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Archive for the ‘Spending’ Category

From Egypt to Iran to Your Pocket

Posted in Spending, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

If I had a dollar for every time my mother told me “Charity begins at home and spreads abroad.” I’d be a millionaire several times over. At least that’s how it felt when I was a little boy. The headlines of the last few weeks seem to want to turn mom’s words on its head. [...]

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Valentine’s Day on a Dime

Posted in Spending, tagged , on February 14, 2011 | 1 Comment »

It’s Valentine’s Day, and if you are reading the blog today I have to assume, you are in one of two situations: it’s just any other day and you are simply looking for good financial advice, or, you are desperately in need of last minute ideas on how to do Valentine’s without breaking your wallet. [...]

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Cash Challenge Redux

Posted in Spending, tagged , , , on February 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »

In January, I started the 15-day “Cash Challenge” and committed to spend only cash for all purchases related to my most recent obsession – knitting. So first, let’s be clear about what this knitting thing is all about. You might think that a knitting budget is not that serious and that I am taking the [...]

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Should You Be Worried About Inflation?

Posted in Spending, tagged , , , , , , on February 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (Why You Can’t Trust the Inflation Numbers, by Bret Arends) caught my eye. The author suggests that the most recent (low) inflation numbers published by the US government are lulling us into a false sense of security. He makes three assertions: The government’s inflation numbers are not [...]

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Misusing Behavioral Finance

Posted in Investments, Spending, tagged , , , , on January 19, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Behavioral finance has been around for quite some time, but seems to be gaining lots of steam in the popular press, which tells me more and more people are interested in learning about the brain’s often cantankerous relationship with money. The results of this trend are both encouraging and troubling. At its best, behavioral finance [...]

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A More Conscious Approach to Spending

Posted in Spending, tagged , , on October 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

A good friend and colleague once commented that after an initial meeting with a prospective client, he can spend 30 minutes with that person’s bank statement and derive more about that person’s values and priorities than he could ever muster through conversation. Inevitably, the values and priorities a client stated in the meeting rarely match [...]

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Caution: Simple Reminders Can Improve Finances

Posted in Spending, tagged , , , , , on August 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

My post this week is inspired by the book Remove Child Before Folding: The 101 Stupidest, Silliest, and Wackiest Warning Labels Ever by Bob Dorigo Jones. In his book Mr. Jones makes light of the use of labels in our society. Labels, the book proclaims, are often overused, unhelpful, and outright bizarre. The title refers [...]

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Austerity

Posted in Spending, tagged , , , on August 20, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Austerity has become quite the buzzword recently. What does it mean and how does it affect you? According to Wikipedia, austerity is when a government reduces its spending and/or increases taxes to pay back creditors because its fiscal deficit spending is believed to be unsustainable. Debt is “out” and frugality is “in” post financial crisis. [...]

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Financial Planning Ideas for Our Military Heroes

Posted in Education, Financial Planning, Spending, Taxes, tagged , , , , , , on July 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »

The servicemember who is ordered to deploy for service in another part of the world to defend our freedom is a very special person and I consider a hero in every aspect possible. This order to deploy requires a lot of planning in order to be ready for this significant change in life style. In our [...]

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Building Your Financial Foundation: Watch Out for Money Complacency

Posted in Credit/Debt, Financial Planning, Insurance, Savings, Spending, tagged , , , , , on July 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »

This is the second of a three part blog on the early stages of the Financial Life Cycle. In my last blog post, I introduced the concept of the Financial Life Cycle. This week’s blog is all about the strategies and pitfalls in the first adult stage, and next week I will look at strategies [...]

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