telling me basically it was a “stupid gimmick” that was of little use. While it may appear to be so to some and certainly isn’t for everyone, for some people it does actually work. An email I received today: [...]

This is our latest in the series of sat sites we’re putting together: frugalgardening.com. Although this one isn’t completely done, I’m making it live because it will be built over a period of time. The sections have been broken down into months thus far with the first four finished (January – April. I actually wanted [...]

I came across an article in usatoday about the city of San Francisco renting Christmas Trees. The trees aren’t your typical Christmas evergreen, but a variety of different trees that will be taken from your house and planted after the holiday season. The program is being marketed as an environmentally friendly way to celebrate Christmas [...]

It is more important than ever to play by the rules with your credit card as punitive rates (punitive rates are those charged when you miss a payment, go over your credit limit, have your credit score deteriorate, etc and are also tied to universal default – that is if you miss a payment on [...]

I mentioned a few days ago that I would need to do some financial juggling this month. With the half way mark here, the current income only confirms what I had talked about previously. Looking at the first half numbers, we’re going to come in about $500 below what we did last month – maybe [...]

The Consumer Price Index came in at a -0.6% for the month of November – the biggest monthly decrease in 56 years – mainly due to a large drop in gasoline prices. I wrote about just this scenario when I thought that purchasing I-bonds during this six month period was not a sound investment. While [...]

I came across an interesting article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that claims that for Latino and African-American minorities, lack of saving is a cultural issue: The notion of a planned retirement is relatively new for African-Americans and Hispanics who grew up expecting to help pay for the needs of extended family – particularly older [...]