Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Having someone show up and build a beautiful new home for you is a lot like winning the lottery. Some people handle these windfalls better than others. In the case of this house, Dawne Kirkwood just couldn’t manage to keep it when she and her husband divorced. In Washington state everything is split down the middle during a divorce so the house has to be
I thought this Saturday Night Live video was pretty humorous. All that being said, remember what Warren Buffet says, "Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful".
I think this is a pretty good article on credit unions. It’s written by a Director of a credit union so it’s obviously biased but it does speak to the excesses of major commercial financial institutions and discusses the desire to profit as much as possible off of their customers. Credit unions, on the other hand, are more devoted to their members and have used
I have to admit I’m still really enjoying Mint.com. For the first time in many years, I’m tracking my actual expenses against my budgeted expenses. The reason I’m doing this is because Mint has made it so easy. As long as we use our credit or debit cards for purchases, they all automatically download in to Mint and are assigned in to the right category.
I was reading MadameX’s post at My Open Wallet on the fact that she’s resorted to eating stale crackers with hummus in an attempt to get her food budget back in line. As I read that, it occurred to me that she’s probably not the only one doing this. I know that we are also cracking down on our food budget, and now that I’m
The pull to spend money never ceases. As concerned as I am about the overall economy, you’d think I’d be sitting in my home letting the cash pile up from cracking down on our spending. It’s just not that easy. I’ve been conditioned over a long period of time to crave things. What kind of things? The standard stuff. I’d love to buy a new
I’ve been sitting on the sideline when it comes to signing up for an online tool that allows me to get a consolidated view of all my investment and bank accounts. The main reason is that I didn’t want to offer up my account logins for fear of creating extra drama in my life. I finally bit the bullet yesterday and am somewhat surprised at
This is pretty interesting to watch. Peter Schiff gave this at a mortgage bankers conference in Las Vegas. The funny thing is that everything he says is pretty darned basic. Well worth watching: A couple interesting points: It was easier to get a house than it was to rent because the landlords actually checked your credit and income for a rental Home prices have traditionally
Okay, so the title is probably a little bit inflammatory. I’ve heard more than a few people talking about what they should do with their money during an economic downturn. Of course there probably isn’t any one answer to this depending on your circumstances but I am doing a couple things to give myself some peace of mind. Step 1: We keep about $1000 in
I’ve mentioned before how much I like the "deal". For me, the "deal" is anything that I can do to get a better price on something. I absolutely hate paying retail for something. When I do have to pay retail for something I find myself feeling a bit of dread as I pay the cashier. Whether I’m at the department store buying new clothes, or
