I've lost sleep over a lot of things... worrying, being sick, drinking too much, insomnia... they're all things I've experienced, but losing sleep over money, that's something I have yet to meet. One of the benefits of living frugal is not having many debts and thus not many money worries. Living small lets me sleep like a...
It's commencement time again and I'd like to write a short letter to all those recent college grads with big hopes and dreams and twinkles in their eyes for a bright future. In fact, I was you... almost two years ago already (wow time flies). Unsure of what the future would bring, but eager to start a...
People do stupid things with their money every day, these people act like money idiots. Pretend for a moment that I'm your grandpa giving you sage, yet common sense advice. That advice would be "Don't be an idiot with your money" or just pretend that you're Dwight via the clip below. A lot of people run into money trouble because they...
Increasing your net worth is fairly straight forward. Lower your expenses and/or increase your earnings. There's only two ways to accomplish it. Although increasing your earnings has a much higher potential, the easiest way to start saving money is going to be through decreasing your expenses. For me, that means living like a poor person....
Over the course of your lifetime you'll spend over 80,000 hours working. That's nearly 10 years straight with no breaks. Think you have that kind of endurance ;) You get the luxury of choosing where you'll spend those hours so does that mean your choice reflects who you are as a person? Are you...
The definition of net worth has been debated and you'll often find many answers as you search for the meaning of net worth. The standard answer for net worth goes something like this: "Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth" The struggle comes in describing what an asset is and what true liabilities are. Is a house an asset, or...
If you've got a mental fixation with the image you're portraying to your neighbors you should probably heed the advice of this article. Stop keeping up with the Joneses, nobody really likes them anyways! They're probably fake, focused only on what you care about, and they don't really have much sense of self. Or maybe I'm...
With personal finance everything is relative. Reading through blogs and comparing yourself to others using direct numbers might not be the best way to measure your progress, but using personal finance ratios could be a better indicator as to how you're doing. For example, if you're located in Iowa, your income is going to be significantly lower...
Although you can't go through life without spending money... unless you're this guy, you can avoid making some stupid spending decisions. There are a few purchasing decisions that really stick out in my mind which I've listed below in the list of 7 things you should never buy. 1. Disposable cups and plates They may cost a bit more up...
Growing up I was taught a simple rule to control my anger and emotional outbursts. This was simply referred to as the "10 second rule." Whenever I was about to blow a gasket or even consider doing something inspired by my temper my parents said I should simply count to ten backwards very slowly. Oddly enough this worked for...