What do you want? I don’t mean what fantastic things do you wish you owned or could do or could be. What reasonable things do you want in life that you do not currently have? Do you want to be healthier? Do you want to spend more wisely? Do you want a nicer car or [...]
This week’s lecture was about credit reports, credit reporting bureaus, identity theft, and collection agencies. Quite a scattering of topics. The first part of the class was on credit scores and credit bureaus. Dave makes the point that a FICO score is an, “I love debt score” because the only way to get a FICO [...]
Last week some long lost relatives came to visit (well, not long lost but definitely not close relatives). Frankly, I wish they’d stayed lost. We let ourselves get talked into hosting these people by another relative who, knowing that these long lost people were coming to our town for a convention, so kindly recommended that [...]
I frequently hear people bemoan the choices they have made when it comes time to “man up” and be financially responsible. They grieve over the vacation they have to cancel due to a layoff. They cry over the kitchen renovation that has to be put off when the roof needs replacing. They sob when they [...]
The more I embrace frugality, the more I wonder if a frugal life equals a life detached from society. And then I ask myself: Is that a bad thing? I find myself less and less interested in “mainstream” society as the years go by. I don’t watch TV much, so I couldn’t tell you anything [...]
I live in Florida. Until recently, I would have said that I live in “sunny” Florida to distinguish my state from the cold places to the north. This year, however, cold weather came south for the winter along with all of the snowbirds who flock to Florida just after Christmas. Indeed, from about December 26, [...]
This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week four (week one — week two and week three) This week’s lesson focused on getting out of debt. We’re getting to the meat of the plan now, and I was eager to hear Dave’s [...]
Have you ever thought about how much control over your financial life you give to companies when you sign up for things like cable, cell phone contracts, Internet access, loans, or credit cards? When you engage in most financial transactions, you are letting someone else have a little bit of control over your financial life. [...]
One of the ways we’ve managed to avoid debt is very simple: We take care of all of our possessions so that they will last. Making things last longer means we don’t have to replace them as often, saving us large amounts of money. This sounds like a no brainer, but I’m always surprised by [...]
A shopping list sounds like such a simple thing to do, but how many times have you arrived at the store with no list and no idea what you really need? It leads to frustration and overspending, doesn’t it? I hear you now: “A list takes too long to get together. When I need to [...]
