Archive for September, 2009
They Don’t Call it “Personal” Finance for Nothing
I had a fascinating conversation with a friend of mine today. Okay, maybe not fascinating but I always enjoy talking to others about personal finances and this friend of mine, who we’ll call “Bill”, is never shy when it comes to sharing his financial situation. Between he and his wife I’d estimate that they make [...]
Money Keeps Rolling Out the Door
No matter how hard we try these days, we seem to keep spending money on major purchases. If you recall, we recently had to put a new roof on our house to the tune of $13,000. That hurt, but luckily we had been budgeting for that for quite some time and were able to pay [...]
Mom Actually Gets to Retire!
It’s been a little over two and a half years since my parent’s house caught fire and my father passed away. In that time my mom has slowly gotten over the loss. I can’t remember if I ever mentioned when she was able to return to the house but it took a little over 8 [...]
Paying the Mortgage Off Early
Laura over at Consumerism Commentary put together a good post about paying your mortgage off early. Most of her post talks about paying a mortgage off in 15 years but she also mentions that any extra you put towards the principle saves you interest. I completely agree. We recently refinanced our house and opted for [...]
The Wall Street Crisis From the Executive Offices
CNN Money has a great article, (or set of statements) from key people on Wall street discussing what it was like during those crucial hours and days of the Wall Street collapse. It’s interesting reading. If only I could easily decipher who to despise and who to feel sorry for…… http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0909/gallery.witnesses_meltdown.fortune/index.html
Keeping Our Water Bill Low
When we first moved in to this house about 6.5 years ago we were enamored with all the wonderful features. One that I really enjoyed was the sprinkler system. All the nozzles were dialed in just right and it kept the yard beautiful and green all through the summer. It was about late August that [...]
Unemployment at 26 Year High
I suppose I’ve known it wasn’t getting better yet and this week’s unemployment numbers confirm it. Unemployment is now at a 26 year high. We’re still cutting jobs but some economists are starting to think we’re nearing bottom as the number of cuts shrinks each month. Anecdotally, I’m seeing more people lose their jobs around [...]