Enemy of Debt: Where Behavior Meets Reality
Motivational Money Management
Refund anticipation loans are loans given to you by the company that did your taxes in return for signing over your tax return. They give you a check, or prepaid debit card, and you sign over your refund to them. So you get cash right now, they get your refund later. I totally see why they are tempting. You are sitting there getting your taxes done. Mr. Tax Guy says you will be getting a $3,000 return. Yay! He then asks for his fee of $150. Boo! Read more »
I often meet with clients who are using credit cards to fund their daily life. With no money in savings credit cards have come through for them time and time again in emergencies. Their reluctance to get off credit is understandable. It's their friend. They know they can count on it. It's possible they have never had money is savings, credit has been their life line since they can remember. Credit is their crutch. Read more »
We are getting ready for our annual family vacation. We've been taking one family vacation a year for the last 5 years. It's a fun tradition for which we save up all year. Here are some ways we keep costs down and fun up. Drive Rock it old school family vacation style and load up the station wagon, or minivan, as the case may be. Sure, gas isn't cheap but it's way cheaper than buying a family's worth of plane tickets. Read more »
I was checking out at a store the other day and the checkout person was complaining to a co-worker that she couldn't meet her metrics. She was blaming the customers. She said she couldn't meet the handle time per order because customers took too long with their coupons. I wanted to interrupt and ask if other cashiers also get customers with coupons. I'm sure they do. I highly doubt that she is just that unlucky and gets all the slow coupon-ers that come through the store. I wanted to say "The metrics aren't the problem here." Read more »
I've struggled to get my daughter interested in money. She's 10 years old which should be plenty old enough to "get " money but for whatever reason she just didn't. She didn't care to earn it or spend it. I've tried all the tricks to get her interested. I give her spending money to spend when we are on vacation. Nothing. I pay her for chores. Nothing. The kicker is that she will do the chores but then doesn't even care to get paid! We have a chore chart on the fridge and after a chore is done the kids have to mark it off. Then once a week we pay them for the chores they have done. I know my daughter does her chores but she never has any marks on the paper and therefore doesn't get paid. Meanwhile my 5 year old son is all about checking off his chores and getting his allowance. Read more »
I know of a family who has the following budget. Income: $21,700 Expenses: $38,200 New Credit Card Debt from 2011: $16,500 Total Credit Card Debt: $142,710 Included in their expenses is $394 to charity and $7,930 in medical expenses. They also support both sets of grandparents which costs approximately $7,010 per year. Both sets of grandparents helped out a great deal financially in the past and did so expecting to be taken care of in their old age. One set is wealthy and one set couldn't survive without the extra income. Read more »
I thought I'd take you through my annual reveiw and hopefully inspire you to do one too; and if you are really feeling inspired feel free to share yours with the group. The exercise starts with two questions. •What went well this year? •What did not go well this year? What went well this year? I started my site, Money Talks. I'm happy with the progress my blog has made. I've met a ton of amazing people and went to the Financial Bloggers Conference, which was a total blast. I exceeded my very modest income goal this year and we avoided any major financial set backs. This allowed us to pay down debt and save more than I had been planning on. Read more »
The last class is about giving. There are some amazing stories about giving throughout the class. I won't spoil the surprise but I was pretty teary eyed at a lot of them. Ok, I cried. Jeeze. But they are very touching. My fears about the class being very religious were fulfilled in this class. All of the previous classes weren't overly religious. I was worried that because it's held at a church and intended to be given to people who attended church that it would be filled with religion. I mean, that's a reasonable assumption. And I don't have a problem with religion, it's just that I'm not religious. So for those out there who are like me and want to take the class but worry that it will be too "churchy" I can tell you that it's not... until the last class. Read more »