Does Your Wallet (or Purse) Reflect Your Financial Goals?

If you love sitcoms, you may be familiar with a show that aired during the 1990’s called Seinfeld. If so, surely you remember an episode that mocks the size and fatness of George Costanza’s wallet. He would put everything in his wallet including money, receipts, numbers, coupons and even candy. I was sitting in my office the other day and became painfully aware that my wallet had become just a little too thick. It was time to do one of those periodic cleansing of the wallet to purge those things that I don’t need to be sitting on for 10 […] Read more »

Financial Lessons: I learned It by Watching You

The 1980’s anti-drug public service announcement where a father finds his son’s drug stash and confronts him, only to learn the horrid truth, “I learned it by watching you.” Some things never change and the depths of your parental influence run greater than you may think. Your kids are watching your every move, even how you manage money. Every moment can present a learning opportunity. Think about the typical week… Monday: You are dropping your child off at school and they remind you they don’t have any money in their lunch account. You respond with an off-handed, “I’ll just wait […] Read more »

How I Save Money At Subway

I love Subway.  My whole family loves Subway.  In fact, over the last year, it has become tradition that I pick up Subway and bring it home for the family for Saturday lunch. We don’t eat out all that much, and it’s our way of saying, “How you doin?” to the weekend. I’m not sure if  they suddenly raised their prices, or if it was a gradual increase that just finally hit my breaking point, but a few months ago I noticed that Subway for my family of four was getting  kind of expensive for a Saturday lunch. Here’s an […] Read more »

The Power of Choice and How You Can Reclaim Your Life by Mastering It

Do you feel like you lack the willpower to succeed in achieving your financial goals? You might be surprised to learn that your lack of willpower is not the problem. That’s right willpower is not your problem. The real problem is that you’re not taking the time to make the choices that will help you reach your goals. That sounds so simple but it”s true. Some people might disagree with that but let me explain. For years I have struggled with the consequences of my bad decisions — both in health and in finances. On my journey to health, I’ve […] Read more »

It Takes Two To Make a Budget Succeed

Couples argue. Vonnie and I are no different. After a week vacation in Kentucky and the following weekend out of town for my class reunion, we needed to do a serious budget scrub. I knew we had exceeded our original budget for both activities, and I began to outline just how much. I  hadn’t done a good job of keeping track of, or communicating to my wife during that two week period as to when the over spending had occurred, and by how much. I just kept thinking to myself, we don’t have anything planned the second half of the […] Read more »

Impulse Buys Make You Feel Good, But At What Price?

According to the 2012 Shopper Engagement Study, we as consumers make grocery shopping decisions in the store at a rate of 76%, causing us to spend more than originally intended. Even with the best laid plans, coupons, shopping circulars, and a specific list statistics show we are drawn to spend more. Research shows tough current economic conditions cause us to “splurge” at the grocery store for psychological reasons we don’t even realize at the time. As I pondered that thought I realized even someone who considers themselves financially savvy like me can be a victim. Reasons why we fail… Marketers […] Read more »

My Class Reunion, Was It Worth It?

Smokin’, drinkin’ and partying too, we’re the class of Ninetytwo! This past weekend I traveled to my hometown to celebrate my 20 year high school class reunion (yikes). My classmates who organized the reunion did a spectacular job putting together an entire weekend of events ranging from a golf outing, to an outdoor meet and greet, a dinner, a pool party and a reserving a special section at a community event involving live music and rib tasting. Vonnie and I had a blast at both my five and ten year reunion, so we were looking forward to this one as […] Read more »

6 Credit Card Lies We Believe

credit card traps

Over the course of the last generation or so, we as Americans have changed our habits and now use credit cards as one of the primary tools for purchasing.  But when you use credit cards, there are several problems you should watch out for when it comes to being a user of that “convenient” plastic. As for me, I think credit cards are not necessary in order to get by in everyday life.  The convenience of using plastic is not beneficial enough to offset the potential problems that credit card use often brings. In my opinion, there is not a […] Read more »

Hotels.com Gained, and Lost Me As A Customer

We knew we didn’t want to drive the entire 11 hours home from Kentucky to Minnesota in one day, so we were looking for somewhere to spend the night at about the 7 hour mark. The wife of another couple that had also traveled from Minnesota found a place in the desired city and price range using Hotels.com. Looking at the computer screen, I was impressed with the website as it listed the hotels for the city requested as well as the surrounding area. Users are also able to sort the list many different ways. Our friend called and booked […] Read more »

Razor Customer Support Rocks!

Standing in the kitchen, we told our daughter, Tori, she was only getting one present for her birthday. She looked a little confused as we handed her a small, flat, rectangular present that was very light. She opened it up and screamed in delight as she realized it was the picture cut from the packing box of the Razor electric scooter she had been coveting ever since her friends in the neighborhood had gotten one a year earlier.  We had not intended to purchase such an expensive birthday present, but it was something Tori really wanted. So, we sacrificed a […] Read more »

What Motivates You? (And Why it Matters!)

What motivates change? Think back to all the times you were motivated into action and try to remember what it was that triggered that response. I’d be willing to bet that most of the time the changes were made in order to solve a problem. It could have been to lose weight because of a concerning doctor visit or to get out of debt after looking at a credit card statement. Our desire to solve a problem motivates us into action so we give it our “all” until our stress levels reach a tolerable level and we no longer feel […] Read more »

A Glass Of Wine, A Sign, and An Obstacle Walk Into a Bar….

Vonnie and I went to the end of the school year staff appreciation function for her new job. It was at a bar and grill and I figured it would be a great way to put faces with the names of people she’s been talking about for the last 6 weeks. As Vonnie ordered a glass of wine, I stepped onto the outdoor patio to take a phone call. While I was on the phone, Vonnie and one of her co-workers walked by me making the “going for a smoke” sign with her thumb and index finger pressed together and […] Read more »

Get Your Kids to Read and Save!

As a mother of an almost nine year old, I face many challenges when it comes to these two topics; reading and saving. While my son is all for reading the types of things he likes to read, they are not always what I would consider “educational”. These days he is only interested in reading “Captain Underpants”. Last summer it was the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series. My goal is to expand his reading horizons this summer with something other than cartoon and stick figure drawing comics. I have a confession to make… Sometimes I resort to bribery to […] Read more »

Hidden Costs of Vacations and How to Minimize Them

hidden costs traveling

Recently I went on an amazing vacation. It was a 5 day cruise with stops in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and Key West, Florida. (It also had my favorite band of all time on it!) A large portion of it was a gift from a friend but I was still responsible for some expenses and I set a budget early to deal with them. However, I realized very quickly that there were a number of expenses that I did not account for when I was making plans. Most of us budget for vacations and we plan for travel expenses, hotels, […] Read more »