The Zen of Budgeting

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zen of budgeting

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from my good friend Pauline of InvestmentZen.com. Pauline is a ‘budgeter extraordinaire’ and an investing maverick with considerable reputation in the personal finance community. Budgeting has always been like watching paint dry to me. My brain can’t get around it. I understand the main concept: spend less than you earn, and am pretty good at putting it in practice. But who really enjoys writing down they’ve been spending $0.47 on a stamp and $2.19 on celery? Not me, that’s for sure. And I don’t blame you either if you have been postponing budgeting […] Read more »

Why Being Frugal Is Pointless Unless You Crush Your Mortgage

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I’m sure I’m not the only one around here that gets a lot of benefit reading the great tips and insightful behavioral issues that we all have with money here on Enemy Of Debt, however over the course of many years I’ve talked to a number of friends and family in confidence as well as read a lot about how people handle their finances and there is one HUGE pitfall that I’ve noticed almost everyone has. They all have tunnel vision. Most people are so busy, so concerned, so consumed with the immediate things in front of their eyes that […] Read more »

How Are You Wasting Your Money?

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I like to re-evaluate all our expenses every couple of months to make sure we’re getting the most value for our money. Priorities and interest change over time, and therefore how we choose our money will change over time. Weeding out those monthly expenses that don’t add any enjoyment or use to our life will free up funds for activities that do. I went through one of these exercises over the weekend, and found several monthly expenses that we will should discuss whether continuing them is in our best interests: Magazine Subscription I had a subscription to Runner’s World for […] Read more »

Manage Your Finances: 5 Financial Lessons to Teach Your Younger Self

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It is surprising that one of the most important life-skills every young adult needs – ho to manage your finances – is still not taught in school. Young people leave college with shiny new diplomas in fields like technology, marketing, medicine and law but start out in their careers without any financial management knowledge. As a result, many of these people enter their thirties and forties on a financially shaky footing, full of regret at the great number of financial mistakes they made, while wondering what could have been if they had made a few correct decisions earlier on in […] Read more »

My Daughter, A Shopping Mall Trip, and A Scary Situation

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I had a scary situation with my teenaged daughter over the weekend with what happened during a shopping trip to the mall with her friends. It was touch and go for a few days, but I’m now confident that everything is going to be just fine. One of her friends asked her to go to the mall shopping on Friday afternoon. Between her allowance and Christmas gifts she had amassed a tidy sum of money.  She thought a shopping trip to get some new clothes would be a fun way to spend time with her friend. When she returned home […] Read more »

Nailing My Finances One Week At A Time

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“When you are great you don’t focus on a week, When you are great you don’t focus on a month, When you are great you don’t focus on a year You focus on the 24 hours that are in front of you, and you NAIL it!” -Eric Thomas Or maybe focus on the weekend in front of you….? My wife and I went to a party supply store on Sunday morning to look for some wanted items for a wine and painting gathering she’s hosting next weekend. We purchased a number of items, and on the way to our van […] Read more »

How To Avoid The Monthly Payment Trap

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The monthly payment trap is easy to fall into. I lived and breathed it for years. Analyzing whether we could afford something based upon whether we could make the monthly payment, not the actual price of whatever we were contemplating purchasing. I was reminded of this trap over the weekend when I was shopping for an iPad for my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law has been thinking of purchasing an iPad for quite some time, and last week she finally decided to make it happen. She texted me asking if I would do the shopping for her, since I’m familiar with the […] Read more »

Marriage And Finances: Compromise and Delayed Gratification

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My wife is coordinating a ladies night out to take place mid-November. The original plan was for the group of women to start at our home, have dinner at a nearby restaurant, then head downtown to an art activities place to paint and drink wine. Since there will likely be alcohol involved, there was some discussion about safe transportation. My wife began investigating the option of renting a party bus. After talking to several party bus companies and comparing services, options, and prices she gravitated towards one specific services. Even the cheapest service was rather expensive, but my wife was […] Read more »

Unexpected Parking Costs While Traveling

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The vehicles that many of us own can be a source of great convenience, and at the same time great frustration. They allow us to get to where we want to go, when we want to go there. But there are also many costs associated with owning one. First you have to buy the thing, then there’s fuel, insurance and maintenance. We all know all about those, they’re factored into everyone’s mental perspective as the cost of ownership. But over this last weekend, I encountered three separate occasions where I had to reach deep into my pocket for funds to […] Read more »

School Time Is Here – Time To Redo Your Budget!

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According to the dry erase calendar on my refrigerator both my son and daughter have school schedule pickup this week. A new school year is about to start, which means homework in the evenings, earlier bedtimes, bus stop pickups and time for a budget rework. Switching over to the school year schedule also requires a shift to a different budget because there expenses that only occur during the school year. There are also some changes in our purchasing habits that need to change with the shifting schedule, as well as some one time expenses that we need to plan for. […] 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 »

Cash Only Spending Weekend Success Story

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Last week Vonnie and I got back on the cash only spending plan that helped us pay off a mountain of credit card debt. Living within our means, and spending only the budgeted cash we have in hand, sometimes require tradeoffs be made. There’s only so much you can do with a finite amount of funds. It took exactly one week for just such a challenge to arise, and for our methodology to validate itself. Our initial spending plan for the weekend included just a few things:   Fire Up The Smoker : I was watching an episode of BBQ […] Read more »

Budget Reset: Falling Off The Financial Wagon, and Climbing Back On

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My wife reminded me that we needed to sit down and talk finances. She was right, as she always is. I knew it was going to be a long conversation, as it was the first one that we’d had since our annual Memorial Weekend party. We both knew this was going to be an in depth, serious conversation. We both knew that as we prepared for the party we essentially ceased to execute every single technique that had resulted in us successfully handling our finances over the last few years. It turned into a full fledged, throw the budget to […] Read more »

9 Tips For Creating Discipline With Money

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9 Tips For Creating Discipline With Money

I frequently get questions from my readers about how to resolve their various financial problems.  The questions range from not being able to save enough, to tackling huge amounts of debt, to how to stop living paycheck to paycheck. One of the common themes I’ve discovered in the hundreds of emails I’ve received, is that most of those readers tell me the root of their problem is a lack of discipline. Lack of Money is Not the Problem Learning discipline when it comes to money is not always easy, but it’s necessary if you want to get ahead financially.  Many […] Read more »