401k’s and Anything Goes

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During the last few years of economic upheaval, some people have begin to return to a more sensible way of dealing with their financial situation.  The last few decades have seen the American public give themselves over to the “anything goes” mentality of personal finance by taking on unprecedented levels of debt, which has come back to kick them in the tail over the last few years. Lately though, some stats have been showing that more and more of us have finally started to wake up from our “anything goes” hangover and have begun to pay down our debts substantially.  […] Read more »

Togetherness Is The Best Kind of Family Therapy.

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It had been a really rough week for my family. A close friend of ours that lived in the neighborhood had passed away recently, and we had spent the entire week in crisis mode spending time with the family and other neighbors in support of each other. As most families, we have a daily routine. Dinner at 6:00, homework at 7:00, our favorite shows of the evening after that. That routine had been completely disrupted and my wife and I felt like our children had suffered from lack of attention from us. On my way home from work , I […] Read more »

The $57 Jar Of Candy

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Imagine a large glass jar filled to the top with your favorite kind of candy. How much would you pay for it? $10? $20? How about $57? This past weekend, Vonnie and I attended a benefit for her aunt who was recently diagnosed with cancer. There was a wonderful outpouring of support from the community through donations of items to sell in a silent auction. Vonnie, being her usual rock star self, visited business throughout our community and accumulated a dozen or so items to contribute to the auction. We also put together a basket of items we personally donated, […] Read more »

Money Problems Are All I Have

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The caller ID showed an incoming call from the wife of a couple with which my wife and I are close friends. I answered the phone with a quickly forgotten  humorous remark as the voice on the other end was shaky, asking for a favor.  Our friend and her teenage daughter were having a huge argument and they needed a third party to step in and mediate the situation. Our friends are working through marital issues, and have recently separated as they attempt to work through them. Their teenage daughter has taken it especially hard, and is very angry.   The […] Read more »

The Worst Day of my Entire Life

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As I sat on the park bench watching other families laugh and play, I couldn’t help but feel resentment. That was supposed to be me and my family, but recent events would clearly make that impossible. How could my wife do this to me? What did she do? Only the worst thing a wife could do to her passionate husband dedicated to ridding the world of debt that’s all. I checked the mail and found out that my wife racked up almost $2,000 on a credit card she had been hiding from me for over a year. Imagine the look on my face – THE Enemy of Debt – as I peeled open the envelope to reveal such news. We’ve been through so much together financially and I thought we were on the same team. It was only four years ago that we pledged to eradicate our debt together once and for all. At that time we were like everyone else -- broke, living paycheck to paycheck, and seriously on edge about our finances. Read more »

O Emergency Fund, Emergency Fund! Where For Art Thou Emergency Fund?

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Have you ever had a true emergency fund before? They say, once you go emergency fund you never go back. Having my beloved emergency fund in my life has been amazing, and I became a better person for meeting her. Ever since the first day I laid eyes on my one true emergency fund, I new I was a changed man. The way she comforted me and made me feel all safe and fuzzy inside. I got butterflies whenever I would think of her. I just knew she was the one! Can you tell I’m struggling? My emergency fund was […] Read more »

My Story: A Mortgage Nightmare Confession

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Have you ever looked back in time and wished you could do something all over again, or not at all? Hindsight always objectively highlights mistakes that we make, and often causes us to play the “if I knew then what I know now” game. Fortunately for us, this story has a light at the end of the tunnel. If anything, we learned a very valuable lesson in home ownership, specifically in terms of getting the right mortgage. As most of you know though, my wife and I decided long ago that once we were free from the bondage of mortgage […] Read more »

Why The Heck Do You Need Life Insurance Anyway?

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This is a guest post from Aaron at Clarifinancial. I was emailing with Brad last week when he suggested I write a guest post. “It would be nice to share with my readers the importance of getting life insurance to begin with,” he said. With that goal in mind, I’m going to try to tap into some of that Brad-passion to explain to you why the heck you need life insurance anyway. I normally ramble in some emotional deep-water metaphor type of stuff, so this will be different. Look, you make money, you own things, and (if you’re reading this […] Read more »

How I Very Unexpectedly Lost $60 In Less Than 3 Seconds

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Ever lost $60 in less than 3 seconds unexpectedly? I did on Saturday night, and man did it suck! Here lately, a few of the guys from work have been bringing their skateboards in, and after work, we’ll skate around in the parking lot. I have especially enjoyed the intense cardiovascular workout I get. We do street tricks—one in particular called an “ollie”. An ollie is nothing more than using a skateboard to jump something. From age 12-18, that’s all I did. Around the neighborhood, around town—pretty much anywhere we were allowed to skate. Back in the day, I could […] Read more »

When Your Financial Plan Takes A Detour It Doesn’t Imply Failure

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They call it personal finance for a reason. Each individual plan, will at times need a tweak here and there depending on your circumstances.  Today I want to share with you how we have taken a detour, but for good reasons.  No plan is bad as long as you are reaching your financial goals in the process. As most of you know, this Wednesday, we will be introduced to our new little man Noah.  This has caused us to re-evaluate our goals as it is related to our current place in our financial plan. We have recently become debt free […] Read more »

Getting Back On Track After Getting Knocked Off Course

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I am back ladies and gentlemen!  I feel like I have been out of commission for too long.  First let me just say that if any of you happens to catch the H1N1 flu going around, be sure to go to your doctor within 48 hours.  Also, be sure to stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids, take medication, and keep an eye on your temperature.  Today is the first day that I have felt better than about 90%.  I still have some chest congestion, a slight sore throat, and I am still experiencing a shortness of breath with even […] Read more »

Quarantined For The Moment

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Okay, so I am not really quarantined, but I feel like I should be.  I have had a temperature on and off since Sunday evening.  Today my temperature was 101 something.  With all of the swine flu outbreaks out there I tried to make an appointment to be seen by my doctor so I could get proper treatment if needed. Apparently, if you have been sick for more than 48 hours then you do not qualify for treatment.  Kind of odd if you ask me, especially if what I have is the swine flu.  (there has been a large outbreak […] Read more »

HELP! I Had To Use My Emergency Fund!

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Even The Best Plan Has Snags Having a baby emergency fund is an essential part of starting a healthy financial plan.  It gives you some wiggle room in order to handle what life throws at you (mainly the little things), while paying off your debt with gazelle intensity.  If you have no debt, then you should have 3/6 months of savings in your fully funded emergency fund.  Life happens at the most inconvenient time, but if you have an emergency fund, it’s not so stressful.  Needless to say, when that time comes you will need to know what to do […] Read more »

Myth: I Don’t Make Enough To Do A Total Money Makeover

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You Don’t Make Enough Money To Manage It? I hear this excuse all the time.  Yes, I said excuse, or you could call it a justification for not wanting to face managing your money.  Either way you look at it, it is still a myth.  Yes, it is true that you could do more faster if you made more money, but to say you can’t, simply because you think it is impossible to do so much with so little, is selling yourself short.  I would argue that it is even MORE important for you to be on a Total Money […] Read more »