This week we’re back with Seven on Saturdays. I was off my usual schedule for a couple weeks with Thanksgiving and a few other posts that I wanted to write. The personal finance blogosphere has been on fire over the last few weeks. Oodles of great ideas and thoughts have been posted. And it’s my [...]
Read more →I recently had the pleasure of talking with David Garcia from The Frugality Game about my philosophy on personal finance, money management, budgeting and planning. Here’s a link to the interview. Enjoy! David consistently posts some of the best content around through his blog. After reading the interview, I’d encourage you to poke around his blog [...]
Read more →It’s not uncommon for people to spend as a type of reward. The thinking often sounds something like this. “I work hard, I’m entitled to a little reward. I earned it!”. I confess that I felt this way for a long time myself. And for me it was a wicked cycle with a net-negative outcome. Improving [...]
Read more →Not all spending is equal. I break spending into two camps: structural spending and discretionary spending. Structural Spending Structural spending includes basic care and feeding. Rent or mortgage Utilities (heat, hot water, electricity and gas) Food Medicine for chronic illness Education for children Clothing Transportation These are essential ingredients to daily life. They are necessary, but not [...]
Read more →I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten you. Instead of putting together my usual weekly review post, I spent the time working on some longer, richer posts which I plan to publish this coming week. Stay tuned!
Read more →If you’re successful in digging yourself out of debt, the day will come when you aren’t broke anymore. The mountain of struggle and sacrifice that was ahead of you for so long is now behind you. This is a defining moment. Will You Go Back? Recidivism is a common phenomenon among convicted criminals. Recidivism is [...]
Read more →#7. BeatingBroke brought up the idea of a self-imposed layaway plan. The idea is simple. Think ahead to all the expenses you know you’re going to incur in the next 6 months or a year. Then set aside a portion of the total cost from each paycheck until you have enough. This technique has worked [...]
Read more →#7. Bam! The Small Economies of Pleasure nails what frugality really is, how spendthrifts perceive frugality, and why the perception of frugality as suffering and deprivation is inaccurate. If you’re looking to improve your financial health and think a healthy dose of frugality is both necessary and scary, read this post. #6. Making little bets is a [...]
Read more →#7. Life ebbs and flows. Life takes you in one direction, then things shift. These shifts are the backdrop for the choices you make in life. As circumstances change, you make choices and those choices mold your future. Len Penzo shared a great list of suggestions for how to make the most of your decision [...]
Read more →#7. Here are my takeaways from Moolanomy’s post this week on taking action with your investments. The vehicle of progress is change. The catalyst for change is action. The perfect is the enemy of the good. If you want to see change in your life, act. Your actions don’t have to be completely right in [...]
Read more →These are a few of the lessons I’ve learned from studying trading in the stock market over the last month. If I wait until everyone else is doing it, it’s too late to get on board. I can’t react based on what’s happening right now. I need to be aware of what’s going on around [...]
Read more →I’ve learned that the best way to avoid getting into really bad situations is to know how to get out before you get in. Don’t get yourself into a situation you don’t already know how to get yourself out of. Things that you think shouldn’t happen, will happen. So have a plan for how to [...]
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