What’s Your Financial Weakness – Where’s Your Trapdoor?
April 14, 2008
How many of you have seen at least one movie that involves the security of an impenetrable fortress being compromised? -Sean Connery breaks into Alcatraz in “The Rock” –Will Smith flies an alien craft into the mother ship in “Independence Day” –Saruman’s Orcs breach Helm’s Deep in the “The Two Towers” –Luke Skywalker slides a proton torpedo down […]
Saving Time & Money on Yardwork Edition – Personal Finance Review
April 13, 2008
With rising fuel prices and a falling stock market, who want to spend money on fertilizer? I recently avoided a lawn care salesman who was convinced he could give me the greenest lawn on the block for $60 an application. Seriously, who cares about green grass other than the people selling fertilizer? Fertilizer CostsAlthough our […]
Flexible Spending Account Claims Strategies for Procrastinators
April 11, 2008
March 31st was the deadline for submitting our flexible spending account claims for 2007. I mentioned in an earlier post a strategy you might use to spend any extra money in your FSA leftover at the end of the year. I received some skeptical comments about the idea and someone even pointed out that even though […]
Middle Class Squeeze Edition – Personal Finance Review
April 7, 2008
With real wages stagnating or declining, rising health care costs, expensive college tuition, and record-high gas prices many people are feeling their bank account squeezed by rising costs without an associated increase in income. I’ve heard this referred to as the middle class squeeze and came across an example of it this weekend. One of our neighbors […]
International Investing Teaches Us a Portfolio Diversification Lesson
April 4, 2008
You know things aren’t good financially when you stop measuring which investment has made the most money and you start looking for the ones that have lost the least. A recent article in Forbes called “Is Global Investing Dead” touts the DOw & S&P 500 as having “better” losses than major international indexes: “The blue chip […]
The Falling US Dollar and Foreign Exchange Rates – My Walk Down Memory Lane
April 3, 2008
As a kid growing up my family traveled to Europe several times in my younger years. I was already interested in money back then, finding the currency changing booths and turning our dollars into English Pounds, German Marks, or French Francs was pretty neat. Foreign Currency is CoolI was fascinated by all the different types of […]
Financial Markets in Trouble – Who’s to Blame?
April 1, 2008
The markets are dragging down the economy …. Giant institutions are, to use the technical term, scared to death. I wish it was an April Fools joke but unfortunately it’s all too real. Alan Sloan from Fortune magazine has a good overview of how the current financial mess came about and what the impacts might […]
Opportunity Costs of High Fuel Prices – Personal Finance Review
March 31, 2008
I spent the weekend making money for the oil companies. We drove about 800 miles on the way to and from a family get together. Although we drive a rather fuel efficient Honda we still ended up paying over $100 in gas for the trip. As fuel prices continue to climb I can easily see the effect […]
Clean Up Your Finances Four Times a Year
March 28, 2008
Did you realize that every March 31st, you’re 25% of the way towards the end of the year? By the end of June you’re half-way through the year. I’m very aware of this since I work in an industry where the end of each quarter means a lot of work for us. It seems like […]
Market Questions to Ask Before Starting Your Own Business
March 25, 2008
Do you know anyone who runs their own business and is always struggling to find new customers or make enough money? Wouldn’t it have been easier if they would have done more research about the competitiveness and viability of their business before launching it? Mid Life CrisisOne of my co-workers is having a quarter life […]
