Over the years, I have called the cable company to reduce the amount of money my mom pays for her cable TV on a fairly regular basis. I just did it again this week and saved her $170 over a 6 month period. No matter how many times I tell my mom that she needs [...]
As more kids get on the Internet at younger ages, I’m hearing about more and more on-line money accidents. These “accidents” occur when kids play paid online games or games that let players buy items in the game, when they download music or eBooks from shopping sites, or when they bid on items on eBay. [...]
I have been car free for several years now, but there are times when I do need to rent a car. I have found that there is one way to consistently get rock bottom prices on a rental car that exceeds coupon specials and all the other advertised deals out there almost every time. Most [...]
The question of whether to write “See ID” on your credit cards instead of signing them comes up a lot in financial circles. The idea is that, by writing, “See ID” on your card instead of signing it, you are encouraging retailers to check your ID to make sure your card isn’t being used fraudulently. [...]
I lost a good couple of hours of my life this week to a website that a friend directed me to called Bundle.com. This site lets you look at the aggregated monthly spending habits of people in any city, county, or state in the U.S. You can further break it down by age groups, family [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week three (week one and week two) The lesson for this week was cash flow planning, also known as budgeting. You could see everybody approaching this lesson with trepidation. Not only does it mean more [...]
I married a man just like me. He had no debt going into our marriage and no desire to incur any. This has made it very easy for us to create a financial life together that we both agree on and enjoy. I know many other couples who are not so lucky and this has [...]
