Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
This weekend I was driving down the road when I noticed a reader board outside a small town bank. The message on the board said, "Increase your summer fun with a home equity loan". Really? In 2008? The sad thing about this is that I’m sure someone will take that message and borrow money to make their summer more fun. I was hoping that people
Interesting article that talks about the total net worth of the US and then divides that by the price of oil. It turns out that 400 billion barrels of oil would buy the entire US. Saudi Arabia and Iran have just enough proven reserves to cover it. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/HowMuchOilItdTakeToBuyTheUS.aspx If only oil wasn’t such a valuable natural resource and we had other alternatives. Oh, and then
We all know someone that doesn’t save a dime. Maybe that’s you? The reasons people cite for putting off saving are many. There is only one problem with all of these reasons. No matter how good your reason is, your future self won’t accept it. The best reason in the world won’t help you pay your bills when you are older. That really good reason
Over the last year I’ve been involved in a community decision to upgrade a shared water system in our neighborhood out at the lake. I had absolutely no idea what kind of high stakes drama I would be involved with when we made the decision to build our place out there. In the last year I’ve seen grown men and women so angry that you’d
Wow. July is finally upon us. For months now, we’ve been making plans for various exciting events this month. For starters, it’s our daughter’s 5th birthday this month. Instead of spending a ton of money on a huge party, we have decided to take a little bit more reserved approach. We have invited just a couple of our daughter’s friends and their families out to
This doesn’t sound all that different than an article you might read in the US. The only difference is that Macedonia has a 35% unemployment rate and poverty is huge. Families use the motto "You only live once" to rationalize the huge expense and potential debt for years. They actually get bank loans to throw the parties. I think that most of these parties are
There I was. Patiently waiting in the turn lane at an intersection. I was about 4 cars back at the light. Traffic had built up behind me and there was a brand new green Toyota Camry right behind me. All was well. As the light turned green I started to anticipate being able to go forward. I hadn’t moved an inch when I felt a
With the price of everything going up, I’ve been very conscious of our energy use both in our cars, and in our home. I’ve always been one of those people that turns lights off anywhere that they aren’t necessary. We have been very good about only using lights in the rooms that we are in over the years. Having a five year old running around
I have to confess something. More and more these days I’m finding myself thinking about what it would take to check out of the rat race. I don’t care about having the fanciest stuff, or the latest and greatest tech gadget. I really want to have the option to just do absolutely nothing as much as I want. I think it stems from a few
For the last couple of years I’ve been thinking about when our furnace would finally quit. The way my luck goes, it will die in the middle of winter so I decided to shop for a furnace during the slower months for heating companies. I was able to work with two neighbors to pool our business together. We had a few hvac companies come out
