The Newest Finance Podcasts You’ve Never Heard

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Hitting the search button on Google is a great way to find the answer to your questions about money, but how do you know the advice fits your specific situation? Maybe you have two teenage daughters and the author of the article is a single guy fresh out of college. It is likely the advice is technically correct, but it would be nice to have some more context than a little box at the bottom of the post or link to their About page. Personal finance is personal and you want to know the knowledge you are obtaining fits your […] Read more »

Smart Ways To Spend A Third Paycheck

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Happy New Year! This is a magical month for many – not because it’s the beginning of a brand new year but January 2016 has five Fridays in it. What does that mean? That means some of you will get paid three times this month. Those who get paid bi-weekly on Fridays will get three paychecks this month: January 1st, 15th and 29th. If your biweekly pay doesn’t fall on the first Friday in January then your turn will come in April (which, coincidentally, also has three Fridays on the 1st, 15th and 29th). A 3-paycheck month means you get […] Read more »

Paying Off The House Wasn’t Our #1 Priority – but we did it anyway

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Attention, Attention, EOD Nation!  I interrupt our usually scheduled program to bring you a very special post from our friend Steve Stewart, who has some very exciting news to share with us!  Take it away, Steve!!!! Today is the day! My wife and I are going to the bank and paying off the house! This is our Christmas gift to each other – and it is just what we wanted!  We purchased our home in 1999 on a 5/1 ARM, then refinanced it (twice) by 2003. I’d like to say paying off the house was our #1 priority, but it wasn’t.  […] Read more »

How To Get Out of an Underwater Car

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You have probably heard the old joke that a car loses value the second after you drive it off the lot. Guess what? Edmonds did some research and found it’s not a joke. They showed how a new $29,873 Nissan dropped in value by $2,559 – about 9 percent – in a matter of minutes.  The study also showed the new car depreciated by 19 percent in the first year and 42 percent in three years. That’s a loss of $12,467 in thirty-six months – or $346 a month! A driver who puts no money down, or traded their car […] Read more »

The Best $250 Gadget Ever Purchased

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A friend of mine suggested I stop fighting with my old, cracked iPod Nano and replace it with something more current. Call me cheap, frugal, or nostalgic – I just can’t bring myself to part with my old friend (the iPod, that is). Gadgets are exciting! Gadgets are fun. Gadgets make life easier. They are also expensive. Americans spend thousands of dollars on new gadgets – sometimes all at once! A new TV, new phones for the family, and upgraded game systems sit under the Christmas tree each year. There is nothing wrong with that, of course – as long […] Read more »

What It Costs To Own Man’s Best Friend

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We brought our dog, Cooper, into our home ten years ago. He was just one in a litter of puppies a friend of a friend was giving away. We offered her $20 but she wouldn’t accept it. Now I understand why; She knew how much it costs to have a dog! If you are contemplating getting a dog for the family then be prepared to increase your annual budget by at least $1,200. That may sound expensive at first but it’s actually on the low end of owning a pooch. Here is a breakdown using our dog Cooper as an […] Read more »

Are You Conscientious or a Slacker?

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Extremely frustrated, I waited in a parking lot for one last person that was running late. They were supposed to arrive at 7:30am and the instructions clearly stated the youth group would leave the church at 8:00am sharp. It was this person’s tardiness that broke my wife’s perfect parent streak. You know what I mean; the mom who waves to her child as they drive away in excitement to a five-day excursion of hiking, singing songs by the bonfire, and getting yelled at by counselors because you’re making everyone in the cabin giggle when you should be sleeping. Here it […] Read more »

Four Ways To Take A Load Off Your Money Management Chores

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Looking back at almost a decade of debt-elimination and investing, I can see that one thing has contributed to our financial success: Automation. Not only has automation made things easier, it has also forced us to be diligent. Here are four ways to automate your finances and take a load off your money management chores: Bill-pay Our bank offers free bill-pay. It allows us to set up regularly occurring bills like cable, cell phone, and city utilities. In the old days we would have to write a check, lick a stamp, and send it off in the mail. Now, when the […] Read more »

What I Should Do vs What I Do Do

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(Go ahead, giggle. I did when I wrote the title of this post) To become a successful entrepreneur I’m supposed build an engaging blog and active media presence in the margins around my “day job”.  Those who have done this successfully are living testimonies that it really does work, but I’ve been struggling.  It’s taking a toll on my health, the relationships with my wife and daughter, and my effectiveness in everything that I should do. Why? Because I’m not doing what they did. Let me explain… In order to be successful, I’m supposed to follow some recommendations.  I have […] Read more »

Travel Hacking with Credit Cards is a Dangerous Trap

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Here he goes again. That crazy Steve Stewart is about to start a ruckus and make people get very angry by telling it like it is. You see, I’m the killjoy that’s about to take away all your fun. I’m the grandpa who isn’t into “hip” things. I’m the old man who says you should do things the old-fashioned way. But I’m going to speak the truth, and the truth can set you free (debt free, that is):   Travel Hacking with credit cards is a dangerous trap Travel hacking has been around for years, but it is growing in […] Read more »

Budgets make me feel inadequate, but made me rich

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Last year I recorded a show about the 7 Common Denominators of the Wealthy. It was then I realized there were many commonalities related to having – and operating on – a household budget. With so many wealthy habits tied to being on a budget, why is it that most people don’t do one? It is because budgets makes us feel inadequate. It certainly has made me feel inadequate. Tell me if you’ve felt the same way before too. Budgeting makes me feel inadequate Think back to the last time you created a budget. How did that make you feel? […] Read more »

A Black Friday Deal you WON’T believe!

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Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is filled with family and board games along with tons of turkey and stuffing (I love stuffing). I should be entering receipts into YNAB right now. I usually check our bank account for my wife’s deposits at the same time but when I signed on to online banking I saw this: They are using the holidays as an excuse to sell you money Look, I understand if you don’t have enough money to purchase all the Christmas gifts you’d like to. Maybe you will borrow money to buy gifts this year, I’m […] Read more »

Hindsight is 20 dollars: An Andrew Jackson can save you 2 hours or more on home improvement

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A termite infestation was discovered during our last insect treatment. Our “guy”, Bugs by Brian, sprays on a quarterly basis and always does a great job keeping spiders and other bugs from getting into our home. What we didn’t know was that large pieces of wood separating the sloped yard from our flowerbed and patio was home to some wood-eating critters. Not wanting to spend any money on the project, I decided to take care of them myself. This was a big project but I already knew what had to be done – I had replaced some of the 6’ […] Read more »

Keep Workin’ Your Moneyplan Like Biz Markie

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This weekend I had a connecting flight in Baltimore. On the way to my gate I saw Biz Markie getting ready to board a flight to New Orleans. I checked his Twitter feed and found he would be performing in Baton Rouge that night. If you don’t know who Biz Markie is then just search YouTube for “Just A Friend”. Yeah, now you remember. What amazes me is that he hasn’t changed a bit. I would know, I saw him perform live at the Rosemont Theater back in the late 1980’s. How does a rapper who hasn’t released an album […] Read more »