Christmas – Play Now, Pay Later

Christmas is a wonderful time of year! You look forward to the lights, the Christmas carols, the food, and the chance to be with family as you celebrate the reason for the season. However, along with all the festivities, the bills usually stack up during the holidays. For many, gift giving results in dread and […]

Personal Finance Review – Shopping Online Edition

Holiday shopping is ZERO fun.  Although I wasn’t around for Black Friday, I did spend half an hour waiting in line this evening to make my first gift purchase of the season.  The longer I stood the more irritated I became with the situation and any holiday cheer I was feeling quickly evaporated.  I decided […]

How to Live Within Your Budget

What’s the most difficult time of the year to stick to your budget? How about the holiday season? Of course, it’s not just the holidays, it can be difficult to live within your means throughout the year. Below are some tips I’ve used to help me stay on track with my budget. Although they may […]

Beware Black Friday & the Holiday Shopping Craze

As you go through the checkout line this holiday season try the following experiment. Take all your full shopping bags directly to the Salvation Army. Keep one and give the remainder away. Repeat this every shopping trip. How long would it be before you dramatically decreased the amount you bought or just stopped shopping all […]

Giving Thanks for Low Stress Personal Finance

Personal finance can be very stressful. Here are five major areas that we feel fortunate about. Limited Debt The bad news is that we have a mortgage to pay. The good news is that we have no student loan, car loan, or credit card debt to worry about. The less you owe, the better you […]

You Can’t Pay for Parenting

Some of the best personal finance lessons I’ve learned did not come from books or interviews. Personal experience is often the best teacher. For example, as a single parent, I have learned you can’t pay for parenting. Oh, sure. You can hire a babysitter or nanny to be with the children in your absence, but […]

The Adventures of Single Parenting Personal Finance

Running a household as a single parent is no easy task. I don’t know from personal experience but I’m familiar with how challenging the parent role can be when there are two people participating. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to run a household on your own. Single Parent’s MoneyThe most obvious […]

Bah Humbug – Easing My Holiday Despair

Ask many people what their favorite time of the year is and you’ll frequently hear “the Holidays”! That used to be my answer as well but for the last 7 years my “wonderful” job has turned me into Ebenezer Scrooge during the holidays. Christmas Crunch TimeOur busiest time of the year at work is always […]

Personal Finance Review – Open Enrollment Edition

Can you see into the future?  Sometimes I feel like that’s what I’m trying to do when I setup my benefits during open enrollment every year.  The worst for me is deciding how much money to put into the flexible spending account and dependent care account. We’ve never used more money than we put into […]

How to Avoid Paying Into Social Security

What? Is that possible, to avoid Social Security payments?  Well, like most things in personal finance the answer is that it depends. My wife didn’t pay one cent into Social Security for the last seven years of working, better yet, it was all legal and above board.  As a state employee, she still contributed to a mandatory […]

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