By Shannon Christman
It’s been said that when you take free advice, you should remember that you get what you pay for. I agree that it’s important to evaluate any advice — free or not — before following it, but rejecting all free advice because it is free is a really bad idea. (Unless you […]

By Ann Hartter
It’s time for Secret Santas all across the country. You’ll draw someone’s name, get them exactly what they ask for, and that someone will get someone else exactly what they ask for and you will eventually get what you asked for. So goes the long-lived tradition. This year, instead of the same old […]

By Shannon Christman
One basic fundraising rule is to tell potential donors what’s in it for them. It sounds strange that charities would appeal to donors’ sense of self-interest rather than to their sense of charity, but that’s what they do, albeit subtly, so as not to suggest that donors are selfish. While I […]

By Amy L. Fontinelle
In Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds, I explained that most socially responsible funds provide subpar returns compared to traditional funds. I also talked about how you may not agree with many of these funds’ definition of socially responsible. If you’d like to invest only in companies you support or try […]

By Shannon Christman
The growing problem of landfills is a bit too abstract and remote in my mind for it to keep me from throwing things away. And I’ve even climbed one, Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach, now a city park. Far more effective at helping me keep down my personal waste is possibility of […]

By Teri Newton
Before you throw out your unwanted gift cards, keep in mind that there are many ways you can get a little something in return for them. Below are five things that you can do with unused gift cards:
Sell on eBay Generally, gifts cards sell on eBay for 70% - 95% of the gift […]

Nate and I feel we have been extremely lucky that we are able to do always love to do and make enough to do this as our primary jobs. Because of this good fortune, we also want to give back and giving to good causes is one of those things that we should all do […]

When you have the opportunity to give a little money back, it’s often hard to decide where exactly you should donate the money. That is a question which came by e-mail after I posted the article about tips from a fundraiser:
I recently came into some unexpected money and I would like to donate about […]

Have you ever received small gifts in the mail from a charitable organization and thought, “What a waste of money.” Why are they spending their money on stuff like this instead of supporting their cause?” Or maybe the paper stock that the solicitation was on was super high quality which you knew expensive and […]

The following was sent in by Dave, a reader that doesn’t have his own blog, but thought people might find this information interesting. I agree and so here are the confessions of a dumpster diver:
If you have never dumpster dived, then you probably have an image that isn’t too positive about this activity. I […]