At any given time in your life you may find yourself in a financial situation not of your making. The recent credit crisis in America is a prime example. It is a uniquely perfect storm to be sure, the kind of economic crisis that comes along once every 50 -100 years perhaps, but that doesn’t [...]
Why do many people opt to spend rather than save money? Because saving isn’t fun. It’s not as much fun as going to the movies, or out to eat, or to an amusement park. And why is that? Because many of the things we do for entertainment are social. They get us out amongst other [...]
What I Know Among today’s financial headlines is the prediction that stocks will rise today because traders are optimistic about the Freddie and Fannie takeovers. The articles I read commonly noted this optimism, but none of them explained to me why government intervention was cause for optimism. Strangely enough, another headline noted that oil was [...]
Our personal finances mirror many things in life, and fantasy football is no exception. Wittingly or not, we apply many of the same tactics to succeed in both. At the risk of using way too many football analogies in one article, here it goes: An Investment In Your Future First and foremost, fantasy football is [...]
There are many things you can do to improve your finances. We talk a lot about the various ways to cut your spending and increase your savings, both big and small. All the options can be difficult to sort out. There can be a lot to learn, particularly if you’re new to looking after your [...]
I grew up hearing my dad say “Most people don’t know how money works.” He is a Certified Financial Planner, and while there were a few drawbacks growing up the son of a financial planner (no Gameboy or frivolous purchases unless we had saved up for them in advance), it also had huge advantages. Hearing [...]
As children, we are often taught by our parents to do well in school, go to college and get a good job to succeed financially in life? We have all heard that being active and hard work will make us healthy and wealthy. But being an active participant isn’t always good for your financial health. [...]
I’m a big fan of index funds because, quite frankly, I don’t know much about investing and I would rather spend my time doing other things than learning how to invest in individual companies. Warren Buffett agrees with me on this as his response to a question at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting: “If [...]
I’m a huge fan of reading. I believe that reading, both fiction and non-fiction, is a great way to learn new things and be exposed to more than you typically see in your daily life. If you want to learn something new, like personal finance, you can’t beat a good book. You can go at [...]
It’s an old saying: “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” But what if it did? What would that look like? Would everybody be rich and well taken care of due to readily available money? Or would we still end up with rich, middle class and poor people? Here’s what I bet would happen if money really [...]
