I have been walking regularly to many errands to save money on gas, wear-and-tear on the car, and to tamp down the urge to spend money on a gym membership. While an energizing and cleansing experience, these walks reveal unpleasant sights in my city: litter, leaves clogging street drains, and stray shopping carts. These are [...]
The business section of the Denver Post included a bit about Fannie Mae signing interim rental contracts with tenants of properties their landlords couldn’t pay for. What does this tell me? A renter doesn’t know the financial position of their landlords. It used to be that was a just fine arrangement, but maybe it is [...]
Weekend reading is a round-up of personal finance and money related stories that caught the eye of our forum members this week: WSJ Tries Blaming Economic Woes on People Being Frugal Porn industry seeks federal bailout If You Don’t Need It, It’s Not A Bargain At All Lenders digging up more than your credit score [...]
The Washington Post recently ran an article that really hit home with me. The article detailed the high expense of day-care and cited cases of young children being left at home alone. It went on to explain that many middle and working class families are being forced to make some really tough decisions regarding childcare, [...]
When we pay so much money for plane tickets, why does the experience have to be so miserable? Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be. While this article won’t tell you how to maintain your sanity in a grounded plane for seven hours, it will give you some ideas for making the best of a [...]
My wife is a creature of habit – in a good way. She gets up at 5:30 am every day except Saturday so that she can enjoy a healthy breakfast of oatmeal (always from scratch — never instant!) and walnuts, along with a cup or two of her favorite coffee. For at least the past [...]
If you’re like me and you sell pretty much anything you don’t use anymore on eBay, then you do a lot of shipping. I hate to eat into my profit margin by paying for shipping supplies, though, so over the years I’ve found ways to minimize their cost. Whether you’re shipping things for your small [...]
I know someone who has been out of work for four or five months. (He had been a big-wig at a financial/investment firm and got laid off.) I greeted him the other day when we were both out raking leaves and asked how the job hunt was going. “It’s been hard. I can’t find anything,” [...]
In the current economy with layoffs, downsizing, and the flat-out lost job, there are a lot of professionals hoofing the street for a job as well as skilled laborers and unskilled workers. If all you’ve ever done is something as specific as, say, Title Insurance, how do you get the job at something “less” prestigious? [...]
Sunday, December 28, 2008, was a black day. I needed advice from a real person regarding my iPod. My younger son needed software for his iPod. My wife had returns to make at Old Navy and The Gap. My older son needed something to do. Thus the stars were aligned for a family trip to [...]
