accountability | Enemy of Debt: Where Behavior Meets Reality

Did You Get What You Wanted for Christmas?

Written by Travis on December 29, 2011 · 6 Comments

So, how was your Christmas? Mine was simply fabulous. In fact, it was the most enjoyable Christmas I’ve had in years, thanks for asking. What made this Christmas so different? Come with the spirit of Christmas past as we revisit the Pizel family holiday tour of 2011: First, we see a family of four sitting in their living room on Christmas morning. There aren’t as many presents under the tree as their had been in previous years, but the kids don’t seem to notice. Both children got several gifts that were at the top of their list, and they are [...] Read more »

Changing My Money Mind in 2012

Written by Suzanne Cramer on December 22, 2011 · 10 Comments

It’s that time of year when we all vow to change our ways and resolve to go on a diet, quit smoking, or get out of debt. How many of us actually have a plan in place to make our resolutions a reality? Unfortunately most of us don’t and this is why we are doomed to fail before we even start. Yes, money is necessary to support our lifestyle, but do we let it determine how we live our lives? The fact is many of us do. We allow ourselves to live up to or above our means which often [...] Read more »

An Uncomfortable Conversation

Written by Travis on December 1, 2011 · 24 Comments

With me sitting on the edge of our bathtub, and my wife brushing her teeth as she prepared for bed we began a very serious budget discussion. We were on day three of a week long visit from our Kentucky friends and were burning through our discretionary funds at an alarming rate. We needed to reign in our spending, and ensure we kept ourselves on budget, or we were going to run out of money fast. The next day the four of us were planning on going shopping for the supplies needed for Thanksgiving Dinner. As a group, we had [...] Read more »

The Most Important Money Advice You Will Ever Receive

Written by Jessica on November 12, 2011 · 9 Comments

You do not need to buy a bunch of books from Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman or David Bach to get this kind of advice. You don’t have to go to week long seminars to learn this powerful tool either. You don’t even have to leave your home. Look no further than this blog post and you will get the most valuable money advice you could ever need. The power of this strategy is amazing! It will teach your children a valuable lesson. It will save you thousands of dollars. It will help your marriage. It will even allow you to [...] Read more »

Is Blood Thicker than Inheritance Money?

Written by Suzanne Cramer on October 13, 2011 · 15 Comments

According to study by the AARP roughly 2/3 of baby boomers are expecting some sort of an inheritance and are spending it before they even have it. They dig deep holes of debt with inheritance money in the back of their mind; failing to understand using inheritance money to pay off debt is not a sound financial plan. In fact inheritances often don’t turn out the way those expecting them think they should. A Family Torn I have a friend who recently had a grandmother pass away. Her frugal lifestyle and previously deceased husband’s good business sense left her with [...] Read more »

Should you “Occupy Wall Street”?

Written by Paul Puckett on October 11, 2011 · 14 Comments

You may be aware of a growing social protest movement that began on Wall Street a few weeks ago. According to their website: “Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.” And now this protest is metastasizing and spreading to 25 [...] Read more »

Personal Accountability – Placing Blame Where It Belongs

Written by Jessica on October 8, 2011 · 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, I was playing around with a blog post in my head. I like to have full conversations with myself in there and often times I’ve got most of a blog post outlined in my head before I’ve even sat down at a computer. Working titles for this post were flowing around more easily than the actual text itself. Some of them were “Ode to Capital One: A Tragedy” and “Capital One has Ruined the Nation.” My favorite, however was the ever so poignant title “Eff You Capital One!” I spent more time thinking of catchy ways [...] Read more »

Don’t Stink. Budget!

Written by Travis on September 8, 2011 · 11 Comments

If you’re a regular reader of Our Journey to Zero, you know I’ve been on a serious fitness kick now for over 8 months. Getting in shape is all about getting in the habit of exercising. Now that I’m in the habit of exercising, it feels wrong to not work out every day. It just feels like something is missing. Recently I skipped two days in a row for probably the first time this year. I was downright cranky. There are a lot of people who want to get in shape and lose weight. So why don’t they? They say [...] Read more »