Although it may not feel like it, the recession has been over for quite some time. In fact, 2011 has started off with a bang, the Dow Jones just crossed 12,000 and reached highs not seen since 2008, employers are beginning to hire, albeit slowly, but for many they're just not feeling the optimism that 2011 is starting...
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...
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...
What's the difference between being rich versus being wealthy? Is there a difference and if so how can we separate the two similar concepts?
Being Rich
Rich is a current state of being that can happen overnight. For example: lottery winners, new found celebrities and even high payed professions such as doctors or lawyers belong in the category of...
A personal finance quote ingrained in the American psyche (or at least in mine) was coined (pun intended) by the great Benjamin Franklin. Franklin noted that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Franklin was smart in realizing the distinct difference, but there might even be more value in a penny saved than just one penny. ...
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...
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...
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....
It's been said that the easiest way to make money is to keep the money you have. Saving money is a sure way to make sure you have it when you need it, yet so many of us waste it on things we want or spending too much on the things we need.
By cutting waste you're...
We are the lifestyle we lead, and our lifestyle is allowed by the income we're able to earn to fund that particular lifestyle. When we start out in life we have a low income and thus we buy things like "starter homes" and sleep on futons while eating ramen noodles. It's actually not too shabby starting out...
