As we head into the holiday season and start looking for gifts to give to those hard to buy for people, gift cards stand out as easy gifts that everyone enjoys. But if you’re thinking of giving a pre-paid gift card that’s branded with a credit card logo, you might want to think of another [...]

Many of us find ourselves pressed for time and/or money, at least some of the time. And while it’s true that life can be harrying with it’s demands of cooking, cleaning, work, childcare, and maintenance chores, it’s also true that we bring some of those demands upon ourselves by doing way more than we need [...]

Now that Halloween is over, the retailers have removed the gloves and stopped pretending like any other holiday matters. It’s now full speed ahead to Christmas. Usually I dread this time of year.
I enjoy Christmas itself but I hate all the trappings that go along with it. I hate the marketing hype and the [...]

While I’ve never been one to keep up with the Jones’, I’ve noticed a palpable sense of relief amongst many friends, acquaintances, and message board posters that the pressure to keep up, show off, and compete is off. At least for the moment.
In the heyday of the 1990’s and early 2000’s, everything was about [...]

With H1N1 going around and the vaccine in short supply (even the seasonal flu vaccine is hard to come by in some areas), you may want to find other ways to protect yourself this season. While nothing (not even the vaccine) is 100% guaranteed to keep you from getting the flu, there are many steps [...]

A friend recently got a bit of a shock when his auto insurance came up for renewal. He discovered that his new rate was $400 higher than his old rate. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong until he remembered: He filed a minor, one person accident on his insurance. The total claim was for [...]

“More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level — far below the level needed to earn a living wage.” – National Institute for Literacy
“Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or ‘functionally illiterate.’ They can’t carry out simple tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays [...]

Earlier this week a friend asked me out for dinner at a pretty pricey restaurant. Having been there once before for a special occasion I knew that the food and service wasn’t that great and definitely not worth the price tag (at least to me). I declined my friend’s invitation. When she asked why, I [...]

We all tend to make excuses from time to time. It’s just human nature. But I’ve seen people rely too heavily on excuses when it comes to finance. When they have too much debt or can’t seem to make ends meet they pull out the excuses as to why their life has to be this [...]

I’m a big reader and some of my reading materials are magazines. Yet over the last few years I’ve been noticing something: Magazines aren’t always good for my wallet. It’s not the subscription costs, but the advertising that’s the problem. Magazines are full of ads; it’s how they pay for their publication. I get it. [...]