Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
An old salesman friend of mine once said, “If you can’t sell, drive like hell.” Gas is pretty darned expensive. Not as bad as in the UK, but still, it’s no picnic. I find myself having to drive my car for work a lot, which really adds up. Luckily I get paid mileage when I do this. It actually works out pretty good. The mileage
One thing that I found about England is that they have a tolerance for some pretty high taxes. Maybe they feel it’s necessary to provide for their national health care system, but I found it pretty hard to swallow. I’ve highlighted a few of the taxes that gave me the most heartburn below: Television TAX:In England, you have to pay an annual fee to own
I confess that I don’t read a ton of books. I should read more, but I just haven’t done it. I am in the middle of a book called, “The World is Flat” by Thomas L Friedman. Friedman also wrote a popular book called “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”. The World is Flat discusses technology and globalization. Friedman contends that there are 10 forces
I’m finally back from England. Needless to say, I’m a bit tired. The 8 hour time difference can really take a toll on you. My two year old daughter is no exception. She got up at 2:00 am this morning, walked in to our room and said, “Good Morning”. NO, NO! It’s not morning. You need to go back to bed. She didn’t understand, because
Well, today turned out to be a little bit stressful. It all started about 5:00 am this morning. I got up nice and early so that I could call my wife, who has already gone over to England with our daughter. (left on Monday). At the risk of giving too many details, I hopped on my Vonage line (500 minute second line for $14.99) and
-Pay yourself first. -Save as much as you can when you are young. -It’s okay to have money in the bank. -Don’t borrow your own money and pay someone else the interest. -The people that are impressed with what you have today, won’t be impressed when you live on the street during retirement. -Don’t buy brand new cars. -Coupons are a good thing. -Saving $5.00
I started writing this blog because I wanted to create dialogue around personal finances. I’ve always loved personal finance and am really amazed at how little most people care about their finances. So, here I was blogging away and then I noticed that Google had a thing called Adsense. I thought, WOW. I could actually earn money while I blog? It almost seemed too good
I found this article on Kiplinger and think it’s relevant, not just to people who haven’t turned 30 yet, but also for people who may be running a bit behind. Here are the 8 things it recommends you do: Identify your goalsStart an emergency fundPay off credit cardsStart investingEstablish creditSet up a strategy to pay off student loansTake calculated risksTravel Most of these (with the
I have been looking for ways to bring in new readers for my blog. I’m really enjoying writing the blog and love to see the traffic on the site rise. Here’s a tip:Go put in a few free ads (one in each city) in the general announcements area of http://www.craigslist.com. I’ve been seeing some decent traffic from craigslist and am hoping I may be bringing
I have to admit. Personal finance is not the only thing that interests me. Luckily I work in computing and absolutely love technology. I’ve mentioned before that I could easily spend everything I’ve got on electronics and computers. Our house has a high “PC to person” ratio, mostly because I’ve got a few older machines besides our current ones. I justify the money that I