Mid-Year Resolutions: Increase Your Financial Fitness

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Who says you can only make resolutions at the beginning of the year? Sure, we’re more than a few months into 2020, but there’s no time like the present to tackle a serious issue that many people are turning a blind eye to – their financial fitness. Do you think you’re in perfect financial shape? Or, could you stand to do a few financial burpees and squats? The truth is that you may not be as aware of your real relationship with money as you think you are. Check out the tips below to begin the rest of the year […] Read more »

Fist Pump Fiday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 3/20/20

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I’m a week into working from home mode.  I leave the house to get my wife to and from work (as a paraprofessional for the school district she is currently providing child care for essential emergency workers), and to go to the grocery store.  That’s it.  There are rumors the governor of Minnesota will eventually declare a state of shelter in place.  That wouldn’t change my life at all at this point.  So far things are going alright, at least I don’t have to hurry to take a shower in the morning! Fist pump for working in jammies and my […] Read more »

I Bought A Year’s Supply of Something at Walmart

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On Saturday I walked into Walmart, completely filled it with a single product and headed to the checkout counter. After putting my haul into my van, I went back in and did it again. With a third cart full the next day I had an entire year’s supply of the product, and I’m not even sorry about it. I didn’t purchase toilet paper, cleaning products or any of the other products people are currently panic buying. It was charcoal. Every March, Walmart has a spring charcoal sale and I stock up. It’s literally the only time during the whole year […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 3/13

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The Coronavirus hysteria has reached my employer.  I received an email from my employer late yesterday afternoon recommending those who can work from home should seriously consider doing so. Therefore, starting today I’m working from home until further notice. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and found the shelves very empty.  Not just the toilet paper aisle, almost everything. I just wish it was nice enough outside for me to sit on my deck and work. Fist pump for working from home and my favorite posts of the week! Posts That Make Me Fist […] Read more »

Gap Insurance: Read the Fine Print

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A few weeks ago I wrote how happy I was with the decision to purchase gap insurance for my daughter’s car.  The insurance company evaluated the vehicle as a total loss due to damage incurred from an accident. I owed more than the market value of the car, and was told gap insurance would pay the difference. However, the letter received from the insurance company had me rethinking the value of gap insurance. Read the Fine Print The letter said no payout was required from the gap insurance claim due to the loan being satisfied through a clause in the […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 3/6/20

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Welcome to another weekend, EOD Nation. I like to save money as much as the next guy, but I have no problem spending money on worthwhile activities and experiences. For example, this weekend I’m headed to a Food and Wine Expo where I wonder around a large facility sampling wines from across the country as well as food from restaurants in the area. Not only is it a fun filled 5 hours, but it also exposes me to different food and wines I may want to buy later for enjoyment at other gatherings.  The face value of the ticket is […] Read more »

Insurance Company Claim Difficulties? Keep Calling, and Calling, and Calling

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It’s been over three weeks since my daughter’s car accident, and I feel like I’m in insurance company wasteland. Initial Claim Handling At first, things moved very quickly. The insurance company adjuster looked at the car within days, and declared it a total loss. One week after the accident I had a settlement statement emailed to me, and had signed the title over to the insurance company. My insurance company indicated that’s all I needed to do, and payment would be sent to my lender promptly. I had contacted my gap insurance provider and started a claim. They told me […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 02/28/2020

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The road to handle both our automobile insurance and the gap insurance claims for my daughter’s car accident has been long and windy. I took many phone calls to get everyone the information they needed, but I believe payments from both policies are in flight. We’ve already purchased a replacement car, so at least I don’t have all day Duber (Dad Uber) responsibilities.  The outcome is good (wrecked car completely paid off), but I could do without having to deal with insurance companies for awhile. Fist pump for being done dealing with the accident, AND my favorite posts of the […] Read more »

Split A Meal, Save Some Cash

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Sitting across from my son and his girlfriend in a restaurant, I listened as they picked a meal to share. My first thought was to question whether they’d both get enough food. Then, my mind was flooded with memories of bringing home leftovers or being miserably full when leaving the restaurant. Maybe my son was on to something that could help my wife and I cut our bill when dining out. By sharing an entrée, you can significantly reduce the overall cost of eating at a restaurant. However, there is a little bit of art to the process. Some entrees […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 2/21/2020

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My daughter handed me an unusually heavy plastic bag, which I quickly realized was full of coins. “Isn’t there a place where you can take these to turn them into money?” she asked smiling. I listed several places  I could take her coins:   The CoinStar machine at Walmart, which was most convenient but would take 10% of her money as payment. The coin counter at our local bank She scoffed at paying to convert her coins into paper money, and asked if I would take it to our local bank. She collected all the loose coins she had from […] Read more »

What is Gap Insurance and Do I Need It?

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The insurance adjuster on the phone told me the car was a total loss. My daughter had been in a car accident a few days earlier, struck on the driver’s side of the vehicle after which all the airbags deployed. She was physically OK, however her car was not. I had expected the adjuster to tell me an estimate to repair the car, and a time frame in which the body shop could complete the work. Instead, he was rattling off numbers that represented the market value of the car and how much they would be paying out to bank […] Read more »

Fist Pump Friday: I Love You Like A Blogger Roundup – 2/14/2020

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Happy Valentine’s Day EOD Nation!  My wife told me a few days ago to not buy her flowers.  They look nice, but then she just puts them on a shelf and a week later I throw them away. Instead we’re braving the crowds and going out to eat.  The good news is we’re using a gift card we purchased from Costco a few weeks ago.  We’ll save $20 on our dinner AND we won’t have to pay anything out of pocket today.  As far as this weekend’s spending plan goes, Valentine’s day cost me the $4 for the card and […] Read more »

How to Buy a Home While in Debt

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Two to three decades ago, owning a home meant saving up big time. You had to be financially stable, i.e., have a consistent stream of income and no debts. However, times have changed and today, buying a house doesn’t have to be a pipe dream. According to real estate buyer and seller trends, millennials make up a huge percentage of recent homeowners. A generation that is pretty much uncertain, carefree, and financially unstable is making such moves. How come? It’s simple. It’s a lot easier to own a home now if you know what you are doing. If anything, millennials […] Read more »

My Son Did His Own Taxes For The First Time!

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My son was home from college for the weekend and expressed interest in getting his tax return done. He’s received a significant refund in the past, and wanted to get this year’s version into his bank account. I involved him in the process before, but this year he was going to be all in. First, I instructed him to gather information he would need throughout the process: Collect Needed Documents For my son, this only meant his W-2 forms. Since he switched jobs in May, he had two of them. Both were sent to our home address so I had […] Read more »