Budget Pro Tip: Oversave Your Purchases

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Don’t buy something unless you have the money in your pocket. That simple sentence is great advice, meant to keep a person from overspending. But having the money to buy something after sacrificing and saving, even after all your bills are paid, may not be sufficient. Personally, I like to oversave large purchases. My wife wanted to order some products online that amounted to a significant amount of money. Knowing we have more discretionary funds in the second half of the month, she asked if it would be better to wait until our middle of the month paycheck. She was […] Read more »

How to Achieve Debt Freedom Without Sacrificing the Fun Stuff

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In most cases, it’s not super easy to achieve debt freedom.  But that doesn’t mean your life has to be miserable while you’re getting out of debt.  In fact, you don’t have to sacrifice all the fun in your life just because you’re paying down debt. You can still have fun! In this post I’ll show you how to make a solid plan to achieve debt freedom without being miserable in the process.   You Can Still Have Fun Getting out of debt isn’t completely about deprivation and self-sacrifice, although they do play a role. Some people would rather put […] Read more »

Should I Save and Invest or Pay Off Debt?

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Ever since the recession a few years ago, many Americans have become adept savers. Like the Depression of the 1920s, the feeling of financial insecurity left consumers with an almost irreversible fear of experiencing that kind of stress and instability again. However, along with the need to save and invest came the need to pay down debt, as Americans had a record amount of personal debt. These opposing forces led to a dilemma – should you save or pay off debt? Or for some who didn’t want to earn a meager 0.05% from their savings account, should I invest or […] Read more »

This Is Why You Pay Yourself First

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I’ve been generally keeping an eye on what my son spends his money on, as I can see his account details when I log into my bank’s online portal. The agreement was that he could spend his first two paychecks as he wished. After that, he must transfer $150 of each paycheck into his savings account. Transferring the funds to his savings account on payday is a great way to teach the concept of pay yourself first. We haven’t made it to the bank yet to open his savings account. But, I’ve been keeping track of how much of his […] Read more »

7 Awesome Ways to Accelerate Your Savings and Build Wealth

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Seven Awesome Ways to Accelerate Savings and Build Wealth

Most Americans are saving very little money, if any at all.  I know my savings have been harder to come by in recent years. Over the last few years my income was cut almost in half due to several factors.  On top of that, we were also paying cash for my wife’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Things got pretty tight there for a while. Saving money was not an easy thing to do, but we did manage to save a little periodically even though we were under the gun financially. Now my income is now returning to a much more […] Read more »

A Sure-Fire Way To Save On Taxes

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Thomas J. Stanley studied America’s wealthy for decades. One of the observations he made was that the top wealth holders, those who kept a larger portion of their income, only realized 3.66 percent of their wealth in taxes compared to 6.7 percent for those those who consumed it. In other words, those who pay less in taxes do so by spending less and saving more. When spending money we pay: Sales and local tax Income tax Property tax If I want to pay lower taxes then follow these three simple suggestions: Consume Less A simple way to save on sales tax […] Read more »

Emergency Fund: Time To “Man Up”

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I dreamt about finances on Friday night, which was odd for me because my dreams typically revolve around a very different subject matter. I’m almost positive the source of my dream was my increasingly frequent thoughts about the status of our emergency fund, and the fact I mentioned them in my roundup post last Friday. In my dream Vonnie and I were talking to a financial planner who was telling us the same thing I stated in my post on Friday. Each budget period we should set aside a fixed amount of money into our emergency fund and not touch […] Read more »

It’s a Win-Win: Get Rewarded for Saving

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I recently heard about a really cool concept that started abroad and is making its way to the US—prize linked savings accounts. Just for doing what you’re already (hopefully, should be) doing, you are automatically entered to win a prize. Yes, adults like prizes and anything that is free just like kids do.; a novel idea that has more people thinking about saving for their future. This comes at just the right time, with the rate of savings in America at an all time low. A report issued by the non-profit Corporation for Enterprise Development, found almost one third of […] Read more »

The Joneses Are Buying an iPhone5. What Should I Do?

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One of the coolest gadgets ever made is about to release the latest version — the iPhone5! All you hear around the water cooler is how your friends and co-workers have already pre-ordered it and are actually losing sleep in anticipation of its release. Your drab, but functional iPhone4 seems like the first phone ever made and the pressure to upgrade is pulling at your purse strings. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the iPhone! It has revolutionized how we interact and surf the web, interact with our friends and family, and in my opinion is quite possibly the best invention […] Read more »

Race to Freedom Challenge #3 – Maximize Savings

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Photo Credit: totalAldo Last month you were challenged to stop eating out for the entire month, OR severely cut back to a reasonable level. To recap, my family tried to cut our eating out visits to 4 times with a cap of $120 being the most we could spend for the month. As I reported in the update post a few weeks ago, we went out to eat six times, but since then did add one more time to that for a grand total of $200. To be honest IU’m not regretting that one either because it was right before […] Read more »

My Resolutons – Track My Progress!

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Hello everyone and happy Friday! Last year I made lots of resolutions but failed to track them throughout the year. This year I am not making the same mistake. That’s why I created a page you can go to whenever you are curious as to how I am doing on the resolutions I set to accomplish. (and to hold me accountable) Hopefully, this will not only help keep me accountable, but will also motivate and inspire some of you to fulfill your own resolutions in 2011! I will be updating this page weekly, monthly, and sometimes randomly depending on the […] Read more »

Saying “I Can’t” Is Just Like Saying “I Don’t Want To”

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Photo Credit: haydnseek Have you ever said “I can’t?” I have, and you probably have too. What is it that you are really saying when you speak those words? Are you saying you lack the ability to learn, or are you saying you lack the desire to try? I personally feel the phrase “I can’t” is the equivalent of saying “I don’t want to”. If you wanted to do something, wouldn’t you try, and if you didn’t, you couldn’t say I couldn’t, you would have to then say I didn’t? (Tongue twister—I know) 🙂 Unfortunately, many people say I can’t […] Read more »

Children And Money: Are You Helping Your Children Learn The Basics?

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Teaching Your Kids Early On Is The Best Way To Ensure Financial Responsibility Since approximately February of 2009 we have been adding small amounts of change to Isaac’s piggy bank periodically.  He gets money for doing certain things like cleaning up after himself, helping around the house, etc.  He loves to help and we want him to learn the value of hard work.  If he works he does get paid, and if he doesn’t work then he doesn’t get paid—just like the real world. We have a pretty loose system as Isaac is only 3, but as he gets older […] Read more »

Fully Funded Emergency Fund – Do It Your Way!

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Go Get You An Umbrella! You’ve reached baby step 3!  You now have NO DEBT except for your house, and are ready to beef up your savings.  Congratulations! You are climbing a mountain and are two-thirds of the way up.  Can you see the top?  Pretty soon you will be at an overlook that you at one time thought was impossible.  Keep moving forward! There may be times when you feel as if you are moving too slow, but just keep moving!  Now isn’t the time to stop!  Now you should be more motivated and here’s why.  When you were […] Read more »